Point of No Return

Been replaying the Golden Sun-series again, and it is as fun as ever, although it can be frustratingly slow at some portions when you almost know the speeches by heart after playing the oldest one for 10 years. Also you learn something new every time you play it, just look at the second game where you can transfer the data from the first game to the second. If you don't the bonus dungeon can't be reached and certain cutscenes with special items don't happen. Combine this with the ability to play the game over with the same level and stats at the end of a cleared game. Now, I replayed the game maybe 3 times, usually starting with putting in the password needed to transfer all equipments, djinni and so on. The thing is... it's 260 characters long for everything. So this time around, since I didn't do any adjustment to the final equipment of my characters in game one so I thought it was just to start the game over with everything remembered without having to use the password since, well, my old save must have memorized it right? Apparently not, cutscenes I expected didn't show up so I had to go back a little bit and then input the password... all 260 characters. I put them in and everything seems back to normal so I continue to play the game. I reach the point when the old cast joins your group after clearing 75 % of the game and what do I see? They have almost half the level they had at the save. Apparently the game interpreted my input that level 56 was alright compared to my level 90. It thought wrong so I pretty much rage quit and started up the old save and did some level grinding before beating the soul out of the end-boss. Irritating to say the least, but I at least know that till next time.

So after that I started up the third game and it has grown on me. After the mediocre first playthrough it begins to feel interesting. Maybe it has to do with much better controls since the DS Lite has almost no A-button left which makes it nice to just move around with the stylus. But their is still times when it feels like inferior to the original two games. First is the points of no returns. There is three of them, first after you traveled through the first ruin, second one after you reach the "lost city in the sky" (although you can travel back to everything in between those two points after the third point, but you can't revisit the city itself) and the third one happens when you set sail for the first time. These are kinda annoying since it makes the game feel rushed and makes one wonder if they didn't have time to fill the game with content. And this is a game series that had the quirkiness to let the NPC at the end of the second game have minds to read even though no one in your party at that time couldn't read them. The first one is the most annoying since it makes it impossible to travel back to the first area. The only reason why that would be the case is that would make it possible for the party to travel to Bilibin through an alternative route. How do they do it? The enemy sets a trap with boulders that block your path backwards. It would have been fine and all if it weren't for the thing that 5 second earlier the Scholar Kraden mentions that the psynergy vortex you encountered would block your path itself so you wouldn't be able to follow him when he went north and you south to rescue Rief. So what was the point of the enemy cave in? By avoiding that and just using the psynergy vortex would have made it possible to travel back to the first area and at the same time remind people about the threat of the vortexes instead of the almost out of the blue ending. 

This ties together with the weakest part of the game, there is no sense of urgency for the main characters. The only thing would be the psynergy vortexes since you are hinted about the mourning moon in the beginning and the destruction it causes, which would be a good thing in that it urges the player to continue before it is to late... if the plot thread wasn't dropped after the first ruin where the third vortex is spotted and only returns at the very end. They never mentions it between those two points. Personally this feels like one of the reasons I felt the second game wasn't as good as the first. The first one had you hunting the madmen who wanted to release the destructive force of Alchemy, they kidnapped your love interest and your mentor and possibly killed your parents. You travel across two continents following them as they wreck havoc, destroys merchant roads, kills and hurt soldiers and scholars until you finally corners them at the top of the second lighthouse and a battle to the death were you learn about a whole village of these people and their mantle is picked up by your childhood friend you failed to save at the beginning of the game as he plans to finish their work... and then the game ends. The second game picks up after that, but puts you in the clothes of that childhood friend as he fights to finish what they started. I didn't care that much when I first played this game since I waited two years for this, but now I wondered, what is the motivation for the player to finish this? Especially us who played the first game? Not until you reach Lemuria you get a reason why alchemy is in fact good, the world is being devoured due to lack of energy. Not until the 75 % mark when the other group joins you finally get the reason why it is urgent in a much more personally way, the enemy holds your parents as hostage in their village, a village that is threatened to be the first to fall into the abyss at the ends of the world if you don't ignite the lighthouses. There, a reason, but it felt a bit to late, although small hints are spread all around the game, but not only until I got the whole picture was I clear on what they meant. I miss that in the third game as I'm being pushed around by my enemies without much input on the story. I know it's wrong from the start since they can't be up to something good, but still I'm forced into it against my will. Better had been if I felt it necessary to reach my goals and there was no other way due to the urgency of my quest, but my quest is to gather a feather and the plot around it dropped after 1-2 hours. But it is still better than Children of Mana.

