Golden Sun Dark Dawn for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

I expected alot from Golden Sun Dark Dawn, the whole concept sounded pretty fantastic to me. The whole, collect little monsters for power ups as you progress through this world as a boy with telekinetic powers thing, I was head over heels with joy when I heard about this game. Of course, me not being fully introduced to the Golden Sun series, maybe I shouldn't have held my hopes as high as I did, because in my opinion, this game was an epic let down.

Graphics---> I don't really know how to rate the graphics for the game, since most DS games have the same style of graphics, but i've seen them executed better on other RPG's, so 6 out of 10

Story---> This was one of my breaking points with this game. The story had like, 2 parts. Part 1: Find a feather. Part 2: Save the world. The story was annoying, unninteresting, and every single character just, won't shut up. The conversations in the game often included tons of vocabulary that was extremely irrelevant, and downright bothersome. Constant dialouge between every single person in the game makes everything just alot more unbearable.

Gameplay---> Awful. The game is a classic puzzle/battle game, but the ratio between the two is sooo off. Puzzles got insanely complicated to the point of frustration, and the battles were slow and unexciting. The special moves you could use after collecting djinn look pretty cool, and do a good amount of damage, but other then that, spending time gathering the little monsters seems unimportant. The puzzles were pretty fun at first, but they got pretty old pretty quick, and since they're constantly being thrown at you from all directions, it makes the battling in the game seem worse.

In conclusion, I found this game to be pretty bad altogether. I really loved all of the ideas Nintendo had when creating this game, they just...didn't come together well. I give this game a 4, it could've been great, but it...wasn't.

after so many disappointing RPG rentals, I finally got Golden Sun. I never played the previous versions (prequels) but the story is easy to pick up on. The graphics are beautiful and the camera movement fluid and natural. A classic turn-based battle system with great spell/summon animations. A big plus to this game is the ability to speed through the attacks by holding down the button. However, you can't do the same with the often lengthy and drawn out conversation/plot scenes. There is a lot of unnecessary dialogue that requires lots of button mashing. A "auto fight" option would have been great as you end up in a lot of random battles with weak enemies.

NOTE: THERE ARE VIRTUALLY NO BOSSES.
The designers chose to have you use your energy to solve puzzles and find your way through mazes. I guess they prefer to reward you with a goal accomplished instead of a boss battle at the end of them. I would have loved to see more bosses. The dungeons are masterfully designed - the best I have seen in my 20 years of RPG gaming.

The plot is strange and a little nonsensical, but it didn't take away from the experience. This is a VERY LONG GAME, so I recommend buying it instead - I've paid for 3 months of Gamefly while playing it!