Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, known as Ōgon no Taiyō: Shikkokunaru Yoake (黃金の太陽 漆黒なる夜明け) in Japan, is a fantasy role-playing video game for Nintendo DS. It's developed by Camelot and published by Nintendo. First shown Dark Dawn's official games was in E3 2010. Game was released in October 28, 2010 in Japan and in November 29, 2010 in North America; It is 8 years since the previous game, Game Boy Advance game Golden Sun: The Lost Age, was released.
The game picks up 30 years after the first two games of the series. The main characters are the children of the character in the previous game. In the game, player will control Matthew and his friends to fix the "soarwing".
System
Like its predecessors, Dark Dawn similay as the traditional role-playing video game. In game, players control characters travel in fantasy-themed world, chat with other characters, battle with monsters, learning powerful magic spells, finding equipment, and take part in a building, do given tasks. Unlike the previous games, some locations don't allowed return once player left. One change of game is the encyclopedia system. For players who don't familiar with the plot of the first two games, the encyclopedia explains location, role and other words.
Much of the time are not spend in battle, instead, it takes place either in the game's overworld or solve puzzle for dungeons, caves, and other locales. Like The Lost Age, Dark Dawn have a ship that can help player across a large sea, visiting continents and islands. To solve puzzles or complete the tasks, player usually need to use magic spells that named Psynergy, besides, player also has to find items that can teach character new Psynergy.
Unlike many role-playing video games that magiac can only use as attack or defending in battle, Psynergy spells are also have important usage for solve puzzles and searching. While some Psynergy can only be used in battle, some are only used in the game's overworld and in non-battle place. Instead, some Psynergy can also be used for both situations; for example, the “Cold Snap” ability can be used to attack enemies in battle, or changed water to ice as part of a puzzle. While using Psynergy in non-battle place, a light ring appears around the character and players can decide the direction of the ability by using the touch screen or buttons. Psynergy comes in four elements: Venus (rocks and plants), Mars (fire and heat), Jupiter (wind and electricity), and Mercury (water and ice). The player gains more and more Psynergy spells as the game progresses, either through levelling up or acquiring and equipping, or using special items, and with each "utility" Psynergy spell the party gains access to more locations and secrets hidden within the game world.
Battle
Dark Dawn have two kinds of battle: random monster encounters and battles which BOSS that can advance the story. Battles take place on the lower screen of DS, enemy party and player's party are shown face to face. During battle, the camera rotates around the characters and backgrounds in 3D, unlike the pseudo 3D effect used in the previous games. The upper screen is used to view characters' stats and Djinni information.
In battle, the player is required to defeat all the enemies by attacks with weapons, using Psynergy spells, or other ways. At the same time, player needs to keep his or her own party alive by using items and supportive Psynergy that heal and support. If all the player's characters are defeated by losing all their hit points, the party is returned to the last village that the player visited, and the player loses some money. A battle victory, players will get experience points, coins, and sometimes can get special items.
Djinn system
One of the most special feature in Dark Dawn is the Djinn system, where the player collects and cortrols elemental product called Djinn (singular: Djinni), and Dark Dawn use some Djinn that appeared in previous games. They can be found in different place of the game. Each element have 18 Djinn, so 4 elements Djinn have 72 totally, and any character can have each one. Different Djinn can changed different character's classes differently, that besides hit points, Psynergy points, general stats, and Psynergy that character could use.