Home console systems are the platform of most JRPGs. But there are a select few that were
exclusive to portable gaming systems. Perhaps the most notable example of this, became a
staple for the game boy advance, as well as the nintendo ds. With a gap of 8 years between
the 2nd and final game in the series, fans desperately hope to hear any word of a return
of this great franchise.
This.
Is the golden sun iceberg.
Split in half
Golden Sun and its sequel, The Lost Age, were originally meant to be a single game that
would be released on the Nintendo 64. During the 12 to 18 months of development, the developer
Camelot realized that the Nintendo 64 is now being cast aside by Nintendo and thus shifted
their focus on the Gameboy Advance instead. Due to the hardware limitations of the GBA,
the team eventually decided to split the game into two. And that's why the second game in
the series was released so soon after the first one.
Are we the good guys?
Similarly to one of Camelot's previous games, Shining Force III, Golden Sun's story is told
from two different perspectives. The first game focuses on the 'good' guys, and The Lost
Age focuses on some of the antagonists. Having the player play both perspectives is something
that the team considered an effective way of giving the players both sides of the coin
- and this worked out perfectly, as both of the Golden Sun games are considered some of
the best RPG games of all time, especially thanks to the story.
Better late than never
One thing consistent with the Golden Sun franchise, is how unnaturally long the development cycles
for these games are. The first two games have had 12 to 18 months of development time, which
was considered a big deal for a 2D RPG. And this was especially in a time when many RPGs
had to be rushed and eventually had downsized storylines as a result. Golden Sun Dark Dawn
came approximately 8 years after the Japanese release of the second game. When talking about
why the team took so long, the developers explained that they were burned out after
the release of the second game, and needed to focus on other things so that they can
have a fresh mind for the sequel.
Data transfer
Since the second game was already in development when the first one was released, it shipped
with a password function that allows players to transfer their data from the first game
into the second one. Not only does this carry over names, Djinn collections, and some other
stats - it even influences certain story events, such as Felix recieving the Golden Ring if
Isaac rescued su in the first game. There is also a password generator on the internet,
that allows you to cheat without having to play the first game. Additionally, the hassle
of typing down long passwords can be avoided, if the player just uses a Game Link Cable
to transfer their progress into the second game.
Different battle themes
When Isaac's party joins the team in the second game, and you get a total of eight characters,
the battle theme depends on whether your frontal party contains certain characters or not.
Felix's battle theme is what plays most consistently, but if they're not in the front, other music
begins to play in random encounters. For example, Jenna's battle theme from the prologue of
the game can play too. A random thing that is caused by this is that when Isaac's party
joins the player, the music that played when you sail out at the sea will no longer play,
and instead you'll hear one of the battle themes that play on land.
Renaming characters
Normally, the game only allows you to rename the voiceless character of Isaac when you
start a New Game. However, if you press the Select button three times - you'll hear a
ding, and you can then change the names of the three other characters who are a part
of Isaac's party, which are Garet, Ivan, and Mia. You can then go on to changing the names
of Felix, Jenna, and Sheeba, if you enter another code on the same screen, which makes
another 'ding' sound play.
Returning to the last sanctum
An interesting feature in both of the first Golden Sun games, is the ability to return
to the last visited Sanctum when loading your save file. When loading any save file, hold
the L and Start buttons at the same time before you select a file. You then start in the last
Sanctum that you visited instead of where you last left off. This has a few interesting
details to note in both games.
In the first game, you cannot use this feature at the top of the Venus Lighthouse, where
the cutscenes that lead to the game's final boss battles appear. If you try to use the
feature, it will simply say, "Unfortunately your data could not be recovered". Although
a scary message to see, it does not mean your save data is corrupted, and you can just load
it back normally. It's not considered a glitch by most people, since it would make sense
that the developers don't want the player to interrupt the game's ending. the Only other
place where this feature cannot be used is the Sol or Luna room, located in the Sol Sanctum.
