![Golden Sun Manual](https://images.nintendolife.com/0c20b3a351393/golden-sun-manual.900x.jpg)
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Alana reflects on playing Golden Sun in 2024, and how it allows players to figure things out for themselves rather than relying on tutorials. Warning — minor early game spoilers ahead...
Golden Sun is good – really good. That's not surprising at all to most people, but to me, someone who played it back when it first launched 23 years ago and bounced off of it, it's a bit of a relief.
It's pretty normal for people to not click with classics or beloved favourites, but that doesn't often happen with me and RPGs. At the time, I was bored by the abundance of puzzles and wanted something a bit more epic coming off of the back of Final Fantasy IX on the PlayStation. Luckily, Nintendo Switch Online gave me the chance to right wrongs and revisit Golden Sun for the first time in 23 years. And this time, I finally saw what made it so special to people.
Simplistic on the surface, Golden Sun is packed full of secrets, puzzles, and charm, and it can all be wrapped up in under 20 hours. But what surprised me the most was just how open it felt in 2024. Like some of the best Super NES RPGs, Golden Sun is more than happy to give you a little push and let you experience the world at your leisure. It's all about discovery, observation, and sometimes just talking to the right person at the right time.
![Golden Sun NSO 1](https://images.nintendolife.com/5ed4e9075661b/golden-sun-nso-1.900x.jpg)
After I made it through the lengthy, very linear opening sequence, the main protagonist Isaac and his childhood friend Garet are thrust onto the world map with a single mission: stop the big bads Saturos and Menardi from unleashing Alchemy onto the world. With no other guidance, I was left to explore the world map, running around, fighting enemies, and looking for anything that might let me progress the story.
Going northeast of Vale, Isaac's hometown, revealed a cavern which had a few strangely-placed puddles of water and a gate that I couldn’t get past through. Next to that cave was the settlement of Lunpa, where guards turned me away. Going south, however, showed me a little cutscene of merchants leaving town. Immediately, I knew I had to enter the town they’d left. Golden Sun is more than happy to let you figure things out for yourself. You’ll get general clues on where to go by talking to NPCs, and occasionally, the narrative will spell out where your eventual destination is, but more often than not, you’ll need to make a stop or two along the way.
This idea of discovering the world and progressing through the story yourself is baked right into every single asset of the game.
Such is the case with Mercury Lighthouse, one of the elemental lighthouses that you find across the world of Weyard. Shortly after you gain your third party member, Ivan, you head to Bilibin, a small town that acts as a sort of crossroads for your journey. From here, you can go northwest to Mercury Lighthouse, but as I found out very quickly, the monsters in that direction are a fair bit tougher than what had come before. I began to doubt myself – is this really the right way to Mercury Lighthouse? But like a good old-fashioned RPG, going back to town and talking to people revealed a different path; east. People were turning into trees, and that’s not good for anyone.
![Golden Sun NSO 2](https://images.nintendolife.com/9f1a6049f1229/golden-sun-nso-2.900x.jpg)
Golden Sun’s very linear opening has a very different feel and pace to the rest of the game – what sets itself up as a slower, on-rails narrative quickly unravels into a sprawling adventure where you have all the time in the world to understand the world, the mechanics, and just where you need to go. How older RPGs flip between 'We must hurry to defeat the evil!' to 'Hang on, I need to go here for reasons' has always been incredibly amusing to me. It’s like when you get your airship in Final Fantasy IV – you should go to Troia to get the Earth Crystal to save Rosa, but you can go somewhere else.
This idea of discovering the world and progressing through the story yourself is baked right into every single asset of the game. Psynergy, this game's version of magic, is crucial to the plot and the world, but it’s also essential to the gameplay, and it’s how you get around the world and get through combat. Golden Sun’s dungeons are magical, and they rely on using Psynergy and believably interacting with the world. Very few of the puzzles are challenging, but they all at least make you think about the skills you have.
