Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)

 

So, when will we save the planet?

Played through the third game in the series again. A bit later after the original games, and the reason being that there is no pull to play through this. At the time it has been 15 years and still no sign of an eventual continuation from the cliffhanger ending they left us in. On the other hand I have reconsidered my hate for Tyrell, so I actually find him rather agreeable somewhere like a quarter to half of the game length. Still a POS in the beginning since he needs to be to start the plot. 

Overall the plot works out for me, the graphics are a bit dated and I actually believe the 3d hampers it. Like many other games, it's the need for rotating 3d cameras and such instead of a quick action taking place. Which reflects that every attack takes a bit longer than in the GBA games. Interestingly it also gives them a bit more heft as you almost feel the heaviness of the weapons as our heroes swing them on the enemies. 

No, the worst part with this game is still the points of no return. Even with a guide at my side I still missed a djinn in one of the areas I couldn't go back to. And this reflect something that the game isn't as polished as the first games. You get mind read super late in the game which took away one of the most intriguing method of puzzle solving or finding information to progress or just lore of the world. And then by locking out several areas you diminish the workload even more. And that is what it feels like. Less passion in the game. They did put in the effort to show how for example Kraden's group could traverse the first temple, like they did in The Lost Age with Piers looking for his control gem for his ship. But there you could use your own psynergy to follow that path, here it gets locked behind the Point of No Return. It shrinks the world.

A fun thing is that I actually did the game for the first time as intended after leaving Belinsk on the ship, almost. You're supposed to go to Warrior hill to get the third eye, and from their to Izumo to use it in order to get Himi and then head toward Tonfon in order to get the Echo Gem to look for the Umbra Gear map. I usually find the map and the people carrying it before going to Tonfon and then wondering what the Echo Gem is doing in the item store. A pity that due to constantly creating points of no return I'm more inclined to go off the beaten path pushing me away from the narrative cause who knows what the game will lock out for you.

And the last part with the game was that since I forgot one djinn and realised it after doing everything you can do before fighting the final boss I switched file to the one where I had grinded to level 99 and gotten everything. Here I changed djinn around since the guide didn't have a class list and due to the very different structure of finding djinn meaning the carefully chosen class might be hampered due to the djinn you find since at times you will have a lot of a single element. 

At the end of things, it's a working game but their is a lot of missed potential and it just doesn't hit the highs of the older game. Not even the music compare really. It sounds like it should, but there is only two tracks from this game that really stand out and that is the Apollo Ascent and one of the outside dungeons track with the bells and bass. But there is no song like Elemental Stars that just sucks you in the mystery of the world. So it becomes a disappointment. 

So in a remake after they have to make it before going through the next part the only thing I would like is getting rid of the Point of No Return and why in the world is Crossbone Island set behind finishing the game? That is just irritating. 

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Wii U)

 

Where's my continuation?

Finished off the second game again and the feeling of melancholy have appeared for finishing it up. Played it very slow compared to the last time. Last time I only put in 28 hours, 41 levels and missed 2 djinn and didn't get the last summons. Don't know why, but fixed it this time. Played it on Hard as well, mostly larger HP on the enemies I gathered. No problem until the end when I fought Dullahahn, which beat me every time so I had probably to grind for another 10 levels to be able to survive his attacks while dealing with the 200 regeneration he has. A bit easier on the old cart where I see that I had level 87 and played for 136 hours. Have I said this is my favourite game series? It has to be when a 30 hours game is played for 136 hours. Not as long as Tears of the Kingdom, but I only played that once. 

Played the game using the class items you get and while the first game actually gave me an enhanced experience since it made it easier with growth and such, here changing away from the basic classes actually was a hindrance where I constantly had to turn of the items and djinn to get Frost or Whirlwind, not until the second team showed up did it improve (and that was often due to their psynergy items that permanently gave you douse and Frost), but the final classes was awesome. At that point grinding for items worked really fine when I had all attack djinn put on the main party and diversified over all four meaning I could constantly hit them. And with Petra and Ground you could crowd control most encounters. And most late end bosses was really easy with a combo of those two and summon rush. Dullahan the only one that could handle it. Also went out of my way (which may explain some of the extra hours) to go to Air's Rock before Yampi Desert. Maybe would try to get the angry Kraden scene if I play again where you said no to everything and wanting to skip Lemuria gets Kraden so mad.

So, in a hypothetical remake, what would I want to see? Get rid of the RNG-blacksmith mechanic or let more enemies drop materials for Sunshine. I also realised again it was strange that people from the first game didn't have portraits there, but gained them here, so sync that up. A mini-map would be nice since the guide wasn't all that helpful at times since they didn't have a room in Ankhol ruins which put me on a loop which I couldn't get past. More funny is that I noticed they had missed a vial in Air's Rock as well. 

