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Golden Sun
Golden Sun is a 2001 RPG from Camelot Software Planning and Nintendo. The sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, was released in 2003. The third game in the series, known at this point only as Golden Sun DS, is tentatively scheduled to come out in 2010 after being announced by Nintendo at the E3 Convention.

Golden Sun tells the story of Isaac, a teenager from the village of Vale, gifted with the power of Psynergy, and his journey to stop a dangerous group of antagonists from releasing the ancient power of Alchemy and to rescue his friend Jenna. The resulting journey takes him and three companions through many lands and cultures to the Elemental Lighthouses, the seals preventing Alchemy's release.

The sequel changes the viewpoint to that of Felix, one of the enemies from the first game, and has you trying to release the same power you wanted to keep sealed in the first game, for equally good reasons.

A third entry for the series, to be released in 2010 on Nintendo DS, was announced out of nowhere at E3 2009, pretty much stunning everybody. Many cried, and some needed to change their pants. Then Nintendo gave absolutely no new information following the initial announcement.

Although the games lack the character depth and intricate plotting of many Role Playing Games, they feature large, vibrant worlds, a deep character class system, superb music and some of the best graphics and sound to be found on the Game Boy Advance. Definitely worth a look for fans of the genre, although non-fans may find the Random Encounters and Level Grinding annoying.
Tropes within:

  • Aerith And Bob: The antagonists, especially: you have Alex and Felix alongside Karst (the most normal of the others), Saturos, Menardi, and Agatio. Though it's somewhat justified as they're a slightly different civilization from a distant corner of the world, and possibly not even Human to boot.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Babi as an Evil Overlord, for one. It would seem that Tolbi is budding into The Empire, and much of his backstory is a little less than sympathetic. Nevertheless, the party seems to take all of his requests without questioning anything.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: The Fire Clan.
  • An Ice Person: Mia, Piers, Alex, and others.
  • Anime Hair: Largely averted, with the exception of Garet, whose red locks stick straight up for a foot or so, a-la Vash The Stampede
  • Anti Grinding: The first game's first dungeon turns off Random Encounters when all three party members reach a high-enough level
    • Can be avoided by killing off Jenna.
  • Anti Villain: Saturos, Menardi, Karst and Agatio, ruthless in their aim to release the potentially dangerous force of Alchemy to the world but motivated by the fact their hometown, and eventually the world, would deteriorate and collapse over time if they didn't.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Used however by the end of The Lost Age when the party is twice as large as the 4-member battle cap, the other four are a "backup team" that you can swap in one of each turn, and if your entire front party is annihilated your back party automatically switches in.
  • Atlantis: Lemuria, which is discovered and explored in The Lost Age.
    • Anemos, arguably, though you never go there for obvious reasons.
  • Awesome But Impractical: the game's ultimate summon simultaneously completely heals your entire party (including dead party members) AND deals an insane amount of damage, more than three times as much as a level four summon. The drawback? It requires 13 standby djinn to unleash. If you don't set them to standby outside of battle, you'll need a minimum of three turns dedicated solely to setting up for this summon. And don't forget that setting djinn to standby temporarily gimps your characters stats. Also factor in three turns of recovery after doing the summon before your stats return to normal, and you've got an incredibly high cost summon that, while nice, isn't nearly worth the effort when you could accomplish the same thing with mundane but effective healing skills.
    • That's not mentioning the fact that it requires you have have every Djinn from both games(frustrating in itself), you have to beat the strongest boss in the game to get it, or that the single creature capable of posing a threat to you afterwards is resistent to it. So Yeah, it basically exists to look cool.
  • Bag Of Sharing: Averted, each character has his/her own inventory
  • Bag Of Spilling: Averted in that a data transferring feature at the end of the first game (either by Game Link Cable or by a HUMONGOUS 260-character password) lets the party of the first game keep their equipment, levels, stats, and everything else when they are added to the new party near the end of the second game.
  • Battle Theme Music: Most of the boss battle themes are epic, even on the GBA.
  • Behind The Black
  • Betting Mini Game: Lucky Dice (Dice-throwing for coins) and the Lucky Medal Fountain (tossing coins and Lucky Medals into a fountain for equipment) are introduced in Tolbi in the first game. They return in different towns in the second with a new game, Super Lucky Dice (random dice-throwing and betting on if the value would sink or rise).
  • BFS: The aptly named Huge Sword from the second game and its Unleash effect, "Heavy Divide". Also, Felix and Isaac's Ragnarok/Odyssey Psynergy spells. And the colossal sword held by the multi-elemental summon Catastrophe. And the Excalibur's "Legend" unleash. And the Gaia Blade's "Titan Blade" unleash. So Yeah...
  • Black Magician Girl: Jenna, Sheba
  • Block Puzzle: Far too many. A lot.
  • Blow You Away: Ivan and Sheba's wind-based powers for starters
  • Bonus Boss: Two in the first game and several in the second, including the hardest boss in the series, all but one located in a...
