Dinoracha's Review of Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Overview (without spoilers)
Golden Sun: The Lost Age picks up where the previous Golden Sun left off, with Isaac and his party sailing off for the wild-blue yonder. However, you don't play as anyone from Isaac's team to start; instead, you play as Felix, Jenna's older brother, and slowly gain 3 more allies from each elemental side, go off to save the world, defeat evil, yada-yada...

Gameplay
Your typical style: RPG turn-based, with faster characters attacking first, use of Psynergy (Magic) and Djinn (Summon creatures), items, defend, run, blah blah blah. With new Summons and a new array of Djinn abilities though, not a whole lot has changed, besides being able to have up to 8 people in your team to swap out any of the 4 in battle.

Graphics
Following the previous Golden Sun, the graphics are once again the odd mix. Backgrounds are like paintings but with lack of various colors, while characters and monsters are brisk and alive with bright palettes and textures. 'Nuff said.

Sound/Music
The FX are drab and stereo-typical, where ANY weapon attack equals a 'skin-piercing' type of squish noise. The music however is a step-up this time around, with theme suiting dungeons and areas quite well, with forests sounding dark and slow, and deserts having the Arabian style.

Result
Being a sequel to Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age doesn't offer up anything really new until you get deep into the game. Though with a almost new world to explore full with caves, towns, and dungeons seem to be everywhere full of danger and treasure. Puzzle-solving is back with some even more brain-busting to boot.

Final Word
If you're a fan of handheld RPGs or just RPGs period, this is a must for you. With hour's of gameplay ahead, you can be sure that this will keep you going for a good while.

Rating: 8.9/10.