History YMMV / GoldenSun

** The lack of a separated folder for key items, as the limited inventory is likely to become full of psynergy enabling items, PlotCoupons and unique items you don't want to drop.

** [[BadassNormal Briggs]] from the second game also counts as an [[EarlyGameHell early game example]], as, due to Osenia's layout, he can be fought before encountering a number of dungeons and collecting their Djinni, summons, and items. What makes him more difficult than Saturos is that you only have three party members by the time you reach him while Mia already joins Isaac's group before Saturos' boss fight. Briggs can also summon his crew [[WeHaveReserves over and over again]] to assist him, as opposed to Saturos who fights alone. to Needless to say, he's going to mop the floor with you.

** Eoleo as a tot in ''The Lost Age''. The BlindingBangs and perpetually-confused expression hide a sneaky, resourceful, dangerous little boy.

** The 4-Koma makes quite a few characters less than heroic: Isaac is a [[http://golden-sun-the-lost-comics.tumblr.com/post/111086906137/now-i-aint-sayin-he-a-gold-digger-but-he-aint greedy bastard]] willing to [[http://golden-sun-the-lost-comics.tumblr.com/post/111639495962/friends-dont-let-friends-sell-creatures-with sell a djinni]] for some quick gold and [[http://golden-sun-the-lost-comics.tumblr.com/post/112273394862/i-didnt-do-it-nobody-saw-me-cant-prove uses his Psynergy to get]] a PantyShot from Mia, Layana's reason for not using the military to bring back Hammet involves [[http://golden-sun-the-lost-comics.tumblr.com/post/112275302277/the-only-thing-better-than-footnotes-is-cited adultery]]...

** [[GodhoodSeeker Alex]] is the closest thing the series has to a BigBad, running the course of EnigmaticMinion to eventual mastermind in the span of three games. A Mercury Adept who betrayed his sister and his clan for the pursuit of personal power, Alex makes and breaks alliances with heroes and villains alike at his own convenience, always concealing his true intentions behind a stoic, cool-headed exterior. Alex rarely even personally dirties his hands, one of the few times he does resulting in him singlehandedly [[[[OneManArmy wiping out an entire battalion of elite soldiers]]. At the climax of ''The Lost Age'', Alex manipulates every party into a position where they have no choice but activate the Elemental Lighthouses and bestow Alex the godlike power of Alchemy. Even when Alex is OutGambitted and seemingly left for dead on the collapsing Mt. Aleph, Alex adopts the identity of Arcanus in ''[[VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn Dark Dawn]]'' and resumes old habits, cheerfully manipulating entire nations to his advantage and activating the apocalyptic event known as the Grave Eclipse. At ''Dark Dawn'''s end, Alex appears to betray his allies once again to undo the apocalypse he himself wrought, and escapes to seemingly end the series as he started it: unharmed, unfazed, and a total mystery to everyone who knows him.

* MagnificentBastard: Alex is the closest thing the series has to a BigBad, running the course of EnigmaticMinion to eventual mastermind in the span of three games. A Mercury Adept who betrayed his sister and his clan for the pursuit of personal power, Alex makes and breaks alliances with heroes and villains alike at his own convenience, always concealing his true intentions behind a stoic, cool-headed exterior. Alex rarely even personally dirties his hands, one of the few times he does resulting in him singlehandedly wiping out an entire battalion of elite soldiers. At the climax of ''The Lost Age'', Alex manipulates every party into a position where they have no choice but activate the Elemental Lighthouses and bestow Alex the godlike power of Alchemy. Even when Alex is OutGambitted and seemingly left for dead on the collapsing Mt. Aleph, Alex adopts the identity of Arcanus in ''[[VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn Dark Dawn]]'' and resumes old habits, cheerfully manipulating entire nations to his advantage and activating the apocalyptic event known as the Grave Eclipse. At ''Dark Dawn'''s end, Alex appears to betray his allies once again to undo the apocalypse he himself wrought, and escapes to seemingly end the series as he started it: unharmed, unfazed, and a total mystery to everyone who knows him.

