Catastrophe

"The embodiment of destruction."

Catastrophe (カタストロフ, Catastrophe) is a Jupiter Summon found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is one of fourteen summons that are not instantly accessible when the required Djinn are assembled, but instead must be specifically acquired by encountering a stone tablet that contains the summon. Like Daedalus, Azul, and Iris, Catastrophe's tablet can only be approached after defeating a unique boss. Catastrophe is considered to be the ultimate Jupiter-based summon, being the strongest of all the Jupiter summons. Depending on the visual of the summon, it is an upgraded version of the Judgment summon.

Basic Characteristics

As previously mentioned, Catastrophe can only be acquired after defeating the required boss in battle, Sentinel in The Lost Age or the Ancient Devil in Dark Dawn, which allows the player to access the Catastrophe's tablet. In The Lost Age, Sentinel is found in Islet Cave, and can only be accessed after the player requires the Teleport psynergy. In Dark Dawn, the Ancient Devil is encountered in Otka Island, which can only be accessed after the player has acquired the Sol Blade.

After the player acquires the Catastrophe summon, a successful summoning of Catastrophe requires that the player have five Jupiter Djinn and three Mars Djinn on standby. Catastrophe has a base Jupiter power of 400 and also does additional damage equivalent to 24% of the enemy’s maximum HP. In addition, each enemy affected loses PP equal to 10% of their PP meters. After a successful summoning, the Mars Power and Jupiter Power of the summoner will rise by 60 and 100 points, respectively.

Catastrophe's appearance in Dark Dawn

Visually Catastrophe resembles a titanic, demonic knight somewhat reminiscent of (and seemingly the polar opposite to) the Judgment summon sequence’s angel knight. What makes the duality between Judgment and Catastrophe is that most of Catastrophe's body is comprised of weapons, whereas Judgment's body is mostly composed of armor. In The Lost Age, Catastrophe, in the apocalyptic red sky, wields its gigantic sword to summon a four-sided pyramid of lightning that lands and unfolds on the world below, loosing the explosion of electricity within. The lightning wall assumes the form of a dragon’s head, and the entire conglomeration of electricity charges through the enemy party. Fans of the game praise this summon as one of the most impressive visual effects ever seen on the Game Boy Advance.

In Dark Dawn, the Judgment/Catastrophe duality is reinforced, as Judgment will be shown to transform into Catastrophe. Catastrophe then draws a large sword and charges up a ball of lightning at its tip. Catastrophe will shoot the ball of lightning into the ground. The ball will extend a purple/black lightning dome that expands outward. A dragon head will emerge from leading edge of the dome, and the entire entire conglomeration of electricity charges through the enemy party.

Analysis

Catastrophe is among Daedalus, Azul, Charon, and Iris as “ultimate” Summons in The Lost Age and Dark Dawn. It is the series's strongest Jupiter-based attack, and the third strongest summon in terms of power, following Charon and Iris. The hefty Djinn requirement, however, causes players to use Catastrophe mostly in boss fights, rather than in random monster battles. In contrast to the other "ultimate" summons, however, it will see more use due to its power, and an excellent elemental alignment against several end-game bosses in both series, such as the final boss fights of both The Lost Age and Dark Dawn. In addition, it is one of the best summons to use against Dullahan, who has a significant Jupiter-weakness. The one possible drawback is that its side-effect of lowering the PP totals of the target is of little use, due to most end-game bosses having significantly high PP pools or PP-regenerative abilities.

Cultural references

Origin: Greece

The word catastrophe originates from Greek. Catastrophe, like Judgment Day, represents a final event. In this case Catastrophe represents the Catastrophe Theory, which hypothesizes the end of the world. Just as Judgment embodies the four living creatures from Revelation in the New Testament, so Catastrophe embodies darker versions of those creatures (in particular, the angel aspect becomes that of a demon, the lion aspect that of a dragon, and the eagle aspect that of a bat).

Trivia

• In both The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, Catastrophe's summon tablet is found within an island surrounded by rocks. In the Lost Age, it is found within Islet Cave. In Dark Dawn, it is found within Otka Island.
  • Also, both islands cannot be directly sailed to. Islet Cave can only be reached by riding Lonely George the turtle after trading with animals across the Great Eastern Sea. Otka Island can only be reached by riding the small tornado.

Extended Gallery

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  Catastrophe separated sprites arranged as one

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  Concept art of Catastrophe from Golden Sun: The Lost Age

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  Concept art of Catastrophe from Golden Sun: Dark Dawn