Still love the game. It has the emotional pay-off for a 60 hour game (both games combined) and cliffhanger in the end that really interesting. Sadly they didn't explain it in the 3rd game. Also, there was a lot of things they could have explored in a future game, the fighting between Hisperia and Atteka, Alhafra's greedy mayor and what happened to Prox after the Golden Sun event? Still, nice seeing it on the big screen, can't say the same for the next game, Dark Dawn since they never released it on the Virtual Console. A travesty I say!

Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (Wii U)

 

Finally!

Difficulties at work made me crave some nostalgic feelings and maybe it was time to replay the game I once called the best game ever. Especially since it was 6 years since last as of writing. So no story or such since I already covered that in depth. I think I played it on the Wii U last time, but since I didn't have a decent TV I think I used the Wii U gamepad and I gotta say, playing on a big screen with a Wii U Pro Controller felt rather well. Only problem with it I would liked to have utilised more of the buttons, but that is due to the Game Boy Advance controllers. 

So what did I do to spice it up? I decided to change my classes beyond the mono-elemental one I usually do. In the first game it doesn't work that well until you get 6 djinn of each element to gain some interesting combos. So I picked up my Prima Guide and had it beside me during the whole game. Then I began noticing certain things. For example giving Ivan Flint in the beginning and defeating the three thieves makes the game give you back Flint so that you won't miss him... even if it only is really a few minutes. It actually made it easier in most parts since I didn't have to think about growth psynergy or such since I already had it.

Then it was the artefact weapons and armor. Most of them in the early game is kinda worthless. The bandit sword is already out paced by the normal weapons you can buy before getting it. What's the point? And that keeps up until something like Altin. I read somewhere someone complaining that they didn't have money so maybe that, but I just played it normally and sold off all Water of Life and other consumables meaning I had enough money for pretty much anything. No problem. Maybe they didn't explore enough.

I also decided to do the game really out of order in my usual style. For example I headed for Imil and Mercury Lighthouse before Kolima Woods. Got my ass beat my Saturnos, so I headed back to Kolima and did that before returning with more djinn and levels. Went a lot easier. I forgot that I should have skipped the Force Orb for that special cutscene in the Altin Mines, have to wait for the next playthrough in 2030. Defeated the Cyclone monster in the desert before finishing Colosso, saw another text with Sheba before she left Tolbi which I haven't seen before. Read also that you could see the colors of the stones in Altmiller Cave with Reveal which was a cool tidbit. Never knew that since I wrote down what Babi said so I wasn't lost. Speaking about Altmiller Cave I found out that the Prima Guide has an error. The guide says that the Dragon Shield is in the cave, but it is in Altin Mine. Think it was a vial there, but they probably confused the vial with the Mystic Draught. Went through the Babi Lighthouse section and headed out so I could finish off Crossbone Island. I actually went back there as quickly I had the appropriate psynergy. Still, Carry is the final one and that is in Venus Lighthouse. After that I killed Dreadbeard at level 28, started up my old save that was for level grinding so I had 42 and grinded to 44 so that Ivan had the Tornado psynergy and then I beat the game and is prepared for the next game.

Overall I fell in love with the game again. The Music, the graphics and the story just makes me happy. So since there is probably no reason for them to release Golden Sun 4 at the moment the best I can hope for is probably some kinda remake. Best option would be the first 2 games remade into one. Would I change somethings? I would prefer if running was the default, more buttons to use and maybe some tweaks so that early weapons actually is useful. The main characters don't default to defend if the target dies before a strike. A bestiary and maybe some added content. If both games are combines I would gladly take a New Game+ where the levels just continues so that you can grind to lvl 99 and max all stats. Another thing is maybe add a store or such that actually sells something like Oil Drops or Weasel Claws so that you can use different play styles. They can also put in a growth psynergy to Isaac like they did for Matthew. And more inventory space. There's like 5 open spaces when you are decked out with weapons, armor, accessories and psynergy items. I would enjoy that, but question if I still would bitch about the game straying from the pure original.

Shining in the Darkness (Sega Mega Drive II Mini) (1 000 post)

 

Guess the magician is evil?

So what shall be the first game to play off the Mini II? What's this? A game made by the people behind the Golden Sun-series? And it's an RPG? Sign me up! This is Shining in the Darkness, the first game in the Shining-series, that would turn into a tactical strategy fantasy game. But at its start it was a dungeon crawler rpg.

