I found that advertisement in the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Makes quite perfect sense considering Nintendo HQ is about a 30 minute drive from there. Portable gaming has been successful with kids because it gives them something to do while they are in the back of the car. It has not been popular with adults because usually they are the one driving or they don’t have time.  RPG is the perfect genre for the system considering they might have 10 hours to kill as I usually do when I go to Wisconsin. Upon getting Game Boy Advance, I have gotten a total of three RPG excluding Lufia for the GBC. They are Golden Sun, Breath of Fire, Tactics Ogre: the Knights of Lodi, and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. After thought, I decided that I wanted to really describe each game rather than just give a mediocre review on each one so each week hopefully; I will have a review for the four games. Here is Golden Sun.

Golden Sun has nothing to do with the sun, at least nothing that I can recall. Golden Sun is the first game I got and the first game that I wanted for the GBA. The story is really about a boy and his friends who journey out to save the world. Some people wanted to gain the power of a goddess (I think) so they need to collect all the four stones of the Psyenergy: Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune. Not only that, they have to light all four lighthouses to gain the true power. In order to stop their enemies, they have to get to the light houses first before the bad guys arrive, but they are always late.

 What do they have to fight with? Weapons and Psyenergy. Psyenergy? What the heck is that? Well it is summed up in one word: Magic. It is magic really. They use Psyenergy to solve the several of puzzles that appear in the game such as there might be a time where you will have to lift up a rock or perhaps even cloak to sneak past guards. Psyenergy is also used in battle to attack or heal. The kind of psyenergy that one can use is all based on the class which is determined by the use of Djinns.

Djinns are basically creatures that help you in several of ways. Sometimes they will appear right in front of you. Other times, you will have to search for them. They can change your class, make you more powerful, use the power during battle, and use for summoning when grouped with people. Classes, in my opinion, are not much of a big deal, however, the classes affect what kind of magic that the person will get.  While “equipping” a djinn, certain attributes will be raised depending on the Djinn itself. If the Djinn is set or was cast in battle, it can be used for summoning which is really powerful when grouped with Djinns of the same element. Once summoned, Djinns must “recover”. They have to go through a round a battle or walk around a little on the map before they can be equipped again.

I know what you must be thinking. “Now, what the heck did he just say?” On paper, it looks complicated but when the game starts to explain, it is a snap to understand. The summons are very cool to watch, and they demonstrate the power of the GBA.

The graphics are possibly one of the best on the GBA now. The colors are very bright. They are very varied. The overworld looks nice with forests and lakes, but the characters have never heard of an ocean. The battle scenes are nice and they fit the areas. The menu is quite simple and easy to navigate. The commands are issued by icons which is very similar to ones used in Shining Force and Shining in the Darkness.

  The battle system is okay. It is turn based. The encounters are normal for an RPG. The monsters and the boss are quite fair. The weapons change with the characters, so if you have a sword, the battle scene will show a sword. If you have an axe, they will show an axe. The music is also okay too. The battle and boss themes are quite lousy for my taste. Some areas have some nice music but overall, I didn’t like the music. The sounds at least make sense.

Golden Sun is quite easy in comparison to other games. I rarely used the FAQ to help me. The game is pretty long. If I recall correctly, maybe 30 hours for me to beat it.  The replay value is very low. Once you beat it, there is no point of playing it again unless you want to play it again. In GBA wise, the best feature about Golden Sun is that you can save anywhere. It is not like suspend feature where you continue and then the data is erased until you really save or suspend again. That is important part for GBA RPGs for me. Also I forgot to add one annoying thing about Golden Sun. In RPGs, the characters tend to have the opportunity to answer yes or no to your liking to provoke a response of your choice. In Golden Sun, you will have a lot of opportunities to do so. They tend to ask you so many times that it becomes annoying.

Overall, this is a good game with superb graphics. This is good buy if you have the time to play it and a long trip in the near future. I give this 4 out of 5 stars. As for the ocean, “you know, the big blue wet thing.”

Hobbes Lionheart

Grab Bag
 

Hate Mail on the agenda during this time as we take a look into the emails we have received.