Golden Sun Dark Dawn (DS)

[Chimeray]

Anyone here that played Golden Sun 1 and 2 for the GBA and thought about picking this sequal up?

It's already out in the US and coming to Europe around 10 december.

The level design (puzzles!) were totally awsome in the first 2, I guess this the main reason why I'm posting this. I thought some of you might enjoy it since this is a level design community after all (and much more). I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on Dark Dawn! The first 2 games were real gems, I liked them even more than todays console RPG's actually, bold statement... I know.

For anyone not familiar with the Golden Sun franchise:

They're JRPG's, I'm not gonna spoil the story for you but it's actually good! So there are different kind of adepts in the world which have different abilities based on the 4 elements (fire-earth-wind-water). You use these abilities in turn based combat but you also use them in realtime to overcome puzzles. The puzzles have lots of variety and are sometimes pretty hard

You can also collect elemental spirits that make you stronger but you can forfeit these advantages for a short while when you summon them in a battle for some sick damage. The game's got lots of depth actually...! And I guess you could compare it a bit to Final Fantasy...

For instance (from Golden sun 1 & 2), the new one is pretty much the same... only in 3D this time around.

Combat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Ij1lIQpww

Puzzle: (definitely look at the 2 min mark, very clever design imo!)

Anyways, trying to rise a discussion here. Any other games in this genre that are worth mentioning, what do you think, etc etc?

[Sentura]

i don't get the thing with monsters spawning out of nothing. shit does not materialize like that. i think my biggest gripe with jrpgs are the story. it's just too much emo teen squad trying to save the world from cartoon villain #2378. also turn based combat when it's not dependent on movement is balls. also, when they are in combat, why would they stand on one line, instead of flanking whatever monsters there are?

when you compare jrpgs to western rpgs, it seems that the western ones are much more mature and much more real.

[Evert]

Yeah tits and goblins is more mature and real than emos

[Chimeray]

also turn based combat when it's not dependent on movement is balls. also, when they are in combat, why would they stand on one line, instead of flanking whatever monsters there are?

when you compare jrpgs to western rpgs, it seems that the western ones are much more mature and much more real.

Bah, I guess that's just purely dependant on taste, guess it's not your cup of thee. The bossfights and puzzles actually involve a good strategy, don't use your brain and you're dead meat. I guess that's why I like it... it's challenging, but not to the point where it's frustrating.

Anyhow, I don't care much about the realistic nonsense, it's still a game... Would I turn a game down that has excellent gameplay but is lacking in the "realistic" department, hell no. But that's just me.

If it bothers someone to the point where they loose the immersion, well that sucks I guess :/

[Taylor]

You're not allowed to express interest in that foreign muck here. All RPG protagonists should be a series of sliders you tweak for half an hour at the start of the game to try and make it look like you haven't had a stroke. And I don't want to play as some metrosexual teenager, there will be no spiky hair or bright colours -- and that's a wider-ranging rule. My old muscular man will have the only hair option that doesn't clip through his neck, and stubble and a big manly scar. And then I’ll put on an ugly bucket hat and/or switch to first person where I will randomly flail my single sword attack at giant rats in prefab dungeon #524 in a Dungeons and Dragons-esque universe in the name of immersion. Not that would understand with your immature games where you can’t even have gay sex with a dwarf.

[Erratic]

Shiren the Wanderer

A game with more balls than any Western RPG.

[Sentura]

Yeah tits and goblins is more mature and real than emos

i was more thinking of the fallout series. you still seem very limited in jrpgs, your actions have to be of a certain morality. i always liked st0lve's argument about you being able to kill children in fallout; that's something you'd never be able to in jrpgs. i'm not saying i would, but the choice is there. and that's exactly what a rpg should do: give you the choice.

[syver]

i'm not saying i would, but the choice is there. and that's exactly what a rpg should do: give you the choice.

I don't care if I have hundreds of choices if they're all going to be meaningless. Killing children sounds like one of those meaningless choices.

[Chimeray]

So... no one that's gonna talk about gameplay? Y'all seem to be talking about the spiky teenager stuff but that's not why I posted this game here... I posted it because the gameplay is very good, has much depth and is challenging. The puzzles are well designed and are plentiful.

There's no point in arguing over the thematic differences between JRPG's and western RPG's, yes the spiky hair is true, yes there's some emo stuff here and there I guess... No one fond of puzzles here then? :/

[Sentura]

i'm not saying i would, but the choice is there. and that's exactly what a rpg should do: give you the choice.

I don't care if I have hundreds of choices if they're all going to be meaningless. Killing children sounds like one of those meaningless choices.

but they aren't meaningless. every choice has a consequence, that's obviously the requirement for a choice to be in a game. if you do go and kill a child then you'll be labelled, and people will look at you differently throughout the game.

[Taylor]

So... no one that's gonna talk about gameplay? Y'all seem to be talking about the spiky teenager stuff but that's not why I posted this game here... I posted it because the gameplay is very good, has much depth and is challenging. The puzzles are well designed and are plentiful.

There's no point in arguing over the thematic differences between JRPG's and western RPG's, yes the spiky hair is true, yes there's some emo stuff here and there I guess... No one fond of puzzles here then? :/

We are. The gameplay is rubbish because you can’t murder children in cold-blood apropos of nothing.

I’m still doing another playthrough of Final Fantasy 7 and completed that optional quest where Yuffie steals our materia. I caught her and she wanted me to pull a lever, which I suspected would not give me my materia back but trigger a humorous escape sequence. I didn’t want to do that! I wanted to kill her, strip her clothes off, hack off all her limbs, drape her body parts all over the local pub, and throw her lifeless ragdoll toso into the barmans face, while nobody reacts or notices at all. I can do that in WRPGs, thus they are better, even if a completely different genre with different goals, and are knowingly and openly at different points in the sandbox/linearity spectrum.

[insta]

Turn that frown upside down :derp:

[FrieChamp]

My sarcasm meter just exploded

[Taylor]

I don't want people to get the wrong idea, by the way. Some of my best friends are WRPGs.

[Sentura]

always nice with some unfounded hyperbole against a well reasoned argument.