Emu enemy line

The Emu and Talon Runner are species of monsters found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. These monsters, resembling ratite birds such as rheas or real-life emus, are palette-swapped variants of each other that have differing levels of power and defense and are fought in different locations in the game.

Emu
An Emu is a variant with a brownish and orange body, legs, and beak, and a purple crest. Statistically, this monster has 98 HP, 89 Attack, 21 Defense, 46 Agility, and 9 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has a Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

In battle, the Emu uses these battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 5 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Claw Slash: Used 3 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill where the monster does its physical attack and a small burst of orange energy occurs on contact, dealing a Jupiter-based attack equal to its normal physical attack with an additional 16 damage points.

Felling an Emu yields 53 Experience Points and 51 Coins, and there is a 1/32 chance the monster will randomly drop a Sacred Feather. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 68 EXP and 66 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/8. In The Lost Age it is ideally first fought throughout Yampi Desert, and subsequently throughout Air's Rock.

In Yampi Desert, the Emu is generally the toughest of the monsters and is outsped only by the much weaker Momonga. At this early point in the game, since the party is still quite underdeveloped and basic (and is at only at three members), this can actually make the Emu a durable threat to the party. In Air's Rock it becomes outperformed by the Harpy and later on the Mummy.

Talon Runner
A Talon Runner is a variant with a purplish and light-blue body, legs, and beak, and a violet crest. Statistically, this monster has 228 HP, 303 Attack, 88 Defense, 159 Agility, and 11 Luck. In terms of resistance, it has a Venus Resistance rating of 127, a Mercury Resistance rating of 72, a Mars Resistance rating of 48, and a Jupiter Resistance rating of 7, and in regards to its abilities it uses its available Jupiter-based attacks with a Jupiter power rating of 110.

In battle, the Talon Runner uses these battle commands:
 * Attack: Used 6 out of 8 times, this is this monster's standard physical attack.
 * Mega Slash: Used 2 out of 8 times, this is a Monster Skill where the monster does its physical attack and a small burst of orange energy occurs on contact, dealing a Jupiter-based attack equal to its normal physical attack multiplied by 1.5.

Felling a Talon Runner yields 367 Experience Points and 215 Coins, and there is a 1/32 chance the monster will randomly drop a Bramble Seed. If it is felled by the attack effect of an offensive Jupiter Djinni, its rewards increase to 477 EXP and 279 Coins, and the chance to drop its item becomes 1/8. In The Lost Age it is one of the "stock" monsters fought on the land regions all throughout the Great Western Sea, as well as the overworld area of the Northern Reaches and within Shaman Village Cave.

Among the other "stock overworld monsters" fought throughout the western portion of the world of Weyard, the Talon Runner is hardly any less or any more powerful and/or durable. These monsters are essentially equal (and thus equally outperformed by the Wild Gryphon in Shaman Village Cave).

Winged Runner
Like with all other monster lines introduced in The Lost Age that seem to have only two variants, a third palette-swapped variant to this line exists in the code of the game cart and was even given its own name, but has none of its statistics and abilities coded beyond weak placeholder abilities. Had it been used it would have appeared as a variant with a light-green body, legs, and beak, and a blue crest named Winged Runner.