Golden Sun: The Lost Potential - Casp
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
- Golden Sun: The Lost Age was a missed opportunity. I'm not happy about it, but let's go over why.
TIME STAMPS:
Intro 0:00
Beginning 0:33
Introduction 1:35
Story/Characterization 6:30
Combat 17:32
World/Puzzle Design 24:01
Thanks to omegaevolution for the Star Magician footage which I forgot to record because I am atartded.
Golden Sun Review:
• Golden Sun - Innovatio...
Beyond the Beyond Review:
• Beyond the Beyond - A ...
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Sources:
(((coincidence))) stolen from the Soyless Matt show - Dame Pesos: / @damepesos
Ben Shapiro clips liberated from FreedomToons: / cartanimation
I am stupid and didn't record the Star Magician, so footage was lifted from omegaevolution: • Golden Sun 2 - The Los...
reviewbrah: • I React To Googling Re...
idubbbz: • Disabled Pokemon Go - ...
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Games featured in this video in order of appearance:
Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA, Virtual Console)
Golden Sun (GBA, Virtual Console)
Beyond the Beyond (PS1)
Breath of Fire II (SNES, Virtual Console)
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Music used in this video in order of appearance:
The Second Book - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Walking Forward with Determination - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Aqua Rock - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Little Madra - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Izumo in Despair - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
A Full Moon in Garoh - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Venus Lighthouse - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Moving Worlds - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Battle! (Jenna's Theme) - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Enemy Battle (Felix's Theme) - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Karst and Agatio's Theme - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Jupiter Lighthouse - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Full Speed Ahead - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Kandorean Temple - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Ruins of Lemuria - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Mars Lighthouse - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Place Your Bets - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Magma Rock - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Tundraria Tower - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
Welcome Home - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
The Second Book (again) - Golden Sun: The Lost Age OST
(I have no idea what the real names of the songs are, but this is what they're listed as, and they're all magical.)
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More of my videos -
I Regret Buying a Vita in Current Year: • I Regret Buying a PS V...
I Like Grinding in Vidya:
• The Case for Grinding ...
Digimon World Dawn is a Waste of Time:
• Digimon World Dawn is ...
All works used are for educational, review, or analytical purposes, and are protected under the FAIR USE act. - Ігри
![Golden Sun (Game Boy Advance) [Switch] Gameplay Walkthrough Part 6 Final Boss & Ending No Commentary](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/d3MZOjVcmqg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Golden Sun (Game Boy Advance) [Switch] Gameplay Walkthrough Part 6 Final Boss & Ending No Commentary](/img/tr.png)
holy shit have memes ever dated a video harder? cringe
Tis the nature of memes, but what is old can always become relevant again.
@@MemeNess Thank you memeness, very based
You know what that means, delete this and remake the whole thing all over again. Just like Ubisoft!
They are not called Indians because of the confusion with people from actual India.
Man I really wish Cameltoe made more games
hey kids do you like TENNISU!?!??
They had a lot of furries, now they have a lot of tennis games. RIP Shining Force
I think you meant Camelot. :D
Luke Mitchell 0:09
@@tommi3761 Oh I see, I completely missed it.
Well......this was sadly not the opinion I expected, but hey I mean you can't always agree on something. I will say that this game is not without flaws, but this is also my favorite Golden Sun game, and there's a very good reason for that.
As for the narrative, I don't think you're being quite fair to it. To begin with, if you look at the stories of these games at face value, they aren't horribly original, and Camelot in general isn't exactly the best at writing characters, or a story with much depth.
One way I do think these games excel in though is subtext, and giving pieces of information to the player that they can then use to piece together a bigger picture. There's a reason the fans love to discuss the lore of this universe because there's really alot to it.
In GS1 after finding out that alchemy is a threat, you can actually see over the course of the game how just Mount Aleph erupting caused all kinds of issues. Psynergy Stones turning animals into monsters, statues awaking in the mines, and overall so much of it foreshadowing the danger of releasing Alchemy into the world.
In GS2 however, it adds a very intended opposite to it, while also not completely abandoning that aspect. The Serpent, Poseidon, and various other all awoke (as I interpret it) from your actions lighting the lighthouses and bringing back the "Lost Age." But a moral dilemma is introduced because you also can see how society itself has declined too. You mentioned how cool Lemuria was, but the place is also very somber and stagnant, and you can even discover the sunken Lemuria, where they show how even that city has fallen into decline without the power of Alchemy.
Golden Sun 2 is about the conflict between awakening what could be a great evil for the sake of saving the world, and this is actually something expanded upon a bit in Dark Dawn (albeit not in a perfect way, as far as some areas are concerned.)
As for Kraden....I mean, he does talk alot but.....I liked him? Idunno I always liked how excited he was to learn about the world because I felt the same way when I first played it. I wanted to see all the world had to offer and go on an adventure, and sure he talked about things a bit, but I liked learning about how just dust of psynergy could even create werewolves. Heck in GS1 a psynergy stone falling on Feizhi gave her powers.
As for the world map, I will concede that there isn't alot of conveyance about why you need the trident to beat Poseidon, (though if you read the mind of an old man near there, he will say only a trident can defeat him. But again, I get you won't take that as a good answer.) This game is so much more replayable for me than GS1. I've played GS1 so much and going through that intro before you even get the Djinn gets less and less enjoyable every single returning playthrough, which while weirdly-paced, GS2 throws you into it much earlier, and provides much more of a challenge between the dungeons and combat. Heck one thing I'm surprised you glossed over was stuff like the class-changing items, and multi-element summons, and the overall expansion of options that actually helped the Djinn system not get so stale. I love this game lol.
But yeah as for replacement S&M, yeah.....idunno. I liked aspects of Karst at least, and actually not quite understanding Alex' motivations are interesting because he basically spent the first two games just playing a grand game of chess. Which is neat, and in a weird way I actually respect the ending, and how it, at the very least wrapped things up. More than I can say for some games *sobs*
Anyways don't expect to change your mind, but here's how I feel about it XD. Curious what you'll think of Dark Dawn.
These comments are the reason I make UA-cam videos. SO I CAN EPICLY PWN SOME FUCKIN LIBTARDS YEEEEEEEEEEEW.
Really though, I appreciate the *frick* out of girthy beasts like this, especially when they give me another perspective on things.
It's interesting that you dug Kraden. He definitely acts as the stand-in for Felix's vocal capacity in this game, where the secondary characters usually fill. Beyond the Beyond toyed with that concept, with the little dragon bloke speaking on behalf of the silent protagonist for a majority of the game.
I'd say my major gripe is that Kraden says a lot, without saying much at all, and frequently repeats himself. He also knows so much more than any other character in the game other than maybe Alex, but the dude never lets on anything, which is fine, because it ultimately serves the narrative, but I hate when vidya does that.
I call it the Ben Stiller plot, where every conflict could be resolved with a calm, 5 minute conversation about motivation and events so that everyone is on the same page. Like, if Saturos and Menardi simply talked to Isaac and whatever instead of being unnecessarily hostile dickheads at the start of GS1, they probably would've worked together and saved the world happily.
They're also fantastic character-designs, like the visuals in and of themselves are sick. I wish they were playable.
As for the events kinda setting in to place a bunch of 'awakenings' and great truths, I did enjoy it. I thought the Serpent was okay, and it was nice that the solution to bopping him wasn't a flat battle, but it was a sequence of smaller events that ultimately bested him. We already know how I feel about Poseidon though.
There's also a lot to be drawn from Lemuria, and it raises plenty of philosophical questions, such as humans having it too easy creates stagnation which breeds unhappiness, and that humans need a villain to rally against or they ostensibly lose purpose and passion. If you use Twitter at all, I'm sure you've seen the real-world manifestations of that :^).
My gripe is more its significance to the events that occur within the game. I think TLA would've benefitted from a few trips to Lemuria instead of just the one, and I think that might've been the original intention, based on the fact that you unlock a shortcut to (and from) the stagnant city when you finish up there.
