#Psynergy

[zentendo]

Golden Sun's Rising! GBA Classics Land on Switch Online + Expansion Pack

Heads up, adventurers! Nintendo just dropped a double-dose of nostalgia on Switch Online + Expansion Pack: Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are officially available to blast you back to the golden age of JRPGs! Remember spending countless hours exploring the world of Weyard, mastering Psynergy, and collecting Djinn? It’s time to dust off your stylus (or get acquainted with the Switch’s…

[skiddo-xy]

is somebody gonna match my...Saturos

[gamingisalifestyle]

[necer0s]

I'm replaying Golden Sun because I was in the mood for a good JRPG, and I find myself struck by how strong the writing is? Maybe I shouldn't be, because I always knew that it was a great pair of games, but it's easy for my nostalgia to dismiss them as "games I enjoyed as a kid".

But actually, the story has a very clear and coherent theme throughout both games, and it analyzes that theme from as many angles as possible. At the start, it seems to present the simple quest of “prevent the Dangerous Ancient Magic from being released into the world”. But even as it’s laying out that goal, there’s a distinct and practically pointed ambiguity about whether bringing back the power of Alchemy is a good thing or not. It’s dangerous, and it could be used for good or evil, but the Omnipotent Quest Giver of the Wise One specifically places the choice in your hands.

And then pretty much immediately as you start adventuring into the wider world, and continuing throughout the entire first game, the quests you encounter present you with situations which maintain that moral ambiguity. One town is endangered by the return of Alchemy, and another is cursed. A third town is saved from plague by the healing power Alchemy offers, and the cursed town is restored by that power as well. Some people use their magical Psynergy for good, and others use it for their own benefit. An attentive player may start to doubt the initial quest that they were presented.

And then suddenly, enter the sequel game and the second half of the story— Golden Sun The Lost Age, in which you completely switch roles and are now playing as the people who want to bring back Alchemy. Playing through this second game will give you more information and reasons why you might be convinced that such an action is desirable or necessary, but even to the very end it never presents the player with a clear thesis on whether doing so is good or evil. Alchemy is a source of great power, the game says. And while that power may prevent the world from dying a slow death, it might just as well cause the world to die a fast death instead if people misuse it.

And in the end, sure, the game requires you to bring back Alchemy because the death of the world is certain if you don’t, and the other possibilities are more unclear. But it never once tells you how to feel about it. And I think that makes it one of the most interesting stories I’ve ever seen in a game.

[kdinjenzen]

just saw your post about how Golden Sun is on the switch now. would you be cool with telling us more about it?

(i struggle to get into media that is new to me without knowing a bit about it first, and it's usually best when i hear it from someone who loves the media in question)

Golden Sun began as a two-part Game Boy Advance JRPG series starting with 2001's "Golden Sun" and ending the first arc with "Golden Sun: The Lost Age" in 2002. The second arc of the story began with "Golden Sun: Dark Dawn" on the Nintendo DS released in 2010 and is the last title in the series to this date with an unfortunate "The End?" cliffhanger suggesting the closure of the series as a whole would come with a FOURTH game to be released at some point in time. To this day there has been no true word on a fourth title to finally finish the series.

The Golden Sun series of games were developed by Camelot Software whom originally were a Sega Only Developer specifically focusing on the "Shining" series starting with Shining in the Darkness in 1991 and ending with Shining Force III in 1998.

Camelot Software then became a Second-Party Development Studio for Nintendo focusing on the Mario Sports series of titles including both the home console and handheld versions of these games, beginning with Mario Golf in 1999.

Camelot Software was also the creator of the Waluigi character who first appeared in Mario Tennis in 2000. (They also created both the UNSEEN version and now KNOWN versions of Wapeach for Mario Tennis and Power Tennis respectively.)

The game series was created with the intent of allowing Camelot to get back to their roots or more RPG style games and to bolster the Nintendo IP owned roster with diverse gameplay titles. Much of Golden Sun's style can be seen in Camelot's older "Shining" titles with a more evolved and "of the era" style. Golden Sun was originally being conceived as a Nintendo 64 title before it was revealed that the Game Cube would be releasing soon and the N64 would be sunset. Development then moved to the GBA.

Originally Golden Sun and The Lost Age were intended to be ONE GAME, but the cartridge space on the GBA was too small and would need far more memory to whole the full game so the idea to split it in two was devised to create a much more well rounded story, give devs more time to finish the latter half of the game, and get the first title out sooner.

Golden Sun (as a series) is fairly simple and follows more traditional JRPG standards of turn based battles, a party of four characters, elemental magic, leveling up, and various collectable armors and creatures to enhance characters in and out of battle.

Elements are a key point to both gameplay and story as the world is inhabited by a small amount of "Adepts" whom can control these elements based on four types: Wind, Earth, Fire, and Water.

Djinni, small elemental creatures, can be found all over the world that will add new abilities and skills to the party's Psynergy (the game equivalent of magic spells) as well as used as parts of larger summons.

