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[Scythesurge]

Random encounters are a stylistic decision that also allows for very different area design than visible encounters. Both have their place.

This is completely true.

 

[A Human Becoming]

I think they have done that already for certain puzzles. Either that or the encounter rate was dropped.

I still remember in at least one of the games there were still moderately frequent random encounters in puzzle rooms; it was such a pain.

 

[Jerk]

So just say you don't like them.

Random encounters are a stylistic decision that also allows for very different area design than visible encounters. Both have their place.

Of course. And I do concede that RB allows for different environment design.

I still believe that the benefits of visible encounters far outweigh those of random ones (better/easier pacing for one).

Anyhow, this is not the best place to have this conversation.

 

[ITA84]

I disagree. One of my peeves about the original was having battles pop up in the middle of a puzzle. Separate rooms for puzzles and combat would be great.

That would have required a different layout for most areas; it would also have made combat areas very boring in my opinion.

Battles being very fast in Golden Sun (and that you can flee from battles very quickly and easily) helps a lot in avoiding distractions during puzzles. I understand that some people still don't like it, but the only solution to that issue would be to do away with fights entirely.

Which reminds me: are battles in this game more or less as quick to start and end? What about fleeing? Is there any video showing that?

 

[Disguises]

I still remember in at least one of the games there were still moderately frequent random encounters in puzzle rooms; it was such a pain.

I mean from what I've played of the new one. Not sure if I got lucky with zero encounters and even then, they may have changed this.

 

[Holy Order Sol]

Djinns in my pants.

It's the perfect time of the year to be playing a game like that, too.

 

[Oxx]

49 days...

I'm actually kinda glad that I don't own anything capable of playing GBA carts at the moment. I might be tempted to try and finish The Lost Age if I did.

 

[Boney]

49 days...

I'm actually kinda glad that I don't own anything capable of playing GBA carts at the moment. I might be tempted to try and finish The Lost Age if I did.

uhhhh

 

[Cygnus X-1]

This game is all about collecting djinns.

 

[DidntKnowJack]

I have never played a Golden Sun. May have to check this out.

 

[DMG-01]

49 days...

I'm actually kinda glad that I don't own anything capable of playing GBA carts at the moment. I might be tempted to try and finish The Lost Age if I did.

I knew it comes out on Nov 29, but seeing it as 49 days from now makes it seem like a much longer wait.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Kind of sad there isn't any import feature.

 

[Oxx]

I knew it comes out on Nov 29, but seeing it as 49 days from now makes it seem like a much longer wait.

49 days for Europe.

 

[DMG-01]

49 days for Europe.

Ah, I offer you both my gratitude and condolences in that case.

 

[hypersheep]

This game is still so far away . Japan is so lucky to get it early, but now I have to stay out of this thread to avoid spoilers!

 

[Regulus Tera]

I have never played a Golden Sun. May have to check this out.

Play the first one. The plot continues directly from the duology.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Any co-op?

 

[Regulus Tera]

Any co-op?

No.

 

[Mush]

I've never played a Golden Sun game before. What should I expect?

 

[Salsa]

UNF UNF UNF CANT WAIT

 

[AniHawk]

I don't know what it was about The Lost Age that made me like it so much more than the original, but I'm hoping Dark Dawn is more The Lost Age.

 

[Ezalc]

This game makes my pants feel funny. Is that a bad thing?

 

[Regulus Tera]

I've never played a Golden Sun game before. What should I expect?

Ridiculous summon animations and overblown weapon unleashes.

 

[mandiller]

I can't wait! This'll be awesome. Now I can stop creating fake Golden Sun screenshots. Hurray. Progress!

 

[Solune]

Ridiculous summon animations and overblown weapon unleashes.

Soooo gooood. Godlike battle music is godlike. /drool

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

I don't know what it was about The Lost Age that made me like it so much more than the original, but I'm hoping Dark Dawn is more The Lost Age.

Word, me too. I didn't hate the original, but something about The Lost Age just made it feel better.

 

[mandiller]

Here's a bigger version of the boxart and also the character art for Isaac.

 

[Pureauthor]

I hope we eventually get to see the rest of the older cast.

And that we get artwork of them too.

HYPE HYPE HYPE

 

[Instro]

Random battles in 2010? Yuck.

Aside from that, I may get this game.

I have to say, almost every time you post it pretty much lives up to your handle. :lol

 

[ITA84]

Word, me too. I didn't hate the original, but something about The Lost Age just made it feel better.

I could never see so much of a difference between the two.

Having summons other than the 1 to 4 Djinn of the same elements added variety later in the game; conversely, special classes never seemed to be of any use to me. Lost Age had more interesting extra enemies though.

On the one hand, having a party of 8 characters in TLA was more fun in terms of story; on the other hand, having interchangeable characters for battles didn't add te depth I was hoping it would - actually, it made it more of a chore to keep everyone leveled up and well equipped.

Exploration-wise, TLA fared better early on because you get a ship right away. Storytelling suffered a bit from that, as the game felt less involving to me during the first half of the game.

Puzzles? More or less the same.

In the end they differ by relatively small stuff and they even out. I guess you could prefer one or the other depending on one or more of these small differences. I recall that a good number of people found the first Golden Sun too wordy, for instance.

