Your thoughts on Golden Sun?

[Anonymous No.7214001]

What do you think about Golden Sun 1 and 2? Have they aged well?

[Anonymous No.7214006]

Dialogues were too long. What were they thinking? It made me stop caring about the plot, I just wanted the dialogues to end!

[Anonymous No.7214023]

>>7214001
Great games. The graphics were impressive for the GBA and while the dialog was a bit long winded at times the world and story were pretty cool and interesting for the time. My only real complaint is that it's a bit too easy, which can thankfully be fixed with mods.
By far the best thing about the game is what it does with the magic system though. The fact that you could use spells on the overworld was awesome and led to a lot of interesting puzzles dungeons. I'm also a huge fan of all the psyenergy world building they put in the game, especially 2 where you get to see how a bunch of different cultures interrupted it. Wish more games put that much thought into their magic systems.

[Anonymous No.7214024]

>>7214006
Fucking this.

[Anonymous No.7214031]

>>7214001
I feel like for as much shit as it gets for being overrated, it has at least two aspects I've not seen used much, if at all, in other JRPGs.

One is the puzzle mechanics with various Psyenergy. Perhaps the trappings make it come off as more inventive and intricate than it seemed, but it was a really nice way to give the PCs and their powers more of a role beyond merely being good at killing monsters. It led to puzzles that seemed more like interacting with an actual world, ala BotW over 15 years later.

The other is the sheer breadth of earth cultures it ripped off for aesthetics and setting. Usually it seems like we just have fantasy Europe and maybe Japan or China in there, but Golden Sun really went the extra mile. Almost every single corner of the globe got some kind of equivalent in Golden Sun's universe, at least pre-Colonial Americas era anyway. It starts off in a fairly familiar medieval Europe seeming setting, but by the end you're in Imperial Rome and then Northern Africa. In Lost Age it completely opens up and you spend most of you time in the Pacifc, Africa, and the Americas. It cool going to places like "Ayers" (lel) Rock or pushing together giant heads based off of Ankor Wat.

Perhaps it's just my lack of truly in depth experience with the genre, but these still stand out to me even years later.

[Anonymous No.7214036]

>>7214031
>as it gets for being overrated
Protip anyone that uses the word overrated as a criticism can be safely ignored. It's a literal nothing complaint

[Anonymous No.7214878]

>>7214031
>but by the end you're in Imperial Rome
???
Stop making shit up.

[Anonymous No.7214910]

These two were the edgy version of Jesse and James from Team Rocket. Looking back I wish the game was harder, but when I first played this, Menardi's Death Scythe and Saturos's Pyroclasm truly made fighting them feel like a fucking menace.

[Anonymous No.7214946]

>>7214910
Pokemon didn't invent the "evil, but somewhat comical duo/trio" trope, retard.

[Anonymous No.7214989]

>>7214946
He never said they did, autismo

[Anonymous No.7215000]

>>7214910
This is one of the few things that TLA did worse, Karst and Agatio were nowhere near as cool as Saturos and Menardi.

[Anonymous No.7215005]

>>7214001
>boing boing boing boing boing
>uh oh cant go this way
>boing boing boing
>hmm two ice pillars, which one should i freeze
>uh oh wrong one, have to melt it
>boing boing boing

>use Psy here
>no not that one, nor that one, nor that one
>you dont even have it

[Anonymous No.7215018]

Flawed but fun RPG. I like that the name is an homage to their earlier work (shining force/golden sun)

[Anonymous No.7215061]

>>7214878
In Golden Age you end up in Tolbi, a city near what is then the inland sea that makes up the settings equivalent of the Mediterranean. The city is led by a single figure, militaristic figure, has gained military control over the nearby Northern African equivalent, and regularly has competitions and tournaments in a giant Colosseum.

Perhaps it's not quite "Imperial" Rome, I'm not that good with classical history. But it is clearly Rome, and if it's pre-Imperial/height of Rome, that makes it all the more a unique setting in JRPGs. How often does Rome vs Northern Africa come up in these things?

[Anonymous No.7215157]

>>7215061
Ok I guess you are right.

