Emu enemy line

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

Emu
An Emu (エイム Emu) is a level 11 variant with a brownish and orange body, legs, and beak, and a purple crest. 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.

In an apparent programming error, the Emu's secondary effect susceptibilities are divided between a vulnerability to effects that drop its Attack rating specifically by two stages and a vulnerability to effects that drop its Defense rating specifically by one stage. The other members of this line are instead susceptible to Attack-lowering effects that are either one or two stages strong.

An Emu's statistics are as follows:

An Emu uses these battle commands with :

Talon Runner
A Talon Runner (バードランナー Bird Runner) is a level 31 variant with a purplish and light blue body, legs, and beak, and a violet crest. 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).

A Talon Runner is especially likely to be affected by Attack-lowering effects. Its statistics are as follows:

A Talon Runner uses these battle commands with :

Winged Runner
The Winged Runner (ウイングランナー Wing Runner) exists as a named but unused variant in the code in The Lost Age, where none of its statistics and abilities are 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.