Golden Sun, anyone?
 

As a huge Golden Sun fan, I was curious to hear how everyone else feels about these games. And if you're also a fan, I'd like to know some of your favorite aspects/parts/mechanics of the games.


Aaand... Go!

I love the plot, I hate the system.

Either I was vastly underleveled and poorly equipped, or after a certain point, boss battles boiled down to spamming summons and healing.

But still, great games.

Curious, I hate the plot, yet the gameplay was what grasped me up to the end. The characters were very plain, yet watching my djinns fuse into uber-god beings to kick the ass of my enemies was somehow very rewarding. And the game actually penalizes you for relying too much on summons, which was something that always bothered me in series like Final Fantasy.

Though I must say one thing: I fucking, fucking, fucking hate the Star Magician and Dullahan. Those cheap BASTARDS!!

I loved the 2 Golden Sun games. I especially liked how you could mix and match Djinns to get different abilities for your characters. I also liked the story.

One thing I hated was trying to keep up with who had what djinn, and which abilities that djinn granted, and which djinn he could be paired up with on which character would give me the ability I needed to move on.

Like, growth for example. It was a neccesary ability, yet you only had it with a certain combination of djinni! And If i couldn't remember, I'd have to rearrange and test each character with each djinni until I got it right.

And by the second game, with twice as many djinni, and all my party members, It was even more excruciating. But I loved the plot, and I hoped they'd make another.

The only problem I had with the plot was that in Golden Sun 2, Isaac loses a fight. This is similar to most scripted fights, but it was still stupid. My Isaac was strong enough to beat them all unarmed! Even after all that new stuff Felix got, my Isaac was still stronger than him!

But I did like how they mention in game many times that the main characters are really silent, and I even think they referenced how Felix seemed to catch Isaac's silence bug.

Right now I have a Golden Sun file in which my Isaac is a Samurai and my Garet is a Ninja. How can an RPG kick any more ass than that?

Also, Growth can be pretty easy to give/take from a character. Just give, say, Mia or Garet a Venus Djinni or maybe Isaac a Mars Djinni (I believe this assumes that each Djinni of the same element has gone to a character of that element). As for the stat bonuses each Djinni gave--I just said "Screw it" and assigned each wherever I damn well pleased. After all, if you level 'em up enough, it shouldn't matter, no?

Which brings me to my one problem with Golden Sun: I dunno exactly why, but it's very hard to level up properly in it. Maybe it's the snail's pace your party travels at on the overworld, maybe it's something subtle in the game mechanics or random encounter rate, but I have yet to achieve a party that I feel I can truly call insanely overpowered, and it bothers me slightly.

I loved and hated both games. Things I loved; The combat system was outstanding, and I loved Djinn-hunting. I made sure, after I beat the game on Golden Sun, to go back and double-check for all the Djinn I missed, and I did the same with Lost Age. Piers was always one of my favorite characters, simply due to his character art. Have you seen how much of a goddamn powerhouse that guy is? He's got some muscles on him.

I love the anime-style art, and I can't get enough of the system, and I really liked the overall story.

What did I hate? Oh gods.

You know what? Hey, Devs? Next time, here's a hint; making a good RPG doesn't always involve silent characters. Okay? Fucking clear here? You don't need to make the 'main character' silent in your RPG all the time.

The silence from Felix in #2 was utterly stupid - it made it seem like the only reason Felix and Isaac were there is to fill the "Strong hero lead", and ended up being generic in their respective games. Meanwhile, Felix in the first game was really interesting as a character, but that got knocked out pretty goddamn fast in Lost Age.

I also hated how the entire time, all of the "Yes/No" descisions had fucking nothing to do with the plot. It's a thing that, with games like Mega Man Zero, I can handle that. "Will you go after Elpizo?" "No." "Zero, you're our last hope. Go look after Elpizo?" "No." Repeat. Why? well, you're the hero. You have to stop him.

Yes/No in RPGs are supposed to pull some sort of, I dunno, dividing line or flesh out character development. I don't need a stupid little last-minute slap-on to confirm I'm playing a jRPG, I think the HP/Mana and statistics did the job just fine.

So, yeah. I still have the battle music playing in my head to this day - and since I played GS1 and 2 the days it came out, and turned it in afterwards, that's saying alot for a non-Noubu Umaetsu composition.

EDIT: Oh, right, the Djinni binding was...well, it was kinda cool, but you could have so much more powerful of a character if you just gave them every single Djinni of their element, and, well, double your hit points, PP, half of your stats and nearly triple your sheer damage output.

The class mixing was fun, but honestly you could end up so much more powerful without it.

Actually, there is a yes-or-no question early in the game which will end the game (and badly) if you answer "no". I'm guessing it's the only one, but nonetheless, I thought it worth mentioning.

It might be nice, tho', if instead of simply "yes" or "no", the answers you could give had a bit more personality, like in Illusion of Gaia or Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past--like:

"You're our only hope. Will you go out and save the world?"
--Sure! I lurve me some risking-my-life-to-save-your-asses!
--...Awright already. Geez, no pressure or anything, right?
--Shit no! What, d'you think I have a deathwish?

I have your answer.
Ever notice exactly how much you gain from a level-up? It's never more than single-digits. I played through both games, was level 60 or so by the end of the second one, and never saw an HP gain greater than 8. Why? You're forced to rely on the Djinn to boost your stats; that's where the majority of your fighting strength comes from. That's also why moves like Dullahan's and the Doom Dragon's Djinn Storm are so cheap - not only do you lose your summons for a few turns, it saps you of half your stats at the same time. What's wrong with the Star Magician? *coughEarnestPlycough* Dullahan may well have earned the title of Hardest Optional Boss in an RPG though. Nice array of devastating attacks (including a summon), three moves in a turn, gobs and gobs of HP, and huge HP and PP regen every turn. I've only been able to beat him a certain way; you just can't tackle this bad boy head-on.

I actually found Dullahan to be fairly easy; you just have everyone either summon or heal. Or, switch to all four of your tanks and beat the hell out of him, keeping your djinni equipped for the stat bonuses.