Golden Sun: The Lost Age is the conclusion to the two-part Golden Sun
story. As such, you really can't play this game without having played
the first one. There's a brief introduction that tells you what
happened in the first GS, but I doubt it explains enough for you to
really know what's going on. However, if you've played GS then you'll
be able to jump right into GS:TLA. Like all good follow-ups, GS:TLA
builds on the successful formula of GS, but adds more depth and
difficulty to keep the gameplay fresh.
GS:TLA gets its inspiration from classic 16-bit RPGs. If you've played
any of the Final Fantasies on the sNES, you'll feel right at home. Most
of your time is spent wandering around the world map, fighting random
battles, diving into dungeons, killing powerful bosses, and leveling up
your characters and items. This time around, however, there's much more
to see and do.
The world map has been dramatically expanded this time around. In the
first GS, you were limited to traveling on foot around one continent.
GS:TLA gives you access to the rest of the world, and a ship to do it
with. You'll find a wide variety of places to go and things to do. This
expanded scope also makes GS:TLA longer than GS, which was a complaint
that I had about the first game.
Like GS, there are a number of dungeons to traverse. GS:TLA keeps the
puzzle-based dungeons, but they noticably ramped up the difficulty in
getting around. I scratched my head at a couple of puzzles in GS, but
GS:TLA really does have some difficult puzzles to figure out. Also,
you'll find that you won't be able to get through a dungeon the first
time that you visit it. You'll have to go out and get a new Psyenergy
power and come back later. By the end of the game, you'll have to use a
combination of Psyenergy from GS and GS:TLA to get through the
dungeons. I really liked that I had to put more foresight into getting
through a room, and enjoyed the difficulty offered by these puzzles.
The battle system hasn't changed, but you will gain access to more
powerful abilities and summons. While GS:TLA draws its inspiration from
classic RPGs, there's definitely some combat elements in this game that
draw from more modern RPGs. First, the graphical effects are
suprisingly rich for the GBA. Your characters make critical strikes
often when attacking. With a magical weapon, this unleashes a special
effect like fire damage, life leeching, or stunning your enemy. The
really powerful weapons unleash very impressive visual effects that
make it feel like you're blasting your enemy. Summoning is also more
reminisent of something you'd see in more recent RPGs. Classic RPGs
usually displayed a summon by showing a large creature descend on the
enemy and attack. More recently, RPGs have been using overly long and
sweeping animations to emphasize that you are raining an unholy amount
of pain on your enemies. GS:TLA takes that tack, and the results are
very impressive. If you complete the sidequests to gain access to more
powerful summons, you'll see more and more overblown summon animations.
Fortunately, you can skip these with a button press when you get tired
of seeing them.
The very deep djinn system has been retained with practically no
changes. This is a good thing, as balancing your djinn amongst your
characters changes how you'll use each character and how well you'll do
against the bosses. Combat is not any more difficult than in the first
GS, but you'll fight stronger enemies than GS, since your characters
become more powerful. Alas, there's still no intelligent targeting, so
you'll waste a lot of turns when a character you're attacking has
already been defeated.
I did have a beef with the final boss. You can beat on him for 30
minutes with a good pattern and he'll randomly bust out an unblockable
attack that will cripple you. I had to fight him a number of times to
finally beat him, and it was by sheer luck that he didn't pull out that
critical attack. I appreciate difficult bosses, especially when it's
the last boss of the game, but that was just really cheap.
Overall, GS:TLA takes all of the successful elements of Golden Sun and
expands on them. The already impressive dungeon elements and battle
system are given a bit of a boost without changing their formula, and
the story will keep you engaged throughout the entire game. Golden Sun:
The Lost Age represents 16-bit role-playing gaming at its finest and is
recommended to anyone with a passing interest in RPGs.
