The Long-Awaited Third Golden Sun Game
It's been a several year wait for Golden Sun fans, but it's been worth it! Dark Dawn takes place 30 years after the conclusion of the previous game, and many of the original cast make an appearance. Several places also appear, such as Crossbone Isle, Gaia Falls, Kolima, Champa, and if you're very observant, you can even find the Mercury Lighthouse (though you can't enter it). I personally feared that the 3D graphics would detract from the game (as the 3D graphics in DS games often do because of their lower quality), but the visuals look very nice and enhanse the game rather than detracting from it.
For those new to Golden Sun, fear not. While playing the previous two games certainly gives you a better background for the story, thanks to the encyclopedia and "Sun Saga" books included in the game, you can easily follow along with and enjoy the story.
Many proffessional reviews dock the game for its longer text-based cut scenes and the lower difficulty level. Personally, I enjoy the long cut scenes that give you backstory and flesh out the characters, and they hardly seemed long to me (in fact, I usually wanted them to go on *longer*). If, however, you don't like a lot of reading or text in your games, then GS:DD isn't for you. As to the difficulty level, it's true that the main game itself is pretty easy to complete, however, if you go into the side quests like fighting Dullahan, well, do I really need to say more than the name Dullahan? As a nominee for the Nintendo Power "Harder Than College Award" when he appeared in the second Golden Sun Game (Lost Age), I think he poses a rather high challenge. Golden Sun has always been relatively easy to beat if you skip the side areas, but going to those side areas unlocks new summons (such as Dullahan's Iris) and captures more Djinn.
In my opinion, what's so nice about this game is that t seems to have reduced the parts that I found more tedious from the first two titles (such as random battles, which seem far more rare, and wandering aimlessly around the barren world map, which seems to be more populated now). The wandering aimlessly was replaced with puzzles you need to complete to move on. No, most are not terribly challenging (and there's even a built-in hint system in the form of Insight Psynergy), but the puzzles are just hard enough to be enjoyable without being frustrating, in my opinion.
In short, if you liked the previous Golden Sun games on the GBA, then you will probably *love* this one. If you don't like text-heavy RPGs, movement puzzles, and/or games with more story than difficulty, then Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is probably not the game for you. Personally, however, I have to say that it's already one of my favorite games (a rare thing indeed for a game I've had less than a week).Read full review
