Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Squire Felix said:
Again,
GS4.
North America to the rescue! Hahaha won't happen.
North America to the rescue! Hahaha won't happen.
-
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Golden Sun: Dark Dawn |OT| DJINNS DJINNS DJINNS DJINNS oh god i am drowning in them
- Thread starter Regulus Tera
- Start date
Again,
Ericescobar15
Neo Member
Xelinis said:
OOOOOOHWOOOOOAAAAOOOOOOOOH
Giolon
Member
LOL that is awesome. Here's the commercial for those who haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOvwdVp8Fvo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOvwdVp8Fvo
I think the postal service is broken at the moment. Should've gone for express or something after all :l
Only played it for 2 hours (just enough time to get onto the world map) but a few things so far:
- Finally, Grow without having to switch Djinn around! The protagonist has it from the start.
- Minimaps. Not sure how people are going to feel about having a minimap on the top screen at all times.
- The new out of battle Psynergy targeting is awesome. Way too many times in the originals I'd try and use a Psynergy only to find I was angled slightly wrong and have it fail. Don't seem to need to use the stylus if you don't want to either, it just seems to home in on close-by points you can use that Psynergy.
- Out of battle graphics are... eh. They're okay but way too pixellated. In battle the graphics are fairly nice, and the summons are awesome. Can't wait to see some of the later ones.
- Loving hearing about all the changes to the world. Anyone who hasn't played the originals will have a bit of catching up to do, but all the namedrops right from the start will make series fans really happy.
- The little in-game dictionary feature is awesome too. Key terms and names are underlined, and you can tap them to see a definition on the top screen. A lot of it is going to be things series fans already know (like recurring characters, the Golden Sun, the Four Elements etc) but there's some new things there, and a lot of places that've changed enough to make their entries worth reading.
- Music is a mixed bag so far. The main battle theme I like a lot, the main boss theme is definitely my favourite out of the three games, but the area themes have been pretty forgettable so far.
Would play more but I'm too tired ;_; Tomorrow will be a Golden Sun day.
Only played it for 2 hours (just enough time to get onto the world map) but a few things so far:
- Finally, Grow without having to switch Djinn around! The protagonist has it from the start.
- Minimaps. Not sure how people are going to feel about having a minimap on the top screen at all times.
- The new out of battle Psynergy targeting is awesome. Way too many times in the originals I'd try and use a Psynergy only to find I was angled slightly wrong and have it fail. Don't seem to need to use the stylus if you don't want to either, it just seems to home in on close-by points you can use that Psynergy.
- Out of battle graphics are... eh. They're okay but way too pixellated. In battle the graphics are fairly nice, and the summons are awesome. Can't wait to see some of the later ones.
- Loving hearing about all the changes to the world. Anyone who hasn't played the originals will have a bit of catching up to do, but all the namedrops right from the start will make series fans really happy.
- The little in-game dictionary feature is awesome too. Key terms and names are underlined, and you can tap them to see a definition on the top screen. A lot of it is going to be things series fans already know (like recurring characters, the Golden Sun, the Four Elements etc) but there's some new things there, and a lot of places that've changed enough to make their entries worth reading.
- Music is a mixed bag so far. The main battle theme I like a lot, the main boss theme is definitely my favourite out of the three games, but the area themes have been pretty forgettable so far.
Would play more but I'm too tired ;_; Tomorrow will be a Golden Sun day.
Why would you do that?
Member
Wait, really?Varion said:
I didn't like Golden Sun (I have no idea why I came in this thread...) and one of the bigger reasons why was because of its story, which was hard for me to follow for some reason.
Reading the above it makes me really want to give the DS one a shot.
Yeah, for people who had problems with the sheer amount of terms and stuff used it'll probably make the story a lot easier to follow. All the terms you come across get added to a big dictionary you can access from the menu too.Why would you do that? said:
Actually, only just noticed another awesome thing when I went to check the dictionary - when you go to load your save now the game actually has a summary of what you were in the middle of doing in the story, rather than just throwing you right back into it, horribly lost.
Varion said:
While I appreciate the amount of time developers put into the universe in a modern RPG, sometimes the amount of stuffs require for readings is just a bit too much. I remember the Xenosaga series require me to read a dictionary amount of stuffs to understand a tiny bit of what's going on.
It would be better to turn those information into gameplay or just something more fun.
Why would you do that?
