RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Reviews > Golden Sun
Golden Sun, like a lot of RPGs for handhelds, doesn't do anything complicated or fancy like Final Fantasy X or Shadow Hearts, nor does it have a complicated story like Vagrant Story or Xenogears. Handheld RPGs often take us back to the olden days of gaming, sporting magic, demons, and a world in need of a savior. The reasons are the same now (mostly) as they were then: since the console can only handle so much, why do a lot with it? I have a feeling we'll start to see more complicated games for the GBA as time moves on (like Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodus... *drools*) but until then they'll make the old-school games as cool and beautiful as they want to be.
The only place where this game really falters is on the controls. The same one control is used to: to talk to people, search for items, activate objects, and to open the menu. Yeah. That's insane. Then again, they wanted to do so many things in the different screens that it was hard not to get a button doing that.
The saving graces though are scattered about. The music, done by Camelot's stock composer, Motoi Sakuraba, is very beautiful and well composed. Not in his usual progressive rock style, most of the songs are softer, more sedate (though there is a large number of battle themes... O_o). The sound effects are amazingly annoying, but can be disabled, so life is good (well, not all fx, but the truly annoying one that accompanies the speech boxes).
The battle system displays Golden Sun's true capabilities. Despite the rather ordinary battle system of selecting your actions and watching them occur afterwards, the graphics are astounding. The most interesting part of the battle system (and what accounts for most of the replay value) is the sort of summoning system they have going on. You have to actually find the little summoning creatures (and in some cases, battle them!) and then equip them. The neat thing is, anyone can equip them, giving characters a wide array of abilities to choose from (those sometimes finding the creatures is hard!).
As for the learning curve of this little gem, well, it's not the longest game, but it can match some games on the PS2 so you'll be getting used to playing shorter games for now. That said, it should also be noted it's for a handheld with the smallest cartridges in the known universe, so, it's actually pretty impressive, what they can squeeze on nowadays.
The Final Word
Despite the annoying menu and it's relative shortness, it does provide a good game for long car rides or airplane rides. Moreover, it's fun just to see what the young system can produce, and brings images to mind of possible future games. With that said, keep an eye out for Golden Sun: The Lost Age, supposedly coming out sometime this year of 2002 (though probably later in the year).
| Game Stats | |
|---|---|
| Genre | RPG |
| Platform | Gameboy Advance |
| Format | Cartridge |
| # of Players | 1 |
| Released Jap | 08.01.2001 |
| Released US | 11.11.2001 |
| Released EU | 02.22.2002 |
| Aprox. Length | 20-35 hrs. |
| Reviewer Rankings | |
| Battle System | 7.0 |
| Gameplay | 6.0 |
| Music | 10.0 |
| Originality | 7.0 |
| Plot | 7.0 |
| Replay Value | 8.0 |
| Sound | 8.0 |
| Visuals | 10.0 |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Overall | |
| 7.9 | |
Golden Sun
By: Camelot / NintendoReviewed By: S3KI
The Gameboy Advance was released with few launch games, especially in the RPG category. Slowly but surely the amount of games for it grows, and not the least of these additions is a quietly released game known as Golden Sun.Golden Sun, like a lot of RPGs for handhelds, doesn't do anything complicated or fancy like Final Fantasy X or Shadow Hearts, nor does it have a complicated story like Vagrant Story or Xenogears. Handheld RPGs often take us back to the olden days of gaming, sporting magic, demons, and a world in need of a savior. The reasons are the same now (mostly) as they were then: since the console can only handle so much, why do a lot with it? I have a feeling we'll start to see more complicated games for the GBA as time moves on (like Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodus... *drools*) but until then they'll make the old-school games as cool and beautiful as they want to be.
The only place where this game really falters is on the controls. The same one control is used to: to talk to people, search for items, activate objects, and to open the menu. Yeah. That's insane. Then again, they wanted to do so many things in the different screens that it was hard not to get a button doing that.
The saving graces though are scattered about. The music, done by Camelot's stock composer, Motoi Sakuraba, is very beautiful and well composed. Not in his usual progressive rock style, most of the songs are softer, more sedate (though there is a large number of battle themes... O_o). The sound effects are amazingly annoying, but can be disabled, so life is good (well, not all fx, but the truly annoying one that accompanies the speech boxes).
The battle system displays Golden Sun's true capabilities. Despite the rather ordinary battle system of selecting your actions and watching them occur afterwards, the graphics are astounding. The most interesting part of the battle system (and what accounts for most of the replay value) is the sort of summoning system they have going on. You have to actually find the little summoning creatures (and in some cases, battle them!) and then equip them. The neat thing is, anyone can equip them, giving characters a wide array of abilities to choose from (those sometimes finding the creatures is hard!).
As for the learning curve of this little gem, well, it's not the longest game, but it can match some games on the PS2 so you'll be getting used to playing shorter games for now. That said, it should also be noted it's for a handheld with the smallest cartridges in the known universe, so, it's actually pretty impressive, what they can squeeze on nowadays.
The Final Word
Despite the annoying menu and it's relative shortness, it does provide a good game for long car rides or airplane rides. Moreover, it's fun just to see what the young system can produce, and brings images to mind of possible future games. With that said, keep an eye out for Golden Sun: The Lost Age, supposedly coming out sometime this year of 2002 (though probably later in the year).
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