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Dark Dawn's the only Golden Sun game you've really played: what are you missing?

Started by Thunder-squall, 09, January, 2014, 07:59:50 PM

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Thunder-squall

As I'm trying to code from scratch and recreate stuff about Golden Sun, I realize that I'm basing ALL of my decisions off of Dark Dawn.  How might that lead me to make stray decisions which don't follow with the mainstream Golden Sun fandom?

Misery

In terms of game mechanics, you're missing very little. I can mainly think of two three things:
-Dark Dawn drastically cut down on the amount of psynergies with overworld use. Not necessarily bad or good.
-Dark Dawn generally has greater range for out-of-battle psynergy. This makes sense, as psynergy attacks are ranged in battle.
-Dark Dawn is missing the "item classes" from The Lost Age. These classes are accessed by equipping an item which overrides your normal classes (thus being accessible by everyone), and to advance in their tiers, all four elements are required.

The class system in itself can seem a bit quirky at first though. You're free to consult me if you want to add a similar class system to your game as I'm very familiar with the mechanics.

But seriously, if you have the time to code all this, I would give those two games a shot.

Knight of Purgatory

Like he said, mechanix wise you not be missing much, 'cept for the fact that the first 2 games were about 20% cooler.
MOAR DARKNESS, MOAR COOKIES

Thunder-squall

Quote from: Misery on 09, January, 2014, 08:48:01 PM
-Dark Dawn drastically cut down on the amount of psynergies with overworld use. Not necessarily bad or good

Right now this is exactly what I'm working on.  I'm not interested in 'trigger switch' psionics (like "slapping" a clown's nose, or whatever), but what are terrain-changing psionic abilities (lol, you know I mean "psyenergy" abilities) which one should be aware of.  From Dark Dawn, the map elements I'm currently looking at are

1. move bock (push)
2. float air-panels
3. grow vine
4. create static block (i.e. by freezing ice), or remove static block (i.e. fireball)
5. trigger moving platform (i.e. wind when you're on a raft, or fireball when you're in an engine).

Misery

Might as well just post the psynergies you haven't listed...

Douse - Put out flames or fill stuff with water
Reveal - Show hidden stuff (iirc Himi has something similar in DD)
Parch - Evaporate standing water (Mercury psynergy for some reason)
Sand - Become sand, able to move around in sand
Blaze - Manipulate flames
Lash - "Lift and move light objects" (used to move ropes)
Pound - Drive objects into the ground. (Mars)
Scoop - Dig in soft ground.
Tremor - Causes a small tremor, everything on screen shakes
Cyclone - Whirl up weeds, and activate certain transporters. The float-air panels seem to be derived from this.
Burst  - Break cracked objects.
Grind  - Pulverise large objects. (Venus adepts only)
Hover - When used on certain panels, you can hover for some distance. (Jupiter)
Teleport - Can travel between certain teleport platforms, or to any previously visited town (Jupiter)
Catch - Grab light objects from afar (no element?)
Force - Strike a distant object (no element)
Lift - Lift an object and leave it hovering in the air (Mercury... why??)
Halt - Stop a moving object. (Jupiter)
Cloak - Become invisible in shadows (Mercury)
Carry - Lift, move, and drop an object. (Venus)

Note that fireball didn't exist in these games, neither did using wind to move yourself.

Thunder-squall

I can see how they all sort of do similar things, but what sets them apart is the setting where they could be used.  I think the settings in Dark Dawn were pretty cool, but were there some cooler ones I missed in the previous games?

Misery

Very true, all psynergies are heavily dependent on the setting. It is then the work of the game designer to create the illusion that the setting necessitates the psynergy, and not the other way around.

As for settings... DD has nothing quite like the elemental lighthouses and the elemental rocks.

Knight of Purgatory

MOAR DARKNESS, MOAR COOKIES

Thunder-squall

looking over old sprites, I get the feeling that the old game featured more species.  I.e. people with other colored skin?

Hey, is the world map in DarkDawn compatible with the map in previous games?  Together, do they now tell us how the entire world looks?