Member
I love when games do this. They seem to be doing it more and more, too.Varion said:
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Varion said:
Growth was never mandatory in the original games, however, only for bonuses.
I'm glad to here it's much more utilised now.
Gamekult.com Import Review
Golden Sun : Dark Dawn is an old school game that makes you want to open your spiral-bound notebook, tear a page up and draw dungeons maps. But the messy story fall flat because its too ambitious. Nevertheless, this flaw is counterbalanced by the puzzles and battles, which never lead to frustration. We really wish we wouldnt be so easily absorbed, but what matters the most is that neo-nostalgic feeling Dark Dawn causes by proposing to play with the heirs the first game. And these new guys, inevitably less charismatic, may ultimately be the childish cousins of Shining Force III heroes. From watching its simple, colorful and vibrant polygons of Golden Sun DS, its like the Sega Saturn is starring at you. If only it knew how we miss it...
+ top-notch graphics
+ good combat system
+ perfect balance between battles and puzzles
+ perfect pace
+ various and accomplished puzzles
+ the Shining Force spirit
- dull and confused story
- weak emoticons
- awful items management
- very easy
7/10 (editors's pick)
Golden Sun : Dark Dawn is an old school game that makes you want to open your spiral-bound notebook, tear a page up and draw dungeons maps. But the messy story fall flat because its too ambitious. Nevertheless, this flaw is counterbalanced by the puzzles and battles, which never lead to frustration. We really wish we wouldnt be so easily absorbed, but what matters the most is that neo-nostalgic feeling Dark Dawn causes by proposing to play with the heirs the first game. And these new guys, inevitably less charismatic, may ultimately be the childish cousins of Shining Force III heroes. From watching its simple, colorful and vibrant polygons of Golden Sun DS, its like the Sega Saturn is starring at you. If only it knew how we miss it...
+ top-notch graphics
+ good combat system
+ perfect balance between battles and puzzles
+ perfect pace
+ various and accomplished puzzles
+ the Shining Force spirit
- dull and confused story
- weak emoticons
- awful items management
- very easy
7/10 (editors's pick)
Pureauthor
Member
Shawn6661 said:
Sounds like Golden Sun all right.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Awful items management? Do they mean the limited amount of item slots for each character?
Probably, it's the same as ever but marginally worse - same limited slots getting filled up with crap like sleep bombs, but instead of the three rows of icons style so you can see how many free slots each character has, now each character has just has one big line of item icons and that's it.Regulus Tera said:
Almost 10 hours in now, the game really does feel like the Golden Sun. My only real complaint so far would be (spoiler if you don't want to know the name of a missing psynergy)
WHERE IS MY MIND READ? ;_; I loved abusing it in the originals, but so far no sign of it at all.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Aww, that was my favourite psynergy.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Website update: http://goldensun.nintendo.com/
Harumani is now called Amiti, Stella is Sveta, Spade is Blados, Heart is Chalis, and Ace is Arcanus.
Harumani is now called Amiti, Stella is Sveta, Spade is Blados, Heart is Chalis, and Ace is Arcanus.
Pureauthor
Member
Well, I guess it's a step up from being named after playing cards.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Pureauthor said:
I'm still wondering where the fuck is Club.
HylianScribe
Member
Why are the emoticon responses still as confusing as ever? Arg, I'm just randomly picking crap now because the context of half of these is lost on me.
The NA website has been updated with the world map and a full list of what appears to be the main characters. There's a small description that accompanies the characters.
Also I haven't played the game but
. Don't spoil me...
http://goldensun.nintendo.com/
Also I haven't played the game but
the dude with the mask looks uncannily like Alex, if he is - you's think they would at least try to cover him up somewhat
http://goldensun.nintendo.com/
Aaaaand it's over. It might have been 8 years since Camelot made an RPG, but they haven't lost anything. They haven't really improved all that much either though.
Liked:
Graphics - On the whole these really did look quite nice - especially the summons, I always looked forward to getting new ones and made sure to try them out in battle right away. There tended to be quite a bit of pixellation when the camera zoomed in, but taken as a whole the new artstyle was quite nice. It won me over in the end.
Battle system - Pretty much the same as the originals' - so if you liked it there, you'll like it here. Nice and quick, with all the usual Djinn and summons to play around with.
Encounter rate - If anything this leans a little on the low side, but personally I thought it was perfect that way. Between this and the general briskness of the battles I never became frustrated or annoyed.
