- Welcome to Golden Sun Hacking Community.
News:
As a consequence of the forum being updated and repaired, the chatbox has been lost.
However, you can still come say hi on our Discord server!
Recent posts
#61
Project List / Golden Sun: Dawn of Djinn [Ver...
Last post by JackitK - 05, January, 2022, 07:31:10 PMVersion 2 Edit 
:
I've finished and released a demo of Version 2 aka Second Mix of Dawn of Djinn. It goes up to Mongoll Forest, featuring all of the updates for the planned jump from Version 1 to Version 2. Including but not limited to:
Link to everything you should need to run the new demo version is provided in the link below...
(Containing all patches, Readme, and a cheat sheet for Djinn locations and new item drops.)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p4uceJQjSVmLuCCme8LZCx58F5eaBZSG/view?usp=drive_link
Golden Sun Dawn of Djinn is a mod of Golden Sun Broken Seal/first Golden Sun that remixes various elements of the original into a new, but familiar adventure. I have a trailer below that gives you a general preview of some things to expect in this mod.
I also have an ongoing playthrough on my Youtube channel of Version 1 that you can watch below:
Golden Sun: Dawn of Djinn V1 playthrough
Download to the patch and guides (Like detail Djinn/Djinni Charms location and battle combat along with a FAQ) is available on the github I've set up for this mod.....
https://github.com/JackitK/goldensun-dawn-of-djinn
Summery:
"Golden Sun: Dawn of Djinn" is a remixed version of the first game of the Golden Sun series. Featuring new Djinn, new Psynergy/battle abilities, and new challenges to overcome. Adjustments that tie into battle mechanics have been adjusted as well, not only to give more purpose to various methods of combat, but to encourage the use of features Dawn of Djinn specializes in. Plus this adventure takes quality of life improvements from mods like the Golden Sun Randomizer and builds off them to make travel outside of battle more enjoyable.
Combat:
New enemies make their debut and returning ones have increased stats from the original adventure. Combat overall feels closer to the challenge of a playthrough of Lost Age's "Hard Mode" than it does the original adventure. Though the readjusted move pools and occasional liberates with the Hard Mode rules, certain battles may be harder than your average Lost Age Hard Mode playthrough. Especially late game and in the optional areas.
There are methods to make your adventure easier or harder if desired via purchase & equipment of the "Causal Key" & "Brutal Key" respectfully. All bosses and various enemies also have a new set of moves to use against you. Many scripted battles have been upgraded to mini-boss status. All boss fights have been reworked and tested by hand to better fit the new difficulty and mechanics. They're designed to feel new while still keeping charm of their original battles.
Updates to Psynergy:
Though your party also has some tricks up their sleeve. While the structure of classes remains relatively unchanged, many of them grant you Psynergy that did not exist in the original adventure. They include both Psynergy that normally only exist in future games, or completely brand new. Currently you'll need to experiment with different classes and items to experience all the new abilities this mod offers, however if there is interest, I could include a write-up of each class learn-set in a future update.
Though all this powerful Psynergy comes at a cost, as it now cost more to cast than in the original adventure. Thankfully, Dawn of Djinn introduces plenty of ways to assure a prepared Adept never runs out despite the increase cost. Not only have more items affecting Psynergy recovery been introduced, but there are new abilities that not only recover Psynergy but redistribute it to allies who need it. Also there's been minor tweeks tying to pre-existing Psynergy and who can learn them.
Updates to Classes:
With some exceptions, classes retain their core identity though majority, if not all of them learn at least one new Psynergy. Most drastic changes are with tri-elemental classes. Especially the Ninja and Samauri classes. Samauri has been completely replaced with a new class called "Ka Bushi". Its stats remain the same and still retrains it's supportive use, but it now has a lot larger focus on weilding the undead and trades it wide range attacks for a more single target combat style.
The Ninja class has a slight nerf in power in exchange for more speed, not because it really need more speed, but because I wanted to make the Ninja class a more supportive class than the offense power house it was previously known for. To name just a few adjustments to the Ninja's move pool. It has a lot Psynergy with status secondary effects and it gets access to abilities to boost the speed of party members. Shuriken has also been nerfed in power in exchange for more range and you can learn 3 new special alternations of Shuriken that have their own secondary effects.
Last but not least is the brand new "quad elemental class" family. The Jack/Toolsmith classes are fairly unique as they have the worst overall stats of any class in the game and mostly intended to have easier access to utility Psynergy after obtaining them. However, they do have a unique spread of Psynergy via level up. A Jack Adept can wield all four elements of Psynergy at once and usually have a couple spells reserved for equipment. Plus each party member has a slightly different version of the Jack Adept/Toolsmith class. Having more powerful spells of a particular pair of elements, and learn a powerful Psynergy once max out in level. It's up to you to decide if these powerful spells are worth the poor stats. Even if you can't make use out of them in combat, they could have potential in reducing clutter in your inventory.
Updated Weapon System
Weapons are now more useful has there is now a system of pros & cons between each type of weapon. For example, Axes are the strongest weapons in the game but have a distinct drawback of dropping speed. Maces still tend to be weak weapons but they now have a high crit/unleash rate. See below for a full break down....
Axes:
Long Sword:
Short Sword: 
Mace:
Staff/Ankh:
Gloves/Mitts (new):
New Weapon Types
In addition Dawn of Djinn offers two new types of weapons, Gloves and Mitts. They are no longer pieces of armor but weapons with more defensive properties and extra abilities. Gloves boost defense as well as giving you distinct unleashes and item effects. Mitts are the more magical version of the Gloves. Boosting elemental resistance, bestowing unique Psynergy for combat, and granting rare unleashes that act like Psynergy in of themselves.
With a couple exceptions, Gloves and Mitts are weapons exclusive to Isaac and Ivan.
In addition, Staff and Ankh weapons have been divided into subcategories in a way similar to Long Sword and Short Sword weapons in the original game.
They both are exclusive to Ivan and Mia. However, Staffs boost max PP when equipped while Ankhs recover PP every turn when equipped.
Update to Battle Items:
Recovery items & consumable items have been adjusted and added as well. There are more types of Psynergy recovery items, in case the increase cost is too overwhelming. Recovery items as a whole also have a wider variety of effects. Each one is varied enough that even the weakest HP recovery item could have uses late game, depending on the secondary traits you desire. This makes item shops much more useful, as the items don't become completely useless by end game. Enemies also drop new items including equipment and new battle items. Every battle item that previously existed has been changed and new battle items have been added as well. While they'll may still get out-powered by late game Psynergy, they are much more interesting than in the vanilla game thanks to their secondary effects. You'll likely find these very valuable for early/mid-game bosses and may even find scenarios that they're an ideal option even later than that.
Djinn Updates:
Last but not least, are the namesakes of this adventure, the Djinn. With only a couple exceptions, every Djinn in Dawn of Djinn is brand new to this adventure. Featuring a combination of abilities reworked to be more viable and brand new Djinn abilities for you to use. Their overall increase in power should help encourage their use, despite all the mechanics in the series that encourage you to keep them set. Players who find a good balance between using Psynergy, using Djinn, and summoning to get them back on "set", will be rewarded the most by the mechanics of Dawn of Djinn.
