Ok, so I’m a little slow… but I’ll be darned if the game gods didn’t bestow a bit of providence my direction anyway. I was late jumping on the Golden Sun bandwagon when it first hit the shelves. In fact, I didn't even start playing the original, Golden Sun (GS1) until about a month prior to the GS1’s sequel release, The Lost Age (GS2). Marvel of all marvels was that on the day I totally finished GS1 happened to also be the day that GS2 was released. I seamlessly moved from Act 1 to Act 2 without even breaking stride.
GS1 was a much needed breath of fresh air for the withering RPG'er inside of me. While Golden Sun was far from perfect, it combined all of the appropriate elements to make it an instant classic. From the traditional battle sequences, to the ability to refine your dijinns; GS1 had all of the ingredients needed to be a success amongst the gaming community. Not only did Camelot - GS1 & 2’s developer - pull this off perfectly, but they also succeeded in setting the bar so high that casual RPG developers will find duplicating this level of gaming nirvana next to impossible.
With that said, The Lost Age picks up where its predecessor ended and takes the radiant story and play to new heights. While it's not a requirement to play GS1 to fully immerse yourself in this new world, but I would highly recommend playing them in order. Sure, you get the standard lengthy Camelot-esque prologue that fills in much of the story gaps for you; but much of the emotion would be completely lost without understanding the first. Since successful RPG's are centered around (arguably) story line, GS2 - The Lost Age isn't really a "new" game; but more of an extension of the first. It's analogous to The Lord of the Rings books, which really make up one cohesive story line as you move from book to book.
One of the most compelling reason to begin with GS1 is the ability to import your data from GS1 to GS2 – The Lost Age. Once you’ve completed GS1 the transfer is made possible in two ways; you can import your data via a link cable or through a god-awful long password. While for the first half of the game your data will seem to be in limbo; it is because you won’t see your old team until the midway point – but this reunion makes it all well worth it. It is just fantastic to see how Camelot is catering to the gamer and not solely to the bottom-line.
We also see Camelot’s wonderful commitment to the gamer in their dynamically orchestrated plot lines woven within their games. Any good RPG ultimately binds the player emotionally to the characters which they’ve spent so much time with on the many difficult journeys. So much so, that as the player nears the end it can elicit a variety of conflicting emotions. With both GS1 & GS2, Camelot drew me in to such a degree that I found myself both excited and sad as I neared the fantastic ending of each episode. What makes GS2’s so innovative is that the story picks up exactly where the first one left off. But instead of picking up where your characters left off, you start off GS2 as playable NPC's from GS1. Make sense? For those who’ve already played GS1 let me jog your memory. Remember all of the talk about Jenna, Felix and their party? Well, you take their role and start an adventure. To me, this was by far, the biggest lure about the game. Instead of knowing everything that happened in GS1 your new party only knows of rumors regarding the previous events. So much is a complete mystery to then new band of adventurers that I often found myself shaking my little SP and yelling; "HE'S IN THE TOWER DANG IT!" This totally limited vantage point really helped give these previous NPC's a sense of depth and reality that would have been otherwise impossible. Needless to say, by layering the story lines in this way Camelot has continued the classic plot from GS1 and added even more substance to its already multi-faceted story line.
As much as other sites sugar coat their reviews and tell you it’s ok to start with GS2, The Lost Age, believe me they are to sorely misleading you. I heavily advise you to play the original and
then pick up GS2. Trust me on this. And although little has changed from the first game you’ll find that is exactly why beginning with GS1 will create such a good synergistic effect leading into GS2.
GS1 grads will be stoked to learn that most of the original dijinns
are back as well as a boatload of new ones. If you are like me, you
found that the original dijinn scheme in GS1 to be quite enigmatic.
I remember pounding the forums in search of how to combine dijinns
to maximize my character and change their class. Eventually though I
finally began to get the hang of how the whole system worked in GS1.
So when I moved on to the sequel I had the complex combination
patterns down to an art form. Mixing and matching various attributes
and dijinns attempting to find that perfect balance is half the fun
in the world of Golden Sun. GS1 grads will also find that their familiarity of psynergy will also compliment your experience of GS2 perfectly. With a handful of new psynergies (yes, some are gimmicky) at your disposal, you should feel right at home.
Aside from the wonderfully complex dijinn arrangement and intriguing psynergy possibilities, GS2 also sports some unique puzzles, which were originally featured in its prequel. Although familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, it does make the puzzles
noticeably easier. Having been through Camelot’s mind once before
means you know innately what they are trying to achieve with each
puzzle. That being the case, the puzzles were still an interesting
and challenging caveat to The Lost Age.