While there's plenty of dialogue, fundamentally, you go there, learn of a truth that you already suspected, and then continue on as you were. I don't think that's very good.
I love subtle elements in vidya, but there's a very thin line between subtley and complete under-utilization. Had I more time, and more vocal capacity, I 100% would've talked about this more in depth. When you've gotta do a broad overview of a game, a lot of intricacies get lost along the way.
God, this is a text wall already but there's a lot more I want to talk about. I might have to come back to this comment another time and type some more inane shit. I do genuinely appreciate your input though. Thanks for the comment!
@@Caspicum lol thanks for replying and yeah glad I was able to give a different perspective anyway XD. At the end of the day though, I just think this is way more fun as a video game than Golden Sun 1. And while you skipped over the Shining series when jumping to this (since people like to compare Beyond the most to Golden Sun), I would actually recommend the Saturn Shining games at some point (Shining the Holy Ark and Shining Force III). They came out between Beyond and Golden Sun. GS pulls ALOT from those games. The Party switching mechanic for example came straight from Shining the Holy Ark, and the art-style in general uses nearly all the same techniques they used for those games. SF3 actually probably has the best story I've seen from Camelot to date, though the world is admittedly less defined than Golden Sun.
@@PringleTheOne lol Heya Pringle. :)
Ehhh I feel like there's a good of amount of depth to Shining the Holy Ark and Shining Force III.
The lost age was the weakest of the 3. It has so much filler and its villains are a joke who don't even put up a fight . The ending was also disappointing because instead of leaving the parents dead and teaching a lesson of sacrifice it brings them back. It's also anticlimactic because of the unnecessary dialogue right before the credits
All I really remembered about this game was traveling around the ocean, lost and searching for the next plot thread.
Now you reminded me of Poseidon, and I remember why.
It's been about 3 months since I played it, but before I started editing, all I could really recall was sailing and the final dungeon.
Even after editing, I remember very little of it.
@@Caspicum Sign of a classic, right there.
The real lost potential was actually Dark Dawn where they decided to make Isaacs son the protagonist instead of Alex.
I enjoyed Golden Sun 2, just for the sheer scope of the game. I love that you get to see how the entire rest of the world is being affected by the events that have been on going, and how different areas have taken different attitudes towards it. The best example is Prox vs Lemuria - Prox is imminently in danger of being destroyed and act aggressively as a result, while Lemuria is safely isolated closer to the center of the map and thus take a more slow and measured approach.
My biggest complaint is that Alex's story line should have been much more fleshed out in this game, as he was always one of the most interesting characters IMO and it would have been cool to have him as the actual final boss, since you'd then be fighting what essentially amounts to the titular Golden Sun. This would also give you a reason to open up the original areas after Mars Lighthouse, to go back and maybe do some sidequests there (as the area would be significantly changed due to the power of the Golden Sun being unleashed) before ultimately returning to Sol Sanctum and bringing the story to a conclusion where it all began.
I mean that would have been the ideal ending of the series but Nintendo sidelined Camelot making sports games for a fucking decade and then we got a game that was almost completely disconnected narratively from the previous games despite using the kids of the base games and being a direct sequel.
I fully agree that having Isaac act as somewhat of an antagonist hindering your progress in TLA would've made more sense. Maybe have Isaac's party be the ones behind most of the roadblocks you encounter.
Also seeing the OG party's actions in a different light would've been a good way to further strengthen the contrasts between the two narratives.
Exactly. It's weird just having them show up and being antagonistic when there's other shit going on with the new 'bad' guys, then immediately about-facing their whole worldview with no prior clashing. It could've also opened a nice little gap for Karst and Agatio to be allied with Felix against Isaac's crew for a bit, which would add weight to their sacrifice and general existence instead of just stupidly-stubborn, forgettable non-antagonists. That story was so close to great it's infuriating.
It could've been so amazing if they had done that. Would've warmed us up more to Agatio and Karst. Also, Felix's crew would've been given more credit as we slowly watch them grow in comparison to Isaac's party's power. The tension between the two parties would've served as a good force to push the player forwards to their goals and them teaming up in the end would be so much more rewarding... Heck, I wouldn't even care if the plot twists about the world ending and Felix's parents being in Prox were evealed earlier in the story as long as the things we mentioned actually happened...
I've seen a lot of great comments and criticisms skimming over the comment section, and life's super busy right now, because some idiot decided it'd be a good idea to move house during Christmas, but I will slowly respond to everything! Thanks in advance for your input!
thanks for noticing us
Senpai noticed us : O
you gonna review dark dawn?
@@diegoruiz9328 Definitely!
Golden Sun games on gba were pretty fun. A new installment on the Switch would be cool.
shush you
Hell yeah. I'd love remakes as well
I feel like both the golden sun games... Ended a little too quickly. Like just before building up the true story climax... Boop, you fight the final boss and ending ensues.
They'd be continuing from Dawn and I don't think there is a real plan there.
I would give a LOT for a new Golden Sun on Switch.
There's also the thing with Ivan's past being reveals offscreen and only mentioned shortly, as well as Sheba's past not being revealed at all and only cast aside with a simple "does it even matter?". It's especially sad when you realize that those two are pretty much the only characters with another reason for joining the party than saving the world.
I'm going to be honest, I don't even remember where Ivan's past was revealed, which I think speaks to your criticism.
That Sheba thing was stupid though. She was clearly meant to be some sort of special character, but was completely ignored for whatever reason. I think the game was hit with the ol' time constraints. I read a lot of articles about GS1 and 2 being praised as miracles of a short development cycle.
All things considered, they're very well-constructed games, but the varying quality of the content found within, especially the story, might run counter to what we believe about these short development times.
I also blame other constraints, such as the hardware, and the early break from N64 to GBA. Pretty sure I read that GS1 had a 1.5 year turn-around and GS2 had only 12 months, or something like that. Still very impressive given such a small window.
@@Caspicum Sheba's past is more implied as she's stated to have fallen to Earth at some point in the past and it's almost certainly implied to have been from Anemos. Which was the city that the Jupiter adepts lifted in the distant past. You see it's crater outside Jupiter Lighthouse.
Anemos has the most interesting worldbuilding out of all of the various civilizations in TLA that are presented since you learn the least about it but their Psynergy was easily the most advanced out of all of the various civilizations. With the ability to fly and teleport being exclusive to their clan.
Till this day, I am still waiting for GS4....
We all do.
Same
Yeah same here
There are dozens of us, DOZENS
D.C Harmony me too!!
I completely disagree about Agatio and Karst not being good antagonists. I think they were as good if not better than Saturos and Menardi and the whole twist about Prox being at the edge of destruction and the amazing visual display we get of that, ESPECIALLY the fact that we get it AFTER Saturos, Menardi, Karst and Agatio die hammers home how good these antagonists were. Because much like Isaac and the bunch, these people were heroes to the people of Prox, their home that they were trying to save. In another life, they could be the protagonists. Like Isaac got his mission from the Wise One, They got their mission from their harsh conditions and probs the village elder or something. It hammers home how no one is good or evil in this game. Everyone is just trying to survive and do what they can for the people they love and they literally died for that. They weren't as lucky as our protagonists. That's tragic. And I love it. I love this game's story and just this game in general WAY more than the first.
The world felt so alive and diverse. One of my favorite video game worlds ever. Also the reason Isaac and co. lost against Agatio and Karst at Jupiter was because Agatio and Karst used the lighthouse traps to trap them so Mia and Garret couldn't fight, leaving just Isaac and Ivan without their healer and one of their key fighters. They created an unfair advantage for themselves and then used that to win. Come on, man. :p
Oh, come on. You talked about the amazing twist in the Lost age about the lighthouses and the urgency of the world ending which is LITERALLY the defining feature of the story. We even see that first hand throughout the world in what you describe as "busy work" and then in the same breath, you say the story's garbage? I feel like that's a bit harsh and unfair. Also, the Wise One is literally like any God in any mythology ever. They say they can't interfere, have ambiguous intentions, Manipulate people to forward their plans for the world. NONE of his actions should be surprising to you after the lighthouse reveal because it effectively changes the nature of his character. Even the doom dragon was a desperate last attempt to keep them from lighting Mars lighthouse. The trick was devious, manipulative and heartbreaking. Especially the scene that followed, he tried to warn them of all they could lose. Super unfair to downplay it as you did.
