Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

[Yuri-G]

I don't think the hacking is getting too difficult, many cards already have this rom working. I think some teams are just less supportive of their customers than others. team cyclo is already working on the new card so support for the current version is minimal, though they did just release a huge firmware update (that unfortunately did not help with Dark Dawn issues). I'm not sure what the deal with Acekard is though.

[arus2001]

I guess antiquation should be expected. I got into the DS kind of late, and I wound up shopping around a bit before finally settling on my 2i. Seemed the best value for functionality, and honestly haven't had too many issues on games until recently. Also been nice being able to retask the DS as a movie or MP3 player with Moonshell, but I think the latter can eat up battery life pretty quick without being plugged into something.

I've actually pondered looking into a PSP, but I'm not sure how stable the pirating scene is now since general talk has lead me to believe there are firmware updates and such some games require, which of course help block certain exploits. I still wind up buying games I like, just rough dropping $30+ on stinkers these days.

[Caiyuo]

Acekard/AKAIO haven't really seemed to update to allow running of the ROM, either. I guess part of me wants to pass it off as just their people focusing on the holidays, but on the other hand, it's a bit of a fear that maybe some new anti-piracy methods are getting more complicated to crack.

This hasn't worked for you on the newest AKAIO? I think all I had to do was turn on anti-piracy, have been playing it without incident for about a week now

[Yuri-G]

I've actually pondered looking into a PSP, but I'm not sure how stable the pirating scene is now since general talk has lead me to believe there are firmware updates and such some games require, which of course help block certain exploits. I still wind up buying games I like, just rough dropping $30+ on stinkers these days.

this is exactly what I haven't bought a PSP yet... I did a lot of research and the conclusion I came to is that you either get an old one and play all sorts of pirated shit on it, or a new one and play new games that you pay for. unless I'm missing something, it seems like a lot of new games you need to update the firmware for, which means you can't play any hacked games until they get a new fix out there. unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be a way around that fact. and while I could just go with the former route, let's be honest: I'm not buying a PSP just to forgo games like the upcoming Tactics Ogre remake.

[Doombear]

Massive OT i suppose:

You pretty much have the gist of it Yuri. I bought my PSP from a friend oh... i don't know, it was a month or two before FFT remake came out for it, so that was over 3 years ago. In the last three years I have updated it maybe 4 times? Even now I don't have the "latest" custom firmware running and am opting just to patch the handful of newer games that I want to try out/play. Most of my actual purchases are older games as you can find most any PSP games for next to nothing in price. Tales of Eternia which was only released in EU is one that I am still playing through on UMD. I recently had my friends PSP 2001(Slim) and GODDAMN are they so much lighter. I actually think they are far shoddier though, and don't hold up as well as the older fatties. He had rubbed off some of the faceplate's coloring, the UMD tray feels breakable as hell, and the only reason i HAD it was because I was replacing his busted analog stick for him. My fatty has lasted 3 years, and was used when i got it. I have put in so many hours into MH titles it is silly. Now though, I would like to have a slim running official firmware as well as my trusted ol Phat 1000. Had planned on getting the MGS bundle but that never happened. Missed my chance on the MHP3 PSP as well.

Now... as far as OT goes, is this game worth buying or not? I loved the hell out of the first two Golden Sun games and have both of them on my Droid for old time's sake, but am still on the fence about this.

[Yuri-G]

thanks for the tips. let me give you one in return: this game is not worth it.

- the story isn't as good as the first two. I guess that's a preference thing, but I really don't like it as much.
- the puzzles aren't as difficult and the dungeons are short as hell.
- worst of all, the battles are far too easy. this has to be the easiest RPG I have ever played. there are a few bosses that shoot the difficulty up to an acceptable level, but most bosses and certainly all normal enemies simply have no chance of defeating you. you'd have to sit there and do nothing for literally tens of turns until they finally wore down your health. pathetic and disappointing as all hell.

as someone who played the first two games multiple times, I cannot recommend Dark Dawn. it's Golden Sun: Kiddie Edition. if that sounds good to you, pick it up. otherwise, skip it.

[Myrrh_Quetz]

thanks for the tips. let me give you one in return: this game is not worth it.

- the story isn't as good as the first two. I guess that's a preference thing, but I really don't like it as much.
- the puzzles aren't as difficult and the dungeons are short as hell.
- worst of all, the battles are far too easy. this has to be the easiest RPG I have ever played. there are a few bosses that shoot the difficulty up to an acceptable level, but most bosses and certainly all normal enemies simply have no chance of defeating you. you'd have to sit there and do nothing for literally tens of turns until they finally wore down your health. pathetic and disappointing as all hell.

as someone who played the first two games multiple times, I cannot recommend Dark Dawn. it's Golden Sun: Kiddie Edition. if that sounds good to you, pick it up. otherwise, skip it.

Fully agree with this. I am greatly annoyed at how easy mode this game. Not to mention at how retarded it thinks the player is. The start with the Djinn training made me stop playing for a week. "Do you know how to use Djinn?" "Yes" "Okay, let's show you how to use Djinn"

I hope if they make another one they make it for ages 10 and up.

[Arrmani]

Everyone I work with says this is a great game. I guess it makes sense because they all like easy games. I just ordered the first two to play again, maybe I'll pick this up used when the price drops. I don't suppose there's any kind of code that carries stuff over from TLA is there?

[Charismatic]

Nope.

[Browsing]

Just picked up the game today with gift cards from family. Anything special I should know other than the kids have hand-me-down clothing?

