This was a time when the notion that the Earth was spherical was not yet common and the geocentric theory was widely supported.
Believing that there was a new continent far beyond the ocean, Christopher Columbus spent years preparing the groundwork and eventually accomplished the great feat of ‘discovering a sea route across the Atlantic Ocean.’
Nintendo of America commented that ‘Camelot is Columbus’ (meaning that it is equivalent to discovering a new continent). This is the true joy of game production and the joy of pioneering.
- Camelot Software Planning, the developers of Golden Sun.
What do you think when you see this cover art?
Is this game just another typical role playing video game?
Wrong.
Golden Sun is everything we know and love about RPGs.
But how can you make an RPG that’s like that? Without just feeling like a rehash of another game that embodied what you loved about RPGs?
The answer to that: Golden Sun is a game, while containing what you treasure in these timeless video games, takes you through adventures and experiences you have never seen before in its genre.
In this game’s world characters known as Adepts use a power called Psynergy. This power burrows from the four elements of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind that are said to comprise matter in Wayard (the game’s world,) and its citizens.
Since the elements together comprise matter, it shows how vital they are in the game world’s salvation.
I like nature myself. Seeing fire bright and shiny, like molten sliding down volcanic areas. Walking pass beautiful water rather it’s a lake or ocean itself. Seeing the vibrant greenery in landscapes with hills, which obviously was grown from earth, and looking at great mountains from afar with awe and looking high atop them to see many places before me. Looking at the clear sky itself just for its turquoise colored sky or seeing wind swirl around in fiction making all living and nonliving things around it flow beautifully.
And I like the idea of the roles Adepts must take on: Protecting and preserving nature - AKA saving the world
So I like the idea of fighting with forces of nature. It also reminds me of my obligation in the game’s world.
And being an Adept sounds like it’s another unique role people would like to become a part of and project in fantasy, like other occupations such as superheroes, cyborgs and whatever else fictional and crowd pleasing. I know I would like to be in the shoes of Adepts and go on adventures they go on and experiences that are to be expected from the job class.
Another innovative approach Golden Sun takes from Role Playing games, is the battle system. That being, the use of Djinn in battle by the player.
But before I get into that, how about I write in regards to the look and feel of the battles themselves?
Something about the battles feel immersive. This immersion makes you feel more like you’re really engaging in a battle in an actual fantasy world.
The party, the warriors, you and the teammates, are seen almost close up on that 240 x 160 px. GBA screen, and take up most of the dimension of the rectangle. It all almost has the virtual reality of playing in first person. This makes the main character fighting more like you. This illusion is something third-person games are able to succeed in.
The backgrounds are made to look as third dimensional as possible. So these backgrounds help make the experiences of battling more realistic to the player. They’re not like backgrounds you would see in older RPGs back then, which obviously looked more two-dimensional.
The way the camera moves as heroes and foes on screen attack depending on the moves they use, helps further bring immersion too, since visibly real life can be a constant moving atmosphere to us.
You can find these creatures, known as Djinn, throughout the game’s world. Some of them will only join you on your journey if you can win in a battle against them, but others are obtained only after clearing puzzles that are behind them.
If you select your Djinn in your party on set, whether for you or your party, yourself or your teammates will become stronger.
While the Djinn themselves give you and the members different stat boosts when set, the elemental Djinn seem to have distant traits from one and another in stat increases. Like how the water Djinn give more defense when attached, compared to the other elemental creatures.
You and your teammates can also gain access to different attacks depending on what Djinn the entire cast has on set.
If you select your Djinn on not set for you or your teammates, you will be given the ability to summon them in battle for an attack and raise elemental power for the member that had one of them on standby (not set).
Beyond the Djinn you can summon, there are other characters you can also call upon. You will be able to summon powerful fantastical, fantasy-like characters to unleash devastating damage upon your foes, and increase even more power, depending on the portion of Djinn of the same type you have on standby. Different characters to be used require different number of Djinn on standby and a required same elemental type of the little creatures.
Though after calling them, your Djinn of the same type will eventually enter the set phase, one by one and turn by turn. This means in order to summon the same summons again after that cycle, you will have to de-attach your Djinn mid fight after being on set.
And it's also worth noting the less Djinn you have on standby on a character, the weaker that character’s stats will be. So that plays into whether you think it’s a good idea to call any of the summons or not.
Knowing all this - what you can do with the Djinn set or not set for you and the team - that is, strategizing for you and your team members for upcoming battles or during them can lead to exciting ideas to put into action and watch, if you think your ideas will be wise for battle and not be bad choices:
Unleashing summons of, again, fantastical fantasy-like creatures to bring out devastating attacks upon your foes.
Changing characters’ styles of strategies. Like one character who is a strong attacker that you can customize to be a great supporter to the team.
You or your teammates getting access to new attacks to use against foes.
Detaching the Djinn mid battle to be granted effects to aid you. Like one Djinni you can use to up the attack stats of your team, a Djijini you can use to slash enemies with an energetic and impactful blade, or a Djinni you can use to put an ally back to fighting shape which would otherwise be possible through a particular item - which is expensive and something you might have few of.
The game design best communicates its idea when you think up a strategy, whether before or during fights, and it thus pays off in battles you wouldn’t have won if you have never pursued any of the game’s tactics.
And since there are plenty of battles that will require you to think outside the box, there will be a satisfying number of battles where you will be able to take advantage of whatever ideas you have and will need to do so to advance and win.
Last things I would like to cover about the adventure of Golden Sun is both the story and the sights to witness in its world.
Throughout the game’s world, the group of warriors, Isaac, Garet and two others, go on a quest to stop their adversaries from reawakening the power of Alchemy, and embark with courage that takes them through an amazing adventure.