Slight update to Summons:
Speaking of summons, tier 4 summons have been reduced in power. However, this isn't exactly a nerf as they trade their extra power for new secondary effects that may trigger. With Judgement haunting foes, Boreas making them slumber, Meteor sealing Psynergy, and Thor potentially stunning them. It could be a way to hinder a group of enemies in a pinch. The goal isn't to make Summons weak, as much as it is to keep them from outshining other methods of combat in the game. Granted they're still plenty powerful and there will be many scenarios where they're still the optimal form of damage. But especially late game, as your other abilities get stronger, it should help other mechanics in this adventure shine. And more importantly, force you to be more strategic with when you do it, especially with the facts enemies already hit harder making the drawbacks of setting up for them more apparent.
Though as I get a better idea of just how powerful summons are, I am considering a complete rework of them in a future version. I just didn't want to implement that right away as it would mean having to completely rework all enemies and bosses accordingly.
Djinni Charms:
In addition to the upgraded Djinn, Dawn of Djinn introduces a brand-new mechanic call the "Djinni Charms". They are essentially Djinn in a crystallized form, either because they've been weakened or have yet to fully awaken. Though not wielding their full powers, they can grant an ability to an Adept of their element if they equip them and lend their Psynergy to them. Only Adepts of the same element can equip them, so Isaac can only equip Venus Djinni Charms, Garret can only equip Mars Djinni Charms, Ivan can equip Jupiter Djinni Charms, and Mia can equip Mercury Djinni Charms. Furthermore, only one Djinni charm can be equipped to an Adept at a time, so you'll have to consider which charms will best assist you for each situation to get the most out of them.
Djinni Charms can be found throughout your adventure, though you are not the only one seeking them. Some are already in possession of monsters known as Djinni Mimics. Like normal Mimics, they first appear to be ordinary treasure chests. If you engage one, they will immediately attack you and wield the elemental powers of the Djinn they've captured. If you defeat one, you'll be granted with the Djinni they possessed in the form of a Djinni Charm.
Grand Djinni
In this world there are exceptionally strong Djinni known as the "Grand Djinni", like similar Djinni you may encounter if you approach them they will engage you in battle. However, unlike a normal Djinni, these "Grand Djinni" have strength and abilities that rival even many of the bosses throughout the game.
However, if you can beat them, they are the best Djinni in the game, having powerful abilities that will give you a strong edge in battle. There is one for each element, so keep that in mind throughout your adventure.
Adjustments to Overworld Abilities/Quality of Life Updates:
While majority of updates to Dawn of Djinn tie to combat, there are a few field exclusive updates. First off, Retreat not only warps you to the start of a dungeon or town but now functions similarly to teleport when used on the world map. Using Retreat pulls up the map and you can select any town that you've previously visited to instantly return there. The linearity of Golden Sun doesn't make this as needed as other RPGs, but it does open up some options that would be unreasonable in the original game, such as Retreating back to Imil to restock on Hermes Water.
Secondly, Avoid now behaves as a random encounter toggle rather than a wear off effect. Using it once turns off 100% of random encounters, using it again turns them back on. The adventure was built, and play tested around fighting all of your encounters, and there are some bugs making it hard to toggle encounters back on that can result from saving and quitting the game while you still have Avoid on. So I'd personally recommend only turning Avoid on for backtracking for a smooth, grind-less experience. Though the option is there for people who want to use it.
Building off the built in Psynergy the Randomizer provided, many utility Psynergy like Growth, Whirlwind, and even Avoid are built right into party members so they have them, regardless of your class. In addition, Psynergy not tied to battle no longer cost Psynergy to use. Though they have different names to distinguish from their battle equivalents. For example in battle Growth still cost Psynergy to use, but outside of battle it is refer to as "Sprout" but otherwise functions the same.
Psynergy items also behave differently as well. Often when you first encounter them they won't be items, but rather weapons and armor you can equip to party members to get the effect without wasting an extra item slot. When the equipment becomes out-classed, you can sell it at a shop and a more traditional Psynergy item will appear in any item shop's Artifact section. You can sell and re-buy the items as you please, freeing up inventory space if you're familiar enough with the game to know when you do and don't need them.
And I'll also include a playlist I've made specifically of these videos...
Dawn of Djinn Video Playlist
:I've finished and released a demo of Version 2 aka Second Mix of Dawn of Djinn. It goes up to Mongoll Forest, featuring all of the updates for the planned jump from Version 1 to Version 2. Including but not limited to:
- Dialogue (including a new sub-plot and other minor text changes to ingrate Dawn of Djinn's features into the story.)
- New classes for every Djinn arrangement from base game. Including brand new default classes and changes to their base stats that alter the roles of party members in battle from the vanilla game. (Ie. Garret now behaves closer to a physical glass cannon rather than a tank.)
- New assortment of Djinn and Djinn Charms, different from Version 1.
- Two different patches to pick based on your prefer challenge.
- A casual patch with a level of challenge similar to classic Golden Sun.
- A challenge patch with difficulty similar to Dawn of Djinn version 1.
- Optional patches to add on top for extra quality of life improvements, such as auto running or speeding through cutscenes.
- Changes to enemies and boss fights from Version 1, possibly featuring brand new enemies along the way.
- New Psynergy, equipment, and items to use in battle; along with those returning from version 1.
Link to everything you should need to run the new demo version is provided in the link below...
(Containing all patches, Readme, and a cheat sheet for Djinn locations and new item drops.)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p4uceJQjSVmLuCCme8LZCx58F5eaBZSG/view?usp=drive_link
Golden Sun Dawn of Djinn is a mod of Golden Sun Broken Seal/first Golden Sun that remixes various elements of the original into a new, but familiar adventure. I have a trailer below that gives you a general preview of some things to expect in this mod.
I also have an ongoing playthrough on my Youtube channel of Version 1 that you can watch below:
Golden Sun: Dawn of Djinn V1 playthrough
Download to the patch and guides (Like detail Djinn/Djinni Charms location and battle combat along with a FAQ) is available on the github I've set up for this mod.....
https://github.com/JackitK/goldensun-dawn-of-djinn
Summery:
"Golden Sun: Dawn of Djinn" is a remixed version of the first game of the Golden Sun series. Featuring new Djinn, new Psynergy/battle abilities, and new challenges to overcome. Adjustments that tie into battle mechanics have been adjusted as well, not only to give more purpose to various methods of combat, but to encourage the use of features Dawn of Djinn specializes in. Plus this adventure takes quality of life improvements from mods like the Golden Sun Randomizer and builds off them to make travel outside of battle more enjoyable.
Combat:
New enemies make their debut and returning ones have increased stats from the original adventure. Combat overall feels closer to the challenge of a playthrough of Lost Age's "Hard Mode" than it does the original adventure. Though the readjusted move pools and occasional liberates with the Hard Mode rules, certain battles may be harder than your average Lost Age Hard Mode playthrough. Especially late game and in the optional areas.
There are methods to make your adventure easier or harder if desired via purchase & equipment of the "Causal Key" & "Brutal Key" respectfully. All bosses and various enemies also have a new set of moves to use against you. Many scripted battles have been upgraded to mini-boss status. All boss fights have been reworked and tested by hand to better fit the new difficulty and mechanics. They're designed to feel new while still keeping charm of their original battles.
Updates to Psynergy:
Though your party also has some tricks up their sleeve. While the structure of classes remains relatively unchanged, many of them grant you Psynergy that did not exist in the original adventure. They include both Psynergy that normally only exist in future games, or completely brand new. Currently you'll need to experiment with different classes and items to experience all the new abilities this mod offers, however if there is interest, I could include a write-up of each class learn-set in a future update.
