228: Golden Sun (with Rebekah Valentine)

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It's not every day you revisit a favorite game from your teenage years, but today is that day as special guest Rebekah Valentine (Kotaku) joins me to discuss Golden Sun, one of the most beloved Game Boy Advance games. Camelot and Nintendo ended up splitting the game into two, and in this episode we focus on the first game, though we do discuss The Lost Age quite a bit as well. As always, no spoilers for a while- enjoy!

Guest info: Rebekah Valentine (she/her)

• Check out her work at Kotaku https://kotaku.com/author/rvalentine
• Check out Reb's look back at Golden Sun https://kotaku.com/25-years-ago-golden-sun-video-game-adventure-2000721340
• Check out Reb writing as if it were 2002 again https://kotaku.com/golden-sun-the-lost-age-sequel-warp-week-2000723015
• Follow on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/duckvalentine.bsky.social

TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 Title Card
• 0:18 Introductions
• 5:30 Our Histories with Golden Sun
• 12:47 Top Level Thoughts
• 17:42 Acknowledging The Lost Age
• 25:31 Story Setup
• 33:50 Golden Sins and Silent Protagonists
• 44:29 Story Thoughts
• 52:25 Combat and Djinn System
• 1:09:18 Equipment, Resource Conservation, Puzzles
• 1:28:25 Soundtrack
• 1:38:22 Wrap-Up Thoughts and Who Should Play?
• 1:45:15 Reb's Work at Kotaku
• 1:50:06 Spoiler Wall and Patron Thank-Yous
• 1:52:27 Spoilers- Golden Sun's Story and The Lost Age Setup
• 2:12:42 Spoilers- Dave Might Play The Lost Age?

Music used in the episode is credited to Motoi Sakuraba. Tracks used: Main Theme, World Map, Enemy Battle, Lighthouse Theme, Sol Sanctum, Main Menu, Battle With Saturos, Vale and Vault

Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures