Golden Sun/Tricks, glitches, and other minutiae

A collection of details concerning the first Golden Sun that players often find intriguing.

Password data transfer to Golden Sun: The Lost Age

 * Main article: Password

The Password function in the Golden Sun games is the way to transfer data from a Completed Data file in the first game into a game file in the second. When a Completed data file is present in the first game's file select, then at the main mode select screen, holding the R shoulder button and left on the D-pad simultaneously while pressing Start will cause the main menu to reappear with a new option, "Send", which provides the features that allows data transfer.

Rename characters other than Isaac
When beginning a New Game, when Isaac's name is brought up for the player to change if desired, press the Select button three times in a row will cause a "ding" sound to play, indicating that the other three characters of Isaac's party - Garet, Ivan, and Mia - can now have their names modified if desired. It is also possible to change the names of further characters relevant to the story - Felix, Jenna, and Sheba - by having Mia displayed on screen and pressing Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Up, Right, Down, Left, Up, and Select, which will sound a "ding" a second time if successful.

Return to the last visited sanctum
When selecting a game file to load, hold down the L shoulder button and the Start and Select buttons all simultaneously as you press A to load your game. You will start off in the Sanctum you most recently visited, rather than the exact point in the game world you would have left off otherwise.

Get an alternate "bad ending" near the start of the game
After the events at Sol Sanctum transpire and Isaac and Garet are back at Vale in discussion with the town elders, and the Great Healer asks you "Isaac, will you accept responsibility for the fate of the land?" If you say no, you will be able to walk around freely and interact with the other people in the room, and you will be able to get the Great Healer to ask you the question again. However, if you walk out of the sanctum amidst the Great Healer's warning that once Isaac leaves the sanctum and the village he cannot take his decision, the screen turns gray and the message "And so the world began drifting toward its fated destruction..." appears. The next menu lets you either restart the conversation in the sanctum or return to the file select screen.

Debug Rooms

 * Main article: Debug Room

Accessible only with a hacking device such as Action Replay are locations in the rooms that are similar to locations in the game code of a lot of other games that are labeled "Debug Rooms". Golden Sun has two: Increase item and level and Menu test. These can provide you any item in the game cart, modify your levels, and other features, and once you're done you may save, then use the Sanctum trick above to start playing the game with many ill-gotten gains. Several items are included that are not seen anywhere else, and are covered below.

Other minutiae

 * Hidden within the code of Golden Sun (and The Lost Age by extension), even beyond the reach of what the various Debug Rooms showcase, is this second portrait of Alex that appears very similar to, yet somewhat different from, the image of Alex seen throughout the actual games. It is placed in a block of the game's code inhabited by the portraits of Isaac's party, Felix, Jenna, and Sheba, whereas Alex's normal portrait is placed in a block of code inhabited by NPC portraits; This may suggest that Camelot, early on in development, possibly considered making Alex a playable character, but redrew his portrait for whatever reason when they decided to make him an NPC.


 * The following unused items are present on the Golden Sun game cart and may be acquired through the Debug Rooms or some other hacking:


 * [[File:Sol Blade.gif]] Sol Blade: A Long Sword without an Unleash effect but with 138 attack. If it is present in the game's party when a Completed Data file is saved and used for data transfer into The Lost Age, this becomes a copy of the proper Sol Blade with 200 attack and the Megiddo unleash.
 * [[File:Kusanagi.gif]] Masamune: A Long Sword without an Unleash effect but with 135 attack. No relation to the Masamune in The Lost Age; in fact, if this Masamune is transferred to The Lost Age, it becomes a copy of the Fire Brand.
 * [[File:Masamune.gif]] Kusanagi: A Light Blade without an Unleash effect but with 135 attack. This has the item graphic of the Masamune from The Lost Age, and when it is transferred to that game it becomes a copy of that very sword.
 * [[File:Mysterious Robe.gif]] Mysterious Robe: A Robe that increases base Defense by 40. If transferred to The Lost Age, it becomes a copy of the familiar Mysterious Robe that provides massive boosts to HP and PP recovery.


 * The Gryphon monster line, Stone Soldier monster line, Toad monster line, Ant Lion monster line, and Chimera monster line are all monster lines that were introduced in this game and expanded upon in The Lost Age with further variations. As a matter of fact, these further variations are present and unused in the game code of Golden Sun, and three of them have their names kept (Wise Gryphon, Raging Rock, and Doodle Bug) while the other two (Devil Frog and Grand Chimera) simply have a single question mark as a name. They all have the same palette swapped colors as when they appear in The Lost Age, but they all have different statistics that are, for the most part, extremely weak and filled with weak "placeholder" abilities.


 * All the monster skills with "Blessing" in their names were renamed properly with "Breath" in The Lost Age. Incidentally, Dark Blessing has a black inky visual and inflicts Delusion, while Acid Blessing has a pink visual and drops defenses; Toadonpa has Acid Blessing amongst its abilities, but for some reason that move is also named "Dark Blessing" for Toadonpa.


 * The game's bestiary includes enemy data for what is apparently a Venus Djinni, as though three of the seven Venus Djinn collectible in Golden Sun were to be battled to be obtained instead of the two that actually are battled in the game. It may have been planned to be used for when you get Bane, but was eventually unused.