Ah, Dark Dawn, the black sheep of the Golden Sun series. 13 years on and we still haven't gotten a follow-up to the 3rd GS game, which (of course) ended on a cliffhanger.
I have a lot of issues with Dark Dawn, but I do not think it's a bad game. First, the good: Sakuraba's soundtrack is still top-notch, and the visuals are some of the better looking ones on the DS, though the chibi-style overworld models do not work for everyone. The Djinn system is still here, and is just as fun to utilize as the GBA titles; I had a lot of fun with the battles in this game.
SPeaking of Djinn, the bad: unlike the original duology (outside of not transferring your save), Dark Dawn has points of no return and permanently missable collectibles...including Djinn. And these points of no return are not well-telegraphed, making it easy to screw yourself over unless you look them up ahead of time. I generally do not like permanent missables in games, especially RPGs, and the fact that Dark Dawn has them while the GBA games do not is a big problem to me. I recommend following a guide if you want to play this.
Additionally, the plot feels more aimless that the original games. I honestly don't even recall much of it outside of the final climactic sequence. And it still has all the writing and pacing issues that plagued the orignals' plots. Dark Dawn also has a full party of eight new characters, with some of the originals appearing as NPCs. They're decent overall, but the last few barely get any development as they join you extremely late in the story. At least one of them never even gets the chance to interact with the main antagonists until the literal final boss!
If you liked the originals and are itching for more, it's not a bad game and I do recommend it, but it's a shame that it felt like it took one step forward and two steps back. And damn it, Camelot, give us a follow-up already!!!
I have a lot of issues with Dark Dawn, but I do not think it's a bad game. First, the good: Sakuraba's soundtrack is still top-notch, and the visuals are some of the better looking ones on the DS, though the chibi-style overworld models do not work for everyone. The Djinn system is still here, and is just as fun to utilize as the GBA titles; I had a lot of fun with the battles in this game.
SPeaking of Djinn, the bad: unlike the original duology (outside of not transferring your save), Dark Dawn has points of no return and permanently missable collectibles...including Djinn. And these points of no return are not well-telegraphed, making it easy to screw yourself over unless you look them up ahead of time. I generally do not like permanent missables in games, especially RPGs, and the fact that Dark Dawn has them while the GBA games do not is a big problem to me. I recommend following a guide if you want to play this.
Additionally, the plot feels more aimless that the original games. I honestly don't even recall much of it outside of the final climactic sequence. And it still has all the writing and pacing issues that plagued the orignals' plots. Dark Dawn also has a full party of eight new characters, with some of the originals appearing as NPCs. They're decent overall, but the last few barely get any development as they join you extremely late in the story. At least one of them never even gets the chance to interact with the main antagonists until the literal final boss!
If you liked the originals and are itching for more, it's not a bad game and I do recommend it, but it's a shame that it felt like it took one step forward and two steps back. And damn it, Camelot, give us a follow-up already!!!