Those skills are tied to your Psynergy and the Djinn, little elemental creatures that boost the abilities of an Adept, someone who can use Psynergy. They represent the four elements – Venus (Earth), Mars (Fire), Jupiter (Wind), and Mercury (Water). You can use Psynergy both in and out of battle to your advantage. Move will move certain pillars and blocks; Ply can be used to heal characters but also to activate puzzles in Mercury Lighthouse; Frost is an ice attack that can freeze puddles of water. Some spells are exclusive to combat, while others can only be used in the overworld.
![Golden Sun NSO 6](https://images.nintendolife.com/c85bf06d83547/golden-sun-nso-6.900x.jpg)
The game never outright tells you how to solve a puzzle, but the way each dungeon and location is set up gives you all of the information you need to progress or get that treasure chest or Djinn. When you go to Mercury Lighthouse and meet Mia, your final party member, you’ll see her using Ply to access the inside of the dungeon. Later on, you’ll reach a statue at the top of a body of water which wants you to honour “the heart of the goddess”. I scrolled through all of my spells, trying to figure out if I could freeze the water, or use Move to move the block in the centre of the water. Turns out, I just had to remember what Mia did earlier in the dungeon and use Ply, and I could walk on water like a “swan”.
Golden Sun might not tell you how to progress, but it’s never vague, and that’s the key.
This happens in towns, too. In Xian, you figure out that you can talk to a lady carrying water to make her spill the contents onto the floor. Then you can freeze that puzzle with Frost to reach a Djinn. Earlier, in Vault, you can scare off a Djinn to an unreachable area, which you can only reach later with the Psynergy Reveal – and by trekking through a mini-dungeon. Progression and discovery are all about talking to characters and paying attention to the skills you pick up. Golden Sun might not tell you how to progress, but it’s never vague, and that’s the key.
This carries over to combat – or, more specifically, the class system. I’d completely forgotten that there was a class system in Golden Sun, and besides a brief tutorial mentioning classes, you’re never really told how to navigate this class system. You can alter a character’s class by equipping certain combinations of Djinn. Giving Jupiter Adept Ivan three Mercury Djinn and three Venus Djinn turns him into a Medium, giving him huge Agility and Psynergy Point boosts and making him an even better mage. Alternatively, three Mercury and three Mars Djinn turn him into a Ranger, with slightly better HP and speed.
![Golden Sun NSO 3](https://images.nintendolife.com/d544e9906f24a/golden-sun-nso-3.900x.jpg)
Again, nothing in-game tells you about these class combinations, but because of how simple it is to swap Djinns between characters, you can see what spells you lose and gain as you fiddle around with your Djinn composition. Djinni can also be summoned in battle to use skills themselves at the temporary cost of your stats and (sometimes) class.
Figuring out whether to sacrifice your defense, health, or attack just so you can summon an extremely powerful elemental being by building up elements adds a whole risk-and-reward system to what is otherwise a fairly standard turn-based combat system. Do you go all out and blow all of your stat-boosting Djinns to unleash the almighty Thor on your foes, or simply chip away at the enemy by unleashing lower-level spells and summons on the boss? It allows for a lot of flexibility. And if you really want a challenge, you can just completely ignore Djinns and play through the game like a normal RPG.
![Golden Sun NSO 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/0c6a80e1b9396/golden-sun-nso-5.900x.jpg)
The essence of Golden Sun is so simple on the surface, but dig a bit deeper and you'll find it's a big puzzle box full of exploration, fantastic lore, and surprisingly in-depth systems. You can’t just get by simply by pressing the attack button over and over, and it’s just fun to play with your Psynergy or swap Djinn around to work out the best classes or the right ways to solve a puzzle.
It's so refreshing to play Golden Sun after years of playing through RPGs that drill down into every single system or provide tutorials. Those things are sometimes invaluable, but I'd also been missing the magic of simply just experimenting and figuring stuff out myself. I wasn't receptive to that in 2002, but in 2024, Golden Sun feels fresher than ever.