The Curtains are Falling

Yet another dictator has fallen by the people he repressed. Is the world safer? Maybe, we don't know or we can't foresee the consequences of the turmoil. Will the relative stability of a dictatorship evolve toward a democratic stability or will the power vacuum threaten to engulf its people in a longer battle between themselves? Shrouded in mist is the future. The first country to shake of the chains of dictatorship in the North African region was Tunisia and its election time. They stand at a crossroad, and it doesn't seem that good when one of the alternatives is more censorship and a more religious government combined with that if the result doesn't go their way they will hit the streets again. It's not that much of a democratic vibe in these people. Doesn't help that people seems indifferent and would abstain from voting. What can we do if the people themselves don't care about their government or their human rights?

Even if I paint it in the bleakest colors, it's still a very vibrant situation all over the world. Dictatorships are falling by the hands of their people (with one instance of western help) and it could be a new dawn in front of us. Of course this echoes back from the fall of the iron curtain and communism. If I had been interested in politics and world news from an early age my first memories would probably been of the fall of the Soviet Union (the fall of the Berlin Wall I was definitely to young to remember). More interesting events I do actually remember and followed more intensely was the fall of Afghanistan and Iraq and now North Africa. At the same time I've been around to witness the genocide's in Rwanda and the Yugoslavian wars and the after tremors in the above countries. At the same time we see how the western worlds themselves stand on the brink of collapse due to economical failure and even corruption. Are we seeing a steel bath to cleanse the air and bring forward a reigniting of the western hegemony? It's a bit of a stretch since all of the western powerhouses are crumbling at their very foundations. The US economy is at a stand still and the same is for the political leadership who is to weak to bring them out of it. The EU don't have the strong leadership they need either to unify and lead them toward the same goals, they are all to differentiated and when the economical resources they possess are being poured over almost failed states and farming subsidies instead of reforms toward a modern economy there is little hope. This leaves our asian friends in the pacific. Japan is a zombie economy that haven't released itself from the death grip in the 90's which leaves South Korea and Taiwan that are to small and forced to protect themselves from the threat of hostile neighbors. So there is no industrialized countries to go too. A new generation must step forward. South America (I know it's not a country, but there would be to many to name), India and China are the only ones that seems to have a decent position to restart the wheels. Or we could start World War III, war seems to be a good way to build industries on and this time we don't take loans over the roof when it's over.

Out of the Shadows

I don't know how I pulled it of, but I've now seen all three of the Liberal party's member congresses since 2007. And without actively searching for it (well, except from this year, I actually knew it was coming up so I have had the TV set for SVT Forum), I just zapped between the channels and voila, there it was. Do I remember anything? No, although I actually like politics and this particular party, I just have the TV on beside me while I do my daily chores and sit by my computer. Meaning I'm not that focused and only catch certain bits, and it doesn't help when some are the most boring sounded politicians ever. Sometimes there is a funny speech pattern or voice that penetrate the constant barrage of sounds around me, sometime a word that poke me with interest, but more often then not, it's more interesting reading about what they decide in the newspaper one minute after they clubbed it than listen to their debate about it. The only interesting parts is when you see some more familiar politicians or the analyzes after certain debates outside the conference room or the interviews. Another funny thing with this one is that it was that the congress was in Karlstad. Had it been closer I might even had visited (if I could get in). That is actually kinda funny, since earlier this year we had the Moderates here as well, and the week after that the Green Party. Almost like Karlstad is the unofficial political capital for 2011. Should we expect the rest of them as well? Well, except the Center Party, and no, it isn't because I don't like them that much, but they seem to always have theirs in Sälen.

