Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

In 2001 we were introduced to Isaac and friends in an RPG released for the GBA called Golden Sun. It was a hit, which was followed with a sequel two years later to end the story with these amazing characters. The world of Weyard was saved and the land was at peace. Seven years later, Camelot has answered our prayers for another installment to this wonderful franchise with Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Since the events of the original games, the world of Weyard has changed and new threats have appeared. It’s now up to the children of the original heroes to set out on their quest to save the world. Thanks for shoving your problems onto your kids. Real great parenting there. Your travels will consist of exploring through mountains, caves and temples while each place has puzzles to solve. Most of the puzzle solving has you using your Psynergy to help you. Example: the Move ability will allow you to move boulders/pillars to use as stepping-stones; Growth will raise a vine so you may climb up an area or even down. With this being the DS, you can use the stylus to move your characters and by tapping the screen to open menus and use your Psynergy. If you aren't comfortable with that you may go old school and use the buttons to your liking.

Like the previous games the battle system is your typical turn based with the options of attack or defend. With attack you may choose from your standard attack, using your Psynergy or summon your Djinn. These little creatures are scattered all across the land waiting for you to find them. There are four types of Djinn each with an element of Alchemy. Earth, Fire, Water and Wind. They can help you in battle by attacking, helping your party by boosting or with a certain amount on standby you may summon mystical creatures to attack. It’s one of the coolest features of the game boasting some amazing cutscenes. However using a Djinn in a typical non-boss battle is rather pointless.

The Djinn aren’t just used to help you in battle; they stand as the main class system. Each of your characters is a different type of an Adept (ones who can use Psynergy). You don’t have to assign Djinn to their matching element: your character Mathew may be a Earth Adept but that doesn’t mean he can’t be given a Fire Djinn to give him some fire abilities. Try mixing and matching these to spice up your gameplay a little.

With the game's jump up to the next generation handheld so do the graphics from 2D to 3D. They're not something you haven’t seen already on the DS but with this series it’s new and fresh with the same color pallet as the past. The game seems to be more story driven and solving puzzles more than random battles and leveling up for upcoming boss battles. Old fans of the series will enjoy this new installment. Any new comers can just go into playing without even playing the originals. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a great RPG to add to your DS collection.