  • Bonus Dungeon: Several, and one in the first game even has its own Bonus Town outside (Lunpa)
  • Boring But Practical: Due to certain pieces of equipment having the capability of boosting Unleash rates (certain combinations allow up to ninety-nine percent chance to Unleash), normal attacks generally outclass attack Psynergy in terms of sheer damage. Especially deadly when combined with the Sol Blade's Unleash effect, which does three times the normal damage every time.
    • Actually, psynergy is useful for most of the game, but it becomes obsolete near the end due to the fact that you stop acquiring new psynergy but your attack stat keeps growing. (Some psynergy are elemental physical attacks and take your attack stat into account, so they're still useful regardless of level).
    • Passive PP regeneration items are extremely unexciting yet highly valuable against most of the end-game bosses.
    • Boring But Practical? Half of the unleashes in the game are even more fantastic than psynergy, and the aforementioned Sol Blade launches a star at your enemy.
      • It's actually a flaming planet or something, since it does Venus damage.
      • Well, most of the late-game weapon unleashes do awesome things, like launch flaming planets, or call upon Artemis to fill the foe with volleys of arrows, or summon several dragons, but most of the early game unleashes are fairy mundane, like a sword shooting ice, or a rapid volley of physical strikes.
    • Probably the most boring but practical strategy is to utilize shield djinn. Flash gives you 90% damage reduction for one turn, and Shade gives you 60% damage reduction for another turn. Have two party members spend their actions alternating these two unleashes while a third heals any damage that you take, while the fourth party member chips away at the enemy's HP. You're essentially invincible against anything that's not Dullahan, but don't expect this method to be any fun.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: Arguably, the Iris summon after defeating the Bonus Boss in the last Bonus Dungeon, for being Awesome But Impractical.
  • Brick Joke: Not a joke, exactly, but one of the weirdest, seemingly most random part of the beginning of the first game goes toward defeating the Big Bad in the sequel, long after it's been forgotten. More specifically, The Wise One has Isaac take out the Mars Star for a moment, then put it back. This was apparently to take a small part of its power and give it directly to Isaac. This means that when Alex takes the power of the Golden Sun in the Epilogue, he doesn't have ALL of the power he's supposed to, and The Wise One is able to suppress, and perhaps kill, Alex.
  • Broken Bridge: Several straight examples that occur in the overworld map and fix themselves later. Also done differently with a raised drawbridge, and the guy who would gladly lower it for you is cursed just like the rest of a town you're trying to save so now he's a tree.
  • But Thou Must: In every cutscene you're presented several yes/no choices of opinion that don't affect anything other than the next two lines of the dialogue, except for once early in the game, where refusing the quest results in a Non Standard Gameover. The 999 other times, however....
    • The Lost Age spoofs it if you anwser no on every question up to a certain point.
    • The same game also gives you a choice on whether or not to take the first Djinn. If you continually say no, the Djinn gives you increasingly humorous responses.
  • The Cameo: The Lost Age has a sprite sheet for Link in game but unused.
  • Cave Behind The Falls
  • Chain Of Deals: An example in The Lost Age involving the various islets in the Eastern Sea, which results in accessing a Bonus Dungeon containing a Bonus Boss on one of the islets.
  • Chaos Architecture: Averted. The first opus only takes place on one continent, while the second one takes place all over the world except that continent.
    • You can still access the first continent if you land your ship in just the right spot. It's a glitch, though, so there's nothing interesting to do.
  • Chekhov's Skill: subverted — when the party first enters an area cursed by Tret in the first game, they are protected from being turned into trees by some kind of automatic force-field psynergy. This is never mentioned again, though one character uses this as the in-story explanation for weapon unleashes.
  • The Chessmaster: The Wise One and, to a lesser extent, Alex. The latter is using both the heroes and the villains to light all four lighthouses so he can go to Mt. Aleph and gain ultimate power—it's not the most complex plan, but it actually works...or at least it would have if not for one tiny detail: the former altered the Mars Star and saved Isaac at the beginning of the first game so that the ultimate power would be split between two vessels, making Alex weaker than the Wise One. The former also arranged for a Secret Test Of Character to ensure that the heroes were committed to their task and ready to complete it. That's how to win in just three moves, kids.
    • Alex's chess mastery is subverted beautifully by Agatio in his first appearance. When Alex admits he's been using the Proxians, Agatio basically replies that he couldn't care less as long as the Lighthouses get lit.
  • Chest Monster: Played straight with Mimics in several areas in each game. They drop good items, though, so it's worth battling each one.
  • Cliff Hanger: The first game's ending, which occurs at a point where you'd assume you were halfway through the game.
  • Climax Boss: The first fight against Saturos in the first game and the fight against Karst and Agatio in the second game, both at the top of one of the elemental lighthouses
  • Combat Tentacles: One of the bosses you fight in the first game is a Kraken.
  • Corridor Cubbyhole Run: One of the puzzles in the Jupiter Lighthouse.