Game starts with you, the son of Mordred, the greatest knight of the realm (which I named ERIK since it had a 5 character limit and my real name has 6 characters in it, that and I didn't learn that his official name is Hiro until way later) being summoned to the king since Mordred and Princess Jessa have disappeared and is believed to being held in the nearby Labyrinth of the Ancients. You set out alone and delve through the first level of the Labyrinth until you defeat the first boss and finds the Royal Tiara belonging to the Princess. As you take it to the king he tasks you to find a party and rescue his daughter. You find your friends Pyra Myst and Milo Brax in the nearby town and together you set out to find the Princess. Pyra being a wizard herself and Milo being a cleric we have a power-trio dnd party.

Turns out she has been kidnapped by the magician Dark Sol so you have to traverse the trail of the Ancients, consisting the caves of Strength, Courage, Truth and Wisdom to climb to the higher levels of the Labyrinth. I played the game first on the Wii Virtual Console when I lived with my parents and I thought I got pretty far, I had my hand-drawn maps of the four caves and the first two floors of the Labyrinth, turns out there was 3 more levels. So I got to complete my maps after like 8-9 years. Yeah, I found my old maps so that made the early stage fairly easy, as soon as I was able to figure out what I meant. 

Graph paper, an adventurers best tool for exploration.

You finds out that Dark Sol is actually the wizard Melvyn that have acted as a consul for the king and even told you about the trail of the ancient. On the 4th floor you find Princess Jessa trapped in a cell and the key protected by a brainwashed Mordred that you have to kill. You break out the Princess and returns to the king and then prepares for the final battle against Dark Sol. You have decked out your knight with the light arms, Milo with mythril equipment and Pyra with everything left. Without grinding I got up all characters between 56-51 levels and that was easy enough. Dark Sol's motivations wasn't that clear, at first it sounded like he only wanted the power of darkness that was sealed in the Labyrinth, but as I faced him he talked about finally finding someone that could challenge him. He got vaporised anyway after his second form was defeated. You return, becomes a first knight and lord of a castle, Milo joins you while Pyra becomes the apprentice of the wizard Xern, the former master of Melvyn... is that really a good thing? He already created one dark lord and Pyra does have some evil tendencies since in her first appearance she puts slow on a person that bumped into her that we then had to save from the Labyrinth when he got caught there.

It was a fun game. Music catchy and the graphics was really nice. I could clearly see where Camelot got some of the graphical ideas that they used later on in Golden Sun (menus and such). There is a nod to Golden Axe with the Weapon Merchant being the dwarf from those games as well. Problems? The menu systems would need an overhaul since it's a lot back and forth to find what you want in the shops and that there is no easy way to see if equipment is better or worse when you look at them is a rather irritating nuisance. But it's at least worth trying. Lastly an interesting thing I noticed on the statistics of the characters, the mage characters Pyra and Milo has so much higher ground stats for defence meaning they actually take less damage until the end game when the main character gets the light arms. I get why, you got a lot more amor for the fighter, but it feels weird in a dnd way that the mage at least is bulkier (since I currently have a cleric dwarf in the campaign I get they can take some damage).

This also seems to be the 1 000 post I've ever done! Only took me 15 years to reach, and it all began with me travelling to the US to study international relations... didn't get much use for that in my career, but at least the internship allowed me to get the job at the public agency. Here's for another 1 000 posts!

Remembering Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (2)

So were's the sequel?

This time we tackles the story. The game is set 30 years after the Last Age and the world has been reshape due to the Golden Sun event and new places have appeared while others have disappeared. Meanwhile psynergy vortexes appears that causes havoc and every 10 year a really big one appear, dubbed the Mourning Moon. Apparently they suck the surroundings dry of psynergy. To combat this Isaac and Garet have set up camp to watch over the ruins of Mount Aleph while Ivan has helped them build a Soarwing so that they can access Sol Sanctum and speak with the Wise One. All this planning is crumbled as Garrets son Tyrell decide to take the machine for a spin and crashes it so Isaac's son Matthew have to lead Tyrell and Ivan's daughter Karis to Morgal to find Mountain Roc feather. 