The main plot of the first title follows Isaac and Garet, years after the tragic loss of Isaac's father and their mutual friend Jenna's brother and parents being killed in a storm, as they learn more about their town, the world around them, psynergy, and the history of Mt Aleph's Sol Sanctum (a temple hidden within mountain near their small village) from one of the village's historians Kraden.

After opening up Sol Sanctum they are approached by two people who were part of the cause that ended up taking the lives of Isaac's dad and Jenna's family, a third masked figure, and their presumed fourth partner who are currently hunting for the Elemental Stars in an effort to light all the Elemental Lighthouses and releasing the power of Alchemy and Psynergy (again, the game's magic system) across the world which could be potentially disastrous.

After most of the Elemental Stars are stolen, Jenna and their teacher Kraden are kidnapped, Garet and Isaac meet "The Wise One" (a giant floating rock with an eyeball) who tasks them to stop the opposing party of four before they can attain their goal and quite possibly doom the world.

Along this journey they are eventually joined by Ivan, a young Wind Adept, and Mia an expert healer and Water Adept. Between these two and Isaac, an Earth Adept, and Garet, a Fire Adept, the party is able to round out with the full elemental psynergy roster.

They end the first game with a cliff hanger that directly and immediately starts back up with Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

The Lost Age features 4 new party members, who you do meet some of in the first game (no spoilers), and eventually the two teams of four merge into a team of 8 (two of each elemental type) - the groups combine their powers and the first arc ends.

Dark Dawn, the DS title, takes place 30 years after the end of The Lost Age and primarily follows around the children of the protagonists from the first two games going on an adventure that started far before their birth with something that happened at the end of The Lost Age.

Each game features both in and out of combat use of Psynergy. For combat it's as simple as attack/defend/buff/heal/etc. Outside of combat certain elements of Psynergy are used to solve puzzles in various ways from growing plants, pushing large stones, reading character's minds, blowing away objects with great winds, freezing water to create new platforms, etc.

The game features lots of fun collectables, side-quests, world building events, optional dungeons, and more.

I could go on and on about this series more, but that would involve a TON of spoilers so like... GO PLAY THE GAMES! THEY ARE VERY FUN!

[sparky-x]

Decide to go far in Golden Sun Lost Age. While battling, I can’t help imagine Jenna using her beam psynergy like the special beam cannon from Dragon Ball.

[banduriku]

Hydros Statue appeared!

Welcome back to another ✨Golden Sun monster redraw✨

This is a special one to celebrate 10 monsters, the ferocious, the water blessing, Hydros Statue!

This boss monster is notable for it’s unique ability to infinitely spit water. Once considered Altin’s guardian statues, they come alive after Psynergy stones shower the town following Mt. Aleph’s eruption and proceed to flood the place entirely.

This monster, and Altin in general, were very memorable to me growing up. The concept of a monster that could infinitely spit water and a town completely underwater because of it was so unique to me. There are so many questions too, who created these statues, what drives them to want to flood a town? Their motives were truly beyond our understanding and that’s what I think makes them so cool!

Hope you enjoyed the season one finale of Golden Sun monster redraw! What monsters will come next? Stay tuned!

[viralarcadian]

more golden sun tips

1. the game wants you to keep track of how many djinn a character has on standby when you're gearing up for a summon. you can lose spells mid battle bc you used enough djinn that your character went down a rank and that shit sucks.

ostensibly this is supposed to be a risk v reward thing to prevent you from spamming summons at every boss battle, but in practice this is really only a problem to worry about when you're doing optional stuff like crossbone isle and the endgame superbosses in TLA, and if your designated healer loses their good healing psynergy (eg jenna's basic class loses access to the party-wide aura healing psynergy if more than 4 djinn go to standby/recovery, so if she's your healer you NEED to keep track)

2. i do in fact recommend the optional stuff, especially in TLA because the best summons are locked behind those superbosses.

3. in TLA you're gonna find a bunch of shit like tear stones and sylph feathers that have "forgeable" in their item descriptions and the game does not tell you what this means. i will.

you give these to a character named sunshine in the town of yallam on oseania, after you get the boat. you give these to him one at a time, and he will turn them into weapons and armor for you. what you get is completely random, as several things can be forged from the same material, and it auto saves when you give him the item to prevent save scumming, at least in the original game. the switch has suspend points that you can use to save scum.

sunshine's wife says it'll take a while for him to finish, but leaving town and re-entering or spending a night at the inn will get it done instantly.

there are also several rusty weapons that will always give you the same result when you give them to him.

4. some djinn in both games can be found in the actual overworld map and encountered as monster spawns. the game does not tell you this explicitly. lucky for you, they have very specific areas of the map that they will spawn in. i highly recommend looking up guides with pictures.

5. make getting djinn your top priority, especially in the first game. not only do they give you stat boosts and increase the rank of your class, and not only do you get sick summons and effects from using them in battle, but to get the absolute best summon in TLA you NEED to transfer a save over from the first game with all 28 of those djinn, bc you need those 28 plus the 44 in TLA to even access the dungeon it's in.

