I want to play this game, but I'm a little disappointed to hear that it's not as great as it could have been.
Ah well, will probably pick this up anyway on Wednesday. I do have finals to worry about...but my digital video final can go do itself (seriously, it's open note).
Now, dont get me wrong, I loved Golden Sun. or at least, the first 2/3rds of it, because I had no idea where the hell to go or what too do. my one complaint about those incredible titles was that If you were to stop playing for a week, then come back, youd be doomed. all this hooplah about them telling you every detail over and over again could be helpful for the absent minded gamer (like myself)
I've played the whole game and the reviewer is a little right and a little wrong.
I agree with the large amounts of dialogue, but that's only if you want talk to all of the villagers in a town. Storyline dialogue isn't overwhelming at all. I personally had a bit of trouble keeping the names of all of the new non-party characters organized in my head.
As to the easy combat system this is easily remedied if you force yourself to play with most of your Djinn on standby. This will make you MUCH weaker.
Also the bonus boss for the Catastrophe summon is one of the hardest RPG bosses I've fought ever. (yes he's harder than every Final Fantasy boss ever, the Doom dragon and the Star Mage)
I had to find an exploit in his programming just to beat him. (He takes control of your party members, and can summon Charon TWICE a turn!) Only Dullahan was harder (Djinn Storm + Charon + Formina Sage = lots of instadeath)
The final boss is no pushover either.
All in all it wasn't better than Golden Sun 1 or 2, but I found it did the series justice.
To rehash - "The Golden Sun event happened". ARGH. The capitalization gives it all the weight it needs, no need to beat us over the head with 'event'. And if it hadn't 'happened', we probably wouldn't be taking about it. So, how about "Even since the Golden Sun rose"? IT WORKS SO BEAUTIFULLY
/rant
I'm a big fan of GS, and so far the game's a blast. Any tips on nabbing that first Jupiter djinn?
When you get to Carver's camp, look for a log you can use Move on. It's in the mid-level area in the west of the camp. Once you've Moved the log into the right position, you can hop over and get to the area in the Highlands that you couldn't before. There's a gondola there you can ride across... then, just follow the path to the Djinn and be ready to fight it.
*edit* Also, don't miss the other Djinn in Carver's camp.
I'm gonna white knight this series for a bit here, but mostly just gonna rant about how annoying people can be about fan-favorites.
I'm 5 hours in and I love this game. Nowhere near as disappointing as anyone thinks it is. That said, it IS part 3 of a series that has been in the dark for 7 years, so naturally fans who stuck with it will get the most out of it since they already loved the game, blemishes and all.
The first two games are near EXACTLY like this. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise, they were clearly afflicted by the Long Wait Inevitable Disappointment Syndrome.*
*The nostalgia-driven, powered-by-cynicism disease in which a sequel to a "classic" never lives up to the oh-so-great originals. Which I think is stupid.
I don't know how people think that the first two games were AMAZING, and I'm a stark raving mad fanboy of this series. For GBA games, they were great, but really, not THAT amazing. Lots of meandering writing, with an interesting plot and dilemma driven by LIFELESS characters that did not develop an iota, combat about as challenging as first-grade spelling, and on the whole more or less all the same "issues" that Dark Dawn has now, minus the Points of No Return and the more likable party of characters.
What exactly DID they expect out of a sequel to a fan-favorite franchise like Golden Sun? CHANGE? I've looked around the block, and the X-Com fans are taking "change" really well it seems.
I'm so glad it's the same exact game with a new story that considers the existence of the older games. I'm glad the story is taking pains to explain everything because as a fan I definitely WANT to know how everything changed. I'm glad they considered the people that loved the originals for everything they were and weren't, and I can only hope that this becomes a regular Nintendo franchise. Weyard is a nifty world.
Oh, we'd love to do DS reviews, but you need a specific doohicky to capture the footage from a DS, and you have to get said doohicky from Nintendo...and they are very, very stingy with how they hand them out.
OK. Well, if you've tried it, and it's horrible, then I guess there's nothing much that can be done.
I wouldn't even know how to begin capturing video from a device like that, considering you'd have to intercept the signal between the displays and the graphics hardware on the console...