[Charismatic]

Not avoiding random battles makes the game entirely too easy, avoiding/fleeing from them makes the encounter rate annoyingly high.

[Talint]

There are permanent missables, which is really kind of horseshit.

[Talint]

Alright, thoroughly tweaked my characters. Paladin (Matthew), Two Chaos Lords (Tyrell and Eoleo), and two Wizards (Amiti and Karis), though I think Wizard might need some work. Sol Blade, Excalibur, Herculean Axe, and 2 Tisiphone Edges. Cursed weapons so aren't worth the trade off (Zol Ring/Lord Sun's Ring v. Curse Immunity) in this game like they were in Lost Age.

The game's easy though, as others have stated. Difficulty doesn't matter to me so such, but it's apparent how desperately the Takahashi brothers want the Shining Force series back. Their game is the strategy RPG, where they can really achieve the style they want with the difficulty they want.

The plot is light, which I'm also perfectly okay with. The game drones on at times though, and really needs to cut the fat in some places. Nonetheless, I prefer games like this than typical jRPG drivel that feels the need to preach to me or try to teach me a lesson. Riddled with holes though:

Spoiler: show

Why is the Sol Blade in Apollo Sanctum and not with Isaac? In fact, what happened to all of Isaac and Garet's djinn?

What I really can't stand is the game suffering from typical Japanese Sequel Snydrome, in which everyone and everything that was established is completely irrelevant. Isaac has always been awesome, you can keep him around without stealing the spotlight from Matthew. I really dislike how they throw away characters like Piers and Ivan, only referencing them in passing.

So yeah, mixed feelings about Dark Dawn. I can't ever seriously hate anything the Takahashi brothers produce, and Dark Dawn is really no exception. It really makes you wonder though what's going on over there at Camelot.

[Charismatic]

I honestly think Matthew works better as a Chaos Lord with an unleash setup and Sol Blade than anyone else as Chaos Lord... game's so easy that it doesn't matter what you do though so, eh.
But seriously, 100% unleash rate on Sol Blade is pure sexiness and with Chaos Lord's insane strength it's even better. When I go full unleash on him, I don't use any abilities so his class barely matters aside from the stats since every turn with him I just choose "attack".

[Talint]

I honestly think Matthew works better as a Chaos Lord with an unleash setup and Sol Blade than anyone else as Chaos Lord... game's so easy that it doesn't matter what you do though so, eh.
But seriously, 100% unleash rate on Sol Blade is pure sexiness and with Chaos Lord's insane strength it's even better. When I go full unleash on him, I don't use any abilities so his class barely matters aside from the stats since every turn with him I just choose "attack".

Actually, my main party up through the end of the game + most bonus content was Chaos Lord x3 + Amiti/Karis. Amiti or Karis using Pure Wish is sufficient in terms of healing to get through any nastiness, and having three strong attackers with Revive could offset any actual deaths.

It wasn't until The Final Bonus Dungeon that I had to switch Matthew to Paladin. Charon was almost always followed up by Djinn Storm, effectively neutering my entire party. Even switching between Amiti and Karis back and forth wasn't enough, as both of them lacked Revive. Matthew as a Paladin gets Pure Wish + Revive, so I started switching between him and Karis (Karis' role then turning into taking the brunt of Charon/Djinn Storm), which finally proved to be successful. He was able to rehabilitate the party until Amiti got Pure Wish back, and then continue on Megiddoing.

I use a mix between Crit+/Agility gear for everybody, with Matthew having the most of it (Aegis, Mythril Clothes, Lord Sun's Ring, I don't remember what else off the top of my head).

[Damane]

thanks for the tips. let me give you one in return: this game is not worth it.

- the story isn't as good as the first two. I guess that's a preference thing, but I really don't like it as much.
- the puzzles aren't as difficult and the dungeons are short as hell.
- worst of all, the battles are far too easy. this has to be the easiest RPG I have ever played. there are a few bosses that shoot the difficulty up to an acceptable level, but most bosses and certainly all normal enemies simply have no chance of defeating you. you'd have to sit there and do nothing for literally tens of turns until they finally wore down your health. pathetic and disappointing as all hell.

as someone who played the first two games multiple times, I cannot recommend Dark Dawn. it's Golden Sun: Kiddie Edition. if that sounds good to you, pick it up. otherwise, skip it.

I enjoyd the game alot, I do agree that the battles are easy, but I didnt mind that. The Story tough needs a bit of working, its good, but not awesome. Hope the 2. part does better story wise and clears some questions that were left in the 1. part. I played both previous games years ago, so I cant compare the difficulty between them and this one (so many years have passed).
What I really missed was the freedom to explore the world map after getting a ship/airship, there was so much to explore in "The Lost Age". But here, barely anything, you cant go anyway anywhere because of the Eclipse.

Still a very solid game.

There are permanent missables, which is really kind of horseshit.

fucking agree on this one, if you missed 1-2 djinns you are sol ¬.¬. There are 72 djinns, I have 60 djinns or so I believe, dont ask me where I missed the other djinns, I have seen some that I couldnt get before (but later would have been). But there are so many points of NO RETURN. I hate those RPGs that have points of no return in the middle of the game, usually only happens before the end of the game and it gives you a warning.

Spoiler: show

I think for the next installement we probably will see the "Felix Party". It was strange for me that Felix wasnt mentioned once, or even showed up. Maybe there will also be 2 new elements, Dark and Light Psynergy, now that both Elements were unleashed upon the world. I really hope for 2 new elements, means maybe total new class combinations/new classes altogether.