  • Cosmic Keystone: The Elemental Stars and their Elemental Lighthouses.
  • Critical Hit: Both normal critical hits and the special attacks each of the weapons may automatically launch on their own
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: Many. This series had a great soundtrack for a GBA game. However, one song the fans seem to put above the rest is the Doom Dragon theme.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Sanctums (usually staffed by priests and monks) that drive away evil spirits, a Clan's worship and protection of its corresponding element/sacred place, calling upon pagan gods to smite thine enemies into oblivion...
    • One of the cities (I think it's Kalay?) has a church where people are worshipping. Some of the prayers make reference to a shepherd and the people as a flock. I suspect it's not so much Crystal Dragon Jesus as it is Getting Crap Past The Radar.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Isaac and Felix, naturally
  • Doomed Hometown: Subverted, then partially inverted. Golden Sun opens with a (mostly successful) attempt to keep it from happening to Vale, then the town is destroyed after the finale to The Lost Age.
    • Also, another subversion when it turns out that Saturos and Menardi were motivated by the fact that their home town of Prox was on the verge of being consumed by an encroaching abyss, and only the restoration of Alchemy would save it.
  • Dramatic Unmask (Felix)
  • Drone Jam: Averted — you actually CAN push NPCs around if they get in your way.
  • Dual Boss: Several times throughout each game.
  • Duel Boss: Happens three times in a row during the first game's Inevitable Tournament, leading to Isaac's Post Dramatic Stress Disorder
  • Dummied Out: Various Psynergy that have no effect outside of the debug room can be obtained via cheating. After beating the final boss in the second game, there is a brief sequence where you walk around the final town, normally you don't have acess to mind read at this point, but if you hack to obtain it, there are major Sequel Hooks in the mind read "conversations" see:here (obviously spoilers are contained within).
  • Dungeon Master: The Wise One
  • Easily Amused
  • Elemental Baggage: Characters using their magic to freeze small puddles of water into huge ice pillars, for example.
  • Elemental Powers: Virtually every major character except (maybe) Kraden is an Adept of a specific Element, meaning he or she can use Psynergy of that element. A lot of monsters can use these too.
  • Elemental Rock Paper Scissors: Severely downplayed. Most monsters aren't identified with a specific element, and no "Element X does this to that" tutorial is ever given. The only even remotely obvious ingame sign of it existing is the punctuation used in the battle messages when enemies get hit by elements they're weak, neutral or strong against: the said messages will end with !!!, ! and ., respectively.
  • Enemy Summoner: Several common monsters, and bosses like Briggs and Star Magician
  • Enigmatic Minion: Alex. Saturos, Menardi, Karst, and Agatio fit as well.
  • Evil Tower Of Ominousness: The Elemental Lighthouses, sort of
  • Fake Difficulty: Everything which can cast Djinn Storm is very hard, everything which can't is very easy.
    • The Star Magician begs to differ.
    • He's not too hard if you concentrate your attacks on his Balls until he has four Thunder Balls, Sentinel on the other hand...
      • Who is not hard at all if you have the Daedalus summon. Throw three or four at him, then heal the subsequent turn and watch as he gets hit by three or four missiles closely resembling ICBM's with thermonuclear weapons. Nuke Em indeed.
      • Star Magician is also very weak to Daedelus' super missile, and it can usually hit him for about 1500 points of damage.
      • This troper thought that of the four summon guardians, Valukar was the second-toughest (everyone agrees Dullahan is the toughest). Thanks to him getting multiple attacks per turn, you can start your turn with every djinn set and still end up getting slapped by a Megaera.
  • Feelies: Each game comes with a map of the game world, and a character chart on the flipside
  • Fetch Quest: Plenty
  • Finishing Move: Some weapons' special attacks
  • Flat World: Weyard is a flat world that is eroding as the oceans spill over its edges.
  • Floating Continent: Mentioned in gossip in the second game that this world's moon is one of these. Source of many Epileptic Trees.
    • And the main world itself appears to be a giant floating landmass above an abyss.
  • Floating Platforms
  • Flunky Boss: The Star Magician, also a Bonus Boss
  • Fragile Speedster: Ivan, Sheba, and Jenna
  • Friendly Fireproof: Many summons and a couple weapon Unleashes.
  • Frictionless Ice: Several puzzles like this in The Lost Age.
  • Fusion Dance: Each game's final boss is a fusion of characters; Saturos and Menardi in game 1 become a two-headed dragon, and the parents of Felix and Isaac's dad are turned into a three-headed one.
  • Get On The Boat: The ship gained about 25% into the second game, which becomes the Global Airship close to the end.
  • Glass Cannon: Ivan and Sheba
    • Except for the fact that Ivan and Sheba are outclassed both defensively and offensively by venus adepts, who have access to Grand Gaia (which outclasses Ivan and Sheba's Spark Plasma). And let's not forget that Spark Plasma isn't exclusive to Ivan and Sheba; with a bit of class swapping, anyone can use them.
