General Gameplay Concepts and Troubleshooting (DS titles)

The Golden Sun series utilizes both common and unique RPG gameplay mechanics. However, players, especially those new to the RPG genre, may struggle with some gameplay concepts such as the battle system and utility Psynergy. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is the first Golden Sun game released for Nintendo DS. It maximizes the use of the console's dual screen and touch screen systems. Some controls have remained the same since Golden Sun: The Lost Age like having the utility Psynergy shortcut buttons.

Effective use of Controls


D-pad: Not likely needing explanation, the directional pad allows the player to navigate menus and move their party about in 8 directions.

A: Interact with characters and the environment, as well as confirming menu options.

B: Used to cancel out of menus within and outside of battle. Unlike in the GBA titles, you cannot hold this button to "Run".

X: Brings up the Main Menu where you can toggle between the Settings, Travel Log (saving), Psynergy, Djinn, Items, Status, Encyclopedia, Djinn Guide, and Atlas options.

Y: Open or Close the in-game map shown in the upper screen. If map is closed, a screen where the party's status and Djinn on standby is seen.

L and R: Psynergy shortcut buttons - these shoulder buttons can be set to activate a specific utility Psynergy of the players choice; one Psynergy to each button. They can be set by entering the Psynergy menu and viewing the list of spells for the particular Adept, pressing the shoulder button to set the Psynergy to, and selecting with A after scrolling to the desired utility.

Start: Has no function in the game.

Select: Has no function in the game.

Touch Screen/Stylus: The lower screen can be used instead of pressing the buttons stated above in playing the game. For example, you can run around with your party by pressing and holding the stylus on the direction where you want your character to go; also, you can go in and out of the menu, and even direct your utility Psynergy through tapping the lower screen.

Differences Between Earlier Versions


Early preview pictures of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (as seen in the right) shows that the Map Button was initially planned to be assigned to the Select button and the Menu with the Start button. This was not the case in the final version as the Map and Menu buttons was assigned to the Y and X buttons, respectively. This is probably because of the buttons' convenient position in the DS and players would have opted to touch the screen instead of reaching out to the Select and Start buttons.

Recommended pages for reference

 * Battle
 * Summons
 * Psynergy
 * Golden Sun: Dark Dawn/Quick walkthrough
 * Djinn
 * Attack (statistic) and Defense