Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

[ocre]

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.)

[XZero]

This one's a Christmas game for me. Too many other games to play, too little time. A 20-30 hour RPG doesn't fit into my time budget for the moment.

[Tensei]

I'll be getting it on emulator, and then I will record a video of me playing through it and possibly I will comment upon it.

[Sixto]

Gonna give it a try for sure. Looks neat.

[Soma]

It seems like everyone wanted a Golden Sun sequel, me included, I didn't even know this was coming out this year. I will probably Gamefly it, eventually. I'm not sure I care anymore. A console Golden Sun game would be cool, though.

[ocre]

I didn't even know this was coming out this year. I will probably Gamefly it, eventually. I'm not sure I care anymore. A console Golden Sun game would be cool, though.

Excerpt from the Joystiq developer interview:

"During the development, we were concerned that players have generationally changed after seven years," Takahashi told Joystiq. "Although the success of the older titles shaped the direction for this title, we were not convinced that doing the same thing again would lead to success. What we wanted to do was not to follow our past glories – but to exceed our efforts in the past Golden Sun games in every aspect. Now that the game is launching soon, I'm eager to see how it is received by both longtime fans as well as those being exposed to the series for the first time."

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.

[Mirby]

I'll be getting it later this week. Played through the first dungeon on the JP version and it was epic.

Can't wait for my full-speed English version...

[wildfire]

GameStop didn't get their shipment in today, but I will definitely be picking this up tomorrow first thing after work!

[Necrotic]

Impressions so far? Love it. It does has its flaws, like it's wordiness will still get on your nerves. Presentation is fantastic. Fans will love it, but it's not going to change anyone's mind if they didn't like the GBA games.

But you know what? You auto-attack the next enemy when the one you targeted dies. That makes me soooo happy.

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

But you know what? You auto-attack the next enemy when the one you targeted dies. That makes me soooo happy.

Well this will at least make the battles feel like less of a chore to get through.

[Imagist]

That makes me so happy. That's probably the biggest obstacle I have yet to overcome that's preventing me from replaying these games over and over again.

[Zen Frazier]

One of my favorite series on GBA, I ordered my copy yesterday. Will play over the holidays, I'm excited!

Motoi Sakuraba is doing the soundtrack again too. I loved the music from GS 1&2, big Sakuraba fan.

[ocre]

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.

[Mirby]

I don't mind the ancient civiliazations stuff at all. We never got the names for those (there were multiples mentioned in Lemuria, if memory serves), so it works.

Also, King Wo is not ancient; he's current.

It's also possible that these places were brought about after the Golden Sun rose; it does say that a lot had changed, and Weyard was in the throes of rebirth.

The dialogue in the opening mission was bad.

The response stuff is fun; I like picking the "excited" one like I'm on happy pills.

[Imagist]

My observations so far are mostly the same as OCRE's. I actually really like the touch screen controls for this; the only time I don't really use them is when moving (D-pad is more precise) and in battles (hard to select "attack" for all characters really quickly). The ridiculous invented backstory is kind of annoying, as most of these names are claimed to be "ancient" and have come out of nowhere, and a lot of them are too similar to each other and get mixed up really easily. I don't see how anyone could play the game without reading the hyperlinked encyclopedia entries. The emotional response system is ridiculously limited. They should at least switch out the options for every choice and include some of the more varied responses you see other characters make. I keep selecting the sad face when really I'm envisioning an anime sweatdrop, and the results are undesirable. Also, the dialogue is pretty bad. Redundant as hell. But, thinking back, that's the way Golden Sun has always been. Kind of charming, really. And overall, the game is really enjoyable, even if it's not the best thing since... well, its prequels.

[wildfire]

I kinda hate the excessive hand-holding that this game insists on. Seems like the puzzles so far basically point the camera right at what you're supposed to do during the cutscenes. Very frustrating, as it makes many puzzles way too simple.

And the ancient cultures stuff is a bit much.

In spite of those things, however, I still love this game

[ocre]

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.

[ocre]

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.

[Mirby]

HA! I did the exact same things... rofl.

I don't mind the ancient cultures. Think about how all the towns you knew about didn't exist in TLA, but were there in the original. I chalk it up to a mix of "The Golden Sun revealed them" and hardware limitations.

[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!

[Mirby]

I just got to Kolima, and it was said that when the Golden Sun formed, most of northern Angara was destroyed. That would explain Lunpa. And it's possible that those other towns were destroyed in the upheavel of continental reformation.

Also, talking to Nyunpa and Briggs is AWESOME!! I lol'd that he still has the ship (that he paid for fair and square) from Alhafra.

EDIT: Didn't finish reading your post. Looks like we agree.

Also, he's a douchenozzle.