Golden Sun

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Golden Sun
Developer(s)	Camelot
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Hiroshi Yamauchi (executive producer) Motoi Sakuraba (composer)
Release date(s)	August 1, 2001 November 11, 2001 February 22, 2002
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	CERO: All Ages ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Media	64-megabit Cartridge

Golden Sun (黄金の太陽 開かれし封印, Ougon no Taiyou: Hirakareshi Fuuin^?) is the first installment of a series of role-playing video games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. It was released in November 2001 for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, with a Game Boy Advance sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, in 2003. The game is notable for certain unique game elements, such as the use of special "Djinn" that empower the player and can be used against enemies. The story follows a band of magic-attuned "adepts" who are trying to prevent the destructive power of alchemy from being released in their world.^[1] Upon its release, the game was highly praised; IGN said that Golden Sun could "arguably be one of the best 2D-based Japanese RPGs created for any system."^[2]

[edit] Gameplay

Golden Sun is a contemporary presentation of the traditional console role-playing game formula, where the player guides a cast of four characters as they journey through a fantasy-themed game world, interact with other characters, battle many monsters, acquire increasingly powerful magic spells and equipment, and take part in a building, predefined narrative. While many actions the player takes are compulsory, Golden Sun often allows the player to complete certain objectives out of order, and to visit previous locations, which can advance minor story elements.

Much of the game's time spent outside of battle takes place in dungeons, caves, and other locales involving a lot of puzzles integrated into their layout. One must push logs into rivers in order to cross them, shift the track of a mine cart to access new areas, and a host of other activities in order to get from point A to point B and progress through the story and game world. Many of these puzzles revolve heavily around the usage of the game’s resident form of magic spells, “Psynergy,” requiring the player to find items that grant the bearer new forms of psynergy in order to accomplish tasks.^[3]

[edit] Psynergy

Psynergy spells can be used both in battle and in dungeons. Here, a cold spell is used to create a traversible path of frozen ice pillars from puddles of water.

Psynergy is the Golden Sun version of magic (a combination of magic and alchemy), and both successful exploration of the game’s world and victory in the game’s battles are heavily dependent on the smart usage of the hundreds of Psynergy spells available.^[4] Whereas many other RPGs limit the usage of their forms of magic to battles as offensive and defensive measures, Psynergy spells can be used both for battle, and for solving puzzles in the game’s locales.^[1] Though many Psynergy spells are strictly for battling purposes (examples include “Pyroclasm”, a powerful fire-type spell that can damage up to five enemy targets, and “Ragnarok”, a ground-type spell that attacks a single enemy target with a huge magic sword), several spells are used strictly for solving puzzles (such as using “Force” to knock back a distant object that might have blocked the player’s path). Some Psynergy spells can actually be used in both scenarios (for example, the “Whirlwind” spell that can be used to damage enemies in battle is also used out of battle to clear away overgrown foliage that may block the player’s path).

Psynergy comes in four elements: Venus (Manipulation of rocks and plants), Mars (Revolving around fire and heat), Jupiter (Based on wind and electricity), and Mercury (Concerning water and ice).^[5] Likewise, the four main characters the player controls are imbued with these elements to form the bases of their innate magic powers (the Jupiter-elemental character is most proficient with Jupiter-element Psynergy in both battle and in solving puzzles, for example). The player gains more and more Psynergy spells as the game progresses, either through levelling up or acquiring and equipping special items, and with each "utility" Psynergy spell the party gains access to more and more locations and secrets hidden within the game world. Players may even find themselves going back to previous locations to finish off puzzles which they could not solve earlier because of the lack of a specific Psynergy spell.

[edit] Battle

Battles in Golden Sun are full of special effects. Here, an unleash effect is demonstrated by the Gaia Blade.

