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GameBoy Advance : Golden Sun : The Lost Age Reviews

Gas Gauge: 84
Gas Gauge 84
Below are user reviews of Golden Sun : The Lost Age and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Golden Sun : The Lost Age. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.

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ReviewsScore
Game Spot 86
CVG 80
IGN 90
GameSpy 80
GameZone 89
1UP 80






User Reviews (1 - 11 of 124)

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it was worth waiting for!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 45 / 51
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

having played the Japanese language version of this game, i can safely say that it will definitely blow the first game away. lots of new Psynergy (a lot of RPGs have some form of magic... GS uses psychic energy) to learn, lots of new and interesting weapons, many new places to explore, many new summons to get, and...

you can transfer data from a saved file that's on your Golden Sun cartridge. here's the main story:

in the first game, the main character Isaac and his friends Garet, Ivan, and Mia were chasing after Saturos and Menardi, two members of a northern fire clan who stole the Elemental Stars from Sol Sanctum and wanted to unleash their power upon the world by lighting the 4 lighthouses, all the while keeping Isaac's friend Jenna and the great Alchemy sage Kraden (and eventually a young girl named Sheba) hostage. at the end of the first game, your party succeeded in defeating Saturos and Menardi shortly after they lit the Venus Lighthouse. however, Jenna and Kraden are missing on a piece of land that broke off from the continent, and Sheba fell from the lighthouse into the ocean. in addition, Jenna's long-lost older brother Felix, who had been traveling with the fire clan members, jumped after Sheba to save her.
the second game starts out shortly thereafter. the members of your party are Felix, Jenna, Sheba, and, later on, Piers, a Lemurian they find on their journey. while in the first game the object was to keep the lighthouses from being lit, Felix is dead set on lighting the two remaining lighthouses. and the new foes of the game? Menardi's lil sister Karst and the strongest clansman she could find, Agatio. while they do want the lighthouses lit, they also want revenge for Menardi's death.

as i mentioned before, you can transfer data from a previous save file for the first game. you see, after the Jupiter Lighthouse is lit, you meet the 4 characters from the first game and get them into your party. that's right... 8 playable characters. and their stats when you get them are at whatever they were when you won Golden Sun (if you do not transfer data or use a passord, they start out at level 28). from there, you have a few more tasks before you can go to the Mars Lighthouse, but one thing is for sure... this is a much better game, and it it has excellent replay value. one of my favorite things is the blacksmith in a town on the second continent, who will make a plethora of weapons/armor for you from certain materials you find, making each game different since you won't always get the same items! also, the new multi-elemental summons, some of which you must defeat a game boss in order to get (and some of them are pretty tough). the final boss, the Doom Dragon, is quite a formidable opponent, attacking 4 times per round. he is humongous, can set all your Djinn on recovery, and has a special summon of his own, Ruin Crash.

i've played this game 4 times and won it twice (2 save files i'm just trying to level up for fun on). the music is just orgasmic - Motoi Sakuraba is one excellent composer, that is definitely for sure.

The Sequel of Golden Sun : What more could you want?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 29 / 32
Date: March 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Golden Sun: The Lost Age, is the sequel to the highly successful Golden Sun, starring Isaac, Garet, Mia and Ivan. This game will have you controlling the people the aforementioned were chasing all of the first game. I.E., Felix, Jenna, Kraden, Sheba and an extra character, Picard. ( Although I think His name will be different). Anyway, I'm not sure of your quest, but I've seen several screenshots (50) and Camelot has certainly kicked the already beautiful graphics (in my opinion anyway)up a notch or five.
Anyways, onto part of the storyline I know.
If you played GS1, and beat it, you would have remembered the last scene of the game, where Jenna and Kraden are seen floating on an island after the epic last battle between Isaac, Garet, Mia and Ivan, and the game's big bosses, Saturos and Menardi. You also might have remembered seeing Felix leap off the Venus Lighthouse to try to save Sheba. And Alex catches up with Jenna and Kraden and shows them that Felix and Sheba made it.
Well, GS2 starts slightly before all that. You control Jenna, and find your way down to the ship you first thought was Babi's Lemurian ship (the part where the island breaks off), but it was really Saturos and Menardi's ship. Then you see that oh so familiar cutscene.
Enough of talking the game, let's talk about a rather cool feature in GS2. Remember when you beat the game and in the 'Continue' screen you saw your game and 'CLEAR DATA'. For the love of all that is good and pure, DO NOT DELETE THAT GAME!!!
In GS2, they ask you if you want to upload your old game. How, you ask, as there is no upload option in the menu screen. Well, my friend, if you press L, R, left and b simultaneously and then b immediately after, a new option appears. "SEND". YOu can either send your game by way of a link cable, or three different password. Bronze password lets you send Level and Djinn. SIlver lets you send Level, Djinn and Character stats. Gold lets you send Level, Djinn Character stats, itmes and coins. Be warned, the Gold password id six screens long.
Trust me, putting in these passwords will alter your story when you meet Isaac, Garet, Mia and Ivan leter in the story.
BUy THIS GAME!!! IT ROCKS!!!

