A great,charming,old school JRPG for the GBA.
The story is about how in the past,civlizations used alchemy for warfare,so the jewels which are used for alchemy are sealed away in a mountain and are guarded by the town of Vale.Some bad guys managed to steal the jewels because they know whoever holds them will become extremely powerful.A group of characters go searching for the bad guys who stole the jewels and they'll need to catch the bad guys before the bad guys can reach certain lighthouses.
The story can be emotional and has some big surprises.
The gameplay involves travelling a worldmap,travelling to different towns,grinding your way through dungeons and caves,interacting with townspeople and the game uses a turn based battle system.
What makes Golden Sun a unqiue RPG is you can use spells(psynergy)outside of battle to solve puzzles.The puzzles will make you think about different ways you can try to interact with the environments and objects around you.
You can also use creatures named 'Djinn' in battle and Djinn can do powerful attacks but they must rest occasionally.You'll require Psynergy Points(PP)to solve certain puzzles and to use psynergy attacks,and even though psynergy attacks are quite powerful,you'll want to conserve PP for puzzles and for healing.
Like with all old school JRPGs,you can spend time level grinding(the game has random enemy encounters in some areas)and you can buy better weapons and better armor so you can perform powerful basic attacks that don't require PP or for when your Djinn are resting.There's also a flee opition too.
You can explore the environments for secret places and to catch extra Djinn that you can use.
The towns are very charming.You will see wooden cottages with haystack rooftops and homes made out of stone or big mansions and beautiful temples.The graphics have a lovely old school artstyle,I love the way the trees look and how the caves and temples have beautiful colors used inside them.
The battle screens show an up front view of the battles and it makes your party members look bigger and make the battles feel more on an epic scale.
The towns also have a good amount of atmosphere from bright and cheerful to heavy rain and hazey atmosphere or snow.
The badguys look creepy because they wear a lot of make up and look evil.There's other charming things I like about the graphics such as how Mia has blue hair and large hair ribbon and beautiful robe.Issac and Garret dress like peasents and carry giant swords.Jenna is a pretty girl.Ivan wears a robe to make himself look like a powerful spellcaster.
I can't remember much about the game's music or sound.
Overall,Golden Sun is a great and very charming JRPG and forr it's time was the perfect portable RPG to have.