Golden Sun: The Lost Age

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Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Developer(s)	Camelot Software Planning
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Hiroshi Yamauchi (executive producer) Motoi Sakuraba (composer)
Series	Golden Sun
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release date	JP June 28, 2002 NA April 14, 2003 EU September 19, 2003
Genre(s)	Console role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: A (All Ages) ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 7+
Media	128-megabit Cartridge

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (黄金の太陽 失われし時代, Ōgon no Taiyō Ushinawareshi Jidai^?) is the second installment of a series of role-playing video games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. The game was released in April 2003 for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, being a direct sequel to the Game Boy Advance Golden Sun. Players can transfer their characters and items from Golden Sun to The Lost Age by means of a password system or Game Link Cable, and players are rewarded for fully completing both games.^[1]

Picking up the story during the events of the previous game,^[1] The Lost Age puts the player into the roles of a magic-attuned "adept" named Felix and his allies as they seek to restore the power of alchemy to the world of Weyard. Along the way, the player uses magic to defeat enemies and discover new locations, help out local populations, and find elemental djinn which augment the character's powers. Upon release, The Lost Age was generally praised, although many publications found that the game was not as good a title as Golden Sun. Nonetheless, the game ranks as the eighth best Game Boy Advance title of 2003 and the 22nd best GBA game of all time, ^[2] and has sold over 680,000 units.^[3]

[edit] Gameplay

Golden Sun: The Lost Age is similar to its predecessor in that it is a contemporary presentation of the traditional console role-playing game formula. Players guide a cast of characters as they journey through a fantasy-themed game world, interact with other characters, battle monsters, acquire increasingly powerful magic spells and equipment, and take part in a building, predefined narrative. While many actions the player takes are compulsory and central to the story, Golden Sun: The Lost Age allows the player to complete many objectives out of order, and visiting previous locations to advance story elements and complete gameplay objectives is given a stronger emphasis than in the previous game.^{[citation needed]}

The Lost Age's expanded overworld features oceanic exploration via a new sailing ship.

Much of the game's time spent outside of battle takes place either in the game's expanded overworld or within dungeons, caves, and other locales with puzzles integrated into their layout. Unlike the original game, in which the overworld was explored on foot except for a brief, non-navigable boat ride, a large portion of The Lost Age's gameplay involves navigating a magical ship across a large sea, visiting continents and islands.^{[citation needed]} In puzzles, players must push pillars to construct hoppable paths between elevated areas, climb up and rappel down cliffs, or obtain a special item to progress through the story and game world. Many of these puzzles revolve heavily around the usage of the game’s resident form of magic spells, “Psynergy,” requiring the player to find items that grant the bearer new forms of Psynergy in order to accomplish tasks.^{[citation needed]}

Whereas many RPGs limit the usage of their forms of magic to battles as offensive and defensive measures, Psynergy spells are also heavily used in puzzles and exploration.^{[citation needed]} Some types of Psynergy can only be used in combat; conversely, some spells are only used in the game's overworld and in non-battle scenarios.^{[citation needed]} Still other Psynergy can be used for both situations; for example, the “Frost” spell can be used to damage enemies in battle, or to transform puddles of water into elongated pillars of ice as part of a puzzle. Psynergy comes in four elements: Venus (Manipulation of rocks and plants), Mars (Revolving around fire and heat), Jupiter (Based on wind and electricity), and Mercury (Concerning water and ice).^{[citation needed]} The player gains more and more Psynergy spells (of which a host of new spells are introduced in the game) as the game progresses, either through levelling up or acquiring and equipping (using) special items, and with each "utility" Psynergy spell the party gains access to more and more locations and secrets hidden within the game world. Players will be required to return to previous locations in the game to finish off puzzles which they could not solve earlier because of the lack of specific Psynergy spells.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Battle

A battle at sea in Golden Sun: The Lost Age showcases four of the main characters. Characters' vital statistics are listed along the top of the screen.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age contains both random monster encounters, featuring randomly generated enemies, and compulsory battles, which advance the story. When a battle begins, a separate screen is brought up where the enemy party is on the opposing side (the background) and the player’s party is on the battling side (in the foreground, with only the character’s backs visible). When a battle is conducted and progresses, the characters and the background swirl around and change positions in a pseudo-3D effect.

The gameplay in relation to Golden Sun: The Lost Age’s battle mode is similar to traditional console RPGs. In each battle, the player is required to defeat all the enemies by using direct attacks with weapons, offensive Psynergy spells, and other means of causing damage, all while keeping the player’s own party alive through items and supportive Psynergy that restore life and supplement defense. If all the player's characters (when the characters you use in the top 4 is downed, the characters not in the top 4 slots jump into battle) are downed by reducing their hit points to zero, it is considered “Game Over”, and the party is returned to the last village that the player visited and suffers a monetary penalty. The successful completion of a battle yields experience points, coins, and occasionally rare items.

In addition to the main game itself, there is also a competitive battling mode accessible from the menu screen, where players can enter their currently-developed team from their saved game files into an arena environment where they can battle increasingly difficult CPU-controlled enemies or other players head-to-head to see which of their team setups are stronger. In both cases there are no experience points or coins to be earned.

[edit] Djinn system

One of the most important features in Golden Sun games is the collecting and manipulation of magical creatures called Djinn, and The Lost Age features a host of new Djinn. Djinn can be found scattered in hiding throughout the game, for each of the four elements and likewise for allocation to each character. The Djinn form the basis of the game’s statistic enhancement, as well as the system that dictates the character’s Psynergy capabilities. Attaching different djinn to different characters modifies that character's character class, increasing hit points, Psynergy points, and other stats, as well as what psynergy the character can perform.

As in the previous Golden Sun, the collectible Djinn can be arranged on the main characters to bring out a variety of character classes.

In the game, Djinn can either be “turned on” (“Set”) or “turned off” (“On Standby”). When a Djinni is "Set" to a character, that Djinni exerts influence on that character’s class (and therefore, his or her statistics and Psynergy collection) relative to both the character’s innate element and that of the Djinni’s. As there is a grand total of seventy-two Djinn encompassing (Twenty-eight from the previous game in addition to forty-four new) the four elements that can be mixed and matched to the eventual eight characters in seemingly any manner, a large array of possible class setups for all eight characters are potentially available, allowing an expanded variety of combat options.

In combat, a player can use a Djinni during that character's turn. Each Djinni has its own special ability which can be invoked during combat. These abilities can include (but are not limited to) enhanced elemental attacks, buffing or debuffing spells, healing/restoration spells, and other effects. After a successful invoke, the Djinni shifts to "Standby" mode until it is "Set" on the character again. While on standby, the Djinn do not contribute to character classes, but can be used for Summon Sequences, where the player summons a powerful elemental monster. This is the game’s most powerful method of attack, and also the riskiest, as it requires Djinn to be on Standby and therefore not be available to bolster the statistics of whatever character the Djinn are on. Once a Djinni on Standby has been used for a Summon Sequence, it must take any number of turns before it restores itself to Set position on a character. There are a total of twenty-nine Summon Sequences in Golden Sun: The Lost Age; the sixteen from the previous game can be used alongside thirteen new sequences, each of which must be earned (some found by defeating extra bosses) individually in the game.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Setting

Golden Sun: The Lost Age takes place on the same fantasy world as its predecessor: The world of "Weyard", a massive earth-like environment modeled on the old Flat Earth idea of the world; it is a flat, vaguely circular plane whose oceans perpetually spill off the edge of the world's entire perimeter into what seems to be an endless abyss, although no one knows what is over it. ^[4][5]However at the end of the game in the very north of Weyard is a huge black void. The plot progression of Golden Sun: The Lost Age spans many continents, islands, and oceans around the two main continents where the previous game takes place. All matter on Weyard consists of any combination of the four base elements: Venus (Essence of rocks and plants), Mars (Heat, fire, and lava), Jupiter (Wind and electricity), and Mercury (Water and ice);^[6] magically-attuned Adepts can manipulate these elements.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of characters in Golden Sun

For much of the game, the player controls a total of four characters: Felix is an eighteen-year-old Venus Adept from the village of Vale, who was an anti-hero in Golden Sun but serves as the game's new protagonist. He is generally not shown to speak, although he does say "...", "!" and "Why?" at some point in the game. His younger sister, Jenna, a seventeen-year-old Mars Adept also from Vale, and a fourteen-year-old girl and Jupiter Adept named Sheba, as well as a sharp-witted elderly scholar named Kraden, are all hostages that Felix was forced to take with his now-deceased masters, the Mars Adept warriors Saturos and Menardi that served as the previous game's antagonists. In this game the player takes the role of Felix as he strives to complete Saturos and Menardi's original objective to restore Alchemy to the world of Weyard, and joining them early on is a Mercury Adept named Piers, a mysterious young man whose ship Felix's party uses to explore the world throughout their journey.

Several groups of characters serve as Felix's antagonists in The Lost Age. He is at odds with the heroes of the original Golden Sun, led by the young Venus Adept warrior Isaac, who pursue him across Weyard under the belief that Alchemy would potentially destroy Weyard if unleashed. One of Saturos' original companions, a powerful and enigmatic Mercury Adept named Alex, allies himself with a second pair of powerful and imposing Mars Adept warriors, Karst & Agatio. They keep the pressure on Felix to ensure he proceeds with his quest as he is supposed to.

[edit] Plot

Plot progression in Golden Sun games occur in cutscenes featuring character facial portraits next to text boxes.

The antagonists of the previous game, Saturos and Menardi, have been slain in battle by the game's protagonists led by Isaac^[7], but not before the pair succeeded in activating two of four great lighthouses situated across the world of Weyard, the Elemental Lighthouses.^[8] But now Saturos' remaining travelling companion, Felix, has taken the rest of Saturos' group and now sets out on a journey of his own to complete Saturos' original objective to activate the remaining two Lighthouses, for lighting all four will achieve the restoration of the powerful force of Alchemy to Weyard.^[8] Sailing the oceans of Weyard on a ship with their soon-to-be-found companion Piers, Felix and his party embark on an epic expedition while pursued by Isaac's party.^[9]

Eventually, Felix's party is able to achieve entrance into a legendary, secluded Atlantis-like society named Lemuria far out in the ocean.^[10] When they convene with Lemuria's ancient king, Hydros, they learn a shocking truth about Alchemy's true nature; it has always been the sustenance of Weyard's very life force, and its absence over the past ages has caused the world's continents to decrease in size and parts of the world to collapse into the abyss.^[11] Knowing that restoring Alchemy is what must be done to actually save the world, Felix sets out to climb and activate Jupiter Lighthouse. But when Isaac's pursuing party enters the lighthouse, they are trapped and ambushed by the vengeful Mars Adept Warriors, Karst and Agatio (Menardi was Karst's sister, and Saturos was Agatio's friend), and Felix comes to assist Isaac and battle Karst and Agatio off.^[12]

Felix is finally able to explain to Isaac why Alchemy's release is a necessary thing for everyone, and that Saturos and Menardi were aiming for this goal merely for the sake of the survival of their home colony of Prox to the far north, located near the Mars Lighthouse.^[13] Felix and Isaac's two traveling parties join forces to form one unified group that sets out north to activate Mars Lighthouse^[14]; however, when they reach the tower's top, the Wise One, the entity responsible for originally tasking Isaac to prevent the breaking of Alchemy's seal, confronts them. He warns them that mankind could very well destroy Weyard themselves if they had possession of such a power^[15], and when Isaac insists on breaking the seal regardless the Wise One summons a giant, three-headed dragon for the party to battle in the final epic struggle.^[16]

When the party of Adepts slay the dragon, they tragically discover that the Wise One tricked them into murdering none other than the parents of Isaac and Felix.^[17] After a session of grief, they gather the resolve to finish their objective and activate Mars Lighthouse; with all four towers across Weyard lit, the process that heralds the return of the force of Alchemy to Weyard ensues at the mountain sanctum Mt. Aleph. Alex is there, however; he took advantage of everyone else's quests so that he would gain immense magic power for himself when Alchemy is unleashed.^[18] He soon finds out he got more than he bargained for, though, as the mountain collapses and sinks into the ground with him still on it.^[19] The Adepts, in the meantime, find that their parents have actually been revived by Alchemy's return,.^[20] just as the Wise One originally planned.^[21] They are able to recognize that the reason the Wise One appeared to play that cruel trick on them before was to test their resolve as Adepts, and therefore test their ability to handle a great new responsibility: To ensure that throughout the world the newly released force of Alchemy is not abused by Weyard's populace like it was in the ancient past.^[21]

