Golden Sun was released by Camelot in 2001 for the Gameboy Advance. A traditional turn based RPG, it also featured several inovative gameplay features (such as the elemental Djinn) and an engaging storyline. It saw a sequel (Golden Sun: The Lost Age) in 2003 and another one for the DS (Golden Sun: Dark Dawn) in 2010.
I love these games. I burned away hours playing the first two when I was a teenager and I cheered with fanboyish glee when Dark Dawn was announced and I'm eagerly awaiting a further game in the series so I can keep following the still un-concluded storyline Not that any of this will stop me ridiculing the crazy parts of the storyline. This is because I'm aware that there's not much (that is to say, none at all) room in a let's play of this game for forum participation (you have no control over how the storyline unfolds; a fact that the two sequels lampshade), so I'll do my best to be as entertaining as possible.
Spoiler: show
‘Good Morning Chrono!’
‘Ugh, you’d better have a damn good reason for trying to get me up this early.’
‘Ha, I’m not falling for that one again.’
‘Wait, you’re serious? What about the time when I was nine and you said that the boulder would fall if I didn’t do my homework?’
To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if this had just been an elaborate prank. Dora won’t exactly distinguish herself as a fantastic mother in the short time she’s relevant to the plot.
Care to elaborate?
This is ‘Psynergy’; the setting’s magic. It’s a portmanteau of psychic and energy, but I wouldn’t bother committing that fact to memory. That’s because Psynergy is actually ‘elemental energy’. I won’t elaborate further right now, because the game will do that in spades as the plot moves forward. Anyway, here we see Dora drawing power from the very earth itself in order the grab her son’s tunic off a hook. Something she could have done by hand if she’d bothered to walk five feet. I might sound overly critical here, but I want you to remember this moment. It will have consequences.
EPIC FORESHADOWING!!!
I might get crushed to death and it’s raining? Worst day ever.
‘Well now you mention it, if the house might get crushed, I should probably grab a few personal effects. Now where did I put my DS?’
‘But… then why did you bother asking me?’
Downstairs, we meet Isaac’s dad. And he’s got a character portrait and everything. Clearly we’ll be seeing a lot of this guy.
Explain to me again why the village has done nothing to sort out the looming boulder that’s apparently been around long enough to be named? I’m picturing the village council insisting that they don’t have the budget this fiscal year for something like that.
‘Weren’t we in a hurry? If we’ve got the time to stand here and provide exposition, can I go back and grab my DS?’
Does anyone else sense a massive family tragedy approaching?
‘Well, I get the feeling he’s not going to be talked out of it. Come on mum; let’s get out of the path of the massive boulder. The plaza, wasn’t it?’
‘… I’m sure you need help more than our fourteen year old son does!’
‘Listen to the man, I’m only level 1, a stiff breeze could knock me over.’
‘Hello? Am I a part of this conversation? God, I hate being a silent protagonist. I swear I’ll start talking in the sequel.’
‘As I still don’t have my DS, I take it that my opinion doesn’t count for much. Fine, but if I develop abandonment issues and turn out to be an awful parent myself, thirty three years from now, I’m blaming you.’
It is at this point, that Isaac realises that his mother never really wanted a child in the first place.
Right then, now that the adults responsible for us have wiped their hands of us, let’s briefly return to the house for some backstory.
‘I know dad keeps his playboys hidden behind these books…’
‘Or I suppose there’s this…’
That took an entire book? Must be one of those big print editions. Okay, what were we doing? Oh right, the massive boulder that’s going to kill us.
So yeah, I wasn’t kidding when I said that a stiff breeze could take Isaac down.
Also, in addition to sleeping in his bed fully dressed, Isaac apparently had a dagger and three healing herbs in his pocket. Handy!
More backstory (I swear we’ll take steps toward safety in a minute).
Someone made a movie that was very loosely based on this book. They changed the title to ‘Being John Malkovich’ though.
