Golden Sun - Opinions

-- TL;DR --
Golden Sun is an average, by-the-numbers RPG with one very creative addition to the classic JRPG battle system in its Djinn.
Dungeon puzzles are mind-numbing, the correct path forward is often unclear, the graphics are crazy good, bosses are great but sparse, random battles suck, dialogue is lifeless + there's too much of it, and the story is meh.

-- Review --
When I finally decided to play Golden Sun, I did so with many years of expectations behind it. This wasn't an underhyped game for me, so I had high hopes, particularly since one of my favorite games of all time, Mother 3, is also a JRPG for the GameBoy Advance. After finishing Golden Sun, I can easily say that while it doesn't dethrone Mother 3, I do see it as solidly the second-best RPG on the GBA, on par with Fire Emblem (although I don't really see it as competition here).

The music is great, but a tad repetitive (the final boss theme is a masterpiece, though). Visually, the game is very impressive for the GBA, and gave me a lot of nostalgia for Mario Tennis: Power Tour (which was also developed by Camelot). All the effects are turned up a few notches in Golden Sun, but the overall use of faux particle effects, and smooth gradients in the sprites gave everything a familiar feel. I still appreciate the dialogue-expression system that the Camelot GBA games use, although I would have preferred to have different portraits for character expressions instead of more text bubbles.

On the note of text bubbles, one of the only major gripes I have with the game overall is the occasionally excessive quantity of inane text in the main story. On several occasions, dialogue will grind through rounds of back-and-forth, as NPCs argue over things which either don't ultimately matter, or could be answered if one of the main party members would simply speak up. If it's supposed to be comedy, it's not very good comedy. There's also a few situations where critical NPCs will ask something of the player, or even advise them to do something that turns out to be misguided. I can appreciate this as a way to make the NPCs not seem omniscient, but a few times, their advice guided me away from the critical path. I think it's fine to have NPCs give bad advice in the context of the plot, but not with regards to gameplay; at that point it just becomes frustrating.

This would be more forgivable if story progress didn't rely on NPC triggers, but since the story in Golden Sun is so linear, it leaves a bad impression when trustworthy NPCs pull against the player's desires without malice. It doesn't help that many of these misguided NPCs also frequently express concern that the youthful player characters lack the necessary direction and resolve to continue on their quest despite failing to help at all with that. Since NPCs were clearly shown to fallible, I wouldn't have been surprised to find one outright lie to me, even those not affiliated with the main antagonists, but this sadly never happened. Even the so-called thief king is simply played up to be just another moral evil, rather than a cunning or duplicitous ruler. Having a character who is motivated to be purposefully untruthful act as the first figurehead we meet could have provided a good example of the "real world" contrasting with the happy hometown where we started out.

On the topic of gameplay, the overworld is average. I would have appreciated a fast-travel mechanism, especially for locations found in the corners of the map. The puzzles found when adventuring are thankfully above-average, and have a decent spread between "notice-something" and "solve this" type secrets. They fairly sparse, too, so they don't feel like busy work. Regardless of the quality of these secrets, however, it's actually the rewards here that end up making Golden Sun worth the time.

On top of the traditional JRPG trappings of basic attack, magic, equipment, mana points, etc., Golden Sun adds on top the Djinn system, which acts a sort of equipment, magic, and combo system all in one. Throughout the world, you can find creatures called Djinn which represent a single unique ability that can be equipped to a single party member. Upon being added, the Djinn will grant the user a stat boost, and allow them to use the new ability in battle. There are four different flavors of Djinn that all do the same basic thing on their own (blue does lean towards healing, but the basics are the same), but notably act in interesting ways when combined with each other. As you find more Djinn, you have the opportunity to mix-and-match the various flavors, as you attempt to spread their unique abilities across your party members. The cost of too much mixing, however, is a lower stat boost, since equipping different colors will grant lower stats than you would have if you instead went with a single color. Additionally, synergies between certain colors will bestow improved versions of normal magic spells on certain characters, giving particularly specialized loadouts access to some of the most powerful heals, buffs, and attacks. In this way, you are able to trade raw numbers for flexibility, injecting a critical sense of creativity into this otherwise by-the-books JRPG.

However, I've failed to mention what is arguably the most important aspect of the Djinn: their ability to summon gods. As already stated, Djinn supply the user with a unique spell to use. When this spell is used, however, that Djinn (and its accompanying spell) are then unequipped entirely. At any time, all unequipped Djinn of the same color may be combined into a combo attack, boasting damage output far in excess of any other abilities in the game. Upon using these abilities, the participating Djinn go into a cooldown state, after which they will be automatically reequipped to the initial user. The opportunity to perform these massive (and visually incredible) attacks can be seen, again, as an tradeoff, since with every unequipped Djinn, the user's stats and even their core class will change during battle. If you decided to specialize a character's Djinn, it might seem tempting to use them all in order to assemble a powerful summon, until you realize it will quite literally reduce that character's HP total by half on top of other detriments. On the flipside, players who choose a more flexible approach will find it easier to perform a summoning without heavy stat hits, although they must also keep a close eye on any magic spells they might temporarily lose access to while they execute their plan. If it weren't for the late-game equipment giving certain characters an incentive to specialize their Djinn rather than choose a hybrid approach, this would easily be my favorite RPG combat system (although it probably still is). Additionally, because Djinn are only found through exploration, Golden Sun finds a way to promote actual adventure instead of grinding by granting rewards that tie into the core combat system, rather than another, rarely used, option (like items). It's rare to find a mechanic that promotes such creativity and customization without requiring one to also replay the whole game (Transistor is a good comparison).

On the whole, I must say that Golden Sun lived up to its reputation. If you can get past the mediocre dialogue and standard plot, there's a killer strategic battle system to be found. Similar to how I began this playthrough, I once again look forward to the sequel with great anticipation, hopefully I won't end up waiting 18 years this time.

EDIT: I actually wrote this after quitting just before the final cutscene of the game. I was so certain that I was going to actually get access to the boat that I didn't expect the credits to play there. Honestly feels like it just ended, even though it makes sense to do so there. It's a good thing I had the sequel ready to go, since that cliffhanger makes my opinion of this game as a standalone experience much more sour. After playing the second, it just feels like the first half of the whole, and it's probably better to think of it that way.