What's more iconic about Golden Sun: The world, or the adventurers?

[Thunder-squall]

I think there's a strong case either way.  The type of young adventurers you see in Golden Sun aren't the same you'd see in something like Dragon Quest, or even Legend of Zelda.  They remind me a lot more of Lunar, if anything. I think it's all about youth going out on a fantastical, but relatively light adventure.  I mean yes, the stakes are high, but I think the game does have a very 'fairy' feel to it.  Maybe due to the visuals?

But do you guys think that Weyard is actually the star of the show?  While I wasn't personally impressed with the world building, the more I read the wikis, the more impressed I get with it.  And there's also all the 'adept' stuff.

Honestly though, for me, the elemental adepts just seem tacked on as a mechanic.  For example, can't djin use psienergy on their own?  This means that a non-adept of adventurers, befriended by djinn, could have also gone through the game with no significant change in the content of the story.  So the "adept" thing was just another way to identify the heroes as special.

I guess all this is part of my quest to figure out what -- as Golden Sun changes -- needs to stay the same?

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

This means that a non-adept of adventurers, befriended by djinn, could have also gone through the game with no significant change in the content of the story.  So the "adept" thing was just another way to identify the heroes as special.

I recall at the end of GS1, that you needed Sheba to get inside the Jupiter Lighthouse in GS2, because she was a Jupiter adept. If it wasn't for this, she probably would have never been kidnapped.  So it could very well be possible that it's part of the story? (The same applies with the other 3 lighthouses  and their respective element.) It does give a reason to have a team of a party of 4, however.

Also, when you recieve a psynergy from Gaia Rock, Air's Rock, Magma Rock, and Aqua Rock, I believe you need their respective elemental adept to obtain the psynergy.
Gaia Rock for Felix, Magma Rock for Jenna, Air's Rock for Sheba, and Aqua Rock for Piers.