Current Events > Is Golden Sun good or just novel for its time?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I hear that Golden Sun was overhyped due to it being the first handheld RPG that could stand beside the SNES classics.

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It's got a lot of good ideas, but the story's pretty dumb, not gonna lie.

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It's good

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It's a fantastic little retro RPG.

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For the most part pretty mediocre. The music is top tier though.

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The music and summon graphics are what it really had going for it
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Alucard188 posted...

It's a fantastic little retro RPG.

A lot of reading but I love the first two.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

The music and summon graphics are what it really had going for it

Yeah, it's an insanely pretty and great-sounding game, which is all the more impressive given the limitations of the GBA.
Every story-related sequence generally involves way too much talking and takes too long, though(especially because there's so little actually there: characterizations are paper thin and people change their minds basically instantly). The gameplay is fine, though some of the puzzles are overly convoluted.

JustMyOpinion posted...

First two are good. Third is crap.

This, they're not the best games ever, but they're pretty good. Definite must plays.

Idunno what went wrong with the third one though.

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It's a cute fun series. Not a serious challenge but enjoyable. I enjoyed the third one fwiw. Got it new for $20 and played it on my N3DS. I don't regret it at all. You just need to be mindful of the points of no return and make sure you get all the Djinni before that happens. There are two that are noteworthy, and IIRC one for the final dungeon? Idk.

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It's more a product of it's time, but that's cool if you like that time in gaming

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I loved the djinn system and how you had to balance equipping them to unlock classes vs using them for spells. That's more or less all I remember about the series, though.

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Balrog0 posted...

It's more a product of it's time, but that's cool if you like that time in gaming

true enough

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I liked it a lot but I was like 12 or w.e so :shrugs:

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It's great.

There isn't a single JRPG that does puzzles better than Golden Sun. It integrates magic into the overworld better than any other JRPG. In most games you just use magic to attack in battles, to teleport, and to heal your party out of battles. In Golden Sun you can do all that but you also use it to solve puzzles + navigate the environment. Plus cool things like reading people's minds and using it to find secrets.

It also has the snappiest menu navigation and battles of any JRPG, while still looking impressive. There's no lag, you can breeze through the menus, and if you hold the B button in battles you can skip/speed up the attack animations but you still get to see enough for it to look fun.

Modern JRPGs like Pokemon still move slow as hell and if you want to speed it up slightly you have to go to a menu before battle and outright disable all animations, but Golden Sun got it down in 2001.

They also have great graphics for Game Boy and great soundtracks. Plus the second game has a huge map that's fun to explore.

The third game is just ok, it's not terrible and it's not great. The first two games are the great games.

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Really good game, and I didn't even play it until it was on the WiiU eShop.

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I enjoyed it. It's fantastic.

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IT's aged badly. Finally got it a few years back. Novel graphics, but the execution is severely lacking. There's not really a point to the overworld, seeing as the game is almost entirely linear anyway, very little reason to backtrack. The magic alignment system is cool in theory, but really, there's exactly one ideal path for each character that is far and away superior to all others.

Story's generic as heck, characters are bland but at least believable.

A reboot could really be something.

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It was just novel for its time. The art and music are fantastic but the writing and gameplay are lack luster. The class/djnn system is wasted potential

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Golden Sun 3 is legitimately one of the worst games I've ever played

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They arent really good. Sorta generic. They were beautiful though

Chairoff posted...

Golden Sun 3 is legitimately one of the worst games I've ever played

fuck off I liked it >.>

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GS2 is great. GS1 is okay.

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Its not even novel for its time

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ultimate reaver posted...

Its not even novel for its time

A decent looking RPG that wasn't a sequel? On a handheld!?

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Chairoff posted...

Golden Sun 3 is legitimately one of the worst games I've ever played

I just know I hate the high pitched sound that occurs every time you advance a dialogue box.

ultimate reaver posted...

Its not even novel for its time

Thats just not true.

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My favorite turn based style jrpgs series. I was enjoying 3 but i got stuck took a break and never got back to it which happens with a lot of games for me.

As already said great music, it had a certian charm and I feel the use of magic outside combat was brilliant and should be done more often in rpgs.

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Bump

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When I played it as a pre Teen I loved it. Had the series in my top 3 for over a decade but I'm not sure how it would hold up now.

EDIT: I also played the multiplayer with a buddy alot and no other RPG had that feature. None that I can think of even now

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I enjoyed the story but hated the whole djinn system. Graphics can be hit or miss.

s0nicfan posted...

I loved the djinn system and how you had to balance equipping them to unlock classes vs using them for spells. That's more or less all I remember about the series, though.

I wish they went a bit further with this idea... There were tons of classes unlocked by messing around with djinni but unfortunately there wasnt much of a point in doing so in the main quests besides stats. Even with side content I can only think of a scant few times where you needed a skill by switching someones djinn around. Perhaps a bit more side content or ways and reasons to interact with the world.

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VerisimiIitude posted...

I wish they went a bit further with this idea... There were tons of classes unlocked by messing around with djinni but unfortunately there wasnt much of a point in doing so in the main quests besides stats. Even with side content I can only think of a scant few times where you needed a skill by switching someones djinn around. Perhaps a bit more side content or ways and reasons to interact with the world.

Yeah, it's something I'd love to see come back in another game but be more fundamental to the core gameplay itself. it actually reminds me a lot of the junction system in final fantasy 8, which was similarly interesting as a premise but flawed in execution

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JustMyOpinion posted...

First two are good. Third is crap.

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