My issue with Karst and Agatio is that their motivations make little sense in contrast to their actions. They act like antagonists only when it suits the narrative, and not consistently. Saturos and Menardi were so focused on their goal, they barely bothered with the party. They were cold, and set out to save their village by any means necessary, be it kidnapping, murder, etc. Less a villain of desire, and more a villain of circumstance.
The only thing Karst and Agatio do is attack Isaac's party, and then Felix's party because of their association to Isaac, which isn't friendship at that point. They're unhinged when they don't have time to be, and it's pretty weak. Karst and Agatio want to best Isaac before they want to save their town/the world, and that is silly. They're textbook villains, where Sat and Men were misunderstood anti-heroes.
I think a lot more could've been done with their inability to execute anything correctly. Like, Saturos and Menardi had the ability to save the world, but Karst and Agatio lacked the power. Something could've been done with that, they could've explored their inability to do anything instead of just being mad at Isaac.
I said the twist was good, but that was a very small part of the overall narrative. The twist retroactively suits the previous game, and everything going forward from that was pretty bad. The sequences of events are disconnected, bloated and unfocused, the character motivations make no sense, etc. etc. Great twist on the original narrative, but nothing in the second part stands out beyond that.
The Wise One wasn't a bad guy though, he planned it all from the beginning. It was ultimately his plan to guide the heroes to save the world, and to stop Alex. It also doesn't explain why the parents had to be turned into a dragon. Wouldn't it have been far more impactful if he made them kill their parents in their human forms, and not some dragon that comes out of nowhere?
That's not to mention the fact that the entirety of the two games could've been prevented by Felix taking a minute to explain their goals, thus preventing the entire rivalry, lighthouse race, deaths, etc.
I can understand why you'd like Karst and Agatio, but that final section is really bad, hey. Just a complete cop-out of an ending.
@@Caspicum Agatio and Karst were younger than Saturos and Menardi and moodier teenagers. They were for sure more emotionally charged than Saturos and Menardi. For me, it highlighted Prox's desperation to the point where they essentially had to send teenagers to fight their battles because no one else was left/capable enough. Them fighting Felix's party in itself could be explained by the idea that Menardi lost her sister and was angry and wanted a scapegoat for revenge which she found in Felix's party especially because Jenna was in Felix's party, someone who meant a lot to Isaac. Guilt by association doesn't always have to translate to bad writing, I think it makes sense in this context. I'd call them confused young desperate child soldiers rather than textbook villains.
I disagree again, in this game and the previous one, one HUGE theme was natural disasters that were being caused by the lack of alchemy that the world NEEDED to thrive off of, that the world became dependent on. This game highlighted that aspect more and how it affected different people in the world while giving us some neat self-contained but also connected stories. I LOVED the Izumi and Lycanthrope sections. I loved Lemuria and Kibombo, and the section where you do a trial against a bunch of Native Americans and gain their respect. They made the world feel so alive with how different they were and how their stories were rooted in the cultures of the respective lands (I have yet to see any other game do this). I even loved Champa. and Briggs is one of my personal favorite side characters in a video game, like ever.
I'll agree that post-Jupiter lighthouse, the narrative kinda took a backseat until the next lighthouse was reached but I loved the lore around Congo and the different locales were fun and the dungeons were fucking fantastic. Not to mention the sheer unadulterated joy I'd find by sailing off to different small islands and discovering Djinn, Summons, and sidequests like the one with the animals locked behind interesting and fun puzzles all compounded with some fantastic music. Plus when we DID get the narrative again we got one of my favorite parts of the entire story: Prox. And the whole reveal that Saturos, Menardi, Karst, Agatio were never evil at all. Even if I were to agree with you on the final battle, everything up to that point was great (Prox was heartbreaking to just...explore yourself) and it didn't reduce the conclusion of the story from being super satisfying.
Also, another problem is that the term "Save the world" in this series is relative. Literally, the most interesting aspect of this game's story is the conundrum that if we light the lighthouses, corrupt people will cause wars and end the world as they nearly did before but if we don't, the world will die a slow death riddled by natural disasters until it slowly shrinks to nothingness. I STILL don't know what the right answer to this central question is and I LOOOOOOOOVE that. It's my favorite thing about the story. It's a debate. A constant discussion. I'll wait for you to play Dark Dawn to see how the return of Alchemy plays out for the world.
Looking forward to future videos, despite the criticism, you've earned a new subscriber!
@@osamamansoor927 I think that's all fair. I don't necessarily agree with it, but if everyone agreed with me, it'd be a pretty bland world.
I still can't agree that everything up to the final battle was great, but you've got an interesting take on it.
My issue with the whole ultimatum of bringing alchemy back is that it's not really an ultimatum. You either drop the world from literally vanishing into nothing in the short-term, or you prevent that and run the risk that somebody *might* use alchemy to become powerful. That's not an option, there's only one choice there.
It definitely presents an interesting conundrum, as if someone were to gain immense power, you'd need a band of heroes to rise up and stop them, but the alternative being that nobody gets to exist ever again is pretty silly. I think it's clear that everyone in the world would want to stop it receding. There's also no reason the average joe can't become incredibly powerful and use it for good.
It's like how bad people exist in the real world, and that it sucks, but it's inevitable, and it's far preferable to the world not existing at all. You can be better to undo what bad people do, you can be strong to reduce their impact, etc.
I hope Dark Dawn goes into that, because despite it not really being a choice, it's still an interesting concept. If I could cut the first chunks of the game out, and start it at Lemuria, then have Alex be a crazy powerful bloke who tries to gain alchemy powers to achieve... something throughout the back-half, that would've been really cool hey.
I beat The Lost Age 3 months ago and I'm still bummed about how TLA treated Alex.
+Casp O'Saurus "I think it's clear that everyone in the world would want it to stop receding" my dude have you heard of climate change in the real world and how people treat that issue :p
There wasn't an extinction level event happening in golden sun, the world was decaying yes but it was decaying slowly. There wasn't immediate global urgency to change it (there was in prox but that's one place out of the whole weyard)
I mean imagine an extremely powerful item that could potentially solve the world's energy crisis and halt global warmings rapid spread if used correctly (Renewable Nuclear Energy) but there is serious risk of people using it for evil and destroying the world themselves by weaponizing that energy (Enriching Uranium to make Nuclear Weapons) and look at what happened in the real world and you'll know why the people in golden sun didn't want to bring alchemy back. :p
@@osamamansoor927 It's a bit different. Global warming is a trend more than it's an immediate threat. Like, in Golden Sun, Izumo and Prox were extremely close to falling into nothingness. You can physically see that shit, and it's urgent. If you asked those people whether or not they wanted to fall into nothingness, or bring alchemy back to the world (back implying the world existed in a functional, long-term form before with its inclusion due to the fact that it still exists) then I am sure that every person would opt for the latter. Or at least most people, there're always a minority of crazies, but a minority does not negate the rule.
Global warming won't cause me to spontaneously combust in to flames tomorrow, but falling into the void will more than likely kill me. There's a clear lesser of two evils, and one evil is a proposed evil based solely on bad actors doing bad things, which is a variable. You can also take down a human who sets out to do evil, especially as the alchemy powers would allow everyone to study it and master it in a fairly balanced environment. There is no way to stop the world from receding without this one specific method, therefore, it must be done.
There are parallels to your real-world example, but it's fundamentally not the same thing.
You wanna know how i want my Golden sun remake?
You can first choose Between 2 storylines: Isaac & Felix
Both story's happen at the same time instead like previously you first played Isaac and later Felix.
Now Isaac story will begin the same as before, but you will play further then the Venus lighthouse.
You will continue your journey with Isaac until you reach the 3rd lighthouse and reunite with Felix.
