WHAT IS GOLDEN SUN?
Golden Sun is a series of fantasy RPGs created by Camelot Software Planning. The first two games, Golden Sun (subtitled The Broken Seal in Japanese), and Golden Sun: The Lost Age were released in 2001 and 2002 on the Gameboy Advance. Originally planned as one game, the duology forms two halves of a complete story. In 2010, a third game, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was released for the Nintendo DS.
The games cover the adventures of groups of adepts, those with the ability to control the elements. Magic (known as psynergy) plays a large role in both the narrative and gameplay. All playable characters have access to a wide variety of spells, which can be changed by changing their current class. Psynergy can be used both in and out of battle, with many spells having utility purposes in the overworld, such as removing barriers with wind or fire, moving objects with telekinesis, or obtaining information via mind reading.
Most of the game is spent exploring various locations and dungeons, which require the player to solve puzzles to progress, often by utilizing various psynergy spells. Dungeons and the world map also contain random encounters, which are cleared by defeating enemies in turn-based combat.
Did you know? The Lost Age allowed for the transfer of cleared game data from the first game. Transfers could be done either by using a Game Link Cable, or by inputting a 260 character password. This is widely regarded as a lot of characters to type into a GBA.
THE WORLD OF WEYARD
All three Golden Sun games take place on Weyard, a flat planet. At the far edges of Weyard, the oceans seemingly pour into an endless abyss, and the ground drops off into nothingness. Do not question the physics of this too much.
Other than being flat, Weyard strongly resembles Earth, with each of its fictional continents and countries being more or less analogous to a real-life one. For example, the continent of Angara, where most of the first and third games take place, is heavily based on Eurasia. Pictured here is the world map of Weyard as it appears in The Lost Age. Angara can be seen in the top center.
Note: The decision to base Weyard's geography and cultures so strongly on real-life ones means the world is much more realistically diverse than many other fantasy RPGs. However, it also leads to some insensitive and racist depictions, as well as whitewashing. I believe it is important to acknowledge this when discussing the games.
Despite taking place in the same world, the geography of Weyard changes significantly in the 30 years between The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, after the events of TLA lead to major geographical and political changes. Don't question this too much, either.
ELEMENTAL ADEPTS
Weyard is powered by the four elements: Venus (earth), Jupiter (wind), Mercury (water), and Mars (fire). The combined power of all four elements is known as Alchemy, and was sealed away during Weyard's ancient past to prevent it from being misused.
Venus (earth),
Jupiter (wind),
Mercury (water), and
Mars (fire). The combined power of all four elements
is known as Alchemy, and was sealed away during Weyard's ancient past
to prevent it from being misused.
Even with Alchemy sealed, there still exist adepts, those who can magically control the elements via psynergy. Every playable character in the Golden Sun series is an adept, each aligned with one of the four elements.
CLASS SYSTEM
A character's class depends on the djinn that character has equipped. Djinn are creatures tied to one of the four elements that can be found and captured throughout each of the games. Characters can unlock different classes and psynergy, depending on the number and type of djinn they have "set" to them. Djinn let you try out many different classes easily! Also, they're cute little guys:
Each djinni has its own unique battle ability, and they can also be used for summoning powerful (and extremely flashy!) spirits to aid the party. Below is a partial list of classes and summons from Golden Sun.
LINKS & MORE
Click to expand each section!
music
All of Golden Sun's music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, who you might recognize as also being a composer for Dark Souls and the Tales Of series. All the Golden Sun soundtracks can be downloaded from here!
As far as I know, there has never been an official release of the Golden Sun OST, so all English track names (and probably many reuploads) originate from the rips that used to be available on Golden Sun Realm. GS Realm's page for them is still up, but the download links no longer work, since the site that originally hosted them is gone (although their blog post about uploading them has been archived here).
Both GBA soundtracks have also received a fanmade remaster (embedded above), which can be listened to on youtube or downloaded here! The entire Dark Dawn soundtrack has also been uploaded to youtube.
Some covers/rearrangements on youtube:
art & manga
Golden Sun doesn't have much in the way of supplemental media, but there is an unofficial 4-Koma anthology for the first game (English translation), as well as a manga oneshot (English translation) covering the beginning of Dark Dawn. The 4-Koma raws and manga translation can also be found here.
For official art, The Adepts of Weyard has a folder of it here. Golden Sun Zone also maintains a collection of official (and unofficial) wallpapers, as well as a gallery of official art, promotional material, magazine scans, and game screenshots.
You can also download all of the gorgeous pixel graphics and sprites from both GBA games right here! Like, for example, these:
videos
This TV commercial (embedded below) for the first game was both so incredibly cool and so incredibly unrelated to anything in Golden Sun that it ended up being used as a summon in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
There were a few other Golden Sun commercials made: in English there was this one for The Lost Age and this one for Dark Dawn, along with Japanese commercials for both the first and second games. Dark Dawn also had a game trailer, and more recently, the first two games received a trailer for their Nintendo Switch port. There is also a (completely unofficial) Golden Sun anime opening!
websites
Since the Golden Sun series has been dead for well over a decade, many related sites are sadly no longer up. This includes all official English sites. You can still view archives of Camelot's official websites for Golden Sun and The Lost Age, as well as Nintendo's official Australian site for Dark Dawn. Nintendo's American site for the series is technically archived as well, but it doesn't load anything.
Fun fact: Amiti's character bio on the Australian site uses she/her pronouns for him, despite him being referred to as a man in the game.
While all the English official sites have been taken down, the Japanese sites for The Broken Seal, The Lost Age, and Dark Dawn are still up!
Fansites:
- Golden Sun Syndicate
- Golden Sun Realm
- The Adepts Of Weyard
- Golden Sun Zone (this one is in German)
- Adept's Refuge (some parts of this site are broken)
- There are also fanlistings for: The Lost Age, Felix, and Golden Sun.
For comprehensive information about anything in the games, refer to the independent Golden Sun Wiki!
