Why “Golden” Games Should Stay in the Dark
The following is my post via Operation Rainfall that I feel proud enough of to share with my few Tumblr followers.
The role-playing game is a well-traveled genre by now. Since its rise to fame courtesy of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, dedicated players have come across countless titles, all which vary in quality. Some of these games become franchises that are destined to stay strong for what feels like an eternity. And others, despite being great, never really catch fire, only manage to fade into the shadows. The latter types of games tend to develop a cult following that both reflects upon the good times…as well as hopes for some sort of revival. Most times, fans lament for a quality title lost, should the opportunity never arise. The Gameboy Advance was truly a renaissance device for all of handheld gaming. It wasn’t quite the Golden Age that the Nintendo DS / PSP (collectively) would usher in a little later, but there was no shortage of fun to be had, especially in the realm of RPGs. Square threw a handful of Final Fantasy games from the SNES era onto the system, as well as offered original games like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The Gameboy Advance helped to ignite the niche that Fire Emblem has taken in the west, too.
But none of these titles resonated more deeply with me as a gamer than Golden Sun (2001) & Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2003). Published by Nintendo and Camelot, these games collectively blended everything I loved about the RPGs of the past—from effective use of the “silent protagonist”, to a story that emphasizes places, people, and events even more than its actual characters. I’ll offer a quick summary of both games, since the crux of what I have to say will come later. Golden Sun tells the story of Isaac, whose goal is to stop a mysterious group from lighting the beacons of four mystical lighthouses that would unleash the power of Alchemy upon the world. He is joined by three friends who share the gift of Psynergy, the land’s unique take on magic that aids players in battle and helps to solve the puzzles of the various lighthouses.
At the end of Golden Sun, you’re left with a “To be Continued” screen as the plot is turned on its head. For the second game, you end up in control of Felix, one of the people Isaac was in pursuit of for the entire first game. Although Felix was quite chatty in the first Golden Sun game, when the players is in control of him, he does not speak. And Isaac, who was dead silent for the first game, develops a voice and a strong personality as soon as you come across him during the second game. Battle is reminiscent of the early SNES era of RPGs—random, turn-based, simple to control, filled with magic and summon spells. But the game offers a unique twist in the form of Djinn, some 72 cute little creatures spread across both games that allow each member of your party to obtain a unique set of Psynergy skills, or enhance the ones they already have. There’s a lot of versatility that made me feel refreshed as a longtime RPG fan.
Finally, I thought, a fantastic RPG that wasn’t developed by Square-Enix. An RPG that dared to compete with the 90s without all the security of being under the umbrella of a pre-established franchise. The two Golden Sun games did a lot of wonderful things. But more than anything, it seemed like the two games were meant to establish the mythology of the land versus try to tell the story of Isaac or Felix.
Speculation was abound about a possible sequel, as more and more fans reached the conclusion of the second game. Some insisted that the stories of Isaac and Felix would continue, while others, like me, figured a Golden Sun sequel would take place hundreds of years after the first two games, whereupon the events from before would be equated to legend or folklore. No one got the chance to be proven right though, as the Golden Sun series faded away for quite some time. For almost eight years, fans waited on the sidelines for some mention, any mention at all…
And then, during E3 2009, something no one expected happened.
Golden Sun DS was announced; the long-awaited third entry to the series could finally be enjoyed by all! I was so excited that something I always hoped for in the back of my mind was finally coming to light! More than a year went by between the game’s announcement and its release. The entire time, everyone was absolutely gushing with anticipation for what was to come. And despite the positive direction this seems to be headed towards, allow me this: No game ever ends up being as good as its hardcore fan base anticipates it to be.
Every single aspect of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (2010) fell short of its predecessors. The gameplay, story, soundtrack, and ambiance were all there to reel in fans new and old, but even series veterans like myself will be hard-pressed to say that Dark Dawn amounted to a truly worthy successor. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn had me eager to pay the price of admission; it may have even kept me satisfied throughout my journey. But looking back on it after playing through the originals again—it just seemed to capitalize on the nostalgia of longtime fans. It never truly attempted to evolve the series.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still support a sequel to Dark Dawn if E3 yields a surprise announcement. But, now that I’ve experienced Nintendo’s version of the game I dreamt of for eight years—I would have rather the Golden Sun games have been laid to rest ten years back, only to be fondly remembered as classics, as hidden gems.
What I mean to say is—maybe all this clamoring for Chrono Break should stop? The “Chrono” series of games, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, had a “sequel” announced about a decade ago. Fans wait in the shadows, eager of some announcement of a game that…might not live up to even a tenth of the expectations they have in their heads. Everyone clamoring for Kingdom Hearts 3, after Tetsuya Nomura has spent game after game making the overall plot of Kingdom Hearts (which used to be simple) unnecessarily complex… maybe Sora’s story should end?
Even Nintendo has dropped the ball when it comes to evolving their more niche franchises. Just look at the reception of Metroid: Other M. Why can’t well-respected franchises be peacefully laid to rest in favor of developing the next Golden Sun, instead of taking the chance of ruining the perfect image of certain games that we’ve created in our heads? There are exceptions to every rule, of course (and this is the part where we all take a moment of silence for Mega Man Legends 3), but… The games you love, do you really trust their revivals to be handled by today’s nostalgia-driven developer?
