It's really weird that SA hates Golden Sun seemingly entirely because of one LP
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(and if they do I'll buy popcorn)
I played it at around age 22 and I felt the plot made sense. It's a decent plot, whose most notable feature is probably the very interesting world-building. And the characters certainly have personalities.
Sure they have relatively simple characterizations, but that doesn't mean those characterizations are bad or otherwise ineffective.
Oh, also, I forgot about the folks at the Atlantis-ish place.
Except characterization isn't just about a script, it's also about their visual design, the places they inhabit, the choices of people and things with whom they interact, and especially in videogames, accompanying aesthetic motifs and traits such as lighting (less present in this game) and the music (much more prominent here). Also, sometimes there's script that isn't something a person says but describes them, or describes a group.
For example, the people who live in the place Piers (and Alex IIRC) is from have a sort of slow, deliberative way of doing things, and this is expressed by the descriptions of their customs, as well as the slow, patient music (with a chorus-like instrumentation) and the classical architecture that are used to describe the place. However, the (in-universe) present crisis is serious enough for them to be described as having a "raucous caucus". Sure, that's a fun pun, but that's also a pretty meaningful description given the rest of the characterization. So that's how we get a pretty vividly-painted mental picture of what that place is like.
(Oh, and we didn't need any "cute anime faces" to do this.)
It's really weird that SA hates Golden Sun seemingly entirely because of one LP
I guess, for me, that backstory and such IS a large part of the characterization, because it defines who the person is, and even if they have a "generic agreeable person" personality, their words and deeds are still understood through and filtered through their experiences. It's entirely possible and frequently plausible for two people to do the same thing, say the same thing, act the same way, but for completely different reasons.
In any case, I can agree that the characterization is weaker for at least some of the characters, such as Isaac and Felix (who are the lead protags, unfortunately, though this is largely because they're intentionally given a mute protag role), as well as Piers and Karst and Agatio (though the main issue with them was that they were just not very distinguishable from Saturos and Menardi, aside from Menardi and Karst being rather different) and to some extent Ivan as well.
But perhaps that's why I feel that this game's strongest point is its worldbuilding. It builds a pretty extensive lore structure for the world of Weyard and those "nameless NPCs" actually do quite a bit of characterization of how this world works. The Mind Read psynergy makes things even more fun and interesting, giving more angles and depth to them and their experiences. So, in a way, perhaps we could say that the protags are may in some ways be a bit generic but essentially serve a narrative function of being the eyes and ears through which the player experiences the world (from up to 8 or 9 different perspectives via the different characters' commentary), for whom the world comes alive, through these characters and their experiences as they journey and interact with various others.
(Also, those "cute anime pictures" themselves do have suggest personality traits too.)
☭
B̤̺͍̰͕̺̠̕u҉̖͙̝̮͕̲ͅm̟̼̦̠̹̙p͡s̹͖ ̻T́h̗̫͈̙̩r̮e̴̩̺̖̠̭̜ͅa̛̪̟͍̣͎͖̺d͉̦͠s͕̞͚̲͍ ̲̬̹̤Y̻̤̱o̭͠u̥͉̥̜͡ ̴̥̪D̳̲̳̤o̴͙̘͓̤̟̗͇n̰̗̞̼̳͙͖͢'҉͖t̳͓̣͍̗̰ ͉W̝̳͓̼͜a̗͉̳͖̘̮n͕ͅt͚̟͚ ̸̺T̜̖̖̺͎̱ͅo̭̪̰̼̥̜ ̼͍̟̝R̝̹̮̭ͅͅe̡̗͇a͍̘̤͉͘d̼̜ 
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Video games are SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN
(I think I remember playing it for maybe 4 minutes)