The majority of the action in Golden Sun, much like in most other RPGs, is found in its myriad battles, and most of the battles that are not important to the story take place via random encounter, featuring randomly generated enemies. When a battle begins, a separate screen is brought up, and the enemy party is on the opposing side (the background) and the player’s party is on the battling side (in the foreground, with only the character’s backs visible). When a battle is conducted and progresses, the characters and the background swirl around and change positions in a pseudo-3D effect.^[6]

The gameplay in relation to Golden Sun’s battle mode is similar to traditional console RPGs. In each battle, the player is required to defeat all the enemies by using direct attacks with weapons, offensive Psynergy spells, and other means of causing damage, all while keeping the player’s own party alive through items and supportive Psynergy that restore life and supplement defense. If a character runs out of Psynergy Points (a numerical value that decreases each time that character uses a Psynergy spell, almost identical to the concept of Magic Points in other RPGs), he or she cannot use any more Psynergy spells until his or her Psynergy meter is replenished by some mean (either with an item, by walking around, or staying at an inn in one of the game’s towns). Likewise, if a character’s hit point meter becomes zero, that character is “downed” and is unable to participate in a battle until he or she is revived by some means. If the entire party is downed, it is considered “Game Over”, and the player must restart from the last Sanctum they passed by. At the beginning of each battle round, the party also has the option to attempt to flee the battle.^[6]

The successful completion of a battle yields experience points, coins, and rare items from time to time, where the accumulation of experience leads to the building of "levels" that increase a character’s base statistics and occasionally master a new Psynergy spell, and accumulated coins can be redeemed for equipment and items that augment a character’s stats. By buying and earning equipment and gaining enough experience points, the player’s party eventually becomes strong enough to successfully defeat the game’s final boss and perhaps even an optional, even tougher boss that hides in secret.

[edit] Djinn system

Djinn can be arranged to bring out complex character classes. The pictured class setup is one of the more statistically powerful setups available.

One of the most important features in Golden Sun is the collecting and manipulation of magical creatures called Djinn. Djinn can be found scattered in hiding throughout the game, for each of the four elements and likewise for allocation to each character. The Djinn form the basis of the game’s statistic enhancement, as well as the system that dictates the character’s Psynergy capabilities.^[7]

Character classes serve as the vehicle in determining each character’s statistical setup and Psynergy spell collection. A class provides and dictates boosts to statistics such as hit points, Psynergy Points, Attack, Defense, Agility, and Luck, as well as how many and what kind of Psynergy spells that character has access to. When a class is changed, for better or worse, statistics and Psynergy collection are changed accordingly. Generally, to be successful in the toughest battles, the playable characters should be under the influence of stronger classes so that they can be in stronger statistical shape for battling. To change a character’s class, one must look to the Djinn.

In the game, Djinn can either be “turned on” (“Set”) or “turned off” (“On Standby”). When a Djinni is "Set" to a character, that Djinni exerts influence on that character’s class (and therefore, his or her statistics and Psynergy collection) relative to both the character’s innate element and that of the Djinni’s. As an example, when all seven Djinn of the Venus element are Set onto the Venus-elemental character of the player’s party, that character becomes the strongest user of Rock and Plant-themed attacks available, though this single-element focus causes him to be particularly ineffective when battling foes resistant to Venus Psynergy and attacks, and his resistances to the other three elements are quite lower than his Venus resistance. When Mercury (water) Djinn are set onto the Venus character, however, the statistical and Psynergy setup of that character dramatically changes, so that he is now moderately proficient in both Rock/Plant and Water/Ice-type spells, as well as having a more balanced array of elemental resistances. As there are twenty-eight Djinn encompassing the four elements that can be mixed and matched to the four characters in seemingly any manner, a large array of possible class setups for all four characters are potentially available, allowing a variety of combat options.^[8]

Using Djinn can call forth powerful elemental monsters like Thor to destroy the opposition.

In combat, a player can use a Djinn during that character's turn. Each Djinn has its own special ability which can be invoked during combat. These abilities can include (but are not limited to) enhanced elemental attacks, buffing or debuffing spells, healing/restoration spells, and other, more unique effects. After a successful invoke, the Djinni shifts to "Standby" mode until it is "Set" on the character again.

