Golden Sun

aka: Golden Sun: The Broken Seal , Ougon no Taiyou
Moby ID: 5413
Game Boy Advance Specs
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Description official descriptions

Isaac is from the town of Vale, on the island of Angara. He is an Adept, meaning he is skilled in Psynergy, the technique of moving objects without touching them. Mages from the rival island of Gondowan plan to destroy Angara by using four Elemental Stones, so Isaac has assembled a team to snatch the stones.

In the universe of this role-playing game, four different types of elements (fire, water, wind and earth) are combined to create spells. Combat often involves facing multiple monsters at each time.

Djinni creatures can be captured and used to give one of your characters extra strengths. Energy is needed to cast spells, but this constantly replenishes while you are not using one. A two-player link-up game exists.

Spellings

  • 黄金の太陽 開かれし封印 - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Game Boy Advance version)

130 People (81 developers, 49 thanks) · View all

Translation Coordination
Writing & Editing
Additional Localization
Localization Management
Testing & Debugging
Special Thanks
Illustration
Graphic Supports
Artwork
Public Relations (広報)
Coordination
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 47 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 85 ratings with 5 reviews)

A fantastic old school RPG that demonstrates the power of the Gameboy Advance

The Good
In general, there are two types of gamers, those who love RPGs, and those who hate them. I fortunately, am a fan of the genre, but this title embarks to convert the non-believers with its' detailed, colorful graphics, sparkling music, good sound effects, and cool battles. From the second you switch the game on, you can tell a lot of effort went into the development of this game. The beginning animation of the mountain with the sun and its' lens flare effect is cool. When you actually begin playing, the detail of the visuals is amazing for a handheld system, almost PS1 level. Several graphical effects are used throughout the course of the game; lighting effects, particle effects, transparency, and more...all are very cool, and prove what the GBA is capable of. My favorite effect is the rotation and zooming that is used in the battles, that gives the battles a pseudo-3D feel. There are some downsides to the graphics, though, the regular enemies are sharp and detailed, but the large bosses, while having ample detail, have a very pixellated look, also, when you use the more elaborate summons, there can be some slowdown, but it's not that bad.
Just as impressive as the visuals is the audio of this game, from the title song to the lighthouse theme, the music is fantastic, with realistic sounding instruments, I would even go so far to say that the music in this game measures up to the standard set by the SNES classic Chrono Trigger. The sound effects, though not very varied, are pretty good as well, with blasts and screams abound. Now let's get down to the most important part of the game, the gameplay. As any gamer knows, graphics alone don't make a good game, gameplay does, and Golden Sun has plenty of classic RPG goodness, while adding a few innovations that make it stand out on its own. You begin the game in your hometown of Vale, and have to navigate to the lower portion of the town, through the storm, to get help. After getting the situation under control in Vale, you begin your journey, and travel the World Map to the next town. The battles on the World Map are pretty frequent, but this is balanced by the fact that your Psynergy Points(needed to cast spells) slowly recover as you walk around. The battles are varied, with your party facing up to six monsters at a time. Many spells effect more than one monster, and the larger crystal indicates the creature receiving the most damage from the attack, while the creatures outside the center receive less damage. Your characters will level-up fairly quickly with the amount of battles, and will sometimes receive more powerful spells. The most innovative aspect of the game is the "Djinni" system. Throughout your travels, you will capture spiritual creatures known as "Djinni", and setting these creatures to the different characters in your party can improve their class, and give them new spells. You will have to mix and match to find the best combination of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire Djinni for each character. You can unleash the individual Djinni from your characters during battle, which uses their abilities, but takes the benefits of that Djinni from the effect character until they are set again on the next turn. you can summon the Djinni that aren't set to a character for extra damage, but then they must recover for awhile before being able to be set again. You must decide whether the extra damage of a summoned spirit is worth sacrificing the benefits of the set Djinni for a few turns. You will need to use summons quite a bit when you challenge the games bosses which range from giant squids to two-headed dragons, and are very challenging. In short, it doesn't stray far outside the bounds of the traditional console RPG, but its' few innovations give Golden Sun a unique feel. It's also fun to go into the battle arena while you are playing the game, or after you have beaten it, to see how many consecutive monster parties you can beat before being defeated, or challenge another player(s) through the link cable - this feature definitly adds some replay value to the game.

The Bad
There isn't much to dislike here, but there are a few aspects that could have been improved upon, for one thing, the game seemed a little short, and not as challenging as it could have been, another thing, is that there isn't too much variety in the sound effects, and the pixellated look of the boss creatures. I also felt the ending could have been better.

The Bottom Line
A classic-style RPG with a stunning graphics, and a few innovative ideas. Well worth a play whether your a fan of the genre, or not. This game may convert you. This game, unlike many other GBA titles, is well worth the asking price, I highly recommend you pick up a copy today, for some portable RPG goodness.

