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yeah, I finished the game today! Been two long weeks since I got it (or was it three?) and I was very pleasantly surprised by how wickedly awesome the game is on most level with few minor (and one major) disappointments. Read on to see my opinions:



GRAPHIC

umm... comon... it literally almost perfect. Except for few of spells that didn't looks great comparing to many others as well as interesting yet not great art design and direction, the game is packed full of special effects, color palattes, and visual energies, using everything that GBA hardware could give. Even if animations are very straight-forward, it is the sheer brilliant design of how the animations are used to give this game a lot of bombastic energy in most unforgettable ways possible. The battle system literally stole the show with excellent use of rotational effect and magic spells that make each and every battles more involving and intense. All of towns and environments are rendered with unbelievable amount details as if they're pulled straight out of stronger and more advanced gaming system. Beware, slowdown do occurs, but they often happened during the intense usages of magic spells that it felt like they're actually slow-motion effects.

9.9/10



SOUND

Memorable. Emotional. Atmospheric. Perfect.

10/10



PLOT

The plot is thick with details and intrigues. Perhaps too much. It really easy to get lost in the plot if you're not pay attention closely. It happened to me three times, yet luckily I was able to catch up pretty quickly. Basically, one small town of Vale was threatened by horrible storm and crushing boulder that was caused by someone tampering within the ancient Sol Sanctum, unwittingly killing poor folks there, including our heroes' closest people. Three years later, those same heroes are set to right the wrong against those same people who caused trouble in Sol Sanctum by preventing their mysterious deeds that might spells doom for entire world. The charm of the game is story progression and the unraveling of mystery about Sol Sanctum and the motives of those mysterious villians with many twists and turns.

Too bad that I didn't get to find out the truth behind those mysteries since the story got cut off too short... it seems to stop abruptly about halfway in the middle of story. It all right since I am already fairly satisfied with the meat of quests, battle systems, and rich plot. Maybe I can give it another round of go since I can use my time to build up my characters before digging into Golden Sun: Lost Age (the next chapter). Or I can just go and look for that game and beat it.

My grips? Looooooooooooong conversations and sometime unnecessary Yes/No questions that have no bearing on outcome of the quest.

9.4/10



GAMEPLAY

Despite the never ending random battle and unusually difficult boss battles and no easy world navigation, it is just about perfect. Navigation is simple, battle system is easy to learn, and magic + djinn mechanics are absolutely addicting. It hard not to enjoy the game with so many areas being tightly designed and polished.

9.7/10



All in all, I can understand why many gamers are going gaga over Golden Sun series. The first game won me over, in which I can safely say that this is one of best GBA games ever and is one of earliest killer app for the GBA lineup, even if it was released in early years (which made it all more impressive since not many games can matched the brilliance of Golden Sun's game design and execution).



Final Score: 9.7/10