Felix's story will now begin from the day he got saved by Saturos and Menardi. Until the part where you reunite with Isaac after the 3rd lighthouse.
So basicly you get to play Isaac's story during the events of Golden sun 2. And Felix's story during the events of Golden sun 1.
When you completed the 2 story's, now you can play your 3rd story: Heroes of Vale.
In the 3rd story we start after our reunion like normal BUT we could have our ending abit extended.
Make us travel to Vale ourselfs after the endboss, show abit more of Alex after the final events. give us some scenematics in between the time gap of GS2 and 3. maybe show more of it the higher your difficulty was (like how they do secret movies in kingdom hearts)
in this extended ending we could have a better connection to GS3 (possibly a 4th?).
And to further dream on about this
the 2nd golden sun remake could start off with just 1 story 'Matthew'
and upon completing that one we get our new content: Story Alex.
Wich show the start of Alex's plot way before GS1 and how he got al this knowledge of the golden sun and such.
and ofc Alex's story will lead into the long awaited GS4.
But instead of these better fleshed out story's for golden sun, we will just get:
Golden sun: Let's go Isaac
Golden sun: Let's go Felix
Now you need to catch and train enemy's and we give everything a more childish look!
(i better stop jokin before i jinx this whole serie..)
This is one of my favorite games of all time and one I've done a lot of personal reflection on, so I want to try and break down a lot of your points here and analyze where I agree and disagree, and perhaps change your mind about some stuff. I'll start off with some of the things I agree with though.
In regards to Kraden, I almost completely agree with you. He does have moments in the game where he provides some insight, but he by and large feels like a mouthpiece for Felix that oversteps his boundaries. But as an addition to this point, something I'm surprised you didn't cover once considering your hatred of Ivan and general apathy towards the party of the first game is how much livelier they are here. Jenna and Sheba are much cheekier when compared to Garet's flat out stupidity, and play off each other well as the chick friends, while Piers serves as a very nice level headed guy while also having moments where he gets fired up about things. His resolve to go with Felix knowing that Karst and Agatio can't be trusted as well as his willingness to risk banishment from his home in order to do the right thing are standout moments of any character in the series imo.
Another thing I agree with is the easiness of the encounters by and large, but this is a larger issue with the series as a whole and I feel like TLA is by far the closest the series gets to being challenging at any point, even with the fucked level curve in the midsection. The bosses definitely take higher advantage of the combat but I agree that the game is severely limited in challenge, especially with summons and weapon unleashes being so overpowered. As a remedy for people who want one though, Golden Sun is a perfect series for romhacks to fix this very thing, and while more niche, speedruns of the games, especially TLA, make the combat absurdly more engaging and really flesh out the true potential of the series by making every djinn and piece of equipment so much more vital, and this also amplifies the beautiful dungeon design.
Where I really started to disagree with the story section was this notion that the entire thing focuses around Isaac. Sure, he's mentioned a lot and the Wise One copout at the end is a stupid way to make him seem like this chosen one, but the first game drops many many nudges about Felix being the real hero, and Isaac's point when he joins the party about just being there to help is a genuine truth. While it may not seem like Felix fails at things, he starts out in very shitty conditions and the entire first half of the game is about finding a way just to get back on track. To this end, Felix proves himself as a genuinely great guy through his willingness to help out with the various crises occurring around the world, and really has to EARN the right just to get back to the lighthouse quest, whereas Saturos and Menardi quite literally just cut their way through innocents and left disaster in their wake to try and hinder Isaac. This notion that the story actually revolved around Isaac is only held true when you fail to see beyond the scope of the lighthouses. I believe it's mentioned in Lemuria that Felix has been seeing the horrible state of the world for himself and this is why he's so resolved to light the lighthouses beyond his initial goal of just releasing his parents from captivity. If Isaac is a 'chosen one', Felix is a true hero.
Regarding your complaints about the bosses, Djinn Storm especially, I think complaining about it runs in stark contrast to complaints about the difficulty of the game. The primary reason the game is so easy is because you're handed absurd stat boosts and damage via djinn, and removing them is really an excellent subversion. With Doom Dragon, it's such an ineffectual boss beyond Cruel Ruin and Djinn Storm in the last phase that I'm not sure how so many people have trouble with it, while with Dullahan I find that he's one of the most underrated superbosses in JRPG history. Commonly written off as some cheap overpowered enemy that you're required to grind for or cheese, but ignoring the complexity he brings. Since as you briefly mentioned he follows a fixed pattern, the ball is in the player's court to work around him, and the fight takes full advantage of both single character switching, something you yourself wished was a core mechanic, and consumable items to make up for the potential lack of healing psynergy, which are otherwise a largely ignored option outside of this fight. Feel free to check my channel for a grindless, no summon fight against him demonstrating these points, as he's actually one of the most enjoyable fights once you understand him.
As one final note I really wish you touched on the music a little, as it's one of my favorite soundtracks of all time and some of Sakuraba's best despite the GBA's infamously shoddy sound quality
,
People have trouble with the Doom Dragon PRECISELY because of Cruel Ruin and Djinn Storm. He would be much easier (and fair) if those attacks didn't exist. Personally I would also take away one of his turns, but that's just me. He was an INSANE difficulty spike, similar to Karst and Agatio who also kicked my ass in Jupiter Lighthouse (but were much easier as dragons, funnily enough). I have tried the final battle like ten times and I still get bodied in the second or third phases. It's really bad when you can't see how a game ends because the final boss is so cheap.
How to play The Lost Age:
1. Mash A for Megiddo procs
2. Pray there is no Djinn Storms on the forecast
Megiddo dese nuts.
Such a good trigger though.
love this comment
Dullahan be like: 👍.
Thats why you dont play fair and summon everything you got an pray rngesus that he doesnt wipe you out before you finish all ur summons.
I'd like to point out that theres a part in the first game that explains where Isaac gets that part of the golden sun's power. Remember when the wise one asks Isaac to hold up the mars star? Thats what he's doing.
He's altering it so that it will let out some golden rain on the mars lighthouse crew instead of just Alex.
You golden?
I really want a remake/reboot on Switch and Isaac on Smash
Imagine if we’d gotten that, a Judgement final smash would have been so cool 😩
About not having an actual antagonist for most of the adventure... Well, that's because YOU are the villain. You're literally doing what Saturos and Menardi were doing. It's not until you confirm your suspicions about Weyard dying without Alchemy that Karst, Agatio and The Wise One kick in.
Yeah, but you never really do anything as villain. You start as a party of 1 villain and 3 kidnapping victims who seem to have more say than the supposed villain, and Alex buggers off to do ???. The 4 primary villains of the first game were Felix, Alex, Saturos and Menardi. Two are dead, one is now silent and takes orders from not-antagonists, and the other vanishes. I don't think you play as the antagonists at all, you just play as a side-party full of kidnapping victims.
Not villains, more like reluctant antagonists. Felix had to help the Proxians to free his parents and Isaac's dad, no matter the cost.
@@EscaVODS That was not the point. The point was that there was a reason for why there are no major antagonists during the first half of the game. They are dead and we took their place. If Felix and its friends are actual villains or not is irrelevant to my point.
Hmm this comment spoiled me a little bit. The video title didn't make it clear to me what the video would be about, so it took me a while to realise.
Antagonist does NOT equal villain. An antagonist is just the party that opposes the protagonist. If the protag is a villain, the antagonist is the hero. The Lost Age is weird in that you don't have an antagonist for half of the game. Isaac and friends would be the antagonists if they showed up much earlier, because their goal is the polar opposite of yours. Karst and Agatio are not antagonists since they have the same goal as you, in general. They only become antagonists in Jupiter Lighthouse because they want to kill someone and you try to prevent it.
Damn, GS2 was the best. Bigger and better soundtrack, more skills and a good continuation of the story. You even meet and play with the old team from GS1. I think a point to the story is that everything is not so black and white, bad guy and good guys both have different sides to them, and that everything depends on viewpoint. Epic game
I've been waiting a long time for this one.
