Joystiq

The delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing games

Rowan Kaiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Features, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Retro, Microsoft Xbox 360, RPGs

This week, Rowan Kaiser and Kat Bailey have switched roles -- with Rowan taking lead in this week's column focusing on the wonderful world of Japanese role-playing games.

I was only defeated once in Suikoden. Even that was an accident - I thought it was a fight I was supposed to lose. Calling the game "easy" is something of an understatement. With a little bit of planning, you can win virtually every fight in the game, including the final boss battle on auto-pilot using the "Free Will" option in the combat menu. Yet, despite this easiness, Suikoden is one of my favorite Japanese role-playing games. "Easy" isn't the right term for it exactly. Instead, Suikoden is smooth.

"Smoothness" isn't a common criteria used to judge games. If anything, it's the opposite. Getting the difficulty level just right, so that the game seems like a challenge but is completable with practice, seems like it's an ideal. Or, you can use Sid Meier's model of games as "interesting choices" - but if the game isn't challenging, those choices don't seem to matter, right? I think acceptance theories like those are part of the reason that Japanese role-playing games are considered less important than they used to be.

Continue reading The delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing games

The delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing games originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Classic Golden Sun commercial finally explained by Dark Dawn

Griffin McElroy — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST

Back in 2001, Nintendo released a fairly gorgeous commercial for Golden Sun -- however, for all its glitz and glamor, it wasn't exactly packing in the coherence department. A giant crystal dragon, totally wrecking shop in a jam-packed opera house? We don't remember that in the original Game Boy Advance RPG. As it turns out, there's a reason for that: That sequence wouldn't make it into the franchise until this very year, with the release of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Check out a comparison of the commercial and the (slightly spoilery) clip from Dark Dawn after the jump -- just try not to think about why it took almost a decade for the translucent dragon to arrive. Was the commercial just prescient or something?

Continue reading Classic Golden Sun commercial finally explained by Dark Dawn

Classic Golden Sun commercial finally explained by Dark Dawn originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's Hiroyuki Takahashi on the new game, hoaxes and 3DS

JC Fletcher — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:20:00 EST

It has been seven years since the last Golden Sun game, the GBA's Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Now, after that long wait, Camelot Software Planning has put aside Mario-flavored sports games (and Capcom's We Love Golf) to produce a new entry in the revered RPG series, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, available next week on DS. We spoke with Hiroyuki Takahashi, one of the two Takahashi brothers responsible for creating the series, and Nintendo assistant producer Yuya Sato about the new game and about bringing a seemingly lost series back to life.

Continue reading Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's Hiroyuki Takahashi on the new game, hoaxes and 3DS

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's Hiroyuki Takahashi on the new game, hoaxes and 3DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn features a hyperlinked 'Encyclopedia'

JC Fletcher — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST

The "Doing Things that Should Have Been Done Long Ago" department at Camelot Software Planning has come up with something brilliant for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, something you've seen before in other contexts: hyperlinks.

To help fill new players in on the Golden Sun lore, and to help returning players remember the people, places, and events from those GBA games, the dialogue in Dark Dawn is peppered with links like the one above (the "Tap!" graphic is there because that was the first such link to appear). Tap and an encyclopedia entry for that entity appears on the top screen. It's also saved so you can go back through them later. Who were the Warriors of Vale? What's a Sol Sanctum? The game is free to refer back to this stuff, secure in the knowledge that you can figure it all out.

Now that it's been done, all games with lots of characters, or lots of backstory, should implement this immedlately.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn features a hyperlinked 'Encyclopedia' originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Preview: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Richard Mitchell — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST

Camelot knows how to make entertaining RPGs. It's something of a travesty that the studio has been whiling away the last several years on various Nintendo sports games instead of pumping out a sequel to Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Now, after seven years (seven), Camelot is finally back on the scene with Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the DS. Based on my E3 demo, I'd say fans have cause to be excited. Playing Dark Dawn is a joy, like visiting an old friend.

