Questionable design choices make the third Golden Sun a tedious experience for fans of the original games.
WARNING: This review may contain spoilers.
Alright... where to start with this one?
First of all, let me point out that I absolutely love the older Golden Sun games. The first one was great and introduced awesome new concepts (Psynergy, the whole Djinn system, etc.), whereas the second game improved on these concepts to create an unforgettable and truly awesome experience with a pretty satisfying conclusion.
After playing Dark Dawn, I just wish they'd have left it at that, killed off Alex at the end of Lost Age and never made another Golden Sun title, because this game really tarnishes the whole franchise. On it's own, it's alright, but inevitably you pretty much HAVE to compare it to the other games (it's another sequel, after all) - and that's when it ultimately loses most of it's appeal.
First of all, the main characters are way less likable in this one, partly due to the fact that the developers had to flesh out eight party members in one game (as opposed to four in each of the first two games), partly due to the fact that the developers made a few of them as annoying as possible - on purpose, apparently.
Also, you don't meet any of the original party members from the older games except Isaac and Garet. That's 2/8. 3/9 if you count Kraden. Wow. The others are talked about (some way more frequently than others), but you never get to see them - in this game, at least.
So in this installment your party consists of the offspring of the four warriors from the first game and four random people thrown in for good measure. Some of these characters join the party so abruptly that it caught me completely by surprise. You'll probably know what I'm talking about once Rief or Himi join your party.
I found Tyrell, the son of Garet, to be especially galling. He's such a dumb, impolite, whiny and annoying little jerk that at several points in the game I just wanted to reach out through the screen and punch this idiot in the face to finally shut him up for good. True, Garet was also annoying at times, but Tyrell pushes it to new extremes.
Also, the story is unfortunately pretty weak, especially when compared to Golden Sun and The Lost Age. Dark Dawn takes place 30 years after the events of the first two games. The world of Weyard has been altered drastically (and implausibly beyond belief) through the powers of alchemy that was released when the four elemental lighthouses were activated.
The epic journey of our heroes starts when Tyrell steals and breaks an important object (Great! I like this guy already!) and our heroes have to help stupid Tyrell find a Roc feather to fix the mess he made. Only during the course of the game will you get other, more epically fitting objectives.
But ultimately you'll just be left scratching your head, because nothing is ever explained to you in a sufficient manner. Where's the point in taking Kraden around with you when he never tells you what's going on (even though he probably could) and just constantly keeps uttering vague nonsense instead?
I can imagine that someone who hasn't played the other games might really have no clue at all about what's going on. Dark Dawn tries very hard to fill everyone in on the events of the last games, but it only partly manages to do that. It still throws way too many names and plot threads at all the newcomers, while still leaving out quite a bit of stuff that would've been worth telling. Probably they'll get to that in the next game(s) though.
Plus the game ends on a very dumb cliffhanger that just feels like a slap in the face for everyone who played 20-35h to get that far. True, the first Golden Sun ended on a cliffhanger as well (sort of), but it didn't come as suddenly and unexpectedly as this one.
But now the part that I hated most and that had a pretty big impact on my overall rating: In the first two games, you could revisit pretty much any area you've ever been to in order to hunt for missing djinn, summons or items - or maybe just if you wanted to see it again. Unfortunately, this isn't the case in Dark Dawn.
The game features three or four "points of no return" (some of which come without much of a warning), meaning that you basically are cut off from big parts of the game's world without any chance to ever go there again. Yes, that's right - if you missed a djinn or an item, you probably can't come back and get it later. Tough luck. So basically this is a game that forces you to always keep a walkthrough nearby so that you don't miss stuff you cannot obtain later anymore.
Why does it have to be like that? Stuff like this just angers the player, nothing more. My theory is that with all the pretty improved graphics they probably didn't have enough space on the cartridge left to pack in some extra content. So hey - instead of having towns and places change after certain events, you can always just seal them off forever, right?
Even after you've beaten the game, you can only access like 50% of the places featured in the game, probably less, which is especially annoying when you missed some djinn. If you played this for the first time and missed several djinn, you screwed up and have a weaker party for the rest of the game because you didn't use a walkthrough, but wanted to play the game on your own, as it should be. Great.
Also, the combat is a bit too much on the easy side. Most regular monsters don't pose a threat at all and since Psynergy regenerates while you walk, you pretty much have unlimited healing spells at your disposal and don't even need any items to keep your HP high at all times or to revive allies. Yes, this is one of the few RPGs where you can just sell or throw away any healing items you find right from the start and still beat it without much trouble. The only challenging battles are probably the very last two bosses (including the optional boss after you beat the game).
The game still has that special "Golden Sun" feel to it, but unfortunately most of it goes to waste quickly. I can understand the developers wanting to reach out to a larger audience, but as a long-time fan I really feel disappointed. Especially the "points of no return" are something that no good RPG should have, and even IF you have those, at least make them not as abrupt! Or have the world open up completely later so that you can go back and collect the missing stuff!
Overall, this was a disappointment for me. The graphics and music are nice, interacting with objects through Psynergy is always fun, sometimes the story manages to generate some suspense and a few characters are interesting (while others are just stupid), but that's about it.
On it's own, this might probably be a somewhat decent game, but as a "Golden Sun" title, it fails miserably and just pales in comparison to the others.
I just hope the next Golden Sun game will be a considerable improvement over this one. For now, I'll just pretend that Alex died at the end of The Lost Age and that Isaac & co. became infertile when the light of the Golden Sun hit them, so that they never had any children and that this game never happened at all!
Go back and try again, Camelot. Please don't disappoint me and all the other long-time fans again.