I Can’t Believe They’re Already Making A Sequel To Golden Sun, The Best Game Boy Advance RPG

It’s been less than a year since Camelot’s excellent RPG Golden Sun rose onto our Game Boy Advances, and we’re already being blessed with news of a direct sequel. Even better news: It looks incredible.

Those who have played and finished Golden Sun will know that it’s only half of a full adventure. Playing as a young man named Isaac with earth-themed magic powers (called Psynergy), you set off on a quest to stop a group of villains from destroying the world by lighting four elemental lighthouses across the fictional world of Weyard. However, Golden Sun only has you visit two of those lighthouses: Mercury (water) and Venus (earth). It ends on a massive cliffhanger (quite literally, actually) that leaves the fate of multiple major characters in question, and sends Isaac and his party members off to sea in search of their next objective.

But we won’t have to wait long for the epic conclusion, it seems. Earlier this year, Famitsu showed off a number of screenshots of the sequel, which seems to star an entirely different quartet of heroes. From these images, we can see that Felix, who was a part of the party of antagonists in Golden Sun, is now the star. He’s joined by his sister Jenna in the role of the fire magic-user, and seemingly Sheba (a girl the antagonists kidnapped at the end of Golden Sun), with wind magic.

And now, we have a new trailer straight out of E3 2002 that shows off some actual gameplay. In it we see a lot of Felix and his friends traveling through what seems to be a wind-themed dungeon and using several new Psynergies and in-battle summons we haven’t seen before. The music continues its streak of being fantastic, too. Check it out:

We’ve also gotten a look at a number of new screenshots, including one showing Felix struggling to cross a rope bridge, using a cool dragon summon in battle, and one that shows what seems to be sailing the ocean on a winged ship.

© Nintendo/Camelot

© Nintendo/Camelot

© Nintendo/Camelot

Still open is the question of who will be using water-themed magic to round out the party: one would assume it’s the villain still traveling with them, Alex, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age is currently expected to release sometime early next year. That gives us at least half a year to sit here and speculate as to where this adventure will take us, what Felix and co.’s plan is, and who the mysterious fourth party member will be. I, for one, cannot wait for a Golden Sun sequel.

The story you just read is part of the 2002 edition of Warp Week, a Kotaku series that takes readers back to gaming’s past through a mix of time-dilated reviews, retrospectives, and on-the-ground reports.