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Every year since Golden Sun: The Lost Age launched on the Game Boy Advance in 2003, there has been a rumour of some sort regarding a third Golden Sun game. Whether it's focused on the possibility of a Golden Sun adventure game on GameCube (one of the first rumours to gain notable circulation around the internet) or fake screenshots cropping up for a new title on the DS, it's been clear that a lot of dedicated fans have missed Golden Sun and haven't forgotten about it. Their cries went silent for a couple of years, but at E3 2009, Reggie Fils-Aime showed everybody what they wanted to see: a new Golden Sun game and the return of a series that, in his own words, "went dark" far too long ago.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn takes place thirty years after the events of Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, once again in the vast, flat world of Weyard. The Golden Sun has caused massive changes across the continents, shiftings lands and forming new countries, but it has also caused some problems, such as frequent natural disasters and phenomena known as Psynergy Vortexes. These are very dangerous and suck energy out of the matter around them, as well as drain power from people who are able to use Psynergy, more commonly known as Adepts.
Anyone new to the series will no doubt be baffled already, but Camelot have clearly respected the fact that Golden Sun hasn't been around for quite some time. The game starts by recapping the events of the first two games from start to finish, allowing anyone who never played them to grasp at least a little understanding of how their events affect the occurences in Dark Dawn. Throughout the game, players can also find volumes from a collection of books called the Sun Saga, which further explains the story of the previous games.
Dark Dawn also includes another very clever feature for these players: an encyclopedia. At times, when talking to other characters in the game, words will appear red and underlined. When this happens, players can tap the word to bring up its entry in the game's "Encyclopedia of Weyard", giving them additional information about the person, place or item. This is a vast encyclopedia, with 179 entries to find throughout the game, and entries will be updated as you progress through the game in order to reflect new information you find.
Veterans of the series will no doubt feel at home with Dark Dawn. While the developers have clearly put a lot of effort into ensuring the game is approachable by new players, they've also ensured it properly reflects what made the first two games unique: players are still able to use powerful elemental attacks in the form of Psynergy and are also able to tap into the power of Djinn, creatures that provide powerful elemental energy. Also returning are character classes, which are common to RPGs: these are set both by a character's level and the Djinn they hold. Different combinations of Djinn result in characters having different classes, which in turn results in them being able to use different sets of Psynergy.
All Psynergy attacks and Djinn are based on one of four elements, each of which is represented by a different "elemental star": earth (Venus), fire (Mars), wind (Jupiter) and water (Mercury). Throughout the game, several different Adepts will join your team, each of whom will be either an Earth Adept, a Fire Adept, a Wind Adept or a Water Adept. The characters aren't tied down to their given elements, however: whilst an Earth Adept will always be an Earth Adept, when setting classes, they can be given Djinn of any of the four elements, which results in even more class and Psynergy opportunities. It may sound confusing and somewhat intimidating, but organising Djinn has been made incredibly easy with the touch screen, which in turn gives players a better opportunity to experiment with different character classes.
Of course, there is a strategy behind the careful placement of Djinn and the right distribution of character classes and Psynergy: battles are a key element of the Golden Sun series and Dark Dawn doesn't mess with the formula. Turn-based battles allow players to attack in several different ways, either using the character's standard weapon, a Psynergy-based attack, a Djinni or a special summon. Each of the 72 Djinn in Dark Dawn has a different ability, be it attacking the enemy, defending, healing the party or inflicting a debilitating status effect on someone.
Once used, a Djinni goes into standby, at which point it can be summoned. There are many different summons in the game - many you have to find before you can use - and each uses a specific number of Djinn. Basic summons call Djinn from only one elemental field: the Ramses summon requires two Venus Djinn, for example. Some, however, take their power from two pools, such as the powerful Crystallux, which uses three Venus Djinn and two Mercury Djinn. Summons are absolutely vital when it comes to major battles, and while most aid by pummelling the enemy into oblivion, the dual-elemental summons also have different secondary effects, such as dropping the enemy's stats or allowing the player to heal large amount of hit points for a few turns.