Anyway, the first opinion poll after last weeks debacle has been published. Problem is it was done before and after the incident broke the news, meaning it probably isn't that reliable if you look at it as a whole. If we take it straight up nothing actually happened, they still hold over 30 % of the voters and a red-green coalition (if it would manifest) would take the lead with 0,1 % and the Sweden Democrats would still be the king makers. But that isn't the interesting part. It was done over two weeks, with the first week before and the second week after. The polling institute was nice enough also to divide the data as before and after and gave an interesting result. Before the news broke, the Social Democrats had around 35 % of the votes while Moderaterna only gained 28 %. Clearly we saw the beginning to once again take charges of the polls like in 2007-2010 (that is before May 2010 when the red-greens presented their first budget and completely collapsed). This week on the other hand, the support dropped to 27 % while Moderaterna jumped to almost 33 %. Interesting shift is it not? The Social Democrats fell with 8 percentage points to a history low. Shadenfraude run rampant through me. Of course, this is nothing to take solid ground on. For that we must see the next poll that happened after the scandal. Then, and only then can we see it this will have long-term effects on the party and even then we can't be sure. History show us that a majority of voters decide which party to vote for the last week and a big bunch of those during election day, telling us that that it is hard to foresee who will win. 

We don't even know what pulls the voters to vote like they do. Last election much time and comments on the newspapers was dedicated for the discussion about what was necessary for to lead the country, to become statsminister. Mona Sahlin had it tough due to the reason for her to take a time-out back in 1995 was because she had used the Riksdags credit card to get over 50 000 SEK ($ 7 140 or € 5555) as some "advance money" on her pay. She had to go at that time(other reasons had to be an internal power struggle inside the party which could be the same as for the current party leader). So during the election campaign the Toblerone-affair was constantly referenced and added with more stories how she had no control over her economy and broken the law for small things like driving a car that was banned from driving and so on. The trust for her has, by more right-commentators granted, was put against Reinfeldt and was supported my the polling institutes that showed a constant advantage for Reinfeldt over Sahlin and was the light in the dark for us others. We did at least have the most trusted politician(s). The point is that she never got away from that, it crippled her career and possibilities to be seen as a Statsminister. And now, this erupted for them. It's not only that he seem to have a bit of a greedy-streak when it comes to money, he doesn't seem to have the organizational skills to lead his party. Policies changes several times over the course of a week and he even back-stabs persons he first green-lighted, but after a couple of hours pulled back his support for. It is not a healthy party we are looking at. So if there is one thing that this poll could do for them, it would be that they realize that they are sick. Unfortunately, the only thing most parties seems to do when confronted with the reality is to change the leader and hope that that would be enough. Moderaterna understood their problem back in 2002 when they almost lost the title as the biggest non-socialistic party to the Liberal Party. They changed leader who at the same time made a complete overhaul over the policies they stood for. The welfare state should still exist, but should be changed in order to put the worker at the center and point out that they are the backbone for our society. Social democratic ideas from old in a more liberal take and the way forward to heal the wounds of a bureaucratic shadow that gripped our country since the 1970's.

Panic in the Party

I didn't see this coming. Juholt apparently will be able to hold on to his position, for how long is another question. At first glance it seems completely idiotic from an outside position. A leader who has no common sense when it came to morally decisions, can't support his own people in policies he agreed to and speak in double tongue when it comes to complain about the governmental policies made by his opponents, but in his own budget makes little to no difference. Well, I can't say I will have a hard time choosing who to vote for in 2014 (not like 2006, god, partially regret voting for S, but it was the morally best decision since FP more or less screwed up with the hacking scandal). Maybe shouldn't write this in stone since it's three years left till the election, but I will probably indoctrinate myself together with the sheer distaste for the left-green policies that there is no other choice.