Not even his father likes Tyrell

And here is the first problem with the story, I don't like Tyrell. As his father put it, he's a brat. He destroys the machine as he wants to fly, he almost burns down a store (which he burnt down before) and he's stupid. Yes, Garret was portrayed as rather dimwitted at times, but he was loyal to a t and followed Isaac when Isaac overruled him. He could argue against it and often grounded that in the task at hand (stop Felix for example). Heck, he has the same attitude here. Garett was reasonable, Tyrell you have to smack around so he doesn't do anything rash and the one that does the smacking is Karis. This makes Matthew just appear as a figurehead for the real brains of the operation that is Karis. Not to mention the kids are 16. Isaac and Garett was at least 17. Let's continue. So you set visit a couple of places which tells you what happened to Vale and Vault and how the survivors copped with this new world. You meet people like Carver and Patcher all the while reinforcing the story of the Mourning Moon and the destruction caused by the Psynergy vortexes and how the non-adepts perceive adepts and such. Great set up for something big. Meanwhile you have to follow Kraden to a ruin to reach Biblibin since the bridge at Carvers was destroyed by a vortex. Inside you are attacked by Tsuparang soldiers led by Blados who kidnapps Rief, Kraden's apprentice and son to Mia and brother to Nowell. There you also meet Arcanus who... it's Alex. It's freaking Alex, but let's assume we don't know that.

The Phantom of Weyard

So Matthew and co has to split with Kraden and rescue Rief. Meanwhile Blados blew up the exit creating the first PoNR. Hope you got the 3-4 djinni before exiting the cave. So now your objective is to cross the mountains to reach Morgal. To do this you must activate 2 alchemical machines hidden in these lands. The land being the former Lamakan Dessert, but no Xian or Altin. Here you meet the ruthless King Wo who wages war against Passaj and Ayuthay to establish himself before reclaiming his homeland Sana from the benevolent Emperor Unan. The cities being the homes of the alchemical machines that you need to fix in order to take the cloudpassage from Passaj to the Neox capital at Craggy Peak. They also pick up prince Amiti in Ayuthay who everyone believes to be a messiah, born without a father and such, but apparently a water adept came by 20 years ago fixing their machine and created an oasis paradise. Gee, I wonder who the mysterious water adept can be.

Hm... Same father as Heuy, Dewey and Louie

You get it running and traverse the mountains and enter one of the most interesting dungeons in the game, the Craggy Peak ruin. It has 12 rooms associated with the zodiac and you must solve all 12 puzzles to be able to leave. After that you reach a mountain village were you are "greeted" by two Sanan nobles, the younger one being a spiritual twin of Tyrell, boy, two of them. His story is that they fled the beastmen uprising in Morgal while there father, the governor and brother to Emperor Unan, was killed. His sister unfortunately was captured and he and his mentor tries to save her. Traversing yet another mountain ruin you encounter Sveta, the sister of the current Morgal king Volechek and she agrees to help you pass the mountain and gives you information of the Mountain Roc near Kolima forrest (that has moved for some reason). Here you also finds out that Eoleo, son of the Pirate leader Briggs who appeared in the last game has also been imprisoned and Briggs ask for your help to rescue him. No other choice you agree while on the way to Kolima forrest to see the elder Tret. So after saving Kolima... again you meet Tret who gives you information on to enter Berlinsk and rescue the prisoners. Also this little hint is dropped:

Amiti: "I am Amiti of Ayuthay. It is a great honor to make your acquaintance."

Tret: "Hmph. Charmed, I'm sure. Another relative of Mia's, right?"

Hmm, interesting! Besides that the Sanana noblemen joins you in climbing the mountain and at the top confronting the Roc to get the feather, at the same time as Blados and Chalis drops the hint that you must start the machine below Belinsk to save the prisoners. The Sananas steals the artefacts necessary from you and bolts. You follow them and enters the ruin below the city and meet up with Sveta and the Sananas as you start up this third alchemical machine. This one summons the Eclipse tower that cast an eclipse over a large part of Angara summoning monster that slaughers the innocent. Apparently Volechek had been duped by the Tsuparang as he was told it was a weapon he could defend his land from the Sanan empire and the power hungry Biblibin. So the party rescues the prisoners and flees on Briggs ships, but not before Briggs have been killed by the shadow monsters. And this is the third and last PoNR (the second one being Craggy Peak which you can't return to after leaving). You can't enter Belinsk, Kolima, Port Rago or Border Town or even the mountains again. Instead you can return to the south of Angara again and see what calamity the Grave Eclipse has caused. Which I really like. Consequences. People you met have died, important NPC's like the generals of King Wo actually died during their siege of Ayuthay. The people of Ayuthay and Passaj survived most of the destruction due to the alchemical machines that powers the Eclipse Tower and as you will find out they also powers the machine to stop it, the Apollo Lens. A gun powered by solar energy atop pretty much the great wall of Angara. But first you need to gather the 3 orbs to open the road and the Umbra gear so that Sveta can survive the intense light at the machine. Sailing the seas also takes you back to Izumo... kinda. Izumo was destroyed, but the villagers fled after a vision from their leader Uzume who died upon leading her people to safety. Makes me think of Moses for some reason. Here you meet Susa and Kushinada from the last game and their daughter Hima that has fallen in a coma which you wake her from with an artefact that gives her a third eye. So now the parties is complete, you gathered all the gear and traveled up to the Apollo Lens. Where you are confronted by Tsuparang again, but this time Arcanus helps you and unveil his true name Alex, although he still goes with the High Empyrors plans, but Blados and Chalis have betrayed Tsuparang and are from the Umbra Clan... which is what Tsuparang is and they turned Volecheck into a Chaos Hound and... fire the damn thing already!

