[HEADING=1]Golden Sun: Dark Dawn[/HEADING]
Well, it's been roughly seven years since the last instalment in the Golden Sun franchise, The Lost Age. Does the newest game in the series live up to the standards set by the first two, or does it deserve to be ignored? Well, in the following User Review, I'll tell you exactly why I think it lives up to the Golden Sun name.
[HEADING=3]Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Role-playing game
Developer: Camelot Software Planning
Publisher: Nintendo[/HEADING]
First, we'll cover the...
[HEADING=1]Plot[/HEADING]
The story of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is set exactly three decades after the end of The Lost Age, and the events that happened during the ending of said game. With the advent of the titular event, the Golden Sun, Alchemy in all its force has been released upon the flat world of Weyard. Whether this is good or bad depends on who you ask, as some people were greatly benefited by the Golden Sun, and some were...not so well off afterwards.
The Golden Sun, created after the lighting of all four Elemental Lighthouses (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars), changed many things in the world of Weyard. Islands disappeared under the sea while others rose, and continents shifted and moved. Some familiar places from the the two games on the Game Boy Advance appear in Dark Dawn, but have changed location or grown in size dramatically. The problem presented in the game is that while the Golden Sun has done many good things for Weyard, including stopping the decay and eventual destruction of the world, it has also done much bad, including a phenomenon known as a Psynergy Vortex. These appear in random places in the world, and absorb the Psynergy (basically, the name for magic in the Golden Sun series) right out of Adepts (people who can manipulate Psynergy). However, this is not what you, the player character, are tasked with stopping.
Being 30 years later, characters from the first two games have aged, although not as much as you might think. You play as Matthew, son of the first game's protagonist Isaac. When your rather rash friend Tyrell (son of Garet) breaks a valuable item, you are sent into the world to get a piece that cannot be found elsewhere as a form of punishment. Soon, however, you are diverted from your task by mysterious people who seek to manipulate you to their own ends. Eventually, like your father before you, you are tasked with saving the world from ultimate destruction.
The plot of Dark Dawn, while relatively in line with its predecessors in terms of quality, moved a bit too slow for my tastes, especially at the beginning. Characters talk. And talk. And talk. You see, in Weyard, people love to talk, and sometimes it gets very grating. Especially when you can see the end result of a discussion from a quarter of the way into it and want to move on, but the game insists that they must talk.
[sup]Here, we see a cutscene. There WILL be talking here.[/sup]
[sup]Also here is your chibi, blocky overworld characters.[/sup]
For fans of the first two games, you might be happy to know that there's no voice acting for the game. When people talk, there's still the traditional text on the screen, together with the usually high pitched squirrel noises to accompany it. This certainly helped to ignite nostalgia in me as I played through the game.
There is a problem with some of the plot twists in Dark Dawn, however. With a few of the character reveals, to me personally they were incredibly obvious, yet the characters couldn't work them out. In fact, one of the reveals stayed 'hidden' for over half the bloody game, when I knew who it was from the moment they appeared.
Verdict: All in all, the game has a solid plot, if tedious and drawn out writing and dialogue. The main characters are believable, but unfortunately stupid. But then again, so is everyone else.
[HEADING=1]Gameplay[/HEADING]
But what's a game without gameplay, eh? Yes, despite the new 3D graphics, the fundamental gameplay of Dark Dawn remains completely unchanged from the two previous games. Note: this is a good thing. You run around as a chibi-style character in the overworld and dungeons, using certain Psynergy moves outside battles to solve puzzles. Random encounters happen often, but rarely get too repetitive and annoying. Battles themselves are turn based, allowing you a wide variety of options, from attacking, to using Psynergy, to using little elemental creatures called Djinn, to summoning various gods and other powers to really bring down the hammer.
The boss battles were never too difficult, as through natural progression I always seemed to be just the right level to have a fun fight, but nothing impossibly challenging. Except for the final boss. The final boss fight was the first fight I lost, and so that was the only time during the game that required any sort of level grinding whatsoever. I ended up looking forward to boss battles, as they were a fun deviation from the less than a minute long random enemy encounters. Battles in Dark Dawn were really quite fun, showing off the 3D graphics to full effect. Especially fun were the summons, as well as various special unleashes from late game weapons.
As I mentioned before, the game has puzzles. The games adores puzzles, but this is also good. None of the puzzles were ever too difficult that I needed to look up a guide, and the accomplishment of solving some of them was a good feeling.