When a Djinni in a character’s inventory is on Standby, it does not contribute to the character’s class, but in return that Djinni can be used by the party as “fuel” for a Summon Sequence, an animated sequence in battle, where a powerful elemental monster is summoned by the party to launch a powerful attack on the enemy party before disappearing. For example, if four Mercury Djinn on Standby are used, the “Boreas” Summon Sequence is initiated, dealing tremendous Mercury-based damage to all opponents. This is the game’s most powerful method of attack, and also the riskiest, as it requires Djinn to be on Standby and therefore not be available to bolster the statistics of whatever character the Djinn are on.^[9] Once a Djinni on Standby has been used for a Summon Sequence, it must take any number of turns before it restores itself to Set position on a character. There are sixteen Summon Sequences in Golden Sun, four for each element, and each Summon Sequence takes between one and four Djinn of the same element on Standby. The option of using Djinn, Psynergy, or normal physical weapons allows a great deal of flexibility for a player.

[edit] Two-player mode

In addition to the main game itself, there is also a competitive battling mode accessible from the menu screen, where players can enter their currently-developed team from their saved game files into an arena environment where they can battle increasingly difficult CPU-controlled enemies or other players head-to-head to see which of their team setups are stronger. In both cases there are no experience points or coins to be earned.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Setting

Main article: Weyard

Golden Sun, in both background and chain of events, takes place in a fantasy setting that may be considered fairly typical of classic-style RPGs. It is the world of "Weyard", a massive earth-like environment with several major continents and many oceans. Weyard is revealed by the game's sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, to be a setting modeled off the flat Earth ideal of the world; it is a flat, vaguely circular plane whose oceans perpetually spill off the edge of the world's entire perimeter into an endless abyss^[10][11]. The plot progression of Golden Sun spans the two largest continents in the world's central region: The Eurasian-themed main continent of Angara to the north and the more African and Middle Eastern-inspired continent of Gondowan to the south. The Lost Age takes place throughout all the oceans and smaller continents surrounding the larger continents.

Weyard is not a high fantasy world like many other "traditional" role-playing games. Humanity is the only sentient species located throughout the world's continents, and they have not thoroughly colonized most of these landmasses, instead located in the odd settlement here and there throughout and often located distantly from each other. There are a few additional humanlike races, however, which includes a colony of dwarves, a race of humans who assume the forms of werewolves when looking upon the moon (both are seen only in The Lost Age), and an original race of hardy, scale-skinned humans who have settled in the world's harsh northern reaches and from whence the antagonists in both games come from. More abundant than any of the humanlike races, however, are a sheer variety of wild animals that reside throughout the lands.

Weyard is a world governed by its own set of physics based on magic. All matter on Weyard consists of any combination of the four base elements: Venus (Essence of rocks and plants), Mars (Heat, fire, and lava), Jupiter (Wind and electricity), and Mercury (Water and ice). These four building blocks of reality can be manipulated by the omnipotent force of Alchemy, which used to reign supreme in the world's ancient past. Alchemy was sealed away in the past, however, and the world in the present age has become seemingly devoid of all magic. Various individuals throughout the world, however, each demonstrate an adeptness to manipulate one of the four elements through a chi-like form of magic called Psynergy. These Adepts, as wielders of Psynergy are called, generally refrain from displaying their talents to outsiders of their various settlements.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of characters in Golden Sun

The characters of Golden Sun were designed and illustrated by Shin Yamanouchi of Camelot Software Planning.

The player mainly controls a total of four characters of Golden Sun. Isaac is a sixteen-year-old Venus Adept from the village of Vale, who serves as the game's silent protagonist. Garet, a sixteen-year-old Mars Adept also from Vale, is big and strong but slightly oafish and unfocused; nonetheless he is Isaac's closest companion. Ivan is a fifteen-year-old Jupiter Adept who has lived with a famous merchant in the town of Kalay all his life, but whose real hometown and heritage is as of yet undiscovered; he is a somewhat quiet, insightful boy. Mia, a sixteen-year-old Mercury Adept from the wintry town of Imil, is a gentle healer from a heritage of Mercury Adept clansmen. A fifth character seen and playable in the game's exposition sequence is the 16-year-old Mars Adept Jenna, another childhood friend to Isaac and Garet in Vale.