[Anonymous No.7215257]

>>7214001
I loved it.
>>7214006
Brainlet.
>>7214023
This.
>>7214031
This too.
>>7215005
Filtered brainlet.

[Anonymous No.7215324]

Golden Sun music is very underrated, it really stood out even with the shitty GBA audio.
Post your favorites.
https://youtu.be/Q2Gdske6FPk

[Anonymous No.7215329]

>>7214006
It’s not just their length, it’s how fucking vapid 99% of any conversation is. If they were saying anything of substance it would be fine, but most of the time side characters have about as much personality as the silent mc.

That’s not ALWAYS the case but their personalities are far from strong.

[Anonymous No.7215367]

The Asian towns were my favorite, after which you can read NPC minds, or sneak past guards in shadow like a ninja. Force was the coolest psyenergy for puzzles.

>>7215061
Kino setting.

[Anonymous No.7215373]

I like how the camera swings around in combat.

In TLA when you get the ship you might as well be in a a Final Fantasy.

[Anonymous No.7215609]

I beat it yet I can't remember a single detail about it. I remember thinking it was Generic:the rpg-the game. The hero was blonde and something else. There was a forest level at some point and. I dunno. Were there puzzles? Fuck I'm so old.

[Anonymous No.7215770]

>>7214001
Cute presentation but otherwise mediocre jrpgs. Beloved only by those who played them when they were 9.

[Anonymous No.7215997]

>>7215770
Actually, I was11.

[Anonymous No.7216739]

*Ahem*

FUCK THE WIND TEMPLE

[Anonymous No.7216791]

underepresented in fanart QT's

[Anonymous No.7216980]

This game was gorgeous and sounded phenomenal. RPG mechanics wise, I did like Djinni customization but it always felt like you were funneled a certain way with it in how you arranged them - the biggest summon that matched best was always going to be the best and there were certain chains of djinni buffs you'd always prefer in a tough battle. Regardless it's more enjoyable to play and strategize than every JRPG with only static party abilities, which doesn't sound great but there are actually an enormous fuckton of those; the majority of the genre doesn't include significant character building choice.

Replaying recently, I did find I really didn't care for the main cast at all, which was hard to ignore. As people and personalities, they're just flat archetypes and not very interesting ones to read reacting to everything. The good, nontraditional story makes up for it, however.

[Anonymous No.7217049]

>>7214001
My wife's banter certainly aged well.

[Anonymous No.7217076]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_O4xKWEcp5OaUQ4al8xbTJvQnM
Friendly reminder that some autist remade the soundtrack to have it in better quality.
Is it possible to hack in that OST into the ROMs?
Doubt that it'd work on actual hardware, though.

[Anonymous No.7217091]

Any other chads who played TLA first?

I also thought the fact that you could seamlessly do class changes WHILE FIGHTING to be pretty cool. Maybe other JRPGs do this, I'm not that familiar with the genre.

[Anonymous No.7217454]

>>7217091
FF13

[Sage No.7217542]

>>7214031
Dragon Quest III does this, but the limitations of the NES really hold it back. In Golden Sun the presentation is brought up to 11. I played Golden Sun first when I was a kid. This year when I played DQ3, I realized that Camelot was making a commentary on DQ3 with their own twist. Fantastic games both.

[Anonymous No.7217907]

it was good on a lot of levels but has some notable flaws

[Anonymous No.7217936]

>>7214006
Trumpkino

[Anonymous No.7217993]

>>7215061
In my head I always pictured it like the Byzantine Empire, after the city of Rome itself had been sacked multiple times. Basically a successor state to the Roman Empire that had these ruins of a past greater empire around them.

>>7215324
Relevant viewing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yxEPZ1vCnM

>>7215770
I was 15, I wanted a good jRPG to play on the go and was pretty charmed by it. By the turn of the century everyone was busy making stupid FF7 inspired jRPGs, Golden Sun explicitly tried to feel more like an early 90s jRPG.

