So, what is this?  It's Golden Sun, one of the first RPGs for Game Boy Advance.  I'm not really into RPG games that much, but hey, every few years I will go through all the genres and see if there's something I like.  This time, I found an RPG game I like.  It's like Final Fantasy for the SNES, with Sooped up graphics, awesome music, and a kick ass story to boot.

So, what is the game about?  Well, as I said, its kind of like Final Fantasy.  You start out as Isaac, the soon to be hero of the story.  You start out in your home town, Vale, where disaster is fixing to strike.  Interesting enough, its not a destroy the world disaster . . . yet.  That's for another year.  You must go around your town and find people and help them out.  Most of which are a little disoriented by what's going on and all of them are out of power now.  Then, the disaster finely happens.  This is where your quest begins.  From here, other things happen, some of which are a threat to the world.  You are sent on a journey to pick up some items and help stop the bad guys.  You have a long way to go however.  The story is quiet extensive, complex, and really involving too.

It has all the stuff of an RPG, besides the great story.  You have your hit points, your magic (called psyenergy for some reason)  And you have tons of equip able stuff from weapons, magic items to Djinn (I think it's said like Gin, but am not sure)  The Djinn are found about like Pokemon, but is used more like an equip able item to boost magic powers, and to summon monsters to do your dirty work.

The control on this game is absolutely great.  You never get stuck on stuff.  If it looks like you can go somewhere, you probably can.  None of this "get stuck in mid air" crap like on some of the poorly assembled RPGs out there. (DBZ LOG)  You use your D pad to move, natch.  Your A button talks to people and goes to your menu where you can select your characters, items and Djinn.  B is for back.  Start pauses and goes to a menu where you can opt to put your GBA to sleep to save power without actually turning it off and to save the game.  Select acts like A except it won't talk to people.  Good for if your in crowds.  And get this, is there a magic you use constantly?  You can assign it to the L or R buttons like a hot key.  Over all, very intuitive and easy to access and use.

The graphics of the game are all great.

The overhead walk around view is really complex.  You never get the “I've seen this before” feeling.  There's the world map, this is how you get from town to town and to dungeons.  This is done in a kind of mode 7 style, that makes the screen move around slightly as you walk on the map.  It's a nice effect, kind of like how the map on Zelda for SNES was shown, only much cleaner, smoother, and bigger.

Then there's the battle screen.  This has possibly the most complex graphics of all.  There is a mode 7 floor, and a panoramic background scene.  And all the characters are animated from different angles and positions.  There are a lot of effects to show off as you use different magic skills.  When you get into a fight, the multiple angles of characters, floor and background all scroll around giving an amazingly nearly 3-D effect to the game.  And it moves and alters the angles of view, depending on what you're doing.  It's an amazing effect, but you have to see it to believe it.

Then, there's the music and sound FX of the game.  The music is really high quality orchestrated pieces.  They really set the mood for what you are doing.  And all the sound effects are really well done too.  There's nothing that doesn't fit in.  The music changes to fit the mood.  You can often tell if you've accomplished your task because the music will change.

Over all, the game is just great.  It's also long.  I've played it for over 35 hours before I finished it.  It's not as long as a console RPG, but it's as long as the old school Final Fantasys were on SNES.  It's also longer than any other game you can get on GBA yet and it's just loads of fun.

The Five Star rating system.  This system is used as per Alpha's request.  Basically, every game is broken into 4 parts, Graphics, Sound,  Control and Replay Value, to bring up a total score.  Each piece gets from one to five stars (five being best, one worst) which will be added and averaged to come up with a total over all score of one to five stars.

Five stars = this game rules.  Buy it and like it, no questions asked.

Four stars = a great game, but it's not quiet perfect.

Three stars = average game.  If you like that type of game, you may like this.

Two stars = bad game.  It's terrible, but if you look hard enough, you may find a small redeeming thing about it.

One star = Craptastic crap that bows down to SuperMan (N64) for it is superior.

And remember, this is a review based on my Opinion it can flow against what you thought of the game.

Graphics 5 stars - Sure, they could make them different, but better??
Sound 5 stars - The best sound on GBA yet.
Control 5 stars - Absolutely perfect.  It's easy to get around without feeling cluttered.
Replay Value 5 stars - Due to it's slightly non linear nature, you can play through it  many times and not repeat it exactly.
Over All 5 stars - There really isn't a way to improve on this game.  It can most likely be done, but at the moment, I don't see how.

This game is great, and it really shows what the GBA can do when the development team takes their time.  If you like RPGs, you'll love this.  If you don't like them, then give this a try anyways.

I just have a few other things to say.  If the GBA is less than a year old, and it can put out something this awesome, it makes me wonder what it will be doing a year from now.  Also, when is Golden Sun 2 coming out?  I NEED Golden Sun 2.
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