Though all this powerful Psynergy comes at a cost, as it now cost more to cast than in the original adventure. Thankfully, Dawn of Djinn introduces plenty of ways to assure a prepared Adept never runs out despite the increase cost. Not only have more items affecting Psynergy recovery been introduced, but there are new abilities that not only recover Psynergy but redistribute it to allies who need it. Also there's been minor tweeks tying to pre-existing Psynergy and who can learn them.
Updates to Classes:
With some exceptions, classes retain their core identity though majority, if not all of them learn at least one new Psynergy. Most drastic changes are with tri-elemental classes. Especially the Ninja and Samauri classes. Samauri has been completely replaced with a new class called "Ka Bushi". Its stats remain the same and still retrains it's supportive use, but it now has a lot larger focus on weilding the undead and trades it wide range attacks for a more single target combat style.
The Ninja class has a slight nerf in power in exchange for more speed, not because it really need more speed, but because I wanted to make the Ninja class a more supportive class than the offense power house it was previously known for. To name just a few adjustments to the Ninja's move pool. It has a lot Psynergy with status secondary effects and it gets access to abilities to boost the speed of party members. Shuriken has also been nerfed in power in exchange for more range and you can learn 3 new special alternations of Shuriken that have their own secondary effects.
Last but not least is the brand new "quad elemental class" family. The Jack/Toolsmith classes are fairly unique as they have the worst overall stats of any class in the game and mostly intended to have easier access to utility Psynergy after obtaining them. However, they do have a unique spread of Psynergy via level up. A Jack Adept can wield all four elements of Psynergy at once and usually have a couple spells reserved for equipment. Plus each party member has a slightly different version of the Jack Adept/Toolsmith class. Having more powerful spells of a particular pair of elements, and learn a powerful Psynergy once max out in level. It's up to you to decide if these powerful spells are worth the poor stats. Even if you can't make use out of them in combat, they could have potential in reducing clutter in your inventory.
Updated Weapon System
Weapons are now more useful has there is now a system of pros & cons between each type of weapon. For example, Axes are the strongest weapons in the game but have a distinct drawback of dropping speed. Maces still tend to be weak weapons but they now have a high crit/unleash rate. See below for a full break down....
Axes:
- Generally, the strongest type of weapons in the game.
- Axes have even higher attack now then they did in the original game.
- However, they all have the drawback of lowering speed when equipped.
Long Sword:
- Generally, the second strongest type of weapons in the game.
- No major drawback but no perk beyond strength.
- Relatively unchanged.
Short Sword:
- An all round weapon.
- Stronger than weapons like staffs & gloves, but no secondary boost.
- Weaker than axes but no speed drawback.
- New this this mod, Mia can equip short swords as well.
Mace:
- Weakest "physical" weapon.
- In exchange for lower attack, they have higher crit rates than other weapons.
- If the mace has an unleash, the odds of that unleash triggering will be higher instead.
Staff/Ankh:
- As weak if not weaker than maces.
- Come with a perk relating to Psynergy Points depending on if it's a Staff or Ankh (see new weapons for more details)
- Though rare, certain staffs/ankh may have unleashes that do base damage instead of attack focused damage
Gloves/Mitts (new):
- Tend to be weak compared to other weapons but come with a defensive boost.
- Gloves boost defense, Mitts boost elemental resistance
- All Gloves can be used like an item in battle for a secondary effect
- All Mitts bestow Psynergy when equipped, many featuring unique, rare, and/or brand new Psynergy
- All Gloves have unleashes
- All Mitts have a special type of unleash.
- Most unleashes are based on physical attack, but the unleashes used by Mitts have their own base attack.
- While this means their power gets obsolete quicker, it does make them a good fit for characters that already have a low attack stat, like mages (and Ivan as a whole).
New Weapon Types
In addition Dawn of Djinn offers two new types of weapons, Gloves and Mitts. They are no longer pieces of armor but weapons with more defensive properties and extra abilities. Gloves boost defense as well as giving you distinct unleashes and item effects. Mitts are the more magical version of the Gloves. Boosting elemental resistance, bestowing unique Psynergy for combat, and granting rare unleashes that act like Psynergy in of themselves.
With a couple exceptions, Gloves and Mitts are weapons exclusive to
Isaac and Ivan.In addition, Staff and Ankh weapons have been divided into subcategories in a way similar to Long Sword and Short Sword weapons in the original game.
They both are exclusive to
Ivan and Mia. However, Staffs boost max PP when equipped while Ankhs recover PP every turn when equipped.Update to Battle Items:
Recovery items & consumable items have been adjusted and added as well. There are more types of Psynergy recovery items, in case the increase cost is too overwhelming. Recovery items as a whole also have a wider variety of effects. Each one is varied enough that even the weakest HP recovery item could have uses late game, depending on the secondary traits you desire. This makes item shops much more useful, as the items don't become completely useless by end game. Enemies also drop new items including equipment and new battle items. Every battle item that previously existed has been changed and new battle items have been added as well. While they'll may still get out-powered by late game Psynergy, they are much more interesting than in the vanilla game thanks to their secondary effects. You'll likely find these very valuable for early/mid-game bosses and may even find scenarios that they're an ideal option even later than that.
Djinn Updates:
Last but not least, are the namesakes of this adventure, the Djinn. With only a couple exceptions, every Djinn in Dawn of Djinn is brand new to this adventure. Featuring a combination of abilities reworked to be more viable and brand new Djinn abilities for you to use. Their overall increase in power should help encourage their use, despite all the mechanics in the series that encourage you to keep them set. Players who find a good balance between using Psynergy, using Djinn, and summoning to get them back on "set", will be rewarded the most by the mechanics of Dawn of Djinn.
Slight update to Summons:
Speaking of summons, tier 4 summons have been reduced in power. However, this isn't exactly a nerf as they trade their extra power for new secondary effects that may trigger. With Judgement haunting foes, Boreas making them slumber, Meteor sealing Psynergy, and Thor potentially stunning them. It could be a way to hinder a group of enemies in a pinch. The goal isn't to make Summons weak, as much as it is to keep them from outshining other methods of combat in the game. Granted they're still plenty powerful and there will be many scenarios where they're still the optimal form of damage. But especially late game, as your other abilities get stronger, it should help other mechanics in this adventure shine. And more importantly, force you to be more strategic with when you do it, especially with the facts enemies already hit harder making the drawbacks of setting up for them more apparent.
Though as I get a better idea of just how powerful summons are, I am considering a complete rework of them in a future version. I just didn't want to implement that right away as it would mean having to completely rework all enemies and bosses accordingly.
Djinni Charms:
In addition to the upgraded Djinn, Dawn of Djinn introduces a brand-new mechanic call the "Djinni Charms". They are essentially Djinn in a crystallized form, either because they've been weakened or have yet to fully awaken. Though not wielding their full powers, they can grant an ability to an Adept of their element if they equip them and lend their Psynergy to them. Only Adepts of the same element can equip them, so Isaac can only equip Venus Djinni Charms, Garret can only equip Mars Djinni Charms, Ivan can equip Jupiter Djinni Charms, and Mia can equip Mercury Djinni Charms. Furthermore, only one Djinni charm can be equipped to an Adept at a time, so you'll have to consider which charms will best assist you for each situation to get the most out of them.