Me too!
I swear, I keep mishearing "Barbie" instead of "Babi"xD
I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be "Babbi" or "Bahbie". I looked up the Japanese speelink and it was バビ which is effectively "Bah-Bee".
I played both games on a GBA emulator for Mobile during summer vacations 5-6 years ago but I never finished The Lost Age!
If I remember well, I was so much burned out from the Sea of Time, Poseidon and Trident of Ankohl back-and-forth fetch quest I took a break from the game but ending up never touching it again!
I felt like The Lost Age overstayed it's welcome at that point!
*The first few seconds is*
👌👌👌
Gave me the soothing nostalgia feels
I want to preface this with a few concessions, golden sun is verbose especially when kraden is involved. Also the whole fetch quest bit could have been handled better. I would have liked it if the trident towers were repurposed. Among other things. There are a lot of valid criticisms, and GS and GS:TLA are by no means perfect, but I wouldn't call them flops.
Story wise, things make more sense when you realize that both Alex and Babi are puppeteering a lot of the events in the game, though their motivations aren't fully explored. With the death of S&M, old muscle is gone, get some motivated new muscle. Babi might not even really be dead, Alex might be being intentionally dishonest, as he's been known to be.
For the djinn storm bit, another perspective is that you're taking the djinni for granted. It's like a super powered silence spell, but it just so happens every character in the game is at least part mage. Not to mention it's only used by the two final bosses. The only way to overcome it, outside of cheese tactics, is with heavy grinding or careful planning. Just the same as star mage.
The backtracking and exploring really isn't that bad, especially with Avoid. Suppose you get close to the end of the game and dont have everything and it matters to you, whether it be because you got tired of exploring or didn't do it thoroughly enough, badabing badaboom, wings on your ship. Plus there's an in game way of finding where the stuff is, very close to the center of the map.
There's a bit more I could talk about, like the Wise One, but this is already getting longer than I care for it to be. Again, I want to reiterate that there are some very solid criticisms here, many that I agree with, I don't want to downplay that. I have just found in my travels across the internet that a lot of people enjoy just crapping on GS. It has garnered a lot more hate and false criticisms by people who haven't even played the games, as well as asserting subjective distaste for things as factual faults in the game, for no good reason. That's part of the reason why I appreciate this video so much, it seems you've given it a fair shake. If you're down to do one of these for DD, I can't wait to watch it! It is important to note that it is generally considered the weakest of the series, because it really exaggerated the things that were wrong with the previous two. I'll let you be the judge of that though. See you then!
This is a great comment.
That's a fair point about the story. Babi may not be dead, and Alex may not have been honest with his goals. Dude could be playing 4D chess on a level where he wanted the Wise One to think he wanted power, but he really wanted to be buried under rocks for some reason. Alex was the only one I recall mentioning to Kraden that Babi was dead, so he also could've lied there.
The Djinn Storm issue is so baffling to me. I get the move that only targets one person, Djinn... something. If it only lasted like 2 or 3 turns, that'd also be fine. It's the fact that it hits the entire party, has a super low chance of missing, and ultimately has to be cheesed to avoid. You can cure Silence, but you can't cure Djinn Storm, you simply wait for the penalties to wear off.
The Star Mage was different. He was a fantastic fight that didn't rely on sweeping, OP techniques and that's what makes him a good boi.
I tried not to piss in any shoes with the criticisms, and I was a lot softer than I usually am when it comes to slapping things down, solely because it wouldn't've come across as well if I went in half-cocked and just spurted out criticisms. I don't know why anyone would go out of their way to dislike a game, and I've personally never seen anyone shitting on GS, but I don't frequent many places on the internet, which might explain that.
I'm definitely doing Dark Dawn. I pretty much have to now!
Thanks for the comment, my friend!
Don't forget that one boss than prepares and then summons, that was a surprising thing the first time I played
Love this video! Hopefully we see more of it!
Best Christmas present ever. Merry Christmas, Casp!
Merry Christmas!
Terrific analysis, I wish I could hear you analyze every JRPG ever!
I mean, the only reason why Isaac's party was able to defeat saturos and menardi and even their 2 headed dragon form, is because they had mia. Spamming wish, wish well or pure wish is op. Lol
Not even wrong hey.
Aw yiss! Christmass came to town
I originally had a little bit where I sperged about Jenna's battle theme and how Felix's is worse than both hers and Isaac's, but it was in the combat section and seemed really out of place. I'm not a big 'music' guy, whatever sounds good to me, sounds good to me and I've played so few games with bad sound tracks that I only mention them if something is *really* out of place. The heavily subjective nature of music is also tough to quantify. I feel like to say anything more than "It sound good to my ears" or to lightly poke at theming, you need a complex understanding of the structure. I don't have that :^)
Happy holidays, my dude!
I'm still madly in love with TLA (nostalgic reasons I guess) but I have to say your perspective is really interesting and you've include some really good points. This is seriously some good and well-thought critique. Thanks for the work!
Yes! It's finnaly here, great video keep it up
Good vid, this is one of my favorite games, but I think a lot of your criticisms are fair and much more well-structured than many I have seen before. Also, nice Dame Pesos there.
Yeah, I knew the game was held in a high regard by a lot of people, and after the almost completely positive video on the first, I couldn't just slam The Lost Age, so I wanted to really take my time to paint a picture for a criticism instead of just ass-blasting it. You should've seen my private messages to people about it though, they were spicy.
Dame Pesos needs to make more videos, that dude is funny as fuck.
i just want a Golden Sun game on switch.
I tend not to watch videos as long as yours, but to be fair this made me laugh xD
I tend to not make videos as long as this, but I'm glad you stuck around!
I always preferred the first game, shame it wasn't longer
Oh my god man. I played tgis game when I was like 12 when it came out and I felt just like you do about it only I just couldn't but my finger on it. Thank you so much Casp
I still love this game to death.
The epic scale, the urgency as the world around you is torn asunder, the combat system with its combinations and beautiful animations, the puzzles, the amount of locations and attention to detail, the search for Djinns to get insanely strong attacks..
Oh and the music. Is. So. Fucking. Good. Just hearing the first soundtrack you used made me nostalgic. You felt that your journey was coming to an end and that time was running out. I love it so much.
I do agree with your criticisms, especially characterisation, plot and direction, but I still have fond memories of GS2. 120+ hours cannot lie! The gameplay and puzzles were more than enough to keep me entertained for hours on end.
I've been waiting for this xD
I hope it didn't disappoint!
Great video dude!
Thanks!
I think it's a little unfair to criticise the lack of connection to the main story with each town. Each town has little side missions and doesn't need to be a grand sprawling adventure that everything along your way relates to it. I can sorta agree that Karst and Agatio are introduced too late and are sorta just carbon copies of Saturos and Menardi and yes Alex would have made a better villain, I think that got rushed at some point.
I hear a lot of complaints about the dialog dragging, but I was totally ok with it. I think it's good that it contributes to building the world up and gives insight. Golden Sun has a fair bit of visual story telling, but in 2D games, it can be tough to really use visuals to tell the story, so it gets suckered into exposition dialog to tell you.
I think the story should be looked at as a reversal of roles and a larger theme than just face value. While Golden Sun tells a purely light and dark, good vs evil tale, Golden Sun TLA is all about shades of grey.
>We thought Babi was a hero who visited Lemuria and left there, a welcome visitor: turns out he's a scoundrel who stole from them and they all hate him
>We thought Alchemy would destroy the world because it'd be misused by people: turns out the world will end without it
>We thought the Lunpa thieves are all evil, but Lunpa turns out to be righteous and angry his descendant is running his town into the ground
>We thought the Champa pirates are just there for riches and spoils, but they're literally providing for their starving people
The game being all fetch-quests is a bit annoying to me. Is skyrim all fetch quests? Is zelda? Particularly Botw, everything is optional but instead of being side missions, they feel like preparation for the final boss. Same as in Golden Sun, helping out villages often give you something that opens a pathway for you, or you can traverse one of the few dungeons which aren't necessary, but provide a challenge for you that's optional, but gives you a chance to train further.