Have you been playing Golden Sun or The Lost Age on Nintendo Switch Online? How do you feel about it? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 32
Really tempted to upgrade my NSO just to play these two — I briefly tried the first one but didn't give it my full attention at the time.
we need this series to be revived and these games to be remastered..
@Andee i doubt anyone would upgrade because of golden sun when you can easily play these games for free through emulation
This is partially why its so marvelous - you explore and learn, its always so much fun in games. Tutorials take away the fun
I played through the intro and while it is long and linear, the open world right after feels so refreshing. Can't wait to see more of the game.
I love the first game, perhaps too much since it was stolen along with my GBA SP. I eventually got The Lost Age however I was unable to get very far and was very upset that I couldn't transfer my save from the original game. I occasionally go back to Lost Age however I just can't seem to progress past the first bit. I also did enjoy Dark Dawn, the only critique I had was that it seemed a little streamlined versus the GBA games Still very enjoyable and the attack cutscenes were great. Definitely worth playing.
some of the lack of explanation downright stupid though.
like, buying artifacts isn't under "Buy" but under "Artifacts".
that's idiotic.
and the space freed up on tutorialising is just filled with endless dialogue.
@johnedwin
That would be awesome.
For me i would have just been happy to be able to buy the games on switch (as opposed to the NSO service model) but remasters would be amazing, especially since quite a few of the assets in these games can look not so great when on a bigger screen.
Lengthy rpg tutorials...beginning of every GS game...how's that fresh again?
I was the same the first time. Didn't click with me. Maybe soon, if I get a sub...
This game has to come back for switch 2.
I am actively playing this game for the first time, and I want to say that I am having a ton of fun with it, BUT I am enjoying it more now than I probably would have at launch thanks to a greater sense of nostalgia for this kind of game and it’s mechanics. I needed a lot of tutorials when I was younger. The nuances of this combat system seems to require more observation and experimentation than I would have probably been able to tolerate when pokémon was my entire raison d’être.
Why are you all so keen to shut amateurs and less able people out by making games harder?
Have a tutorial on/off option, by all means, but don't revel in games being hard to grasp by not including guidance.
I will say, I don't generally think of Golden Sun as a tutorial free game, especially compared to both older and newer games that are praised for that. But its not early 2010s, Pokemon/MandL Dream Team, so yeah compared to THAT it might as well be lacking in tutorials. That was such a stupid era of gaming btw where the only way devs knew how to appeal to less experienced gamers is to make the game worse for everyone else. (even if it was usually only a minor problem)
But thinking back on it, back in the day I did play the game from the start at least 3 times before I properly beat it, and I missed several major things until the time I played all the way to the end. Not to mention Lost Age, where you have arguably too many options of where to go halfway through the game (I probably would've beaten it several hours quicker if the game had an airship equivalent).
"Never vague"
I literally restarted the game every year since 2020 and always gave up at Babi's Lighthouse because I couldn't figure out how to open the door. I finally looked it up this past weekend just so I could finish the damn game.
@johnedwin probably the people who don't emulate games 🤔
Ah yes, the "Summons Rush". When you set all your Djinn to Standby and then blast the boss with all your most powerful Summons.
This is especially fun in TLA, where there are more Summons to use, and also provides a bit of thrill as your weakened party is under threat of being wiped out before they can use the Summons.
I wanna see these games remade, in a similar vein as DQXI, along with Golden Sun Dark Dawn and a sequel to follow.
Golden Sun is a childhood classic of mine. I still can vaguely associate the Mt Aleph Sol Sanctum portion of the intro with christmas morning and playing with all the recently unwrapped toys and games, haha. wow i'm old now huh. :/
Still love the game even now.
@Real_Obsi We can have kirby games and dark souls games, but we don't need one to be more like the other.
