Golden Sun / Nintendo / Game Boy Advance I could make this a very short review, saying that everything’s brilliant about this game. But I guess I wouldn’t be a good reviewer then (which I’m not, but one can only try, right?) Anyway, the game is brilliant, buy it. If you wonder why or are just bored, read on. The story: you are Isaac, a young man living in a village called Vale. Close to Vale is a temple called Sol Sanctum, build to guard an ancient seal on the science of alchemy (= magic to you and me). However, this seal is broken, and 2 strangers try to steal the power and make it their own. It’s up to Isaac to stop them. The game is a classic action/RPG, it plays a lot like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy and Shining Soul (not surprising, seeing as Camelot made the latter). You walk around on foot, get into random battles on the main map, visit towns, clear dungeons, etc. It’s nothing new, but it works out well. The puzzles are very good and rely on logic (and sometimes psynergy, the games magic system). The battle system is one of the best things about Golden Sun. Basically, it’s just like the Final Fantasy system, meaning you can choose from physical attacks, magic, items and even summons, thanks to the Djinni system. These little creatures are divided in four categories; fire, earth, water and wind. You can trade the Djinni between different characters, thus giving the character different abilities. The graphics and music are amazing. You may think the town graphics are good, but wait until you see a battle with lots of magic and summons. The battles are fought in a pseudo 2D perspective, but features zooms and lots of polygonal effects. And just wait until you get the Judgement summon. Simply amazing. The music will sound very familiar if you already played some Square RPGs, but that’s actually a good thing. It’s never annoying and really helps you to be in this world. So, is there anything bad about this game? Not really. It’s a bit short (if you consider +25 hours to be short), but it’s never has any dull moments or time-wasting moments like other RPGs * cough * Final Fantasy VIII * cough *. It’s also quite easy, the puzzles are never hard, and neither are the battles, although you shouldn’t underestimate some enemies. In short: buy this game. Both newbies to the genre and RPG fanatics will enjoy this tremendously. Good story, brilliant graphics, cool battle system. What more do you want? A sequel? It’s underway. And probably another one after that. And another. Graphics: 94 Gameplay: 95 Lastability: 89 Overall: 93 Brilliant game overall. Buy it, play it to death, wait for the sequel.