  • Global Airship
  • Going Through The Motions
  • Golden Saucer: Tolbi in Golden Sun and Contigo in The Lost Age have several gambling minigames each
  • Good Morning Crono: In the middle of the night though, with the impetus being 'a giant rock is falling towards our village!'
  • Gotterdammerung: The results of sealing off Alchemy and letting the world waste away for centuries.
  • Go Wait Outside: The entire village of Yallam, that is, so that the blacksmith there can do Item Crafting for you
  • Green Rocks: Purple Psynergy stones showered over the world by the eruption of Mt. Aleph change everything — wild animals becoming monsters, normal people gaining Psynergy powers, etc.
  • Green Thumb: some Earth psynergy, though Isaac & Felix can't do it in their default classes.
  • Grim Up North: The blizzard-ridden bleak setting of the final dungeon of Golden Sun: The Lost Age
  • Guide Dang It: Without one, good luck finding all the Djinn.
    • The main Djinn that really need a guide are the ones that are fought as Random Encounters on the overworld map in somewhat arbitrary regions that don't look like they could be hiding anything, and there's only a chance they'll appear in battles instead of the usual monsters when you wander in those areas. In The Lost Age, though, most people never realize that the fortune teller in Naribwe is a hint-system that gives a vague clue as to where the next Djinni not yet in your collection is. Just show him one of your pieces of armor.
    • That, and the one in Xian. Because, you know, most NPCs in villages are fairly useless...
    • And then there's getting into Lemuria in The Lost Age. It involved learning a children's song in some town in the middle of nowhere, which had the way to sail to Lemuria in the lyrics. THEN there's a boss which needs a special weapon to defeat. This weapon was split into three parts, and hidden in three dungeons, so you have to travel the entire world for the three dungeons. THEN, to get through one of the dungeons, you first need to do a sidequest involving ANOTHER hard to beat boss. And when you finally got all the pieces, there's still another boss before you can forge it together. THEN you can sail into Lemuria. Try finding all that out without a guide. Sure, there's enough hints going on, but it's still quite difficult.
      • This troper did it without guides or even difficulty. At age ten/eleven.
  • Guest Star Party Member: Not really; they are the heroes of the first game.
    • Jenna in the first game is a more direct example
  • Hailfire Peaks: Mars Lighthouse, a fire-based dungeon that has frozen over.
  • Healing Hands: Mia, primarily a healer, is first seen healing a bedridden old man like this.
    • And every element except Jupiter/Wind includes at least a few healing abilities, though Mercury/Water is best at it.
      • There is at least one Jupiter/Wind djinn unleash that restores HP, although there are no curative Jupiter psynergies.
      • Unless you're playing the first game, before Fire-based healing was introduced. The result of this is that Saturos has an Earth-based Cure Well in his arsenal, and Menardi has a Water spell, Wish, in hers.
  • Heroic Mime: Isaac and Felix. Possibly the most ridiculous example of silent protagonists in any RPG, seeing as both talk like anything at times when they're not playable (Felix in the first game; Isaac in the second game).
    • To be fair, Felix does talk a couple times in the second game; it's implied that he's just tight lipped normally.
      • In fact, let me reproduce all his lines before the grand finale:
    Felix: "Why?"
    • ....aaaand that's all of them!
    • You're forgetting two lines of his that were entirely composed of punctuation marks: "!!!" and "???" Your point remains, though. Isaac had all of one line ("!!!") in the first game, but in the second he's a damn chatterbox.
  • Hidden Elf Village: Vale is this, keeping themselves secret so knowledge of Psynergy doesn't get out. Shaman Village fits too—when you arrive, the inhabitants won't even speak to you.
    • Garoh as well.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: In the dark and stormy prologue in the first game.
    • And the Serpent in the 2nd game, if you haven't lit any of the special lights inside Gaia Rock before fighting him.
    • Poseidon can be one of these too if you don't meet him on the right circumstances.
  • Hostage For Mc Guffin: Jenna and Kraden in the first game, Felix's parents in the second
  • How Much Did You Hear: In the first game's prologue, said by Saturos and Menardi to Isaac and Garet. Doesn't go well for the latter two.
    • Echoed by the same two in the proper intro of the same game, only to decide it's not worth the effort to beat the kids up this time.
  • Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Agatio and Karst
  • Im Cold So Cold: Agatio and Karst, justified in that their race only actually feels the extreme cold of their wintry environment if they're dying.
  • Inevitable Tournament: An annual tournament of gladiators held at Tolbi that just happens to be in effect when Isaac's party comes along. Isaac is automatically entered into it after he rescues Tolbi's ruler Babi from death in a nearby cave.
  • Infinity Plus One Sword: Gaia Blade in the 1st game, Sol Blade in the 2nd.
    • Excalibur and Tisiphone Edge for non-Earth Adepts.
      • Technically, anyone capable of weilding longswords can use the Gaia Blade, only the Sol Blade is prf to Isaac and Felix.
