History Fridge / GoldenSun

* Near Champa is Treasure Island, the resources of which are being used by the people of Champa to restore their economy so they don't have to depend on piracy any more. Felix & Co. can find and loot the place, and are even encouraged to do so by the presence of a BonusBoss and [[SummonMagic summon tablet]] there, which seems like [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you just indirectly robbed Champa]]. However, the point where you stop finding empty chests and start finding the ones that have stuff in them is the point where you actually start to use Psynergy to reach the latter ones. Felix and co. weren't robbing Champa since they wouldn't have been able to reach those chests in the first place.

** This also explains why your characters aren't weakened in any lighthouse - apart from being simple AntiFrustrationFeatures, it's

* There is a river in Russia labeled ''Kolyma''. Kolima is a town in the game. Then a city called Bilibino - Bilibin is another town in the game. In the second game, there is the Arafura Sea - the town called Alhafra would be ''arafura'' in the original katakana - and Izumo,probably others. The continent of Angara kind of looks like Eurasia, and the locations of Kolima and Bilibin fit that assumption... but Gondwana was a place in India, and the continent of Gondowan looks like ''South America'' and is ''south of Angara''. Furthermore, "Gondwana" is also the name of one of the supercontinents from way back and just [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana look where South America used to be]]. The world of VideoGame/GoldenSun is ours in the past! ... and also [[FlatWorld flat]]. So, about that problem they have in Prox, in ''The Lost Age''... [[spoiler: is it really that the Falls are eroding the edges of the world, or is it the land that's moving out towards the falls ?]]

* All fights against non-adept humans in the first two games (the thieves, gladiators and pirates)range from pushovers to low threats, since they have almost no defenses against Psynergy and Djinn. In Dark Dawn, not only do enemies such as the Assassins or the Generals carry items that can deplete PP and Djinni, but also generally fight more defensively and make a more extensive use of healing items. Since in Dark Dawn the existence of Adepts is not a secret anymore, not only have many non-Adept fighters learned ways to counter them, but also to never take anyone who could be an Adept lightly in a fight.

** The Kimbombo Mountains region have a few water puddles at important locations--characters can use the Frost psynergy to freeze these into pillars of ice in order to solve puzzles. For the purpose of the StealthBasedMission the first time the player comes through, these puddles don't have a point--the party doesn't have a Frost user at the time. On the way back with Piers (who can use Frost) in the party, exactly one of these puddles is useful (to get a djinn), but the others don't matter because all of the guards are gone. For the one pillar that the player can make, well, it leads to the djinn, a shortcut back, and...a route back down to the puddle. Most players didn't even notice the uselessness the first time through the game, but it can be annoying the second time because while there may be times in the game when using a particular psy power is pointless or even detrimental to solving a puzzle, it's always part of a puzzle where using that power in the right way is part of the solution. However, there's a reason for it: The level designers did need to make a way through that relied on Piers since he was supposed to have snuck by ahead of the player's party. Since he lacks the Move and Whirlwind psynergies that the party needed for its route, there'd have to be another way--one that used only Mercury powers. It also explains the pointless route back to the useful puddle--though the party would have easy access to the puddle coming back from Kibombo, Piers wouldn't unless there were some vines to climb down the the puddle so that he could freeze it from his side.

*** Also, to further the above point, [[VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn the third game]] reveals that despite being one of the group to save the world, Felix is NOT fondly remembered. Rather, he, along with Saturos and Menardi, are thought of as renegades who tried to destroy the world while Isaac's party are heroes and nobody thinks ill of the Proxians. They were willing to take on the mantle of villains and act accordingly so only they would bear the blame and hatred.

*** Even more of a difference in perspective shows up with the kind of areas you visit in each game. In the first Golden Sun not only are you chasing down Saturos and Menardi, witnessing the damage they do, but you also end up seeing many areas effected NEGATIVELY by psynergy and the eruption of Mt. Aleph. Everyone is talking about the monsters showing up from psynergy, Trent ends up going berserk and turning the people of Kolima into trees because of being hit by a psynergy stone, and a lot of what you have to do to progress involves taking out a lot of the bigger monsters that have shown up and caused damage to the area. In the Lost Age, the places you visit are all going through their own issues, but you run into a lot of civilizations that use alchemy or psynergy positively. Up until Lemuria a lot of what you need to do is just solve the problem of how to move forward, with no major conflicts to get in your way. Getting to that point and seeing cultures using psynergy lets you know it's not all negative, and learning that the world is decaying only strengthens your motivations to continue.