Djinni Charms can be found throughout your adventure, though you are not the only one seeking them. Some are already in possession of monsters known as Djinni Mimics. Like normal Mimics, they first appear to be ordinary treasure chests. If you engage one, they will immediately attack you and wield the elemental powers of the Djinn they've captured. If you defeat one, you'll be granted with the Djinni they possessed in the form of a Djinni Charm.
Grand Djinni
In this world there are exceptionally strong Djinni known as the "Grand Djinni", like similar Djinni you may encounter if you approach them they will engage you in battle. However, unlike a normal Djinni, these "Grand Djinni" have strength and abilities that rival even many of the bosses throughout the game.
However, if you can beat them, they are the best Djinni in the game, having powerful abilities that will give you a strong edge in battle. There is one for each element, so keep that in mind throughout your adventure.
Adjustments to Overworld Abilities/Quality of Life Updates:
While majority of updates to Dawn of Djinn tie to combat, there are a few field exclusive updates. First off, Retreat not only warps you to the start of a dungeon or town but now functions similarly to teleport when used on the world map. Using Retreat pulls up the map and you can select any town that you've previously visited to instantly return there. The linearity of Golden Sun doesn't make this as needed as other RPGs, but it does open up some options that would be unreasonable in the original game, such as Retreating back to Imil to restock on Hermes Water.
Secondly, Avoid now behaves as a random encounter toggle rather than a wear off effect. Using it once turns off 100% of random encounters, using it again turns them back on. The adventure was built, and play tested around fighting all of your encounters, and there are some bugs making it hard to toggle encounters back on that can result from saving and quitting the game while you still have Avoid on. So I'd personally recommend only turning Avoid on for backtracking for a smooth, grind-less experience. Though the option is there for people who want to use it.
Building off the built in Psynergy the Randomizer provided, many utility Psynergy like Growth, Whirlwind, and even Avoid are built right into party members so they have them, regardless of your class. In addition, Psynergy not tied to battle no longer cost Psynergy to use. Though they have different names to distinguish from their battle equivalents. For example in battle Growth still cost Psynergy to use, but outside of battle it is refer to as "Sprout" but otherwise functions the same.
Psynergy items also behave differently as well. Often when you first encounter them they won't be items, but rather weapons and armor you can equip to party members to get the effect without wasting an extra item slot. When the equipment becomes out-classed, you can sell it at a shop and a more traditional Psynergy item will appear in any item shop's Artifact section. You can sell and re-buy the items as you please, freeing up inventory space if you're familiar enough with the game to know when you do and don't need them.
And I'll also include a playlist I've made specifically of these videos...
Dawn of Djinn Video Playlist
#62
Introductions / Finally here
Last post by JackitK - 05, January, 2022, 05:58:47 PMHello,
I've been a lurker on the forums for awhile now (been using a lot of the forms resources like the TLA Editor and the Golden Sun Randomizer generator on a couple projects I've been working on) and been hanging out in the Discord for a few months, thanks to Salanewt, I finally got a working account on here.
The Golden Sun series has had been a part of my life for a vast majority of it, it was a childhood Christmas present back around it's release, and it has drastically shaped my creativity and life ever since. Back around October last year I got the inspiration to look into Golden Sun modding. I've had inspirations to make an RPG like Golden Sun for basically all my life but struggled actually getting anywhere with it. Minus the times I've explored said ideas and characters in my drawing. I got to the point where learning how to mod Golden Sun felt like it could at least be a step towards that direction I'd be willing to take.
Biggest project I'm currently working on is a mod of the original (Broken Seal) Golden Sun. Some people may know it as "Another Sunrise", though I've been bouncing between names for it, currently leaning towards "Alt Sunrise". It started as a customized "hard mode", where I was going to buff stats the way Lost Age did and remixing the bosses move pool to make it more interesting. Though the more I worked on it, the more I ended up adding and modifying with it and now it's an entirely remixed version of Golden Sun. Featuring new Djinni, Psynergy, items and more. I'll be making a topic in the proper forum shortly to properly showcase what I have so far with the mod. Also using that as a place to share it once I'm ready to. I did make a trailer showcasing a bit of it but I've already gotten and implemented several additional features since releasing that trailer. So I'm hoping to make an updated video showcasing more about it eventually. For now, while I get that ready though, I guess there's no harm sharing said trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksfMLlVdIcc
(It's been awhile since I've last been on a forum, so if there's a way to turn a link into a video player, I'll have to figure that out later.)
I've been a lurker on the forums for awhile now (been using a lot of the forms resources like the TLA Editor and the Golden Sun Randomizer generator on a couple projects I've been working on) and been hanging out in the Discord for a few months, thanks to Salanewt, I finally got a working account on here.
The Golden Sun series has had been a part of my life for a vast majority of it, it was a childhood Christmas present back around it's release, and it has drastically shaped my creativity and life ever since. Back around October last year I got the inspiration to look into Golden Sun modding. I've had inspirations to make an RPG like Golden Sun for basically all my life but struggled actually getting anywhere with it. Minus the times I've explored said ideas and characters in my drawing. I got to the point where learning how to mod Golden Sun felt like it could at least be a step towards that direction I'd be willing to take.
Biggest project I'm currently working on is a mod of the original (Broken Seal) Golden Sun. Some people may know it as "Another Sunrise", though I've been bouncing between names for it, currently leaning towards "Alt Sunrise". It started as a customized "hard mode", where I was going to buff stats the way Lost Age did and remixing the bosses move pool to make it more interesting. Though the more I worked on it, the more I ended up adding and modifying with it and now it's an entirely remixed version of Golden Sun. Featuring new Djinni, Psynergy, items and more. I'll be making a topic in the proper forum shortly to properly showcase what I have so far with the mod. Also using that as a place to share it once I'm ready to. I did make a trailer showcasing a bit of it but I've already gotten and implemented several additional features since releasing that trailer. So I'm hoping to make an updated video showcasing more about it eventually. For now, while I get that ready though, I guess there's no harm sharing said trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksfMLlVdIcc
(It's been awhile since I've last been on a forum, so if there's a way to turn a link into a video player, I'll have to figure that out later.)
#63
Project List / Re: [RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloa...
Last post by Dark Mits - 30, December, 2021, 06:48:11 AMThank you, Caledor!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone!
#64
Project List / Re: [RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloa...
Last post by Caledor - 24, December, 2021, 07:42:18 PMAdded replacement links for the mod in the opening post, right after the FAQs.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
#65
Project List / Re: [RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloa...
Last post by Dark Mits - 23, December, 2021, 01:47:38 PM"Always keep frequent backups" is something we learn... and I didn't do. Due to my own stupidity, I managed to lose my savefiles. So I go back from square 1... but the downloads do not seem to work. Both:
http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=86
http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=87
give me an "404 - Attachment not found" error.
-=EDIT=-
It seems like no download is working at all, not just for Reloaded mod. Looks like moderators needs to fix it.
http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=86
http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=87
give me an "404 - Attachment not found" error.
-=EDIT=-
It seems like no download is working at all, not just for Reloaded mod. Looks like moderators needs to fix it.
#66
Tech, Gaming and Entertainment / Re: A story that goes Beyond (...
Last post by DevAnj - 01, November, 2021, 12:49:01 AMIt's time to finally cross the border! To do this, we enter the large church we visited earlier and show our royal pendant to this priest.