The primary antagonists of the game are Saturos and Menardi, a pair of immensely powerful and talented Mars Adept warriors of a foreign race hailing from Weyard's frozen northlands. Their aim is to restore Alchemy to the world, and they are assisted by the powerful and mysterious Mercury Adept Alex, of the same heritage as Mia, and Jenna's older brother, the seventeen-year-old Venus Adept Felix, who is indebted to Saturos for the latter's saving Felix from death years ago.

Saturos' group kidnaps Jenna and the elderly scholar researching Alchemy at Vale, Kraden, to assist their effort, and later on they kidnap a fourteen-year-old girl named Sheba from the desert town of Lalivero because she is a Jupiter Adept as well. The guardian of Alchemy's seal, a large floating boulder-like entity referred to as The Wise One, explains that Alchemy is a dangerous force that must not be released lest it be abused, so he tasks Isaac to pursue Saturos across the land and prevent his objective.

[edit] Plot

Ages ago, in the world of Weyard, the omnipotent force of Alchemy provided all manner of culture and power to its people. When harnessed, Alchemy could achieve fantastic effects such as the transmutation of lead into solid gold and the ability to thwart death itself. Civilizations and technology developed to great levels, but eventually, the ambitions and aspirations of various individuals developed the same way, leading up to power struggles and eventually a world war, where Alchemy was increasingly abused as a military weapon.^[12]

Mt.Aleph, the site of Alchemy's seal as seen in the opening sequence.

Weyard would have been demolished were it not for a group of wise men who sealed Alchemy away within a vessel of stone, the Stone of Sages, which in turn was hidden in the darkest depths of Mt. Aleph, site of a shrine to Sol and Luna. The world was ultimately saved from the threat of Alchemy's abuse, but it was also deprived of an immense resource. Alchemy could be brought back to the world, however, by casting four jewel-like crystals, the Elemental Stars, into the wells of four great towers situated throughout Weyard, the Elemental Lighthouses. The Stars remained hidden within Sol Sanctum as Alchemy remained dormant and Weyard existed for the many ages to come.

At the foot of Mt. Aleph, there was situated the town of Vale, whose inhabitants made it a point to be the guardians of Sol Sanctum and Mt. Aleph. Due to the town’s proximity with Sol Sanctum's secret, the inhabitants developed an adeptness to Psynergy, the art of channeling the energies of the four elements into various forms of magic. These Adepts, as users of Psynergy would come to be called, were charged with refraining from displaying Psynergy to outsiders under any circumstance.^[13] The town would have remained in tranquility were it not for a major event that occurred three years before the present: The Mars Adepts named Saturos and Menardi arrived from the frozen northlands to attempt a raid upon Mt. Aleph to steal the Elemental Stars. However, they failed to solve the riddle blocking their way and triggered a trap, which in turn caused a giant boulder to be dislodged and crash through the town below, seemingly killing several of its inhabitants. The pair fled, but vowed to return in the future.^[14]

In the present, young teenaged Adepts named Isaac, Garet, and Jenna join Kraden in a research venture into Sol Sanctum to study Alchemy and the Stars inside^[15], despite the fact that it is off limits by the town legislature^[16]. The trip coincides with a second raid of Sol Sanctum by Saturos and Menardi, and the two intimidate Isaac's group into fetching the elemental stars for them^[17]. The pair are accompanied by the mysterious Mercury Adept Alex and none other than Jenna's brother Felix, who was believed to have died in the storm but was rescued by Saturos, to whom Felix is now indebted to serve. ^[18] Isaac hands Saturos' group three of the four stars.

With the removal of the fourth elemental star from its pedestal, Mt. Aleph begins to erupt^[19], and Saturos’ group is forced to flee with only three of the Stars, leaving Isaac and Garet to potentially die. In the case that they might survive, Saturos takes Jenna and Kraden as hostages for Isaac to follow, so that they could get the fourth star he now holds. ^[20] Isaac and Garet soon come face-to-eye with the monolithic guardian of Mt.Aleph, the Wise One, who declares that the restoration of Alchemy constitutes a threat to the world,^[21] so he grants Isaac and Garet the great task to thwart Saturos' objective to activate the Elemental Lighthouses, and he returns the two young men to Vale, saving them. Isaac and Garet explain everything that transpired in Sol Sanctum at a town meeting in Vale; the townspeople agree that the responsibility falls on Isaac and Garet to set out on this urgent quest and save all of Weyard^[22]. Thus do Isaac and Garet depart from their hometown and embark on their adventure.

Isaac travels to Mercury Lighthouse in the game's overworld.

Early in their hasty journey, Isaac and Garet band together with a young Jupiter Adept named Ivan, who wants to help them prevent terrible things from happening^[23]. The three then make it to the village of Imil, located in front of Mercury Lighthouse, where Isaac meets Mia, a young female healer who is revealed to be a Mercury Adept and one in charge of guarding the Mercury Lighthouse^[24]. Mia joins Isaac and his party as they enter the towering structure and climb to its top, but they find that Saturos has already activated Mercury Lighthouse, having cast the Mercury Star down the tower’s throat. Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia all engage in battle with Saturos, who proves to be a menacingly powerful adversary, but they soon best him because the newly activated water-elemental Lighthouse beacon suppresses Saturos’ fire-based powers^[25]. Alex appears once again and reveals to Mia that he is in fact helping Saturos, in direct violation of their people’s oath to stop the Mercury Lighthouse from being lit.^[26] After Alex helps Saturos up and they both depart, Mia, drained by Alex’s betrayal, decides to join Isaac’s quest to prevent Saturos and Alex from lighting the remaining three Lighthouses^[27], and Isaac’s complete party now departs from Imil in his continuing quest to stop Saturos.

For the next great period of time, Isaac’s party travels around the entire mainland continent of Angara, helping the troubled villages along the way. They take a ferry service to the neighboring southern continent of Gondowan, arriving at the bustling metropolis of Tolbi, under rule of the mysterious Lord Babi. After competing in this year’s annual tournament of warriors, Colosso, Isaac proves himself capable of embarking on an additional quest to help Babi that involves locating the mythical island city of Lemuria somewhere in the ocean^[28] and retrieving some special draught for him so that he may continue to live^[29]. Babi grants Isaac eligibility to use his personal sailing ship, acquired from Lemuria itself, for this quest in the near future^[30]. The ship in question is hidden within the town of Lalivero, near the Venus Lighthouse, which is Isaac’s next destination.

Isaac's party confronts Saturos at the aerie of the activating Venus Lighthouse.

After traveling through a desert to reach Lalivero, Isaac finds that Saturos’ band has captured a young Laliveran girl, Sheba, hostage as well^[31]. Isaac climbs the lighthouse and finds Saturos and Menardi coming to blows with Felix over the involvement of the Sheba, who is with them.^[32][33] It is revealed that Sheba is actually a Jupiter Adept, just like Ivan^[34] . Saturos explains to Isaac that both a Jupiter Adept and a special artifact, the Shaman’s Rod, are required for him to climb and light Jupiter Lighthouse in the future, and he promises that Sheba will be safe from harm if Ivan gives them the Shaman's Rod that is currently in his possession;^[35] Ivan reluctantly agrees. Saturos and Menardi then decide to attempt to finish off the meddlesome Isaac and his friends for good^[36], but when the pair are on the verge of being defeated, Saturos throws the Venus Star into the throat of Venus Lighthouse to activate it, and the pair are restored^[37]. They merge together to form a tremendous two-headed dragon^[38]. Isaac wages his fiercest battle yet, and soon he manages to slay the Fusion Dragon in an amazing victory over superior opponents^[39]. Defeated, Saturos and Menardi die as they fall into the abyss of the Lighthouse. Felix and Sheba watch stunned on the sidelines, and suddenly the energy of the newly lit Venus beacon causes an earthquake, causing Sheba to fall off the lighthouse and into the sea below, and Felix jumps after her in what can be described as affection-driven furor. ^[40]