In the second game, you can use a glitch when you're on Idejima. You can control Felix as
the other characters lay unconscious. If you save at this point, turn the game off, reload
it, and use the Sanctum save trick on the game file, you will appear in Day la with
Felix, and the others will be missing since you cannot enter Idejima anymore. As soon
as you leave Day luh, Jenna and Sheeba magically reappear in your party and the game continues
on as normal.
The Sheeba fan theory
There is a fan theory regarding Sheeba, which is related to the mysterious city of the Anemos.
Fans believe that this floating city was Sheeba's home, from which she fell down from as a baby
'with the impact of a meteor but without any bruises'. So, not only would this add more
backstory to Sheeba's character, but also mean that the floating city of Anemos, was
populated with beings of incredible strength.
Werewolves
Another fan theory related to the city of Anemos is about these mythical creatures.
The werewolves that you encounter in Garoh, automatically transform into their wolf form
when they look up at the full moon - which in this case can occur by looking at the underside
of the floating city, and it's never explained in the games why this happens. This provides
fuel to the theory that the Moon of Weyard is the underside of the floating city, where
the Anemos reside.
Sheeba's eyes
Sheeba's eyes have been an interesting topic of debate in the Golden Sun community. In
every piece of promotional artwork, her eye color is green. But her in-game portrait and
character sprites have her eye color as purple. This sparked debate among fans who couldn't
decide what her true eye color was, until official sources answered that her eyes in
the canon are green. Her eyes are not the only thing that the fans consider shrouded
in mystery, as we have the previously mentioned connection to the floating city and there
are other, smaller things, related to her origins that fans often discuss.
Alternate ending
Like many other JRPGs, Golden Sun has an alternative 'bad' ending too. After you are back at Vale
having a discussion with the town elders, the Great Healer asks the main character if
they would accept the responsibility for the fate of the land. The player has the choice
to say no, and this gives them the free roam to walk around and talk to anyone that they
like. The Great Healer will then ask the same question again and if the player says no once
more and leaves the Sanctum, the decision cannot be changed and the screen turns to
a shade of gray. Then the player sees text that says, "And so the world began drifting
toward its fated destruction", and in the next menu, there are options to restart the
previous scene and to return to the File select screen.
Debug Rooms and hidden content
Both of the first games have Debug Rooms that can be accessed using cheat devices such as
Action Replay. The first game has two such rooms, and the second game has four, which
contain several interesting things that fans can find, and that includes unused content.
And additionally, players can add use these rooms to modify their save files and carry
that onto the actual game too.
In the first game, the two Debug rooms are called 'Increase item and level', and 'Menu
test'. Using these menus, you can modify your level, add any items in your inventory, and
see a variety of unused content. For example, you can see an unused portrait of Alex that
looks a bit different to what we got in the final game. Fans speculate that this might
have been due to an intention of making him playable, and then changing his design a little
when he was used only as an NPC. There are unused items such as a long sword called Sol
Blade, a Robe that can increase your defense by 40, and there are plenty of Psynergy spells
that are in the game's code but not present in the game.
In the second game, you can do everything that you could in the first one, such as modifying
levels and gaining items. What's unique to this game, however, is finding an unused portrait
and sprite of a character that never appears in the game. There is no explanation as to
who she is, and all that players know is that she was originally planned to be included
in the final game. The unique Alex portrait from the first game returns too, but there's
a second portrait which is visually corrupted.
Furthermore, we have an unused sprite of a character that looks like Link from The Legend
of Zelda, and a lot of items and Psynergy spells that are nearly completed but not usable
in the game itself. Lastly, you can find some unused animations for unused characters too.
As briefly mentioned above, in both games, players can take all of the items and levels
that they gain through the Debug Rooms, into the main game by using the Sanctum trick - and
the game does not glitch out for doing so.
Outside appearances
Although not a particularly large franchise, Golden Sun is still referenced in other media
over the years. First off, we have the 'Golden Sun 4-Koma Gag Battle', a Japanese doujin
manga anthology, which parodies the first game's characters. Secondly, within multiple
super smash bros entries, Isaac appears as an assist character that can help the player
within a fight. Aside from Isaac's appearance, you can hear some of the music from the games
in Smash Bros as well.