Border Church
Doing this prompts him to ask if we are Artur, which we of course are. I mean, I don't know many other people with a pet dragon, or his foster sister and brother trailing him with a rod and sword in their hands respectively.
We move on and find Samson and Edward up ahead, as well as a weird puzzle. Samson and Edward spend time talking about how a book told them about it but not how to solve it, and that said puzzle vexes them.
It's honestly an alright sliding puzzle. It can be a bit difficult to get pieces to the right row, especially since the top has pieces from both itself and the bottom at the start, but a bit of fiddling around should solve it. Worst comes to worst, you can view how the pieces get scrambled at the start of the cutscene and then unscramble them using this info.
Trying to leave without solving this puzzle leads to an unwinnable fight with Ramue, so uh, don't do that! Inexplicably, when you do solve the puzzle, the priest comes upto you fine, despite being brutally killed in the scene before this fight.
Solving it also opens a door set into a mountain, which leads into a very large and empty room, which then leads into a cave. Inexplicable architecture aside, we soon run into more DRAMA.
Cave of Spirits
We hear some pursuers calling us out from afar. Percy then acts like a bold hero and closes the gate to slow down, breaking its lever on the other side. Annie protests, but is too startled to do anything. Annie exclaims in disbelief, Samson and Edward commend him on his bravery, the team makes facial gestures to Annie, and move on.
We quickly rearrange our formation to put Annie up front, being in the back row reduces physical damage output and for quite a bit of the game, having high physical damage is rather important. Annie, despite her appearances, actually has the same strength as Artur right now, and indeed she can whack things quite well with her rod.
Edward gains AttackLevel 1 from a level up deeper into the cave. This is a fairly potent attack buff, though unfortunately heavily limited by its steep MP cost. We shall make good use of it later. We also find a chest with a Source of Agility in its upper elevation. Unlike the Source of Wisdom, this is actually important, as it lets characters go first before the enemy on a turn. Annie is currently our fastest attacker, but Artur isn't far behind, so we give it to him.
Going further, we find this priest stranded in the cave. If we agree to guide him out, he will trail us at a fair distance. He doesn't fight in battles nor heals the party, but if you take him all the way out, he will leave, and then stay in an inn up ahead where he provides his usual services. Besides that, this cave is entirely unremarkable and the encounters uninteresting, so we move on.
Some grunts report our escape to Ramue. She then proceeds to threaten them all in typical villain fashion, but then claims that we won't receive any assistance in Zalagoon even if we do make it there, ending with a villainous cry of laughter.
Mountain Cottage
While the inn is another poorly constructed, inexplicable monstrosity, and we do nothing of significance there, I might as well link its theme. It's incredibly relaxing and a pleasant change from the monotonous cave theme we just had to endure a while ago. It is also used later on for various towns, which is very much welcome.
Despite this really impressive dragon, the northern cave is mostly a dead end, with enemies just as unimpressive as the cave before it. Annie levels up and learns Awaken, which is a worthless spell. It removes Sleep, as you might expect. Sleep(and most status effects) are simply not common enough to warrant casting it. The only thing we can really pick up here is a Healing Herb, a mildly strong consumable. So we'll head out and right to our next dungeon.
The Tree
The next dungeon occurs within a network of trees, similar visually to a stripped down version of the interiors of Tret Tree. Most of the dungeon consists of puzzles involving shoving cocoons into holes, like this. Or falling through said holes yourself. Going through a detour on the left gets us Steel Mail, a mild defensive upgrade to Samson. Most characters in this game have their own type of armor, with a few exceptions far later into the game.
You may recall that Samson was cursed by Ramue in the prison. This wasn't just a plot point, the curse will randomly make him take roughly a quarter of his damage dealt back to him, or stop him from taking an action. Since Samson can only ever attack, and since he tends to be on the frontline due to his strength, this leads to him killing himself quite a lot later, which is rather frustrating. Right now it's not too bad, just mildly inconvenient.
The enemies here are mildly stronger than in the caves before, but not by much. Certainly not enough to demand any strategy more complex than mashing "Attack" over and over.
Artur learns IllusionLevel 1 from a level up. It's a fairly worthless spell that attempts to inflict Illusion on a group of enemies. Illusion was supposed to work a bit like "Blind" and other similar spells in RPGs, blocking their sight and lowering their attack accuracy. However, because of a bug or poor values, it basically does next to nothing. Even if it did work it would be rather insignificant, since many enemies who are strong enough to warrant status effects instead of raw damage often use spells and spell like effects, not regular attacks.
In other news, Edward also learns IceLevel 1. This is stronger than FireLevel 1, at the cost of being hideously expensive and rather inefficient. As such, throughout this dungeon Edward has been swinging his staff rather than casting spells; he simply doesn't have the MP to sustain any actual spellcasting throughout the dungeon. As you will see, this will actually become a common trend for attack wizards in dungeons in this game.
While this dungeon plays around with the idea of puzzles as obstacles, it doesn't do much with it. The cocoon puzzles never get much harder, only more roundabout. We finally reach the tree branches after much fighting, climbing, and pushing of cocoons down holes.
This however is merely an interlude between this and the next tree. Which is all about bouncing off webs. Yes, seriously. The puzzle here is to drop down onto ground that's not covered by webs, so that we can successfully descend. There's one detour we can take for a Source of Life, a consumable that boosts LP. Huh, LP? But VP is what went down when we took hits right?
So basically, this game uses a reserve health system. VP is our active health, and goes down when we take damage. When it reaches 0, the character is knocked out and becomes "groggy". On their next turn, their LP kicks in, restoring roughly 2 VP per LP used upto the max VP. Sometimes it takes more LP, sometimes it takes less. What this means is that, in most circumstances, you will be able to survive high damage hits, especially random high damage hits, and come back just fine. While for the most part this is a well thought out mechanic, it's let down by poor telegraphing and certain rough encounters. But that's a subject for later.
The last room is an annoying circle of webs where all but one hole leads to Artur's party being bounced back. My patience is greatly exhausted "solving" this trial and error maze.
So I'll leave the next dungeon for later, as it's going to be Yet.Another.Cave. Join me next time when we get to Zalagoon and the game will become interesting again!..Maybe.
Border Church
Doing this prompts him to ask if we are Artur, which we of course are. I mean, I don't know many other people with a pet dragon, or his foster sister and brother trailing him with a rod and sword in their hands respectively.
We move on and find Samson and Edward up ahead, as well as a weird puzzle. Samson and Edward spend time talking about how a book told them about it but not how to solve it, and that said puzzle vexes them.
It's honestly an alright sliding puzzle. It can be a bit difficult to get pieces to the right row, especially since the top has pieces from both itself and the bottom at the start, but a bit of fiddling around should solve it. Worst comes to worst, you can view how the pieces get scrambled at the start of the cutscene and then unscramble them using this info.
Trying to leave without solving this puzzle leads to an unwinnable fight with Ramue, so uh, don't do that! Inexplicably, when you do solve the puzzle, the priest comes upto you fine, despite being brutally killed in the scene before this fight.
Solving it also opens a door set into a mountain, which leads into a very large and empty room, which then leads into a cave. Inexplicable architecture aside, we soon run into more DRAMA.
Cave of Spirits
We hear some pursuers calling us out from afar. Percy then acts like a bold hero and closes the gate to slow down, breaking its lever on the other side. Annie protests, but is too startled to do anything. Annie exclaims in disbelief, Samson and Edward commend him on his bravery, the team makes facial gestures to Annie, and move on.