Music - On par with the rest of the series, the music is on the whole pretty good, especially the battle themes. Some of the area themes are good too, although there are a fair few forgettable themes so on the whole it's not something you'll want to listen to a huge amount outside of the game. Works quite well in it though.
Story - While it's not exactly revolutionary stuff, I thought the story was decent enough to keep your attention throughout, and did a good job of linking in to the old games. It also felt decently paced, in comparison to TLA where the plot seemed to disappear for half the game.
Psynergy - Out of battle psynergy was a nice mix of old and new, as a new installment of Golden Sun should be. Some new ways to use the old ones that do return as well.
Puzzles - Just as enjoyable as ever, although they didn't feel as challenging as those in TLA, though there were a few where I did have to stop and think. Somewhere between the two originals in terms of difficulty - so while I did enjoy them, I'd prefer the next game's to be a little harder.
Length - To do everything without a guide could run you somewhere between 30 and 35 hours, which for a Golden Sun game is a really nice length. Long enough to feel satisfying but doesn't overstay its welcome.
Extra content - Fair few extras and things to find - plenty of Djinn (9 for each character), hidden summons, optional bosses, subquests and extra events, etc.
Weapon Proficiency System - While it could really be expanded on, the idea of becoming proficient in various weapon types and getting multiple unleashes for them is a good one.
The Encyclopedia Feature - While the volume of information here did have a habit of getting a bit overwhelming at times, it was still nice to have it to browse through, and allowing you to access encyclopedia entries by clicking key words and names in the dialogue was a pretty useful addition. Although if you want to complete all the entries you're going to have to click red underlined new entries whether you want to read them or not.
Additions to the Djinn system - In the same way as the above there's now a Djinn-dex of sorts which shows little profiles of every new Djinn you get, which is quite a nice addition as well. Even better is how each Djinni has a unique appearance that you can see in the Djinn menu, which I was really pleasantly surprised by.
Feels like Golden Sun - For better or worse, the game really feels like a Golden Sun game - obviously there's the fact the main characters are the original cast's descendents, but all the mentions of the old cast, returning to some of the old towns 30 years on, the return of classic items and psynergy buffed up for the DS were great too.
Neutral:
The characters - The cast was a mixed bag, but I can't really say any of them were particularly interesting or memorable. Other than Garet's son for the sheer fact he is really annoying, and I wanted someone to punch him.
Didn't like:
Items management - All the joys of getting your inventory full of useless items from the originals, made worse by all your items being displayed in a line so you don't know how many slots are left. Got old really quickly.
Difficulty level - Way, way too easy. At least TLA had a couple of bosses that gave me a bit of a challenge, even if I never died against them. The only reason I know what DD's Game Over screen looks like is because I accidentally wandered into an optional dungeon and ran into its boss completely unprepared.
The emoticons system - Entirely pointless, you'll pretty much just go for either happy or angry half the time, and it makes no difference to the story at all. I did find it funny how despite not saying anything, quite a few times another party member would pretty much just repeat what you 'said' straight after anyway, and even with the addition of the emoticon system, odd questions are back. My favourite was "Who disturbs my slumber?" "Yes/No"
Too much talking, too little said - Yep, not much has changed on the dialogue front. Lots and lots of dialogue, with lots of things being repeated, and a few occasions where they feel every single party member has to respond to a situation despite the fact that they really have nothing to add.
So yeah, in short it's a new Golden Sun game, for better and for worse. I find it hard to imagine anyone who loved the previous entries won't love this though.
Liked:
Graphics - On the whole these really did look quite nice - especially the summons, I always looked forward to getting new ones and made sure to try them out in battle right away. There tended to be quite a bit of pixellation when the camera zoomed in, but taken as a whole the new artstyle was quite nice. It won me over in the end.
Battle system - Pretty much the same as the originals' - so if you liked it there, you'll like it here. Nice and quick, with all the usual Djinn and summons to play around with.
Encounter rate - If anything this leans a little on the low side, but personally I thought it was perfect that way. Between this and the general briskness of the battles I never became frustrated or annoyed.
Music - On par with the rest of the series, the music is on the whole pretty good, especially the battle themes. Some of the area themes are good too, although there are a fair few forgettable themes so on the whole it's not something you'll want to listen to a huge amount outside of the game. Works quite well in it though.
