Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Nintendo DS) (Complete - Very Good)

Before reading this, please note I do NOT consider myself a "gamer". I don't play much games anymore, mainly when I was a kid. The only systems I have are the DS and some Game Boys...but because I saw that there was a new GS, I just HAD to get this... It's been 7 years since Lost Age has been released. The Golden Sun series are known for their puzzles, storyline, summons and breathtaking 3D graphics. Though for the DS it isn't uncommon to see graphics like this, 7 years ago it wasn't seen much. For the casual gamer (such as myself), this game DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. I first played the GS games when I was about 12 years old and I do remember the puzzles being more difficult, but then again, I was 12 years old and now I'm almost 20. There are lots of dialogue in Dark Dawn, and though it is annoying at times, I feel it gives the characters more depth and character which has it's benefits. There are also cute emoticons too, giving it a more interactive feel. This game continues with lovable characters, amazing music, awesome summons and abilities, twists that a casual gamer would love. It isn't a difficult game but it isn't super easy either. This game can stand on it's own too, you don't have to play the 1st 2 GS to play this game. Dark Dawn also has "Sun Sagas" you can collect over the game which tell the story of the 1st GS which is really neat, being that I barely remember what happened in the 1st 2 games. The only complaint (not a big one) is the camera angles switch on their own (you can't control them) and it's a bit annoying sometimes but it's not a big deal. A true adventure game! DON'T MISS THIS ONE. From the ending, it appears there may be a 4th game so...I hope there is a 4th GS and that it won't take another 7 years to release! P.S: You get to see Issac in a beard and Garet in a mustache :P

well after putting over 40 hours into this beast of an rpg, I can safely say that it is not a disappointment. the game is a great revival of the golden sun series and a very fun one. music is once again great though not as superb as the lost age music imo. graphics are fantastic for the ds of course and the story is fresh. the game is only easy if you spend the time beefing up your party by fighting monsters after monsters and equipping your party with the best weapons and armor you can find or buy. after beating the game there are super bosses to challenge yourself on upon beating them you get the best summons in the series. if you think the game is too easy try beating the secret boss dullahan under-leveled and without recovering health at all, then you can tell me it's too easy hahaha. all in all you're going to enjoy this game if you've played the other two games and still enjoy it if you haven't. you can best believe there will be more golden sun games to come. my only gripe is that there's no battle mode or music test like the preview two games, what the hell were they thinking.

I'm a longtime fan of Golden Sun (anyone who even knows what it is has to be a long time fan...) I was thrilled when I heard about Dark Dawn, for the simple fact of getting MORE Golden Sun. The franchise does a fantastic job of taking everything great about RPGs and infusing it with its own style and innovations. Playability: The game is easy enough to pick up for anyone, and though I highly recommend playing the first two, the in-game encyclopedia and dialogue cover just about everything. No puzzles are too tough or require heading over to a FAQs page, but I do recommend exploring the heck out your environments because just about every room, hut, or town has dozens of secrets (even it its just an herb). Unlike the first two games, enemies don't seem to appear as often during puzzle-solving (which there is A LOT of) and battling avoids being tedious, since there is so much customization and leveling up. There are dozens of Djinn, Psynergies, and weapons with unique and powerful unleashing capabilities, that suddenly fighting becomes a fun way to display your latest strategy-shift or upgrades. Entertainment: The game is beautiful; taking full advantage of the DS's graphics capabilities, environments are large and unique. Serious thought was put into aesthetics and puzzles for everything, and it shows. The most rewarding part of the game comes from pure nostalgia - taking place 30 years of ingame timeline corresponds to 7 years our time - I fondly remember the adventures of Issac and company, and the heros of past games have become the stuff of legend in Dark Dawn. There's a neat side quest to collect storybooks where the stories are told from the first two games. Battles are fun, puzzles are cool, and some of the dialogue is pretty witty. The Drawbacks: YES there is a lot of dialogue. I enjoyed it in the other games, but sometimes it rambles too much. Toward the end of the game it also had the annoying habit of having each of your party share their thoughts on particular subjects during cut scenes as if the developers wanted to make sure everyone got enough "facetime" in the game. Also bothersome, tough-talking Tyrell seems to lose his personality halfway through the game as he has less and less to contribute. Kind of strange...oh and I think he actually has a thing for Sveta...but it's never fully realized. The worst part of the game has to be the lack of proper bosses. I can't tell you how many times I prepared my party for what would surely be an area where I would be forced into a battle with a tough boss. I healed/set Djinn/saved and got ready, but 9 times out of 10 it would just be more puzzles. Where were all the bosses? The final boss was honestly the only thing close to bosses from the old games, which were challenging and required strategy. The rest usually just require brute force after some very passive leveling up. Overall, the game is great to play despite a few oversights and over-indulgent dialogue. Took 23 hours to beat (almost a full day...how about that?) and I look forward to the next direct sequel.