That's difficult enough to do with a PC, and that has an open hardware standard, and displays that aren't physically attached to the hardware.
A pity really then that Nintendo is so difficult about giving anyone access to whatever hardware they use for the task.
I actually have found Golden Sun: Dark Dawn to be surpassing its predecessor. I say this because I have not been able to put it down since i got it, and it follows the exact same guidelines as the originals. I see this game not for its battle system, I see it for its puzzles, and its world threatening stories. Each adept proves to be unique in their own way, and you cannot live without any of them, except Tyrell, he has been nothing but a little bastard child.
Personally I think this game was underscored, because it is the exact same, if not better, than the older titles. I would give this Four Stars at least, but what do I know?
...Not surprised that a sequel turns out to be bad, but extremely disappointed that this one turned out to be. I mean, Golden Sun 2 was aces, so why couldn't this one be?
Ahaha, I haven't been able to put my DS down since I got this.
Also, a tip to anyone that dies BEFORE or AT Konpa Ruins (I know I did qq) go back to Patcher's place, enter the Psynergy Training Challenge, leave, and everyone's at full health. c:
On one hand, this game has a lot of stuff that frustrates me. Three (three!) points of no return in a series that I loved for how much stuff they left you to explore everywhere, even at spots near the beginning of the game. Much longer dialogue sequences than in either of the first two games. Yeah, I know, both previous games had some long ones, but this game has nothing but long ones, and whenever something happens EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS MUST SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT. With a party of eight plus Kraden, it gets really old as you wait for all of your characters to finish being shocked about a development you had figured out hours ago. That's another thing, is it just me or did making the characters more talkative make them, you know, dumber?
Mechanically, they got rid of the class changing items that allowed you to make four elemental classes, which is a shame, since despite most of the classes you made not being that great (the dark shaman class had the most powerful psynergy move in the game, but otherwise they were all pretty mediocre). They also made your second water adept and your second fire adept not much different from the first two, which is a shame, since that's what I loved about Piers and Jenna in Lost Age. Although it's also what I came to hate about Piers... Also...
The game's a tad too short, not lasting much longer after you get your eighth character, the "cliffhanger" ending isn't really satisfying since they purposely leave so much unresolved and you still don't get to beat up Alex! Goddamnit I've been wanting to do that ever since the first game!
But with all of that, it's really hard for me to ignore what the game does right. The dialogue, while mostly not great, had some funny moments that made me enjoy reading it. While a lot of people feel like the constant callbacks to the first game were excessive (and admittedly, some were), I feel like most of them let some really awesome things happen. I don't want to give away too much without spoiler tags, but the constant callbacks to the first two games game are what enables one of my favorite things about this one: psychic pirate. Yeah. It's pretty awesome.
Beyond that, mechanically they did a few things with the classes that I've wanted them to do since Lost Age.
See, earlier I griped about Piers. Here's the thing about him. His equips and stat bases are most similar to Garet's, and his base class (equipping only mercury djinn) makes him a decent warrior with access to healing psynergy. He basically comes off as Garet with slightly worse warrior stats in exchange for some of the strongest single-adept healing in the game in the ply series. Here's the problem. I almost never keep characters in their basic class. It's boring, their basic classes tend to offer the worst stats (although there are a few dual and triple element classes that are just junk, and as mentioned, the quad-element classes weren't all that great). The problem? Piers was a character with warrior stats and equips, but he wound up with Mia's class list from the first game. Mia's a mage. She's really good at most of her alternate mage classes. Most of her best armor also just happens to buff power for water, fire, or wind moves, recover PP, or do something else you really want your mage armor to do. Piers doesn't get that. He also doesn't quite have the PP to constantly cast healing psynergy or powerful attack psynergy the way Mia does. In any class but his basic class, he's pretty much just a worse version of Mia. Jenna, a mage-type character with Garet's class list, had a similar problem, but it was smaller since her attack wasn't really bad, she could still equip some of the game's best weaponry, and she had way more agility than Garet. Even when I had them both as the same class, Jenna was different enough in that she was faster so that she never felt like a waste to include on a team. Piers did, entirely because they got lazy with the class system instead of giving him at least a few warrior-type classes to use.
