Customer Reviews

Golden Sun & Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) (v. 1 & 2)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This guide has a lot of great information in it but it's not worth it unless you're going to be away from a computer for a few days. Instead of buying this guide I recomend going to GameFAQs and looking up some of the guides for this game. Not only do the GameFAQ guides tell you about Crossbone Island they include all of the classes, djinn, etc. And in many cases the FAQs have much better detailed descriptions. My advice, buy a pack of printer paper and print out an FAQ from gamefaqs.com. You'll still get the help you need and save some money.

With this guide you are paying $5 for each game and you just cant beat that price, especially when you consider how massive each game is. But the saying 'you get what you pay for' holds true on this guide.

The secret dungeon, Crossbone Island, of the first game is covered nowhere in this guide. Neither is the secret dungeon of the second game. What gives?
And a world map, which is standard far for a massive rpg, is non existant too. It does give directions in text but these can be extremely vague in some parts.

Also, there is no beastiary in the guide. Some of the rarest and best items in the game can only be gotten from enemies and this info is sorely missing with no beastiary.
And the item database is pretty expansive but again, the best items in the game are missing.

Though i have to give this guide credit. If youre stuck on a puzzle you can find the solutions in this guide in seconds. The solutions all have perfect pictures to guide you in the right direction.

And last but not least, finding every single djinn in the game is made a snap with this guide. Every djinn has a bold box of info with a title that says DJINN ALERT. This makes it extremely easy to flip through the guide to find any djinn you missed and makes finding them a piece of cake.

All in all this is a great guide for its 2-in-1 price.
So while it isnt the best guide for those rare item hunters, it is great for the players that like to solve the game on their own and only use guides as a 'last resort' or to help on a tricky puzzle.

Overall this is a good guide for Golden Sun 1 & 2. I got stuck because I would only pay half attention to what people were saying. This guide would fill in the blanks by then telling me where I would need to go. I found it easy to get lost before I got this guide, it is easy to deviate from where you are supposed to go if you don't pay attention, or sometimes even if you do. The guide has typos, and can be choppy at times, but overall it's a decent walkthrough and if you follow it you will get all the Djinn as well as you shouldn't get lost.

Pros
+Good walkthrough
+Great Maps
+Maps are labeled with item locations
+Helps with puzzles
+Shows you how to get every Djinn
+Has you pick up useful psyenergy when you get to a location so you don't have to back track
+Doesn't expect you to remember key events and will remind you later in the game when you can access other areas
+Covers two games
+Psyenergy List
+Djinn List
+Item Chart
+Weapon/Armor Chart
+Character Classes Charts
+A list of field psyenergies at the begging of the guide

Cons
-Choppy (rare)
-Typos (uncommon)
-Some of the information is inaccurate (rare)
-Some screenshots may be misleading (rare)
-Provides you with a map that you must navigate on your own (Common)
-Doesn't hold your hand as you go through the dungeons (it does give you the answers to puzzles though)
-No bestiary (I didn't find it necessary)

I felt that people were too harsh on this guide. Occasionally you will get stuck in a dungeon, and you'll need to take a few deep breaths, pause the game, and use the maps to find the solution. If you are stuck on the game and need help or are going to buy Golden Sun and think you'll need help, pick this guide up. I thought it was a good guide, but it needed to be proof read about two more times. The down side that affected me was that the walkthroughs didn't hold my hand as I go through the whole dungeons, just the parts they deemed difficult.

I bought the Golden Sun 1&2 guide and flipped through it. The only downside is that it doesn't help at Crossbone Isle which is only a subquest so it doesn't really matter. It shows all the Dijnni locations and talks about the summons. If you have both Golden Sun games and you want to save some money when you buy the guides just buy this one. It's great and it's less money.

I borowed this guide from a friend when I was having trouble on Aqua rock. No thanks to this guide, it took me three days to figue out one simple log problem because it didn't show in ful detail what to do. It shows you maps, but some of the maps are wrong and can make the game confusing. The only up side is that the weapons and items list is helpful. But if you want a quality guide, look for an online walkthrough.

I had first seen golden sun in a magazine article from Nintendo Power or something like that. I thought i looked like an Ok game, so...I went out and bought it. Golden Sun is like a mix of Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda. It also provides multiplayer action. I am not the best with words, but i am only twelve. I do believe that i can recognize a good RPG when i see one though. The story starts of fast-paced and exiting. I love this game, and i reccomend it to anyone, of any age.