So that was the outside perspective, if we look on the inside, does it make any sense? Well, sort of. If you look on what happened during the last year power vacuum when they searched for Juholt, S already then collapsed and showed very low poles. Social democrat stabbed social democrat and there were no coherent political platform. They don't want to do that again since it would only strengthen the view of a party in free fall. So the damage control is to stand still in the storm at the moment and then try to regain confidence. The problem with that is if something else surfaces later during the term of office it will be to late to damage control since it's connected to a person they can't change within a year of the elections. Which brings up a second reason to not change him, there is no-one to elect. This is probably the best person they have (or more correctly, could agree on). 

Can Juholt win the 2014 election? Personally (and therefore subjectively) I would say no ceteris paribus. If we take the recent party leader debate in the parliament he once attacked Reinfeldt about people with cancer being forced out of the sickness system to look for work (which is a problematic since it actually should be about the bureaucrats reevaluating the people who just continues to be in the systems and maybe being to harsh in their judgment, which we could bring up together with the bureaucratic structure theory that with a social democratic rule of almost 100 years surly have painted the bureaucrats in the color red and against the Alliance, a little conspiracy for you). He then continues to question the morals of the statsminister, which in light of the current affair doesn't strike out that well. It really backfires. And I have no faith in them anymore, and I'm pretty much one of those they have to win. An urban person with a high education (if we don't take in the fact I don't have a job, but I will, hopefully, have one then).

So, being an aspiring political oracle, who will win after all this? Well, easily all other parties will get a boost from the fall of the social democrats (at least in theory). The left wing voters of the social democrats will emigrate to the left party who is in the middle of electing a new leader (or even two). Most signs points to at least Jonas Sjöstedt will be the chosen one, being more pragmatic he will probably be a hit after the moral collapse and the all to right-wing budget S produced last week. I'm actually gonna guess that they might hit 9-10 % again (ceteris paribus of course) in the next election. The more faithful social democratic voters might join the christan democrats due to their morals or whatever they do. The right wing voters of the party might most likely join either Folkpartiet or Moderaterna, depending on how much they detest Moderaterna or how liberal they feel Folkpartiet is. The green social democratic voters probably goes to the green party (obviously) and lastly those who feel that the established parties just use the people will go to the Sweden Democrats. The only party I see losing is the Center since, well, they have their own politician doing the same (at least with the housing), but since he pretty much was a nobody before the affair broke, he might just make it, but he can't advance in the party since then he would gain the same treatment. An estimation on the fall... 10-15 % if it continues, maybe 5 % if juholt and the other social democratic politicians keep their act together. It doesn't even have to be that they go to a new party, might be enough that they stay on the sofa during election day since that would hurt them badly due to the right voters being more incline to go vote (since they usually have a higher education and are more interested in politics, and at the same time have the possibility to expel the social democrats from power for 12 years, oh yeah). More or less, I expect that the Alliance will gain a majority in the next election, but it could be a false sense of hope, since at least one of the parties (christ democrats) continues to stand below the 4 % needed to get into parliament and the Center party being above and under during different poles since the election. Will be interesting to see the next opinion poll.

Lame Duck

You know, this Juholtgate or what ever the press will name this is getting ridicules. The more is leaked, the more it seems that this is an internal problem in the party itself that is played out at front-stage for all the people to see. Now it seems that he have a hard time to survive the weekend after even more problems appearing. The citizen debacle last week? Apparently he said yes first and told the person in charge of those question that it was a go, then pulled back his support five hours later. There is some trouble with deducted twice as much for one car (both as his own and borrowed) and allegedly voices from within the party tells the story that those who elected him knew about these problems even though they deny it. Nothing left than to step down in order to save what's left of the public confidence in the party. I'm guessing that there will be a huge party meeting next year where a new leader is elected. Meaning that we will once again see the attacks between the possible candidates (who still doesn't want the assignment but will say yes when the party calls... after five times or so). I can't help but have a bit of shadenfraude over this, being a political bourgeois (a variation of the translated name given to the four non-socialistic parties with liberal and/or conservative ideology), I can't anything else than feel a satisfaction that the only party being able to wrestle the prime minister-post (or statsminister-post, I didn't think they had that distinction between those similar titles on wikipedia) away from the current government is so damaged it is hard to imagine that it will be able to recover, and this without the governmental parties doing anything.

