DARK DAWN

At E3 2009 (rest in peace), a third Golden Sun game was announced for the Nintendo DS. On October 28th, 2010 Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was released in Japan, with a NA release following a month later on November 29th. Despite releasing on a new system, Dark Dawn's gameplay remained largely unchanged from the GBA games, but the game did introduce an entirely new cast of playable characters and a vastly changed world. Also it's 3D now!

Dark Dawn received an overall positive reception, but is generally regarded as not quite as good as its predecessors. However, it was my introduction to the series (which you can read more about on the webmaster page), and will always have a special place in my heart. xoxo

WEYARD, REBORN

Dark Dawn takes place 30 years after the Golden Sun Event. The sudden return of Alchemy to the world has caused massive changes over the past three decades. Continents have shifted. Civilizations have been wiped off the map, while new ones rise in their place. A staggering amount of ancient ruins have been unearthed, because of course. The existence of adepts is now common knowledge, as people throughout the world have suddenly found themselves able to use psynergy. Entirely new species have appeared, most notably the beastmen, who now populate northern Angara. Wars have been fought, and new leaders have risen and fallen from power. Oh, and everyone from the first game is now quasi-immortal, or at least ageing slowly enough to have drastically increased lifespans. Kraden will never die.

So, despite being same world as the first two Golden Sun games, the Weyard of Dark Dawn is almost entirely unrecognizable, and full of brand new cities and dungeons to explore. In fact, there's so much new ground to cover, that the game only allows you to visit most of Angara and the northern part of the Eastern Sea. As for how the rest of the world is faring, that's mostly up to speculation... or whatever information you can glean from the game's helpful new Encyclopedia system, which highlights any unfamiliar terms in dialogue in case you need a refresher.

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

Dark Dawn stars a new generation of heroes...most of whom are children of characters from the original games! Click each sprite to read their Encyclopedia description.

Matthew

This young man is a promising Earth Adept, just like his father was when he started his adventures 30 years ago.

And just like Isaac, who led the famous Warriors of Vale, Matthew is a person of few words but strong convictions.

Karis

This young Wind Adept has long known Matthew and Tyrell, often visiting them at their Goma Plateau cabin.

Her father, Ivan, was a Warrior of Vale. She has inherited her father's indomitable spirit and powers of observation.

Tyrell

This young man is a Fire Adept, following in the footsteps of his father, Garet.

He has a reputation for being a troublemaker, but Matthew is still proud to call him his best friend.

Rief

This Water Adept has traveled the world with his teacher, Kraden, studying Alchemy and other traces of the ancient world.

Rief is the son of Mia, a Water Adept who traveled with the Warriors of Vale.

Amiti

This prince of Ayuthay long thought he was a miracle born purely of his mother's powers. King Paithos has revealed the truth.

His mother had no powers, and Amiti has inherited his Water Adept abilities from a strong Adept whose identity is a mystery.

Sveta

This beastman is part of the Czamaral clan, royal family of Morgal. She is King Volechek's younger sister.

Her unique powers let her read minds and render scents visible. In battle, she can transform into a ferocious beast.

Eoleo

This young pirate has succeeded his father, Briggs, as the scourge of the Eastern Sea.

As a Fire Adept, Eoleo has an edge in piracy. Free spirited like his father, he is also loyal and respected by his crew.

Himi

This young girl is daughter to Susa and Kushinada of Yamata. She is also an Earth Adept chosen to bear the Third Eye.

Despite her youth and relative inexperience, she possesses powerful Psynergy and can see into the future.

NEW THREATS

In the wake of Alchemy's return, the world has been plagued by psynergy vortexes, which absorb elemental energy. Every ten years, the Mourning Moon, a vortex of enormous size, appears and causes mass destruction. Matthew's initial quest is to obtain a feather from a Mountain Roc, in order to repair a machine crucial for Isaac and Garet's investigation of the vortexes.

However, Matthew's journey is frequently derailed by Blados and Chalis. These villains reappear throughout the game, manipulating others into helping them bring about the Grave Eclipse (aka the titular Dark Dawn), which permanently covers much of the world in darkness, as well as spawning dangerous monsters. The two are eventually revealed to be operatives of the Tuaparang, a long-lost nation which now resides in the skies.

Joining the Tuaparang is a mysterious man with long blue hair, who goes by the codename Arcanus. He seems suspiciously familiar with the cast of the previous games, too. Alas, nobody is able to recognize him, due to his foolproof strategy of wearing a mask that only covers a fourth of his face. Wow, I wonder who he could be...

THE END...?

Though the game does, in true RPG fashion, end with the heroes saving the world from darkness and returning home, it leaves players with far more questions than answers. Just who are the Tuaparang, and what do they want? How are they connected to the Mourning Moon? Does Alex even know that Amiti is his son? What has become of the other Warriors of Vale, who never appear in the game? For that matter, what has become of Isaac and Garet, heavily implied to be in grave danger? What do the other continents look like after the Golden Sun Event? And of course, there's still so much left unanswered about the ancient peoples of Weyard, not to mention the current political unrest, and the sudden emergence of Light Adepts...

Wow, I sincerely did not intend for that paragraph to get that long. The point is, Dark Dawn sets up a myriad of new plot points to explore. After getting sidetracked into a different (though possibly related) world-saving quest, the game ends without even beginning to answer its initial questions of just what is happening to Sol Sanctum, and how to stop the psynergy vortexes. This is, of course, not inherently terrible: the first Golden Sun game was also just the first half of a story. Sadly, unlike Golden Sun, no sequel materialized for Dark Dawn the following year. Or the year after that. Or ten years after that.

While it looks unlikely that there will ever be another Golden Sun game, at the very least Dark Dawn provides a lot of fuel for theorizing. And while there may not be a sequel right now, in the meantime there's always the postgame dungeon which contains the hardest boss in the game...