Game Boy Advance · by Ryu (50) · 2002

A great RPG with classic game play and original aspects

The Good
The tunes are really exciting, the graphics are nice, colored and detailed (especially in the battles), the controls works perfectly in the games, well, all the "I/O" part of the game is really great. Before seeing this, I was thinking that many "new generation" RPG that have a release date of 1998 or +, would never be as great as some SNES RPGs about this, but this game proves that this is false. The story is somewhat great. I can't really explain why, but even if the usual "go on a journey and save the world" thing repeats itself for many RPGs, the story is really exciting. A thing I liked about the gameplay is that you spend more time in the game to fight monsters than to watch stupid scenes without doing anything, like many "new generation" RPGs. For example in Final Fantasy X, you're always walking, speaking with people, or seeing scenes like in a film, and you're in average not often doing battle. In the other side, in very old RPGs like Dragon Warrior or the first Final Fantasy, you were always in battle and you hardly ever spoke to people. In Golden Sun, the balance is just right, you never spend a big amount of time without speaking to anyone or without advancing in the story, but you also never spend a big amount of time without fighting. The battle system looks plain at the beginning of the game, but it becomes interesting after a while, and actually there is a lot of strategy in it, unlike Final Fantasy games for example. It's also pretty hard to collect all Djins. But, once you got the strategy to defeat very-strong monsters, the game will become pretty easy.

Finally, the great thing in Golden Sun is that there is very challenging enigmas everywhere. One half of the enigmas are optional (to get items, weapons, etc...), and some of them are so hard that you'll give up (this happened to me a couple of times, but I tried them at least one hour !).

The Bad
The thing that disappoint me in the game is the item-quantity limitation. Here you can only carry 15 items per character, and this is pretty frustrating to be unable to collect all the weapons of the game, etc...

Also, there shall be ~10 sound effects in the whole game, and all magics and attacks does just a combination of them. They could input more different sounds effects. However I really like the noise that make someone who is speaking. It's really fun ;-)

Well, I found that the last boss was a bit easy, and the ending shucks. I mean that the game finish just where is should not be finished. I just completed the game several hours ago and I was disappointed by the ending. They just want you to buy Golden Sun 2, just to make themselves twice money, just like Pokemon ruby & sapphire and so on... What a shame. By the way, I'll surely buy Golden Sun 2 someday, but... well this is frustrating to buy a game in those conditions, just to know the sequel of the story. Usually, when I buy a game, its for discovering a new world, a new story, not to know the sequel of another one.

The Bottom Line
Golden Sun is a very great RPG that shows the full-potential of the Game Boy Advance. I would recommend it to anyone who like RPGs. I think it has the good side of old RPGs, and the good side of news ones, and just this stuff make it really great.

Game Boy Advance · by Bregalad (937) · 2006

Like RPG's? This'll cook your bacon.

The Good
For starters, great...everything about this game.

The storyline is pretty original, and really is easy to get into. Everything works out like it should, and you'll meet tons of unique characters which really help define the world itself.

The main quest is easy to follow, but there's some sides you can do as well. For instance, there's a roadblock you get through, and see that there's a bunch of stupid and basically just out-of-place trees. You use Ivan's special ability to mind read, and find out that they're people!!! One of the girls is about to fall in the water, and you need to use an aquired ability to rescue her from certain doom. Come back once everyone is a human again, and they recognize you and give a nice reward! Simple things like that really, really do make games more fun and involving.

The RPG rules and standards hold well in the game, giving you adequate time to beef up characters and buy better equipment. I especially liked the original idea of weapons having unique abilities that come out every so-often. Say if I used a Bandit Sword, on occasion i'd do a move called Rapid Smash which does a ton of more damage.

Another cool thing is the Djinni! There's 6 of each type of Djinni, which are Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. Using them in battle can either boost your stats, lower your enemies stats, damage the enemy, or remove/alter your status. The coolest part is when you use more than one of the same type, which unleashes a fury of that specific element! On a side note, you can also mix-match the different used Djinni powers to create fusions, which ultimately is a trial-and-error process of finding the right one. And the visuals while doing any of these, or using "psynergy" which is a form of magic, are absolutely splendid to behold. Tons of them to discover by altering your equipment and Djinni placement. Try it out! Music and sound effects are ear-pleasing, and you'll never feel anything repeat. Just overall a great experience.

The Bad
This part will be pretty small, because there's not much to complain about. Well, like some RPG's, the main character NEVER talks, not a word. Sometimes he'll shake his head or jump or emote in some fashion, but all you can really do is make decisions.

Another small, yet large in my eyes negative is that the game is WAY too short. This game seems to be over before you actually are able to fully get into it.

The Bottom Line
An awesome RPG for the Gameboy Advance which you will spend hours playing, and then playing some more after you beat it because the replay value is extremely high. Definite Buy.

Game Boy Advance · by Kain Ceverus (30) · 2007

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Game Boy Advance version of Golden Sun appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – Game Boy Advance RPG/Strategy Game of the Year

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  • MobyGames ID: 5413
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by NeoMoose.

Wii U added by Michael Cassidy.

Additional contributors: Kartanym, Apogee IV, Exodia85, gamewarrior, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added November 27, 2001. Last modified July 17, 2023.