Golden Sun

• Release Date: November 13, 2001
• Genre: Role-Playing
• Style: Third-Person 2D RPG
• Similar Games: Breath of Fire (Game Boy Advance), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Game Boy Advance), Lunar Legend (Game Boy Advance)

Game Description

Nintendo invites classic console-style role-playing gamers to embark on a new adventure in Golden Sun, the first title in a planned series of releases for the Game Boy Advance. Detailed characters make their way through countless screens of action and discovery, harnessing the powers of the four elements and crafting new possibilities through spells, psychic talents, and the forgotten art of alchemy. The heroes travel the large game world on a quest to prevent rival sorcerers from unleashing a dangerous power on the peaceful land.

Players guide their characters from a high perspective that looks down on each scene from the front. Turn-based battles are seen from ground level for a closer view of each combatant. Emotive animations and swirling spell effects bring combat to life. Throughout the journey, a variety of elusive Djinn familiars may be collected, which can be assigned to characters to augment their power. In addition to boss battles and random encounters, gameplay involves some cunning puzzle-solving, as characters often must manipulate the environment to gain access to new areas.

Roots & Influences

U.S. release of Ougon no Taiyo.

Review: Overall

Golden Sun is an exquisite example of console-style role-playing custom fit to the portable GBA platform. Lovable, large-headed heroes travel a wide and diverse landscape, smiting evil, and unraveling an intricate story of epic proportion. Gameplay seldom strays from long-established RPG convention, but Golden Sun incorporates some of the best elements of classics such as the Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, and even Legend of Zelda series, in its own distinct and unified style.

The adventure is viewed from an angled, top-down perspective as the hero characters explore caves and tombs, grasslands and deserts, forests and shorelines, and many towns and cities full of NPCs. The game begins with the player in control of just one character, a magically gifted youngster who may be given a custom name. As this main hero sets out on his quest he is soon joined by others, eventually to form a party of four: one hero for each of the four elements that institute the underlying theme of the story. The special powers of each hero character are different, leading to interesting party tactics in both exploration and combat.

A major part of gameplay is exploring the world and finding the way to new areas. During travel, the party is represented by the main hero alone on the screen. The resulting simplified character control makes this abbreviated representation well worth any logistical inaccuracies. There are several puzzle screens, and the hero may need to roll logs, push pillars, freeze pools, melt ice, or raise and lower water levels to proceed through these areas. The puzzles almost always provide a good challenge and seldom are difficult to the point of true frustration. Often, one solution may grant quick access through an area while another, more complex method may lead the characters by a treasure chest reward on their way out.

As they travel the land, slowly uncovering the well-crafted storyline that holds the adventure together from one episode to the next, the party of young heroes will meet dangerous opponents whom they must confront with swords and sorcery. Most of the battles are somewhat random, as the heroes encounter wandering monsters in the wilderness, but a few tough boss characters offer especially rewarding challenges. When it's time for combat, the view shifts to ground level, to see all four heroes facing off against their opponents. The characters are shaded and nicely detailed in these pseudo-3D battle scenes and a great assortment of animations and spell effects bring the fray to life.

While character sound effects do quite a bit to bring out the game's personality, there's a lot of text to read in Golden Sun. After all, this is a traditional, story-based RPG full of dialog and descriptions. Well suited to handheld play, messages appear onscreen one at a time and remain until the player clears them with a button press. Occasionally, the player may need an inordinate number of button presses to make it through a long conversation between characters, but charming animations and the well-written narrative make this a pleasant chore.

Nearly all elements of Golden Sun have been seen before, in classic 8- and 16-bit role-playing adventures, but they are skillfully implemented in Golden Sun with unity, originality, and polish. A few relatively new aspects of play, such as the Pokémon-style djinn familiars, only enhance the classic role-playing fun. Gameplay feels familiar and is well suited to small-screen gaming on-the-go, while the intricate story and distinctive characters add lasting appeal. Golden Sun manages to be innocent and archetypical without ever being trite -- an admirable accomplishment that should please any fan of the genre.

Review: Enjoyment

A classically styled RPG that is perfectly suited to handheld play; solidly designed and remarkably polished.

Review: Graphics

The game world is colorful and approachable; a nice balance of solemn and cute. Character animations are emotive and battle scenes are fun to watch.

Review: Sound

Music is decent and appropriate to the mood. Effects are varied and good, especially the character noises and battle sounds.

Review: Replay Value

Like most true {\role-playing} adventures, once the game is solved and the story is all told, there's much less motivation to play again. {*Golden Sun} is long, though, and will take most players dozens of hours to complete.

Review: Documentation

The glossy, color game manual is well organized and full of details, explaining all aspects of play with clarity and style.

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