Golden Sun scores 8/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Golden Sun Between Classicism and Innovation When There Is Alchemy
by Simon Larocca·January 5, 2025
The Magic in role-playing games
is perhaps the most important element: essential for sketching
the reference world in the best possible way, both a curse and a delight with which to stage spectacular battles and cast the heroes, those whom we gamers will move (usually!) into the coils of relentless enemies.
Golden Sun, a little gem brought into the world by the historic Camelot Software Planning, belongs to the group of titles where
the magical reference system and the classical-style setting helped make the game a success,
elevating it to a must have of the
32-bit console branded by Nintendo: we are talking about the Game Boy Advance, a marvel among marvels, an icon of the Kyoto-based company.
Sixty back in time: published
in Europe in 2002, Golden Sun made a grand entrance for the
portable world, a happy island where it was possible to dare even and above all on a creative level: Sony was about to release the comic-style action RPG Kingdom Hearts while the legendary Morrowwind, with its vast open world, would become wildly popular
in the gaming community, redefining a genre and the way of telling a
story. As a result, Golden Sun would have had to grab the attention of
portable gamers with something new, but that respected the tenets
of the jrpg tradition.
He did it brilliantly.
La story revolves around a
party of heroes, each with their own abilities, weapons, and clothing, whose
main mission is to prevent at all costs the rise of alchemy, an art sealed and lost for
a long time: the esoteric knowledge tied to it and the reckless use of its
mystical manipulations of nature and human nature could bring
the world back to the stone age, no more and no less, effectively destroying it.
In ancient times, to ensure that progress and well-being would flourish, humans
decided to renounce it, despite the benefits that alchemy
had brought to the planet up to that point. As you can imagine, we will take the reins of
characters who oppose the forbidden alchemy with Psynnergy, which, as the name suggests, is based on the power triggered
by the mind, ideally standing in opposition to the material alchemy mentioned above.
Four characters who in some way mirror the archetypes of fantasy classes best
known, and who have suffered because of alchemy, albeit indirectly
as you will discover while playing: Golden Sun does not give up the beloved distinctive traits
of Eastern storytelling: loyalty, sense of duty, reconciliation with
one’s own guilt through redemption,
whether it can be obtained in battle or by making one last sacrifice, this does not
matter.
What matters is the willingness to succeed.
Fundamental themes that
we have always found in Japanese-style role-playing games, physical suffering
and inner suffering as a threshold to cross for the growth of the character, typical of the hero’s journey and of coming-of-age narrative, as well as the disproportionate
and abject use of magic, in this case in a form strongly
connected to matter and to the human being.
Con an interesting system of
powering up and growth based on the introduction of magical creatures called Djinn, like desert spirits,
Golden Sun mimics the more famous Final Fantasy VIII and its guardians:
here too, the psyenergy beings, personifications of the elements, can be
summoned at will in battle.
The game is vast, taking you wandering
around the world and showing you ever-changing regions and cities, evocative settings where forests, woods and bucolic villages alternate with more
urban landscapes, where non-player characters in chibi form, also typical of Japan-made titles, will provide you with
more or less clues on how to proceed. The writer played it shortly after its
release and, in fact, what struck me immediately was the charm evoked by the mysterious aspect hidden in the folds of the plot, full of citations and
references to real alchemical texts that I could not grasp back then, but that
through indirect routes I later learned to recognize, when replaying it.
And when
you replay a game after so many years, it is a mantra that every gamer can confirm,
it means it is worth it and here on The Games Market we have it for sale.
8
Pro
A noteworthy vast world to explore and tons of dungeons: you'll have plenty to enjoy
technically very good overall, a polished title that respects the best-known JRPG elements
“Magic” as a form of interaction with the concrete surrounding world, in a new way that departs just enough from the traditional magic system to make it interesting
Contro
The script does not always maintain a high standard: there is a certain flatness in some key moments of the game.
Maybe a bit too “guided,” as if it wanted to take you by the hand and lead you to the end: for newcomers it will be a godsend, but those who live and breathe video games might not feel the right… alchemy with the game!
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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