In this game, they solve that. While both fire adepts are warrior types and both water adepts mage types, you get access to a warrior wind adept and a mage earth adept. The good thing is they don't share the exact same class list as their counterparts. Most of the classes, but not the same classes. There are enough different ones that I never feel like I'm stuck using them in their single-element classes for them to not be useless.
Also a huge fan of Sveta's transform. Beast form + attack buffing can lead to her dealing as much damage with her attack psynergy as you're doing with most of your summons.
I love(d) the game (as I already beat it) but there is one major irk I have with the game...
That you can't procede until you talk to THE person. If you don't talk to the right person, you'll spend your time mulling around wondering how to get into the next area, until you decide to go back and just talk to people and THEN you realize you were supposed to get item A to access area A, from some guy you just met.
It really was annoying. But I still enjoyed the game.
Actually, one more thing irked me, and that was the story(s) as it seemed to being teeling three different stories in one, and you only finish(?) one of them.
I'd much rather spend half my commute getting lost in a game that allows me to save anywhere, than worry about missing my bus stop because the CAST WON'T STOP TALKING!
Yes, the first two games had this problem to an extent, but in this game it's ten times worse. Still enjoying it, though.
Like many, I loved Golden Sun, and its sequel. I was particuarly interested in the DS version, which... in alot of respects, could have been labaled as a remake of the first. (Swap a few pixels and some lines of dialouge around, and itd pretty much be GS 1 all over again.)
I do like that Flint has a bit of an active role. As interesting as seeing Issac and Garret toddering around are, it was even more of a delight to see Flint make his appearence, and even having a handful of speaking lines. Its nice to see that the Djinn, at least some of them, have a bit more personality than your common Pidgey.
However, some of the review is pretty spot on. Ive only just reached the Psy Energy Training grounds, which are located in the second village, and tell a neat, theme-park style recap on the first two games... and Ive already seriously grown sick and tired of hearing about my past adventures. Its all a bit heavy handed, especially when one considers that long time fans will already know this story, having experienced it, and newcomers to the series could be forgiven for assuming that this new story has little going on besides re-hashing and re-telling the games they missed.
The DS is a pretty strong platform... maybe stronger than the Wii. Id still recommend getting GSD just because its a decent game... there seems to have been a drought on noteworthy games for the big N this year.
...Not surprised that a sequel turns out to be bad, but extremely disappointed that this one turned out to be. I mean, Golden Sun 2 was aces, so why couldn't this one be?
If you've played the others in the series and enjoyed them, you'll like this one as well - you'll like it quite a lot, I'd wager. Susan's review is from the perspective of a new-comer who does not appear to be very fond of JRPGs anyway. Don't take her review too seriously. Everything we loved about the first two games is in here as well
I adored the first two games and will probably get this one simply based on the fact that it has the words 'Golden Sun' in the title. Here's hoping the summons in this one are just as over-the-top and epic as the first two (my avatar being Catastrophe and all).
Just tell me one thing...
Since Alex obviously didn't die at the end of the second game, do you finally get to give him a proper beatdown? Also, do they ever explain any more about what the heck the Wise One was supposed to be? Those are the only two things that will really seal my decision to get this game or not. (I don't need specifics, just a yes or no would be great)
I adored the first two games and will probably get this one simply based on the fact that it has the words 'Golden Sun' in the title. Here's hoping the summons in this one are just as over-the-top and epic as the first two (my avatar being Catastrophe and all).
Just tell me one thing...
Since Alex obviously didn't die at the end of the second game, do you finally get to give him a proper beatdown? Also, do they ever explain any more about what the heck the Wise One was supposed to be? Those are the only two things that will really seal my decision to get this game or not. (I don't need specifics, just a yes or no would be great)
Apparently no, I have not beaten it but I'm bad at avoiding spoilers. As for point 2, at one point in the beginning they quickly refer to him as a philosopher's stone made by the ancients, I have no idea what philosopher's stone myth the game subscribes to though so that may not be very helpful.
And yes, the summons are still way over the top, and fully animated this time too.
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