Golden Sun is REALLY hit or miss. The worldbuilding is fine but the characterization is super flat and occasionally falls into this.
Kind of the same problem as Ni No Kuni. Charming for shallow reasons, and shallow where it most needed depth. Puzzles were fine though.
I didn't think the characterization had any problems. Especially nothing that I'd characterize as "extremely flawed". The characters were vibrantly presented and I felt they really came to life in the presentation of the story.
Insofar as they had adorable anime faces and that was unusual for the early GBA times? Garet and Jenna were basically the only playable characters in the first two games with distinguishable personalities, and one of them is a classic dumb jock type. You could swap the portraits for half the dialogue and not be able to tell the difference.
Dark Dawn was actually a bit better about that, and even then most of the cast was still really flat beyond Karis and Tyrell sniping at each other.
Dialogue isn't the only avenue for characterization, though, and the character portraits were certainly a factor -- as well as their roles in the gameplay, something that doesn't come up in any other medium.
And in that first game, Mia certainly played a definite role, as did Ivan to a lesser extent. isaac's the only one who's lacking characterization but that's because he's the player-insert character.
Still would've liked a bit more fleshing out, but I got some kind of personality from there, however small it may be.
Isaac does get a bit of a personality in 2 and Dark Dawn. Bit of a stern father figure in DD, though he's also willing to let his kid go out on a big adventure. Just like he did back then. :v
Still would've liked a bit more fleshing out, but I got some kind of personality from there, however small it may be.
Really? That few? She's a party member for a good chunk of the end of the game!
Well, assuming that's true, that just shows that there's much more to characterization that the game gave me about her, than was in those lines. I mean, there's probably a good chunk of characterization just in her going around healing people in the town, and that was mostly actions.
IMO arguably it's the two wind adepts that got too little attention.
I might exaggerating that number a bit, but she's a bit of a quiet one.
Oh don't worry, one of the Jupiter Adepts hogs the plot in Dark Dawn's later half. :V I actually do really like her a lot. She's cute and OP as fuck. ;w;
Oh, also, Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide are good for narrative too. You might like those.
The Beginner's Guide is a cool one that just came out. It's incredibly poignant, and makes you feel a pretty wide range of emotions. I think pretty much everyone on this forum would relate to it, as well, in some capacity.
Oh don't worry, one of the Jupiter Adepts hogs the plot in Dark Dawn's later half. :V I actually do really like her a lot. She's cute and OP as fuck. ;w;
Oh don't worry, one of the Jupiter Adepts hogs the plot in Dark Dawn's later half. :V I actually do really like her a lot. She's cute and OP as fuck. ;w;
^ And like, that's completely true -- but even Sveta was pretty flat despite the crazy crap she went through. At least with her you could chalk it up to putting up a front or something given the circumstances, but it's hard to tell because the series is so bad about flat characters to begin with.
The thing about Mia is that once you leave Imil, she loses all relevance outside of her magic bar, and doesn't really make her presence known at all otherwise. Like, even all the bits with Alex that she would be relevant to happen in Lost Age before she shows up again. Ivan at least had the entire subplot with his adoptive parents. Even fucking Piers gets more development. Honestly Isaac had more personality in Dark Dawn than most of the cast did in the first two games combined.
If the main cast had half as much personality as Briggs and his family, the game would have been much more popular. I feel like it could've done with a party-chat screen like Dragon Quest 8 or something. It would've cut down on a lot of superfluous dialogue in the cutscenes, and helped flesh out characters more deeply without being intrusive.
Aye, I wish they had added that feature at one point. It would've been interesting to see. Would've helped out everyone, especially Himi, who got the shortest straw out of a bunch of short straws.
Honestly what bugged me the most about that game wasn't that the characters were so flat, but that they went to so much effort to build a believable setting and even make other characters come to life, then forgot for almost the entire playable party. They clearly knew how to do it, but just shitlorded it for some reason.
Tis a really weird reason. Camelot, y u do that? At the very least, I kinda have blanks to fill in. So at least I can personally enjoy that, but that's just me.
Kinda reminds me of how everyone but Mario has some snippets of personality in just about anything.
Golden Sun kinda strikes me as... idk how to put it, a mood piece? A celebration of, like, just how JRPGs are? It's so aesthetically solid. I think that's all it was really trying to be, with some pretty damn good deck building and game feel.
Kex game design though number 124932: I think the importance of game feel in JRPGs is understated. There's an appreciable level of physicality and impact in something like Golden Sun or Earthbound that counts for quite a bit, especially when juxtaposed against something like Artifact Adventure which is a lot floatier feeling.
Honestly what bugged me the most about that game wasn't that the characters were so flat, but that they went to so much effort to build a believable setting and even make other characters come to life, then forgot for almost the entire playable party.
I'm surprised you say this because I don't remember it this way at all. I remember the characters very much coming to life in the story.
I don't think they were bland in a poor writing sense so much as you're supposed to project onto them in varying degrees. Call it the Link approach to characterization.
I don't think they were bland in a poor writing sense so much as you're supposed to project onto them in varying degrees. Call it the Link approach to characterization.
That might be what happened, which is why I didn't feel they were bland.
I don't think they were bland in a poor writing sense so much as you're supposed to project onto them in varying degrees. Call it the Link approach to characterization.
Most games treat Mario as if he were Link too
With that in mind it's weird how literally every female partner in TTYD ends up falling for him
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Music is pretty bitchin' though.
Try Super Metroid. Or Fusion. Or Prime 1. Or Zero Mission. :v
I quite enjoyed the first two Golden Sun games.
Haven't played the DS one though.
And in that first game, Mia certainly played a definite role, as did Ivan to a lesser extent. isaac's the only one who's lacking characterization but that's because he's the player-insert character.
Still would've liked a bit more fleshing out, but I got some kind of personality from there, however small it may be.
Isaac does get a bit of a personality in 2 and Dark Dawn. Bit of a stern father figure in DD, though he's also willing to let his kid go out on a big adventure. Just like he did back then. :v
Well, assuming that's true, that just shows that there's much more to characterization that the game gave me about her, than was in those lines. I mean, there's probably a good chunk of characterization just in her going around healing people in the town, and that was mostly actions.
IMO arguably it's the two wind adepts that got too little attention.
Oh don't worry, one of the Jupiter Adepts hogs the plot in Dark Dawn's later half. :V
I actually do really like her a lot. She's cute and OP as fuck. ;w;
Kinda reminds me of how everyone but Mario has some snippets of personality in just about anything.
said it then, saying it now, Mario ain't shit