Golden Sun and its sequel Golden Sun: The Lost Ages are two of the greatest RPGs made for handhelds let alone the greatest in the genre. The story for the games revolve around the basic concept of saving the world but tells it in such a way that it will bring tears to your eyes when its all over.
In Golden Sun, the story follows the path of 4 characters (Issac, Garet, Mia, and Ivan) whose goal is to stop the lighting of the elemental light houses that will allow alchemy to be reintroduced into the world.
In Golden Sun: The Lost Ages, we start with a new cast of characters with the main character (Felix) coming from the same town as Issac, wishing to find him and 3 other characters (Jenna, Piers, and Sheba). Their goal is to stop Issac from stopping the lighting of the light houses, and light them. Sometime towards the middle of the game you finally meet up with the original cast of characters and decide that they must continue Felix's quest to light the rest of the lighthouses in hopes that it will save the world.
The battle system is a tradition turnbased game with a special timing system to do multiple attacks or special super attacks. You can also summon incredible attacks by using your djinn's abilities.
The gameplay is of a traditional go here and there style. The major difference is that you can and in order to get the special enemy boss fights and secrets have to find and capture the djinns. Each djinn adds something to the character equipped. Some adds health while others attack strength.
The music in the game are a great complication of melodies that fit each stage and battle no matter if your casting a summon attack or just swinging your sword but sadly they do tend to get annoying when you have some of the massive dungeons to get through, especially in The Lost Ages. The sound effects in the game are also spot on.
Graphically both games look amazing for a Gameboy Advanced game. The Lost Ages slightly pushes past the original but thats to be expected.
Overall both games are nearly perfect. The Lost Ages is a tiny bit worse then the original but doesn't fail to deliver what you are expecting.
Golden Sun:
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Golden Sun: The Lost Ages:
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 8/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
