Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Platform: Nintendo DS

My Playtime: 32+ Hour

Genre: Turn Based-Puzzle Solving RPG

Story: The story takes place 30 years after the Golden Sun event (the previous Game Boy Advance game).  Now the story features the Warrior of Vale's (previous heroes) children, Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis.  Their journey starts when Tyrell accidentally crashed the Soarwing, which is very hard to make.  In order to have it fix, their parents decide it was time for them to take their own journey and find the Roc feather that will repair the Soarwing.  As they journey, they realized that the Golden Sun event were causing more problems around Weyard and new enemies seem to appearing to cause more havoc. 

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Plot - I liked it.  It's rare to find a good JRPG nowadays and this one is definitely a must have for all traditional RPGers.  Why didn't I give it a full 5?  The dialogue tend to drag on and the fact you can't go back after certain events can be kind of annoying.  Also, psynergy is very cool but can be annoying to use.  You don't have to play the previous 2 games to understand what's going on here.  The creators added an element where you can read what happened in the past if you wanted to.  I did.  Boring.  Sorry.  Not the story itself, but the way it was told was.  Skip it if you like.  If you have played the previous games, you will enjoy seeing a few old friends.

Characters - You will get 8 people in your lineup.  Matthew, the hero, does not talk.  He generally nods and shakes his head when asked a question.  Another way they communicate in this game is through emoticons.  The other characters will respond to whatever mood you select.  There are 4 elements in this world: earth, wind, water and fire.  So, if you character is a fire Adept, he's generally rude, brash, and don't think before he acts.

Dungeons - Going back to old school here.  It's random battles like in the old Final Fantasy's games.  In certain areas, there will be no monsters.  Why?  Most likely you have to solve a puzzle.  Luckily, the puzzle are not so bad.  You can figure it out without too much trouble.

Graphics - Chibi when they are in towns and traveling on the world map.  Normal size when battling.  Graphics are okay.  The chibis could've been better.  Some of the shapes are sharp and angular. 

BGM/Sound - Music was okay.  Not memorable.  O_o  Voices.  OMG.  I don't know why they even bother.  The voices is like loud static.  I had to turn it off because it sounded so horrible and annoying.  If you can't add real voices, I rather read the dialogue myself.

Fighting - This is the best part of this game.  The weapons in this game has certain attacks attached to each one.  As your character fights, you will become more efficient with that particular weapon and more likely to use that attack.  If you change weapons, you will lose those and get new ones.  You can't select what attack you use.  It's randomize.  That's the drawback.  Another fun part of this game is the Djinn.  They are cute little monsters that have special abilities that can help you in battle.  Djinn also affect your character stats.  For example, some will raise you HP.  Others will bring it down.  You have to play with the combination.  The downside is when you use the little guy in battle.  You will lose the benefits that the Djinn gave you.  And it takes awhile for it to come back to you.  Or you have to waste a turn calling it back.  In the end, I will not use it unless I really have to.  There are 72 total in this game.  So, all your characters should get 9 each.  It's like Pokemon.  You have to catch them all.


The Ending:
Be prepared for the final boss battle.  My best advice will be to be at least level 48+ for your characters.  I pretty much breezed through most the boss battles in this game, but this one will be a doozy.  So be prepared.  It took me an hour to defeat him after losing the first time.  After the game ends, everyone returns back to where they originally came from and the final scene will let you know there is a sequel in the works.  This game leaves some things unanswered.  So, I will definitely get it whenever decide to release it.  They made a fan out of me.  Also, 4 extra dungeons will be opened to you at this point.  I finished 2 of them but I was too lazy to do the others.  I have too many games in my queue that I can't devote my time to it.  But I will play this game again if I ever have time again.