Customer Reviews for Golden Sun

Golden Sun
by Nintendo

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Video Game Reviews of Golden Sun

Customer Review: Any RPG loving GBA owner should buy this.
Summary: 4 Stars

Created by a little know developer called Camelot (they made some Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games, as well as Shining Force before they joined Nintendo), Golden Sun is one of the GBA's more exceptional games.

Golden Sun has one major achievement it had for the GBA. It pushed the limits of the system in terms of graphics. While the visuals for wandering around seem rather easy for the system to create, the battles are a spectacular achievement. Even though the characters and enemies are shown as animated sprites. The sprites themselves are not much to write home about, but regardless they are quite convincing and suit the battle setup more than you might expect. The battle screen is sort of a "quasi-3D" setup. The background and sprites are 2D, but they are executed in such a manner that they look 3D. Not only that, battle effects, such as spells and simple attacks, add wonderfully to the setup. The only real problem I can see is that some spell effects slow down the framerates (how fast or smoothly it runs) noticably, but it's all handled so well that it doesn't even seem like a glitch, and out of sheer irony it adds to the effect of some of the spells (hence, it may have been done that way on purpose).

The sound is a mixed bag. The music score part is excellent. Everything from the main menu music, to town themes, and the grand world map music is great both technically and melodically. If any songs do get on your nerves, they either won't last long or are done in such a way that you can tune them out while playing. Sound effects, however, are very standard. A lot of them are recycled so much that it's practically mind numbing. However, none of it seems completely out of place, and there isn't much that will hurt your ears, so that's something to be happy for.

The gameplay itself only has one real flaw in my opinion. The battles are too easy. With the exception of most of the boss battles, regular battles tend to be so easy that the thought of using the run option will never occur to you (they also go so quick that there's not really a time issue involved either). There's also an issue where, if you set all of your characters to attack one enemy and that enemy is destroyed, the characters that attack him later have their attack wasted. This really isn't too much of an issue, though, and Camelot was smart enough to make the character automatically defend if that should happen (which means damage to that character would be halved... though I think that only refers to physical damage).

The story has gotten a lot of bad press in my opinion. However, it should be noted that if you play this game, the story alone may persuade you to buy the next game, GS: The Lost Age (which is already out). While that's not particularly a bad thing, as the combination of the two stories is really awesome, just be aware of the extra expense that may cost for your wallet. Also, it should be noted that this game is a bit on the short side (roughly 20-25 hours), but that's still not much of an issue in my view (just so you know, the second game in the series is roughly 40-45 hours long, so that one is lengthier).

All in all, the game is quite fun. However, there are a few quirks that I mentioned above that may get on some people's nerves, so just know what you're getting into.

Customer Review: an ok game.
Summary: 5 Stars

This game is ok. People are complaining that you need a stratergy gide to get through it...erm...isn't that what online walkthroughs are for? All you have to do is type "Golden Sun walkthrough" into
google and you'll come up with who know's how many walkthroughs.
Anywho, about the game. Battling is fun enough, because you can use psynergy, Djinn, or just attack with weapons.
Psynergy is effectivly magic, and Djinn are pokemon like creatures who effect the types of psynergy your characters can use.
Plot 3/5
pretty standard plot: rescueing the world from a great evil.

Graphics 5/5
I usually stick to the original nintendo (yes yes, i know you think I should get a life) so these graphics look absolutly GREAT to me.

Music 4/5 Nice music...what can i really say about music? Not much...i really don't pay attention...

Characters 5/5 I happen to like the characters...your basic goodey-goodeys, its nice to laugh at Garet...

Challange 2/5 This game is NOT hard. If you're looking for a challange, this is not it. If you're looking for something to kick back to, I would think of this. Although the ocasional online walkthrough is nessary, you can usually figure most of it out by yourself.

Overall a pretty decent game. Maybe a step down from say Zelda, but overall an ok game...there isn't much else to say.

Customer Review: A great RPG for the GBA
Summary: 5 Stars

This is so far the best RPG I've tried for the GameBoy Advance system. It has a wonderful story, great graphics and sound, and plenty of puzzles! This game has a fairly intuitive interface, and will provide several hours of entertainment. Some of the nicer features are: the ability to save anywhere in the game (except during story arcs), fast paced combat, and a variety of ways to customize your characters. This game is a must for any RPG fan with a GBA!

Customer Review: The GBA gets some original RPG love.
Summary: 4 Stars

I know I'm a bit late, but I'm in love. Generally speaking, I'm a sucker for anything that has experience points incorporated into the gameplay, but my enjoyment of this game goes far beyond that. The plot is a bit predictable at times, and the music/sound effects make me turn the volume off sometimes, but the graphics are lush and the gameplay really WORKS.

This is what the junction and GF systems in FFVIII should have been. A large part of the gameplay hinges on djinns, or elemental spirits which you must collect as you progress through the game. Once you collect a djinn, you must "set" it to a character (think of it as junctioning). This will affect what sort of special abilities the character has, the character's stats, their class, and, of course, what they get to summon in battle.

The most interesting thing about the djinns is the fact that you can combine different elemental djinns on one person to produce some interesting special abilities. Admittedly, some djinns do not do this when in certain combinations, but the idea is simply fascinating and opens up a very interesting avenue in character development.

Anyway, the upshot of this is, if you are an RPG fan with a GBA, you need this game.