Spirit Icana
Member
Credit to AwayToHit from reddit for this image. These maps were included with these RPG games.
PROLOGUE
Thus, Adepts, your adventure begins!
WHAT IS GOLDEN SUN?
Golden Sun is a two part Game Boy Advance classic developed by Camelot Software Planning, the developers of classics such as Shining Force 1-3 games for Sega, Everybody's Golf for Playstation, and the Mario Tennis/Golf series for Nintendo. Take it away, Ryrule:
Golden Sun's dungeons held the substance of a Zelda game. The physic elemental powers your party of characters learn throughout the journey could be used in battle... and OUTSIDE of battle. Those powers, called Psynergy, can move and lift boulders, boxes, read the minds of NPCs, freeze a puddle into a platform, burrow oneself underground, and much more. Psynergy was key to solving the games' various riddles/challenges/puzzles. The games also sported some maze designs in the dungeons. The games have random turn-based battles that are prevalent in maze areas, but non-existent in puzzle areas. Their's a good balance between battle and field activity. The battles themselves are very fast paced and you can use Psynergy, basic attacks with various weapons (sword/axe/mace/lance/rods/knives/etc), and you can summon massive spirits, like in Final Fantasy, to dish massive damage on your foes. The key to summoning is linked to Golden Sun's biggest, most stand-out, feature in its battle system:
THE DJINN
Credit: mekranil from reddit
Ryrule's video goes over the functions of the djinn, elemental creatures scattered through-out the world of Weyard, but let's talk about it a bit. These creatures are key to battle. You must find these creatures throughout the world, capture them, and install their powers into a party member of your choice. Capturing a djinn can involve simply battling and defeating them, or solving a puzzle on the field and using your psynergy to basically trap them into submission. Installing a djinn's power into a character can affect their stats, their psynergy powers (djinn can grant new powers/magic to characters), and their class! In battle, Djinn have both active and inactive states. When they are active on your character, your character enjoys stat buffs, stronger variations of different psynergy, and a higher Class (example: Lord). You can use djinn in battle by unleashing them with their own unique abilities. When a djinn is used, they enter an inactive state. They cannot be active again until you summon them as an elemental spirit. If you leave up to, for example, four djinn in an inactive state, you can summon a MASSIVE level four spirit like Judgement to hail above the world a rain of earthly destruction.
When you use a djinn and it enters an inactive stat, you suffer stat debuffs, lose certain psynergy magic, and even drop in classes(Lord>Gallant>Squire example). Depending on how you arrange your djinn to your party members, you can actively change classes DURING battle and completely re-arrange your array of psynergy powers for your disposal.
PSYNERGY SUMMONS & UNLEASHES
You can also use various psynergy on the field, outside of battle, such as the move "cloak" which renders you invisible in shadows. You use this power for some stealth game-play during a certain optional dungeon.
DAT MUSIC
Composed by Motoi Sakuraba (Dark Souls, Star Ocean, Baten Kaitos, etc). One of Game Boy Advance's biggest audio triumph's.
BEHOLD!
Fan Bonus:
Amazing remix of the popular Venus Lighthouse theme. Reader, feel free to sprinkle the thread with more musical delights (fan remixes or direct rips) from the games. There are no shortages here.
RECEPTION
Sales wise, here are the numbers compiled by former gaffer, Celine: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/nint...dware-sales-data-from-1983-to-present.963700/
Golden Sun: 1.65 million WW LTD
Golden Sun the Lost Age: 1.12 million WW LTD
Note that Fire Emblem had five games release before Fire Emblem Awakening on 3DS. None of them sold a million WW, and its DS game, Shadow Dragon, bombed hard (had it's price slashed as low as ten bucks). Further note that Golden Sun sold better than a lot of represented character franchises in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's current roster. My only guess why Golden Sun's main character, Isaac, is not playable in those games is perhaps timing. Well that and Sakurai bias, because I mean, there's 7 Fire Emblem characters in Smash Ultimate. Like, c'mon. lol
Anyway, Golden Sun Dark Dawn came out on the Nintendo DS eight years after Golden Sun the Lost Age's release on the GBA. That game under-performed. Unfortunately, I don't know the figures, other than being under a million. The price for the game got slashed at Game Stop so I believe it did indeed under-perform. But if Fire Emblem can rebound, so can Golden Sun. The problem moving forward for this series remains Nintendo/Camelot.
Reviews:
Metacritic: 91
Gamerankings: 89
Sites like IGN gave Golden Sun a 9.7/10 back in 2001. Needless to say, Golden Sun came with a HOWL when it launched on the Game Boy Advance around the 2001 holidays. GBA's audience comprised of many young children at the time. That includes myself. Golden Sun had very strong word of mouth in my school, and I imagine this was true around North America. The games did very well in an age that predates social media, DLC, and e-shops.
EPILOGUE FROM YOURS TRULY
Golden Sun was a huge deal for me growing up. I played the game in 2002, and developed a lot of my reading skills and vocabulary during this time. Needless to say, I have a VERY strong sense of nostalgia for Golden Sun. Game just captivated me with it's stunning visuals and music coming out of my little Game Boy Advance, and I really enjoyed the characters and the story. The world of alchemy, the elements, the mysteries this Weyard world had at large, I loved it. Isaac, the main character of this story, was my gateway into this world. His mute voice was no different to me as it is with Link from the Zelda series. I couldn't believe how the original Golden Sun 'ended' and became obsessed with reading fanfiction for it. More, more more! I read so much, until Golden Sun The Lost Age, my most anticipated game ever, finally came out in 2003.
I've been saddened in recent days. A shimmer of hope shined that Isaac from Golden Sun would be playable in the upcoming Smash Bros. Ultimate. The Grinch Leak particularly being the brightest of that dream. My mind raced with excitement over how Isaac could fight without the constraints of the GBA hardware.
This is Isaac in a nutshell:
Funny enough, Avatar the Last Airbender aired on Nickelodeon television a couple years after Golden Sun. Avatar's nations reminded me so much of Golden Sun's adept clans, Venus (earth), Mars (fire), Jupiter (wind/air), and Mercury (water). Indeed, Isaac is basically an earthbender and then some (he can do so much more).
Anyway, the Grinch leak was fake, and Isaac returned to Smash Bros... as an assist trophy. He was an AT in Smash Bros Brawl, and then completely cut from Smash 4 for unknown reasons. It's disappointing because the character and his series has established prior success, has strong nostalgia with fans, and could bring something very cool and unique to the game, plus carve a potential future for the Golden Sun IP. Unfortunately, the fans' voices only merited an updated assist trophy. Additional remix tracks for the game remain unknown at this time, but is unlikely. Last hope is Nintendo pushes for a Golden Sun rep for Smash Ult DLC. The odds appear low, but the fans fight on regardless. Today is
So... do you remember Golden Sun? Grew up with it? First RPG? Played when it was new? Played it recently?
Please feel free to share YOUR Golden Sun experience!
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