I really enjoyed playing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn It was full of nostalgic moments and made me remember the good old days playing the two previous games; nevertheless, Dark Dawn has enough originality to stand on its own. The game plays on the touch screen and I was worried at first since I am left handed; however, you can still play with the analog stick like any other game without having to use the stylus at all. The music in Dark Dawn is amazing, it really helps build atmosphere and it truly adds a lot of value to the game experience as a whole. My only complaint with Dark Dawn is that its puzzles are not as difficult as in previous games. Overall difficulty in Dark Dawn is less challenging, whereas in previous games it would get stuck for hours within a dungeon, in Dark Dawn I've never found myself wondering what to do next. Actually I believe I've never had any of my characters die in battle while playing. However; if you enjoyed playing the two previous games you definitely MUST give Dark Dawn a try. It was a very enjoyable experience and I truly hope they dare to create further games within the Golden Sun universe.

This game indeed captured all the abilies of the DS! Perfect for the old and new fans to the series as well! With that said I was a little suprised to how easy it was and the fact it told you were to go after each save. I bought the guide to the game but only had to open it once and that was to find a djinn that was in a mine ( Earth dinjinn, forget the name). If your new then you might find it the last boss a little hard. Then again ( for the old fans) if your smart and can set your djinn up for offence and defence( mainly so when your first 4 are recovering your last four are ready to go) then you wont have even the a challange with this four armed freak. Plus once your done with beating him the game continues so you can travel inside of some updated places like crossbone isle! Last thing I'll ask is this, once you beat the game how do you get to the other side of that wall? over to where eclipse tower is and kimi forest, forgot to get a dream leaf to complete a mission later on :(. so if someone could help thx!

Man, this game is fantastic, because it tugs on all of the right heartstrings. It's almost identical to previous titles in the series, and with good reason, there's not much in the formula that needed to be tweaked. Visually it's very impressive, and the summons are cooler than ever. Mechanics are identical to the earlier titles, and the puzzles are still present. The only problems with this game are that it's waaaaaaaay too easy. Not a single boss was hard to beat. I didn't lose once during my original playthrough, and that's without collecting all of the Djinni or summons. None of the puzzles stymied me for more than a few minutes, and the one particularly tough puzzle was easily solved with the use of a power you gain in the game that literally just helps you solve puzzles. Given the difficulty of the GBA titles, this is a bit of a letdown. The other problem is that the entire plot, while somewhat compelling, ends in a ridiculously obvious cliffhanger, leaving so many questions unanswered that the game may as well have been subtitled "part 1." The game isn't short (took me about 24 hours to beat) but plot-wise, it feels like it's over when you'd just begun. This is very similar to the original golden sun, though, so there's probably some sort of weird Japanese repetition/imitation thing going on here.

This game is AWESOME even if you know the series from the two original games on the Gameboy Advance or not. It puts you in a whole new story leaving all the key elements that made it great, improving both graphics and gameplay, specially since now you can play the game using the stylus making it very easy not to get swollen fingers due to all the hours you'll be playing. You must enjoy reading if you want to fully enjoy this game since it has a very rich story. You have a bunch of weapons, potions, psynergy (magic in the game) at your disposal that will help you along your journey. You meet a lot of interesting characters and get to use 8 in battle only 4 at the same time with the possibility of switching between them. The game keeps you thinking with all the puzzles you have to solve using your psynergy and using your elemental spirits Djinn to attack, summon and/or determine your class/job/skills. Buy this game, play it and enjoy all it has to offer!!!

