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GBA Question: Golden Sun, the only great 2D RPG?

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bluemax said:
Some of us aren't hindered by language barriers as much as others.

What does that mean? That you speak Japanese? Or that you personally don't need to understand the in-game dialogue to enjoy a game?
 
Fusebox said:
Huh? What does that even mean? That you speak Japanese? Or that you personally don't need to understand the in-game dialogue to enjoy a game?

Enough of the former to enjoy the game. Some parts were admittedly sketchy for me but overall enough to enjoy it both gameplay and story/dialogue wise. Translation guides also help.
 
bluemax said:
A lot of that was hype, hell I was excited for GS when it came out too.

GS may have got a few little touches but there were so many big things it completelly whiffed on.

No, it wasn't, at least not on my part. Up until the moment that I actually saw the game being played by my friend, I had no idea it existed.

I enjoyed it then, and if the playthrough earlier this year is anything to go by, I enjoy it now.

The only thing it really 'whiffed' on was too much dialogue.
 
Fusebox said:
It has a 91% total at Metacritic, that seems quite above par.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/gba/goldensun?q=golden sun

Its the little touches about GS I love, like being able to progress character text with the left shoulder button ... Phoenix Wright please pay attention.

I have gone beyond using reviews to justify whether a game is good or not. The fact is that it came out at a time when GBA graphics werent that good and blew everyone away. If it wasnt for the graphics that score would be sub 80%, other than the small touches it has no redeeming features at all. And it was SO generic. Nothing even remotely interesting in the story. The gameplay was a rehash of a battle system in the NES era. And characters as uninteresting as a brick wall.
 
That's okay, I'm playing it right now and I think the graphics, sound and story-telling are still incredible compared to the rest of the GBA lineup. I've played FFIV, M&L and tried Rivera and nothing has come close to getting my RPG bone up on this system like revisiting Golden Sun properly for the first time is.
 
Golden Sun is decent at best.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age is abso-****ing-lutely awesome.


Also, best music in a GBA game, and actually some of the best music I've heard in a game. Sakuraba is awesome.
 
my roomate seems to really like that LUNAR GBA port that was made. Seems to be very similar to psx version, and I thought that was worth playing.
 
I wondered how this thread had skyrocketed to four pages... and then I saw Amir0x and Jarrod running around in circles for 50 posts. :/
 
ethelred said:
I wondered how this thread had skyrocketed to four pages... and then I saw Amir0x and Jarrod running around in circles for 50 posts. :/
It's good to see nothing has changed! Well, Jarrod left actually. So uh, yeah.
Anyway, lets we check the bucket of GBA games to see what is better than Golden Sun.
Hmm, yes any of the Pokémon games, although I will forfeit that may not be "traditional" enough. Lunar Legend was broken but mostly inoffensive and still more interesting than Golden Sun....I'm noticing how many damn SRPGs I have for this portable, christ....Battle Network games are not traditional but are a nice twist....hmm yeah and then I have Riviera, a few import RPGs and the asston of SRPGs and FF remakes. Which are still all better than Golden Sun.
 
Um, RK, your opinion aside on the other games aside, how can you honestly consider FFIVA or MMBN4 to be in any way, shape or form better than GS and GS:TLA?
 
The only truly valid and universal point Amir0x has made in his endless ranting about how much Golden Sun "sucks" is the following:

Amir0x said:
Being easy is entirely the point, because what purpose is there to scour the depths of the system if you can just beat everything by using your moves indiscriminately when the "big" fights come? This is what it comes down to. In good games with well thought out systems, the game forces you to utilize the strategic nature of the system to progress. Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne illustrates this point wonderfully.

In other words, the joy is in using the battle to defeat your foes. The best systems require true strategic thought to progress. The worst ones have that depth, but simply provide no drive to utilize it (although you make a decent point about vs. mode in level-neutral, as that could be considered a drive... although the battle system isn't particularly compelling enough for me to engage in much of that).

Consider Dragon Quest VIII. The system is virtually identical to how it was in the NES days, but the reason why it still holds up on the PS2 is because the game makes you get the most out of the basic system. Sometimes, you need to get more out of it than the game allows in order to not die. It's not fun, per se. Rather, it's very challenging (but not to the point of frustration, which is key), and by overcoming that challenge you are rewarded with great satisfaction. As the challenge ramps up, the satisfaction increases.

Does Golden Sun do what DQ8 does? No, not by a long shot. Does that mean Golden Sun sucks? Hell no. It means a good game could have become a legendary game had it the general challenges similar of other legendary titles. The battle and Djinn system is brilliant, and its execution is just about flawless. It's just that it only started to show its full potential with a full party of eight characters and the tougher bosses toward and after the end of the game.

This is one of the reasons why I want a console Golden Sun game so badly. It's Camelot's next chance to up the overall difficulty and make it a challenge to everyone experienced with the first two games--which is a very, very large amount of people. I loved the first one, although I had to force myself to beat it knowing about the character transfer to the sequel. The sequel (or really, parts two and three of the series, which I will explain in a moment) was even better, but still not quite there until the end. I want the whole of the console (or DS) game to be just like the end of The Lost Age. We'll just need to wait for it.


Oh, and I think of Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age as three parts. All of the original Golden Sun is part 1, the first half of Lost Age is part 2, and after both parties form, that's when part 3 starts. To say the you liked the story in one game but not in the other is incorrect, since both games are one big story. It's like saying you liked Kill Bill Vol. 1 better than Vol. 2. Not possible, they are the same movie broken up into two. You either like the whole thing, or you don't.
 
Teddman said:
No way? That gameplay flaw went out with Final Fantasy III JPN or earlier... We're talking more than a decade behind the times with RPG design.

I think the first Lufia game on the SNES had that as well.

*INEFFECTIVE*
 
boy this thread is old but sorry WindyMan all my points were as valid then as now! Golden Sun sucks, buy Fire Emblem.
 
Amir0x said:
boy this thread is old but sorry WindyMan all my points were as valid then as now! Golden Sun sucks, buy Fire Emblem.

The hell? :lol I didn't even realize that. I hate people who bump ancient threads.
 
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