You're definitely right about the combat. There's a lot to like about Golden Sun's combat system, but it needs a hefty dosage of balance and refinement. Djinn rushing is a bit too easy to do and the cooldowns and debuffs are not enough.
I also think that something that people miss talking about is that Golden Sun does an incredibly good job of menu systems. Combat is fluid and easy to select what you want quickly, moving items around has clever sorting and easy shifting items around to different party members, stats pop up to inform you changes on all items, dynamic equipping on item trade, shortcuts for setting or standbying djinni, psynergy shortcuts, quick and easy to access field psynergy, the map is incredibly well made and feels effortless to find, despite the limitations of using a DPad, etc etc.
The only place I think needed to be fixed in the UI, is trading Djinni to combinations that you want to test out is painful and you have to shift them all around by trading between characters. It'd be way nicer if you could just unequip all Djinni and place them one by one on each character.
I like the Poseidon quest. You stumble across the dungeons early in the game and it's a good way to get people to return back to where you came from.
I think your linear vs open world game criticism is a good criticism, but the exploration is a big part of Golden Sun TLA. As you've said, there's a lot of unique places throughout GS TLA and gating some stuff so people need to explore means that instead of being able to accidentally stumble your way right to the end means you need to explore, which just makes you grind passively as you move through, so when you eventually get all the parts of the trident for example, you're already leveled up to a point where you can fight Poseidon and not get ohko'd
Is it a perfect game? No. Is it a very good game? Yes. There's a few story bits that feel like missed opportunities, but the overall tone takes you through a lot of emotions and builds a living world that sticks in your mind. The dungeons are top tier, unique challenges and using Psynergy in the overworld for puzzles is genius and works like magic (yup pun intended), the bosses are challenging but not impossible and generally you're a good enough level to fight them then and there without needing another 20 - 30 mins of grinding to be ready, the perspective change in TLA gives great player reflection on who to trust, mix summons are awesome, music remains 10/10 undoubtably, battle system is as good as ever and while the story is relatively standard "save the world" JRPG trope, it feels impactful and important, without nagging the player too much and letting them explore and do the side quests.
There's so many things it does so right and that's why it's my favourite game of all time.
Great video as always, Casp! Was interested in your point about the mid game antagonist reveal, as I feel it could've been done properly. They just would've needed to do something along the lines of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and dedicate the part of the game without an antagonist to world building (I haven't played Golden Sun 2, but judging from your review, that seems like it would be the best route to take) Merry Christmas! :)
I recall accidentally getting this before GS1. The fact so many characters were in GS1 already just further added to the confusion as a kid.
Yeah, man. I started with the Lost Age and stopped shortly after the intro because I had no idea what was going on. 15 year old me was... an interesting character. *MORE INTERESTING THAN THE ANTAGONISTS OF GOLDEN SUN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*
A casp video longer than 20 minutes is the best Christmas present ever
The upload schedule took a hit, but I think it was worth it.
I have always wondered what were the original plans for Golden Sun. As suggested by some leftover data on GS1, Alex was meant to be a playable character, and Felix and Sheba have the same data structures as playable characters (albeit with zeroed data). A girl in Lalivero mentions the Champa pirates (though she calls them Shampa, at least in the Spanish version), so that aspect might have been planned before. Anyway, both games are my favourite GBA games, despite their shortcomings and issues. Great video and criticism.
You and Clemps are my JRPG saviors. See you in 2019!
Clemps is best irl girl.
23:13 WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOOR~!?!?!?
25:46 - 25:49 Well played. XD
26:44 - 26:48 I see what you did there. >v<
I like the ending of this video. XD
Merry Christmas Casp~!
Merry Christmas, my dude!
19:30 This ability was specifically put in to the game because the devs were worried that people would be able to just cheese the bosses like you could in the first game where you can relatively easily use Flash and Granite to nullify nearly all the damage dealt to you and use the paralyzing Djinn to make the boss skip turns. You can still do that in TLA, it just isn't quite as easy unless you follow specific djinn rotations.
Also, yes, TLA was heavily rushed because it was originally supposed to just be part of the original game, but when the devs made the switch from N64 to GBA, hardware limitations forced them to split Golden sun into TBS (the original Japanese name means To break the Seal) and The Lost Age. Although there wasn't a ton of downtime between the releases, the devs were able to use some lessons from the first game to cram more content in to the second game, resulting in the ability to utilize some very technical exploits. For example, there is a psynergy stone in Air's Rock that if you use the Retreat Glitch (aka, you use the shoulder buttons to "fail cast" retreat with no pp, causing you to enter what's called "Retreat Mode") and touch it while in the aforementioned retreat mode, it will give you the Sol Blade instead of restoring your PP. In other words, you get the best sword in the game that doesn't require RNG exploitation to get via enemy drops in what is the first real dungeon of the game.
Also, speaking of Air's Rock, its the longest dungeon in the ENTIRE SERIES, and it is so long in fact, that it is longer than several of TBS' dungeons combined. I remember as a kid it took me like 3 days to beat it and to this day, I have still never found the "hidden djinn summon" that's hidden inside of it. Even in a speed run setting, that dungeon can take over an hour to complete just to give you an idea of how insanely long that dungeon is. And it doesn't even have a boss or a narrative! All it does is give you a psynergy so you can advance in the overworld lol.
30:56 There is an NPC in a small islet that will tell you that Poseidon can't be defeated without the trident. Its super easy to miss, but if you diligently explore the ocean once you get the boat, you will fumble upon the information you need.
A 40 minute Casp video? This is truly a Christmas present
I was a huge fan of golden sun 2 as a kid, though I never played golden sun 1 so it might be why i didn't see it as worse. Also i played it as a kid so I might have had lower standards!
Great video and even though I am a fan of Golden Sun and have played both games over 10 times at least, I both agree and disagree with a lot of the criticism.
I felt very similarly to you when it comes to the narrative but then I learned that supposedly Sheba's backstory was supposed to be explored in a GS3 along with other untied knots. GS3 was to be developed after GS 1 & 2. However, due to problems within Camelot, GS3 was not developed. The GS3 we currently have is almost definitively a very different story than what was originally planned.
This obviously does not excuse the presented narrative but it does reflect that Camelot had a story in mind but due to time constraints (GS2 was developed in a shorter time than GS1) and hardware limitations some weird pacing and story decisions were made.
What has always remained fun to me is the psynergy and puzzles, the Zelda combined with JRPG feeling of Golden Sun which I can't seem to find in any other JRPG (in Octopath traveler you get to experience this a bit with the ability to influence characters and solve puzzles with each party member's trait. However, this is definitively more limiting than psynergy). The way the game revolves around psynergy and its commitment to this system feel amazing, and you have explained this quite well in the video.
Once again, great job with the video.
You sir are underrated and deserve a subscribe
You keep me sane, baby.
maybe I'm just weird but I barely notice any flaws in games ever... I just love the way psynergy works and the game is a lot of fun to replay.
Kyle and Felix's parents weren't "magic'd back to life", due to what he did when he made Isaac take out the Mars star inside the elemental star chamber at the beginning of GS1, 1/4 of the Golden Sun event happened at the Mars Lighthouse aerie so that Alex wouldn't attain omnipotent power, save the parents from the brink of death, and why Kraden isn't dead in dark dawn.
That sounds awfully magic'd to me.
your video is golden son.
“Ugh... Kraden”
Truer words have never been spoken. The non-player character with the most attention is also most boring.
Would you consider doing a review of Dark Dawn in the future?
I've been saying it for 5 years now, but yes. :^)
You raise excellent points, but the nostalgia hit for The Lost Age is too great for me. It will always be my fav.
Finally your back
I never left!
I have golden sun dark dawn and it was so good it sucks not having its sequel. I remember the trailers watching the morning news in school and it popping up. It was such a good game.
What I also love about Golden sun, is that it has Metroidvania elements (especially 2).