All in total, from beginning to end credits, the game should last you somewhere between 20-30 hours on your first playthrough, which is a nice amount from a tiny little DS game like this.
Verdict: With fun battles and fun puzzles that never get too difficult, what's not to like? My only problem is that the puzzles felt too easy at times, especially later in the game.
[HEADING=1]Graphics[/HEADING]
As I have mentioned several times previously in my review, the game uses a 3D graphics system now, replacing the sprites from the Game Boy Advance period. Really, the DS's graphics are at its best here, with battles especially nice looking. Special mention goes to the summon powers, which are suitably epic, taking up both screens and really showing off the 3D capabilities of the Nintendo DS.
[sup]Two nice looking summons during battle, seen here taking up both DS screens and generally kicking ass.[/sup]
The overworld graphics aren't as good, and the chibi-style models of all the characters in this form are rather blocky, which is a tad disappointing. However, the overworld Psynergy powers look quite nice still, but nothing really matches the look of the summons and special unleashes.
Verdict: Quite blocky overworld characters are mildly disappointing, but the special unleashes and higher powered summons really do make up for it.
[HEADING=1]Sound[/HEADING]
As I mentioned before, there is no voice acting in Dark Dawn, which I personally consider a good thing. This way, there's no bad voice acting to ruin the game's moments, and the high pitched text noises never got on my nerves.
Series fans will be happy to hear several music tracks from Golden Sun and The Lost Age remixed for this game, and done rather nicely at that. The 'evil be here' music is nice too, especially late in the game where evil really do be here. The battle music is new, and thankfully never irritating, no matter how many times you fight. The overworld Psynergy sounds don't seem to have changed much, if at all, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Verdict: Solid sound, but nothing to write home about. The remixed tracks were nice to hear, and the dramatic evil music fits in well, too.
[sup]Prepare to DIE, random encounter monsters![/sup]
[HEADING=1]Final Verdict[/HEADING]
Combining solid plot, fun gameplay, nice graphics and solid sound, Camelot have created just that: a solid game. This is no masterpiece, believe me. But it's also nothing to scoff at. But beware! This game is very story heavy, so if that's not your thing, look elsewhere.
For fans of the series: Buy it already, damn it!
For people new to the series: Try before you buy. Read other reviews, watch videos, look up screenshots. Make sure you're gonna like it before you buy it.
Well, it's been roughly seven years since the last instalment in the Golden Sun franchise, The Lost Age. Does the newest game in the series live up to the standards set by the first two, or does it deserve to be ignored? Well, in the following User Review, I'll tell you exactly why I think it lives up to the Golden Sun name.
[HEADING=3]Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Role-playing game
Developer: Camelot Software Planning
Publisher: Nintendo[/HEADING]
First, we'll cover the...
[HEADING=1]Plot[/HEADING]
The story of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is set exactly three decades after the end of The Lost Age, and the events that happened during the ending of said game. With the advent of the titular event, the Golden Sun, Alchemy in all its force has been released upon the flat world of Weyard. Whether this is good or bad depends on who you ask, as some people were greatly benefited by the Golden Sun, and some were...not so well off afterwards.
The Golden Sun, created after the lighting of all four Elemental Lighthouses (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars), changed many things in the world of Weyard. Islands disappeared under the sea while others rose, and continents shifted and moved. Some familiar places from the the two games on the Game Boy Advance appear in Dark Dawn, but have changed location or grown in size dramatically. The problem presented in the game is that while the Golden Sun has done many good things for Weyard, including stopping the decay and eventual destruction of the world, it has also done much bad, including a phenomenon known as a Psynergy Vortex. These appear in random places in the world, and absorb the Psynergy (basically, the name for magic in the Golden Sun series) right out of Adepts (people who can manipulate Psynergy). However, this is not what you, the player character, are tasked with stopping.
Being 30 years later, characters from the first two games have aged, although not as much as you might think. You play as Matthew, son of the first game's protagonist Isaac. When your rather rash friend Tyrell (son of Garet) breaks a valuable item, you are sent into the world to get a piece that cannot be found elsewhere as a form of punishment. Soon, however, you are diverted from your task by mysterious people who seek to manipulate you to their own ends. Eventually, like your father before you, you are tasked with saving the world from ultimate destruction.
The plot of Dark Dawn, while relatively in line with its predecessors in terms of quality, moved a bit too slow for my tastes, especially at the beginning. Characters talk. And talk. And talk. You see, in Weyard, people love to talk, and sometimes it gets very grating. Especially when you can see the end result of a discussion from a quarter of the way into it and want to move on, but the game insists that they must talk.
