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Yeah idk. I get that it's not supposed to be a tight racer or anything, but after F-Zero this just feels lame. Plus the added "fun" stuff is just underwhelming. I'm surprised this series didn't die on impact.
This installment makes some sweeping improvements over the first game, largely in gameplay flow. For once, "speed" actually seems to be supported by the game. The design encourages the player to build up momentum and progress through the stages quickly, and allows the player to react to stage hazards at top speed. Some of the hazards do feel more cheap than clever, where the player can't reasonably react to them in a fair way. Other than that, it's pretty solid.
For the time, this game is revolutionary. Coming out a few months before Wolfenstein 3D, this is the game that truly pioneered fully 3d gameplay. I have a ton of respect for Bluesky/Looking Glass and what they were able to accomplish here. Unfortunately, the controls have not aged well. I was unable to find a mod that adds newer control schemes, so I eventually gave up on this game for time reasons. However, what I did play still impressed me compared to the rest of the playing field at the time.
Cool game for the time, but practically unplayable now. The small number of accepted commands makes any amount of navigation instantly infuriating. Still, for the available tech, the experience offered by these games is fairly substantial.
A great game to play with kids without experience. It's easy, colorful and not stupid. I recommend it for parents.
This game never released. No one has played this.
It's a Dark Souls inspired Jedi game, what can go wrong? Not much! The combat, exploration, and story are the focus and they are all great. More, non-cosmetic, customization options for Cal would have been nice, I don't need a dozen differently colored ponchos.
Date Completed: 2020-06-17
Playtime: 18h
Enjoyment: 9/10
Recommendation: Absolutely!
Best 2D platformer period.
«Constantly dying and enjoy it»
«Underrated»
Cool old puzzle game if you can get past the god awful music
Idk I spent quite a bit of time on this game, compared to others that I write off pretty quick, because I really wanted to like this game. It has a lot of potential to be a simplified 2D MMO, but just it doesn't work. Not enough guidance, so your left wandering around with underpowered weapons getting your butt handed to you, and by the time you figure out where to go, the shop area is full of enemies that kill you while your trying to finally upgrade your gear, therefore losing what little money you finally have. Maybe this would work better if there were more players, but as it stands, I give it a Meh
Golden Sun: The Lost Age emphasizes the series' strengths and weaknesses.
(+) Certain Psynergy Mechanics are well designed and the game shows you where and when to use them to solve puzzles. Examples of this can be seen at the end of the Rock Dungeons (Airs, Aqua, Gaia, Magma) when receiving the particular Psynergy at the end of each Dungeon. (Image below is of Magma Rock)
(+) Battle system continues to excel with variability in classes, strategies, and party setups.
(+) Get a good sense of the characters out of dialogue. It's well written and even includes some genuinely funny moments.
(+) Music is fantastic as always. The battle themes are so good that even after 60 hours of playtime, they never got old. My only gripe is that the ship battle music wasn't as present in the game.
(-) Shortcut inconsistencies are often frustrating. In some dungeons, the game offers the player shortcuts where a pillar or block is pushed, creating a shortcut for the player to have an easier time backtracking. However, these shortcuts only act as a shortcut for one way as the pillar or block is reset after moving into a different room. Not only does this add extra padding to the game but these shortcuts end up only being useful in situations where the player exits the dungeon. These types of shortcuts are redundant for the entirety of the game because the player is given the Retreat Psynergy from the very start.
(-) Not only do shortcuts revert after leaving a location, but so does the majority of objects that are manipulated using Psynergy. In certain cases, this is required for some puzzles. But in many of them, the player is forced to manipulate the same objects again and again. An example of Psynergy manipulation progress can be seen in Gaia Rock where the player has to utilize the Growth Psynergy to be able to reveal the right paths. (Seen in the image below)
When leaving Gaia Rock either naturally or by using the Retreat Psynergy and re-entering, these signs continue to be manipulated and show the player the right path. This is a rare case in which the game decides to save the player time by keeping the players progress when in regards to Psynergy manipulation.
(-) Where the player can utilize the Retreat Psynergy is inconsistent. The Retreat Psynergy works with practically every dungeon in the game. However, it works only depending how deep the player is in the dungeon. The player is expected to run back if they are anywhere remotely close to the entrance of the location.
(-) Golden Sun: The Lost Age's story takes a while to pick up. The games pacing is fairly slow at the beginning. The first 10-15 hours are not very eventful and it's easy to feel disengaged at the beginning of the game.
