Review - Golden Sun and The Lost Age

“Golden Sun” and it's sequel "Golden Sun: The Lost Age" are a pair of JRPGs released on Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Frequently featured in lists of the best RPGs and JRPGs of all time, clearly they're good games, but what makes them so special? Also, why would I cover BOTH in the same post?

I'm putting these two games together because they're almost more like two halves of the same game. Not quite like Pokémon where it's the SAME story with slight variations between versions. Golden sun is effectively the part 1 to The Lost Age's part 2. Playing JUST Golden Sun would leave you with an incomplete story.

I don't want to suggest that this reflects poorly on either game. On the contrary, I think it was kinda nice to be able to sink about 25 hours into the first game, then take a break before continuing on to the second game. A sort of built-in intermission, if you will. I often burn myself out if I bum rush through a single game from start to finish. Beating Golden Sun gave me a good point to put that story aside for a bit and come back fresh for The Lost Age.

As I was playing, the game felt familiar in an unexpected way. I've beaten both Golden Sun and The Lost Age long ago when they first came out, so obviously I should remember parts of it. However, most of the parts I recognized, I could've sworn were in Breath of Fire II. The Wise One in Sol Sanctum, Bilibin Barricade and Kolima Forest, I remembered these areas and vague details, but I thought that those were from Breath of Fire II. Now I have no idea if I've ever played Breath of Fire II, but there were segments of Golden Sun that I remembered for 20+ years. I'll call that a win for Golden Sun.

Story - 8/10

The plot of Golden Sun and The Lost Age is pretty standard JRPG fare. A band of unlikely heroes comes together to save the world. There are some dead parents and unexpected reunions. To quote Stewie Griffin, "some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends." I'm not saying I mind at all, just that it's typical of the genre. Still an interesting story.

One big twist is that between the two games, the party's main priority shifts completely in reverse. I won't get into what they're trying to prevent in the first game, nor why they choose to pursue that very goal in the second, but it is entirely unexpected. What is viewed as a potential catastrophe becomes literally the only way to survive by the end of the second game.

Many of the main cast grew up together as children in the same small village, so there is an interesting exploration into how they grow different when they are suddenly thrown into competing adventures. This combination of familiarity and conflict I think distinctly mimics a lot of the relationships that we build as real people, where the connection between any two people becomes increasingly complex and nuanced the longer they know each other.

Beyond the central cast from Vale, there are additional party members from various tribes across the world. These tribes individually specialize in particular types of magic and (go figure) you often need to recruit members of these tribes to accomplish particular goals. The power of friendship!

While you could certainly rush through the games faster, a casual play through took me about 25 hours each, for a total of roughly 50 hours. That's pretty reasonable for a JRPG, and as I mentioned before, the break between games can be a welcome intermission. I would highly recommend against stopping after the first game, since it is left at an absolute cliffhanger and is fully intended to be finished with its complementing sequel. I did find myself wanting to be done by about 2/3 through The Lost Age, however.

There isn't much in the way of choice. Any decisions you make are effectively negated by conversations among the party, which will always arrive at the same conclusion. You get slightly different dialog, but these aren't games where you can have a significantly lasting impact on the world based on what you choose. Because of this, the plot is much more like watching an interactive movie and they don't have much replay value outside experiencing the same story over again.

General Gameplay - 7/10

For fans of the JRPG genre, Golden Sun will feel familiar. Random encounters, towns where you expect to chat with most of the residents, and dungeons to explore. It's comfortable.

One of the most unique elements of Golden Sun is the Djinn system. Imagine Pokémon, but slotted into something larger. Djinn are each associated with a particular element, and they all have a unique ability. When Djinn are in "set" mode, they provide a stat boost to the character to which they are equipped. Once a Djinni uses its ability, it goes into "standby" mode where it can be used alone or with other Djinn for a powerful elemental summon attack. Once a Djinni is summoned, it goes into "recovery" mode where it cannot be used for a period of time.

There are 28 Djinn in the first game and 44 in the second game, and you are heavily incentivized to catch 'em all. Some are random encounters on the world map, some are hidden deep in dungeons, are some are readily visible but require solving some kind of puzzle to reach. The puzzle Djinn will usually join your party willingly, but the others must be fought before they will assist.

Beyond Djinn, Golden Sun also has a pretty interesting puzzle system. Many puzzles contain elements of spaced platforms, rolling logs, and some capacity to raise or lower water. The terms of engagement are fairly easy to understand. The complexity comes from how you shift the components interact with them. In several places, there is a fairly simple solution to advance the plot, plus a more complex solution for an optional item or Djinni. In that way, the game does a good job of not gatekeeping if you want to rush through quickly.

