Let's Play - Golden Sun

[Telephalsion]

More updating please.

[PyrosNine]

Yay, new page!

A recap:

We last left our heroes after they were set upon by jerks at three pivotal points in their lifetime, and all three times they were royally screwed over.

It is clear at this point, barring a late plot redemption in the sequel, that these Jerks deserve to die, with the exception of that strapping young man with the long brown hair who is good with the ladies (Fred's party is such a sausage fest in comparison!)

The world itself is endangered by such feats of jerkassery, as soon more people will be able to use psynergy to commit even more heinous acts of jerkassdom and possibly destroy the world (again). And so, our heroes were forced to chase after the two ambassadors from the Northern Jerkass Tribe and rescue Omnom from their evil clutches.

They can keep Kraden.

Sadly, our heroes also were key in letting these jerkasses get their way due to Fred holding a bit of a giant idiot-ball, and both the Giant Eye Rock and their village ain't too happy about this, and thus have banished our heroes from Vale on the pretence of a fool's errand: Save the world, or you can't come home.

Therefore, Fred and Co. are now considering future prospects for settling down in more posh real estate, and have already pre-emptively gotten a dog. Or a cat. Or some sort of strange brown smelly pet of awesome that can talk. Seems like a cat: It's either awake (and awesome), summoned (whereupon it shows it's awesome) or asleep (sleeping awesomely!)

It is time to give our heroes an important object: A map! Sadly, since everyone in Vale is both secretive, hermitlike, and paranoid against outsiders, they shun all ideas of an outside world and therefore haven't bothered to give our heroes some directions of where to go.

Fortunately I have such a map, but due to the fact that the sight of how vast and big the world is would surely blow up their tiny, Valeian minds, I've snipped it only to a small section.



I've made the picture small as well for the same reason. Don't know if you can read it, but Vale and Sol Sanctum are near the top of this piece of map As you can see, there's a trail of towns to the south, as well as hints of that "big blue wet thing" Kraden kept yammering on about, but let's not take him too seriously.

But now, since we're on the road here are a few traveler's tips:

1: If you meet Buddha on the road, Cut him down!
In typical RPG fashion, you will rarely ever meet anything that just wants to stop and talk for a bit. With the reawakening of Psynergy, all sorts of monsters and ne'er do wells are popping up, and all of them find you itchy tasty. Fortunately, after you start your trail of mass-murder (unless they're zombies, in which case it's merely proper burial rites) you should be more than strong enough to take most threats on as you find them...unless of course...

2: If you meet Raiden on the road, run for your life!
It is possible to bump into unfriendlies, who tend to lurk beyond invisible borders of territory that all monsters honor. Take too many steps down the path, and you'll fight things that know more Psynergy than you do! If you're ever overwhelmed, it's best to run and grind up on weaker monsters before you move on, or at least get some better gear.

3: Running in place is good for you:
Health items are not as important in Golden Sun. I know, gasp, shock, awe, but due to the flow of Psynergy spilling out into the world, our heroes regenerate their magic points with every step, which in other RPGs is a perk you only get with special equipment. Aren't we lucky? This effect is even more noticeable in Lighthouses, but that's to be explained later. In this case, if the party is looking a tad weak, running around in circles and just using healing spells can do wonders! A good rule of thumb whether or not a Dungeon is too tough is if you take more of an asskicking from random encounters than you can repair as a result of walking in circles.

4: Ask if the shopkeep has anything 'special' for you.
Hey, they keep the herbs out in the open, so you have to wonder what they've got hidden behind the counter. Let's just say that the best part of Golden Sun is when you've got a weapon your characters can "let out a howl!" over.

5: A Hero's five fingered discount:
The people of Weyard's lives lie in the your hands, it's only right that whatever they leave lying about in bookshelves, pots, jars, and boxes hidden in nooks and crannies of their town should be in yours as well. Especially if they're in chests. I'm a bit ashamed of you Fred, not robbing Vale nearly enough! It can be a chore, yes, as in a town of over 35 boxes, only 3 or so might have something, but it makes finding something all the more rewarding!

6: Sanctum Warp-a-go-go!
If you're ever really, really in a pinch, by the strangest magic that is far beyond your ken, you can warp back to the last sanctum you visited upon continuing a game. This can be troublesome, of course, if like me you never had your characters cursed, poisoned, or dead (a bit of a nuisance that last one) for the last several towns, and find yourself on the other side of a continent.

More traveler's tips will come as we get our feet wet, muddy, and somewhat bloodied with a mix of both our enemies and our own!

Next time from the Weyard Travel Guide: Psynergy for Dummies! Plus! more of the adventures of Why!?

[Flarecobra]

Think we can get a link to the full-size map?

And got your hamster balls back?

[PyrosNine]

I already have them back, and all I needed was a ball point pen, a cleverly disguised cellphone that was really a cattle prod, and a monkey wearing a top hat and monocle.

They were just like free candy waiting in a bowl a week after Halloween.

As for the full sized map, I found getting a GS1 map kinda hard, as most people defaulted to the more complete GS2 map. Sadly, the GS2 map is also spoiler-rific, especially for people who haven't played GS1. But let's just say you're stuck on a single continent in this game, whereas there are other continents on 2.

Here's a gs map, hotlinked from some dude's geocities site.

[PCD]

Okay so uh

Doesn't it seem odd that as soon as they mentioned the awesome that is GOLDEN SUN DS this thing went and died

I say we rekindle our excitement with more updates.

[PyrosNine]

Basic Gameplay video filler.

The basics of Golden Sun, as seen:

Random Monsters.
Unloading tons of Magic on normal enemies, because mana recharges with steps, and our main character (Fred) is actually a Paladin of sorts. Beef and OMNOM are seemingly almost the same character, except they start out with different classes: Guard, and Flame User. Beef means Garet's physical stats are up, while Jenna's means she is much stronger with magic.

However, this variability can be changed with equipped items and djinni, which can turn characters on their head, and even the most magically weak character will fling more spells than a comparative mage in another rpg series.

Like Resident Evil, you have a limited selection of items, though some stack, and important and tiny trinkets take up as much space as that giant zweihander and ton of hash you're packing. But since all characters have a separate inventory, much fun can be had juggling items between the group. Choose who carries what is important, as when a character dies....well, their items are inaccessible until they get better.

Psynergy, the bread and butter of the game, is used almost constantly. If there is a problem, you can Psynergy it away. How every one else in the world solves their problems is beyond us but we are the glorious enlightened, those who live atop a hill (in front of a doomy mountain) and have no need for the most part for keys, plot flags, and ethers.

But since most Psynergy is used more often than once, it's useful to use a shortcut to the L and R buttons. In this case, "Move", our bread and butter. When moving all the statues, I just hit "L", and I work my magic. R is reserved for a soon to be obtained other Psynergy, though It's use is a bit less worthwhile in an LP. A downside to this, is that it makes us not notice how much Psynergy we have left, which can be problematic early in the game. Later on though, Move is a mere trifle.

Edit: THIS LP IS MINE NAO, BITCHES!!