Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Reader Review

The legacy of the much loved DS is coming to a close. Everyone is gearing their attentions to its sprightlier brother the 3DS. The great performance of the DS is almost forgotten, but if the performance of the DS is coming to an end then Dark Dawn is the encore and a reminder of the DS’s brilliance, a monument to its legacy.

Dark Dawn is a game that has a legacy of its own, belonging to a well renowned series of two much loved titles (which I haven’t played) Dark Dawn had a lot to live up to. And it did not disappoint.

Dark Dawn starts off simply enough with the main characters, Matthew, Karis and Tyrell setting off to find a special item only to discover that in life nothing is simple. These descendants of the first games’ characters must rise against the evil just like their parents. The story makes you feel for the characters as you sympathise how hard it must be to live up to your parent’s great legacy.

The gameplay was nothing short of inspiring. The characters use synergy (the four elements) to fight, a bit like the magic of Final Fantasy. You’re probably wondering what’s so special about this? It’s the fact that the player must use synergy outside of battle to solve puzzles and proceed in the game. Synergy is part of the characters’ everyday life. Not something they conveniently pull out of the bag when a monster is around (which is sometimes the case with RPGs). This makes the characters come alive just the way a real role playing game should.

The visuals are beautiful. It is definitely one of the higher end DS games visually. It was about twelve hours into the game before my eyes didn’t widen with joy at the two screen summons. Dark Dawn really pushes the DS to its limits graphically; the in-game battle scenes are a beauty to behold.

However, the game is not without fault. The music was at best good at worst mediocre, in terms of music other RPGs have done it better. I would also have to warn that there is quite a lot of reading in the game which could put some people off but for others this might not be a problem. The game also lacks things to do once the main quest is finished. This game could have been enhanced with the introduction of surplus side quests much missed fro Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky.

The game is also a tad easier than your average RPG (with the exception of the puzzles) and this with the lack of side quests means you won’t be crunching too many hours with this.

Even with these troubles, the game still deserves a place in the halls of the greatest DS games and in everyone’s DS collection. The delights of the latest in the Golden Sun series has me wondering with anticipation what they have in store for the Nintendo 3DS.