And we begin the game with a text recap of the last game, which you can't skip!
Did I say Thursday? I meant Friday. So the story begins just before the climatic battle atop Venus Lighthouse and Jenna, Kraden and Alex are escaping the impending disaster following the lighting of the lighthouse. As they reach Idejima the beacon is lit and the shockwave throws the peninsula out of sea and Felix and Sheba are flushed upon the shore, somehow surviving the fall from the top of the lighthouse (either miracle or maybe a passive psynergy ability as the one shown in Kolima, then again Sheba survived falling from the moon so anythings possible I guess). Trouble ain't over since a flood wave appears and pushes them into the continent of Indra that itself been wedge between Gondowan and Ossenia. So You need to find a boat. Which Piers has, but he has been looked up as a pirate of Champa. He himself is a Lemurian that was thrown out of Lemura by the tidal wave so you decide to help this fellow adept. Which takes you from Madra to Alafhra confronting Briggs the pirate captain of Champa, then you round Ossenia meeting werewolves that gives you more depth of the working of Alchemy (the werewolves in this game are weaker jupiter adepts as they've been exposed to particles of psynergy stones from Air's Rock just nearby. This tie in to the last game were many people became adepts after being hit front and centre by a synergy stone from mount Alephs eruption. Anyway, you return to Madra and what do you know, the Black Orb that controls his ship is stolen by the Kimbombo in Gondowan and Piers gone after them. Great, a stealth mission, reminds me of Lunpa.
Be vevy vevy quiet, we've hunting crystals!
Meeting up with Piers gives you your new Mercury adept and after solving the Kimbombo troubles you are rewarded with a ship. And this opens up the game for your own exploration. You can tackle most places in any order, but to sum it up you need to take Gaia and Aqua Rock to learn the psynergies within in order to climb the three trident ruins and take the three pieces. With them return to Alafra, fix the ship and Briggs escape to Champa, confront him and get his grandmother to reforge the trident. With the trident you now have the weapon to defeat Poseidon which is guarding Lemuria in the labyrinth in the Sea of Time which you need Yepp's nursery rhymes from the village of Yallam. And in Lemuria you finally get a reason to do this quest. The world is ending as a consequence of mankind sealing of Alchemy and the world slowly fading away with its nourishment. Finally, a reason to play the villains of the last game. I know that around here they also told us that Felix and Jenna's parents were alive together with Isaac's father. Great, halfway through the game. A bit late don't you think? I mean, I'm just told to continue the quest, but no one explains why. Especially important since I played the first game were I strived for the opposite. Great twist and all, but really. Doesn't help that the only reason we need to get to Lemuria is to get the psynergy Grind to reach the other side of the world.
Welcome to Atlantis... I mean Mu... I mean Lemuria
So you now know why you are doing this and you now can reach the lighthouses. So you head off to Contigo where Jupiter Lighthouse stand, but you can't enter it. Now, by playing the first game I know that the Shaman's rod need to go to Hesperia, the continent north of Atteka. But they don't say anything about it, but they speak about the war between the two continents so that must be were I'm going. And when I find it... how do I know that by lugging the Shaman's rod with me will gain me another psynergy? Isaac and co knows since that what Hammet told me as I rescued him, but how do Felix and the rest knows? Hell, how does a player who didn't played the first game know? Anyway, I get it after humiliating the shaman leader in a colossi styled battle. And they hint that this will be a future strife between the people of Atteka and Hesperia. Of course we didn't see that in Dark Dawn. Back to Contigo and up the Lighthouse. And this is one of the better dungeons in the game. Really, both game have the lighthouses as great dungeons as you climb and figure out the mechanics of it and in this game you have to start them as well. Which again, could have been used for Mercury and Venus in Dark Dawn as we didn't see that. Anyway, after climbing the tower and open the beacon we again see Isaac and friends who we have heard all things about during the game as these great warriors. And this is the scene we see them again:
They were right to warn me of Garret's clumsiness in the first game
