Review: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is an RPG for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by Camelot Software. It is the third game in the Golden Sun series.

The main party doing what it does best: being boring.

Thirty years after the events of the original Golden Sun the world of Weyard has had to deal with the planet-changing resurgence of Alchemy. One day the descendents of the original Golden Sun heroes are tasked with going out into the world to retrieve a Roc feather to power their parent’s flying machine. But such a small request will draw them into the many conflicts caused by the new power of Alchemy.

Dark Dawn is a typical RPG. The player controls Matthew, the son of Isaac the original Golden Sun protagonist, and his friends as they make their way from town to town. At each town the story progresses in some way and the player buys new weapons and armor.

In between towns Matthew’s part randomly encounters enemies that the party has to fight. The party and monsters take turns fighting, the party attacks first and then monsters attack and they go back and forth until someone dies. The party can use physical attacks or magic. Defeating the monsters rewards the player with money to buy new equipment, and experience points which makes the party stronger.

The characters are aligned with different elements which affect what types of magic powers they use. Matthew is associated with earth and his magic powers use rocks; his friend Tyrell is fire-based and throw fireballs.

The Golden Sun series has two things unique to its game play. One is the use of Alchemy to solve puzzles. Matthew and co. will constantly run into obstacles that require powers to overcome them. Matthew for example has the ability to move large columns of land which can be used as stepping stones. Matthew’s friend Karis can create gusts of wind which can propel boats across bodies of water. Most of these puzzles look like mazes with incomplete pathways that the player has to fill in with Alchemy powers. None of the puzzles are hard.

The other big part is collecting Djinns. There are Djinns hidden throughout Weyard that the player can find, which when equipped to the characters increases their strength and gives them new magic powers. Almost all the Djinns can only be reached by using Alchemy powers. Like the characters the Djinn are associated with a type of element, like water or air. The Djinn can be equipped to any characters, but since the Djinn work best with characters that share their elements it is a needless addition. It is fun to find the Djinn, but like the other puzzles it is not difficult to find them.

In combat Djinn can be used to help the characters. Some raise the characters strength or defense, or others attack the enemy.

After a Djinn is used they go into standby, which the player then uses to summon large monsters which do a ton of damage. If for example the player uses three earth Djinn they can summon Cybele to do a lot of damage. Some summons requires a mixture of different Djinns, like two fire and one wind to summon, but these do even more damage.

Combat is easy. The player could do things like use certain type of magic that are effective against certain types of monsters, or raise their own stats, or block or use items. But it is so easy to simply attack all the enemies without thinking. All the player has to do is mash the command button until all the enemies are killed; the player does not have to think at all. For bosses all the player has to do is use all their Djinns to summon the big monster and smash the bosses to dust. As long as the player keeps their weapons and armor up to date they will be fine.

The story is atrocious. Most of the game is spent looking for the Roc feather, which is not an exciting quest. Along the way the party gets involved in disputes among the cities, just because, no real motivation. At one point they decide to rescue the captured son of a pirate just for the Hell of it. People mention other conflicts and disputes among other groups and cities and acts the player should know who they are already. They might have been mentioned in past Golden Sun games, but those were several years ago and it is unfair to expect the player to remember every city and town. And it ends on a cliffhanger, a cliffhanger for an event that is briefly mentioned at the beginning and never mentioned again. That is not foreshadowing, that is phoning it in. The characters themselves have no personalities and do not go through any character arcs; Tyrell is kind of an idiot and Karis is kind of bossy and that is it.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn would be an okay game despite the combat easy combat system if the story and characters were not so awful. RPG and Golden Sun fans should avoid this one.