>>7216980
This was solved in TLA, it is actually ideal to NOT use summons unless you specifically need a side effect from those summons, and only the new summons are actually worth it, none of the summons from the first game. You are going to get more from a high powered class than a summon.

[Anonymous No.7218001]

>>7214001
>not super hard like old Final Fantasy games
>more cute, not just dialog but emotioin icons like lufia (was it lufia that did that?)
>lots of history within the game, you can read random books
>click on every object like Link's Awakening and such
>magic outside of battle
>talk to people twice, by reading their minds
>also read minds of animals, tree people
>when change weapons can see the weapons changed in battle
>music is Chrono Trigger Tier good
>many races and cultures exist, there's a China realm, a nigger realm, etc etc, made before wikipedia said that race was a social construct or whatever
>tragedy makes it seem mature, death in the game of MC loved ones happen immediately
>the deaths make it seem not boring, action tier
>everyone wants to be a wizard, these kids are basically wizards

>>7214006
>>7214024
So don't play jrpgs then. That was a positive.

>>7214031
It's not literally Earth history. It was just a culture akin to Rome that they went to.

>>7214878
He doesn't understand how the Japanese do alternate realities via their artwork, anime is famous for it but normalfaggot zoomers are all over.

>>7215061
It's not real history damn it.
>>it's not really rome
So you are bothered by cultures?

>>7215157
no

[Anonymous No.7218005]

>>7218001
>puzzle element
I forgot to point out that it has a near Zelda tier puzzle element to it, but I'm sure more than one person pointed this out already.

[Anonymous No.7218010]

Love Golden Sun to death, but the characters are largely cardboard cutouts of common tropes, and the dialogue can be pretty vapid. I don't take the first bit as a complete negative, it just feels like a cheesy 90's anime, the latter point somewhat relates to that. Considering everything, its a great experience. Gameplay, music, and graphics are pretty good. If there was a dialogue mod, that still kept the tone, I think I would be happy.

[Anonymous No.7218197]

>>7214001
Never have I been excited to explore a new town talking to all NPCs then using Mind Read on them. That fucking mechanic was brilliant, usually it felt like a chore to do such things but goddamn Mind Read made it so fun
>backtracking to Vale and mind reading that one villager who basically confirms that Valeshipping exists and Jenna will be jealous of Mia
Based

[Anonymous No.7218482]

Who did you guys use as main party in TLA? For me, its
>Isaac
>Jenna
>Ivan
>Piers

[Anonymous No.7218529]

>>7218482
>not using Mia

[Anonymous No.7218556]

>>7218482
For bosses I'd use a dedicated healer and then have Garat, Issac, and Felix set to Ronin/Samurai. Helm Splitter will insta-kill regular mobs accompanying any boss and Quick Strike usually kills the boss. If it's just regular mobs then I use whoever is lowest level, having a constantly rotating team is more fun.

[Anonymous No.7218580]

>>7218529
Mia was very lackluster, weak, slow, no great offensive Psynergies.Jenna base class just did everything better. As a waifu she was kind of a pushover, I prefer Hama.

[Anonymous No.7218610]

>>7218580
And?
>as a waifu
Mia is the best, I will fight you over this.

[Anonymous No.7218619]

>>7218580
A healer being slow can be fine, though, if you're trying to time a good heal in advance. Waiting until everyone on your team to be low health at the end of a turn before deciding to heal early in the next turn can be wasteful with the psynergy. Also Mai heals more than Jenna

[Anonymous No.7218848]

>>7218001
I don't know what you're booty bothered about, anon. Obviously it's not real earth nor are these literally the historical societies and cultures they're being based off of. I was using a short hand to point out the specific cultural inspirations of a lot of places in Golden Sun. Which are a lot more varied than is usual for these kind of inspirations, which are either focused on a few familiar settings or scattershot if they branch out side of it. But Weyard is a full on alternate Earth, and even if the timelines of history don't quite match up, has fantasy cultures from across the globe where they'd logically be in its version of Earth. Which is a lot more than many fantasy worlds do in JRPGs and creates a really global, adventuring feel because of how distinct many areas are.