So I have to save them as they are attacked by Agiato and Karst, the proxian threat in this game. Really, if I had grinded my characters to 99 as planned this scenario wouldn't have worked either way. Isaac entrust the Mars star to you as you head up to lighten the beacon. There Agiato and Karst steals the last star from you as they see me as a liability. Thankfully we beat them back, but they get away with the star. And now it's time for the reunion with the old gang. Eight adepts are out to save the world in their newly upgraded ship that has wings. A flying ship. Fantastic. Of course it hardly moves the plot since it just for backtrack and getting some cool items here and there. But you travel faster and neutralise the random encounters. A blessing. So why couldn't you go to the last area before? Because an ice wall which you need a cannon from the dwarves (yes, there is dwarves here) and a psynergy and magma ball from Magma Rock. And to reach Magma Rock you need lift that only Isaac and friends have. Time to bring the fight to Prox... oh right, all their actions were totally justifiable in saving the world. So we come in peace. And this dragon people are rather nice if you avoid all their warriors, although they seems to have misplaced your parents. Up the Lighthouse we go. And boy, this dungeon. It took me more time than necessary due to some mistakes from my part. First the damn ice block above a hole. Supposedly you would instantly think grind as useful here (I guess this is the reason they gave the Insight ability in Dark Dawn). The second one was due to me not reading the text after defeating Agiato and Karst dragon forms and therefore miss to awaken the Lighthouse before returning to the starting area so I had to go down there again. My fault. And then we climb the lighthouse and meet The Wise One again that will be our last obstacle... or rather the three-headed Doom Dragon. As Garret said "we already defeated a two-headed dragon what difference does a three-headed make?"
Oh, should have seen that coming
Yes, after the battle it's revealed that the Doom Dragon was Felix and Jenna's Parents and Isaac's father. More or less killed by there own children. That is pretty dark for a children's game. You still throw the Mars star in and ignite the Lighthouse. This causes the forming of the titular Golden Sun and grants Alex the powers he desired. Just before you communicate with the other three lighthouses that shows you that he Wise one isn't as cold hearted as he appeared and thanks to the light their parents are revived and (as told in the next game) the heroes themselves are granted longer life (and maybe greater powers?). You travel home to Vale and finds it destroyed due to the forming of the Golden Sun, but even here the Wise One saved everyone... well, except Alex, instead he body slammed his body onto the mountain peak so he couldn't move and almost was dragged into the earth. F***ING Amazing.
Almost cried here
So why didn't I like the game as much? Looking through here I guess is that I don't feel as much for Felix compared to Isaac and he don't show up again until the last 3/4 of the game. They don't motivate the character of Felix and he has a habit of knowing things me as a player don't know which is brought forward with Kraden all the time. The parents still alive is an obvious point and had they told me in the beginning I might have connected better and actually justify my actions. Gameplay is better, scope is larger and the world is even more fantastic, all accompanied with a fantastic soundtrack. Yet the main characters don't give me anything to work with. Isaac was given a mission (it was wrong in the end, but it worked for me) and tried to fulfil it, all actions could be measured to that goal... what was Felix goal before the reveal? Sad to say, Dark Dawn also had a clear goal, but they somehow screwed that up. Wonder how that experience will be, since I still had fun with this game, otherwise I wouldn't have put 40 hours into this game yet again..The others don't get off scot free either. Sheba waits until gaining the flying ship in order to tell us why she wanted to join us in our journey, that is to find out where she belongs as she fell from the sky in Laliviero. You get to know that she probably comes from Anemos, the city of wind adepts that took to the sky and become the moon. Jenna then, I guess they talked about her rescuing her parents and following her thought dead brother during the first game, but at least I could expect her to follow her brother for whatever reason, but I wanted more. Really, the only one that has a decent story arc is Piers. You know he wants to find his ship, then reach Lemuria and then tasked by King Hydros to lighten the beacons. Each step is explained and you can follow the logic behind his decision. You might have missed the reason he set out in the beginning, but that takes a backseat to him getting home. Really, he's mother actually dies in the game. He actually lost someone dear to him compared to the others who saw all their family survive. His only problem is that he doesn't get playable until 1/4 through the game. The games ace in the hole is the villain Alex... or is he a villain? He never killed anyone, he duped everyone and wanted ultimate power, but for what reason? Some point to him trying to destroy Vale at the end, but others point out that he might have known the village was abandoned due to the Wise One and therefore saw it as a harmless demonstration of his new powers. Really wished they explored more of Alex ideas and motivations in Dark Dawn.
There is a reason why I use him as my avatar
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