Short Sword

A Short Sword (ワークソード Wâku Sôdo Weak Sword) is a common Light Blade-class weapon available in the Golden sun series. In each game, it is one of the earliest weapons available, and is a common starting weapon.

Basic Description by Game
A Short Sword increases the wielder's base attack by 8 points. As a Common item, it can be bought repeatedly from vendors for 120 coins each and sold for 90 coins each. In the original Golden Sun, Short Swords are sold in the towns Vale and Vault, and can be equipped by Isaac, Garet, and Ivan. In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Short Swords are sold in the towns Daila and Madra, and can additionally be equipped by Felix, Piers, and Jenna.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, due changes to the Unleash system, the Sword Short now has an unleash, Critical Strike, a non-elemental unleash that deals damage equivalent to the wielder's resultant physical attack damage times 1.5. Short Swords are sold at Patcher's Place, and can be equipped by Matthew, Tyrell, Karis, Amiti, Eoleo, and Himi.

Analysis
In Golden Sun after the prologue sequences, the player begins in present-day Vale with a level-1 party of Isaac and Garet each holding a Short Sword and Jenna as a guest character holding a Wooden Stick, and 300 coins in their inventory (in addition to however many coins players accumulated during the prologue). Because the upcoming first dungeon in the game, Sol Sanctum, is filled with very easy monsters to defeat, it does not necessarily matter what you buy at the town's vendors just so long as you buy all you can with your money. If you decide to buy a more powerful Long Sword to replace one of your two warriors' Short Swords, you can either sell off the Short Sword to get 90 coins back with which to spend on more armor, or you can equip it on Jenna and sell off her weaker Wooden Stick for 30 coins.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the Short Sword serves much the same role as the piece of equipment the warrior Adept in your party, Felix, starts out with, as well as being available as a shop item in the first town of Daila. However, the 200+ coins you start out with by the time you enter Daila for the first time is much better off spent on armor for the Adepts because much of the game's focus is on completing puzzles in the dungeon-style locations that provide as rewards weapon artifacts far superior to commonly bought weapons and even weapon artifacts that can normally be bought in vendors. So, you should not buy a long sword and equip the short sword on Jenna in place of buying defensive equipment unless you're willing to fight many battles outside Daila for many coins and EXP.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the Short Sword is Matthew's beginning weapon, and is found in a chest located in the bedroom at Lookout Cabin. When Tyrell joins the party, he will also have a Short Sword as his beginning weapon. Both weapons will remain in the party until the player reaches Patcher's Place, as the player will not encounter any Vendors before this point. At this point, the player may consider selling off their Short Swords for stronger Long Swords, as the extra damage will help in the upcoming boss battle against the Dim Dragon. If the player chooses to temporarily postpone the fight with the Dragon, the player can sell off their Short Swords once reaching Carver's Camp. By that time, the player will be able to acquire two artifact weapons to increase their power, and can then return to Patcher's Place to fight the Dim Dragon.

Trivia

 * The short sword is unsellable if an Action Replay device is used to skip Isaac and Garet when they prevent you from leaving the Goma Plateau to save Tyrell.