12 – Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age
Golden Sun takes the blend of traditional JRPG with puzzle-filled dungeons that the first game had nailed and brings it to a huge world. This sequel doesn’t try to innovate or even expand the gameplay (as far as I remember) nor the graphic style (that is still awesome), but after playing GS2, the first game feels just like a little prologue to its sequel, thanks to the bigger world and the story conclusion.
The game changes the player point of view by changing the party we control the beginning of the game, and the story starts with a plot twist that change radically what you believed through the first game. It also allows the party to visit new locations that we had heard about before, but never visited. It also allows the player to link the first game with the second by inserting a long code that saves the stats and equipment of your first game party (you’ll find them later in the game). Although it was something accessory, it was a great idea and allowed a nice sense of continuity between the two games.
The reason why GS2 is so many steps over GS in my list is that the ending of the first game, with the story clearly unconcluded and a great world unseen was very disappointing for me, but The Lost Age fixed that perfectly, being a great culmination to the two GBA games (Never played the DS one, though).
