Golden Sun
November 26, 2002

     Ever since a terrible event in Vale caused the deaths of Isaac’s father and Jenna’s brother, Felix, things have never been the same.  Now, ten years later, Isaac, Garet, and Jenna have focused their attention in the arts of Adepts to prevent history from repeating itself.  But trouble soon befalls the quaint village of vales as two strangers appear and take the stones of Sol Sanctum, the heart of Gondowan.  Only the brave soul Isaac stands in their way, and along with his friends Garet, Ivan, and Mia, they must prevent the evil Saturos and Menardi from lighting the beacons of the four lighthouses.

     Golden Sun is by far the best Gameboy Advance game out there thus far.  The beautifully laid out storyline alone gives reason to pick it up.  An intriguing plotline captivates the player as he or she plunges into a whole new adventure.

     Not only does Golden Sun boast a superb storyline, but can easily be the most graphically advance GBA game out there.  The sort of cutesy cartoony character sprites are quite beautiful, and the environments are lush and bright; giving a fantasy-like feel to it.  The music is also great; it gives off quite a melancholy feel.  I love how each area has its own theme song.   

     Golden Sun is your typical turn-based Role-Playing.  You play the role of Isaac, but you have control of the other three members of the group also.  Psynergy stones are the basis of all the adepts’ power, certain amounts of psynergy is exerted to expel a certain spell.  There are also the djinn, little creatures found throughout the game.  These buggers can give off useful attacks, and after being used, there is also the summon command where a much stronger force can be wielded.  Golden sun’s battle system is very user-friendly and easy to get the hang of.

     At most, you would spend approximately 20 hours completing the game first time ‘round, but that doesn’t mean you have stop there.  There are a few side quests that aren’t necessary for the completion of this game, and also the collecting of the djinn and ultimate equipment (which can get frustrating I must say), and the there’s leveling up.  With this added on, this proves to have multitudes of replay value.  Although, Golden Sun’s story is quite linear; meaning, you aren’t able to jump from area to area, sadly, but still not a severe aspect or fundamental element.  Further, it’s not a wholly challenging game either.  Despite these few facts, Golden Sun is almost guaranteed to keep you playing it through at least a couple of times over.

     Yet I dearly enjoy playing this game for all the reasons mentioned above, there are a few negatives.  One, way too much dialogue!  All they do is talk and talk.  Listening to it once over is all right, but when dying after a boss, you have to sit through the whole sequence again!  Which in my opinion, is very annoying.  Then there’s the ‘voices’ of the characters that are no more than squeaks worse than the Tin Man of Oz who’s been out in the rain for way too long.  Further, there’s this issue with Isaac, you.  He reminds me of Link in the Legend of Zelda.  The most he ever says is ‘…’.  I suppose that is not necessarily a bad thing, seeing as it leaves room for the gamer to develop their own personalities of this mute kid.  Yet, it does give too much freedom to the gamer…    

     Without a doubt, Golden Sun is best game for the Gameboy Advance so far.  Actually, this was the game that got me into RPG’s, and boy, aren’t I glad for that.  An epic quest of saving the world from utter destruction from evil, purely great, Camelot’s done well.

- Bobo

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