Golden Sun & Golden Sun: The Lost Age Prima's Official Strategy Guide

I still love these games

So some time back I got the official strategy guide for the first two Golden Sun games and I thought, maybe read through it and see if it's any good? After all I played the game so much that I know it like the back of my hand. So lets start with the first game.

Best of the bunch!

So first problem reading through the book, there isn't any world map in the whole book. It's not much of a problem in the first game since it's pretty much linear, but it would have been nice for the bearings of where I am in the world. There is also a bit jarring "I" 2 times in the text around Tolbi. I expect that in Online Walkthroughs, but this? It feels a bit unprofessional. And then we have some information I actually miss, for example the whole optional dungeon Crossbone Island. Theres no guide for the different room puzzles, they don't mention the earth djinni Bane which is one of the most powerful ones. They mention it in the list of the djinn's at the start of the guide, but for some reason the stats on Bane and Zephyr isn't written down, which is weird. I also miss that they didn't stat Deadbeard who is one of the tougher bosses in the game. And also that one of the most important items is hidden there, the Cleric Ring which nullifies cursed equipment and is the only place in both games you can find it. Also I think the guide writer got confused on what ship you get to use later on since it is referring to Babi's ship as the one we use at the end of the second game, but that isn't true, it's Piers ship he got from Lemuria.

Thing's I didn't know was that Hsu was Feizi's brother. I don't know if the guide is correct, but it changes at least some of the dynamics and why she is worried. I don't think any people in Xian mentiones it either so how the guide knows that I wouldn't know. The guide also gives me easy checkable lists on what to get on the Tolbi fountain. It's also nice have the weakness of bosses handy and actually learn that some status effects have a possibility to work. And then it's the second game.

Intro music is better though in this one

Right of the bat I get a bad feeling since the first thing is they spell Ivan wrong as Iwan. Secondly is that they mistake Piers ship with Menardi's even though it's stated that Piers was found on it. Then we have the problem of the map when I'm supposed to sail all across the world and don't get any visual clues on how the world looks like. Which poses another problem and that is that the hidden items that exist in the shallow waters of the ocean isn't shown. The rusty weapons are listed at the weapon and armour section since you can bring it to the smith Sunshine, but items aren't since they aren't unique. Which leads to another problem that affects the guide for both games. There isn't any enemy compendium, so say, for example when you read about the Prophet's Hat and that it is a dread hound that have it... where is it? I know it's in Altmiller Cave in the first game and various locations like Gaia Rock in the second game, but it isn't mentioned at all in the guide. This is especially problematic when you think about the forgeable materials that you really need to grind for. They also missed the first bonus for transferring data from the first game and that was fighting the bandits from Vault again as you leave Madra. They missed the golden shoes and they aren't mentioned at all. There's also an inconsistent in how they write this guide since Tolbi fountain had every item in a box which you could tick of, but Lemuria Fountain you got them in the text mentioning what everything is. Why the inconsistency? 

What's good is the guide for the classes which I never bothered with since each normal element are powerful enough, but maybe I should try it with the guide by my side. I miss a bit of content though. Why no mention of the Dark Panther Method? That a djinni of opposite element increase the chance of an item drop. I don't expect them to outline the whole 100 % drop method, but that one is rather important. And the 3 x Select at the naming screen to name other three characters in the game and then the other code to name Felix, Jenna and Sheba at the first game? It's in the game and it's a fun code to use (if you want to since I never use it other than to look that I can do it). It's also nice to have a overview map of towns and dungeons, although it's kinda irritating that if a house is important, like the lord's different castles there ain't any map of the interior.

Really, you don't need this to finish the games and things that are useful like list of forgeable equipment, classes and such you can probably get on GameFAQ, and things that should have been here like Bestiaries and secret codes defintliy exist there since I printed it out ages ago. Had all of that been in these guides I would recommend it as a complement in case you want to 100 % or test different strategies to finish it faster or such, but it doesn't exist here.