The sequel goes FANTASTIC further...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 29 / 34
Date: March 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

We've been waiting for a very long time, but finally it's here! If you don't know anything about Golden Sun: TLA, buy the original Golden Sun first. Golden Sun is an RPG with psynergy, puzzles and the usual battles with experiencepoints.
You can even transfer your old cleared game via a link cable or via a password. When you are in the main menu of GS, push L+R+left+B, go to send and you'll know the rest!

With the eruption of Mt. Aleph fresh in our minds, the game begins again with loads of action!
After the Venus Lighthouse was lit, Felix and Sheba were swept away in sea, but they've been founded by Alex, Jenna and Kraden. Saturos and Menardi are now dead, but Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia couldn't prevent them for litting the beacon. Isaac and co. are now in search of Sheba, Felix, Jenna and Kraden, but now they got another goal: to search Lemuria in order of Lord Babi of Tolbi.
Now it's time to follow Felix and his life. You're washed away on a former peninsula, Idejima, and now you are lost at sea. Then, all of sudden a tsunami will reach Idejima and it seems you're bumped into another continent, called India. Your goal is not preventing the last two lighthouses, but now your goal is lighting the lighthouse (actually the opposite of what it used to be). Meet Piers, your Mercury Adept, and navigate yourself trough more then 50 hours of gameplay on other continents, on sea, on the ancient Lemuria and a lot more! When you are ¾ of the game, Isaac and co. will join you on your quest.
It would be a bummer to say everything about this game, but it's a GRRRRRREAT game and it's definitly your money worth!

A reason to buy a GBA Micro

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: October 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It's amazing really. I have this itty bitty little GBA Micro and yet this game contains an entire world! In fact, that's the most striking thing about this game, just how expansive the world is in which it is set. You travel from land to land (suspiciously like familiar places like India, Japan, Africa and even Jamaica once you find out how to use the ship) and each one is packed with towns, dungeons and mountains, all of which are in turn packed with monsters, treasures and the occasional cunning puzzle.

Essentially it's a standard two level RPG game - you can either be wandering the world map or be within individual locations within the world map. The combat system is turn based and very rich with a remarkable number of actions available each turn: spellcasting, item using, direct combat, using djinn powers (djinni are cute looking creatures you collect up along the way which bestow abilities onto their 'owners') or summoning, not to mention the strategic exchange of objects or even character class changing that might go on within a battle. All in all this means that the combat strategy can get pretty interesting.

There's no rush. Almost all of the game takes place at whatever pace you feel like. This makes it a great game to pick up and drop whenever you have free time. This is helped by the fact that L-R-Select puts the GBA to sleep at any time in this game. This makes it the perfect game for the Micro. You can carry it with you all the time and get a moment to play it even if you only have 30 seconds to spare.

The only minor complaint is that the random encounters you meet are too easy. You need to fight them to get the experience but they're a bit easy to defeat so they merely waste time. They also lull you into a false sense of security. Just because you can kick the a** of any random encounter you meet doesn't mean you're going to have an easy time when you meet the next boss. The bosses are *much* harder to defeat. I feel that there ought to be more parity between the strengths of these two types of monster and that the spells to avoid random encounters should work for a little longer.

The puzzles are often of the pushing blocks around so I don't get stuck in a corner type. But it's surprising just how many novel ways there are to implement this, especially when the occasional spell changes the state of play. The only slightly annoying thing here is that you're never quite sure if a puzzle is soluble without you finding another item first. There's nothing more annoying than to waste a day pushing round logs only to find that a single spell you learnt later might have got you past the lot of them. And when you do solve a puzzle it's often frustrating how simple the trick was after all - but that's life in computer games.

GSTLA also has a vaguely entertaining story. It does follow on from the previous game and I found it didn't make much sense without having the back story. In fact, I started playing this game but rapidly decided to finish the prequel first before getting back to this game. You don't actually need to understand much of the story to play the game, but it's more fun if you do.

All in all, a great game with a few new features not present in the original Golden Sun - especially the freely sea-roving ship.

And I mustn't forget: the art is wonderful, and the music pretty catchy. And don't miss the fortune teller's dance for anything!

An excellent RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: April 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best RPGs out for the Game Boy today. The only game that can rival it is the original Golden Sun. "The Lost Age" has some beautiful graphics and incredible fight sequences. Although the learning curve on it can be rather difficult, if you go to some of the eb sites out there about how to use your summoned monsters, you can figure it out after awhile. I do think you will have trouble with it though if you don't do your own research, as the in game help and the manual do not really explain the fighting system well enough.