Moonstone Cannon! FIRE!!!

So the tower is turned off, the blast caused human-born beastmen to turn into light adepts and Alex escaped while Sveta became queen. And our heroes got the feather and returns home. A job well done, although I can't help but think we forgot something, what could it be?

Oh... Oops!

And that is the end. No "The End?" or "To Be Continue", just "The End". On a freaking cliffhanger again. And that was 5 years ago and still no Golden Sun 4. God dammit. So, what was good with the story? The ideas of the Eclipse Tower, Apollo Lens and Alchemical machines. The set up of the psynergy vortexes and a more present antagonist compared to the last games were frankly they hardly showed up. The bad? The whole games main driving point is a fetch quest for a feather while you by chance stumbles upon the bad guys that decide to use you (if not somehow the Tsuparang are behind the vortex cutting the bridge at Carver's home and intercepted Kradens note as to know they were coming... dammit, if that's the case it would be a rather good twist). Even if the feather isn't a huge problem the fact that we did drop any hint toward the psynergy vortexes after the first dungeon and reintroduce it at the very end feels a bit... cheap? It sets up the setting so good, the continent has shifted, the psynergy vortexes appears and every 10 year a massive one erupts. Also, people complained that we didn't see any of the new cities in the last games, but I chalked it up to that they weren't important and the game itself states that due to the shifting landmass some of them came to prosper like Tonfon that lied on a mountain top, but now had fertile soil to grow into the Sanan empire (within a 30-year time frame, but somehow the game states they were both peacekeepers and warmongers although the former Emperor Ko established the empire and it was just recently Unan took over so how that worked beats me). But we shift story as we stumble around in the world trying to reach the Roc and then accidentally starts this domesday machine and has to fix it. It feels like two games was mashed together. The beginning and the end feels as if they are completely separate from the middle portion and it feels they were tacked on to try to explain why the middle happened. Other things that is irritating is that they still don't develop the characters. It's even less since Isaac at least felt he had to take responsibility, but here the fault lies with Tyrell and does he learn? I don't know, we don't mention it at least. And the silent protagonist. At least both Isaac and Felix spoke in either game while Felix also said some words in the end. I believe they tried to fix that with a 4 kind of emotional responses, happy, ecstatic, sad and angry. Fine, more than yes or no, but it's hard sometimes to see if what I'm responding to. Is it the question I'm given or the answer I'm giving? And it still doesn't matter for more than one or two lines.

So should I be happy due to winning or sad for using violence or angry to show some gusto? What does it matter better chose ecstatic than I'm both happy and have gusto!

So... is it bad? No, it's a decent game and Camelot still put in a lot of care and thought into it. And all of this might be salvageable in case a forth game ever continues on this and tying all this together. I think this game more was hurt by expectations. Everyone wanted a big game like the Lost Age, what we got was a retread of the first game with a bit of new settings in the old setting. We only saw what, a 1/5 of the whole of Weyard? The few things people wondered wasn't addressed at all like Sheba's heritage, Tolbi's leaders after Babi, did Dodonpa reform. Things I discovered in my last playthrough was also the hatred between Atteka and Hesperia that Felix speed up. Also, what become of Lemuria? Could Piers return or is he still exiled and how did they react to the unleashed Alchemy? One of the few things that was mentioned was Susa and Kushinada's son that would help Isaac one day which is mentioned when we meet them, but he already left and some speculate he is with Piers and Nowell, which frankly is setting up one way a potential sequel could start where you play as him as the main protagonist since he is a Venus adept. Really, of all of this we only answered one question and that was if Alex survived the Golden Sun. Now we have even more questions like the deal with Tsuparang, who is the High Empyror (really creative naming there guys), the umbra clan and the light adepts. Will anything of that come to play? Also of all the characters in this game, will Amiti figure out who his father is? And it's been 5 years already. There is some small talk about a 4th game here and there with a petition some years ago. I hope the series doesn't end like this, but I will probably be cautiously optimistic until at least 2 years... or 5 years... or 10 years... It will never end this pain of disappointment, will it?