Of course, it's 3 year left till the next election (and they already prepared the wikipedia page, as a political scientist I'm proud) so anything could possible happened. Although at this moment it doesn't look as who's gonna "win" the election, it's more interesting to see if the Alliance will be able to gain over 50 % of the votes and with that a majority (which of course from my side would be the best outcome). At least I feel a lot better now, the short lived depression I felt seems to have lifted. Funny how that is. It's also sad to see this once greatest party of them all so utterly weakened. It's easiest to look at the amount of time the different leaders sat at their post, the first one (after a two-year collective leadership) Claes Theolin sat 11 years, second Hjalmar Branting 18 years, third Per-Albin Hansson 21 years (both Branting and Hansson died while in office), then we have the fourth and one of the longest serving democratically elected leaders in the world, Tage Erlander, being both party leader and statsminister for 23 years in a row. The fourth was Olof Palme that sat for 17 years and was murdered in office by an unknown killer. Sixth one being Ingvar Carlsson sitting only 10 years. Following up in spot number seven is Göran Persson being able to hold the position for 11 years. Followed by Mona Sahlin (who was supposed to have the position after Carlsson, but due to certain scandals with a bad sense of economy forced her out of the loop for 11 years) who only sat for 4 years (and together with Theolin being the only Social democratic leaders not being statsminister). She was quickly followed by Håkan Juholt, who now seems to have to leave it already next year. Sitting only 1 year. And not being statsminister. While the bourgeois seems to sit in power through a minimum of three elections counting at least 12 years. Never happened before, how does that feel, eh?

Conclusion? Social democrats, get your act together. We need an opposition that we can work together with over the blocs in order to make way for infrastructure, pensions, energy, defense and foreign policies that are reliable. We can't have an imploded party taking up around 30 % of the voters and not be able to see what you want or not, maybe if you only had 15 %, but that means the governmental parties need to get at least 2 oppositional parties on the train otherwise we get an unstable government and market only damaging the people.

The Needle and the Damage Done

So the weekend has passed. A great weekend if you asked me. Really charged the batteries, although it might not have been the best way, but it was a nice break from the mundane looking for jobs and check the news (although they have been rather interesting lately). What did I do then? Party-time. A friend of mine invited me to a gathering of her friends so I didn't know anybody else. So it was drinking games, social interaction, out clubbing, midnight snack, after party and sleeping in a sofa bed with two others. They got the blanket but shared a pillow while I got a pillow for myself. Sleeping in jeans and a shirt with my jacket over my legs wasn't  that nice, especially since I was stiff as a stick, turning 15 degrees at a time trying to find a good sleeping position. Didn't help that one of the other began taking over more and more of the space making me fear that if I had to go to the toilet I would have to sleep on the floor. Think I got a knee in the back once. Woke up around 9 with everyone else, stiff, tired and had a cold, lucky not a serious hangover. Then it was teaming up with everyone else and have a hangover pizza... and I fear that pizza. Someone ordered a calzone pizza where the bread pretty much was dough and the filling was steamed cooked. Some who ordered a kind of meat-topping got them still red and I could only eat a bit more than half a vesuvio. I had some flashbacks from my trip to Rome with my high school-class where, after a pizza, I spent the friday night food poisoned and couldn't eat normally for the rest of the trip. Seemed to have dodged that bullet at least this time.