Story - While it's not exactly revolutionary stuff, I thought the story was decent enough to keep your attention throughout, and did a good job of linking in to the old games. It also felt decently paced, in comparison to TLA where the plot seemed to disappear for half the game.
Psynergy - Out of battle psynergy was a nice mix of old and new, as a new installment of Golden Sun should be. Some new ways to use the old ones that do return as well.
Puzzles - Just as enjoyable as ever, although they didn't feel as challenging as those in TLA, though there were a few where I did have to stop and think. Somewhere between the two originals in terms of difficulty - so while I did enjoy them, I'd prefer the next game's to be a little harder.
Length - To do everything without a guide could run you somewhere between 30 and 35 hours, which for a Golden Sun game is a really nice length. Long enough to feel satisfying but doesn't overstay its welcome.
Extra content - Fair few extras and things to find - plenty of Djinn (9 for each character), hidden summons, optional bosses, subquests and extra events, etc.
Weapon Proficiency System - While it could really be expanded on, the idea of becoming proficient in various weapon types and getting multiple unleashes for them is a good one.
The Encyclopedia Feature - While the volume of information here did have a habit of getting a bit overwhelming at times, it was still nice to have it to browse through, and allowing you to access encyclopedia entries by clicking key words and names in the dialogue was a pretty useful addition. Although if you want to complete all the entries you're going to have to click red underlined new entries whether you want to read them or not.
Additions to the Djinn system - In the same way as the above there's now a Djinn-dex of sorts which shows little profiles of every new Djinn you get, which is quite a nice addition as well. Even better is how each Djinni has a unique appearance that you can see in the Djinn menu, which I was really pleasantly surprised by.
Feels like Golden Sun - For better or worse, the game really feels like a Golden Sun game - obviously there's the fact the main characters are the original cast's descendents, but all the mentions of the old cast, returning to some of the old towns 30 years on, the return of classic items and psynergy buffed up for the DS were great too.
Neutral:
The characters - The cast was a mixed bag, but I can't really say any of them were particularly interesting or memorable. Other than Garet's son for the sheer fact he is really annoying, and I wanted someone to punch him.
Didn't like:
Items management - All the joys of getting your inventory full of useless items from the originals, made worse by all your items being displayed in a line so you don't know how many slots are left. Got old really quickly.
Difficulty level - Way, way too easy. At least TLA had a couple of bosses that gave me a bit of a challenge, even if I never died against them. The only reason I know what DD's Game Over screen looks like is because I accidentally wandered into an optional dungeon and ran into its boss completely unprepared.
The emoticons system - Entirely pointless, you'll pretty much just go for either happy or angry half the time, and it makes no difference to the story at all. I did find it funny how despite not saying anything, quite a few times another party member would pretty much just repeat what you 'said' straight after anyway, and even with the addition of the emoticon system, odd questions are back. My favourite was "Who disturbs my slumber?" "Yes/No"
Too much talking, too little said - Yep, not much has changed on the dialogue front. Lots and lots of dialogue, with lots of things being repeated, and a few occasions where they feel every single party member has to respond to a situation despite the fact that they really have nothing to add.
So yeah, in short it's a new Golden Sun game, for better and for worse. I find it hard to imagine anyone who loved the previous entries won't love this though.
http://ds.ign.com/articles/113/1136121p1.html
IGN review is up. They gave it a 7.5. Just of curiousity, how are some of you getting it early?
IGN review is up. They gave it a 7.5. Just of curiousity, how are some of you getting it early?
European website is up:
UK version here: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/golden_sun_dark_dawn_13787.html
UK version here: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/golden_sun_dark_dawn_13787.html
Hylian7 said:
I just got my own U.S. review copy yesterday (comes in an "Earth-friendly" DS case, but don't sweat itit feels much sturdier than the cut-out disc cases)... guessing you'll be seeing a bunch of reviews this week as people power through the thing. (IGN almost certainly had early access, of course.)
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
They're using those boxes for ds games now too?zigg said:
Fucking shit.
30:51. Didn't do most of the extra dungeon stuff because I missed some Djinn though, so those would probably add a couple of hours. I tend to lean towards the slow side playing games like this, so the 20-30 hour estimate posted earlier in the thread is probably a good one. Either way it's a fair bit longer than the original but a little shorter than TLA.Macstorm said:
lolez2matt
Member
Can you use your finished save file of GS2 on GS3??? Or it just died???