Golden Sun Review: A solid foundation for a superb series
After about a decade, I finally squeezed enough time out of my life to play the original Golden Sun, perhaps the most celebrated game amidst the lineup of classic Game Boy Advance RPGs. I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Dawn back when it came out on the DS, and I have always been excited to check out the first and second games because I've heard they're much better than the third. Is the general consensus truly so correct? Is Dark Dawn really that bad, and is this game really even that good? That's what I, Brighton Nelson, will be discussing in today's RPG Ranked review.
Battle System - 7.5
As much as I love Djinn and Psynergy and Summons and Adepts and how they all play into the combat here, I found this game's combat to be a decent bit weaker than the third game's. Its biggest positive over Dark Dawn is that the difficulty balancing is leagues better in this game, and it isn't brain-dead easy. However, without being able to use the more intriguing summons, not having a party of eight, only having seven Djinn to mess around with... the game easily has the weakest combat of the series. Even as the weakest, though, it's still pretty good. The battle animations, especially the summons, are gorgeous; Psynergy has a solid amount of depth to it and is an above-average RPG magic system; the physical attacks are far more endearing and interesting than most games due to many weapons having unique, innate Unleash abilities; and, best of all, the gameplay loop of utilizing Djinn and building up towards powerful summons is awesome. While not the best in the series, the combat here remains iconic and improves in the next two games.
Story - 5
In a lot of ways, this game and Dark Dawn both have relatively weak stories for completely different reasons. While both are charming and competent enough, and still are far better than some RPG stories, Dark Dawn gets bogged down by too much dialogue in which the main characters continue to reiterate the same points over and over, leaving the on-paper simple-enough plot to start to feel convoluted. By contrast, Golden Sun lacks the depth and aspirations of Dark Dawn, leaving the game feeling rather hollow and uninteresting by its conclusion, leaving the majority of the series' narrative ambition for the next two entries. Thankfully, The Lost Age is able to capture a middle ground between these two extremes, easily telling the series' best narrative and leaving the first game feeling like not much more than a long (albeit alright) narrative preamble to deliver the real narrative of the series that would go on to be told in The Lost Age.
Characters - 5
I have to be honest: I thought Dark Dawn had a better character lineup than this game. There, I said it. To be fair, none of them would be born without the characters in this game... then again, the parents are mentioned so rarely in Dark Dawn that it's easy to forget you're really playing a sequel. Anyway, the character lineup here may be fun at times, yet it's nothing that special. Garet, Ivan, and Mia have some personality, yet most of the game's interesting characters are relegated to small roles. While I don't think the Golden Sun franchise is the best at giving every character distinct personalities (and it struggles to give most of the characters anything to say other than repeating what the last character said), unfortunately, I think the original Golden Sun is the worst in the franchise when it comes to its characters.
Music - 8
While not quite as memorable as many games I'd give an 8 out of 10 to, the music here is endlessly charming and fits the game incredibly well. The battle music is probably my favorite song from the game! Even better than all the music, though? The sound design. Honestly. There's not many games I can say that about, but the sound design here is so memorable: the text noises and the menu selection bloops are some of the best in any video game, and they live rent-free in my head.
Customization System - 7.5
It's incredibly shocking that the debut game in a series, especially one on the Game Boy Advance, had such an innovative and interesting customization system, even if it is far weaker than it is in the next two games. The coolest part of the system is its essential question: do you want a dedicated Adept, master of their element and its summoning capabilities? Or do you want to mix elements around and get otherwise inaccessible abilities? That decision alone already makes this system pretty incredible. However, there's obviously more. There's also a whole other layer to this idea of mix-matching Djinn, as if you deliberately cast or set different Djinn in battle? It can change your class mid-battle to allow for an even deeper level of strategy! And, while significantly less interesting in this original game due to the lack of unlockable summons, utilizing your Djinn in an effective way to build power for summons to do a ton of damage is really interesting, and you have to be careful that you don't lower your stats too much. However, with the limited amount of Djinn in this game, the lack of summons, and the weak lineup of weapon unleashes leave Golden Sun's combat to feel like a prototype of what is to come in the next two games. A brilliant prototype, but a prototype nonetheless.
Art & Graphics - 8
While it isn't graphically impressive by today's standards, Golden Sun's art style is so electrically charming that you can't help but love it. While it took a second to grow on me due to its unique nature, this is easily one of the most beautiful games on the Game Boy Advance. The game looks equally beautiful both in and out of battle, and they both have distinct, great styles. And, as I mentioned before, the animations for the summons and the Psynergy have always been incredible in this franchise. While I am a major defender of Dark Dawn's art style and truly enjoy how it looks, it simply can't be said that Dark Dawn's art style is more artistically powerful than this game's.
Locations - 8
While this game has the most generic dungeons and towns of the series, this is the freaking Golden Sun series, which thrives off of its fun locales and fantastic dungeon design. Every dungeon is full of fun puzzles and, while they're more basic than The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, I'm completely okay with that because sequels should become more in-depth, after all. The lighthouses and the Crossbone Isle and the Soul Sanctum and the Colosso Trials were all tons of fun to explroe and conquer, while Tolbi, Vale, and Kolima are the best towns int he game. Tolbi has the awesome Colosso Trials, which were very fun to compete in, Vale has a lot of great lore and backstory elements, and Kolima tells an interesting vignette int he story. Overall, while not the best in the RPG space, Golden Sun's locations are still fantastic.
Sidequests - 6.5
While the sidequests in this game aren't terrible, they're pretty average in the grand scheme of the genre. Outside of the Lunpa sidequest that adds some extra story to the game and the awesome Crossbone Isle dungeon that is full of solid puzzles and a great superboss, the only other sidequest is collecting the game's many Djinn, which is easily the game's best sidequest. While a couple of them are in obscure spots on the world map, and others are super easy to track down, some are hidden in unique places within towns or require elaborate attention to detail to discover. However, with so many RPGs having sidequests this good and then a lot more on top of that, I unfortunately can't rate this any higher.
Quality of Life - 6
While this game admittedly avoids much of the jank that other old RPGs have, this game isn't perfect. The lack of fast travel is pretty frustrating; the complete lack of signs that there are Djinn located on the world map is a little ridiculous; the lack of shortcuts for Psynergy abilities (this is a technical limitation, so I can forgive this one, but it's still annoying); the Djinn-switching necessary for using Whirlwind or Growth; and the amount of time it takes to manage the Djinn and inventory slots sometimes—all of these come to mind as rather minor issues that all come together to be annoying in a death-by-a-thousand-needles sort of way, but without the death part.
The Verdict
Fun Factor: 6.5
Overall Score: 68%
Letter Rating: B+
While I think that Golden Sun is the weakest game of the trilogy (even it is a far more consistent game than Dark Dawn), it's still a great game, and a fantastic kick-off to this great franchise that ended far too soon. While it's not incredible in any specific regard, its consistent quality and charming nature have solidified it as a classic for a reason. If you're looking for a short, puzzle-based RPG with solid combat and great dungeons, this is a fantastic place to start. And then go play the two sequels, because they're both awesome too!
Check out my Golden Sun: Dark Dawn review down below!
Brighton Nelson