At least Isaac was in Smash Brother! Right Guys and Gals?

Remembering Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (1)

The most anticipated game of 2010... for me

Boy, playing through this game has really torn me between if its good, passable or nostalgia driven. On one hand, it was so fun to play this and see all the nods to the previous games, the same music and graphics that very closely come to a real 3d creation of the 2d sprites of the original. To see familiar characters and places, solving puzzles again and explore more of the lore and settings of Weyard. They improved several gameplay features and introduced some new ones that enhances the game. Take the added unleashes for the weapons which you have to master by using. Feels more organic and a weapon can have several unleashes. Also if during a battle the target dies you just attack another enemy. Then we have the psynergy uses which also was improved in ways like you now light up what items can be affected by the psynergy you want to use and if you want to cancel it doesn't cost you any psynergy points (or PP). The game introduces even more psynergies as well and finally a different venus adept than the warrior and a different jupiter adept than the mage. All of these are good things with the game since it's nostalgic and at the same time gives me more to explore and use. If it would work for a newcomer to the series I wouldn't know since the references comes instantly to me, but they have a lexicon which are activated by words in conversation that you press with the stylus and the games give you an description. More good things is the added mini-map at the DS top screen where you also have stats and set djinni during battle so the battle screen isn't cluttered.

The main characters promotional art

So what is wrong with the game? Most are story related and I will cover that in Fridays (yes, it will be published on Friday) update. So in this segment then, what is the problem? First of, and a damn offender is the Points of No Return. In short there is parts of the game that get locked out after you pass a certain point. The old games had no such thing (if you don't consider the change from The Broken Seal to The Lost Age) and here there is 3. What this mean is that if you missed a djinn or such along before a PoNR you have to replay the whole game to get it (which isn't that long, the latest playthrough was around 25 hours for me). And there really wasn't necessary in my opinion. Yes, story reason was given and some of them I understand they kept as broken bridges so you wouldn't advance to areas outside the game, I get that, but they should have kept the broken bridges and let me go back to the earlier stages of the game. I fear they wanted to minimise NPC interaction in these stages to keep the word count small (which I guess is the reason we don't get this games equivalent of mind read until the last PoNR). Which is sad since the former games had that possibility, even for places were you couldn't access it meaning they took time and effort which showed a huge dedication of care and labor for those games. Then we have that all items, equipment and weapons that are basically copies from the last two games. Certain new forgeable, but the majority is the same. The same goes for the summons when we are only introduced to 1 new one. Also, they took away the gambling portions of the games. No dice game and no tickets (which seriously limits boots and rings to find and there is no shirt category whats so ever). Not even a lucky fountain to get really awesome gear. The new music is alright, although the main theme for this game is a bit subdued. I greatly preferred the Lost Age main theme. But it isn't bad in any means and the Apollo sanctum music is fantastic as well as the outside dungeons with the bells and bass line. The graphics... well, I see what they are and it is a decent 3d rendering, but still... it's not that appealing at times.

Kraden, what did they do to you?

So in all, the game plays better in many aspects compared to its predecessors, the graphics are so and so, the music is decent, but they took out certain features and hardly put in any new content leaving a lot of the overall opinion on the story and boy, do we have something to talk about. To give a perspective also on my own opinions. In 2010 when the game was released I've waited 7 years for this game. When it was shown in 2009 I spent several post on this blog with my speculations, hopes and dreams for this game. I bought the game on launch day and played it. Reading through my posts I seem to at least be satisfied with this game to still my Golden Sun cravings. Sadly, no new game have been hinted at or shown for the last 5 years and the craving is rising for even more of this series, to explore this world once again. So while scouring the net I stumbled upon this playthrough  of the first two games and find it intriguing that someone didn't like this marvellous series, but reading though it I finally saw many of the flaws that I never thought of. Mostly the writing, but also that pretty much every non-lighthouse dungeon is a freaking cave and that the battles are just spam normal attacks or djinni. Some complaints put forward I share with him, like that there is no motivation for the player to play the Lost Age to the end until after the midpoint of the game. But just like in How I Met Your Mother, if you really like someone, the flaws are easily over glanced. And I still love those first games.

Although Kraden was pretty much just saying what everyone else already said.