Gallery: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)

Continue reading Preview: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Preview: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Golden Sun DS trailer summons some excitement

Mike Schramm — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST

Golden Sun is back after six years (the last time we saw a Golden Sun game was The Lost Age sequel), and this time it's on the DS system. We've got the first video, straight from the Nintendo keynote this morning, and you can watch it above.

Looks good, no? It's gone more or less full 3D, but there's still the same exploring, summons, and (we're guessing) battle that appeared in the last few games. Camelot told us a while back that they'd love to play a Golden Sun DS game, and now that it's announced and we've seen this trailer, we can't help but agree.

Golden Sun DS trailer summons some excitement originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Camelot reckons Golden Sun DS 'would be great'

Ludwig Kietzmann — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, RPGs, Sports

So, we're all in agreement then. Currently hard at work on the European version of We Love Golf (for Wii, natch), the folks at Camelot have told Eurogamer that they rather like the idea of bringing Golden Sun, a popular series of role-playing games for the Game Boy Advance, to Nintendo's DS. "It would be great, wouldn't it!" said the seemingly excitable Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi. "We want to play that game too, just as much as you. We love Golden Sun!"

The brothers also noted that the RPG genre is one they definitely plan on revisiting in the future, with their thoughts already wrapped around "RPG stuff." Said the Takahashi brothers: "Camelot is an RPG maker. We don't think that we'll ever quit making RPGs."

Camelot reckons Golden Sun DS 'would be great' originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Camelot likes the idea of Golden Sun DS

David Hinkle — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: News

While speaking with Eurogamer about their game on the Wii, the subject of RPGs still managed to come up. And we can totally understand why, as the company's Golden Sun and Shining Force series of games are widely regarded as excellent. Camelot even hinted at Golden Sun for the DS, the teases!

"We want to play that game too, just as much as you," comments the Takahashi brothers. " We love Golden Sun! We are working on a lot of different things - a lot of different design documents and so on, including some different RPG ideas. Don't worry, we're thinking about RPG stuff! We've got all these ideas, many many different things we're thinking about - but of course, we still have just one team, so we'll see what happens." Of course, we knew they were working on some kind of RPG earlier this month, but to take this as a confirmation that a Golden Sun for the DS is in the works could very well mean a lot of nights spent home alone, crying in the dark. Or, they actually could be working on it. For the sake of our sanity, though, we're going to remain skeptical.

Camelot likes the idea of Golden Sun DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Golden Sun creators hint at new RPG

JC Fletcher — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:15:00 EST

Filed under: Rumors

In an interview about We Love Golf, IGN asked Camelot's Takahashi brothers about a possible new entry in their popular Nintendo-published RPG series, Golden Sun. The temptation for us to say "THEY TOTALLY CONFIRMED IT" today is overwhelming, but no -- just like every developer ever, they offered vague, noncommittal hints.

"Just like how we said our staff has been hoping to create new RPGs, we are definitely in the planning stages of doing something interesting. We hope that you will be looking forward to our future game. We ourselves are looking forward to the next Camelot RPG as well, just like you."

So they're planning a new RPG of some kind, for some platform, to be revealed in the future -- and Camelot thinks it's going to be pretty neat. That's significantly more than devs will usually let slip. Although they didn't even really say that they were planning an RPG.

Golden Sun creators hint at new RPG originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Camelot on Golden Sun 3

David Hinkle — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:20:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, News

Back during E3, everyone got all excited because they thought some screens for a new Golden Sun game had leaked onto the intertron. Of course, it was fake as we soon learned why someone would play with our emotions in that way. Shame on them.

But, hope returns, as in an interview with Game Informer, Camelot reveals that Nintendo has told them that they want another game in the series. And, like a mob boss running shop on your neighborhood, you best listen to them. Camelot said "We have to do it! Not just that we have to do it, but we want to do it. Nintendo has asked us to please make it. But at the same time we haven't gotten around to making it. We're not really sure why (laughs)...One of the reasons that we haven't made golden sun is because there are so many fans of the game and we don't want to do something half-assed. We want to give it the time it deserves."

While we appreciate the care on their part to create a quality game, one deserving of the Golden Sun name, we think 4 years has been plenty of time to come up with a third installment.

[Via Codename Revolution]

Camelot on Golden Sun 3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments