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Apparently Golden Sun is a bad series of games.
Why did no one tell me?
Comments
Serious response: I enjoyed them. I didn't like the djinn system, but apart from that, the characters and plot were nice, and the setting was my favorite part of it.
The story was a refreshing twist away from the simply beating the bad guy and saving the world, partly because it SPOILER:has you play both sides in a story where both sides are played against each other, and then you even get to team up at the end. That said, I was rather disappointed that I didn't get to fight Alex.
What do you mean by "never used to its fullest extent"? And what do yo mean by the story being "almost non-existent" and "splintered into the town-with-a-dungeon structure"?
And I didn't think the characters were generic.
Myrmidon's reading Quovak's Golden Sun LP on SA.
What do you mean by "never used to its fullest extent"?
None of the enemies is tough enough to show off Golden Sun's battle system. You can just spam summons or Djinn or Psynergy....doesn't really matter, you'll win anyways.
The battle system is great for a low-level run, though, when bosses force you to use all your resources. Here's a video of me beating Saturos with a party at level 5 and 6 (and where I glitch past Mia). It's an extraordinary battle, as good as any RPG battle I've ever had, but you'll never have a fight so exciting in a normal playthrough.
Golden Sun is too easy but otherwise fucking awesome, and I swear to god we had this exact thread before.
^^ Oh, that was YOU playing in that video!
^ No, I seriously dislike the djinn system.
I much prefer something I recently discovered--Nostalgia's spell advancement system.
It gives you just one set of spells. For example, your black mage equivalent has just one single-target fire spell, one multi-target fire spell, one single-target water spell, and so on.
However, you gain skill points from winning battles, and you get to apply those skill points toward improving those spells and other skills; these improvements are done in levels (invest enough points and it gains a level).
Improving skills will improve one or more of the following, depending on the skill:
* MP cost (some abilities become cheaper as you invest skill points in them)
* wait time (the game has an individual-turn-based battle system, and casting spells often has a longer wait time than a regular attack)
* amount of effect, such as damage inflicted, amount healed, stat boost gained, criti rate boost gained, wait time added to enemy, etc.
Oh, and some abilities, when sufficiently improved, will unlock other abilities.
This is very similar to Etrian Odyssey's scheme, except EO's scheme INCREASES MP cost rather than decreasing it, which is something I dislike.
F'ing Dullahan. Cheap as hell.
But yeah, Dullahan was the only hard boss in the first two games. Even Deadbeard wasn't that bad as long as you didn't try to summon rush him, though he was around the level of difficulty a good part of the rest of the game should've been at. Taking on Briggs right at the start of the Osenia bit instead of hitting Air's Rock first was a nice challenge too, but unfortunately the next half of the game severely overleveled you for everything else. I remember going through Colosso without using Psynergy too, which makes that plot point hilarious.
The djinn system worked extremely well when you knew how to use it and had a good idea of how to exploit element weaknesses. One thing that comes to mind is switching Isaac and Garet's djinn to make them both Barbarians, then double-spamming Planet Diver on the Kraken.
Something they could've done was added extra moves to enemies on Hard mode, let non-physical spells scale and hit a different defense stat, or give you Break a bit earlier than level freaking 30. And then, you know, use those options to make the bosses more complex :P
I remember trying to fight Dullahan with Sheba holding the necronomicon, so I could get one more person with a revival spell, and her stats completely sucked after every djinn storm.
It was a piece of cake.
The characters are generic in the sense that they have very little backstory to explore and resolve(Ivan is the only one with anything of the sort)-I'm not saying you need to have your standard JRPG wangsty dysfunction junction that gets resolved in sidequests, but the characters are mostly defined in how they respond to events, and can be described in a single moniker.
The story has an overarching plotline of stopping the activation of the lighthouses: the only two big twists on this storyline in two games' worth of plot are the decaying of the world and the well-intentioned extremism of the fire tribe. The rest is mostly just town-with-an-event(Vault and the thievery, Kolima and the mad tree, Altin and the water statues), and assorted travel obstacles inbetween. There is very little they add to the story, they're there for the world-building.
Another strong point I previously overlooked: the puzzles.
At least it had decent enough music and was pretty good-looking.
Oh right, the puzzles. I didn't really care much for them, but I guess they were kinda fun.
I later played Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals, and realized that Golden Sun is basically a spiritual sequel to that game, in terms of dungeon puzzles and stuff.
@InsanityAddict: Puzzles are the real main reason I love the series so much. I wish more RPGs had puzzles; they make dungeons a lot less monotonous compared to most games where it's just wandering around getting into battles.
This reminds me that I need to play Lufia 2 sometime.
Kraden yelled at you if you were too disagreeable. :P
Seriously though, the puzzles were what made it. And as for generic story, that actually worked for me...I dunno, it just came out honestly instead of the kind of pretentious pseudo-philosophy and endless wangst that gets vomited at your shoes in so many other JRPG's. Sure there was "shut up already because we already know this" and there was a lot of room for improvement, but rarely "shut up already because I think you're full of shit."
This turned out to be not true, after more thought. I enjoyed the puzzles. But they just didn't make much difference to me. I enjoyed the game for its music, setting, and characters.
And also because Jenna and Mia are really cute.