User Rating: 9 | Golden Sun GBA
By AndrewN | Review Date:
As many purists will tell you, the Super Nintendo featured some of best role playing games ever, and may have been the height of the genre. If you are one of these people or you enjoyed many of the games the system had to offer, then you would be pleased to know that Golden Sun is definitely a throwback to the good old days. While this isn’t the first game to attempt to borrow many of the genre’s tried and true features, Golden Sun just may be one of the better games at successfully blending all that makes a good classic role playing game together in one package. The story opens up in a similar fashion to Chrono Trigger with our main character Isaac being woke up by his mother. Although this time it isn’t because a friend of his wants to show off their new inventions or go to the town fair. When Isaac wakes up, he learns that giant boulders are about to destroy his town and he must escape. Running across his good friend Garet, Isaac must then help save the townsfolk to keep the town from being totally devastated. After everything clears up, Isaac finds out that he must venture out to save the world. While this may all sound rather cliché, the game’s story plays out rather nicely and has its moments. You will certainly begin to care about the characters has you progress through the game, but just not on the level that could have been possible. While Golden Sun does a lot of things right, it needs to go study up a little more on the dramatic and emotional sides of role playing classics. Don’t get me wrong though; the story is great, just not the best I’ve ever experienced. But, the game’s graphics is one of the best experiences I’ve had with the Game Boy Advance role playing genre. Everything looks incredible in this game, from the scenery to the characters themselves. The characters can be quite expressive through little emoticons that appear over there heads. This was a nice touch the added to game’s charming style. The battles also look impressive, as they take on a more close-up, almost 3D like look to them that’s akin to some of the Super Nintendo greats. If there was one complaint I had to make about the graphics, it’s that they are blurry. While this was certainly used to keep the game looking better, you can tell the game wouldn’t have looked exceptional if it wasn’t washed out. The game’s sound also delivers. Golden Sun features some catchy tunes while playing, especially the music during a battle. The battle music is sure to get your heart racing, adding to the urgency to win every fight. The various towns’ music is also quite good, but some of it sounds a little generic for my tastes. Think of it like this: if you have played a lot of Super Nintendo role playing games, then you will find the music merely good. But if you haven’t, then you will find the music to be a joy to listen to while questing. But what good is a storyline, graphics and sound if the gameplay isn’t up to par? Fortunately not only is Golden Sun’s gameplay as good as many of the classics you may remember playing, it has revitalized them with a couple twists to be things interesting. While essentially you will be fighting turn-based battles spawned by random encounters, the game replaces magic and summons with an interesting Djinn system. Djinn essentially act as both your magic and your summons. The catch is different Djinn combinations yield different spells. These spells may be used in combat, and sometimes in the game’s puzzles. My only complaint is the system is a bit clunky, as you aren’t given any clues into what combinations yield what results. This essentially leads to a lot of trial and error, which will occasionally frustrate players when they just want the right spell to solve the puzzle and move on. The game’s puzzles are typically pretty straightforward and merely require using a spells, although some can be quite tricky. One such puzzle requires you to read some cryptic inscriptions on the front of several statues. You must then figures out where each statue belongs in respect to the other statues. I actually enjoyed these more complicated puzzles, as they seemed rewarding to complete. The game should take you about twenty five hours to complete the first time through, which is quite impressive for a handheld role playing game. There are a few extras and side missions to keep players busy, however not as many as I would have liked. But overall, I felt satisfied after beating the game, which is essentially all that matters. And I should feel satisfied; Golden Sun is a memorable game that you can tell a lot of heart was put into it. It’s good to see someone still knows how to make an enjoyable old school role playing game.

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