** Poor Levatine gets the shaft due to its unleash Radiant Fire not being as game-breaking as Megiddo, Legend and Vengeance. This gets averted in ''Dark Dawn'', where changes to the unleash system as well as getting a powerful Jupiter unleash in a game where many things are weak to said element makes Levatine the second-best weapon after the Sol Blade.

** There is a part in the second game in which you aren't told what you have to do other than "Go to Lemuria", and a "Get to the other side of the world" but it's blocked by an obstacle. While it is a little more non-linear and some people actually really like that; the game doesn't really keep track of the stuff you had done so the only way to figure out whether or not you completed certain dungeons was to go explore them and find that that was the trident piece you had in your inventory. The other half of the world is thankfully a lot less...vague about where to go since there isn't as much content. Not only that, but once you get the ship, there's very little telling you that you have to do certain things. For example, there's very little reason to go to Tundaria Tower to get that Trident Piece.

* InferredHolocaust: The lack of presence of a Venus Clan is often speculated as they are overlooked by the characters in all three games.

** The ''entire plot'' of ''The Broken Seal'' '''retroactively''' becomes this once you learn of Saturos and Menardi's [[spoiler: true goals.]] Yes, they're out to [[spoiler: save the world]], but the way they choose to go about it is just ''incredibly'' stupid and extreme. They attempt to accomplish their mission in the most ruthless, violent and underhanded manner possible, they beat up and/or kill every innocent bystander who gets in their way, they repeatedly go out of their way to KickTheDog and hurt people who aren't even connected to their mission, they kidnap Jenna, Kraden and Sheba instead of just asking for their help, they keep trying to ''kill'' Isaac and his team instead of trying to reason with them or talk things over, and they never bother trying to explain to ''anybody'' why they're trying to restore Alchemy in the first place. Practically almost the entire game might not have happened if they'd been more open about their motives and not resorted to drastic behavior and pointless cruelty. It's no wonder Isaac's party thinks they're the bad guys the whole time they're chasing them.

* FakeBalance: Jupiter in general. As an element, Jupiter clearly has the advantage in the ElementalRockPaperScissors system, being strong against the vast majority of enemies in the game. The classes offered by the Jupiter djinni are cleanly better than the alternatives. The Apprentice and Page class line is a MagicKnight that borders on being MasterOfAll, with powerful physical and magical psynergy, the Impact series, coupled with high stats in every area, has the notable advantages of a massive PP pool and extremely high agility stats. The symbiotic class lines available to the Mercury and Jupiter adepts are extremely useful, being buffers and healers who also get access to some of the strongest Mercury and Jupiter offensive psynergy available, essentially combining the best aspects of the Wind and Water Seer class series. The only disadvantage to the Jupiter classes is that their focus towards higher quality of offensive psynergy creates a massive gap between their psynergy progression, which is more than made up for by the higher base power of the spells, allowing them to be a strong option for a good chunk of the early game. Even the Ninja class series, commonly agreed to be the best overall class in the game, requires Jupiter Djinn. The Jupiter classes are so potent that its not an exaggeration to say that the game's overall progression is dictated by the amount of Jupiter djinni availible at any given time, and the sheer advantages of the Jupiter element are already apparent in the first game, before [[SequelEscalation becoming even more dominant]] in ''The Lost Age'' and ''Dark Dawn''.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Pretty much ''everything'' Saturos and Menardi do in ''The Broken Seal'' qualifies for this. They never try to explain their motives or try to reason or negotiate with anyone outside their party, and repeatedly resort to extreme measures to accomplish their goals while being as randomly cruel and petty as possible. It's no wonder they get beaten by Isaac's party at the end of the game.
** Kraden, when the party first meet Karst in ''The Lost Age''. Wondering where her sister is (Menardi, one of the antagonists), Sheba tells Karst that Isaac killed her. Understandably upset, Karst questions why the party would want to protect Isaac from her rage. Kraden, for no reason, then asks Karst [[TemptingFate how she would know that Felix didn't kill Menardi]], right after Karst had all but said that she was planning to kill Isaac. Even if the implication was meant to protect Isaac, Sheba had already told Karst the truth and the party's behavior implicated it even further.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: In ''The Lost Age'', when Briggs breaks out of prison, [=NPCs=] are moved to keep you in Alhafra until you go to the dock and see him take the ship back to Champa. However, it's possible to use the Sanctuary respawn trick (hold Start+L when you load your save file to spawn in the nearest Sanctuary) to get outside the blockade. If you do so, there's no way to get to the cutscene where Briggs leaves for Champa, no way to fix the Trident of Ankhol, no way to get to Lemuria, no way to get to the Great Western Sea, and no way to beat the game.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The Catastrophe Summon; widely regarded as the most visually impressive animation sequence ever produced for a GBA game. View it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DatHLd1uO2g here.]]

