Hello all. Just picked back up and started playing an older game from my childhood- Golden Sun, and I must say...alot of todays games fail in comparison to this jewel of a game. Id say that it just might be the absolute best 2d RPG out there.
You start off in a village called Vale as a child named Isaac. You dont really have any abilities at the start. A huge storm is coming, boulders are falling from Mount Aleph and the elders have to hold them back for as long as they can. Jenna's brother Felix is stuck in the river holding onto a log lodged into the ground. The biggest boulder falls, and Felix is thought to be dead. The actual story takes place 3 years later. Isaac and his best friend Garet studied techniques called Psynergy over those 3 years, and can now use them in and out of batle. Isaac, Garet, and Jenna are going to climb Mount Aleph with Kraden for his studies. Once they get there, they uncover an ancient secret that leads to the origin of Alchemy...the elemental stars. Two beings known as Saturos and Menardi show up and steal them, causing Mount Aleph to erupt, causing dangerous changes all over the world. Isaac keeps the Mars star, and Saturos holds Jenna and Kraden hostage due to this. The stars are needed to light the elemental lighthouses, lighting them all could mean the end of the world. Now Isaac, Garet, and their newfound comrades must travel the world looking for Saturos, Menardi, Jenna, Kraden, AND the elemental stars before all the lighthouses are lit.
The fighting is actually rather unique. Isaac, Garet, and the other members of their party are displayed on the screen from behind, like in most rpgs. You can choose to attack, which normally are pretty weak; you can choose to use psynergy attacks, which actually can do quite alot of damage most of the time; or you can choose to use a Djinn, an elemental creature. They all resemble their elements...there is venus (earth), mars (fire), jupiter (wind), and mercury (water). You can find them in numerous places on your journey to add them to your team (sometimes you are required to defeat them for them to join you). Once they are used in battle, theyll deliver an attack, heal a member of your team, up stats, ect. That is when they enter their "standby" phase. If you have more than one djinn of the same element in standby at the same time, you can choose to use a "summon", where a powerful being of that element delivers a blow to your enemy. The more djinn (of the same element) in standby, the more powerful summon you can use with them. Djinn are defenitely the easiest way to defeat opponents on Golden Sun.
Overall, id give this game a 10.0. It has an immense lasting appeal, tough bosses and fun battles, great graphics for an old Gameboy Advance game, and great music that fits every situation. And sorry if my review wasnt all that great, I dont do this very often. Hehe...