A real page turner this one…
Right, time to beat feet. The direct path south was blocked by a falling boulder that I forgot to get a screen cap of. Not the massive one we’ve been worrying about, but a smaller, more generic type of boulder that we’ll be seeing a lot of in the immediate future. That’s right; apparently there are multiple boulders further up the mountain that the village of people with magical powers decided to do nothing about.
Like this one. This game isn’t very subtle with its railroading.
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘new party member’.
This is Garret; a friend of Isaac and grandson of the mayor.
‘Oh, so you were allowed to grab some of your stuff? What’s it like having parents who love you?’
‘If you can’t fit that case into your inventory, I’m guessing it’s not going to budge.’
‘The thought had crossed my mind…’
Garret has many faults, but he’s refreshingly easy to reason with.
Woot!
Our protagonists continue heading further up the mountain towards the deadly boulder because they lack an adult with Psynergy to clear the boulders that keep landing in their path.
Garret will put his foot down if you actually try to head to the boulder. Don’t expect this common sense to rear its head too often.
Fantasy villages must be a health and safety nightmare…
Uh, oh, maybe we shouldn’t have wasted all that time reading those books after all…
Oh, it’s not quite the end yet; those nice villagers are holding the boulder back with their Psynergy.
They will, of course, die horrible deaths the moment they exhaust their Psynergy. Why do I get the feeling that these four weren’t particularly well liked by the mayor?
You brave men; your sacrifices will definitely will not be in vain.
We’ve been spotted…
And by ‘a little further’ he means all the way down the mountain, but I have to agree with the sentiment of his first sentence. Let’s move.
I just said that!
Lightning may not strike twice, but we’re up to three times and counting for boulders.
Heading west, we find this poor man lying injured. Or possibly he’s just narcoleptic. Either way, we should probably try talking to him.
If a picket fence was holding them back, I take it these monsters aren’t too fearsome.
Take a good look at one of only two times that your choice of response changes anything other than the next line of dialogue. The other occasion has you choosing continuing with the game or getting a non-standard game over, so it’s really an example of Hobson’s choice. I love this game, but don’t kid yourself that you have any control over how the plot unfolds.
Anyway, if we answer yes to this man’s question;
He’ll take the medical advice of two fourteen year olds and just lie there repeating this line of dialogue whenever you talk to him. If we decide not to be a dick and tell him that he’ll be fine;
He’ll realize that he doesn’t actually have a scratch on him.
And then rush off, leaving the two kids to fend for themselves. Swell.
As Isaac and Garret are deciding that all adults are useless, they have their first encounter with the aforementioned monsters. I won’t go into an explanation of the combat mechanics until we have more options than ‘attack’, ‘defend’ and ‘run away’.
Suffice to say, we won’t be doing any power levelling during the prologue…
I bet this is a nice place to live when giant boulders and ineffectual monsters are absent.
Huh, at this rate we might actually make it to the plaza without any further problems.
Damn it, spoke too soon.
I bet this river-side property seemed liked a great idea when they bought it. Let the buyer beware indeed.
Anyway, a couple of significant characters are here. The purple haired girl is Jenna; she’ll be a guest party member in this game before being promoted to full time party member status in the sequel.
The kid in the water is Felix and… well, just wait and see.
Great, Kyle, he’d have never thought of that by himself.
I notice Dora isn’t volunteering any specifics as to how they’re going to save him. Maybe Isaac was better off heading to the plaza by himself after all.
As the four adults stand around spouting obvious advice and blind optimism, Felix vanishes below the surface of the water.
Chibi Jenna’s character portrait is adorable.
And then Felix pops up again in exactly the same place. I can only assume Felix deliberately faked being swept away in an attempt to motivate the adults into doing anything productive.
So they’ll use their powers for menial chores at the drop of a hat, but when someone’s in danger of drowning, their first reaction is to try a rope?
‘If I had any left, don’t you think I’d have just used it instead of asking you? No wonder you don’t have a character portrait.’
Dora would have a little bit left, but she wasted it on a trivial task in the middle of a major crisis.
