Reception
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 87% (50 Reviews) |
| Metacritic | 86% (29 Reviews) |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 8.2 out of 10 |
| Famitsu | 33 out of 40 |
| GameSpot | 8.6 out of 10 |
| GameSpy | 86 out of 100 |
| IGN | 9 out of 10 |
The Lost Age generally received positive reviews, but critics were divided on whether or not the game was better than the original Golden Sun. On Metacritic, The Lost Age has an 86% aggregate rating, compared to Golden Sun's 91%. Likewise, GameRankings gives The Lost Age an 87% overall rating, slightly lower than Golden Sun's 90%. Conversely, The Lost Age was ranked 78 on IGN's Readers Choice Top 100 games ever, higher than its predecessor. It was also rated the 69th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Games" list.
IGN gave the sequel high marks, noting that even though the game is not a sequel in the traditional literary sense, it was still an excellent game. While most of the game mechanics remained unchanged, the addition of more complicated puzzles was welcomed. The Lost Age subsequently became IGN's "Game of the Month" in April 2003. Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly argued that though The Lost Age is "not going to win any originality contests (this looks, sounds, and feels nearly identical to its predecessor), but when more of the same means more top-notch roleplaying, I can't complain". Other publications singled out the graphics and audio as particularly strong features.
Some publications found fault with complaints which remained from the original, including the combat system. IGN and GamePro took issue with the lack of "smart" combat; if an enemy is killed before other party members attack it, those members switch to defense instead of intelligently attacking the remaining enemies. Ethan Einhorn of GameNOW felt that the only elements that set the fighting system above "typical RPG fare" were the graphics. GameSpy felt that Camelot could have added more features, and criticized the long opening sequence which either alienated players of the previous game, or confused new players by swamping them with unfamiliar places and characters.
The Lost Age sold 96,000 units in its first week in Japan, being the best-selling game of the period. The game sold a total of 249,000 copies in Japan and 437,000 in North America by November 21, 2004.
Read more about this topic: Golden Sun: The Lost Age
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—Walter Pater (1839–1894)