      • Note that the first two here are actually in very easy-to-get treasure chests along the paths in each game's final dungeons, while it's the slightly weaker later two that are either randomly forged or randomly dropped. And none of these are Swords of Plot Advancement.
      • Though, the fact that Gaia Blade and Sol Blade were in relatively easy-to-get treasure chests made it even more likely that players would skip over them, as their placement might lead one to think, "Oh, probably just another nut/herb."
  • Informed Flaw: Agatio's stupidity (his in-game dialogue actually has a pretty good vocabulary), Garet's gluttony.
  • Insurmountable Waist Height Fence: And not just the fences. Oftentimes your path is blocked by knee-high ROCKS.
    • Played with in the prologue of the first game, when Saturos and Menardi jump up and down cliffs without a second thought.
    • Similar thing with the Living Statues - you see the Statue cast frost on a puddle, then proceed to jump up a precipice and onto the frozen pillar, rather than just jumping up on the other side...
      • Admittedly, the Statue there is showing the player how to solve that puzzle. I would never have thought to cast Frost on the little puddles of water, to be honest.
  • Invisibility: the Cloak psynergy, a pretty lame variant that only works in shadows in a few particular areas (and not at all in the second game)
  • Item Crafting: A straightforward but entirely randomized setup (give the Blacksmith in Yallam a material item and buy whatever he decides to make with it)
  • Its All Upstairs From Here: With four lighthouses (technically five and a mountain sanctuary) between two games, expect to be doing a lot of climbing.
    • Compared to the lighthouses, the hugenormous Elemental Rock dungeons involve long stretches of literal mountain climbing.
    • And let's not forget the three towers containing the Trident of Ankohl — though one of them had an elevator, so there wasn't much climbing involved there.
  • Its Always Mardi Gras In New Orleans: Tolbi's Colosso competition
  • It Was A Dark And Stormy Night: The prologue to game 1
  • Kid Hero: Most of the playable cast is 18 or under.
    • Actually, the only exception is Piers, who is probably several hundred years old.
  • Kill It With Water: Mercury Adepts are this and Staff Chicks in one handy package
    • Out of the two mercury adepts, only one of them is female, not to mention there's another important mercury adept who is also male (Alex)
    • And this troper wouldn't classify Piers as Staff Chick, even a male variant thereof. He can use all the same weapons and armor as Felix, Isaac, and Garet.
  • Kill Sat: Isaac's final summon, Judgment
    • In addition to Judgment, who is a giant knight that shoots a bolt of destructive energy from a lion head on one arm, there's a few more summons who act as Kill Sats. Namely Eclipse, a giant dragon who fires a breath weapon from low orbit, and Catastrophe, who's kind of like Judgment's Evil Twin, who fires a destructive bolt of dragon-shaped lightning from his sword.
      • And Catastrophe's evil older brother Charon. Who has a similar animation, except it is darkness based and more obviously malicious.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero
  • Last Disc Magic: Several final summons in game 2.
  • Leaked Experience: Party members not in battle gain half experience.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Magma Rock, Mars Lighthouse, underground of Taopo Swamp...
  • Lighthouse Point: They are called lighthouses, but they're really more towers that store magical energy.
  • Little Black Dress: Everyone is one of these to the fandom
  • Lost Forever: If you didn't transfer data, after a certain event the Bonus Dungeon (and thus the Bonus Boss) is not accesible anymore.
    • However New Game Plus makes it possible to try again next time. (And you'll need the extra-XP of a second go for the megahugenormous Bonus-Boss!)
  • Macross Missile Massacre: The Daedalus summon
    • Doubles as Nuke Em if you don't deal damage the following turn.
  • Magic Knight: Almost everyone who isn't a Squishy Wizard, since all the characters have access to attack magic.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Saturos; it's implied that even Menardi gets fed up with his shenanigans. Alex is a bit more subtle about being a bastard.
  • Marathon Level: Plenty to be found, and most are necessary stops on the way to completing the game. Air's Rock in the second game is by far the worst offender.
  • Meaningful Name: Karst's name may or may not be derived from the Lithuanian for "hot" (karŝta). Since she's both Ms Fanservice and Playing With Fire, this is completely appropriate.
  • Medium Awareness: In the scene displaying the forcefield power, Garet explicitly compares the forcefields to scoring critical hits in battle. Like the rest of the scene, this never comes up again.
  • Metal Slime: Phoenix and its palette-swapped variants
  • Mind Over Matter: Many non-combat Psynergy
  • Mind Probe: One of the trademark skills of the Jupiter element.
  • Mineral Mac Guffin: The Elemental Stars
  • Monster Arena: The Battle mode in each game, including elements of a Boss Rush.
  • Monster Town: Garoh, a town filled with hospitable werewolves
  • Ms Fanservice: Karst, a Cute Monster Girl in a midriff-baring black leather micro-mini with thigh-high boots. Everybody else in the entire series is dressed quite modestly, so she stands out even more.