6. the superboss guarding the best summon is the cheapest motherfucker on planet earth. he will use your djinn against you and tear you up like tissue paper

But! he is in theory beatable. he follows a set sequence of moves, only differing in very specific circumstances (skipping 'break' if you don't have stat buffs, 'haunt' if everyone is haunted, and using psynergy at all if he's been blocked). he will start the battle from somewhere in that sequence, and then go thru each action in turn

the wiki has an exceptionally good page on him including strategies to beat him and the complete sequence of moves he uses. use it.

7. use that wiki in general. it's the good one that isn't on fandom

8. if you open up the battle mode lobby in TLA and talk the NPC in the southwest corner while holding down either the L or R buttons (she's the one that says "i like my men macho"), instead of her usual dialog she'll say "you have a song request?" and a tiny menu will open up. congratulations! this is the game's sound test menu. if a track has played at least once on the file you used to enter the lobby, you can play it here! even more if it's one that has transfer info from the first game!

this has no use at all but this effectively turns your switch into an mp3 player that only plays golden sun music, and was the only way to listen to the soundtrack before yt and if you couldn't find a site that had ripped it and put it up for download

[darkpuck]

“Kill them with kindness.”

Incorrect. Permit me to strike the first blow.

Geyser Psynergy.

[satoshi-mochida]

Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Switch Online adds Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age on January 17

Gematsu Source

Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Switch Online will add Golden Sun and sequel Golden Sun: The Lost Age on January 17, Nintendo announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via Nintendo:

Golden Sun

From the humble village of Vale to the mystical peaks of Mt. Aleph, the Golden Sun game sets magic-wielding young heroes Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia on a quest to prevent the ancient power of Alchemy from being unleashed on their home world of Weyard. Their adventure takes them through towns, caverns and dungeons as they face wily enemies, confounding puzzles and epic challenges that push their magical abilities (Psynergy) to their absolute limits. Along the way, they get help from mysterious creatures known as the Djinn, who aid the heroes in harnessing their Psynergy to unlock potent spells and unstoppable attacks.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

A direct sequel to Golden Sun, the Golden Sun: The Lost Age game presents a dramatic shift as the story now follows Felix—a young Adept (or magic user) who was the antagonist of the first game—on his mission to prove that Alchemy isn’t a destructive force, but one that could save Weyard after all. Forced to join Felix on his quest are Adepts Jenna and Sheba and the wizened scholar Kraden, all of whom struggle to keep Felix on task as powerful and enigmatic new challenges face them all. Featuring cooperative* gameplay that allows for friends to join your merry (and sometimes not-so-merry) band, as well as turn-based combat, puzzle-solving, open world exploration and RPG-inspired character upgrades, Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are layered with unpredictable gameplay built around an engrossing and engaging story. The more you get to know Weyard, the more mysterious it gets. So, what do you say? Ready to fall under its spell? *Additional games, systems and/or accessories may be required for multiplayer mode. Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Switch Online is available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership.

Watch the announcement trailer below.

Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

[tiny-design]

Perhaps one of the most important components of Psynergy, the magic ability system in Golden Sun, is that with rare exception, they can often be used to influence the larger overworld in some way. Some of these are expected uses, like allowing the player to heal their party outside of battle, but others are more esoteric, like allowing objects in the overworld to be moved or altered in some meaningful way as a method of advancing the story. This dual-purpose approach to the Psynergy system allows even mundane additions to the player’s arsenal to feel like a greatly expanded addition to their overworld exploration.

[sailortentacle]

Re: Tuaparang and Dark Adepts

I asked on Reddit if anyone knew if the scene at the end of Dark Dawn where Alex talks about Tuaparang and Dark Adepts was any clearer in the original Japanese text. Greylake was incredibly amazing and wrote a quick translation.

It looks like Blados, Chalis, and their soldiers might be unusual because they have Dark Psynergy, and that it might not be a common thing in Tuaparang at all.

[yuurgs-art]

more hex-type sprytes for my game FaeSprytes Reverie

Arctane (cryo+hex)

Psynergy (electro+hex)

Morphlo (hydro+hex)

Bunnebula (hex+aero)

[gaiaisbestmommy]

Happy Mother's Day!

Figured I would do a piece for Mother's Day with all of the moms from our Kingdom Hearts TTRPG! From left to right, Gaia, Stella, Jenna, and Aryel! Gaia isn't super accustomed to being a mom yet, even if she's been adopted by one of her students. Stella has no idea if her son is dead or alive. Jenna's son Matthew lost his psynergy and both of his arms. And Aryel's daughter just came back from a 'sorry mom I had to fake my death' mission. So all is...not well :D But they're making the best of it. Credit to @hansnadia for Jenna/Nadia's design! There really isn't much art canon to Golden Sun or otherwise of her being an adult so I referenced their art for her hair and features. Please go check them out, their art is literally such a treat! 💕

[gameboyhamazing]

Something about the way that in every single “do you possess this power of psynergy?” convo both Isaac and Felix have the option to say no and a party member will always gently (or in the case of Jenna and Garet, confusedly) tell you there’s no reason to hide it….it’s making me feel things man

why does everyone act like the hiding of psynergy by the party leaders is something deeper than it is? i tend to pick the “power what power” option for humor but the party’s responses are starting to worry me