Golden Sun: The Lost Age

is a 2002 role-playing video game for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. It is the second installment in the Golden Sun series and was released on June 28, 2002, in Japan, and in 2003 in North America and Europe.

Taking place after the events of the previous game, The Lost Age puts the player into the roles of the previous games' antagonists, primarily from the perspective of magic-attuned "adepts" Felix and his allies as they seek to restore the power of alchemy to the world of Weyard. Along the way, the player uses Psynergy to defeat enemies and discover new locations, help out local populations, and find elemental djinn which augment the characters' powers. Players can transfer their characters and items from Golden Sun to The Lost Age through a password system or Game Link Cable, and are rewarded for fully completing both games.

Upon release, The Lost Age was positively received by critics and audiences. IGN ranked the game as the eighth-best Game Boy Advance title of 2003 and the 22nd-best GBA game of all time. It has sold over 680,000 units. It was eventually followed by a third installment, titled Dark Dawn, released in 2010 and set thirty years after the two original games.

Like its predecessor, The Lost Age was re-released for the Wii U's Virtual Console service via the Nintendo eShop. It became available first in Japan on July 23, 2014, and later in North America and PAL regions. Along with Golden Sun, it was released on the Nintendo Classics service on January 17, 2024.

Gameplay

The Lost Age follows the same traditional role-playing video game formula as Golden Sun. Players control a cast of characters as they journey through a fantasy-themed world, interact with other characters, battle monsters, acquire magic spells and equipment, and take part in a building, predefined narrative. While many actions the player takes are compulsory and central to the story, The Lost Age allows them to complete many objectives in the order they choose. As well, visiting previous locations to advance story elements and complete gameplay objectives are given a stronger emphasis than in the previous game.

Most gameplay outside of battle takes place either in the game's overworld or within dungeons, caves, and other locales with puzzles integrated into their layout. Unlike the original game, in which the overworld was explored on foot except for a brief, non-navigable boat ride, a large portion of The Lost Age's gameplay involves navigating a magical ship across a large sea and visiting continents and islands. To complete puzzles, players must either push pillars to construct negotiable paths between elevated areas, climb up or descend cliffs, or obtain a special item to progress through the story and game world. Many of these puzzles revolve heavily around the usage of Psynergy, requiring the player to find items that grant the bearer new forms of Psynergy to accomplish tasks. Acquiring new Psynergy spells gives players access to new locations and secrets hidden within the game world.

Besides combat, Psynergy spells are also heavily used in puzzles and exploration.

Battle

thumb|A battle at sea showcases four of the main characters. Characters' vital statistics are listed along the top of the screen.

The Lost Age contains both random monster encounters and compulsory battles that advance the story. If all the player's characters are downed by reducing their hit points to zero, the party is returned to the last village that the player visited and loses money. In addition to the main game, there is also a competitive battling mode accessible from the menu screen, where players can enter their teams into an arena to battle CPU-controlled enemies or other players.

Djinn system

One of the primary gameplay features in the Golden Sun series is elemental creatures called Djinn (singular: Djinni), which can be found throughout the game and which The Lost Age adds new types of. Not counting the ones that can only be found in the original Golden Sun, there are eleven Djinn for each of the four elements that can be allocated to each character. Djinn form the basis of the game's statistics enhancement system, and when allocated, modify a character's classes, increasing maximum hit points, Psynergy points, and other statistics, and altering the available Psynergy they can perform. Djinni may also be used to directly attack an opponent; once used, they no longer contribute to a character's class, but can be used to attack an opponent by summoning a powerful elemental spirit. This is the most powerful method of attack and also the riskiest, as it requires Djinn to be on standby, meaning that they are unable to bolster the statistics of the character they are equipped to. Once a Djinni on Standby is used for a Summon Sequence, it must recover for several turns before it restores itself to Set position on a character. However, a subsequent increase in the affinity of the attack's element is bolstered on the character for the duration of the battle.

Synopsis

Characters and setting

For most of the game, the player controls four characters. The main protagonist is Felix, an eighteen-year-old Venus Adept from the village of Vale who was an anti-hero in Golden Sun.

Several groups of characters serve as antagonists in The Lost Age. He is at odds with the heroes of the original Golden Sun, led by Venus Adept warrior Isaac, who pursue him across Weyard believing that Alchemy would potentially destroy Weyard if unleashed. One of Saturos' original companions, the powerful and enigmatic Mercury Adept Alex, allies himself with Karst and Agatio, powerful and imposing Mars Adept warriors, the former of whom is Menardi's younger sister. Saturos' companion Felix takes the rest of his group and sets out on his own journey to complete Saturos' original objective and activate the remaining two Lighthouses, as lighting all four will restore Alchemy to Weyard. The Lost Age was highly anticipated; it topped IGN's list of Game Boy Advance "Most Wanted" games for 2003. The North American version of the game was playable at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2002. GameSpot previewed a localized copy of The Lost Age in February 2003, and noted that the game built on its predecessor's graphics engine, with "the environments in the game featuring rich detail with little touches—such as birds that fly off as you approach." The game was released in Japan on June 28, 2002, and the following year in North America on April 14, in Australia on April 17, and in Europe on September 19.

Reception

The Lost Age generally received positive reviews, but critics were divided on whether or not the game was better than the original Golden Sun.

On Metacritic, The Lost Age has an 86% aggregate rating, Likewise, GameRankings gives The Lost Age an 87% overall rating, Conversely, The Lost Age was ranked 78 on IGNs Readers Choice Top 100 games ever, higher than its predecessor. It was also rated the 69th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Games" list.

IGN gave the sequel high praise; The Lost Age subsequently became IGNs "Game of the Month" in April 2003. Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly argued that though The Lost Age is "not going to win any originality contests (this looks, sounds, and feels nearly identical to its predecessor), but when more of the same means more top-notch roleplaying, I can't complain". The publication later named The Lost Age the best Game Boy Advance game of April 2003.

Some publications found fault with complaints which remained from the original, including the combat system. IGN and GamePro took issue with the lack of "smart" combat; if an enemy is killed before other party members attack it, those members switch to defense instead of intelligently attacking the remaining enemies. Ethan Einhorn of GameNOW felt that the only elements that set the fighting system above "typical RPG fare" were the graphics. GameSpy felt that Camelot could have added more features.

The Lost Age sold 96,000 units in its first week in Japan, being the best-selling game of the period. The game sold a total of 249,000 copies in Japan and 437,000 in North America by November 21, 2004.