Golden Sun
Released early in the Game Boy Advance's life, Golden Sun filled a void at the time for handheld Role-Playing Games. RPG fans were so desperate for satisfaction, they were able to put aside the cliched, cut-short story and bare-bones battle system, enjoy what GS had to offer, and make it a huge success.
Golden Sun puts you in control of four kids with the power of Psynergy, a rare and arcane power essentially equitable to magic. Of course, these kids must master their control over the elements to save the world from a shadowy force that threatens to destroy the world.
Golden Sun's story is fairly unremarkable. A flashback introduction shows the town of Vale, where the main character Isaac lives, under attack by a rogue boulder. The town's elite psynergists try to hold it back and save the town, but to no avail; in the aftermath, Isaac's father, and his friend Jenna's family, are lost. Years later, Ivan goes on an investigative quest into a mountain shrine, and because of some less than noble intervention, inadvertently releases the four elemental Stars. The bad guys want to use the stars to light the four elemental lighthouses, so that they may release upon the world the power of alchemy. While a few plot twists are involved, it's little more than a base "find the four elemental somethings" storyline. Although even that isn't quite true - Golden Sun contains only half of the game; the other half is in its sequel, The Lost Age.
The gameplay is little more than the simple attack/magic/defend/item foundation of RPG battle systems. That little more, though, is an interesting twist: throughout the game, you collect little creatures called Djinn, seven of them for each of the four elements. The Djinn can be set to a character to improve his or her statistics and magic power, and different combinations of set Djinn will change what spells a character can use. A Djinn can be "Unleashed" from a set character in battle - each Djinn has a certain attack or effect when unleashed, and unleashed Djinn can, in turn, be used for summons. Up to four Djinn of a certain type can be used to summon a powerful attack for each element, in a variety of combinations.
The Djinn abilities also come into play outside of battle. Psynergy must be used in the overworld to overcome obstacles (like watering a plant to make it grow into a climbable vine) and solve puzzles. Log rolling and block pushing are given new life in Golden Sun, and while none of them are incredibly difficult, the puzzles do add at least some element of strategic thinking to the game, what with its cut and dry battles.
Golden Sun's graphics are amazing for a handheld game. The overworld is nicely polished, perhaps slightly better than Super NES quality, and battle scenes are done in 3D. The camera movement is directed so as to emphasize each side of the battle when it attacks, and the movement of characters and the background makes for visually impressive battles. The sound effects are okay, nothing particularly special, and the music, while good for an early GBA title, isn't very noteworthy.
Golden Sun is around 20-25 hours in length. It has some respectable replay value in collecting Djinn, finding rare items, and doing one major sidequest, ended with a powerful pirate boss. And because of its length, Golden Sun is easy to revisit, too.
While not groundbreaking by any means (other than merely by being on the Game Boy Advance), Golden Sun is a basic but sufficient RPG. It's simple enough for newcomers to the genre, and still doesn't completely alienate its aficionados. There are better RPGs, but in the end, Golden Sun isn't too shabby.
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