Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent RPG and a great game for beginners to the genre, 31 Mar 2002
Having read rave reviews of Golden Sun I decided to take the plunge, even though I am very poor at RPGs and usually find them complex and confusing (I'm more of a hack and slash kill things fast gamer). The instructions seemed confusing, but once I had the game loaded up and started playing - wow! I was hooked.
The graphics are gorgeous, the in-game music takes full advantage of the GBA's sound capabilities (a full string orchestra playing has *got* to be better than the tinny beeping of the GBC) and the way the game's storyline draws you in within the first few minutes is very well done. The characters' dialogue is full of humour and little asides, a far cry from the standard po-faced conversations one usually finds in such games.
The battle sequences are very intuitive, you'll find yourself handling the various attacks (with weapons, "psynergy" and the Djinni) with ease from the very start, and beating up the various creatures you encounter is a good way to earn coins and build up your characters, though constantly battling can get a little tedious even with a wide variety of attacks available.
The little cut scenes are excellently done, and the game is very accessible to beginners. If the whole Djinni thing smacks of Pokemon at times, at least the idea of collecting and battling creatures should be familiar, and some of the special effects are very impressive indeed. Its really hard to believe that this game is playing out on the tiny GBA screen, such is the overall quality.
Experienced RPG players might find it a little too easy but this game has had me transfixed for hours and its certainly the best thing to appear on any handheld for a long time. Dare I say its even more captivating than Zelda?
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best handheld RPG ever, 12 Feb 2003
By A Customer
Golden Sun is actually the only original RPG (that isn't a SNES rehash) available on the GBA that I can think of, and it's the one that most takes advantage of the console's power. Finally, an RPG that can be pitted against the home console giants, Golden Sun is completely breathtaking. First thing to strike you are the beautiful graphics - highly detailed environments, cute little character sprites with little bubbles that pop up above their heads to show their feelings, STUNNING fights... this game is a fine looking piece. It's also an absolute dream to play. All your story telling, item/weapon shopping, village and dungeon exploration and monster battling is all present and correct - this game does little next to nothing new, but it's all carried off with such skill that it's easy to overlook the fact that we've seen most of it before. The battle system is a little complex; as you equip and activate Djinn to change your class, thus allowing yourself different abilities, it's easy to lose track of what Djinn combinations do what to your inventory. But the fights are very fast-paced and exciting, they look brilliant with their panning cameras and ace special effects, and it will eventually come to you how to work the whole Djinn thing.
The soundtrack is beautiful, with some terrific tunes that accompany exploration and set pieces. The story won't win any awards so far (but then it's just getting started - there's another game on the way to continue the saga), but it's also told with some pretty shameful dialogue. Characters talk for several minutes at times, and you can't help but feel they repeat themselves a few times, as though trying to drill a point into your head. The dialogue itself is very rarely convincing, which is a shame - a little more time spent on making the characters talk properly would have helped. It's also sad to see that the playable characters lack their own personality, and in true Nintendo style the lead character is silent throughout.Probably the most enjoyable aspect of the game is the dungeon exploration. If you're going to complain about random fights, then you should steer clear of these games anyway, as most RPGs feature them. Golden Sun is the same, and as you wander through the dungeons, solving puzzles, you'll be interrupted by a fight. It's not annoying, though - the fact it's on a cartridge means that the battles appear instantly, and the nature of the fights means that you'll take down the enemies in no time. As for the puzzles, well, they're wonderful. Highly imaginative and fun to solve, mostly relying on you to use a certain magic power to have some sort of effect on an object. Mind reading, levitating, blowing things away... the game is often offering new abilities at your disposal, and plenty of uses for them. The ingenius use of these puzzles makes for some rewarding and entertaining play.
Golden Sun is an epic masterpiece, taking about 30 hours to complete, and is fun nearly every step of the way with plenty of side missions to earn more djinni as well. Hopefully the story will pick up in the sequel, as it doesn't really do much here except hold the game together. If you have some long journeys planned, buy Golden Sun and watch time fly. In fact, by it anyway - it really is Golden.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Golden Sun stands out from the norm, 9 Aug 2002
By A Customer
There was a time when all anyone could think about was the Final Fantasy series and how wonderful they all were. Then bits of brilliance would pop out of nowhere like Grandia, Suikoden and Breath of Fire.The Game Boy Advance now has one such title in the shape of Golden Sun. To see something so fresh come out on the GBA from the creators of Mario Golf and Tennis no less, is very pleasing. The story sees you as Isaac, a young boy who with his friends, Garet and Jenna, try to help their fellow townsfolk when a huge boulder threatens to destroy their town. After an untimely meeting with some mysterious characters, the story then moves on 3 years and it is then that you begin your magical quest to bring peace to the world once more. Graphically you will find no better visuals at the moment than in this game and the sounds you hear are nothing short of amazing. The music from the machine is so atmospheric that it helps to just suck you in and not let go. What is also nice to see is the different way in which they have brought in the elements, in the form of Djinni, little creatures that have the power of certain elements contained within them. The more of these you collect, the more powerful that element becomes. I've played many an RPG in my time and you can only play so many Final Fantasy's until you become saturated by the same old random battles, but not so here. You actually dont mind battling away to boost up your characters points. This is the benchmark for all RPG's on the Advance to follow and will be until possibly the remake of Zelda or even its very own follow up, Golden Sun 2, but for now, you cannot do any better than this. Top stuff!!
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