[Anonymous No.7218858]

>>7214006
>>7214024
>>7215329
That's Richard Amtower's handiwork, famously he's a localizer (now with NoA) who doesn't know any Japanese and ruined the concise dialog of the original Golden Sun games.

[Anonymous No.7218871]

>>7214910

There are difficulty hacks for each game wich really test your skills with no bullshit artificial difficulty. I completed the first and enjoyed it so much, I may play through the 2nd one soon.

[Anonymous No.7218914]

Not quite in the top tier of GBA RPGs for me but TLA is pretty good. It's got the best soundtrack on GBA.

I'd love to someday find out what the other half of the story was going to be with Dark Dawn.

[Anonymous No.7218961]

>>7218871
How do I play them?

[Anonymous No.7218994]

>>7218961
You take a GS or GS2 rom and patch them with the hard mode.
http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?topic=2612.0
There's also a total conversion mod that seeks to add content and option to the game that this mod has been rolled into, but I'm not sure which of the two is better to install.

[Anonymous No.7219007]

>>7214031
>>7215061
>I'm not that good with classical history
we can see that

[Anonymous No.7220347]

>>7218482
>photo has Mia
>but doesn't have Mia in the party he uses
Are you gay or what?

[Anonymous No.7220363]

>>7214001
Absolute rubbish games propped up by an RPG starved system

[Anonymous No.7221467]

>>7214001
I don't know how they aged but I thought the first game was bloated garbage when I played it new. The sequel might be better but I never tried it.

[Anonymous No.7221902]

>>7214001
It felt too easy even for a kid-oriented JRPG. A game where walking around replenished your mana and where every single character is a black mage. Final Fantasy, a series long regarded as a normie friendly easy mode JRPG series, at least asks you to ration your mana and to prepare for a journey before going, and that series was also completed by children. It's good if you're like 6-8 and you're really just getting primed for video games.

[Anonymous No.7223848]

>>7221902
Most games are for kids so if people like it and you think it's easy then it's probably actually good famicom.

[Anonymous No.7223870]

>>7223848
I'm OK with fun and easy games but Golden Sun was also pretty generic, difficulty aside.

[Anonymous No.7223886]

>>7223870
Name something great that has a great sequel that isn't generic so I can laugh at you over it.

[Anonymous No.7223909]

[Anonymous No.7223919]

>>7223886
Nah because you are innately a disingenuous person and already have your response tee'd up regardless of what I say.

[Anonymous No.7224283]

>>7223919
>nah
Thanks for proving me right jackass.

Into the trash your insults go, as most games are going to be trash in some way but if you let me try to prove it you'd get into an actual argument, and you're only capable of insulting things while not taking insults aren't you? Can dish it out but cannot take it. No real arguments, just horoscope tier skepticism that could apply to anything due to it being so vague and generalized, and when I am about to do it back to you you get scared.

[Anonymous No.7224294]

>>7224283
hilarious but you still have a small penis and you're not as smart as you think you are. you're probably dumb enough to think im the guy you were argueing with earlier but just saw your post and laughed at how tryhard it was. you're 20 at most cuz nobody over 21 would act so underage and/or mentally underage

[Anonymous No.7224314]

>>7224294
I'm 31 and you lost already. Just shut up or give something of value. I posted >>7218001
>>7218005

What did you post?

>that's generic and easy
Okay. Wow. So much thoughts put into it. Now your games that you like faggot?

Then shut the fuck up you double nigger. You've already lost. Even if you're not him you're guilty by association and a triple nigger if so.

[Anonymous No.7224620]

>>7223870
>generic
Genuinely curious what you found to be generic in those games.
I really can't think of anything off the top of my head except for the cast.

[Anonymous No.7224881]

>>7224620
Different anon who liked the games more, but the cast and the general thrust of the plot are very undercooked. Even the twist about the Bad Thing being the Good Thing is not exactly uncommon. But many JRPGs are remembered for their cast and stories, and Golden Sun doesn't really execute well on either. There's not much, if any, character development. There's the weirdness of Isaac and Felix being fairly distinct characters, actually, but only if they're not the main PC player avatar.

