For Nostalgia's Sake: Golden Sun

A young boy and his mother walk into their Borders book store. The boy, who is 10 years old, is upset at his mother for not letting him get a toy from their local toy store. He’s pouting, but keeping his mouth shut because he knows better, whiles his mother goes on about her business not worrying about he son being upset with her.

They split up inside the book store and the boy goes to the magazine section. While skimming through the magazines, one magazine catches his attention. It a Pocket Games magazine and features Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot on the cover. It interests him greatly (he loved Sonic Advance) and picks it up, and without even looking through it he goes to his mother and asks if he can get it (with her paying for it of course). He begs and begs and even tries to negotiate, and then finally his mother allows it. So they proceed to the checkout, books in hand and pay for their things. The boy is extremely happy as they leave the Borders and head to their car; he’s even talking more now as his mother points out because he got something in the store. He knows she’s right, but he didn’t care about that too much, he was a kid, and as long as he got something in the store: He won.

Days later the boy is going through the magazine again due to his slight boredom and he comes across a complete walkthrough to a Fantasy RPG for the Game Boy Advance, but it isn’t the characters that grabs him, it’s the four, cute little creatures on the side of the page. They remind him of Pokémon (and he was a huge fan of Pokémon). He reads the name above them and he learns that they’re called “Djinni” but he isn’t sure how it’s really pronounced, so he ends up calling them, “Din-Jin.”

He’s ten, leave him alone.

So he goes through the walkthrough, actually reading it word for word (F-ck Spoilers), and he becomes obsessed with this game, ‘I must have this game!’ he says to himself. So he goes back to the beginning of the walkthrough to learn this mysterious game’s name: Golden Sun.

The above story is not an exaggeration. That is the exact way I found out about Golden Sun nine years ago: A handhelds only video game magazine that probably doesn’t even exist anymore, but if they do and somehow see this…..I owe you much. And yes I still have that magazine; I’m looking at it as I write this.

Now! Let’s get down to business: The Golden Sun Series.

I LOVE Golden Sun. I put so many hours into the first one as well as its sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The story is very simple, GO SAVE THE WORLD!

You start play as Isaac, a seventeen year old boy who lives in the fictional (to the best of my knowledge) town, Vale. This town has been tasked as being the guardians over elemental stars, and they’ve done so for generations. These stars contain the essence of the elemental energy that makes up all matter. In normal terms: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. These stars are also so important because if they’re used to light the lighthouses of their respective elements, the power of Alchemy will be unleashed upon the world and some evil s#!t will go down.

Not too long after your introduce to Isaac and his mother, your introduced to Garet, Isaac’s best friend and the grandson of the Mayor of the village (So you know he’s got to be important). It’s not too long after though that you meet the games main villains: Saturos and Menardi. And guess what? The game forces you to fight them…right then and there, no prior warning. “You know the basics, go win for the world.” Guess what happens? (Spoiler) You die. Yep. Game’s over. Turn off your Game Boy and go outside or something.

And that’s why Golden Sun was awesome. Because it ended early, nice cliffhanger, and made you go play Tag.

……………………….You still here?

……………………….Alright fine!

Okay, that’s not really what happens….the Game Over part isn’t true anyway. But now that you’ve gotten you ass kicked, and Saturos and Menardi have f-cked things up, you have to go track them down, prevent the lighthouses from being lit, and take them down for good. Oh and you meet two other allies along the way. And let me tell you, at the end of it, it’s an awesome adventure, full of kickass attacks, summons, magical weapons, frustrating puzzles, and cute little ‘Din-Jin.’ Yeah I said it, Shut up.

Now allow me to get off the game’s story and talk about the game play and mechanics of the game. Inside and outside of battle….In part Two!!!