Overall score on pook's 100-point system (TM): 95 or just 10. A must-play.
Graphics (30/30, judged by system)- Beautiful by any measure, Golden Sun sports an impressive hand-drawn 2d look with some nifty mode 7 tricks that give certain 3d aspects both on the world map but most impressively in battle. The world is large with lots of towns dungeons and other locations and plenty of detail within them. Add in a good number of monsters and some of the most beautiful spell effects seen in any 2d RPG and you have a visual feast.
Sound: Fx/Voice (6/10)- Sound in Golden Sun is good for what's there and sounds nice but doesn't factor into the game importantly in terms of necessary. While the sounds do help spice up combat quite a lot, they are pretty absent for much of the time.
Sound: Music (10/10)- Easily one of the best soundtracks on the GBA, Golden Sun takes the little GBA soundchip to new heights. The soundtrack is rich and varied and excellent in every respect.
Gameplay: Length (15/15)- A lengthy adventure spanning at least a couple dozen hours and with very little in the way of filler. A smidgen of training was necessary for me at the end but it wasn't onerous in the least. Long, but just right.
Gameplay: Story (5/5)- Being as it is a first of multiple parts, the story isn't fully revealed here and what is is ok. What's most impressive is the amount of in-game text, mostly optional, that can be followed by speaking to almost everyone and then reading their minds to glean more information. Well-translated and written, the speeches go a long way at establishing character in the absence of a terribly deep plot.
Gameplay: Game Design (29/30)- The folk at Camelot have taken most of the good things found in RPGs and honed them down nicely, while adding in the interesting and fun Djinn mechanic that allows for a good deal of customization by finding and collecting Pokemon-like Djinn who bestow the typically Japanese elemental powers. Mixing and matching proportions of them allows your characters to wield different combinations of spells and to unleash vicious attacks in battle. The Djinn system alone is worth the price of admission and is fun to continually tinker with and search out. The game is fabulously paced and though the world is large it never fields unwieldy. Random battles abound as per the genre, but after not too long you can avoid them. A small critique for having dumb NPCs who cannot redirect attacks in battle automatically and for not having some sort of auto battle function for the random battles. It doesn't detract a lot but having already been established as good ideas should have definitely been added.
Golden Sun is heavy in puzzles, mostly of the switch-throwing and block pushing variety but occasionally the puzzles are decently challenging.
Final Thoughts: Quite possibly the most polished title the GBA has seen.
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