* UnwinnableByInsanity: In ''The Lost Age'', when Briggs breaks out of prison, [=NPCs=] are moved to keep you in Alhafra until you go to the dock and see him take the ship back to Champa. However, it's possible to use the Sanctuary respawn trick (hold Start+L when you load your save file to spawn in the nearest Sanctuary) to get outside the blockade. If you do so, there's no way to get to the cutscene where Briggs leaves for Champa, no way to fix the Trident of Ankhol, no way to get to Lemuria, no way to get to the Great Western Sea, and no way to beat the game.

** There are a lot of powerful, useful classes in the game, unlocked through special items and through different combinations of elemental djinni. You could experiment to find them... or you could just give everyone djinni that match their starting elements they're already good at, play to their existing strengths as characters and Adepts, and call it a day.

** Alex isn't evil, he's just misunderstood!!

*** Judgment the badass angelic knight who [[KillSat fires destructive beams]] from his [[ArmCannon lion-shaped cannon]] is easily the most popular of all the summons. Even when outclassed by stronger summons and many enemies resisted Venus in the games he remains a fan favorite.

* FakeBalance: Jupiter in general. As an element, Jupiter clearly have the advantage in the ElementalRockPaperScissors system, being strong against vast majority of enemies in the game. The class offered by the Jupiter Djinns are cleanly better than the alternatives. The Apprentince and Page class line is a MagicKnight that borders on being MasterOfAll, with powerful physical and magical psynergy, the Impact series, coupled with high stats in every areas, with a notable advantage in massive PP pool and extremely high agility stats. The symbiotic class line alvailable to the Mercury and Jupiter adept are extremely useful being a buffer and healer who also gets access to some of the strongest Mercury and Jupiter offensive psynergy alvailable essentially combining the best aspect of Wind and Water Seer class series. The only disadvantage to the Jupiter classes are their focus towards higher quality of offensive psynergy creates a massive gap between their psynergy progression, which is more than made up by the higher base power of the spells which allows them to be a strong option for a good chunk of the early game. Even the Ninja class series, commonly agreed to be the best overall class in the game requires Jupiter Djinn. The Jupiter classes are so potent that its not an exageration to say that the game's overall progression are dictated by the amount of Jupiter Djinnis alvailable in a given time. The sheer advantage the Jupiter element have are already apparent in the first game, and proceeds to see a SequelEscalation, being even more dominant in The Lost Age and Dark Dawn.

** The summons. Oh so much, especially on bosses due to summons additionally cutting a percentage of max HP on top of their usual power. You can very easily breeze through 90% of the first game just abusing summons, ending battles in around 2 turns or less, with the exception of the final boss due to the SequentialBoss system. The downside is that your stats are reduced until the djinn cools down (which costs many turns in battles) and the game is easy enough without them. Averted in ''The Lost Age'' onwards [[SequelEscalation since all enemies and bosses have more hitpoints and attacks more often]] that every other attacks sans weapon unleashes, [=EPAs=] and summons (but see the drawbacks above) only deal ScratchDamage to them.
** As mentioned above, weapon unleashes are as broken if not more than the summons. The end-game ones outright multiply damage to a certain amount, especially Sol Blade's unleash Megiddo which ''triples'' the damage output so much that elemental resistances barely matter because the damage dealt is that big. All this without ''any'' negative drawbacks such as PP limit or temporary stat reduction for Psynergy and summons respectively. The only hindrance is that unleash rates are random, but those are not a problem when unleash-rate-boosting items (and materials for some of them) can be easily farmed in this game with a specific RNG method.