Well that was my privet adventure so the next thing was the debate on the public TV-channel. It was fine. nothing much to say actually. No sparking ideological debate, not much heated arguments (only once that stood out). Maybe due to the agitating style of the left not being present since... well, they left walk-over. What to say, the Alliance didn't do anything wrong so that's good. Reinfeldt was OK, the same for Björklund and Lööf. Hägglund seemed distant, but I can't blame him. He probably was focused on his own party trying to dispose of him, he really looked old, like if his hair had become grayer. Romson was a surprise, but didn't speak to me (I might have become ideological blind), but she made a no-no in my world when she completely lost it debating the last party leader, Åkesson. The same mistake it seems all female politicians do when debating SD is become so emotionally engaged that they can't keep their calm. It's a disaster and was handled much better by Lööf. Åkesson then? Fairly good, I can't deny that. The only time he made a mistake (which went unattended by the others) was when they debated the nuclear power plants. 6 out of 10 is not in working condition and we now use oil to fill the missing energy so Björklund wanted to build more, but in the Alliance Lööf is against it. So Åkesson tried to say they are willing to take Cs place. The thing is that they still wouldn't get a majority for that since C has more parliamentarians then SD (kinda ironic that the only question I personally would be tempted to use their votes their is no possibilities to make that decision pass the parliament without S and then SD would be completely out of the loop anyway). This would only made the Alliance open for attacks from S and V for siding with SD without any gains. But C at least should have pointed that one out with a little stinger about the inability for them to count half of 349 people (especially since they have already lost one by him going independent).

Otherwise the Alliance did the best, mostly since they put forward the best needles against the others. Björklund and Reinfeldt were the best. Björklund really got forward the importance of the nuclear plants and that the alternative was Russian gas (which "had two problems, 1. being gas and 2. being russian). But he missed to point out that we probably would get energy from the Finish reactors as well making the green hypocrites . Also the EMU sidetrack he could at least have talked about Finland again with words as "but Finland is in EMU and done pretty well" and if SD attacked that they could always tried to corner them in that if Finland is wrong there they could as well being wrong in their immigration which I believe SD usually put up as an example (don't quote me on that, but I think they did, I know they did it with Denmark). Reinfeldt also had his moments, especially how he countered Romson. The Alliance advocate that we should count lowering carbon dioxide in other countries as part of our strategy, the greens don't like that and it shall be on a national level. So he countered their argument that it's a global strategy and that we use less resources with that and "resources are limited", which is a staple in the greens rhetoric's. Romson stumbled there and it was nice to see. Also, the Alliance overall was good at countering the immigration critics from SD with that they try to change it from "passive victims to nurse by the socialistic state" to a more "active work immigration". It's coherent in their overall plan as well puncturing the momentum they have. Also a good point was pointing out the problem with the budget that 100 billion a year could be saved by lowering immigration and thru that pay for all the reforms SD want to introduce (many being left in nature showing their roots in social policies being just that, left). Also a nice touch now that the Social Democrats missing in the debate was when Reinfeldt uttered "the only one sounding like a social democrat is Jimmie Åkesson": Would he have said that if Juholt was there? Probably not, or at least not like that (since Åkesson then wouldn't have been the only one sounding like that). The ironic thing is that they didn't want to be associated with SD by standing close to them, but they didn't think about this happening and leaving those remarks without a fight? No that is a complete failure when the once reason they give backfires and they can't even defend themselves (and it was also subtle so it didn't feel like an easy shot do smear S with SD). Then again, my ideological and political glasses might make me blind.

Self-implosion

You know, I'm a man of politics. It's one of the few interesting parts of our daily life that is easy to talk about and can be translated over the world, although there is regional differences in what's good or bad politics for ones country, municipality and so on. But I think most people will agree when someone really fails. In Sweden the latest weeks have been on the Christian Democrats with a civil war over who's gonna be the party leader: the old one from a more liberal branch or a more conservative. Doesn't help that they got run over time after time by the other coalition partners. Well if that isn't the guide to kill a party who dangles on the edge I don't know what is. Lets see how you manage with a party with 30 % support.

