Golden Sun with No Swords Part I
Apr. 24th, 2023 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingAs hype was building for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in mid-to-late 2018, and continuing as DLC characters were being teased and introduced, I was very much an "Isaac stan", if there was such a thing. My Twitter timeline was abuzz with support for Isaac from Golden Sun as a playable character, with him and Shantae being my top picks to appear in the game.
I was a big fan of the "Grinch leak" during the short period where that was a thing!
I took the concept of fandom perhaps the furthest I've ever taken it on November 11th, 2018 for what the Golden Sun community on Twitter called #GoldenSunday. I posted reviews of some theorized Isaac movesets for Smash Bros. that had been proposed by fans across several communities, as well as my own take on a potential Smash moveset for Isaac.
I also wanted to refute the most common criticism of Issac in Smash that I had heard: Smash doesn't need another anime swordsman! And it's true, really, Smash is loaded with anime swordsmen. But I had considered Isaac very much as an earth-element master first.
As part of #GoldenSunday, I posted, "This gives me an idea for a fun challenge play, actually: Golden Sun 1+2 with no swords of any kind! Anyone done it?"
Without reply, eventually, I started... quite a bit later, in March of 2020. As of this writing, just over three years later, I haven't finished it nor even picked it back up for ages. I was playing on Wii U Virtual Console and lost my mojo for it (citing Animal Crossing New Horizons; can you blame me?). I think I may come back to it. It's not super easy to record or screenshot from a Wii U though.
The rules are: no character can use any sword in battle at any time. If there's ever a situation where a character is forced into battle with a sword, they can only use non-weapon-based actions. The Ragnarok and Odyssey psynergies are also banned, since they summon giant swords.
In terms of what I already did...
On March 16, 2020, I posted that I had started! "I’ve started this over the last few days, up to Xian. It’s not hard, but it’s slow. It sucks missing some early swords like Arctic Blade and depending on Battle Axes for a long time."
On May 24, 2020, I posted: "I played through Colosso and then got distracted by #ACNH. But Colosso was the most interesting part of Golden Sun with no swords! It meant doing the final opponent with only psynergy and items, which was a super close call!"
On Feb 24, 2021, I replied to something about non-sword-wielding characters in response to @theWellRedMage. "I have wanted Isaac for a long, long time. He wields swords, but uh can also use maces or axes, the sword isn’t necessary. I even did a Golden Sun 'no swords' run! And then he just won’t use his iconic Ragnarok attack. It’ll be fine!"
This was a bit of a lie, I think, as I don't remember going any further than Colosso.
At this point, about 3 years later, Colosso is the only thing memorable about the run so far. Colosso is probably a bit more than halfway through the first Golden Sun game, and you have Isaac alone and he's supposed to try to win a battle contest. The contestants race through an obstacle course, optionally picking up advantages of different sorts along the way, and whichever contestant reaches the battlefield in the middle of the arena first claims the most useful advantage - in the second round, it's a weapon. This is sort of a Hunger Games-like situation where you enter with nothing, and can choose to be direct and opt for violence... or gather a variety of assets with risk of your opponent entering the match with a strong weapon. Well, the weapon available in Colosso is a sword, of course, so I collected everything else and then attempted to win these solo battles using only Psynergy. I don't remember the details but I very much remember that last battle coming down to the wire!
What I can say about this so far is: while Isaac does have access to a variety of weapons, his game is very much designed around the use of swords! Avoiding swords isn't particularly challenging (besides Colosso, so far), but it certainly feels different. The next part of the game where I would expect to truly feel the impact of this limitation is near the end, as some of the highest-tier weapons in the game, such as the Gaia Blade and the Kikuichimonji, are swords.
Here are my stats at the Gondowan Passage, having never touched a sword:
Index | Next >
I was a big fan of the "Grinch leak" during the short period where that was a thing!
I took the concept of fandom perhaps the furthest I've ever taken it on November 11th, 2018 for what the Golden Sun community on Twitter called #GoldenSunday. I posted reviews of some theorized Isaac movesets for Smash Bros. that had been proposed by fans across several communities, as well as my own take on a potential Smash moveset for Isaac.
I also wanted to refute the most common criticism of Issac in Smash that I had heard: Smash doesn't need another anime swordsman! And it's true, really, Smash is loaded with anime swordsmen. But I had considered Isaac very much as an earth-element master first.
As part of #GoldenSunday, I posted, "This gives me an idea for a fun challenge play, actually: Golden Sun 1+2 with no swords of any kind! Anyone done it?"
Without reply, eventually, I started... quite a bit later, in March of 2020. As of this writing, just over three years later, I haven't finished it nor even picked it back up for ages. I was playing on Wii U Virtual Console and lost my mojo for it (citing Animal Crossing New Horizons; can you blame me?). I think I may come back to it. It's not super easy to record or screenshot from a Wii U though.
The rules are: no character can use any sword in battle at any time. If there's ever a situation where a character is forced into battle with a sword, they can only use non-weapon-based actions. The Ragnarok and Odyssey psynergies are also banned, since they summon giant swords.
In terms of what I already did...
On March 16, 2020, I posted that I had started! "I’ve started this over the last few days, up to Xian. It’s not hard, but it’s slow. It sucks missing some early swords like Arctic Blade and depending on Battle Axes for a long time."
On May 24, 2020, I posted: "I played through Colosso and then got distracted by #ACNH. But Colosso was the most interesting part of Golden Sun with no swords! It meant doing the final opponent with only psynergy and items, which was a super close call!"
On Feb 24, 2021, I replied to something about non-sword-wielding characters in response to @theWellRedMage. "I have wanted Isaac for a long, long time. He wields swords, but uh can also use maces or axes, the sword isn’t necessary. I even did a Golden Sun 'no swords' run! And then he just won’t use his iconic Ragnarok attack. It’ll be fine!"
This was a bit of a lie, I think, as I don't remember going any further than Colosso.
At this point, about 3 years later, Colosso is the only thing memorable about the run so far. Colosso is probably a bit more than halfway through the first Golden Sun game, and you have Isaac alone and he's supposed to try to win a battle contest. The contestants race through an obstacle course, optionally picking up advantages of different sorts along the way, and whichever contestant reaches the battlefield in the middle of the arena first claims the most useful advantage - in the second round, it's a weapon. This is sort of a Hunger Games-like situation where you enter with nothing, and can choose to be direct and opt for violence... or gather a variety of assets with risk of your opponent entering the match with a strong weapon. Well, the weapon available in Colosso is a sword, of course, so I collected everything else and then attempted to win these solo battles using only Psynergy. I don't remember the details but I very much remember that last battle coming down to the wire!
What I can say about this so far is: while Isaac does have access to a variety of weapons, his game is very much designed around the use of swords! Avoiding swords isn't particularly challenging (besides Colosso, so far), but it certainly feels different. The next part of the game where I would expect to truly feel the impact of this limitation is near the end, as some of the highest-tier weapons in the game, such as the Gaia Blade and the Kikuichimonji, are swords.
Here are my stats at the Gondowan Passage, having never touched a sword:
Index | Next >