Loved this game . Its my favorite of the 3 games (its the first one i actually played).
have you tried the Ivan challenge yet? or the Sheba or Jenna challenge?
Another casp video that I shouldn’t be surprised is savage as fuck and yet I always have a snort ready for every blunt aside.
the Djinn disabling mechanics were actually really great from a gameplay perspective. Some Djinns are super overpowered and you can set up a rotation that makes you basically invincible. The Djinn disabling makes you face the hardest bosses without that cheese, otherwise these bosses wouldn't feel challenging at all. Also, it encourages you to swap party members regularly to manage Djinn recovery times. Of course it punishes players who only focus on 4 characters. That might sound harsh but that's great too, really, it makes all 8 characters feel valuable.
it's been so long since i played this, but the way i used the djinn always left a bad taste in my mouth, ngl
Very interesting video, great job. I had always seen TLA as the peak of the golden sun series, and while that still remains true for me, your discussion has opened up my eyes a little on the shortcomings I had never really considered before. It's given me a lot to think about when I cover the game myself.
To say my brief piece, I feel like camelot did have more focus this time around, but they focused on what worked in the first game: The worldbuilding, exploration, puzzles, and combat >system
The potential of a Golden Sun I&II remake would be appreciated, especially using the original engine, the might be a lot to ask for though, and I notice that the only people that seem to like the original graphics are people who played it back then, everyone else calls it old and oudated.
Would ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to see a Golden Sun game for the Switch.
One of the best games ive ever played. On handhelds its surely THE best one. Music, world, graphics are so Good, especially having in mind that the game came out on GBA.
“Krayden, you better be dead in dark dawn”, this video hasn’t aged will
It hasn't, for many, many reasons.
This is my favorite game at the time
If you think about it Kraden is the Santa Claus of Golden Sun
I’m still hoping they make a remake or finish the story 😩🙏
Yeah, the story was a little meh, but the gameplay itself to me was so damned fun I didn't really mind. I felt the same about Dark Dawn. Weak characters and story, but fun game.
Had me thinking there was a new Golden Age coming out soon😂😂
Coatalice on tap when the party swaps is amazing. Cheese me outside!
You beautiful bastard!
NO U!
Man, I remember the sleepless nights exploiting the RNG drops from enemies and that damn RNG from the blacksmith
That blacksmith was a bloody nightmare hey. Nearly ran out of trinket things.
Thanks for the great video! I loved the first game and was hesitant to play the second! Now I know for certain that I'm still hesitant
It's worth giving it a go anyway! You could have an entirely different experience!
PLEASE DON'T BE HESITANT. It's one of my favorite games of all time. The first game was like an 8.5/10 for me, the second was 10/10, I know it had some issues. But I loved the story and the world. It will always be special to me. I don't want anyone to miss out on that.
The second game is still fantastic, personally I even like it a little more than the first game but they are still both great RPGs
Now the real question is....will there be a dark dawn video for next Christmas?
That's very short notice. I can't guarantee it.
Wow. Never heard anyone think lost age is worse then the first game.
6:22
About that...😅
I absolutely love the open-ended nature of the first half of TLA. I remember getting wrecked by Poseidon when I was a child (I played tla first, so maybe that's why I love it more), and I could have sworn there's an npc that tells you about the trident, but oh well. Still has the best ost ever, don't @ me
@
I remember loving the first game but I couldn't play half of the second. The story was so boring and the characters just kept wandering without much to do. It was also too weird to see Felix become a silent protagonist when he used to speak in the first game.
It was also super weird seeing Isaac talking. I'm so glad these games didn't have voice acting.
So.. I just want to point out a couple things that I haven't seen people saying. Karst and Agatio aren't meant to be the big bads of TLA. They're just, as Alex puts it, motivation for you to complete your task. They're technically on your side. Notice that the only times you fight them are when they're literally trying to murder Isaac and his party, who aren't the enemy either, by the way, and when they're turned into dragons against their will to block your path. They aren't your enemy through the game. That's because TLA doesn't *have* a big bad. The entire purpose of your quest in TLA is to light the lighthouses. You have a lead over Isaac. You have nobody you need to stand against. The real enemy, the goal, of TLA is to prevent Weyard from decaying by lighting the four elemental lighthouses.
The reason you feel it's different in TBS is because... it is. TBS *has* a main antagonist. Saturos and Menardi. They're set up as your antagonists in act one. Isaac and Garet were sent out on a quest to prevent the lighting of the beacons. This means stopping the party who are trying to light them. Through the whole game, you are trailing just behind Saturos and Menardi. And, since the goal of TBS's quest is to stop Saturos and Menardi... it makes sense that the game ends with you stopping Saturos and Menardi. Since the goal of TLA's quest is to light the beacons and prevent the decay of Weyard, it makes sense that that takes precedence over any temporary bad guy.
I also wanted to make a small note about the TBS file transfer interactions. The thieves and gladiators. Those interactions are only meant to serve a reward to players who took the time to complete TBS. They aren't meant to be integral plot points. They're just tangible rewards for a game you 100%'d a year prior.
I went over all that in the video, my dude, and pretty much everything you said was the basis for my criticism. Just because something was intended to be a certain way, doesn't mean it was executed well. Karst and Agatio do act as mid-late game villains, despite sharing the same goals, and it was managed very poorly.
My criticism of the carry-over events wasn't that they weren't integral plot points, it was that they were two throw-away battles with rewards and nothing else. I thought they could've done something more with it, instead of it simply being throw-away fan-service. It would've been far better to have a little event in town, where the thieves are seen stealing something unimportant from a house, and then you chase them out of town to fight them, instead of just "Here we are! Let's fight even though you're not Isaac!"
The gladiators make a bit more sense, and you have a nice little conversation which humbles them and resolves the sub-plot thread. I don't have a huge issue with that one as much as the thieves, which was a complete waste of an opportunity to integrate them back into the activate events of the game instead of just springing them on you out of nowhere, and fighting because they overheard you talk about someone who isn't you. That's retarded by any metric, JRPG or no.
I appreciate the comment!
My final party was Isaac, Felix, Garet and Jenna. Vale rules.
Helps a lot with healing after djinn storm since isaac, felix and garet have large HP and felix and isaac can also heal and revive jenna, and jenna heals everyone
Almost none of the things that should have been mentioned in Dark Dawn from TLA actually were
Also I don't know if it was just me, but when I was a kid (about 10 or 11), I found the size and lack of focus in this game to be a bit overwhelming.
Defo was overwhelming. Kinda nice from an exploratorive point of view, but the important elements lost focus... Like antagonists and the lighthouses.
I had no problems with kraden, I never knew anyone who hated kraden, deffintly a unpopular opinion.
I absolutely love your hatred towards Kraden 😂
while I don't see the game in as much as a negative light as you did, I will say making Felix a silent protagonist for JRPG reasons just made me wish the previous team would show up already. The plot holes also flew over my head as it's been about 3 years since I've played it. I also was just... bored until they showed up and can hardly remember the events that led up to them joining while I can fondly recall many moments in the first game that made it much more fondly recall which made the story livelier.
It's been so long since I made this, I bet I'd feel a little different about it now. I still think my points about Isaac being the real protagonist were true, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I'd love to re-do the video tbh.
My wife's a doctor folks
Libtards: 0
Shapiro family dinner: 1
So am I :v
I guess I can understand your gripe with Poseidon, though it didn't really bother me personally. I suppose more NPCs mentioning it might have helped, but there were enough that I figured it out without too much difficulty on my first run. I know that there were at least 2 who mention Poseidon, and one specifically references the Trident. There's also the fortune teller, who, depending on the type of item offered, will explicitly tell you that you need to reforge an ancient weapon to proceed.
