Defend

Defend is a battling option in both Golden Sun games. When used it cuts the amount of damage taken by a foe considerably down. When a character is going to attack an enemy that is already downed they will automatically defend. This was actually the cause of a lot of negative remarks in the reviewer community which called it a lack of "smart combat" as said by an IGN reviewer. Defending does not reduce your chances of being inflicted with a status affecting attack.