Alright, so where was I before? Oh yeah, I was about to talk about the game itself and not the story. Okay, then here we go.
When you’re not in battle, things are standard fare. You travel throughout the world in the insanely huge world map, going to towns, forests, dungeons, etc, and get into the occasional random battle. It is also outside of battle where you use this game’s form of magic; called Psynergy. Psynergy is the harness powered used by those in the world of Golden Sun that can use Alchemy. Think the Force combined with the Elements of the world…and you can see it with your naked eye. Psynergy is the bulk of many of the Puzzles in Golden Sun and some moves used outside of combat can also be used during combat as well. A few examples of Psynergy would be: Catch – where you can see an object on the ground out of reach and you use Catch to pick it up and bring it to you. Or Carry – which allows you to lift heavy objects. Or Frost - which you can use to freeze puddles of water and use as a bridge or platform. There a literally dozens more Psynergy spells in the game, but I just don’t have it in mean to name them all.
Oh, and remember those ‘Din-Jin?’ You also find the outside of battle, but you have to fight them to claim them…just like Pokémon. And some of them are hard. (No, I don’t mean legendary.)
Now it’s time to talk about the battle part of this game, my favorite part. Battles in Golden Sun are turn based, and at the time it was the norm for RPGs, and to be honest, if Golden Sun was Real-Time like…say FFX-2, you’d be completely unable to follow what was going on. Kinda like FFXIII when you first start out, but Golden Sun is standard turn base, so no worries, but that’s not to say that the game doesn’t need strategy to win. Sure you can just spam ‘Attack’ on regular enemies, but some those bosses you need to be prepared for.
Each of your four heroes can be equipped with weapon, armor, other accessories, and ‘Din-Jin.’ Yes, those Pokémon looking creatures can be equipped, and depending on which element as well as how many of them you equip can change how strong of weak your characters get. This is a major part of the game because each of your four characters is stronger with a certain element. For example, Isaac is more tailored for Earth ‘Din-Jin’ while Garet is better suited for Fire ‘Din-Jin.’ Personally speaking, I always put my ‘Din-Jin’ with their respective character; Isaac got all Earth types, Garet got all Fire types and Ivan and Mia (your other two allies) got Wind and Water respectively. It just seemed like the smart thing to do when I was ten, and I’ll probably still play that way when I get Golden Sun for the DS (fina-fricking-ly).
Your ‘Din-Jin’ could also be used for summons as well. If I remember correctly, summons cost you anywhere from two to four or five ‘Din-Jin’ at a time, they’d come back to you of course, but that was only after a set amount of time, and sometimes you didn’t have all the time in the world to wait for you to get back a certain ‘Din-Jin.’ Like one who could stop time, or raise a K.O teammate. This added even more strategy to the game.
Going back to Weapons, weapons in Golden sun can range from Swords, to Maces, to Staffs, and only certain characters can use certain weapons. Mia and Ivan are at their best when given Staffs, Garet can use two handed swords and maces, and Isaac can use one handed swords. Isaac may also be able to use two-handed swords and maces, but I’m not sure, because I never gave him those (Someone feel free to correct me). What I like about the Weapons in Golden Sun so much is that later on in the game, some of your weapons can let out battle-cries or screams, or roars. Sure you don’t actually hear those in the game, but seeing the text read, “Masamune let out a fierce cry. Isaac used Rising Dragon” is so god damn cool. I had this one weapon called “Sol Blade” and every so often, when choosing the basic ‘attack’ command, the text would read, “Sol Blade let out a cry. Isaac used Megiddo” and Isaac would jump into the air, swing down, and half a second later, a Meteor would come down and hit whichever enemy you targeted. I loved that move that move so much that it got to the point where I was just choosing ‘attack’ just to see Megiddo.
Ahhhh, those were the days.
Unfortunately, I can’t go too much into the Armor of the game because it wasn’t as epic as the weapons were. Armor did its usual thing: Raised attack, defense, speed, luck, PP, Hp, and other attributes in the game. I do remember some items being cursed though. Hmm….
I’d go onto talk about Golden Sun: The Lost Age, but it had the same mechanics and gameplay as the first one, and it was just as good, if not better than the original. Maybe I’ll do one in the future as it gets closer to the release of Golden Sun: DS.
BUT! At the end of it all, Golden Sun is a game that every person who has a Game Boy Advance, or DS, needs to go play. I’m not saying it’s the greatest game in the world, but dammit, it’s frickin awesome. Go pick it up; it’s probably ultra, super, and stupid cheap. Besides it’s not like there are other handheld games to play at the moment. And Golden Sun for the DS comes out this year, hop to it and play Golden Sun and The Lost Age.
P.S - If you haven’t played this game yet, or heard of it. Let me know. I’ll come over and show you how awesome it is…then proceed to beat you with an Asian kid who HAS played it.
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