We quickly rearrange our formation to put Annie up front, being in the back row reduces physical damage output and for quite a bit of the game, having high physical damage is rather important. Annie, despite her appearances, actually has the same strength as Artur right now, and indeed she can whack things quite well with her rod.
Edward gains AttackLevel 1 from a level up deeper into the cave. This is a fairly potent attack buff, though unfortunately heavily limited by its steep MP cost. We shall make good use of it later. We also find a chest with a Source of Agility in its upper elevation. Unlike the Source of Wisdom, this is actually important, as it lets characters go first before the enemy on a turn. Annie is currently our fastest attacker, but Artur isn't far behind, so we give it to him.
Going further, we find this priest stranded in the cave. If we agree to guide him out, he will trail us at a fair distance. He doesn't fight in battles nor heals the party, but if you take him all the way out, he will leave, and then stay in an inn up ahead where he provides his usual services. Besides that, this cave is entirely unremarkable and the encounters uninteresting, so we move on.
Some grunts report our escape to Ramue. She then proceeds to threaten them all in typical villain fashion, but then claims that we won't receive any assistance in Zalagoon even if we do make it there, ending with a villainous cry of laughter.
Mountain Cottage
While the inn is another poorly constructed, inexplicable monstrosity, and we do nothing of significance there, I might as well link its theme. It's incredibly relaxing and a pleasant change from the monotonous cave theme we just had to endure a while ago. It is also used later on for various towns, which is very much welcome.
Despite this really impressive dragon, the northern cave is mostly a dead end, with enemies just as unimpressive as the cave before it. Annie levels up and learns Awaken, which is a worthless spell. It removes Sleep, as you might expect. Sleep(and most status effects) are simply not common enough to warrant casting it. The only thing we can really pick up here is a Healing Herb, a mildly strong consumable. So we'll head out and right to our next dungeon.
The Tree
The next dungeon occurs within a network of trees, similar visually to a stripped down version of the interiors of Tret Tree. Most of the dungeon consists of puzzles involving shoving cocoons into holes, like this. Or falling through said holes yourself. Going through a detour on the left gets us Steel Mail, a mild defensive upgrade to Samson. Most characters in this game have their own type of armor, with a few exceptions far later into the game.
You may recall that Samson was cursed by Ramue in the prison. This wasn't just a plot point, the curse will randomly make him take roughly a quarter of his damage dealt back to him, or stop him from taking an action. Since Samson can only ever attack, and since he tends to be on the frontline due to his strength, this leads to him killing himself quite a lot later, which is rather frustrating. Right now it's not too bad, just mildly inconvenient.
The enemies here are mildly stronger than in the caves before, but not by much. Certainly not enough to demand any strategy more complex than mashing "Attack" over and over.
Artur learns IllusionLevel 1 from a level up. It's a fairly worthless spell that attempts to inflict Illusion on a group of enemies. Illusion was supposed to work a bit like "Blind" and other similar spells in RPGs, blocking their sight and lowering their attack accuracy. However, because of a bug or poor values, it basically does next to nothing. Even if it did work it would be rather insignificant, since many enemies who are strong enough to warrant status effects instead of raw damage often use spells and spell like effects, not regular attacks.
In other news, Edward also learns IceLevel 1. This is stronger than FireLevel 1, at the cost of being hideously expensive and rather inefficient. As such, throughout this dungeon Edward has been swinging his staff rather than casting spells; he simply doesn't have the MP to sustain any actual spellcasting throughout the dungeon. As you will see, this will actually become a common trend for attack wizards in dungeons in this game.
While this dungeon plays around with the idea of puzzles as obstacles, it doesn't do much with it. The cocoon puzzles never get much harder, only more roundabout. We finally reach the tree branches after much fighting, climbing, and pushing of cocoons down holes.
This however is merely an interlude between this and the next tree. Which is all about bouncing off webs. Yes, seriously. The puzzle here is to drop down onto ground that's not covered by webs, so that we can successfully descend. There's one detour we can take for a Source of Life, a consumable that boosts LP. Huh, LP? But VP is what went down when we took hits right?
So basically, this game uses a reserve health system. VP is our active health, and goes down when we take damage. When it reaches 0, the character is knocked out and becomes "groggy". On their next turn, their LP kicks in, restoring roughly 2 VP per LP used upto the max VP. Sometimes it takes more LP, sometimes it takes less. What this means is that, in most circumstances, you will be able to survive high damage hits, especially random high damage hits, and come back just fine. While for the most part this is a well thought out mechanic, it's let down by poor telegraphing and certain rough encounters. But that's a subject for later.
The last room is an annoying circle of webs where all but one hole leads to Artur's party being bounced back. My patience is greatly exhausted "solving" this trial and error maze.
So I'll leave the next dungeon for later, as it's going to be Yet.Another.Cave. Join me next time when we get to Zalagoon and the game will become interesting again!..Maybe.
#67
Project List / Re: [RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloa...
Last post by Caledor - 26, October, 2021, 06:34:19 PMQuote from: DevAnj on 25, October, 2021, 11:39:35 PM
What triple element classes can I unlock specifically in the first Golden Sun game? From what little I experimented with, I could get Shinobi/Samurai/White Knight(I think, was definitely a Defender esque class though) on Isaac and Garet, and Wild Mage/Divine Mage/White Mage on Ivan and Mia. I'm also not sure if any of them are good compared to dual element classes or even some mono element ones. For instance, I don't see how Wild Mage is useful when Isaac and Garet get generally better weapons and better attack stats to go with said weapons. Shinobi is alright, mostly because of Shuriken and powerful aoes, but Samurai was surprisingly underwhelming and White Knight wasn't really much better than Defender. I suppose you can't really make two effective Defenders in this game though given the small pool of Djinn compared to the Lost Age.
Basically the same as TLA for the original party but you're locked to earlier tiers, just like every other class line. Wild mage is for mages though, not Isaac and Garet.
#68
Project List / Re: [RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloa...
Last post by DevAnj - 25, October, 2021, 11:39:35 PMWhat triple element classes can I unlock specifically in the first Golden Sun game? From what little I experimented with, I could get Shinobi/Samurai/White Knight(I think, was definitely a Defender esque class though) on Isaac and Garet, and Wild Mage/Divine Mage/White Mage on Ivan and Mia. I'm also not sure if any of them are good compared to dual element classes or even some mono element ones. For instance, I don't see how Wild Mage is useful when Isaac and Garet get generally better weapons and better attack stats to go with said weapons. Shinobi is alright, mostly because of Shuriken and powerful aoes, but Samurai was surprisingly underwhelming and White Knight wasn't really much better than Defender. I suppose you can't really make two effective Defenders in this game though given the small pool of Djinn compared to the Lost Age.
#69
Tech, Gaming and Entertainment / Re: A story that goes Beyond (...
Last post by DevAnj - 21, October, 2021, 08:53:57 AMIt's time to enter Marion!
Marion Town
We are immediately treated to a dismal tune, which is quite fitting considering the town was captured recently and is currently under military occupation. This is one of the better tunes in the soundtrack, and infact perhaps my second favorite, right behind the overworld theme.
