User Rating: 9 | Ougon no Taiyou: Ushinawareshi Toki GBA
Golden Sun: The Lost Age is the ideal sequel. It takes the ideas of the predecessor, and refines them, while changing enough to make itself a new installment. In addition to being a better game, by adding additional weight to the original game's story, it actually improves upon the first game. Although it has a few tedium issues, it is just a high quality game all around. Golden Sun: The Lost Age can actually be called part two of a two game series. The original Golden Sun sort of ended arbitrarily, leaving most of the characters and events unresolved. This one picks up where the last one left off, and quickly sets up the new group of heroes. Of course, Felix, who spoke in the last game, is now mute. Must be the weight of the world. It starts of pretty standard, but thanks to interesting events, it manages to go from a good story, to a great one. This one carries actual emotional weight, and is much more complex. The game's weakest point, however, is its combat system. Despite some interesting bits of depth, the pacing is off, and diverse customization isn't as encouraged as it could have been. Even so, with some good tactical considerations inside the combat system, and some cool ideas from the original expanded upon in the sequel, it works out pretty well. For the most part, the combat is your standard RPG fare with some nice touches. You can assign Djinn to your characters, which gives them access to various spells, abilities, and summons. You can definitely tinker, but it isn't necessarily encouraged. It's balanced pretty well, but is slow at times. Outside of combat, you can move Djinn around, set their status so they can either unleash summons or add power, but it is pretty much about preparing yourself for the next battle, rather than investing long-term. Again, it is good, but the rest of the game is more playable. What makes the game particularly interesting is the puzzle and dungeon design. While the original had some light puzzles, this one is definitely much more intensive. Puzzles are more complicated, bigger, and very much more fun. Often dungeons will have an underlying puzzle to be solved, a system very reminiscent of Zelda. Logical, brain-wracking, but never overly difficult, the puzzles are probably the biggest improvement, and take center stage. Perhaps the most drastic change, however, is the whole layout of the game. While the original pretty much had you traversing from point a to point b, with a rather small world map, progression is less linear. Basically, once you reach a certain point in the game, the world map starts to open up. You can travel, do side quests, and generally, you feel like this is what you have been waiting for since the original game. Still, if you are trying to stick to linear progression through the game, this open-endedness could confuse you after moving along a straight line for more than half of the overall story. There are also a new set of nice touches. The whole game feels polished, moreso than the original. Design has been touched up at every corner, so it is surprising to see that the technical qualities are virtually unchanged. It pretty much looks the same, albeit, the original was also a very pretty game. While the music is also of equally high quality, it feels like a new set of tunes from the same game. No doubt impressive, but you will be more impressed with its technical qualities if you don't play the original. However, if you consider how much of the game's story relies on referencing the original, it is a small price to pay for continuity. Golden Sun: The Lost Age is a game that clicks on all levels. It improves itself over the original in its three key areas, and is a more polished experience overall. With a keener sense of freedom, a better executed combat system, more involved puzzle-solving and a story that ties into the original really well, the game goes a long way to argue in favor of serial installments. It's simply a superior sequel on almost every level. 