[edit] Development

Golden Sun: The Lost Age was first revealed to Japan in early 2002, with the magazine Famitsu being the first publication to review the game.^[22] The Lost Age was highly anticipated; it topped IGN's list of Game Boy Advance "Most Wanted" games for 2003.^[23] The North American version of the game was playable at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2002,^[24] and IGN noted that the opening of the game did away with the notoriously boring opening sequence of Golden Sun, introducing the characters in between the action.^[25] GameSpot previewed a localized copy of The Lost Age in February of 2003, and noted that the game built on its predecessor's graphics engine, with "the environments in the game featuring rich detail with little touches— such as birds that fly off as you approach."^[26]

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[edit] Reception

Golden Sun: The Lost Age generally received similar reviews as its forerunner, but critics were divided on whether the game was better or worse than the original Golden Sun. On MetaCritic, The Lost Age has an 86% rating,^[27] compared to Golden Sun's "Universal Acclaim".^[28] Likewise, Game Rankings gives The Lost Age an 87% overall rating,^[2] slightly lower than Golden Sun's 90%.^[29] Conversely, The Lost Age was ranked 78 on IGN's Readers Choice Top 100 games ever, higher than its predecessor.^[30] It was also rated the 69th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Games" list.^[31]

IGN gave the sequel high marks, noting that even though the game isn't a sequel in the traditional literary sense, it was still an excellent game.^[32] While most of the game mechanics remained unchanged, the addition of more complicated puzzles was welcomed.^[32] The Lost Age subsequently became IGN's "Game of the Month" in April 2003.^[33] Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly argued that though The Lost Age is "not going to win any originality contests (this looks, sounds, and feels nearly identical to its predecessor), but when more of the same means more top-notch roleplaying, I can't complain".^[34] Other publications singled out the graphics and audio as particularly strong features.^[35]

Some publications found fault with complaints which remained from the original, including the combat system. IGN and GamePro took issue with the lack of "smart" combat; if an enemy is killed before other party members attack it, those members switch to defense instead of intelligently attacking the remaining enemies.^[32][36] Ethan Einhorn of GameNOW felt that the only elements that set the fighting system above "typical RPG fare" were the graphics.^[37] Other reviewers felt that Camelot could have added more features, and criticized the long opening sequence which either alienated players of the previous games, or confused new players by swamping them with unfamiliar places and characters.^[38]

Golden Sun: The Lost Age sold 96,000 units in its first week in Japan, being the best-selling game of the period.^[39] The game sold a total of 249,000 copies in Japan and 437,000 in North America by November 21, 2004.^[3]

[edit] Later developments

In regards to a sequel, a Camelot representative announced that "the current status of a third game ... is still up in the air",^[40] and Camelot's Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi stated in a 2004 interview that the scenarios of the first two games were intended as "prologues to the real event yet to come".^[41] Despite this, there have been no official announcements of a new Golden Sun title.

The lack of updates on any new releases following The Lost Age propagated several hoaxes. This included the unveiling of a Nintendo DS game called "Golden Sun: The Solar Soothsayer", which was reportedly shown off at a small pre-E3 2007 gathering.^[42] After this was decried as a hoax by official sources,^[43] the hoax's author confessed he made it in order to generate more discussion about the series and a sequel.^[44] The Takahashi brothers commented in October of 2007 that they still want to to make a third Golden Sun title, going so far as to say that they "have to" and that Nintendo themselves had asked them to make another. They claimed that they haven't thus far because they wish to give the title the development time it deserves.^[45]

In April 2008, Nintendo Power magazine interviewed Shugo Takahashi on one of his latest games. When questioned regarding a third Golden Sun, Takahashi replied "A new Golden Sun? Well, I personally think that I want to play a new RPG, too...."^[46]

Isaac appears as a non-playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl where he is seen to be using Psynergy. Additionally, a medley of some Golden Sun themes is available as a piece of level music.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Official Nintendo Golden Sun Site
• The Official Camelot Golden Sun: The Lost Age Site
• Golden Sun Universe: The Golden Sun Wiki - A Wiki devoted to Golden Sun
• The Golden Sun Realm