Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Camelot's past resurfaced on Golden Sun: The Lost Age, that wraps up the debut's (mediocre) tale from the antagonists' point of view, de facto continuing the experiment they started with Shining Force III. Like many sequels before it, upgrades abound: The extra Psynergies, the more creative approaches to Djinn collecting, tougher puzzles, longer dungeons and new classes improve the format without extending it beyond its borders. Their approach - instead, drew much more heavily from early/mid-90s JRPGs and from Zelda's puzzle designs than before. That sense of revival gets even stronger in the second half, which adopts the familiar model of obscure, semi-open progression, while its bloated storyline further highlighted both what they do well (scenario building) and not so well (dialogue), a quality that generally reflects the game as a whole. As an expanded version of Golden Sun, it succeeds, but there isn't enough compelling material to retain interest for 30 hours.