Remembering Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2)

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

Remember Golden Sun: The Lost Age (1)

99, 100... eh, fudge it, let's continue the story

After 40 hours of play I finished of this game, and it still feel as satisfying doing it as when I did it the first time back in 2003. It was a long wait back then, but I was hyped, especially after getting a promo CD from an now defunct Swedish gaming magazine that had clips from all kinds of games, including this one and if I remember right it was this one:

Listen to that music. That bombastic intro alone sold me on that this game was a much have. And now I played it on the Wii U. 40 hours more docked into that game. So what is better? It's larger first of. The original was rather railroaded as you had little choice to get anywhere else than the plot demanded, here they allow you free reins once you get the boat to do the elemental rocks in any order you want or tackle the trident towers (or whatever they are called). I guess the preferred order from the game designers where water than earth to be honest due to some dialog choices and needed powers, but it really doesn't matter.

Look at this map and you only visited the northern continent in the first game

Other improvements was forgeable items with a smith in one of the towns (rng based as well so you could fool it to give you one of the better weapons in the game). Also a lot more items to get from random drops so you know what that mean, ring-grinding. Although I think the designers realised their miss since it is harder to get the desired monster to appear since you need to cycle through them. If you find a correct spot that is. Also a lot more psynergies to use and some really useful ones like teleport (which took me a play through to realise that you could use outside of dungeons as well to get to any town on the map you visited). Also the world itself felt deeper with the different stories and legends you uncovered together with the ruins of the ancient world, the titular lost age of man. One of the better introductions was also the New Game + future that allows you to replay the game with your ending level. It clearly beats playing from scratch and level grind the hell out of low level monsters. And playing through it I can't say I didn't enjoy it and in many ways far superior to the original. And yet there is still some things I find disturbing me enough that I prefer the original over this. And they are all story related so I will bring that up in the story post on Thursday so I can collect my thoughts and better present them.

Well, except for the password, damn thing is 6 pages long and you can't even use the link cable like the original, if you had both games, two GBA's and above mentioned link cable. And if you had two of one game you could even duke it out!

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!

Remembering Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (1)

It's Back, my Golden Sun ramblings post, enjoy all ye gamers or despair!

My God have mercy on our souls!

All right hopefully I won't ramble on for ever as I did building up my own hype for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, which incidentally just felt flat. Heck, I didn't even try to review it just saying it was good and that I would play it again (which I did). So maybe I should go back, try the series again and see if it still holds up, like 13 years after release. So I bought the first game again at the same time I could upgrade my newly bought Wii U. Started playing and somewhere at the end I stopped playing until this Friday. At that moment I was level 28 and standing outside Suhalla desert trying to get the droppable armour Aura Gloves. Probably did something wrong with the RNG-method as this time it worked without a hitch. First a little explanation, the RNG-method is a way to fool the game into letting it give you droppable items and equipment as if you hard reset the games it goes back to zero and doing certain actions you can hit the desired RNG-value over and over again, giving you the best equipment in the games. Now, is this cheating? In a sense yes, as you exploit something in the games to make it easier for you to win the game (or in some cases be more fun, as grinding for certain weapons and items can take forever, especially since they only exist as droppable). Then again, they should have made it so simple to exploit that even I could figure the system down and replicate it over and over again for favourable results.

Well, that sounds just like me!

Really, without that exploit getting the best weapons, which incidentally I didn't know about until I researched the games in forums back in the day, you can hardly get them. Doesn't help that certain items like the prophet's hat disappears after certain event (interestingly they don't mention that in the link so did that ever happen?). Interestingly, while grinding my level 28 to 42 that I did for 10-12 hours, I actually received the best weapons and armours completely legit for the first time playing this game. Also, I was originally gonna grind my level up to level 56 since that is as I got on my cartridge. Luckily I can't check how many hours I wasted grinding since the problem is that at the most the encounter in the final dungeon gives around 1000-1500 (with some going as 2000) exp. So in a bout 20 encounters for a single level at level 42. Now, back in the days I used to battle the first phase of the final boss over and over again which gives 6000 exp (with possibilities of over 7000 exp). The trick being that if you get defeated at the second phase (which doesn't give you any exp) you are transported to the nearest sanctum and could do it again. Sounds profitable... until I did the calculation yesterday. Now, the exp isn't bad... if it wasn't a very story crucial moment which drags on with plot and characters in which I could fight smaller encounters and earn more than the 7000 exp I could at best get. And I did that up to level 56, that is 14 more levels. So I said screw that and finished the game.

