Spoilers Ahoy!

I am poor. Flat out broke. I left my job in October to move to LA and start a better career, only that hasn't happened yet. So while I live off of my savings during my search for a job (any job at this point), buying new games is no longer an option for me. This sucks because the 3DS is getting so many great games this month and I'm going to miss them all. I really wanted one of those misspelled copies of RE: Revelations too.

Obviously, I still play games as its the one thing that keeps me sane during these long hours of unemployment. This period has given me a great chance to try and beat all the games I've bought over the years but never got around to playing/finishing/opening; or as everyone calls it, the backlog. After spending the first few months down in LA focusing on finding a job, I've only just started to allow myself free time to play my games. So I grabbed all the games I have down here with me (there is not that many) and put them in order of what I will beat first. At the top of that list is the sequel to two of my favorite games from the GBA, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. After nearly 26 hours, I've finally saved the land of Weyard (or did I) again.

The game was a let down.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is not a bad game in any sense. It's an average RPG that harkens back to the early SNES days after Final Fantasy IV changed the game forever. It's just one of the strongest points of the first two games in the series, the story, is pathetic in this third entry. It honestly felt like there were three different stories that you played portions of. The game starts with you trying to find a feather, then you must solve the mystery of Psynergy Vortexes and finally you have to find a way to put an end to the eclipse. By the time the The End...? rolls across the screen, only one of those stories has been wrapped up.

Beyond the story, there was no real "hook" to the game. The GBA entries were popular because, in part, the graphics were amazing. The catastrophe summon is still one of the greatest thing ever to appear on that handheld. Because the game was just that amazing to look at on the GBA, the DS graphics were not nearly as stellar as I'd hope they would have been. Many of the summons were carried over from the previous games, exchanging sprites for polygons. The DS is capable of better.

In the end, I still enjoyed the game. There wasn't the same level of satisfaction I felt when I finished the first two games, but it's nice to see the world of Golden Sun is still evolving, still growing (literally).

So where do we go from here?

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was released at an unfortunate time, i.e. after Dragon Quest IX. Dragon Quest IX is a near masterpiece and most other RPG's fall short of it. With Dark Dawn not equaling the greatness of the first two games in the series, it was seriously overshadowed by DQIX. With that, the game didn't sell as well as the first two entries. Both games for the GBA easily cleared one million copies while Dark Dawn has moved just over 500,000. I'd hope that is good enough for a sequel to be made, because dammit, they need to wrap up the story lines from this game.

If I were to guess, I would say Golden Sun 4 would leave Matthew, Karis & Tyrell behind in favor of following Rief's sister Nowell, who is sailing the world with Piers (from The Lost Age). But beyond characters, what could Camelot do to make Golden Sun 4 a better game than Dark Dawn. My suggestions would be:

- Bigger World: Dark Dawn felt too much like the original Golden Sun and its limited world. It became a nuisance when so much of the world was cut off from you later in the game. Golden Sun 4 needs to have Weyard open.

- Wrap Up the Story: If Golden Sun 4 is a direct continuation of Dark Dawn, then we already know the storyline: Our heroes will work against perennial antagonist Alex to stop the coming of the Mourning Moon. I'm totally cool with that being the plot to the next game, but the story needs to end. The Golden Sun series doesn't have to be one long continuation of the same storyline. I think it'd be much better for future games if the developer allowed itself more leeway when it comes to plot.

- Better Enemies: You know what makes Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest so memorable? The iconic enemies. The baddies in Dragon Quest are so notable they have their own Pokemon-like spin-off. Golden Sun's enemies are mostly just an assortment of common RPG bad guys, made only more dull by the terrible bosses in the game. All three final bosses in the Golden Sun series have sucked, though Dark Dawn's is the best of the three. The hidden bosses are a nice touch, but every RPG has hidden bosses. Camelot needs to rethink the villains of Weyard from the ground up.

- Make the Game Quicker: The eight years in between The Lost Age and Dark Dawn greatly hurt the impact the DS game could have had, especially seeing as gamers were asking for the game since the DS launched. A lot about the first two games were forgotten, especially characters. There can't be that big of a delay with Golden Sun 4. We need it quicker, on either the 3DS or Wii U.

- Find a New Graphical Style: It's clear that Dawn Dawn's graphics is a DS version of the graphics from the first two games. As I said before, the first two games were mesmerizing, Dark Dawn not so much. For Golden Sun 4, we need to dump the chibi-versions of our heroes for the over world and just stick with the battle versions. With the power on the 3DS or Wii U, there is no reason this can't be done.

- Fix the Djinn System: The Djinn system is the big gimmick of the Golden Sun series, but it's always been lacking. You're encouraged to mix Djinn types amongst characters, but keeping all elements the same usual brings the best results. Change it up for Golden Sun 4 and really let players experiment for the best combination.

- Dump the Random Forging: If these metal workers are as skilled as they claim to be, then they should be able to make exactly what I want. I shouldn't hand them a piece of silver and hope for the best.

Those are my thoughts on Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and the future of the series. I really hope we get another entry soon enough, because no matter the story, I really do love the world of Weyard and the mythology Camelot has crafted. Also, I would really love to see either Issac or Matthew appear as a playable character in the next Super Smash Bros.