Thursday, 1 November 2012

Taking a look at Golden sun


Golden Sun

 

I have chosen to look at this particular Gameboy Advance game as it ticks a lot of the boxes that we are looking at in our game. The mechanics and graphics are pretty much the on the dot for what we are looking for in particular; I'll also be analyzing the character 'Alex' as he in particular I feel will give me a better idea into the inner workings of such a character; due to him being similar to our character The prince.  'Alex' is somewhat of the main antagonist, but unlike the traditional, he plays as a 'companion' to the party through the game.

Upon his first appearance in the game he is evidently sided with the antagonists who the party are hell bent on stopping  throughout the first instalment of the game. The main antagonists are two 'fire adepts' from the same home town, Saturos and Menardi, they are the most often seen and are clearly against you. They hold 'hostage' two of the protagonists companions, Jenna and Kraden. The final member is Jenna's Brother Felix, who was believed to be dead, but is now following the antagonists for reasons that are not mentioned until much later. Swinging back to Alex, it does seem like an odd group, why and how did he become part of this group? How is never clearly mentioned, but Saturos and Menardi trust him enough to be a part of the group.

Unlike them, he is a very cool, level headed character, with a bit of a silver tongue. In terms of combat, it is literally never seen from him save for one occasion at the start of the second game; which gives the example to the player that Alex is by no means weak, but simply, as stated by him "I do not wish to inflict unnecessary bloodshed.". This is further backed up by one of the protagonists that join that party, Mia; who is from the same clan and was taught the same abilities (Both are what is known as 'Water adepts'); she is baffled by Alex's ability to teleport at will- the most frequent example of his abilities. So even with the extent of knowledge that I have on this character there is literally so many unanswered questions about him; which I found quite interesting and actually quite logical- what is there to gain by telling people your secrets? He tactfully dodges questions that reach such subjects.

This does ripple over to the player over time, questioning whether they can truly trust him or not.

In the second game, you play as Felix and are this time working to the same end as Alex- which would imply that he would join the group. He ironically says that he works better alone but makes appearances over the course of the game; also seemingly switching sides yet again as the party is being 'too slow' and joins yet another group.

And this is all to meet his own ends of gaining the ultimate power and immortality. A pretty common motive for an antagonist; but his methods to go about it are what I love so much about this character. Our prince is along a similar strand of how he covers his true motives and plays to the fellow protagonists;  unlike Alex our Princes motives are childish and have a lot less grandeur to it; he also has plays a completely different facade to conceal his motives.

 

The mechanics and gameplay of Golden Sun is very similar to what we are capable of doing on RPG Maker, unlike usual RPGs with a side view battle screen -which is our aim for our demo; Golden sun has a more cinematic style of switching perspectives, from slightly angled behind the party to behind the enemies. Unfortunately with the amount of time we have, we aren't being that excessive with the battle system. Our main focus is the integration of elements of detective and puzzle work.

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