S Club 7 never tried to grind for the end levels of an JRPG

The sickest part of this? I read somewhere that one person actually grinded up to level 99 in this game (which given the 1 1/2 year until the sequel hit the store is probably a good time frame). So why is it such a chore? The split game that continues in the sequel. This wasn't meant to be the end game of the story and therefore the enemies reflect on it. Also, there is hardly any reward for leveling beyond 56. With reward, beside the stat increase, I mean getting new psynergies to devastate your enemies with. At level 54 you run that well dry so all you grind for is numbers... that still are above the final bosses of the Lost Age (of course, there I grinned up to level 89, but you could play a New Game + with intact levels if you restarted). Really, the game is fun and I should probably talk more about the story and other gameplay elements in a forthcoming post, but the level system is a bit flawed and took a bit longer to talk through... and incidentally I just learned that the lizard at Crossbones Island gives over 1700 exp per encounter and it is triggered meaning it is guaranteed. Damn, be back later!

17, 18, 19... level up!... 1, 2, 3,

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (3)

 

So I'm back again after... 2 weeks, huh. Well, I've been busy finishing of my exams before Christmas as well start on a small "essay" before the next rounds of exams. I hate this, getting a job seems so much more tempting these days around. While I'm not doing that I'm playing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. And it's AWESOME.

Well worth waiting 7 years for, although it feels a bit short landing around 40 hours, but that doesn't include finding every secret so I can at least milk it for some more hours... after I play it over again since you can't back-track to certain places like in the old game. Pity. Also there is no problem keeping a high enough level since one of the new elements is that of weapon mastery. Each weapon has a meter that you fill the more you use it to gain new unleashes. If you get every weapon and pass them around between everyone and get everyone accustomed to them, you will end up at around 5 levels over what the game requires at different checkpoints.

Maybe tedious if you gonna do it every time so I had hoped for a new game plus sort of arrangement, but no. You have to redo it all over again, but I probably got loads of time for doing that. Especially since it took them 2 years to get the first sequel running and this one 7 years. And yes, they will most likely make another sequel since this one also ends on a freaking cliffhanger. It's like ending in the middle of a...

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (2)

It's funny with summer actually. Most of the days you don't see anyone you know and suddenly you meet a couple of them for just no reason. I couldn't take 5 steps until a new friend showed up, I tell you, it's like an random battle encounter in an RPG. This of course takes us to more Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Almost 24 hours later the Internet has been busy working to find any scrap of information to enlighten the fans. So beside that we know 3 out of the 4 characters from yesterday, one of them, Terrell, has changed name too Tyrell and the fourth member is apparently someone named Crown. As far that goes, Matthew is a Venus adept, Karis a Jupiter adept and Tyrell a Mars adept, which leaves Crown as a Mercury adept. Not very special since Golden Sun started with a Venus and two Mars adepts, dumped one and replaced her with a Jupiter adept. The Lost Age started with a Venus, Mars and Jupiter adept. So the Mercury comes later, all the time. Why? I have no idea, they aren't stronger then the others, actually the opposite as they only are stronger then the Jupiter adepts. The only reason would be due too the main antagonists are Mars adepts and they get an advantage over that. Ironically it's an Mercury adept that pulled the strings on all events in the last games.

Talking about main antagonists, they haven't announced one, only some strange phenomena called Psynergy Vortex. This is a bit of a let down, cause all I can think of is the Void from Final Fantasy V. So someone's behind that, who could it be? Must be Alex and hope to God it's not a tree. So what am I doing at the moment? Playing thru the first game up to level 56 so I get all the psynergies for those characters and then get the optimal equipment. That's all potions, lucky medals, psy crystals and water of life I can carry together with equipment necessary to alter the speed of the characters as well as some other stuff. And then it's onward to the second game and a 99 level game to be fully prepared for the DS release... if I manage to keep up interest, which I doubt as there is nothing to gain after level 60 except higher stats. Boring.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

As you can guess by the title I've been watching the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2010 and I'm in trance. There was a new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Metroid: Other M, Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye (sadly not Rare), Kid Icarus: Uprising and the Nintendo 3DS (which I probably have to buy as my DS is breaking down). I really need a job now if I should be able to afford all those games and consoles, and this is just the Nintendo line up, I haven't even watched the Sony conference or others. What a wonderful christmas is before us.

But absolutely best was the Golden Sun: Dark Dawn announcement... and I still don't know what's going on. Only by searching different boards did I find out that the initial names for 3 of the main characters is Matthew, Karris and Terrell and then I found this showing me what I missed the first time:
So, what do we know now? Nothing, we have to wait 6 months until it is released (hopefully). But we can speculate a bit more. Matthew is probably the son of Isaac. Why? Because his name is the first one, he looks like Isaac and one of the few things the trailer says it's the next generation and here I assume it's just that short leap in generations. Also, as I noticed in the beginning of the video is that when Matthew stands on the cliff this robed blond guy walks toward him with a sword on his back. You know what I think? That must be Isaac. I can't wait, need to hibernate in 6 months.