The pictures and diagrams are very useful. Sometimes the text can be a little confusing because parts of an explanation are spread out over several areas of the text, and it's a struggle to put the whole explanation all together. Overall, a very useful manual.

Don't expect too much of it. There are a lot of errors in the text and screenshots, too. Also the maps aren't really professional, as you can see Felix (or Isaac) on one map about 25X instead of 1X or 0X. Crossbone Island isn't reviewed and some special effects or logics aren't included, such as rare drops. Also, not all information (such as how many HP Dullahan - ap. 16500HP - or the Final Boss has) is filled in.
However, the psynergy- and itemguides are fine (though, I would like it, if there was a list of dropped items, weapons and armor). I think this book is nice if you like collecting Golden Sun items.

If you need help with the Golden Sun games this guide can be pretty helpful. What Prima has created is a guide that utalizes what it has. Everything in the guide has a purpose and Prima was entitled to enforce it. The guide looks really great and detailed but if you take a closer look things can quickly go awry for the gamer wanting to master the game.

The guide begins by showing you all the characters and job classes the game has to offer as well as the Psyenergy used on the field. The job classes chart is really nice, telling you how to change into each class but it has a few typos. After this you're off into the walkthrough.

Unfortunately the walkthrough is where the problem is. It shows more so in the first one than the second but what you'll first notice is how disorganized the guide is at times. The information is all over place!

As I also mentioned the guide utilizes everything. The guide will point you to an area you'll have to be at but it won't walk you there. They expect you to use the maps. The screenshots are clear but a bit dark at times. Not only that but because the guide is written in four columns the screenshots stack up on each other like nothing else. So its hard to use the screens because they're not organized in the walkthrough.

The walkthrough is also comprised into "chapters" for both games. Each chapter begins with a checklist for everything you'll do for that "chapter". Easy checklist and it'll get you through the game but with much trouble. It also depicts the Djinn you'll get and the Psyenergy as well.

The guide misses two key points that are important in any RPG guide. One, there's no enemies list or bestiary of any kind! When you get into a battle with an enemy you're unfamiliar with, you know nothing about the enemy. How much HP and PP does the enemy have? The guide won't tell you. The other major point the guide is missing is the lack of a world map. You CAN find towns with this guide but it gives you directions. The directions are vague, really. An RPG guide NEEDS a World Map because an RPG is all about exploring.

The guide does do some things fairly well, however. The guide has detailed boss strategies (even if they are out of context). The boss strategies will help you conquer every foe with relative ease. The guide also has really detailed maps to guide you through it all. The maps show you the location of items and as I said, navigate you.

The last problem is that this guide doesn't cover all the optional areas in the first Golden Sun, moreover the Crossbone Island.

The appendices in the guide are breathtakingly detailed and they have lists for both games if you need it. So if you're confused on what an item does or what a piece of armor can do this guide will tell you without question.

Basically this is a guide that's great for someone looking to complete the game and nothing more. If you want to get up and go through the game with a helping hand then by all means grab this guide. If you want to master everything the game has to offer the guide falls short at the secrets and sidequest section.

The Golden Sun games have more walkthroughs available for free than most games. Most of the online gamefaqs walkthroughs for Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are so thorough and accurate (except that some authors have problems with their lefts and rights at times) that this guide isn't really necessary unless you do not have Internet access and, if you're reading this, you no doubt do.

These were the first rpg's I ever played and I was able to complete both games with just one online walkthrough I printed out for GS1 (an excellent guide by ElectroSpector) and two guides I printed out for Lost Age (the best of the two by Sunny Masud). That this guide does not include the dungeon on Crossbone Island is very puzzling. At the bottom of the dungeon is Deadbeard, the most powerful boss of the game and key to building up your experience and fighting strategy in preparation for the final boss battles. The screen shots here are nice. Obviously gamefaqs walkthroughs do not have screenshots; however, I didn't need them to complete the games and I am hardly experienced at rpg's. I need step-by-step help and I found that in the above walkthroughs. That this guide assumes a lot on the part of the player seems to open the door to a lot of frustrations to me.