Note: This is a copy/paste of a Live Blog that started on November 4 and ended on December 1. As it is finished, I may not be replying to comments so keep that in mind.
Hi guys, girls and anything else that happens to be reading this. I'm Some Color Mage, as I hope you can see, and I've decided to make my first attempt at a Let's Play.
Or Live Blog. Whatever.
Anyway, I've decided to go with one of my favourite games, Golden Sun. This GBA game was one of the first RP Gs I ever played, and between the fun battle system and epic music, I was hooked.
But enough about me, let's get started!
(DING!) CAMELOT
Yeah, Camelot made this game. Camelot is a breakaway from Sega who made the Shining Force series, and then became affiliated with Nintendo, making all those Mario Golf and Tennis games. And this and its two sequels, The Lost Age and Dark Dawn.
One start screen later, and I'm prompted to name my character. As I really want to get this opening out of the way, I'm just going with the default. Say hello to Isaac people!
Isaac, wake up!
Oh great, what is probably the oldest RPG cliche ever.
...Or not. We're in the middle of a storm, at night, and a giant boulder is about to fall on us, so Isaac's mum, Dora, is trying to rush us to safety.
As we hop out of bed, Dora tells us we forgot something, and summons a giant white glove to grab Isaac's tunic.
Dora: Have you got everything you need?
And we are presented with our first yes/no question. These almost never have a bearing on the plot, you're gonna end up doing the same thing regardless of what you pick. Let's just say yes. Isaac just nods, and Dora goes on about the value of life or something.
And as we try to leave, we meet Isaac's father, Kyle.
Kyle: Isaac, Dora, hurry! The Boulder could fall at any second!
Yeah, I think this was already established.
We finally get outside. Kyle and Dora decide they have to help everyone else in this village, and Isaac has to go by himself to the plaza, which is south of our house. And with that, we finally get control. Attempting to head south, however, causes the path to be blocked by a huge rock. North it is, then.
North of our house, we encounter another kid. This one's called Garet, and he's trying to pull a huge chest of belongings behind him. Naturally, the chest isn't budging.
Garet: Issac, what do you want? I'm trying to save my things!
We have to talk him out of moving his stuff. He happily obliges when he realises he'll probably die otherwise.
Garet joined your party.
Yay.
We cross the bridge to the north, over a river cutting the town in two. Then...
Ahhh! The Boulder! It's falling!
Crap. The boulder starts tumbling down, only to be stopped by some people with these auras around them causing the boulder to like stop in mid air while flashing many colours. Oh, and the town's called Vale. And we get told to move it.
Naturally, heading south causes another big rock to block our path. So we have to go around.
While going around, an injured guy informs us to watch out for monsters, then asks us if he's gonna die. If we say no, he just stands up as if nothing happened. o_O
Further along, we encounter our first monster, a Vermin. This is accompanied by a spinning camera introducing the battle scene. There is a LOT of camera spinning in this game. We are given the first strike and kick the Vermin's arse. We can't do much in battles other than attack yet, so I'll save the battle system for another post.
Another battle, this time it's a Bat. This time as we attack, there's a close up on Isaac as he attacks, his knife glowing blue. That's a critical hit, and OHK Os the poor Bat.
Another battle, two Wild Mushrooms. Just as pathetic.
(Actually, all the monsters in the opening are classified as weak, which seriously Nerfs their stats.)
As we approach the south half of the town...
Oh no! My brother!
Looks like some kid, Felix, fell into the river and now Kyle, Dora, Felix's parents and Felix's sister Jenna are trying to get him out. Those weird auras and giant white gloves are called Psynergy. And everyone seems to have run out, so we're tasked with going to the plaza and finding help.
Wait a second, we were already heading to the plaza! We've had to go the long way around Vale to get here in the first place and now we have to come back here. And we have no choice. Damn this railroading.
Another battle later (no new enemies) and we're at the plaza. We say that we came to find help, and we are given a guy who just recharged all his Psynergy at the big, purple rock in the middle of the plaza. We escort him and Jenna back to where Felix is.
Dora: You're just in time.
Jenna: Then my brother is still...
Dora: Felix is all right. He's hanging in there. Come down here, so we can save Felix!
And as we come down, the boulder falls, taking Felix, Kyle and Felix's parents with it. Crap.
Well only one thing to do now, back to the plaza. On the way, Isaac overhears two people.
Blue Guy: Only the two of us survived...
Red Lady: How could we have anticipated Sol Sanctum would unleash such fury?
I have no idea what they're on about. Isaac overhears a few more lines when...
Garet: Isaac! Wait!
Damn it Garet! These two decide we have to forget everything Isaac heard. By nearly killing him. These two, referred to as Mystery Woman and Mystery Man, defeat us in one round. One attack, make that, as the woman acts first, does something called Mad Blast and deals about 150 more damage than our max HP. Then they just hop away.
And we see the Golden Sun logo, ending the prologue. I'm gonna cut it off there, and we'll continue in a day or two. See you then.
