The Elitist's Least Favorite Video Game Moments: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ~ The Outlaw and The Elitist

Golden Sun Dark Dawn is here! If you have a DS and like Golden Sun go play it! It's fun I love it, and I shall have a review up for it within a week or so. I want to get some quality time on it. That being said, I have experienced one part of the game that sent me into blindingly beastly bouts of barbaric, burning, and baby beating rage. (too much?) that moment would be the games prologue.

So, the game starts off 30 years after the events of Golden Sun 2, Isaac, Garet and crew are old and have children! So the player controls, primarily, Isaac's son: Matthew. Well, at the beginning of the game, Garets son Tyrell is an idiot and ends up getting himself lost in a forest with some crazy magical wings he cannot utilize properly. Whatever, go play it. So, as a test, Isaac sends Matthew into the woods to find and rescue Tyrell. This is supposed the prologue/tutorial mission. Normally these parts of the game are fine, typically prologues are short, teach you the things unique to that game, and then move on. Well, this game does not. What it does, first, is make this mission actually quite long. The puzzles are not particularly easy, but the fights are.

Isaac and Garet are still awesome

What happens is Isaac and Garet decide that Matthew and Karis(another companion) might need help, so they join your party, kind of. You cannot control them in battle, but you can request their help if things get too dicey, which is fine. All these things are fine and appropriate and not contemptible. What really frustrated me was that the whole time you are moving along, every time you do anything Isaac and Garet step to tell you about what you did, why you did it, how you did it, and what you need to do to keep doing it correctly. Every. Damn. Time. They never just say "Hey cool, good job, you utilized game mechanics to move that block" they go into HUGE amounts of detail about why you were able to move that block and how they didn't think you would figure out how to do that on your own and GRRR!!! They just talk way too long, way too often interrupting the game at every turn.

I bet that flower is just nothing

Real game example. You reach an impasse in the forest, where Isaac is under the impression there is some supernatural force keeping the party "tangled" in the "Tangled Woods" (har har) and that there must a source to the sorcery(kills self) somewhere near by. So Garet, using his fireball Psynergy, is supposed to destroy something to make these crazy tangle-y roots go away. So first they explain the obviously simple method of launching fireballs, then instead of just allowing you to shoot the HUGE PULSING GLOWING FLOWER THAT IS OBVIOUSLY THE SOURCE OF THE ROOTS you are forced to shoot aimless fireballs until Garet faces the correct direction on his own, at which point you just press A, or tap the screen to launch the fireball (Which you had already done 2-3 times, just in the wrong directions.. well.. because stupid). You can skip to about 9:20 in the forth video "Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Walkthrough - Part 4: Tanglewood[1/2]" in the videos I posted at the end to witness this particular moment. It takes far too long, and it really feels like I was being guided through the mission like a child.

On that note, however, I do realize this game is supposed to target a younger audience, I was certainly a young pup when I played the first two. That, however has a counter arguement. First, its an RPG, a super young audience, an age group that would require the amount of explanation they gave in this prologue, are not going to be able to solve some of these puzzles no matter how much tutorial you give them. Golden Sun puzzles are notoriously difficult. Second, where this game might target a younger crowd, the fan base for these games has grown up. The main players of this game, I can guarantee you, will be gamers like me, who played these games on road trips with their family. So, I guess what I am trying to say is DO NOT MAKE THE PROLOGUE SO DAMN IRRITATING!!

You can watch it all here, and witness its irritating length. For instance.. you read for 20mins before you even get to sort of play.

Part 1: Intro