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In the first two Golden Sun games the Heroes of Vale restored the awesome power of the Golden Sun, saving the world of Weyard from impending doom. Are their children up to the task in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn? More »
Back in 2001, Nintendo released a fairly gorgeous commercial for Golden Sun -- however, for all its glitz and glamor, it wasn't exactly packing in the coherence department. A giant crystal dragon, totally wrecking shop in a jap-packed opera house? We don't remember that in the original Game Boy Advance RPG. As it turns out, there's a reason for that: That sequence wouldn't make it into the franchise until this very year, with the release of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
Check out a comparison of the commercial and the (slightly spoilery) clip from Dark Dawn after the jump -- just try not to think about why it took almost a decade for the translucent dragon to arrive. Was the commercial just prescient or something?
Camelot Software Planning has been gone for a long time. Oh sure, the studio has put out more than a few Nintendo sports games over the last few years but, as far as I'm concerned, Camelot closed its doors seven years ago. That's when the last Golden Sun was released (on Game Boy Advance!), adding another title to the company's catalog of quality role-playing games, which includes Sega's excellent Shining Force series. Now, after years in Mario sports exile, Camelot has returned to its RPG roots with Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
It has been seven years since the last Golden Sun game, the GBA's Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Now, after that long wait, Camelot Software Planning has put aside Mario-flavored sports games (and Capcom's We Love Golf) to produce a new entry in the revered RPG series, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, available next week on DS. We spoke with Hiroyuki Takahashi, one of the two Takahashi brothers responsible for creating the series, and Nintendo assistant producer Yuya Sato about the new game and about bringing a seemingly lost series back to life.
Perhaps Nintendo picked the wrong message for its Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ad: "Coming soon: the game that will maim your parents." Focusing on the cute, collectible djinn is a good idea for trying to trick Pokemaniacs into picking it up, but maybe we could lay off the family injury next time?
The "Doing Things that Should Have Been Done Long Ago" department at Camelot Software Planning has come up with something brilliant for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, something you've seen before in other contexts: hyperlinks.
To help fill new players in on the Golden Sun lore, and to help returning players remember the people, places, and events from those GBA games, the dialogue in Dark Dawn is peppered with links like the one above (the "Tap!" graphic is there because that was the first such link to appear). Tap and an encyclopedia entry for that entity appears on the top screen. It's also saved so you can go back through them later. Who were the Warriors of Vale? What's a Sol Sanctum? The game is free to refer back to this stuff, secure in the knowledge that you can figure it all out.
Now that it's been done, all games with lots of characters, or lots of backstory, should implement this immedlately.
The official site for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has been updated with some new goodies. The Home, Characters and Videos section all have new content. I know you Golden Sun fans have been patiently waiting a very long time for a new entry in the series. I hope these site updates can [...]
The Golden Sun: Dark Dawn official site has opened up, and it’s ready for your perusing. Unfortunately the site is still in teaser form, so all you’ll get is some artwork and a trailer that we’ve already seen. You know the drill by now. Bookmark the site for future updates, of which [...]