    • Lampshaded. When you go visit the mayor of Madra after getting Piers to join you, Sheba and Jenna start gossipping about "that girl outside".
  • Mundane Utility: A Catching magic spell to pluck nuts and apples off trees.
    • The Move, Whirlwind, Lift, Carry, Pound, Grind, and Burst spells to remove obstacles from your path. And yes, you need to learn which obstacles require which spells to remove.
  • Mysterious Waif: Sheba
  • New Game Plus. Literally, a new game.
  • Non Elemental
  • Non Lethal KO.
  • Nonstandard Game Over: At the start of the first game when the bad guys make off with the Elemental Stars, you are asked (not told) by your village elder to go after the stars. Refuse twice and the screen fades to a sepia tone, accompanied with the text "And so, the world drifted towards its fated destruction." You are then given the option of continuing from the beginning of the conversation.
  • Noob Cave: Sol Sanctum in the original, Kandorean Temple in the sequel
  • Now Where Was I Going Again: After getting a boat in the 2nd, you have to get three items in no relevant order.
  • Old Save Bonus: You can transfer party and event data from the first game for some really necessary bonuses
  • Omniscient Morality License: The Wise One, particularly for what it does to the entire group at the end of The Lost Age
    • Although one wonders how much choice the Wise One had in how to go about its work. This troper always got the feeling the Wise One was a mystical guardian rather than a full-scale god — complete with gessa forbidding it to take or abjure certain actions. In this case, a geas to thwart the restoration of Alchemy by whatever means available. But then it realized that if Alchemy wasn't restored, bye-bye Weyard. All it could really do, if this hypothesis is correct, was slip a way out for Weyard into its still-continuing obstruction program. In other words, more likely blame should go to the Wise One's creators, than the Wise One itself.
  • One Game For The Price Of Two: The two games can be played alone, but you won't make much sense of the story, or get the best possible summons, magic and equipment.
  • Orphans Plot Trinket: Ivan's staff.
  • Out Gambitted: Oooh, you almost had ultimate power, Alex! Too bad The Wise One took a moment at the start of the first game to set up a plan to screw you over at the last possible second, huh?
  • Pals With Jesus
  • Party In My Pocket.
  • Petal Power
  • Player Versus Player: Both games have a two-player duel mode.
  • Playing With Fire: Garet, Jenna, and each game's antagonistic duo
    • Unfortunately for Garet in the first game, since he'd be a pretty decent tank if the final bosses didn't all resist fire! Thank goodness there are items that let him Kill It With Water instead.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The Proxians' goals are actually in the world's best interests and you end up siding with them in the end. If Saturos and Menardi had just bothered to explain, you would not have needed to fight and kill them.
  • Port Town: Lalivero, Alhafra, and Champa
  • Pound Of Flesh Twist: Alex getting screwed out of achieving god-like powers at the end of the second game by a Deus Ex Machina that was set up at the start of the first game by the Wise One, who altered the Mars Star in some way so that part of its power would be given to Isaac if all of the lighthouses were ever activated.
  • Powers As Programs: Quite apart from the Djinn-based class system, many "utility" powers are gained from certain items — most Broken Bridges throughout the games are dealt with by finding the relevant item. With one exception (Grind, which is limited to Earth adepts for some reason), these powers can be used by anyone who equips the item.
  • Psychic Powers: Some forms of Psynergy
  • Puzzle Boss: Serpent in Gaia Rock.
  • Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits: Or as Agatio puts it, "This is an unlikely bunch of ragamuffins."
  • Random Encounters: And how!
    • One could say the game's combat emphasizes random encounter frequency while making these actual battles quite short and easy.
      • There's both store-bought items and a Psynergy spell that decreases Random Encounter rates based on levels, though.
      • There are also accessories that INCREASE the likelihood of random encounters. Great for Level Grinding!
  • Randomly Drops: The game uses this, but it was discovered that the random number generator used to determine drop rates wasn't really random at all. Thus, by making a specific party and conducting battles in just the right amount of turns and action orders, you can guarantee that an enemy will drop even the most powerful weapons and armor in the game.
  • Rare Candy: Peanuts, cookies, bread, apples, and... pepper. Ground pepper. Spice of life, anyone?
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Babi and the Lemurians. This is played with in the case of Piers/Picard, the Lemurian sailor, who refuses to admit his age.
  • Run Don't Walk: You walk so slowly outside of battle it is practically required to hold the B button down at all times.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: over and over. The way the elements are associated is hint enough of not following any mythology to a T.
  • Sand Is Water: To the point where one dungeon has you using a "meld into sand" spell to swim through glass panels under a flamethrower. I'm not even kidding.
  • Save Point: Averted — you can save anywhere, anytime outside of battles and cutscenes.
    • Once the final battle is done in the second game, the game refuses to save if you try to do it until after the credits are over.
  • Scarf Of Ass Kicking: Isaac. 17-year-old + bright yellow scarf = many dead monsters.