When I first got this game, I thought that I needed to play the original in order to understand it. While it does follow a storyline directly from the original, this game is perfectly capable of holding up as a standalone game, especially since the original storyline doesn't make much sense anyway. This game does not really improve on the gameplay of the original in any way, and it's more of a continuation. The graphics, gameplay, and strategies are virtually identical. One problem I had with it though, is that it is fairly linear. You won't be able to advance much if you start exploring and wandering off. Also, when you are asked a question, many times you are given two different choices for an asnwer you can give, however there is only one correct answer, and you will basically get the same response regardless of which answer you give. For instance, if a character asks you if you want an apple, you can say A. Yes or B. No. If you say yes, he'll say something like "great, I knew you would!" If you say no, he'll say "What? That's crazy, of coure you want an apple, take it!" It pretty much makes this option pointless.

Lastly, some of the dialogue canbe REALLY long. You can't save your game during the dialogue and sometimes you'll have to sit through ten minutes of speech. It doesn't detract much from the game play however.

Overall, this game provided MANY hours of game play, unlike a lot of games that you can finish in a few hours. I found "The Lost Age" to be the best RPG I've played since the original Final Fantasy for Game Boy came out about 15 years ago.

Best RPG for GBA

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: April 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When i say theis is the best RPG i mean that it's the best RPG the game continues from the first Golden Sun, after Isaac and Co. have started to battle mernardi and saturos at the venus lighthouse. if you don't know what i'm talking about buy the first Golden Sun and find out. Anyway in this Game you get to play as Felix yes Felix the person who was said to have drowned in a storm more than 3 years ago. In this game there are up to 72 dijinni for you to get but if you don't have clear data in your first game you can only go to 44 dijinni, 11 of each element. i strongly reccomend buying this game, unless of course you dont have the first one, then i'd get the first one, beat it to get clear data and then buy this one so you can transfer the file. other than that this is a great game with great graphics and a great story line with great sound with a great main character who has a great name: Felix. All in all it's a great game. BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT

Stupendous!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is simply the best title that has ever come out on any Game Boy system, not to mention one of the best RPG's ever made. It is not just a solve the dungeons, get the items, save the people type of game. It goes beyond that, almost as if you're involved in a really long interactive movie that you have to figure out as you go along. For those of you who are planning to try to play this without completing the first Golden Sun, I definitely don't recommend it. You will not understand the plot, why you're being asked to do any of the things you're doing, or how to use Psynergy, Djinni, or Items to your full advantage. While the first Golden Sun does a little better at easing you into these skills, this game kicks right in where the old game left off. For those of you who DID complete the first one, be prepared for another 40+ hours of gaming along with some upgraded sound and music, and pretty much the exact same terrific gameplay and graphics as the first one, which is definitely a good thing. The password transfer system, while it is a giant pain in the butt, is a really terrific feature, because not many people will have an extra system laying around to transfer their old characters via link cable. I recommend the Gold Password and having all of your old Djinn as well. There are good step by step instructions in the booklet as to how to accomplish this data transfer. So in closing, this is a terrific game on a terrific system. Get it!!!

A cool game my kids loved this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Golden son is a excellent game with cool graphics my kids say.They say this game has a excellent timeline, excellent characters, and cool moves.I recommend this for kids everywhere it seems fun. So i say give this game a try.^_^

"Elemental energy drives the growth of civilization. Without it, we and our world will wither."---Sheba

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: May 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved Golden Sun, so I was very excited about playing this sequel. At first, I was disappointed because you are no longer the character in the first game. In fact, you won't hook up with Isaac and the gang until way into this game. You are now Felix, the kid who was swept away in a stream back in Vale and who seemingly joined the darkside but, since you are now taking control of his character, he must not have been so bad after all. So, instead of starting out with Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia with their level 31 powers, you need to start all over again with a new posse of characters. I guess this makes sense as you do not need to complete the GS1 to play Lost Age. The first team will have all the powers you gained for them in the first game, but they won't be needed too much. Djinn Flash and Granite and some of Ivan's psynergy will pretty much be the only pivotal things they bring to the group.

There are several things different about Lost Age than GS1. First, I found that I used attack Djinn much more often in battles. I almost never used psynergy to fight. Psynergy was almost exclusively used for performing tasks and solving puzzles. You get a lot of new psynergy like Tremor, Scoop, Pound, Sand, Cyclone, Hover, Blaze, Burst, Teleport, and Parch.

