Golden Sun

System: GBA

Price: 39.95

Genre: RPG

Y'know, just yesterday I was saying to myself, "Self, you should find something that's fun, will whittle away your time to nothing flat and can fit in the palm of your hand. (Well, I didn't say it in so many words, but you get the idea.) Golden Sun fits that description nicely, a beautiful game that will eat your time like ants at a picnic.

The story is of Isaac, a young man from the village of Vale, a small place where a secret ability called "Psynergy" (Or magic or psionics or whatever...) is passed down from generation to generation. Isaac gets caught up in events that lead up to 4 very powerful stones called Elemental Stones being released. His and his friend Garet's task is to reclaim the stones and make sure they cannot be used to bring "Alchemy" (Couldn't they have just said MAGIC??) back to the world.

Graphically, the game is rock solid HOT. Your characters look nice and have extremely cool attacks which vary from giant flame waves to bolts of lightning raining down from the heavens. The game itself will remind you of one of Camelot's (developer of Golden Sun) most famous games, Shining Force 3. The style is almost a direct match, which is in no way a bad thing. Even the battles have the same 3rd person, 3/4 perspective that the SF games had. The enemies themselves look nice as well, but a little less palate swaps would have been nice, although the game has plenty of different enemies.

Sound has a great soundtrack. The songs have the typical fantasy aire to them and really aren't anything special, but they sound so good. The melodies in the background are easily Castlevania :Circle of The Moon quality, if not better. It just helps you get into your quest even more and isn't intrusive in anyway.

Gameplay is great. The battle system takes many different nods to other games, in my opinion. Its almost like you want to say "Wow, they had that ability in (name of game)". The game seems to borrow may different abilities, such as special attacks from Shining Force 3, monster collecting from Pokemon, job changing from Final Fantasy Tactics, elemental bonding from Thousand Arms, and a few more. It may seem a bit rehashed, but it all comes together so well that it plays smoother than RPG's for some systems that have been out for a few years. Menus are somewhat easy to navigate, but at times a pain. Also, using your abilities can be tricky at times as you usually have to be perfectly lined up with an object. These are MINOR gripes, but still something to watch for.

All in all, this game is beyond superb, but the only thing that is even comes close to being a major problem is the story. Without giving anything away, it just feels at times to kiddie and "Working Designs-ed" (Best way I could put it.) Some will find it alright, some will groan.

For a 1st attempt at a GBA RPG, this one is platinum. Had the story been polished a bit more, it would have been the greatest thing EVER. But for now, it will have to settle for being one of the best games on the GBA and on any system. Now here's to hoping we see more from Camelot soon!

The Reverend Mofat Jones like his GBA.

-Mofat

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