(-) Because the pacing of the game's story is slow at the start, it can be easy for the player to get lost when attempting to explore where to go next. Hopping from one town to the next is a good method of progression, but I can't help but think that the player could have gotten a bit more direction.
(-) An important method of world map traversal is expected of the player while not teaching nor showing the player the method. On the path to the Jupiter Lighthouse, Felix's party is blocked from the middle of the Continent of Atteka by rocks protruding from the sea. To get around these rocks, and continue onward to the Jupiter Lighthouse, the player somehow needs to either know or explore the boundaries of the entire continent and find a small delta. This small delta is the only one in the entire game that the party can interact with on the world map. There are other deltas on the world map, however they cannot be sailed on. There are no hints nor any indication that this is even possible as a way to traverse the world map.
(+) Certain Psynergy Mechanics are well designed and the game shows you where and when to use them to solve puzzles. Examples of this can be seen at the end of the Rock Dungeons (Airs, Aqua, Gaia, Magma) when receiving the particular Psynergy at the end of each Dungeon. (Image below is of Magma Rock)
(+) Battle system continues to excel with variability in classes, strategies, and party setups.
(+) Get a good sense of the characters out of dialogue. It's well written and even includes some genuinely funny moments.
(+) Music is fantastic as always. The battle themes are so good that even after 60 hours of playtime, they never got old. My only gripe is that the ship battle music wasn't as present in the game.
(-) Shortcut inconsistencies are often frustrating. In some dungeons, the game offers the player shortcuts where a pillar or block is pushed, creating a shortcut for the player to have an easier time backtracking. However, these shortcuts only act as a shortcut for one way as the pillar or block is reset after moving into a different room. Not only does this add extra padding to the game but these shortcuts end up only being useful in situations where the player exits the dungeon. These types of shortcuts are redundant for the entirety of the game because the player is given the Retreat Psynergy from the very start.
(-) Not only do shortcuts revert after leaving a location, but so does the majority of objects that are manipulated using Psynergy. In certain cases, this is required for some puzzles. But in many of them, the player is forced to manipulate the same objects again and again. An example of Psynergy manipulation progress can be seen in Gaia Rock where the player has to utilize the Growth Psynergy to be able to reveal the right paths. (Seen in the image below)
(-) Where the player can utilize the Retreat Psynergy is inconsistent. The Retreat Psynergy works with practically every dungeon in the game. However, it works only depending how deep the player is in the dungeon. The player is expected to run back if they are anywhere remotely close to the entrance of the location.
(-) Golden Sun: The Lost Age's story takes a while to pick up. The games pacing is fairly slow at the beginning. The first 10-15 hours are not very eventful and it's easy to feel disengaged at the beginning of the game.
(-) Because the pacing of the game's story is slow at the start, it can be easy for the player to get lost when attempting to explore where to go next. Hopping from one town to the next is a good method of progression, but I can't help but think that the player could have gotten a bit more direction.
(-) An important method of world map traversal is expected of the player while not teaching nor showing the player the method. On the path to the Jupiter Lighthouse, Felix's party is blocked from the middle of the Continent of Atteka by rocks protruding from the sea. To get around these rocks, and continue onward to the Jupiter Lighthouse, the player somehow needs to either know or explore the boundaries of the entire continent and find a small delta. This small delta is the only one in the entire game that the party can interact with on the world map. There are other deltas on the world map, however they cannot be sailed on. There are no hints nor any indication that this is even possible as a way to traverse the world map.
What a waste of 99 cents.... the map is almost entirely barren, the enemies LOS is stupid far, they aren't even drawn on the map by the time your getting shot at, and there is no cover. Not to mention what little walls there are, you can easily glitch through. Good concept, bad execution
«Buggy as hell»
«Waste of time»
All the characters share names with various dictators throughout history, so I guess if you want to play as a character that is named Hitler, yet looks nothing like Hitler, skateboard for all of 20 seconds before the broken mechanics make you fail, this is for you!
«Waste of time»
Unique enough to deserve a meh rating instead of a skip but thats really the only reason anyone should play this
This is an awesome concept! However the execution is just not there. Once you finally get in game after a frustrating configuration setup, that you have to go remove the configuration file manually to fix if you mess up, or happen to use a controller like the game states is possible to use, but just outright isn't, the game is fine. Until it crashes. All the time. Hopefully some updates will come out, as this is a fairly new release as of the time of this review and fix some of the inherent bugginess present
God awful, no one play it, and its like your moving on ice when you walk
The coolest part was the dying animation lol
Unfortunately, its not available anywhere anymore, as it was only ever apparently released in alpha