I also noticed that I hardly bought any weapons, armor, or healing items. Most of the stuff I used I found (including the ultra powerful Sol Blade), earned in battle, or won at the Contigo slots. Consequently, you can amass a ton of coins (coins were much more precious when I played GS1). One of the most useful purchases will be Mist Potions in Prox near the end of the game in preparation for your final showdown, and money will be no object by then. I had almost 415,000 coins before my final boss battle, over double what I had in GS1.

Another difference about this game is you'll be able to travel by ship to different continents. This ship will also have wings built on it so you can fly over certain barriers (alas, not all barriers).

You get a better idea what's going on here, too. It seems that, because the lighthouses are not lit, there is no longer enough elemental energy to grow and sustain the world. A map reveals that the continents of the world are shrinking. The beacons of the four lighthouses thus must be lit (Venus will be lit at the beginning of the game). Isaac and the gang did not know this in GS1.

A lot of things I loved about GS1 are in Lost Age. There are many different places to see and things to do. There is also excellent music that changes with almost every place you go. The melancholy music in Garoh fits the tale of the lycanthropes who take the form of werewolves because they borrow powers from beasts and are, therefore, often considered beasts is a beautiful combination. I kept that part saved on my game for a long time. You can also save the game anytime, except during battles, which is an incredibly useful feature.

Another similarity to GS1 is that, in LA, the toughest battle is not the last. It is the Star Magician on Treasure Island. I would not tackle it right away. I would wait until you find the powerful Sol Blade in the Mars Lighthouse on the other side of the world and backtrack to Treasure Island. The Star Magician is aided by four balls (or spheres, if you will). You need to defeat his strongest spheres in the following order of priority: 1. Guardian Spheres, 2. Refresh Sphere, 3. Anger Spheres. Only after the magician has 4 Thunder Spheres do you attack him. Unlike other boss battles, you do not use summons. Set all your Djinni, and attack with Felix's Sol Blade. Sheba and Piers should alternate Flash and Granite. I tried Shade instead of Granite but it did not work. Shade allows a little more damage which is just enough to prevent me from keeping my guys alive. Jenna should either be using Flower or healing psynergy. She should also have some Mist Potions and Waters of Life just in case (maybe divide them up between Felix and Jenna). This strategy will take a long time--maybe 45 minutes--but it will work eventually. If it goes right, you won't even need to use Isaac's team. It took me many tries to beat this dude. Incidentally, you do not need to defeat the magician to beat the game, but why not go for it?! This strategy will also work in the final boss, the Doom Dragon.

Another difficult part was a room full of Hover pads in the Jupiter Lighthouse. You have to stay above the Hover pads to keep hovering but a whirlwind will force you onto some broken tiles and, if you're there too long (which seems like just a nanosecond), you'll fall through the floor and have to start all over again. After many tries and many swear words, I discovered that if you leave the hover pads and return to them at a angle, you'll shave off just enough time to make it. I did this twice, to the right to activate one of the statues to the lighthouse, and to the left to pick up the Phaeton Blade, which was the most powerful weapon I had found up to that point. As it turns out, the Phaeton Blade is not that powerful compared to other weapons you will get and I ended up selling it so you really only need to conquer the Hover pads once on the right side of the room and save yourself the frustration of having to do it twice.

The end of the game was neat but I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to returning to Vale (the first town in GS1). Seeing that town again with that old music would be a real treat. As it turns out, that will be impossible. Oh well, I'm more nostalgic than most. I definitely recommend beating GS1 before playing Lost Age, although it is not necessary. I think you will love this game so much you'll want to play both, so you might as well play them in order. As always, get a walkthrough! Good luck, adept.

Golden Sun: The Best Game Ever?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: August 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Continuing with the first Golden Sun's story perfectly, Golden Sun: the Lost Age is one of the best games i've ever played. Felix, Jenna, Sheba, Piers, and Kraden continue the work of Saturos and Menardi by lighting the two remaining lighthouses. Although Alex left the group and made to new friends, Karst and Agatio, who he wants to help him light the lighthouses also. Karst also holds a grudge against Isaac who killed Menardi, and they finally meet in the Jupiter lighthouse. Isaac wasn't ready and his party was downed, luckly Felix and Co. step in to defeat Karst and Agation and light the lighthouse, sadly, Karst and Agation gets away, and Felix's party head out to light the lighhouse with 4 new members with him. The far north is a very dangerous place, and a perfect place for the Mars lighthouse: one of the most challenging areas in the game. If your lucky you can get to the top, but, a familiar floating eye meets then there to stop the possible apocolypse about to be unleahed. If and only if you can beat the final boss will you find out what happens, but beleive me the endings a suprise. Then the game isn't even over! There are a lot of sub-quests some you can only access if you imported your data from the last golden sun (strongly recomended) only if you do can you even think about fighting the last boss in the game, if you didn't, then too bad, you need every single djinn to get there. This is an amazing game with large amounts of game-play and surprises this is a must have game.


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