This game and its predecessor show that you can still make an amazing game with old school charm.
User Rating: 9.3 | Ougon no Taiyou: Ushinawareshi Toki GBA
This was one of the first games I bought for my GBA SP and was I in for a surprise. I had found out about this through a friend who let me play it on his GBA and I wanted to get it ever since. This game, though I though way too easy on some bosses and much too hard on others, has a nice mix of action, puzzle elements and a good story. The thing that easily sticks out most in this game is the graphics which are crisp and clean and are much too beautiful for a GBA screen, even the basic psyenergy attack are animated nicely. And then there are the summons which are very nicely done, from Charon to Iris they are all very fun to watch. Outside of battle you can usually see a number of things happening, from people walking around to djinn running away from you, even the environment is well animated with rivers and sand flowing. Overall this is a visual masterpiece for the GBA. The gameplay has been seen before and is derived from the standard RPG formula with some twist. The most notable is the djinn system hand how it affects your characters’ stats and what they can summon. It is a nice trade off system the make you decide if you want to be able to summon something or if you want to have higher stats, a hard tradeoff sometimes. Also something that was interesting was how djinn also affects what class your character is, so messing around with different elements of djinn and the number equipped can be crucial for some parts of the game. Then there is the other twist to the formula which is the psyenergy system, especially how they are used in and out of battle. The in battle psyenergy are just like magic attack but when you are not in battles psyenergy are used to solve various puzzle that are placed in not only dungeons but towns as well. Overall I think the gameplay is solid and new twist fit is well. Story wise this game is good, the characters sometimes suffer from a lack of personality or just not getting enough time onscreen to develop them enough. One thing that bugged me was the fact that the main character never talks, which I think is sort of odd and takes away getting to know more about this character of yours. The way the story also tries to get you to think if what you are doing is right or wrong is quite good in that the characters really don’t know and it leads to some interesting arguments between the characters. The story is good and the ending is very nice, though it leaves things open for a Golden Sun 3. The sound is my favorite part of this game, especially once you find the “sound room”. I like the many tunes and how they are implemented, like the theme song changing after your party changes, the battle song being different depending on what order you party is in and so on. The sounds for the psyenergy and summons are spot on and the slashes, healing, and other sounds are nicely done too. Also once you find the “sound room”, especially after you beat the game in which you can listen to all of the songs, even for places you didn’t visit. Songs like number 10 and number 43 I really like along with others I can’t remember. The sound is this game is great and I have no arguments against it. This game’s replay value mostly stems from getting all of the most powerful weapons and finding all of the summons and djinn. I have replayed the game twice and have spent more than 100 hours but most people will probably play through this once just because it takes such a long time the first time through. Overall this is a great game that gives you that snes feel on the GBA but with fresh gameplay mechanics so that you don’t grow bored very fast and an interesting story that will keep you moving along, for anyone that just bought a GBA or a DS this should be one of the first games they get. 