Lore: This is technically Golden Sun 3, with the first 2 games being on the Gameboy Advance. Knowing a lot of people would be going into this game having not played the first 2, they decided to make the children of the previous games' heroes the focus, & include books, an encyclopedia of terms, & a very long opening cutscene that explains the events of the first two games. Unfortunately, "show" works better than "tell" & you might as well just play ROMs of the first two games if you really want to know what the heck is going on. The collectible books do a much better job of filling you in than all of the NPC exposition combined. Getting lost: The game explains nothing to you after the parents leave, so you'll find yourself going to Walkthrough frequently. The Walkthroughs skip a lot of important things like "ignore this for now, you'll be coming back to it latter" so you may find yourself needing youtube walkthroughs for certain parts. You will also find that you can get cut off from returning to areas entirely, meaning any Djinns & boxed you failed to figure out how to get to will be permanently lost to you. The puzzles: The puzzles will keep your brain intrigued when the Random Encounter battles start to wear on your patience. They're quite fun, but when it comes to areas you are unaware that you are supposed to skip for now & come back to latter (like the Harapa Ruins), you will be stumped & frustrated, because you're not supposed to solve it yet & therefore can't. The graphics: Reminds me greatly of Final Fantasy 9. If you've never played that, think FF7 without the hideous Popeye arms. Looks good even on a tiny 2DS screen. The dialogue: You cannot really make it faster & it scrolls quite slowly. It also makes a very irritating noise that you can thankfully turn off. Words highlighted in red will bring up the dictionary, which is useful for short attention spans or long breaks between the game. The cast: Despite being called the Leader, Matthew is really more of a mute observer & battle support who communicates with a limited range of emotions. The true leader is Karis; the smart one, the one who makes the first move in battle, & Team Mom of the group. Tyrell is comical lackey. He's less strong than Matthew, bullheaded, clumsy, & irresponsible. He & Karis don't get along, so Matthew is the glue that bonds them together. Latter in the early part of the game, the group is completed when Rief joins the team. He's the team's Glass Canon & Loremaster, giving the party two smart mature magic users & 2 bumbling manchild warriors.

Viene totalmente nuevo y sellado Un gran rpg y una buena secuela para los que jugaron a los de gba

Magnifico juego, aunque en ingles, una vez lo insertas en la ds o 3ds funciona en castellano, no es como el Golden Sun 1 o 2, pero la verdad es que para los amantes de esta saga está genial, graficamente está muy bien y la historia es breve pero muy buena, eso si, la dificultad de los puzles y de las batallas no es la de versiones anteriores, este es bastante mas facil, pero es divertido jugarlo y muy nostalgico, esperemos que saquen otro mejorado para 3ds.

It's just like the GBA golden suns, just 3D. People hate how the story is, but it is alright for this game. The music isn't great... Only one person was in charge of music. That clearly was not a very smart idea. Gameplay is pretty awesome. The 3D summons are pretty sick, especially when you have 4 djinnis. Product review: The product actually came pretty quickly. No visible damage/scratches and was factory sealed. Would recommend for friends.

Acheté après revoir rejoué aux deux premiers Golden Sun. Bien qu'assez différent des deux premiers, le jeu construit une trame qu'on aime suivre, dans un Weyard chamboulé par le retour du Golden Sun. Quelques améliorations "quality of life" bienvenues, un esprit assez fidèle aux premiers volets, mais certains éléments de scénarios à moitié exploités/justifiés, et une fin qui donne une sensation de bancal. Je donnerais 4/5, mais en gardant une étoile car je me suis reposé sur une réponse du vendeur affirmant que le jeu était en français pour l'acheter, ce qui n'était malheureusement pas le cas. (jeu en anglais)

Ive just finished the main story of this excellent game and it took me a good 25 hours and im sure theres still a good 5 hours of side dungeons to complete still. I was a huge fan of the original games and i was worried that this wouldnt be able to live up to the standard but it exceeded my expectations in every regard. The story was just as immersive as the others but i have to agree with the other reviewers in that there is a ton of dialogue. At least 50% of it could have been cut. That would be my main criticism and the only other one i have is that it could have been longer or bigger as the map felt quite small. It doesnt really finish the story that the game starts with (aka finding and returning a mountain roc feather to your parents) and it had a few other loose ends therefore i have to assume that there is going to be a sequel which is good news. The dungeons,quests and the game in genral were definately easier than the previous games but i liked that because i found the other ones a bit too hard and frustrating. Anyway, the optional dungeon bosses are still just as hard as the hardest boss battles from the previous games. In general the graphics were satisfying and i didnt ever feel like they didnt put in the effort. At times the gameplay almost felt like i was playing a Zelda DS game. I also liked how the story was a lot darker. There was a lot more death and the bad guys felt more like bad guys than in the other games which is good for us older gamers. Overall an excellent game that every RPG fan should own and a worthy addition to the Golden Sun series.