Review by: Brandon "Mars Djinn" Cackowski-Schnell

The Golden Sun games have been away for so long that fans of the series are probably evenly split between wanting something new with the series in terms of mechanics or combat, and people who just want something new with the name "Golden Sun" on it. Both groups will find plenty to like in the latest outing however this is definitely a game that caters to the latter, providing plenty of classic Golden Sun action but no groundbreaking changes to the formula.

The Golden Sun games are set in the world of Weyard where plucky, young children can harness elemental magic as well as capture living embodiments of said magic, called djinns, and use the djinns to cast spells as well as summon massive, mythical beasts. Dark Dawn takes place thirty years since the events of the last Golden Sun game. Alchemy, the world's magical energies, has been restored however as a result the world is in tumult. Entire continents are in disarray and once again a group of kids is tasked with saving the world.

In a cute twist, the heroes du jour are the children of the first two games' protagonists, giving a link to the previous games without having the old heroes out to save the world yet again. Those looking to jump right into the ‘world saving’ will have several hours of story building before the tale gets into full swing, and there is too much exposition to get through, complete with emoticon style expressions to let you know that this guy here is very, very mad. It screws with the pacing something fierce but it's worth getting through it as the story does eventually pick up after a few hours.

Once you get through the various conversations and get out into the world proper you'll find yourself in familar Golden Sun territory. Combat is turn based and relies on a combination of direct attacks, item attacks, spell casting and djinn usage. Djinns act as both spells, class modifiers and summoning agents making them fairly important for getting through the bigger fights. Each djinn has a power that can be used in battle to either do direct damage, buff or debuff, heal or revive players.

Using a djinn in battle puts them on standby. Once your djinn are on standby they can be used to summon some truly impressive creatures. Huge flaming wolves, Japanese demons and winged knights that use their lion shield to bombard the planet from space are just a taste of the powerful summons available to call forth into battle. Once the summoning is over, the djinns are unusable for a turn or two making when and how to use your little, magical friends important.

Outside of battle, swapping djinns is used to change character classes, changing character attributes, amount of mana and hit points and what spells can be cast in and outside of battle. It's an impressive system made almost completely unusable by a menu system that makes it way too difficult to delve into the minutiae of swapping your djinns into various combinations. Luckily there are very few difficult battles so you can stick to giving the earth guy all of the earth djinns, the fire guy all of the fire djinns and so on and be able to perform ably in battle as well as complete the various elemental puzzles in the game world. As you progress through the game you'll come across new djinns to acquire, increasing your spellcasting and summoning options as well as giving the game that all important "gotta catch 'em all" vibe.