That's right. The Social Democrats seems to be even worse. First we have an internal conflict over the new budget when the leaders weren't enough "left" for its members in the parliament. It finally passes and all is well (except the usual political debate over what is good governing and I don't need to tell my view on that). Then we have the calm before the storm and then everything hits the fan today. First the Social Democrats and the Left decides to cancel their participation on the party leaders debate on Sunday with the argument that they don't want to be put together with the Swedish Democrats. This happens right after the news announces that Juholt (the leader of the Social Democrats) have gotten tax-payers to pay ca 160 000 SEK (€ 18 000 or $ 23 000) for the apartment in Stockholm he shared with his girlfriend on the wrong circumstances. If that wasn't enough the big Social Democratic boss of Malmö (the third largest city) announces that he would like to see some kind of second-hand citizenship in order to make it easier to send criminals back from where they came. Oh yeah, and the second largest city, Gothenburg, have had a long-running problem with corruption which is topped today by one municipality chief giving her daughter without education a job before 94 others who also wanted the job. Both being Social Democratic strongholds since everyone was allowed to vote in 1919.

If we analyze this who will win? Well neither S or V since... well, they did everything wrong. SD will win support from those parties. The Alliance win on walk-over and probably will get a hold of more voters from S who can't stand this sheer incompetence. The only reason they would fail against SD would be if they botch this completely... there is some uncertainty there isn't? MP would probably also get a boost from those voters and might even have some of V. All in all everyone but S and V win on this. Maybe that's their plan? To lower themselves so much that the Alliance get all the voters and can rule without fear of being voted down again? Nah... but it seem plausible!

Nobel, Jobs and Golden Sun

So a Swede got the Nobel prize in literature? More than 30 years ago since last time... damn, then my shot at it is gone. Leaves the peace price, but who wants that when it's given in Oslo, I want to be in Stockholm. And I have a hard time believing that the norwegians would grant a swede the peace prize, you know... because the Union. And then Steve Jobs is dead. A pity, I really liked the products his company makes and if I had the money (or a job overall) I would gladly update my computer to a Mac. Too young at only 56 to leave as well, he will be missed. And that was the contemporary news, now lets talk about Golden Sun instead *NOOOOO* What?

It's just one thing that bugs me when I look at the maps of the different games. In the original games, the Angara continent looked like this:

The Angara continent is the northern part over the almost African-looking part. Maybe not the best, but you have a fair decent look on the world. Now, look at this map from the latest game:

A bit different, but due to the event in the end of the second game it has at least some explanation for why it looks different, but it still doesn't make that much sense. There is three places that appears again from the old games, Mt. Aleph, Kolima and Champa. Kolima isn't that easy since in-game it's explained it moved itself so that leaves two points to look at. Mt. Aleph looks about right in the mountains and forest compared on both maps, but Champa seemed to have moved to the west which is kinda hard to explain. Maybe if earth had risen from the west out of the ocean it might have been logical, but that the continent grew inside itself and still had ruins being functional stretching over most of the world isn't that plausible. But then again it might have been magic.

With that out of the way, another thing that bugs me, and I guess some others as well, is the lack of familiar places. As I mentioned, three places is visited and another one is seen, but never visited (Mercury Lighthouse) and one is often mentioned but not even seen (Bilibin). But where is Vault, Xian and Altin? Where is Lama and Fuchin Temple? And even harder to explain, where is the Lamakan Desert and Mogall Forest? Well, the last two might not be that hard to explain with the change of environment, but still, the forest is pretty much in the same spot as Sana, the equivalent of the Chinese empire. What did they do, cut down the magical forest? It's didn't work out all to well for the people in Kolima. It would have been nice to see or hear what happened to those places since we actually travel around in the vicinity. Also why don't we get any cameos from the person living in that area (Feizhi, Hsu and Master Feh). Have they moved? Are they dead? Feizhi crossed the mountains to cameo in the second game, why noting similar here? Hmm, when I think about I actually thought it would be more people with a portrait, but the only other one you encounter that isn't in the third game is Hama and she is probably in Contigo so I probably can't really complain. But it would be nice if these people showed up in the fourth installment (that we all hope will become reality really soon right?).