---

On topic: it's nice that they kept most of the sound effects from the original, but while I kind of like the text scrolling sounds, I can't help but say that the jump sfx feel way off to me.

I'd really love it if Nintendo made an Iwata Asks about this game. I know so little about the behind-the-scenes of this series.

 

[Regulus Tera]

The Lost Age immediately feels refreshing because it puts you in the shoes of the "villains" of the first game. Add to that a longer quest, better pacing, and a less formulaic plot (you don't go into the lighthouses until after third-quarters into the game), and it's noticeably superior. That Camelot managed to do this without altering the core gameplay is commendable.

 

[Boney]

Yep, it's pretty easy to see why the second one is so much better. It's just a better game all round. More locale diversity, more room to explore, more psynergy puzzles, the 8 person combat, and shifting the perspective on matters.

Kinda off topic.. I'm so pissed Isaac wasn't playable in Brawl...

 

[Phenomic]

Nice character art of Issac, I hope they don't make him lame and weak-o like most RPGS to do non playable characters.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Which reminds me: are battles in this game more or less as quick to start and end? What about fleeing? Is there any video showing that?

Battles seem to take longer for the same reason that all 3D JRPGs are inherently inferior to 2D. I'm hoping the animations are still fastforward-able, but that's not confirmed yet.

 

[Urban Scholar]

I recall battles being longer in the original games for myself because I never got bored of watching the summon sequences.

 

[Mejilan]

Holy fuck. I still can't believe this game is actually happening. And so close, to boot!

I hope it doesn't bomb due to hitting so late in the platform's life cycle, dooming the franchise to another demise. Nintendo did such a horrible job leveraging Glory of Heracles, but such a great job with DQIX. Here's hoping they keep up the DQ momentum with this one.

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

I've never played a Golden Sun game before. What should I expect?

Also long overdrawn dialogue sequences. I didn't have any problem with them personally.

 

[ITA84]

Battles seem to take longer for the same reason that all 3D JRPGs are inherently inferior to 2D. I'm hoping the animations are still fastforward-able, but that's not confirmed yet.

Thank you!

 

[mjc]

Do you think I should take time out to play the first two GS games or should I just read wiki for the story? I've got a lot of games on my plate at the moment.

 

[Volcynika]

I actually got lost in the Lost Age (how very appropriate) and never finished it.

D:

 

[Disguises]

Do you think I should take time out to play the first two GS games or should I just read wiki for the story? I've got a lot of games on my plate at the moment.

The first 2 games are pretty awesome games, but if you have no time, Dark Dawn does fill you in about the previous games. Reading the wiki would be a good alternative I guess

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

Holy fuck. I still can't believe this game is actually happening. And so close, to boot!

I hope it doesn't bomb due to hitting so late in the platform's life cycle, dooming the franchise to another demise. Nintendo did such a horrible job leveraging Glory of Heracles, but such a great job with DQIX. Here's hoping they keep up the DQ momentum with this one.

Heracles was pretty damned terrible, though. I think if this game can avoid being as dull and broken as Heracles, it'll easily do better. Should be interesting to see if the Golden Sun brand has any sales power after all this time, at least.

 

[Man God]

Heracles was pretty damned terrible, though. I think if this game can avoid being as dull and broken as Heracles, it'll easily do better. Should be interesting to see if the Golden Sun brand has any sales power after all this time, at least.

I'm almost more interested in the sales then I am in the actual game.

GS and TLA had low level pushes behind them but also had the benefit of coming in before the major RPG push on the system.

 

[GaimeGuy]

I'm just now starting my replay of golden sun 1 and 2, and I noticed the symbolism of the lunar/sol puzzle in the heart of sol sanctum (the one which saturos and menardi's group screwed up, triggering the storm and the boulder falling), which I thought was kind of neat.
(GS 1/2 spoilers below

Spoiler

You know, the picture of Luna is shown, representing darkness. You slide the four statues in place, each of which represents an elemental lighthouse, and they each shine a light on one of the four panels, giving way to the picture of Sol (representing the Golden Sun, and the rebirth of Alchemy).

 

[trinest]

Shame they didn't port it to the 3DS- I'm not a graphics hore- but it dosn't wow me as much as when the screens where first released- but no doubt I'll probably end up buying it some time in December- loved the original- not so much the sequel- if this is more like the original then yes!

 

[Vinterbird]

I actually got lost in the Lost Age (how very appropriate) and never finished it.

D:

Same. Tried to pick it back up this summer, and got some progress, but the game isn't good at explaining where to go next, which killed it for me.

 

[Giolon]

So wait do we get OT threads when games release in Japan now? You had me all excited for a second and then I remembered release is still a month away.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Aaand I'm pretty sure I just spotted when the Wise one

Spoiler

foiled Alex's plans.

Damn they really thought this out :lol

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I haven't played Lost Age yet. I still have no idea how I finished the first one; never got around the class system. I just slapped Earth Djins on Isaac, Fire on Gareth, etc.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

So wait do we get OT threads when games release in Japan now? You had me all excited for a second and then I remembered release is still a month away.

Well, we have them for games that have larger gaps, like DQ9/DQ6/Valkyria 2 and such, but I agree, this one seems a bit weird because it's long enough to be far away but short enough to be able to fool your subconscious.