One the few true gripes that I have with GS2 and the most unsettling problem is the over-the-top open ended nature of the game. Bet you've never a reviewer state that before, eh? Some of the dungeons are at times thoroughly daunting. For example, when I started on the "Air Rock" area, I nearly passed out I was so overwhelmed. I've played a lot of RPG's in my day, and have never encountered a "level" that was this long and tedious. I wouldn’t be surprised if this level alone chewed a good four hours of my life. After I *finally* got to the end of it, I was expecting a fantastic climax to
herald the ending of this arduous journey; an Uber-Weapon or some hellacious dijinn to tackle… Instead, I simply got the "reveal" psynergy. Ok, yeah sure, it's a vital psynergy, but was it worth four-flipping-hours of trekking through the Himalayas? And the mind-blowing open expansiveness of GS2 only gets worse…
*** Spoiler Warning – We’ll notify you when it’s safe to return ***
Once you reach the halfway point of the game, GS2 begins to play out like many other standard RPG's. You know the drill; Go to towns, talk with peasants, learn of various side-quests. One of the most dramatic shifts in the game is when you finally get your boat. Ah, freedom, right? Way too much freedom, in my opinion. I ended up exploring the continents and new areas, but ended up becoming just more frustrated. It seemed every island I explored had items or areas that were inaccessible. Frustrating to say the least.
Sometimes I didn’t have a certain psynergy or I hadn’t triggered a particular event. Many times I’d find out much later that amongst the extremely verbose dialogue I had missed an important minute detail that would have set my world aright. Thank God for
gamefaqs when that happened... once I found the right area to be in, things slowly started to fall into place once again.
*** Welcome Back - Spoiler Dodgers ***
Since the game play hasn't changed a bit, GS2 relies heavily on the already successful battle system and dijinn/psynergy placement from
the original. I believe the strongest feature in The Lost Age has to be the succession of the storyline. I mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. This is one of the few games I've ever played that really does its predecessor justice. Not only is the story solid, the different viewpoints from your original party and your second party truly makes all the difference in the world. And when you finally get the chance to play with your original party, I couldn't help but get a warm tingly feeling. Sappy, I know...
so bite me. As far as longevity goes, Lost Age truly goes the distance. It took me roughly 30 hours to complete. While nearly 1/4 of the game is probably dialogue and silly running around, the heart of the game is focused on old-school dungeon crawling.
I will say that the story ended quite abruptly. But it ended in such a way so as to make a sequel an inevitability. After completion you get the chance to save your game and "clear your data". This leads me to believe that you can -again- import your data to a possible new game. One can only hope...
Improvement on the media?
Indeed! I was pleasantly surprised that Camelot managed to keep the game quality established from GS1, but improved upon the visuals and audio. World map visuals and dungeon crawling has changed little, but battle scenes are a vast improvement. The special effects and animations are awesome to watch and almost PSX quality. My only gripe has to deal with the questionable rock color schemes. If you look back at the first, “odd” looking rocks and/or walls triggered certain areas. This was always a huge clue that "something can be done here". In the second, I wasted scads of psynergy because there wasn't a rhyme or reason to many of the events like the first. Oddly colored rocks were scattered throughout the game, thus making it even more challenging to find hidden areas.
Of all the improvements made to GS2 probably the biggest improvement on the game has to be the amazing musical score. While GS1’s score was solid, GS2 takes the cake. The soundtrack is absolutely brilliant. The tunes are diversified, unique and fitting to the mood as well. High kudos to the musical directors of The Lost Age. Sound effects changed little, so the standard fare applied to that category.
66 Says:
Golden Sun: The Lost Age is a wonderful addition to the already established original. I'm convinced that the game was intended for players that completed Golden
Sun and were looking forward to importing their data over to The
Lost Age. Now I'm sure that most gamers could pick up GS2 blindly and enjoy it as much as I did, but I highly doubt they could appreciate it as much as those who imported their previously completed game.
Without hesitation, this is a must have for any Golden Sun fan. Chances are if you played the first, you have already picked up the second. Maybe I'm just writing this review to spark the interest of those who haven't played the original, so I highly encourage you to run out and grab it. Heck, you can pick up Golden Sun for under $20.00 now; which is truly a steal. And by the time you’re done the first, The Lost Age will probably go on sale...
Again, the slight flaws of the second are easily drowned out by the
overall brilliance of the game play and intriguing storyline. While
overall GS2 didn’t match the overall excitement I had for the
original it did satisfy my RPG tooth until FF Tactics Advance
comes out.
Do yourself
a favor, no matter what your GBA status is, and step inside the
glory of the Golden Sun world... you won't be sorry.
