Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Impressions.
After completely missing it yesterday, I made sure to find the hidden DS section on Nintendo’s show floor and check out the long awaited Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It’s been just about eight years since the last Golden Sun game graced the GBA, so I was eager to see how the series has transformed as the RPG genre itself has seen some serious changes in the past few years.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn takes place 30 years after the events of The Lost Age, with a whole new set of lead characters named Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis. The game’s plot revolves around the Second Golden Sun — the unleashing of Alchemy upon the world. This event has caused Psyenergy Vortexes to appear all over the world, which absorb Psyenergy from both the land’s inhabitants and the land itself. Unfortunately, no Vortexes were present in the show floor’s demo.
Pictured: Not from the demo.
Two modes of gameplay were playable in the demo, selected from a menu: Adventure and Battle. The Adventure mode takes players through a five minute course in which the hero trains to be a “Warrior of Vale” (Dark Dawn sees the return of the Weyward world). Throughout the short course different Djinn will give their own tutorials on how to use certain powers. The fire Djinn allows players to shoot a wave of flames at objects. In the demo, I had to unleash fire onto a rope to ignite a barrel and lower a bridge. The earth Djinn had the same function as the move Psyenergy from the past two Golden Sun games. No power was given for the wind or water Djinn in the demo, but some really creative puzzles can surely come out of their uses. At one point I was actually confused if the wind Djinn gave me a power or not, so I started blowing into the DSiXL’s microphone to no avail. Adventure mode ended in classic Golden Sun puzzle fashion, with moving pillars to raise stepping stones in order to cross chasms. Djinn powers are controlled via the touch screen, and movement either with touch control or the standard D-pad.
Battle mode in the demo felt like playing the original Golden Sun with updated visuals. Dark Dawn in no way revolutionizes the way RPG
Pictured: Not from the demo, either.
genre handles combat. It’s an entirely turn based affair, with the typical attack, defend, Psyenergy, and Djinn selections. The Djinn available were the same from past games, including the always trusty Flint. Dark Dawn still has months of development time left, so I have no doubt that Nintendo and Camelot will add a variety of Djinn summons — the trailer from E3 2009 showed off a couple new ones.
Thus far, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn looks to appeal to only veteran fans of the Golden sun franchise who have been waiting nearly a decade to play a new installment in the series.
