Golden Sun DS

Well, it'll kind of have to be an improvement given what it's following.

Oh, right, tarot deck themes. I think I came up with spear and stone based on a book I read that had that theme (sword, cup, spear, stone) used for something else.

Hm? What I liked about Agatio is that (even though pretty much his only characterization was in the scene in Champa) despite his size it seemed pretty clear that he wasn't just the dumb muscle.

As for Dark Dawn, I thought it was as good as the other games, but I think what probably bothered a lot of people is that, for one, for all the little plot hooks left dangling in the other games that had been keeping fans coming up with ideas for sequels for all those years (like the land beyond Prox, or the city of the Anemos), Dark Dawn addressed very little of it. For two, there's the way it would often mention several of the playable characters from the original, like Ivan, Mia, and especially Piers, but avoided actually showing anyone besides Isaac and Garet. And for three, which is related to one and two, it seems like Camelot wrote it just assuming that there'd be another sequel where they could put all that stuff in, and they really should've learned not to simply expect a sequel after Lost Age.

edited 12th Jan '12 2:07:15 PM by Beorc

And of course, the Points of no return.

"What's that? Didn't get Sun Saga 3? SUCKS TO BE YOU!"

One improvement from Dark Dawn that I noticed when I replayed the GBA games is that in Dark Dawn, characters keep all their unique utility Psynergy, like Growth and Whirlwind, regardless of their djinn combinations. I was replaying the first game and it seems like it's discouraging me from trying different Djinn combinations when I'll have to change it again whenever I need to use a certain Psynergy in the field.

Lost Age didn't account for creativity in Shaman Village. Make Jenna or Felix a Ninja (?) and have one of them cast Gale on the Whirl Stone. Sheba will still cast Whirlwind, even if you change her class. The series needs more Dev Team Thinks Of Everything.

edited 13th Jan '12 5:21:42 AM by hnd03

673: It would have been better that fleshing out didn't look so much like lazy retcons and mindless added bits. I'm thinking for exemple of the whole "ancient tribes of adepts and non adepts but skilled crafters that apparently many knows about", or the fact that towns apparently have an century-old history, despite not appearing in the former games. Oh, and the Beastmens, eerie werewolves turned by some mysterious side effect of psynergy but pretty much humans before, Mister Pig, Mister Dog and Mister Fox playing music now. That kind of things should have flown more naturally from existing content, not being awkwardly put on a map because we can't get the same map, and playing the "Lots of people have started anew since the Golden Dawn, that's why you have towns here" angle would have been too much effort for a game that seems to have been pieced together as a cash-on on a semi-famous IP.

677: Granted. More like hired muscle, that kinda lack emotional investment in the situation, other than making Karstine happy.

edited 13th Jan '12 5:36:11 AM by Sable

Yeah, I agree. There were a lot of new ancient things in strange locations that had me wondering why they'd never been mentioned before...

wasn't the whole beastmen thing related to that werewolf village in lost age?

Yup. Except they didn't operated on the same principle. TLA's werewolves only turned when exposed to moonlight. Beastmens are so around the clock. Hell, their story in litterally "A bunch of normal humans were transformed when the Sun rose."It take a bit of fans-filling-the-blank-omancy to reconcile that with how the werewolves in Garoh were.

To be fair, a lot of the interesting parts of the Golden Sun setting spring from fans-filling-the-blank-omancy. The series was never particularly good at following through on things about either its setting or its characters; I feel like a part of the reason the fandom is decently sized is because people had fun filling in the blanks.

My thoughts exactly. Though I kinda appreciated that at the end of TLA, there was still many qestions left hanging regarding the exact nature and powers of Alchemy and Psynergy. It drove home rather efficiently how much the world had lost. It's kind of of shame the writing is how it is, because there is definitely a way to make something good in there.

I've always loved the Golden Sun setting.

The Beastmen and the Garoh werewolves are entirely different cases altogether.