Talking to people around town reveals that it is occupied by Bandore, that they are looking for a "hero" of Marion, Sir Samson, and that Bandore is evil in the least subtle way possible. Here's a sample of Bandore villainy:
Checking the shop reveals that the Bandore soldiers have confiscated all lethal weapons, except they still sell magic rods. It's not pointy enough to be used as a weapon right? Anyway, the shop is a bit pricey and the gear it sells, while being technically stat upgrades, are too small to matter really.
On the lower rightmost corner of Marion is this brave Marion soldier. He is shocked at the number of soldiers, because apparently he didn't understand how military occupation works. Then he proceeds to rush forward in a vain, pointless attempt at rescuing the prince of Marion, Edward. Alright.
The inn has a grandmother and her daughter from Zeal(not the Chrono Trigger kingdom). Apparently they need to get to an elder's village, but can't cross over to Zalagoon because of the Bandore border guard. We'll get to those places someday.
The inn itself is fairly cheap, as RPG inns tend to be. It also does what all RPG inns do, refresh your HP and MP.
Well I doubt his running around is purposeless if he really is a hero of Marion. Maybe he plans a jailbreak, or is organizing an uprising.
Going to the palace courtyard of Marion, we can talk to more Bandore soldiers there. Unfortunately they say little that's interesting, save for one who bemoans his lieutenant taking all the credit for capturing the prince, even though he caught sight of the prince first. There's a Smoke Bomb we can loot from a chest, basically a guaranteed battle escape item.
Anyway to actually progress the story, we need to talk to this guy:
Samson's Theme
We are treated to a ridiculously badass cutscene of Samson wrecking a Bandore soldier looking for him, and then frightening his six other buddies. Of note is this amazing line:
Then after some more toying with the soldiers, he decides to rush past them, killing off one of them, and heads to the graveyard. Where he proceeds to just.. vanish. Huh...
Checking the graveyard reveals nothing about Samson's whereabouts, though we can discover that only 3 gravestones are named and loot a Ring of Defense from one of them. Well then.
It turns out there was a secret passage in the house Samson was hiding in all along! Hmm, what could that have to do with the graveyard though?
Downstairs, there's a switch, which we of course flip. This opens up one of the gravestones, conveniently when the guards give up on searching the graveyard. I'm shocked that none bothered to bring a shovel to dig up the graves themselves, perhaps these soldiers are incompetent after all.
Cave of Spirits
The passage below is filled with scripted encounters with... bats. Yes, mild reskins of the cave bats we fought back in the Cave of Spirits. Camelot, you surely could have made these enemies more notable if you were going to script an encounter for them? Or atleast not resorted to palette swaps this early.
Anyhow, the battles with them are pretty uninteresting and inconsequential, as you would expect. We then run into a rock which we move out of the way through team work.
Finally, we meet Samson in the lowermost level of the passage.
Samson and Percy talk, hatching an escape plan and also getting Annie and Artur introduced. Samson seems surprised to hear Artur is Sir Kevins' son, and a little upset that Galahad didn't show up. We then decide to accompany him because clearly he's a badass and the hero of Marion, why wouldn't we.
Samson starts out pretty impressive. He's a whole 10 levels above the party and his Strength score is astounding. Conversely though, he knows absolutely no spells. We adjust the party formation so that he can fight from the front, with Annie going to the back.
The prison has this really amusing Bandore soldier:
The Marion soldier held down here is not as amusing. Least amusing of all is of course the prince, who simply orders us to save him fast.
Naturally, his idea of surprise is to ram the door down and rush into the guard room. What follows is a fight with 3 Bandore soldiers. They prove to be pretty unremarkable, thanks in no small part to Samson being so overpowered currently.
A surviving guard proceeds to flee to the upper floor, closing the fake wall behind him. Well that just leaves us free to break out all of the prison inmates, but there's only one person we're going to rescue, and unfortunately it's not the funny Bandore soldier.
Samson rudely knocks Artur out of the way in his rush to check on prince Edward. Turns out Edward is fine, and the party decides to visit Zalagoon because the queen is the prince's aunt. Of course, the prince himself joins the party.
For some reason, Edward is a wizard with wizardly stats. Maybe spellcasting is just part of the royal curriculum. He also doesn't have many spells right now, only being able to cast the same fire spell as Artur, albeit more times than him. Perhaps the royal curriculum is not very good at teaching things. We move him to the back and then proceed to leave the prison.
Naturally, since this would be too smooth for a JRPG plot, we are spotted just as we're heading back to the passageway.
Ramue's Theme
Hi Ramue! As you can guess, she's a major villain, and acts appropriately villainous. She taunts Samson and throws two of Bandore's soldiers at him for her amusement, then attempts to shock him with bolts. When he dodges all of them, she laughs and then throws a cursed... shawl. He dodges this with little difficulty, but then has it drop on his head, despite having dodged lightning bolts before. I guess he was caught off guard by how silly throwing a piece of clothing at him was. Then she taunts him again, challenging him to go as far as he can under the effects of the shawl's curse. Of course, she ends the conversation with a menacing threat about how she won't be as "merciful" next time.
The very first thing you'll notice about the curse is that it robs Samson of all of his levels, reducing him back to level 1. Naturally, his stats also take a big hit as well. I would discuss what it does in combat, but the moment we proceed a bit further in the passage, he splits us up, taking Edward with him. He's worried that a bigger group would be easier for Bandore to catch, but in that case he should give the prince to someone else, since he himself is a fugitive being actively hunted down. Anyway remember the big church near the border crossing to the east? We need to meet up with him and the prince there. Oh, and Artur's father is treated as a mere footnote, which while understandable considering the circumstances, is still rather harsh.
Join us next time for a thrilling escape across the border and to new lands!
Marion Town
We are immediately treated to a dismal tune, which is quite fitting considering the town was captured recently and is currently under military occupation. This is one of the better tunes in the soundtrack, and infact perhaps my second favorite, right behind the overworld theme.
Talking to people around town reveals that it is occupied by Bandore, that they are looking for a "hero" of Marion, Sir Samson, and that Bandore is evil in the least subtle way possible. Here's a sample of Bandore villainy:
Checking the shop reveals that the Bandore soldiers have confiscated all lethal weapons, except they still sell magic rods. It's not pointy enough to be used as a weapon right? Anyway, the shop is a bit pricey and the gear it sells, while being technically stat upgrades, are too small to matter really.
On the lower rightmost corner of Marion is this brave Marion soldier. He is shocked at the number of soldiers, because apparently he didn't understand how military occupation works. Then he proceeds to rush forward in a vain, pointless attempt at rescuing the prince of Marion, Edward. Alright.
The inn has a grandmother and her daughter from Zeal(not the Chrono Trigger kingdom). Apparently they need to get to an elder's village, but can't cross over to Zalagoon because of the Bandore border guard. We'll get to those places someday.
The inn itself is fairly cheap, as RPG inns tend to be. It also does what all RPG inns do, refresh your HP and MP.
Quote
Bandore Soldier: The local hero Samson, who is known for his strength, is running around with no regard for the prince. He is going to force us to execute him.
Well I doubt his running around is purposeless if he really is a hero of Marion. Maybe he plans a jailbreak, or is organizing an uprising.
Going to the palace courtyard of Marion, we can talk to more Bandore soldiers there. Unfortunately they say little that's interesting, save for one who bemoans his lieutenant taking all the credit for capturing the prince, even though he caught sight of the prince first. There's a Smoke Bomb we can loot from a chest, basically a guaranteed battle escape item.
