ocre

Well, the towns from GS not showing up in TLA were due to the fact that you don't have access to those areas from the original GS (I'm aware of the boat glitch; I'm speaking legtimately). Between TLA and GS, we had access to all of Weyard, and a lot of the peoples (Sana comes immediately to mind) aren't mentioned or referenced to exist (I realize they may not have been thought up in development yet). In this new game, it seems like they went overboard with the ancient civilizations and how all of a sudden everyone in every town is a history buff, but rarely even mentions the Angara towns that existed (I haven't heard any mentions of Altin, Xian or LUNPA so far) in the previous games. I find this game most fun and interesting when they're referencing back to things we've actually seen or heard of before. Frankly, there are just too many ancient cultures that suddenly became common knowledge since the Golden Sun event just 30 year ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to believe that all the new towns/ruins jutted up out from underground and that the old towns were destroyed (they twice directly state that two of the towns were destroyed via the GS event). AND I HATE RYU KOU. But I do love the new summon directly lifted from the original North American Golden Sun .And HOLY CRAP YES the Saturos battle theme is back!

Continuing my opinions of the game, I delve into more spoilerish territory, more than 15 hours into the game. (Boy, am I glad this game isn't nearly as short as I thought it would be) I'm playing at a pretty brisk pace too, though I'm definitely not trying to miss any treasures of djinn, or leave any barrels unturned. [spoilerS!!!!!!) The game feels much more 'right' after the Luna Tower activation. I'm really liking the Spirit psynergy. (Who knew talking to dead people was so much fun?) I also have to say, revisiting Champa made me feel happy. I like that the caves retain the exact same layout as in TLA. And WHAT IN TARNATION‽ Obaba is alive?! Hilarious. Love it. Turning Tret and Laurel into know-it-alls (who know Piers) was a bit odd, but I'm really happy to see them retain their designs from the first game. And I don't mind at all that their species is given more insight into. All in all, I'm feeling better about this game, though I really feel that you should've been able to mind-read with Karis from the start.

I keep inadvertently skipping plot points by exploring a town/ruin ahead. |=[ First, I explored Kaocho too early, THEN I got the Ice Queen before I was informed why I needed it. It's kind of annoying. But yeah. Puzzles: Great Plot: Kinda shoddy.

I've spent around 7 hours with the game since getting it yesterday and I have a few opinions to share. I don't really mention anything that should be considered a spoiler, I don't think. I do name a few of the new locations a new npc, but nothing earthshattering. The Good - The Sol Saga books. Wonderful retelling of the events of the first two games. The fact that this set of books is scattered through the land is kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand it's good for us veteran players, but on the other hand, it would've been a great retelling of the first two games for anyone playing this one, to give them access to it right away might have been a wise choice. I love the little picture-book-esque visuals and how they recall stuff like the statues in Sol Sanctum and the Altin Hydros statue. - The music is wonderful as ever, with some nice arrangements of previous GS music peppered between mostly new tracks. - The puzzles are as great as ever. Of course most of it has become second nature, but the developers still manage to provide well-designed puzzle challenges. - I definitely am loving the new summon animations. The Djinn and attack unleash animations are great too. Kinda cool that you unlock unleashes by using your weapon more. - Throwbacks. I loved the Psynergy training grounds. I love how Nyunpa is mentioned(and shown in the Sol Saga along with Feizhi and Hamma). - The Psynergy. Great stuff. Growth is now readily accessible. Touch control for the psynergy is optional in most cases(thankfully). The Bad - This one is pretty major and it's kind of making me dislike this game. Why the HELL are there so many ancient civilizations suddenly being talked about. This game feels more like a '1000 years ago' prequel or that it takes place in an unknown land rather than the world we explored supposedly 30 years ago. King Wo? The Fori? Ayuthay? (At least the Konpa Ruins was explained to have risen up from the ground after the GS event.) Everything else is just too much. Very few of the old towns are even mentioned so far. - Dialogue during opening mission with Isaac and Garet. I couldn't help feeling they were being very redundant in what they were saying. - The emoticon response system. Just a tiny nitpick, but I often pick the 'inappropriate' mood and get a "You shouldn't be so happy!" or a "Don't be angry!" and it kind of bothers me. More "Yes/No" stuff would've been... less weird. All that said, so far, I'm definitely a little bit underwhelmed with this game, BUT I am enjoying it for the most part.

Oh, heck yeah. I'm a big fan of the theme; I would even go so far as to say I wish it were the theme of Metroid Prime 3.

