3.5/5 ★ – JaredJDub's review of Golden Sun.

This game is quite heavily regarded as a sort of cult classic from the GBA days. Unfortunately, when I was a kid, handheld games hardly ever captured my attention for any long periods of time. I would totally love to say I was strutting around the football field with a lady in my arm, but it was mainly because my attention span, the time I had to play, and other games to play around that same time. Most turn-based RPGs know they have to use some sort of unique mechanic to make their game stand out, otherwise it's typically a little boring. That system for Golden Sun was the Djinn mechanic, which I personally am not a huge fan of. I don't think it was implemented badly, it just wasn't for me. I didn't like having my spells and skills being effected by the djinn I had equipped, and even if I got the setup I wanted, it'd go away as soon as I'd use the djinns in battle. This was actually interesting and made you really think about your Djinn line-up to create cool combinations, but again, it just wasn't for me. The only other issue I took with it was the sound design. The music was great and most of the sound effects were okay but those sounds when the Djinns joined you...was ear bleeding. The GBA was limited in what it could do, but it wasn't so limited that it couldn't use better sounds than what seemed like a literal game of whack-a-mole and you're do a drumroll on the mole's head. I realize you're supposed to basically go right on to the sequel, but I think I may hold off on that. After getting to the end, I felt I need a break so I'll play something else off my 2025 list.