Dude, you don't want to start me up on Golden Sun. I've seen some pretty bad RPGs in my day. Golden Sun doesn't stand out as the worst RPG I've ever played, but it does stand out as the worst I've ever played to ever get such recognition.
Before I get to bashing it, I'm going to have to agree with you that the music was pretty good. Don't quote me on this, but I think the composer was the same guy who did the music to Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Anyone who can compose a masterpiece such as Highbrow is automatically exempt from a knocking.
However, that's as far as I'd go with Golden Sun. It is said it is the best original RPG on the GBA, but what does it have to compete against? Nintendo doesn't really advocate RPGs. Look at the Gamecube. The only major RPG in the traditional Japanese sense of the word that comes to mind is Tales of Symphonia. Coincidentially, it is also being worshipped in the same sense as Golden Sun. Now Tales of Symphonia is a different topic altogether. I haven't finished that game yet, but from the little I've played it doesn't seem all that stellar.
But Golden Sun. The puzzles and gameplay are redundant. I'm not going to fault the game for using the Dragon Warrior battle system (although I really should). Remakes such as Phantasy Star Collection and the Breath of Fires can get away with using the monotonous turn-based systems because they are homage to the players that respected those games enough to pick them up. Golden Sun is a brand new effort. Furthermore, if after 16 years, the programmer still hasn't learned how to use an autotargetting system that Final Fantasy learned how to perfect while it was still on the NES, then we have a problem.
But it does have those Genies or Jinn, or whatever. It seems like a cool idea in theory, but the game is so painfully easy anyways, there's no point in getting technical with what class and abilites you want to use. You don't even have to deal with classes at all the master the game. If you so choose, you can simply summon whatever you have equipped in full force on the boss and take it down. That's how I killed the Kraken, supposedly one of the toughest bosses in the game.
And the puzzles. Here's my philosophy on puzzles:
If you have random battles, don't do them.
This is probably why I tolerate Lufia II, and actually enjoy its puzzles. On the other hand you take a game like Wild Arms, and you have a flat out mess when it comes to the dungeons. Golden Sun's puzzles are not as messy as Wild Arms, but they are painful due to the fact that some of the instructions aren't quite descriptive, and I get tired of puzzles with logs or log-like objects in them rather fast.
And the story. Oh, the story. I've tried to look at this from different angles. I'm very open to good video game stories. The first thing I look for is how the gameplay tells the story. The second thing I look for is how the player's immersion in the world tells the story. The third thing I look for is how the plot helps the story along. The fourth thing I look for is how the characters paint a believable and exciting story. The fifth thing, and most important, is when I take all of these elements and put them together to see how fantastic the story I'm experiencing is. That is, after all, the reason I play the game.
Not very many game creators are ingenius enough to make the gameplay tell the story. It will often help it along, but rarely will you see an instance such as ActRaiser or from what I hear, Black and White, where such is the case. So a lack of this element is a given for Golden Sun.
What about the immersion? Not much. We have Isaac, who grows up in the cliche mountain village of Vale or Vail or whatever it was called. He's on the mission or journey or something to stop the bad guys from activating four elemental doohickeys. If we're going for immersion, it helps to have an innovative scenario. It's pretty difficult to be immersed in the roll of a character we've seen thousands of times. Now that isn't to say it's impossible. It's quite possible. But you do it with plot twists, symbolisms, and gripping themes. Muting the main character in an attempt to immerse the player is simply not going to cut it.
I'm covering the plot and characters together, because of the similarities between them. That similarity being, of course, the lack of anything that could ever hope to qualify as depth. The story is simple, and we've seen it a thousand times. Of course, it is not necessary to have a complex plot to have a good plot. Many games have excellent plots with very few amounts of text. The amount of plot means absolutely nothing. If it can deliver a strong message, then it is perfectly fine. The restraints of the GBA is not an excuse for lack of plot. SNES Quintet did incredible things with plot. Moreso than many modern games. It's how you use what's given to you that makes your plot. It is true that my favorite GBA game, Breath of Fire II, does not have the greatest plot. It does deal with some serious themes. I wouldn't go as far as to call the plot stellar though. The characters ramble for half an hour like broken records in Golden Sun. They state what you must do numerous times, but the direction in the game is so bad, you're still lost. The characters are in no way developed. Final Fantasy 6, 7 years prior, in 1994, found a way to develop just about every one of it's characters. That cast of PCs was at least 3 to 4 times as large.
And finally, I must talk about this surprise ending of the first game. The truth is, I've never played the second half of Golden Sun. I refuse to call it Golden Sun II, because it is of course, just Camelot's way of ripping you off and making you pay for the second half of the game you had bought without knowledge it would be a half game.
But Xenosaga and Hack do this. Why am I upset about Golden Sun? Xenosaga and Hack are marketed as part of a series. The designers of Golden Sun got so caught up in their pretty graphics, they suddenly realized they didn't have any space to finish their game. Knowing the contents of the game were so shallow, their only hope was to reel people in without the knowledge that they'd be buying half a game.
I got to the end of the first half of Golden Sun, felt like a moron, got disgusted, and decided that was enough.
And those are the reasons I dislike Golden Sun.
Originally Posted by DMKA
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