Anyway to actually progress the story, we need to talk to this guy:
Samson's Theme
We are treated to a ridiculously badass cutscene of Samson wrecking a Bandore soldier looking for him, and then frightening his six other buddies. Of note is this amazing line:
Quote
Samson: Hey guys! Do you want to fight or dance? Well, we can't fight when you're all the way over there!
Then after some more toying with the soldiers, he decides to rush past them, killing off one of them, and heads to the graveyard. Where he proceeds to just.. vanish. Huh...
Checking the graveyard reveals nothing about Samson's whereabouts, though we can discover that only 3 gravestones are named and loot a Ring of Defense from one of them. Well then.
It turns out there was a secret passage in the house Samson was hiding in all along! Hmm, what could that have to do with the graveyard though?
Downstairs, there's a switch, which we of course flip. This opens up one of the gravestones, conveniently when the guards give up on searching the graveyard. I'm shocked that none bothered to bring a shovel to dig up the graves themselves, perhaps these soldiers are incompetent after all.
Cave of Spirits
The passage below is filled with scripted encounters with... bats. Yes, mild reskins of the cave bats we fought back in the Cave of Spirits. Camelot, you surely could have made these enemies more notable if you were going to script an encounter for them? Or atleast not resorted to palette swaps this early.
Anyhow, the battles with them are pretty uninteresting and inconsequential, as you would expect. We then run into a rock which we move out of the way through team work.
Finally, we meet Samson in the lowermost level of the passage.
Samson and Percy talk, hatching an escape plan and also getting Annie and Artur introduced. Samson seems surprised to hear Artur is Sir Kevins' son, and a little upset that Galahad didn't show up. We then decide to accompany him because clearly he's a badass and the hero of Marion, why wouldn't we.
Samson starts out pretty impressive. He's a whole 10 levels above the party and his Strength score is astounding. Conversely though, he knows absolutely no spells. We adjust the party formation so that he can fight from the front, with Annie going to the back.
The prison has this really amusing Bandore soldier:
Quote
Bandore soldier: How did I get in here? I remember drinking... and drinking and drinking... I passed out in front of the emperor. I was told to sleep it off.
When I woke up, I was in here. I think I'll sleep some more...
ZZZzzzz...
The Marion soldier held down here is not as amusing. Least amusing of all is of course the prince, who simply orders us to save him fast.
Naturally, his idea of surprise is to ram the door down and rush into the guard room. What follows is a fight with 3 Bandore soldiers. They prove to be pretty unremarkable, thanks in no small part to Samson being so overpowered currently.
A surviving guard proceeds to flee to the upper floor, closing the fake wall behind him. Well that just leaves us free to break out all of the prison inmates, but there's only one person we're going to rescue, and unfortunately it's not the funny Bandore soldier.
Samson rudely knocks Artur out of the way in his rush to check on prince Edward. Turns out Edward is fine, and the party decides to visit Zalagoon because the queen is the prince's aunt. Of course, the prince himself joins the party.
For some reason, Edward is a wizard with wizardly stats. Maybe spellcasting is just part of the royal curriculum. He also doesn't have many spells right now, only being able to cast the same fire spell as Artur, albeit more times than him. Perhaps the royal curriculum is not very good at teaching things. We move him to the back and then proceed to leave the prison.
Naturally, since this would be too smooth for a JRPG plot, we are spotted just as we're heading back to the passageway.
Ramue's Theme
Hi Ramue! As you can guess, she's a major villain, and acts appropriately villainous. She taunts Samson and throws two of Bandore's soldiers at him for her amusement, then attempts to shock him with bolts. When he dodges all of them, she laughs and then throws a cursed... shawl. He dodges this with little difficulty, but then has it drop on his head, despite having dodged lightning bolts before. I guess he was caught off guard by how silly throwing a piece of clothing at him was. Then she taunts him again, challenging him to go as far as he can under the effects of the shawl's curse. Of course, she ends the conversation with a menacing threat about how she won't be as "merciful" next time.
The very first thing you'll notice about the curse is that it robs Samson of all of his levels, reducing him back to level 1. Naturally, his stats also take a big hit as well. I would discuss what it does in combat, but the moment we proceed a bit further in the passage, he splits us up, taking Edward with him. He's worried that a bigger group would be easier for Bandore to catch, but in that case he should give the prince to someone else, since he himself is a fugitive being actively hunted down. Anyway remember the big church near the border crossing to the east? We need to meet up with him and the prince there. Oh, and Artur's father is treated as a mere footnote, which while understandable considering the circumstances, is still rather harsh.
Join us next time for a thrilling escape across the border and to new lands!
#70
Project List / Re: [RELEASE] Golden Sun Reloa...
Last post by Dark Mits - 20, October, 2021, 08:52:28 AMHey Leon, I believe that the hard part that you encounter is on your way from Bilibin to Imil, and especially the bears, right? If yes, then there is a non-grindy way to tackle this, but it does require a lot of travelling:
- Go to Kollima first as 3-man party. Clear the dungeon up to the boss while gathering all treasure and djinn. Do not fight Tret.
- Now go to Imil. When encountering the bears, defend with Ivan. You should have reached level 10 or 11 by now.
- Pick up Mia, clear Mercury Lighthouse and defeat Saturos.
- Go back and defeat Tret, and now proceed as normally with the game.
Semantically you could argue that I am hiding the grind in the part where I say to clear Kolima and then backtrack, but in a sense I am avoiding the concept of grinding as repeatedly fighting enemies to gain levels.
As you have probably guessed, the mod kind of assumes that the player is aware of the locations of all (or at least most) treasures and djinn. In order to make it easier for me, I gave Ivan a durable class and prioritized defensive equipment on him until mid-late game, even if at the expense of offense on everyone. Besides, battles taking 1 turn longer is better than resetting after every 2-3 battles
-=EDIT=-
I just realized that my reply comes too late. But the idea of clearing everything and not leaving treasure behind is really helping in the long run. The other "bottlenecks" I encountered were the Hydro Statue in Altin and the lizard boss in Lamakan desert.
Of course, you should aim to get to Crossbone Isle before Tolbi and clear up to the 3rd basement. The boss of the 4th basement is hard to defeat so early in the game.
- Go to Kollima first as 3-man party. Clear the dungeon up to the boss while gathering all treasure and djinn. Do not fight Tret.
- Now go to Imil. When encountering the bears, defend with Ivan. You should have reached level 10 or 11 by now.
- Pick up Mia, clear Mercury Lighthouse and defeat Saturos.
- Go back and defeat Tret, and now proceed as normally with the game.
Semantically you could argue that I am hiding the grind in the part where I say to clear Kolima and then backtrack, but in a sense I am avoiding the concept of grinding as repeatedly fighting enemies to gain levels.
As you have probably guessed, the mod kind of assumes that the player is aware of the locations of all (or at least most) treasures and djinn. In order to make it easier for me, I gave Ivan a durable class and prioritized defensive equipment on him until mid-late game, even if at the expense of offense on everyone. Besides, battles taking 1 turn longer is better than resetting after every 2-3 battles
-=EDIT=-
I just realized that my reply comes too late. But the idea of clearing everything and not leaving treasure behind is really helping in the long run. The other "bottlenecks" I encountered were the Hydro Statue in Altin and the lizard boss in Lamakan desert.
Of course, you should aim to get to Crossbone Isle before Tolbi and clear up to the 3rd basement. The boss of the 4th basement is hard to defeat so early in the game.