I would argue the first two Golden Sun games are, in fact, terrible. Yeah there's a "get to the lighthouses" goal hanging over your head the whole time, but the games are artificially padded out by forcing you into sidequests that, logically, you should not be stopping for because they're completely unrelated to the main quest and serve only to be roadblocks.
It's particularly bad in TLA where Kraden is essentially dragging you everywhere because he's a fucking five-year-old distracted by the shinies. "OH MAN WEREWOLVES :D=-<" is literally the only reason you go to the goddamn werewolf village. NOBODY in either GS is focused on the quests, Babi is the worst person and they help him without even questioning it, and everyone repeats things you already know or explains the unimportant things you weren't wondering about. The game basically goes "here's your end goal WHOOPS ROADBLOCK REQUIRING HOURS OF WORK TO GET PAST FOR NO REASON, WHOOPS KRADEN WANTS YOU TO GO HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD AND YOU CAN'T SAY NO, WHOOPS I GUESS YOU GOT
( ... )
yeah I guess when you get down to it, the first two games really aren't that different very much at all. The biggest separation I'd say is that in the first two I didn't mind and was totally like "oh yeah sure why not" (though I haven't played TLA in maybe six years or so) and in this one I'm like "FUCK GODDAMN IT WHY DO WE CARE"
Yeah I'm playing TLA for the first time right now and...ugh. I tolerated the first Golden Sun, but TLA is about a million times worse. First off, it very rarely indicates where you're supposed to go next, and even when it does it's vague at best, so you spend the entire game in "WHERE DO I GOOOOO" mode.
Secondly, I want to shove Kraden in a lake. All the problems with the story's padding are pretty much solely on his shoulders, because he's the one going "What important world-saving quest? CAN'T YOU SEE THERE'S ~*~WEREWOLVES~*~?!" I maintain that GS1 was tolerable because Kraden wasn't present.
Pretty much; I was really not excited when he rejoins you about halfway through DD, but Camelot couldn't ~bear~ to have him gone like he should be so GUESS WHAT THE FUCKER'S AGELESS NOW! There were definite pacing problems before he came up but he certainly didn't help things in the slightest.
One thing I couldn't believe was right after the big apocalypse event, they don't tell you jack shit about where to go so I spent ages sailing all over the goddamn planet and fighting a million annoying monsters before finally finding the right place--only to find out Kraden intended us to go here the whole time, but he didn't specifically say it because "we'd get here eventually" and he "didn't want to waste time."
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO WASTE TIME THEN TELL US WHERE TO GO INSTEAD OF LETTING US SAIL ALL OVER THE FUCKING WORLD YOU SENILE OLD ldkfjldskjf
I'm stuck in that part in TLA right now, where you get the boat and Kraden's just like "WE CAN GO ANYWHERE SO LET'S DO THAT!!!" and it...does not actually tell you where you need to go next to trigger the plot. AND RANDOM BATTLES ON THE BOAT OH BOY SAILING IS JUST AS TEDIOUS AS WALKING EXCEPT NOW YOU HAVE TO LAND TO CAST AVOID
That sort of thing is annoying in any game, the wandering around a way-too-big space with a random encounter ever other step you take without knowing where to go. Add on the fact that in DD you just started the goddamn apocalypse and that when you go to visit towns in the shadow there are skeletons everywhere no rush guys take your time figuring out where to go fffffffffffffffff
It's particularly bad in TLA where Kraden is essentially dragging you everywhere because he's a fucking five-year-old distracted by the shinies. "OH MAN WEREWOLVES :D=-<" is literally the only reason you go to the goddamn werewolf village. NOBODY in either GS is focused on the quests, Babi is the worst person and they help him without even questioning it, and everyone repeats things you already know or explains the unimportant things you weren't wondering about. The game basically goes "here's your end goal WHOOPS ROADBLOCK REQUIRING HOURS OF WORK TO GET PAST FOR NO REASON, WHOOPS KRADEN WANTS YOU TO GO HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD AND YOU CAN'T SAY NO, WHOOPS I GUESS YOU GOT ( ... )
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Secondly, I want to shove Kraden in a lake. All the problems with the story's padding are pretty much solely on his shoulders, because he's the one going "What important world-saving quest? CAN'T YOU SEE THERE'S ~*~WEREWOLVES~*~?!" I maintain that GS1 was tolerable because Kraden wasn't present.
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One thing I couldn't believe was right after the big apocalypse event, they don't tell you jack shit about where to go so I spent ages sailing all over the goddamn planet and fighting a million annoying monsters before finally finding the right place--only to find out Kraden intended us to go here the whole time, but he didn't specifically say it because "we'd get here eventually" and he "didn't want to waste time."
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO WASTE TIME THEN TELL US WHERE TO GO INSTEAD OF LETTING US SAIL ALL OVER THE FUCKING WORLD YOU SENILE OLD ldkfjldskjf
Reply
I'm stuck in that part in TLA right now, where you get the boat and Kraden's just like "WE CAN GO ANYWHERE SO LET'S DO THAT!!!" and it...does not actually tell you where you need to go next to trigger the plot. AND RANDOM BATTLES ON THE BOAT OH BOY SAILING IS JUST AS TEDIOUS AS WALKING EXCEPT NOW YOU HAVE TO LAND TO CAST
AVOID
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