Golden Sun
Golden Sun is a classical
role–playing game (RPG)
released on the
Game Boy Advance (GBA). The
story follows the silent protagonist Isaac as he is forced into an epic journey
to prevent the collapse of the flat world of Weyard. Isaac who is an adept, must
team up with other adepts scattered throughout the continent to prevent the
relighting of the four elemental lighthouses, earth, wind, fire, and water. The
adepts themselves wield the four elements through a force called
Golden Sun takes inspiration from the lesser known elements of Greek and Arabian
mythology, but what makes it truly spectacular is the combination of classical
RPG mechanics with a rock solid story line. The gameplay mechanics are simple,
clean, and fast. Golden Sun is one of the few console RPGs on the GBA to
properly orchestrate movement of the camera during battle. In contrast, modern
RPGs have become slow, bloated, and dumbed down a tad too much. There’s a lot
to be learned from refining aspects that Golden Sun itself refined from the
classical RPG genre. Modern games like
The Alliance Alive and
Octopath Traveler are among
the few that have refined some of the classical RPG elements.
The story is played in three parts and is not necessarily a trilogy but more of a “series”.
Golden Sun has quite the fan following, and I periodically check out the ecosystem. It appears that someone tried to reverse engineer the game engine at some point, which is really impressive.