[sup]Here, we see a cutscene. There WILL be talking here.[/sup]
[sup]Also here is your chibi, blocky overworld characters.[/sup]
For fans of the first two games, you might be happy to know that there's no voice acting for the game. When people talk, there's still the traditional text on the screen, together with the usually high pitched squirrel noises to accompany it. This certainly helped to ignite nostalgia in me as I played through the game.
There is a problem with some of the plot twists in Dark Dawn, however. With a few of the character reveals, to me personally they were incredibly obvious, yet the characters couldn't work them out. In fact, one of the reveals stayed 'hidden' for over half the bloody game, when I knew who it was from the moment they appeared.
Verdict: All in all, the game has a solid plot, if tedious and drawn out writing and dialogue. The main characters are believable, but unfortunately stupid. But then again, so is everyone else.
[HEADING=1]Gameplay[/HEADING]
But what's a game without gameplay, eh? Yes, despite the new 3D graphics, the fundamental gameplay of Dark Dawn remains completely unchanged from the two previous games. Note: this is a good thing. You run around as a chibi-style character in the overworld and dungeons, using certain Psynergy moves outside battles to solve puzzles. Random encounters happen often, but rarely get too repetitive and annoying. Battles themselves are turn based, allowing you a wide variety of options, from attacking, to using Psynergy, to using little elemental creatures called Djinn, to summoning various gods and other powers to really bring down the hammer.
The boss battles were never too difficult, as through natural progression I always seemed to be just the right level to have a fun fight, but nothing impossibly challenging. Except for the final boss. The final boss fight was the first fight I lost, and so that was the only time during the game that required any sort of level grinding whatsoever. I ended up looking forward to boss battles, as they were a fun deviation from the less than a minute long random enemy encounters. Battles in Dark Dawn were really quite fun, showing off the 3D graphics to full effect. Especially fun were the summons, as well as various special unleashes from late game weapons.
As I mentioned before, the game has puzzles. The games adores puzzles, but this is also good. None of the puzzles were ever too difficult that I needed to look up a guide, and the accomplishment of solving some of them was a good feeling.
All in total, from beginning to end credits, the game should last you somewhere between 20-30 hours on your first playthrough, which is a nice amount from a tiny little DS game like this.
Verdict: With fun battles and fun puzzles that never get too difficult, what's not to like? My only problem is that the puzzles felt too easy at times, especially later in the game.
[HEADING=1]Graphics[/HEADING]
As I have mentioned several times previously in my review, the game uses a 3D graphics system now, replacing the sprites from the Game Boy Advance period. Really, the DS's graphics are at its best here, with battles especially nice looking. Special mention goes to the summon powers, which are suitably epic, taking up both screens and really showing off the 3D capabilities of the Nintendo DS.
[sup]Two nice looking summons during battle, seen here taking up both DS screens and generally kicking ass.[/sup]
The overworld graphics aren't as good, and the chibi-style models of all the characters in this form are rather blocky, which is a tad disappointing. However, the overworld Psynergy powers look quite nice still, but nothing really matches the look of the summons and special unleashes.
Verdict: Quite blocky overworld characters are mildly disappointing, but the special unleashes and higher powered summons really do make up for it.
[HEADING=1]Sound[/HEADING]
As I mentioned before, there is no voice acting in Dark Dawn, which I personally consider a good thing. This way, there's no bad voice acting to ruin the game's moments, and the high pitched text noises never got on my nerves.
Series fans will be happy to hear several music tracks from Golden Sun and The Lost Age remixed for this game, and done rather nicely at that. The 'evil be here' music is nice too, especially late in the game where evil really do be here. The battle music is new, and thankfully never irritating, no matter how many times you fight. The overworld Psynergy sounds don't seem to have changed much, if at all, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Verdict: Solid sound, but nothing to write home about. The remixed tracks were nice to hear, and the dramatic evil music fits in well, too.
[sup]Prepare to DIE, random encounter monsters![/sup]
[HEADING=1]Final Verdict[/HEADING]
Combining solid plot, fun gameplay, nice graphics and solid sound, Camelot have created just that: a solid game. This is no masterpiece, believe me. But it's also nothing to scoff at. But beware! This game is very story heavy, so if that's not your thing, look elsewhere.
For fans of the series: Buy it already, damn it!
For people new to the series: Try before you buy. Read other reviews, watch videos, look up screenshots. Make sure you're gonna like it before you buy it.