    • Hey, don't forget Felix's epic green cape that billows over his shoulder. Although the main character of the upcoming DS game seems to have inherited Isaac's scarf...
  • Scrappy Level: Air's Rock is the most notorious example.
  • Secret Character: Rumors about recruiting Feizhi in the 1st game
  • Secret Test Of Character: The Wise One gives one to the Adepts at the end of the second game in the form of tricking them into murdering their own parents before being able to light the last Lighthouse; when the heroes do light it, the parents are revived, and The Philosopher Kraden figures it was a test.
  • Sequel Hook: At the end of the first game, setting up the second. At the end of the second game, too, when The Wise One takes some of the power from the Golden Sun and seals it away in the Mars Star, not to mention the fact that the villain, though vanquished, did not technically die, setting up...six years and counting we've been waiting for a third installment that seems destined to never come. Come on, Camelot! The villain is still undefeated! They Wasted A Perfectly Good Sequel Hook...
    • Don't give up hope yet! Granted, this is two years old, but still...
    • Worry not, Golden Sun DS has been announced as of E3 2009.
  • Sequence Breaking: Easily possible in the first game. You can easily choose to go straight to Imil before ever going to Kolima, and you don't really have to go to the Fuchin Temple to beat the first game (you can get through the Mogall Forest by Trial And Error Gameplay, and after that, all that Force is used for is getting one optional scene.) Unfortunately, if you fail to pick up the Orb of Force, you'll be unable to get One Hundred Percent Completion in The Lost Age, as two of the Djinn in that game cannot be reached without the Force Psynergy.
    • Possible in the second game, too, if you make the mistake of going to the Yampi Desert and Alhafra right away instead of heading south to Mikasalla. This game really needs to mark your next destination more clearly.
      • Some people prefer an RPG that is more non-linear, though, so it really comes down to preference. The Lost Age had a world that was fun to explore, so the fact that it actually made you explore the world was forgivable.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Two deserts in Golden Sun, one in The Lost Age. Lamakan Desert in particular DOES become too hot for the group and they start taking damage unless they rest at hidden oases.
  • Shipping: Enough of a developed shipping fandom that pretty much every possible pairing among main characters is covered with its own "____shipping" name, and with copious amounts of Crack Pairings too.
    • The Ship To Ship Combat can be truly awe-inspiring, especially between Mudshippers and Valeshippers.
    • The shipping fandom is so ridiculously developed, that in some circles even Original Character ships are named.
    • Given that Golden Sun DS is apparently starring the main characters' descendants, one (or more, depending on how the relationships break) group is probably about to become very, very angry.
      • Not necessarily. For example, in Fire Emblem 7 (which is a prequel to Fire Emblem 6), the main character is Eliwood, Roy's father. However, Fire Emblem 6 never explicitly names Roy's mother, and Fire Emblem 7 has three different endings where Eliwood pairs with different characters.
  • Ship Tease: What powers the above developed shipping fandom. Most of the major ships get a moment or two. I.e: Jenna blushing when Kraden and Sheba call her and Isaac an "item."
  • Shock And Awe: Ivan and Sheba again
  • Sinister Scythe: Menardi and Karst's.
  • Sidequest: Important if you want Hundred Percent Completion.
  • Slap On The Wrist Nuke: Being tossed into the sun, for starters.
  • Sorry I'm Late: The fight against Karst and Agatio on Jupiter Lighthouse works like this—much to the enemies' chagrin since their original plan was to fight the group two at a time.
  • Speaking Simlish
  • Spider Sense: apparently all Jupiter Adepts develop this after a while. Hama is particularly good at it.
  • Spin Offspring: According to Nintendo's press site, Golden Sun DS will follow the story of the previous heroes' descendants.
  • Squishy Wizard: Ivan, Sheba
  • Staff Chick: Mia, Sheba, sometimes Jenna when she's not a Magic Knight
  • Stealth Based Mission: Lunpa Fortress in the first game, Kibombo Mountains in the second, both with Lex Luthor Security
  • Summon Magic: The Djinn. And, you know, the Summons themselves.
    • Trainer's whip and Tomegathericon items.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel
    • Possibly averted since the story was originally meant to be one game...
    • This is arguably an Even Better Sequel. Granted, The Lost Age was significantly better, but the original was an excellent RPG in its own right.
  • That One Boss: Poseidon, either of the final bosses, and some of the Bonus Bosses, particularly Dulluahan.
    • Dulluahan and Doom Dragon both deserve a special mention for the ability Djinn Blast, which sets all Djinn in the current party into recovery mode (removing the stat bonuses of having them equipped to a character and preventing them from being used for summons). Doom Dragon also has a very infamous attack called Cruel Ruin which hits the entire party, has a base damage of 200, and becomes more powerful depending on how much HP the party has meaning that it does MORE damage to a higher leveled party enjoy this attack hitting you almost every turn it gets, level grinders.
  • Thats No Moon: Anemos
  • Title Drop: The Golden Sun is a mass of energy that rises above Mt.Aleph in the second game.