Misery

DD and TLA both have a map over the full world, but it has changed a lot between the games.

Thunder-squall

Quote from: Misery on 10, January, 2014, 02:42:18 PM
DD and TLA both have a map over the full world, but it has changed a lot between the games.
Maybe due to natural disasters? Tectonic shifts, if those even exist in gs?

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

Maybe, but I thought it was due to the effects of the Golden Sun/Alchemy. (And 30 years passing by.)

All three games are in the same world. (Weyard) GS1 only features a small part of it, and you don't use a boat. GS2 features a larger map (including GS1's map), but doesn't let you go to GS1 places. That whole continent, I believe, is rendered unused, save for maybe a few spots not accessible from GS1.  GS2, however, does have a playable boat, though.  And ofcourse, in GS3 everything looks a bit different.
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Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


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Knight of Purgatory

Gs3 is in the same region as gs1 with a boat section taped on at the end, but like teawater said, all looks diff
MOAR DARKNESS, MOAR COOKIES

Thunder-squall


Raetah

Golden Sun GBA are the pure essence of the series, why wouldnt you play those games?
Quote from: Lishy on 10, January, 2014, 10:29:44 PM
A decent plot.
*Claps*
Quote from: Thunder-squall on 10, January, 2014, 05:27:30 PM
Maybe due to natural disasters? Tectonic shifts, if those even exist in gs?
Tectonic shifts do exist in Golden Sun, actually the world changed due some natural disasters caused by the awakening of the Alchemy.
Quote from: Thunder-squall on 10, January, 2014, 02:06:32 PM
looking over old sprites, I get the feeling that the old game featured more species.  I.e. people with other colored skin?
Golden Sun GBA had Dwarfs, Werewolfs (Werewolfs, not Beastmen) and Proxians that are persons with weird colored skin and scales.
And also more variety in persons with different skins.

Thunder-squall

Quote from: Raetah on 11, January, 2014, 12:57:56 PM
Golden Sun GBA are the pure essence of the series, why wouldnt you play those games?
Time.  I'm not against the idea.

Quote from: Lishy on 10, January, 2014, 10:29:44 PM
Golden Sun GBA had Dwarfs, Werewolfs (Werewolfs, not Beastmen) and Proxians that are persons with weird colored skin and scales.
And also more variety in persons with different skins.
That's really cool.  Were they ever given an origin story?
And what caused the werewolves?  Are the beastfolk related to them, or completely separate?

Raetah

Quote from: Thunder-squall on 11, January, 2014, 07:38:41 PMThat's really cool.  Were they ever given an origin story?
And what caused the werewolves?  Are the beastfolk related to them, or completely separate?
I can not say much abot that, Proxians are basically the Mars clan or descendents of this. That means that they are the protectors of the Mars-Fire lighthouse and they are also adepts of this element. They live in the northern part of Weyard, they had different tones of skin, pink, green, blue and scales, and are connected to dragons.

I actually find disrespectfoul the poor mention and appearance that Proxians characters had in Dark Dawn, those were amazing.

Dwarves state that they come from the north, but it is unlikely that they are connected to Proxians, they emigrated to find better land for mining.
They dont show any use of Psynergy.

Werewolves are not related to Beastmen, the werewolves of Golden Sun are just like normal humans all of the time except when they are exposed to the full moon light that transforms them involuntary, because of this they use hoods in order to prevent the exposition. There is an exception, certain character is "trapped" in his wolf form, and that conflict seems to be caused by a psynergy. Aparently Werewolves dont have psynergy inherent to the specie, but just because the place in where they live is near to a source of Psynergy, the wind rock, they acquire jupiter powers.

Beastmen in other hand are a specie of half human-half animal that can use voluntary a wilder form, and it seems that they are connected to Psynergy.

Thunder-squall

I didn't think that species as a whole were linked with psi energy.  I thought it was just an individual thing.

Though it is interesting that the only beastman we know to have psi-powers had jupiter powers, just like those werewolves.

Misery

Some beastmen state in their dialogue that their transformation occured as an effect of the Golden Sun event. Prior to that, they were all either pure humans or pure beasts.