Really surprised to see you found the puzzles a bore the first time around. That's one of the stand out elements of the games, something it does way better than any other RPG. Final Fantasy dungeons feel so DULL by comparison. Just mazes of misdirection and chests dumped at dead ends just to make you walk further.
I really don't know why more RPGs don't use magic in the same way Golden Sun does in the overworld and dungeons. It's the most natural thing ever. Characters use it to fight, why on earth wouldn't they ever use it to get around and open new paths? I've yet to find another RPG that does it. The closest thing we have is Zelda, which isn't an RPG.
Good game but a too long tutorial leg of the game followed by obscuring important information for no reason is annoying. But not nearly as annoying as those endless dialogues.
@Baker1000
Hmm, you're looking for examples of RPGs where you can use moves outside of battle to solve puzzles in dungeons?
I'll get the obvious one out of the way first: HM moves in the first six gens of Pokémon are used both in battle and on the overworld. While Cut and Rock Smash are mostly just keys to unlock obstacles, Strength is genuinely used for puzzle-solving.
Many of the Tales Of games have an item called the Sorcerer's Ring that fires a little fireball, which is used to solve puzzles. Dungeons in Tales Of games tend to have a lot of Zelda-like puzzles compared to other classic RPGs too, such as pushing blocks, hitting switches, changing pathways, etc.
This isn't exactly the same thing, because you're not using your characters' battle moves, but it definitely makes for more interesting dungeons.
And.... well, that's about all I can think of! Wow, you're right, it really isn't common at all.
Here are a few miscellaneous examples of things that don't quite fit:
In Live A Live, during the Near Future chapter, you can mind-read the NPCs, just like in Golden Sun. This isn't done using a skill, though, it's just an alternate interact button.
In EarthBound Beginnings, occasionally the solution to a puzzle is to use the Telepathy spell on an NPC. But this spell is not useful for anything else and isn't used in combat, so it's not exactly the same kind of thing. And it's the only spell of its kind in the game too.
Characters in Breath of Fire have overworld abilities - Some can hunt animals that appear in the overworld, some can knock down walls, and some can dig underground. I guess this is sort of similar?
Lol i'm struggling to think of any real examples
It felt great as a 16 year old as one of my few experiences with a turn-based based rpg.
The game doesn’t tell you a lot because back then they came with manuals which explained all the systems, what each djinn does, and maybe even how to get started in the quest.
Think this was the first RPG I finished. Don't remember completing ff7 until after this came out if I remember. The music is so good. Very well told story was well. I kinda wish this series got for releases and love. A remake would be nice. Or more games.
For me, an RPG lives or dies by its battle system. Golden Sun has a lot going for it (maybe not the dialogue), but I just can't enjoy a game whose battle system is as dull as this one.
The cutscenes and dialogue completely did the game in for me. I mean, I get it, it's a JRPG, it's gonna be story heavy, but man, those cutscenes were just so numerous, so long, and so incredibly tedious that that brief moments I got to actually play the game between them were just not worth it.
@johnedwin I mean, you could say that of every game up to a certain point.
@Baker1000
Lufia 2.
The puzzles are amazing and the story is even better. You can see enemies (no random battles) and the soundtrack is up there with jrpg's best.
Actually, what made me like Golden Sun was that it reminded me a bit of Lufia 2.
Looking forward to playing Golden Sun myself at some point and definitely more so after reading this article!
@AlanaHagues There's a typo, to be precise a main clause verb is missing here: "The fact that Djinni can also be summoned in-battle to use skills themselves – at the temporary cost of your stats and sometimes class."
@EarthboundBenjy Pokemon HMs and the Tales rings are the only examples of ability based puzzles I can think of as well. Most RPGs only stretch as far as switches or the odd ice puzzle. Like I said it's a real surprise no other games have taken the Golden Sun format and did more with it, given it's popularity and subsequent absence. Nintendo absolutely needs to bring it back
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