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A pixel-art scene from Golden Sun played on a Nintendo Switch emulator, showing a group of small sprite characters gathered on a grassy field beside a blue waterfall and trees. A dialogue box in the center reads 'Farewell!'. A Switch overlay bar along the bottom lists controls like 'SELECT Button', 'START Button', and 'Suspend Menu'.
Games

Golden Sun

Not a game I'd have found on my own, but I enjoyed my time with it right up until the abrupt to be continued ending

Feb 29, 20243 min readNintendo Switch
  • Nintendo Switch
  • Video Game Club

A group of pixelated characters gather in a grassy area near a body of water, with some trees and a wooden arch in the foreground. The characters are facing each other, and a large dialogue box in the center of the screen displays the word Farewell!! in white text. The scene has a celebratory or farewell atmosphere, with the characters appearing to be in conversation or bidding goodbye. Golden Sun was never a game that made it on my radar when it first came out but I think it was mostly because I didn’t really own any handheld systems growing up. If it weren’t for the #VideoGameClub on Mastodon, I’m not certain I would have ever ended up playing it. Once I got into it though, it was a game that felt good to play, despite its rough edges.

This is a typical JRPG style game where there’s not a whole lot of direction given to you unless you really take the time to speak to each person in town. Because of that, it’s very easy to miss important details, items, and Djinn in this game. All of which will have a monstrous impact on how you play the game as a whole. I felt it didn’t give you any real overview on how certain combinations of Djinn changed your skill sets and I ultimately ended up having to use a guide to figure out a lot of that stuff.

The game doesn’t truly have an ending, however, and that’s one of the more frustrating parts to the game itself. While there’s a physical ending where the credits roll, you’re left with a …to be continued and the story line definitely feels that way. Be prepared to have to play Golden Sun: Lost Age in order to get the full impact of the story.