  • The Mario: Isaac and sorta Felix.
  • The Medic: Mia and Piers, the latter of whom is about as far from a typical healer in personality as possible.
    • Jenna can also work as a healer in a pinch. And whoever it is you gave all those Vials and Potions and Waters of Life.
  • The Philosopher: Kraden the Sage.
  • Tome Of Eldritch Lore: Tomegathericon, a spellbook in the second game which gives you a demon-summoning character class.
    • That lets you summon the Bonus Boss as a Psynergy attack once you've beaten him.
      • That's a common misconception — you don't actually have to beat him in order to summon his image from the tome. You could summon the image of the boss and have it attack the actual Bonus Boss in that same battle if you wanted.
      • Also, ironically, the "Call Dullahan" summon is Jupiter, which also happens to be Dullahan's weakness, making Call Dullahan a very effective attack against Dullahan.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Venus Lighthouse in Golden Sun, Mars Lighthouse in The Lost Age
    • On the contrary, many a gamer is disappointed to find the Venus Lighthouse battle is the end of the game.
  • Trauma Inn: Only for HP and MP though. All status ailments like poison and death must be removed either by magic spells or visiting the town's Sanctum and paying for each individual cure.
    • Or, you know, those elixers and antidotes that the game provides prodigious quantities of.
  • Turns Red: Doom Dragon
  • Un Canceled: Somehow.
  • Upgrade Artifact: Psynergy-bestowing equipment, Psynergy-teaching tablets in the Elemental Rock dungeons, etc.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Bosses in particular tend to shrug off status ailments in about a round or so. And your buffs are useless against the Fire Clan enemies, since they all apparently know Break.
  • Violation Of Common Sense: In The Lost Age, you must jump off the edge of the world to find a hidden Djinn.
  • WalkHop On Water: the first section of Mercury Lighthouse involves reaching and activating a statue that lets you do this.
  • Warmup Boss: The three thieves in the first game.
  • Warp Whistle: The Teleport Lapis, found in the second game's last dungeon.
  • Welcome To Corneria: An interesting variation; all NPCs seem to follow this trope to the letter, but each one thinks a second static line of dialogue you can Mind Read for. Oftentimes these reveal they're hypocrites.
  • When Trees Attack: Tret, a talking tree that has been given a violent split personality, is one of the earliest boss battles.
    • Amusingly enough, you don't have to go through his area before clearing Mercury Lighthouse, adding Mia to your party, and grabbing the Mac Guffin you need to heal him so you can go that way anyway...
      • It's not quite a Mac Guffin; you can use the water as a powerful and infinitely replenishable healing item, but it's generally not worth the trek back to replenish it.
  • Whip It Good: Trainer's whip in the Lost Age.
  • White Haired Prettyboy: Alex, just put blue instead of white. Saturos, as well.
  • Who Wants To Live Forever: Mostly subverted. The Lemurians willingly keep drinking the elixir and could end their lives or chose to age normally at any time; a lot of them are simply supremely bored.
  • Wutai: Izumo
  • Xanatos Gambit: The Wise One, knowing that someone might take advantage of the Golden Sun to become all powerful, modifies the Mars Star at the beginning of the first game so that whoever is at Mt. Aleph will only inherit 3/4 of it's power.
    • Alex also enjoys employing these. He gets Out Gambitted at the last possible second by the aforementioned Wise One's plan.
  • You ALL Look Familiar: The shop and inn girls/dudes.
  • You Can Barely Stand: Inverted. Four teenagers battle the extremely powerful Saturos on the top of Mercury Lighthouse about 25% through the game, and would normally not be a match for him, but the location's influence on Elemental Powers lets the group manage to defeat him and render him in this position.
  • You Cant Go Home Again: Averted; In the first game, after Isaac and Garet set out from their hometown on their journey after agreeing to the Wise One's instruction to stop the villains, they can return home at several points, and the villagers will even ask how things are going.
    • You have to get through a good chunk of the game first, however.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Lemuria in particular is dedicated to the color blue, but other examples appear here and there (not limited to just blue at that!)
  • You Killed My Father: Definitely invoked by Karst, with the variation that it's her sister who was killed. Possibly subverted depending on whether or not Menardi's death was actually a suicide.
    • And how could one neglect to mention the end of the second game, where Jenna, Isaac, and Felix are left believing that they've killed their own parents? However, their parents managed to survive thanks to the massive energy flow from the lighthouse after it is lit.
  • You Meddling Kids: One of the Champa Pirates delivers the line if Felix and the gang visit them in jail.
  • You Said You Would Let Them Go: Played with at the end of the first game, where the party trades the Shaman's Rod to Saturos for his hostage Sheba, only to be tricked by crafty wording. (To be fair, Saturos only said he wouldn't hurt Sheba, her release was never mentioned.)
    • Subverted with Jenna and Kraden at the beginning of the first game, as Isaac and Garet are unable to hand over the Mars Star before Saturos and Menardi's party is forced to flee with the hostages.
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