In defense of the Doom Dragon, it can only use Djinn Storm in its final form, only rarely uses it, and by that point it can only act twice per turn. One thing I did appreciate about the Doom Dragon was that it was designed to punish players who overly rely on summon rushing. Because summon damage is scaled to the opponent's maximum HP, summon rushing made most boss fights too easy. Doom Dragon exploited this mechanic though by splitting the boss's HP into 3 distinct gauges, ensuring that even with summon rushing, players could at best only hope to defeat its first form, possibly the second if you got lucky. The only other bosses with any defense against summon rushing were the Star Magician (due to the Guardian Ball) and to a lesser degree, Valukar (who can summon against you).
God bless the OZ on this vid
Golden sun needs more games! The 3ds or the switch would be great consoles for the series!
I got a question, what is your favorite game that you've reviewed?
That is a toughie. I'd say... Maybe Dragon Quarter. I wouldn't call the Alundra video a 'review', but if you count that, then Alundra.
Ogre Battle would be a close second to DQ though. I'm much more inclined to like messy games that try something new, which I think thoroughly explains those three picks.
Finally someone who agrees with me on Kraden. I get that some people skipped out on the original but I don't think that warrants a character who is solely used to give tutorials, especially when you realize that he gives more tutorials than there were in the original and that most of his tutorials are on mechanics that are carried over from the original.
I think the Dullahan fight is poorly designed, especially when compared to the likes of Deadbeard, Star magician, Sentinel, and Valukar. Dullahan's stats are already way tuned up in comparison to Star magician, Sentinel, and Valukar, which it is assumed the player just fought so the fight is already very challenging if Djinn storm wasn't part of it. The player is basically forced to excessively grind for basically the first time in the entire series, or summon rush, which they likely will since it is extremely easy to pull off, assuming Dullahan doesn't immediatly cast Djinn storm on you.
You touched on this briefly but I find it extremely irritating that it is basically guranteed that Isaac's party will be lower leveled and geared than Felix's, even if you try to avoid as much random fights with Felix. This presents a situation where if you are like me and much prefer using Isaac, Garet, and Mia (or even dare I say Ivan) because you prefer their character as a whole you are forced to either lose 5-10 levels of progress you had with Felix and co or not use the party members you want.
Also I think it is very stupid plotwise that throughout the first game and the first half of the second it is made clear that Ivan's destiny is to use the Shaman's Rod and then they pull a bait and switch and Sheba just stands in for Ivan. This is built up basically to be Ivan's character arch that he is the one who will do this and then Sheba just does it instead of him, despite Ivan joining Felix's party shortly after this. This is basically giving a lot of Ivan's character to Sheba, and having her do his destiny, which is odd because it strips Ivan of what would likely be his most redeeming event.
It's nice to see that someone shares my sentiment of going from Golden Sun to The Lost Age being somewhat of a dissapointing. I still think it's an enjoyable game, a pretty good game even, but I don't think it shines like Golden Sun does. The dungeons and the overall world are expanded, but I think the story and gameplay focus suffer for it. The original had little to no backtracking aside from optional rewards, while a significant portion of The Lost Age is just swimming a huge ocean many times with a very high encounter rate. It really is a shame that teleport exists, and yet you get it literally in the final dungeon as it really would've helped with this issue
I’ve been waiting for this for some time! AWWW YE-
Oof.
So, as I said on your last video, I had a suspicion that you wouldn’t like this game, but for totally different reasons!
I still love this game. For some reason, long dialogue doesn’t bother me (though I do still get bored I just sort of get into RP mode and dramatically read the text like a screenplay), and I’m not so fussed about the first half of the game being irrelevant. Sure, it only exists design wise for padding purposes, but I love the globetrotting feel of the game, and how it lends some emotional frustration to FELIX’S (there I said it) story.
All in all I think you are incredibly accurate in this video. The truth hurts, but we can only learn from our mistakes in order to impr-
Oh. Dark Dawn. Aha. Love the game but I don’t think you will, Casp. Good luck!
I was so hyped going in, I thought that from what people were saying, there was no way it could be anything but a stellar improvement. I think that was a mistake.
Despite my view of TLA, I can absolutely see why people love it, so the few comments that've told me why they're still keen on it are great. It's interesting to see how people look at things far differently than I do. It makes me really excited to play Dark Dawn though, because I love weird, messy games like Dragon Quarter and Alundra 2. Games which are disliked and have some design which I'd say is objectively bad, but which either has charm enough to carry it, or attempted some really slick ideas that wouldn't be properly appreciated until many years later. Realistically, I don't think DD will be that, but I have literally no expectations at this point outside of Kraden's continued existence.
I'm curious to know what reasons you'd imagined me not enjoying TLA if you can be bothered sharing!
Casp O'Saurus I SEEMED to recall, in your last video, some of your praise went towards the narrative (focusing on your immediate surroundings), and the (somewhat) open nature of the game. To an end, I simply figured TLA wouldn’t have been your cup of tea, simply because of what you said about the open world structuring of the game, but not for the plot.
I honestly don’t think the game’s story is as bad as you state it to be. Sure, the dialogue is wordy, fluffy padding, more so than my current mattress even, but, to me, it doesn’t impact the over all sense of story. For me, anyway.
I think there’s some subtext that isn’t out right stated that would probably help alleviate some of the sense of “this story exists to be content”. Like, I can’t remember WHERE, but I’m pretty sure it’s implied Agatio (not-saturos) is actually the villages strongest warrior, just not much of a tactician, nor the man to solve lighthouse puzzles. I mean, the guy fights BARE-HANDED and has his own special synergy because he’s so damn stronk.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this comment so I’ll stop now. I just love talking about golden sun! Thanks again for the awesome content, Casp. Always love something to chew on and challenge my love for these games.
@@reginlief1 I'd be curious to sift through the game's script at some point, because I swear at one point they talk about how Saturos and Menardi were the strongest duo in the village. Whether or not that means together versus apart, and that could mean that Karst doesn't pull her weight, who could say?
If Agatio is the stronk boi, it's fantastic character design that he punches with fists instead of using a gay little sword.
Casp O'Saurus I, for one, identify as a gay little sword, and am offended.
Maybe I’m remembering the script instead? I haven’t played golden sun 2 in like over a year and there’s way too much dialogue to remember the finer details 🙃
But let’s pretend I’m right, for my egos sake.
@@reginlief1 I'm down with that. Continue the resistance, my proud, gay sword brother.
Actually all 3 Trident pieces are located in the 3 Towers, that require a psynergy from an elemental rock. So in order to get the 3 pieces, you need to clear 6! dungeons in any order not "just" 5! hehehe
Well there you go!
Ever since playing Trails, I've found it much more difficult to enjoy the plot and writing of other JRPGs again.
Literally me after playing Shin Megami Tensei.
Yeah, same here, it's worse when trails manages to have just as much dense script as GS, but manages to be important in banter/npcs and world building that connects with the plot.
I got put off Trails because I started on Hard and the game sucks on Hard, but you can't swap the difficulty. Gotta replay it on normal some time.
@@Caspicum Definitely, it's really worth the time.
@@Caspicum 2 years late but hard is definitely the best difficulty to play on, its annoying for the first couple of hours but it balances out perfectly i think, once you get more spells/skills to strategise with
Someone else who enjoys my favorite Mundane Matt hating taco. ❤️ you’re my kinda people Casp.
More quality taste.
Some criticisms I find fair, some I don't agree with but fantastic video nonetheless. If we ever get a remake it'd be smart for them to rework the dialogue to fix story, characterisation and pacing. Personally I like TLA slightly more than the first game but I still love them both
That's fair. Feel free to drop the disagreements, I'm keen to hear why other people liked certain things that didn't click with me. One of the best things about uploading a video with strong criticisms is for the people who can be arsed to respond with their own take on things.
Unrelated to the topic of the video, in fact could hardly be less related, but would Casp like to touch upon Grandia 2 someday? Used to be among my absolute favourites, along with Breath of Fire 4.
I've very lightly touched upon Grandia's combat system in my Digimon Adventure video. There's a good one-minute chunk where I'm jerking off Grandia, and using it to point out flaws in how Digimon's combat lacks any sort of meaningful player input, so that's definitely in my sights.
I likely would've started the Grandia series already, if not for the remake of the first game being right around the corner.