The battle mechanics themselves are fairly intricate and interesting, but then you can just kind of smack your way through the entire game with little understanding of what's going on other than your typical Pokemon type match ups. So the characters are kinda eh, the plot is simple though the twist is interesting if only for its tie into the setting, and you'll probably just smash through the battles with little thought. Honestly, Dark Dawn sort of did better and worse with the characters. There's a few stronger characters with more going on, but there's also a few who are completely pointless and only there to fill out the "2 of each element" shtick even more so than the cast in the GBA games were. The worst was Garrett, really, but even he's better than Himi.

But the world itself and the puzzle elements are definitely standouts.

[Anonymous No.7225498]

>>7224881
Stereotypical means not distinct to you? Shit like Garrett is a stereotype that adds humor to an epic jrgp, or anime. Like in yu yu hakusho, that guy with the sword, that guy is basically Garrett. It's an animu stereotype. If you really liked the games it's because you have that weeb in you that enjoys such things.

Also, Ivan was not typical, reading minds and all while not having red eyes nor black/white hair or anything, though him having purple eyes was typical of someone with that kind of a power.

What video game characters read minds, as a gameplay element or even story wise? Rpg example?

Mind reading stands out and Ivan is NOT typical. Scanning everything isn't really typical either, using magic outside of battle is not for jrpgs, the puzzle elements obviously stand out for jrpgs they do indeed.

>>7224620
The original guy is just another one of those "weebs are shit" normalfags that has no real argument that just never was a dweeb trying to escape reality with anime enough to 'get' anime, so such a type would bash most famous anime tier games so I was, the guy originally telling that faggot off, trying to get him to say something original when i know he's probably a shoot them up player or into first person shooters or fighting games and only came into the thread to piss on a genre that he generally despises. Otherwise he could have brought up Parasite Eve or something and I'd have reminded him that it's not an original video game, it was a book first. Or, if persona, I'd have bashed the racial tension. I can bash shit all day, when it's not escapism tier for dweebs.

[Anonymous No.7225612]

>>7224283
That's alright, I think you need this e-victory more than I do. I hope it boosts your self esteem.

[Anonymous No.7225746]

>>7224881
I have to agree on this one. The main cast, including both games, dont really stand out in anyway, but seeing as how the story and the game in general, develop maybe that was intentional.
Every side character and story that is introduced throughout your journey is a lot more interesting than the main characters, so they only serve as a vehicle through which these different narratives unfold. Maybe the only exception is Ivans backstory, he is the only one of the protagonists who receives a more in depth attention in terms of development.

So in a way, the main characters and central plot, arent exactly the most important thing about Golden Sun, hence they feel underwhelming. When you take a look at how much detail they put into designing every different region, area, town, etc, maybe that is what they intended all along, that your main quest became secondary in comparison to the exploration side of the game.

[Anonymous No.7225932]

>>7214031
I really can't see Golden Sun as over rated when part it's GBA games, basically no one knows or remember them

You ever seen JP bicker about Smash? Isaac to them is a literal who, so much they call him by his english name because no one there could be assed to play Golden Sun, and that's when he's not called "the obscure character gaijins want".

[Anonymous No.7227593]

is TLA hacking at the level of Pokemon yet?
i want somebody to take Dark Dawn and demake it on the Lost Age engine.

[Anonymous No.7228328]

The games ooze charm in the graphics style. The story, while long winded, has a lot of fun ideas in it, especially with all the different cultures they pull from. I recently played through the first one, and it was very enjoyable. I loved the class system in it, though I feel that spamming summons makes the game way too easy. Almost pointless to take advantage of different classes and stats when the best strat is just setting up whatever the strongest summons are. Now that I'm older as well, the puzzles are a bit on the easier side, but maybe they wouldn't be if I hadn't played through it as a teen. Anyone playing it in these days, the difficulty mods should be mandatory. I still want to go through TLA and see the true best girl, Sheba.

>>7227593
I think there's only some difficulty mods, that's about the best you'll get. I would kill for a difficulty mod for Dark Dawn but I think that's a pipe dream at this point.