Dark Dawn might do everything its prequels did, but it unfortunately has its fair share of mishaps. Camelot seem to have gone with the assumption that players new to the Golden Sun series have never touched a role-playing game before, as Dark Dawn is, as far as RPGs go, quite easy for most of the journey. There are quests to follow after the main story finishes, which are considerably more difficult than the rest of the game, but veteran Golden Sun players - and players of other RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest - will make short work of most of the enemies and bosses throughout the game. Levelling-up is also noticeably easier, as it seems to occur quite frequently even when random monster encounters have been cut drastically compared to the two previous titles.
There's always the possibility, however, that the difficulty level has been dropped in order for players to spend more time thinking about the over-complex storyline. At the start of the game, Matthew, Karis and Tyrell - children of the original series' Isaac, Ivan and Garet respectively - head out to find a Roc Feather, a feather from the rare Mountain Roc bird. However, you will soon forget this little fact, as several different diversions, blocked paths, favours asked of you, important people to find and so on will take you all over the world of Weyard. It's possible that even the protagonists - never mind the antagonists who spend half their time telling you they want to help instead of hinder - don't know what they're supposed to be doing half the time. It's best to just go with the flow: if you need to go somewhere or do something, go there or do it. Don't ask why: it's easier that way.
There's also the significantly smaller matter of permanent roadblocks, of which there are two or three throughout the game. These will no doubt bother perfectionists during the first playthrough, as they show up when least expected: when they do occur, they're a sure sign that you won't be going back to wherever it is you've just come from. You won't be able to miss any major items you require to complete your quest (whatever it may be at that point in time), but any other items, and even Djinn and summons you leave behind, will be gone permanently. Whilst this is never a major problem - the majority of Djinn and summons are found after all the roadblocks have been passed anyway - it could always cause some frustration, though it's better to see it as the perfect excuse to play through the game once or twice more at a later date.
That's not to say veteran Golden Sun or RPG players should be put off from giving their time to Dark Dawn: it may be somewhat easy in gameplay and difficult in story, much unlike its prequels, but it shares two things in common with them besides the mechanics and the characters: the classic soundtrack and the awe-inspiring graphics. The first two games came very early in the Game Boy Advance's life and were most notable for really pushing it to the limit in terms of graphics, and whilst DS may be at the other end of the spectrum ready to be succeeded by the Nintendo 3DS, Dark Dawn has to have some of the best graphics the handheld has ever produced. When cutscenes start for summons in battles, you can just skip right past them by pressing a button: that would be a very big mistake. For sure, they are some of the prettiest cutscenes you will ever have seen on the DS.
The soundtrack is just as impressive: with a touch of Camelot magic, those old themes that were once blaring out of a Game Boy Advance have been retouched, remastered and now sound better than ever. The new tracks are just as excellent, with some in particular sticking in your head for quite some time. Most importantly, the battle music never gets boring: granted, you won't be in as many battles as in the previous games, but even so, a proper battle theme should be engaging and should never get on your nerves, and Dark Dawn's battle theme - and the many different takes on it throughout the game - ticks all the boxes.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a perfect example of a core game reworked for the casual era. It is a true Golden Sun title through and through, even though the series has been dormant for seven years. It's definitely not perfect, with quite a low difficulty level and a confusing storyline to contend with, but that just means there's good reason for Camelot to bring a fourth title to the series. There is supposed to be a new Nintendo handheld on the market soon, after all.
It's difficult to be too harsh on Dark Dawn, even after the long wait. It's had a lot to contend with recently: Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver both launched in 2010, as did Dragon Quest IX, not to mention the launches of Dragon Quest VI and Pokémon Black and White this year. It would be very easy to forget about Dark Dawn with so many other RPGs hitting the DS in its final days, but to actually do so would be a travesty. By far, it is one of the best RPGs to hit the DS to date.