*** Additionally, take into account the perspective shifts. Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia's goal is to stop Saturos and Menardi from lighting the lighthouse. The game ''only'' lets you see things from ''their'' perspective - and when you see it from their perspective, Saturos and Menardi ''are'' the BigBad if not CoDragons to the true BigBad. The first thing Saturos and Menardi do when the ''player'' sees them is discuss how they may have inadvertently caused the Vale disaster... and they [[HopelessBossFight beat Isaac and Garet unconscious]] simply because [[HeKnowsTooMuch they overheard them]]. After that, they threaten people, kidnap people, take hostages, apparently see ''very'' little value in the people they ''do'' keep around, attempt to kill Isaac&co, beat up dozens for simply getting in their way, and not once [[PoorCommunicationKills attempt to explain why they are doing what they are.]] Isaac and Garet have ''plenty'' good reason to think they want to bring Alchemy back for their own selfish purposes - especially since the Wise One ''only'' tells them (and by extension, the player) enough to make them want to see Alchemy's return as a bad thing. When the perspective shifts to Felix, it seems odd that Kraden, Jenna, and Sheba would be willing to ''follow'' Felix... except that at some point offscreen, they were brought up to speed. In fact, note the fact that in the first game, the characters never actually go anywhere ''near'' Gaia Falls, so they don't know that it is slowly eroding the world. This is actually quite interesting on a meta level - not only were Isaac&Co fooled by a lack of information, but ''so were the players''.

*** At the same time, assuming Jenna&Kraden were filled in on the true motives of Saturos and Menardi offscreen (And they knew by the Mercury Lighthouse), there was a part wherein they are onscreen at the same time as Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia... and look at Jenna's dialogue. A player who had played "The Lost Age" may notice that Jenna seems to really ''really'' want to tell Isaac&Co something, but Menardi is intimidating her, and she is quickly taken away before she can spill the beans.

** If, during the part of the game where you sneak through the Kibombo Mountains, you try to approach the first puddle, you'll get spotted by the guard. This seems like it'd be impossible for Piers to get through, then... However, when the two guards are talking before this, one mentions that guards had been found knocked out around the entrance before. If the guard in that spot was knocked out, then Piers could definitely reach the puddle unnoticed, and it also explains why the Kibombo know that someone else had already tried to sneak through. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything They really did think of everything!]]

*** Additionally, take into account the perspective shifts. Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia's goal is to stop Saturos and Menardi from lighting the lighthouse. The game ''only'' lets you see things from ''their'' perspective - and when you see it from their perspective, Saturos and Menardi ''are'' the BigBad if not CoDragons to the true BigBad. The first thing Saturos and Menardi do when the ''player'' sees them is discuss how they may have inadvertently caused the Vale disaster... and they [[HoplessBossFight beat Isaac and Garet unconscious]] simply because [[HeKnowsTooMuch they overheard them]]. After that, they threaten people, kidnap people, take hostages, apparently see ''very'' little value in the people they ''do'' keep around, attempt to kill Isaac&co, beat up dozens for simply getting in their way, and not once [[PoorCommunicationKills attempt to explain why they are doing what they are.]] Isaac and Garet have ''plenty'' good reason to think they want to bring Alchemy back for their own selfish purposes - especially since the Wise One ''only'' tells them (and by extension, the player) enough to make them want to see Alchemy's return as a bad thing. When the perspective shifts to Felix, it seems odd that Kraden, Jenna, and Sheba would be willing to ''follow'' Felix... except that at some point offscreen, they were brought up to speed. In fact, note the fact that in the first game, the characters never actually go anywhere ''near'' Gaia Falls, so they don't know that it is slowly eroding the world. This is actually quite interesting on a meta level - not only were Isaac&Co fooled by a lack of information, but ''so were the players''.

* When you first encounter the heart of Sol Sanctum in the first game, there is a puzzle that depicts harmony or duality between the Sun and the Moon. Mt. Aleph is regarded as the heart of where Alchemy is sealed, and is the epicenter for the Golden Sun event. However, considering that the puzzle involved working with the ''Moon'' as well has led to this troper realizing that the entire Sanctum, including the puzzle, was a small foreshadowing to the [[spoiler:existence and emergence of Dark Psynergy and Dark Psynergy users in ''Dark Dawn.'' Sol Sanctum, being the seal of Alchemy for who-knows-how-long, directly showed the player a hidden element of ''just what it was hiding''!]]

* When you first encounter the heart of Sol Sanctum in the first game, there is a puzzle that depicts harmony or duality between the Sun and the Moon. Mt. Aleph is regarded as the heart of where Alchemy is sealed, and is the epicenter for the Golden Sun event. However, considering that the puzzle involved working with the ''Moon'' as well has led to this troper realizing that the entire Sanctum, including the puzzle, was a small Foreshadowing to the [[spoiler:existence and emergence of Dark Psynergy and Dark Psynergy users in ''Dark Dawn.'' Sol Sanctum, being the seal of Alchemy for who-knows-how-long, directly showed the player a hidden element of ''just what it was hiding''!]]