This evaluation initially went stay in 2014, and we’re updating and republishing it to rejoice the sport’s arrival in Switch’s Game Boy Advance library through the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack.
Back in 2001 (2002 in Europe) some gamers had been left feeling short-changed when Golden Sun reached its abrupt ending. Developer Camelot – maybe higher recognized for the Shining Force collection and, extra just lately, its Mario sports activities titles – expanded on its authentic plan and break up the sport into two components. Those who’d already invested within the story needed to wait practically a 12 months and a half for half two, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, to witness the correct ending. Fortunately, newcomers to those JRPGs do not should face the identical agonising wait to see the story by means of to its conclusion.
Golden Sun: The Lost Age primarily continues from the place the earlier sport ended – bar a tiny little bit of overlap with the parallel storyline – though you’ll be answerable for a brand new social gathering this time round, most of whom had been launched within the final entry. The prolonged and text-heavy prologue serves as a recap for many who performed the earlier sport however will most probably alienate anybody leaping proper into this second entry, as a result of overwhelming inflow of names and locations.
The Lost Age does reward those that accomplished the primary title with the choice to import their levelled-up Isaac and crew through a quite prolonged password (though they gained’t be playable till later within the sport). The authentic releases had the choice of transferring the save information through a GBA hyperlink cable — clearly not an possibility in the event you’re taking part in on different {hardware}, so let’s be grateful the password system was carried out, nonetheless cumbersome.
In The Lost Age, you’ll initially be answerable for Felix, Golden Sun’s antihero who occurs to be the title’s protagonist on this instalment. You are additionally joined by his sister Jenna, an aged scholar named Kraden, and Sheba who was launched in direction of the top of the final sport. The story begins off with Jenna and Kraden dashing to rendezvous with Felix; nonetheless, because of prior occasions, a big piece of the land is indifferent and floats out to sea. A little bit of lucky timing results in a tidal wave pushing the landmass onto a brand new continent often called Indra.
You quickly uncover that you simply’re going to want a ship to proceed your quest by crusing to different continents, however fulfilling that goal goes to take a while as you’ll must do numerous exploring and puzzle-solving earlier than you’ll be able to even go away Indra. Although the story in Lost Age is each well-written and fascinating, it does take some time for issues to get fascinating. There’s little extra that may be stated of the storyline with out giving an excessive amount of away.
The Lost Age, like its predecessor, performs like a reasonably normal RPG; a lot of your time can be spent strolling round, speaking to folks, taking over aspect quests, fixing puzzles, and preventing in turn-based, menu-driven random battles. The latter will not often problem you, although, as you’re more likely to survive until battling a boss. One of the principle criticisms of the unique Golden Sun was that it took a very long time for the sport to get going; luckily, The Lost Age launches you into motion nearly instantly by throwing in some scattered battles alongside the introduction.
The second entry is additionally more difficult than its predecessor, as there is a larger give attention to fixing puzzles utilizing Psynergy – Golden Sun’s equal of magic – of which differing types will be discovered within the sport’s many temples. As there’s little instruction on utilizing Psynergy within the overworld, this provides one other difficult aspect to the sport. It can be utilized in battle to put on down your foes rapidly and in addition to revive any member of your social gathering – the latter being the Psynergy sort you’ll possible get extra use of.
As with the final sport, the basic creatures often called Djinn – representing earth, wind, hearth, and water – can support you in battle, both by using particular assaults of their very own or by merely altering the stats, class, and Psynergy of the social gathering members they’re set to. However, capturing them gained’t be really easy this time round, as as soon as you’ve got cornered a Djinni (a problem in itself) you’ll should face off towards them and defeat them earlier than they run away. If they do handle to flee, you gained’t see that specific Djinni once more, so you’ll want to save your sport earlier than difficult them. Later within the story, you’ll additionally have the ability to mix Djinn, which is able to give you some pretty devastating assaults in addition to visible aptitude.
Naturally, being an RPG, there’s numerous dialogue between characters. Fortunately, that is often fairly humorous, offering mild reduction to what is usually a text-heavy narrative. As with the earlier entry, there’s additionally the occasional Yes-No query fired your means, presumably an interactive aspect supposed to maintain you engaged, although your reply is of little consequence.
Musically, Lost Age accommodates a mix of latest and older compositions which are each assorted and memorable, suiting their environments completely. Even although the sound results are nothing particular throughout the RPG style they continue to be efficient, particularly when touchdown a blow in battle.
Although at first look The Lost Age seems to be extra of the identical, graphically talking, it does look like barely enhanced. With the colourful environments and wealthy sprites providing extra element than earlier than, that is actually spectacular contemplating the unique Golden Sun was already one of many best-looking video games on the GBA on the time. Like its predecessor, the general presentation could be very a lot a nod to its 16-bit counterparts, with extra results that push the {hardware} a little bit. This is most noticeable when a pseudo-3D impact is engaged when coming into battles and while traversing over the zoomed-out map of Weyard.
Conclusion
Even although Golden Sun: The Lost Age performs very similar to any normal RPG, there’s something particular about it. Even with its lack of construction in direction of the start of the marketing campaign, its accessible, participating nature retains you eager to play and experiment. The Lost Age could be very a lot a ‘Part Two’ — a continuation of the primary journey — however builds, modestly, on nearly every part from the unique Golden Sun: an extended marketing campaign, prolonged Djinn mechanics, larger problem, intelligent puzzles, and minor graphical enhancements. Newcomers would do properly to start out with the primary entry, as the sport does take with no consideration that you realize the fundamentals, and the plotline will make little to no sense – no less than initially. However, for many who’ve performed and loved the primary instalment, this concluding chapter is an actual no-brainer.