The biggest complaint that I have about the gameplay is how obtuse it can occasionally be. There were several points where I seemed to be completely blocked. I was tracking the story, I was going to the place I was supposed to be, and nothing was happening to advance the plot. Turns out, I had to talk to one specific person in one specific place off the beaten path before the next story event would trigger. I understand encouraging players to talk to everyone, but hard gating the story for a seemingly unrelated interaction seems unfair even for early 2000s standards.

Combat - 4/10

The main mechanisms for combat in Golden Sun are weapons, Psynergy, and Djinn. Weapons start with just basic damage values, but they eventually gain unique abilities later in the game. Psynergy is the magic system of the game; characters learn particular elemental Psynergy abilities and those abilities cost Psynergy Points to use. Djinn have elements and abilities that can be used in battle, plus they can be combined for summon attacks.

I love turn-based combat, but the combat of Golden Sun is tragically simple. In basically every single encounter, the most effective resolution is to go in with all Djinn in standby and "summon rush" with all your most powerful summons. As soon as Djinn recover, use their ability to put them back into standby and set up for another round of summons.

There is nuance to combat beyond that. The four elements (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury) have a sort of rock-paper-scissors interaction where they are more or less effective against each other. Playable characters all have a default element that they are associated with, which determines the type of magic that they naturally learn, and you can bolster that by stacking same-element Djinn on them.

However, you can also experiment with unique combinations of Djinn to create new classes. This is hinted at within the game by requiring the Growth Psynergy. Equipping a Venus Adept with a set Mars Djinni or vice versa allows the Adept to cast Growth. A few puzzles are solved by growing vines to climb, and that Psynergy cannot be learned except by experimenting with Djinn elements. It's unfortunate that the game doesn't really reward playing with those classes to see what kind of combinations are possible, since the summon rush tactic is so effective from a brute force perspective.

There exists a mod, "Project Sunset," that reworks the combat to make summons less powerful and Psynergy more viable, and many members of the Golden Sun community love it. I considered trying the mod, but I wanted my first exposure in a few decades to be the vanilla experience. Maybe I'll go back in the future and try the modded version, but the option is out there for those curious.

Difficulty - 7/10

Despite the simplicity of the summon rush tactic, Golden Sun is definitely early 2000s hard. Combat is difficult, bosses often take a long time to kill, and death is fairly punishing. There are items to revive characters, but they are rare and expensive. Psynergy and Djinn exist that can revive, but they are available fairly late into the game.

If you're deep into a dungeon, there is very real concern if you have a character die. Is it worth backtracking to the nearest healer, or are you far enough in to justify a Water of Life? It's a gravity that a lot of modern JRPGs seem to have lost, but it was very nostalgic for me to experience.

Graphics - 6/10

The sprite work and battle scenes are honestly pretty impressive when you consider the GBA had a roughly 3" screen. Blow it up to the 7" Steam Deck, and it still genuinely looks good. Towns and dungeons are decent. Where the graphics struggle is the world map. I think it's because they have 3D locations on top of a 2D plane, but it looks wonky and there's a weird stutter in some places where the screen seems to shake back and forth slightly. Come in with the context that this was a handheld game from a quarter century ago and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Music - 4/10

The Game Boy Advance was known for having fairly terrible sound quality, and the music of Golden Sun is nothing to write home about. It's fine, but it isn't necessarily memorable. I won't say that it took away from the experience, but it certainly isn't a bop like "The Decisive Battle" from Final Fantasy VI or "Otherworld" from Final Fantasy X.

My Take

The Good

Djinn scratched the Pokémon itch that my autistic self loves and the puzzles were surprisingly fun for a genre that often has frustrating puzzles. The plot twist between games is genuinely one of the best story beats out of any game I've ever played.

The Bad

The difficulty can be punishing for people who cut their teeth on more recent games in the genre, and the weird one-off conversations that can block story progression are frustrating.

The Ugly

Summon rush as a tactic is fun for a few battles, but it quickly gets old when that's undeniably the best tactic for literally the entire game.

Overall - 7/10

There is something of a discourse online that Golden Sun and The Lost Age may be the best JRPG on the GBA platform, and I think there is validity to that opinion. They're genuinely good games. However, when you look back at it, the GBA didn't have an enormous amount of JRPG options available. I personally enjoyed the Pokémon games more, and I think that the SNES had way more JRPGs that were just better. Golden Sun is absolutely worth experiencing, but don't go in expecting a sleeper hit like Chrono Trigger or Earthbound.