While this is an obvious attempt to change the subject before anyone can ask her what she used up her Psynergy on; Dora nevertheless makes the first productive suggestion in this whole sequence.
He’s been hanging on the whole time you’ve been squatting by the river side shouting generic advice. Unless you have a better idea, I’d suggest taking the option that involves making an actual attempt to save the drowning teenager.
Again, I just said that!
Is Kyle reading from a 4KIDS dub of the script? What’s with all the painfully obvious advice?
‘We’ll need you to look for help in the plaza, where everyone is gathered, while Dora heads to the already evacuated northern part of the village.’
Unheard over the raging torrents, Felix shouts ‘Finally!’
‘Yup.’
‘As Felix will definitely drown if his fate is left in your hands; yes.’
‘I see the whole; “Our son needs to get to safety” thing has been completely forgotten. Come on Garret, apparently we’re part of the search and rescue team now.’
‘Hey Felix.’
‘Hi, Isaac.’
‘How long have you been clinging to that?’
‘About twenty minutes. It took them ten minutes to work out that I wasn’t doing it for fun.’
To the rescue!
*Sigh*
Isaac can procrastinate, and he’ll still be back with help before Dora returns empty handed.
Need permission to leave the village and don’t share secrets with filthy outsiders. Clearly this village is a just utopia.
*Cough* Foreshadowing *Cough*
And finally, we’re at the plaza. Right, time to enlist some help.
Finally!!
…
Those guys were the elders? What does that make him?
I see Jenna’s not having much luck either.
‘Is it just me, or are the adults completely useless?’
‘Don’t worry Jenna, it’s not just you.’
‘Actually, we came to ask for permission to hold a renaissance fair this sum- YES; of course that’s why we’re here!!’
Psynergy stones will feature throughout the game both as a gameplay feature and a minor plot device. But in any case, we’re finally ready to save Felix.
Running time!
Aww shucks.
Feel free to imagine the travelling music of your choice.
And Felix is still hanging in there! Limpets have nothing on him.
Called it.
And with that, the day was saved!
Wait… why do I get the feeling we’ve forgotten about something important?
*RUMBLE!!!*
Oh, right. That.
This has not been a good night…
‘Scatter!!’
Looks like it’ll just miss them!
Never mind…
*Scenes of graphic gore censored*
That could have gone better…
Drown? How? Still, going for help isn’t a bad idea.
Deeply traumatised, unsurprisingly. They should probably just wait there while someone else goes.
‘Good man. My dad just got mowed down by a giant boulder. Glad to know I can count on you in this time of crisis.’
‘How are you even injured? If the boulder hit you you’d be dead, so it clearly wasn’t that. Fine, the traumatised fourteen year old will go for help.’
*Grumble*
Take a good look at this moment. Its stuff like this that makes me like Garret in spite of what’s about to happen.
Huh?
I’m guessing that this guy isn’t supposed to be here.
Or her.
Wait, what?
‘In hindsight, maybe pulling a switch without knowing what it did wasn’t the best idea.’
I’m going to hazard a guess that we’ve just stumbled across the villains of the game.
There’s going to be a next time? Once they’ve gone, we’d better warn people.
Oh great…
*Insert obligatory Solid Snake reference*
‘Umm… hi.’
‘Eavesdropping on what? I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about!’
‘Please be quiet Garret.’
‘Definitely! No problem I’ll forget all abou- GOOD GOD is that a scythe you’re carrying?’
‘No really, that’s fine-‘
‘Damn it.’
So here we find ourselves at the end of the prologue with our first boss battle. It won’t end well.
And there’s no running from it either.
Hey, a critical hit on the first attack! Maybe we can win this after all!
Never mind.
See the red line stretching across most of Garret’s health meter? That’s how much of it was depleted by a single none critical hit.
Just one fireball? That’s not too bad, we can probably dodge it.
That spell name isn’t plural, I feel lied to.
Will our heroes be able to withstand the fearsome fireball assault?
Nope.
So, yeah…
Tune in next time for a three year time skip.