Remembering Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (2)

The best JRPG ever made!

So after going through the leveling for the game let's talk about other aspects of the game, why do I like it? Let's begin with the story since that is what I get from most RPG's, an interesting story. And this one is simple to follow. One night a storm hits the village of Vale and as the towns people evacuate a boulder from Mt Aleph falls and kills Isaac's father and Jenna's brother and parents (Isaac being the main protagonist and Jenna, confirmed as of Dark Dawn, is his girlfriend).  You as the player knows that the storm was conjured somehow by Saturos and Menardi as they entered Sol Sanctum, the most holy place on Weyward, but Isaac and Garret (Isaacs best friend) are mind wiped by the fiends as they stumble upon the duo. 

How beating you to an inch of your life causes amnesia the game doesn't tell

Three years later the duo returns and Isaac, Garret and Jenna race toward Sol Sanctum with their mentor Kraden to uncover it's secret. All it does is getting Jenna and Kraden taken hostages as they reach the inner chamber, finding the Elemental Stars, gems so powerful that with one you could rule the world... not that they ever used that in the story sine Isaac dragged along the Mars star for two games while Felix dragged the Jupiter star. Oh, and during the capture it is revealed that Jenna's brother Felix survived and has joined forces with this dangerous duo. All in the first half-hour of game. Removing the stars creates the dormant volcano to erupt and awakens the guardian of Vale, the Wise One. This forces your foes to flee without the Mars star and leaves you at the mercy of the Wise One. Fear not as He gives you the quest to stop the intruders and return the Elemental Stars to Mt Aleph before they releases the forces of Alchemy that threatens to destroy the world. A clear goal with great motivation.

The All-Seeing Eye!

And that is probably why I enjoy the first game more than the sequel. Clear goals and motivations. Isaac wants to stop Saturos and Menardi for kidnapping Jenna and Kraden (as well as getting answers from Felix) and you as the player knows that they indirectly killed Isaacs father. Add the epic quest of saving the world above that and it's a relatable experience. I will go in a bit more detail why I don't like the Lost Age as much when I finish that game... whenever that is. You continue the journey and meet Ivan that needs your help and finding his masters rod and since he can read minds he knows of your quest and since he can't give it to his master he follows you to save the world as you would help him even though you had an more urgent quest (and not that I needed Ivan's powers to enter the next area). You catch up to your enemies at the top of Mercury Lighthouse with the help of the healer Mia that is the last guardian of the Lighthouse after she was left by Alex, another of Saturos followers. They fail stopping Saturos and Mia joins you to stop this from repeating itself and get answers from Alex (which also have learned stronger synergy abilities since leaving). The party is complete and all has one goal, to stop Saturos and save the world.

Confrontation atop Mercury Lighthouse

Really, after this the story is just chasing the group towards Venus Lighthouse. You see how the eruption of Mt Aleph created new adepts and monsters, changed environment and Saturos groups mischief as they try to delay your advance upon them by destroying roads and causing destruction on those standing in their way. The world building is also rather subtle in that a lot of ruins appear, only traversable by Adepts and not until Tolbi does another important player enter the game, in Babi, the 150 year old ruler of the empire of Tolbi. He sent out Kraden to study Alchemy, he enslaved Laviero and forced them to build a Lighthouse so that he could reach Lemuria, and he give Isaac and co another quest, to find Lemuria and give him more lemurian draught so he can live even longer. The end game lies in his shadow really as you have to amend his wrong, like saving Sheba who he took hostage and lost as he was releasing her. At the top of Venus Lighthouse the party defeats Saturos and Menardi, but Felix wants to continue their quest. But disaster strike as the lighting of the beacon causes the Lighthouse to split and Sheba and Felix falling to the ocean. Isaac and co regroup and after getting Lord Babi's ship set sail towards Lemuria. 

That's the ending? It's 2 more Lighthouses god dammit!

A good story, and then you add wonderful music, eye-popping graphics and enjoyable gameplay elements. A big plus was that magic you had could be used outside of battle by manipulating the environment. Like move rocks or stones, make yourself invisible, reveal the invisible or reading the minds of the NPC's for hints or just learn more of the game world. Of course that took me 2 play-throughs before I learned you could equip artefacts for psynergies like Catch or Douse. Especially douse since you need it at Suhalla desert were I had to change class in order to get that psynergy. The effect was a greatly weakened party. Saddest part I should have known since I got both Force and Carry and you need them. The reason I didn't get douse was that I got it as a drop from a boss and catch was given in the beginning in the game which I didn't register first time playing.

This is me figuring out one of the easiest RPG's created

And I even read the manual over and over. Well, it at least forced me to learn the class system. If I wasn't so stupid that I believed that the growth psynergy would come by levelling up. So I went the whole game without realising you had to change class in order to get growth.... which I think they showed in the Djinn tutorial or at least in the manual which is where I got the douse class change tip from. And really, even the developers knew it was kinda backward to have a class change to get growth which sounds so f***ing basic for an earth adept that they fixed it in Dark Dawn. Of course, giving me an artefact wouldn't have helped since I clearly wouldn't have guessed you could do it. A bit hard to explain why I carried all that ¨junk¨ around without any obvious purpose.

It was a beginners RPG you said? Could have fooled me!

The last parts of the game is the class system and djinn which I mentioned above. And as you guessed I hardly used it. The djinn I captured I set to respective adept and got their standard classes. No problem, I researched the best classes, but with the last bosses of the Lost Age that became rather unimportant since the ability to put all djinn in wait status screwed up the usefulness and could even hinder you since you wouldn't know the effects of each djinn resetting. Better a simple one element approach as the differences is 4 or 6 djinn. 4 gives the mass-healing psynergies while 6 gives the ultimate attack psynergies for the fighter adepts. Simple. At least the choice is there if you want to experiment or try new combinations and get new experiences through each play-through. What is a djinni then? Small elemental creatures that boost your stats and abilities. Changing around gives you different classes and setting them gives you the ability to summon some great attacks. Also each djinni is unique and can support you with stat bonuses, healing, attacks or various effects. Also, by killing each monster with a corresponding elemental attack djinn you get bonus exp and gold and a higher chance for item drops and such, called the Dark Panther Method in the community (named after the user who found out about it. That is pretty much it for this game, we shall see when I finish the Lost Age... if I ever gets out of the grinding.

Eh, close enough!