** The Spirit Ring, an early game healing item in TLA which, most likely due to [[GoodBadBugs an oversight]], can be used indefinitely outside of battle, ensuring your party has full health between every fight.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: As far as battles goes, due to spells not increasing in usefulness, the best strategy is just to keep hitting attack on all your enemies and save your PP for healing. The game has some really nice looking attacks, but the best way to fight is just ignore those. That said, physical weapon unleashes are very random and you have to go all out to find and obtain the critical-enhancing items.

*** For the Sol Blade, it is possible to have a 99% Unleash Rate, meaning you would almost guarantee massive damage each turn without exhausting resources. The Sol Blade itself has a 35% unleash rate, but equipping the Valkyrie Mail (20%), Riot Gloves (20%), Mythril Helm (12%), Hyper Boots (12%).

** The Petra+Ground lock strategy against individual enemies/bosses that can perform 1 action. Both djinn have priority and each one stops an enemy from moving. One user uses one of the djinns in Turn 1 and then sets djiin on Turn 2, and vice versa on the other user who has the other djinn. What this does is ensure that the enemy/boss cannot move at all while allowing the other 2 users to keep on attacking.

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: One of the most remarkable things about ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' are the spoilerrific {{Ship Tease}}s. See FanPreferredCouple below.

* EvenBetterSequel: ''The Lost Age''. The story was originally meant to be one game, but the developers still tried to improve on the original game.

** On the other end of the spectrum are Jenna and Mia. Simply put, Jenna is a MasterOfAll who hits hard, has some actually damaging spells that tear apart random encounters in an instant, and in actual boss battles, rips foes apart with her speed and strength. Tellingly, given how many levels you get in the Lost Age that you don't get in the first game, by the time you get Isaac's party, Jenna is simply a much better alternative to Isaac. It helps that, due to her speed, she can also be an impromptu healer. She even gets defense debuffs for foes. As for Mia, she happens to be fairly tankish, and her healing spells are just too good not to use. While Jenna can serve as a faster healer if the party ''really'' needs healing at the start of a turn, Mia's Wish psynergy make it unlikely this will ever be the case.

** For those who actually used those two, Piers gets some of this due to his class options clash horribly with his stats. He is supposed to be warrior-based, but being a Mercury Adept, most of his class options are mage-based causing his attack stat (which he mostly uses) rendered much lower if placed in most classes he had access to. The uneven djinn distribution (due to the FakeBalance of the classes) can make him worse than he already is.

'''Note:''' This page lists tropes for both ''Videogame/GoldenSun2001'' and its direct sequel ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge''.

** The Wise One being a [[JerkassGods jerk god]] that wants to keep Alchemy out of human hands for his own selfish reasons. [[spoiler:Whether or not he did his job well is another question, since he failed/was reluctant to stop Alex [[SkewedPriorities but bothers to stall the protagonists and send a three-headed dragon to ''test'' them instead.]]]] The selfish part might have been jossed by ''Dark Dawn'', since [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Wise One is actually a man-made being and it's outright confirmed that the ancients screwed themselves over and tried to prevent Alchemy's release. However, this just raises the question of whether the ancients were outright {{Jerkass}}es when it came to ''their'' policies on Alchemy.]]

* GoodBadBugs: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIdt53_mqXQ This glitch]] allows you to get your claws on the above-mentioned GameBreaker InfinityPlusOneSword Sol Blade ''as early as Air's Rock''.

** The Spirit Ring, an early game healing item in TLA which, most likely due to [[GoodBadBugs an oversight]], can be used indefinitely outside of battle, ensuring your party full health between every fight.