Sonic Adventure 2 - 'Rouge' stage themes : Pretty much any Rouge track from Sonic Adventure 2 is a sure bet for awesome. This one probably has the most vocal action going on. The rest are a little more instrumentally driven, but still contain some jazz scat stylings. Not sure jazzy spy music has ever been done so well anywhere else in video games. Here are some more Rouge tracks: : This actually has some non-scat singing, but I chose the other theme as it more exemplified the 'spy' motif of these songs. : My favorite of the bunch. -34ºN, 12ºE (Mad Space) Heh, my friend actually used some of these tracks for his breakdancing routine videos.

Jungle Beat is the non-music oriented, bongo-controller game that portrayed DK as a mindless ape punching his way through various Fruit worlds in his quest to become "king of the jungle". It's as if Nintendo Japan went out of it's way to totally shed every element of progress that Rare had injected into the series with the game. That said, notice how the PAON-developed KoS and Jungle Climber retained a WHOLE lot more of what made the DKC games great, even without bringing over the series staple gameplay. Good man.

We <3 Katamari - Bluffing Damacy I think it's a testament to how good a song this is that I can find it so catchy and I can't even understand the language it's sung in. True that the Katamari games have all had pretty amazing music, obviously the first and second ones, this one is my favorite of them all. I think that if this song were translated into English, it would lose some of the interesting 'syllable squeezes' that make it sound the way it does, if that makes any sense; I'm glad they kept the original Japanese tracks for these Katamari games (though I'm aware they throw in a few Romanized Japanese words in there too, which also add to the experience). We <3 Katamari - Houston Another great one.

Dude. Retro gave you three Metroid Prime games. It's our time now. It's DK's time. He has his own awful permutation to recover from too, you know. *cough*Jungle Beat*wheeze*

Same here. Only change 2003 to 2001. As long as it works, I guess I'm ok with a server move.

Sounds like you can expect more than just the same old thing. I hope you change your mind about returning to the series. Here's hoping the game is everything we wanted for all these years.

Any of you gonna get this? It comes out today. For those not in the know, this game takes place 30 years after the original two games and will boast all 72 Djinn creatures. Joystiq Review Kotaku Review I'll be getting it in a day or so. NOTE: This thread is NOT for nitpicking about how the Golden Sun games aren't the best games ever. Any such discussion should be considered off-topic. (You know who you are.)

You opened your gift before Christmas? SHAME ON YOU!

Happy birthday, especial-me my friend JakeSnke17!

Happy T, to all my OCR family!

It's definitely a AAA title. A must-own for any Wii owner. Maybe the best game on the system. Challenging and rewarding.

The fact that they changed the region name kind of irks me. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh all kept their Japanese names for the first 4 generations; I don't see what the problem was with Isshu. As for the Pokemon starter names, I guessed 'Snivy' would be the official name for the grass one; not really surprised they went with it as it's a good name. The other two are less good. Especially "Oshawott". Osha-what? Maybe he's obsessed with safety in the workplace. I guess it's time to start nicknaming my pokemon.

Congratulations on the release to everyone involved. Glad to finally see this thing out. Just a quick little note: I highly encourage listening to the source material (they're conveniently linked below the ReMix links on the site), particularly before listening my Bonus track, so you get the full effect of the arrangement. Thanks! I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts.

Let me just say here and now, if you two had your own sitcom, I would watch it.

Unfortunately not. When the game was first announced I was hoping it would be an option but they wanted to push motion controls. Pht.

Haha, that's p awesome.

I don't mean to finish posting the entire DKC3 soundtrack (as much as I like it) but I have to chime in with these two personal favorites (that demonstrate the darker mood you described): this one I didn't notice way back when I first played the game and it's become my second favorite tune. Our own anosou remixed it: Another great moody tune.I think Eveline Fischer did a remarkable job at replicating the "atmospheric" somehwat minimalist feel of Wise's DKC1 soundtrack. As for DKCR: I'll be getting my copy in the mail tomorrow. Can't wait to explore the jungle again. :3

Happy Mirthday, Birby!

Since when are people around here interested in the PSP for PSP games? I thought everyone just used theirs for SNES emulation, so who cares if this new one has better graphics. But seriously, I haven't played my PSP in a long long time. And I already have a PS3 and will be getting a 3DS. Not sure what exclusives the system could get to make me want one. Even if Uncharted 3 came out, who is to say it wouldn't be ported over to the PS3 in a few months time. Actually, that would be one of the few games that could make me want the system (and I'm afraid Sony is aware of that.) I'd rather have Uncharted 3 on the PS3, thank you. If they manage to get PS3-level graphics on this new system do you think the battery life will be very long? Nintendo is already fessing up that their 3DS's charge won't last as long as its predecessors. Then again, I guess battery life doesn't matter much if you're among the aging casualized gamers. Or you play your handheld systems at home plugged into the wall.

About time I dusted off my PSP. Email sent.