To Isaac and his party, their victory at Venus Lighthouse is a hollow one, as they failed to prevent the firing of the second Lighthouse, and the remaining members of Saturos' band are still at large^[41]. He and his friends return to Lalivero to convene with Sheba’s adoptive family, and they conclude that Felix and Sheba are still alive and are with Alex, Jenna, and Kraden, all continuing to be part of the effort to light the remaining two Lighthouses, Jupiter and Mars.^[42] Isaac cannot understand why Felix would have such a strong desire to release (according to the Wise One) a force that could devastate all of Weyard, but they were divinely tasked to prevent Felix's objective. Thus, the party boards Babi's ship and sails with it out into the great open sea. Isaac and company now continue the quest, exploring the oceans of Weyard and searching for Felix and Alex’s band so as to thwart their plan, rescue Jenna and Kraden, and discover Lemuria to save Babi's life.

The story continues in the sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

[edit] Development

Golden Sun underwent a development cycle of between twelve and eighteen months by Camelot Software Planning, which is considered quite a long period of time for the development of a handheld video game.^[43] It was shown in early, playable form at the Nintendo Spaceworld Expo in Japan on August 2000.^[44]

Originally, Camelot planned to create a single title instead of a series, but due to both the hardware limitations of putting it on a single Game Boy Advance cartridge and the developers' own desire for what they wanted to do with the game, it was expanded to become two successive games, Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Scenario writer Hiroyuki Takahashi and director Shugo Takahashi had previously designed Shining Force 3, where the story involved playing through the perspectives of both the "good" side and the "bad" side of the characters, and they thought that was an effective way of conveying the full story of a fictional game world, so they incorporated elements of this storytelling methodology into the two-game setup of the Golden Sun series, having the player control the "good guys" in Golden Sun and members of the antagonistic party in The Lost Age. ^[45]

[edit] Reception

Golden Sun met with generally strong reviews, of which many were emphatically glowing.^[46][47] Many praised the game's vibrant graphics, high-quality sound, and varied, refined RPG gameplay, with particular optimism on the Djinn-based gameplay system and Battle aspect.^[48] It was also praised for being graphically stunning for the limitations of the 32-bit cartridge, with gamespot.com noting "Golden Sun is a throwback to some of the SNES' best."^[49] G4 TV stated "It's the best original (nonport) GBA RPG to date", while GamePro raved Golden Sun was "A huge, fantastic, creative, and wickedly fun RPG that doesn’t seem to care that it’s 'just' on a GBA."^[47]

Complaints about the game generally revolved around the overuse of text dialogue in the numerous cutscenes throughout the game, especially in the prologue, causing the game to get off to a rather cumbersome start.^[2] In addition, some faulted Golden Sun for still relying on the "wander around, get into a random battle, win battle, wander around, random battle, etc." theme in many role-playing games. At IGN, Golden Sun has a ranking of 9.7 out of 10 ("Incredible"), a 9.2/10 on MobyGames,^[50] an 8.6/10 on GameSpot,^[49] and a 8.5/10 on GameInformer.com (the main complaint being low replay value, it was still titled "GBA's Golden Child").^[51]

In 2001, Golden Sun won the Nintendo Power Award for best Game Boy Advance game of the year. Golden Sun was ranked 94 on IGN's Readers Choice Top 100 games ever.^[52] In 2007, it was named 24^th best Game Boy Advance game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the Game Boy Advance's long lifespan.^[53]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The official Nintendo Golden Sun webite
• The official Camelot Golden Sun website
• Wikia has a wiki about: Golden Sun Universe
• Golden Sun Syndicate
• The Golden Sun Realm
• Home of Golden Sun