Lastly, we have a reference to Golden Sun in Hyperdimension Neptunia VII, and an NPC
in Animal Crossing for the GameCube, who sometimes mentions that he found an item in the Karagol
Sea.
References to other work
All three games in the Golden Sun series contain several references to pop culture. For example,
we have a reference to Dumbo's 'Pink Elephants' song, in a line of dialogue from Mind Read.
Then we have a reference to Monty Python's Flying Circus's Lumberjack song. There's a
not-so-subtle reference to Scooby-Doo, as one of the crewmates of Briggs' says, "Everything
would have been fine, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"
Nintendo games such as Mario and Zelda have been referenced, such as one section where
crabs and turtles change color when hit with coins or medals, and the aforementioned Link
sprite that can be found in the second game's code. To top it all off, we have a reference
to the iconic, The Sixth Sense movie, in which the character Cale says he can see dead people.
This is referenced through the use of one of the surviving female beastmen, in the epilogue
of the game as she says, "I... I can see people who shouldn't be here...walking around".
Jenna's revival
If Jenna is defeated by any of the early game enemies in The Lost Age, Alex goes back to
revive her. Hilariously, her fallen sprite is just her idle sprite rotated to look like
she's laid down. Players hardly ever got to experience this sequence because it's so easy
to not lose in the first battle.
Glitches
Both of the first games are filled with several glitches. The glitches in the first game are
simpler, such as things like a non-transparent tornado appearing, and energy balls that disappear
in the Venus Lighthouse puzzles. But with the second game, there is a much larger number
of glitches, many of which can prove to be gamebreaking. It's possible to duplicate your
items through the Trial Road. Also, you can walk through the overworld areas of Angara
and upper Gondowan, by carefully positioning your ship at the southernmost tip of the beach,
which is at the southwest of Loho on Angara. This allows you to visit several areas that
you normally can't, but the previous game's locations cannot be entered and don't have
an overworld icon anymore.
Other glitches include things like sailing without random encounters, telepathically
talking to Galahad, and other random things such as text errors, and exceeding the Coin
Limit Glitch. As for the gamebreaking glitches, they are mainly caused by getting stuck into
several areas. For example, you can get stuck in Alhafra due to a wall formed by the NPCs,
and this will hold you back from triggering an important cutscene if you save the game
and perform the Sanctum trick. Additionally, areas such as Osenia Islet, SW Atteka Islet,
Magma Rock's lava and more, can have the player get stuck inside them too. The ways to exit
vary and some of them require cheat devices, so that you can enable walking through objects
- while some of them just waste your game's progress permanently.
Themes of racism
Golden Sun has themes of racism thrown here and there, which is no surprise since JRPGs
tend to deal with controversial and philosophical topics in them. This is most prominent in
the third game, as beastmen are discriminated against, and not treated as equals in most
places in the game. The reason behind this is a past conflict, and as usual, the humans
have not gotten over it and consider themselves as the superior beings. The homeland of Morgal
tends to be nicer to them better than others though, since Saha Town is populated by both
humans and beastmen living with unity.
Glimmer of hope for golden sun 4
While the final game, dark dawn, was met with mostly positive reviews from critics. It didn't
perform quite as well as its predecessors, as it didn't break the 1 million mark, so
it didn't perform quite as well as many other portable games. Many fans argue that these
figures were still impressive, considering the smaller size of camelot studio. However,
they've recently expressed an interest in working on an RPG again. We also see that
the trademark of golden sun has a status of registered and renewed under, Nintendo of
America. In fact, just earlier this year we see a notice of acceptance for the trademark.
Especially with the ambiguous ending of the finale, Is it possible that we'll soon see
a revival of this beloved franchise?
Although many argue that the series didn't receive its fair chance to prove itself, the
game developed a cult fan base that would be ecstatic to see this tremendous franchise
return. Nevertheless, the game served as a gateway into JRPGs for many people, and holds
a spot as one of the all time greats. Like and subscribe if you'd like to see more content
like this. And let me know what subjects you'd like to see covered next.