Commercials
This is a collection of commercials advertising the English-language versions of each game in the Golden Sun series.
Golden Sun: Culture Advanced
"Culture Advanced" is the first English region commercial for the Golden Sun series, advertising the first installment, Golden Sun. Viewable here.
The spot begins with various shots of audience members, watching a symphony being performed by an orchestra in an auditorium. The piece playing is "In the Hall of the Mountain King", composed by Edvard Grieg.
One of the shots shows a man with a skull for a head observing from a gallery. The monster then leans over to look up at a gargoyle perched higher up on the wall, as if to give it a cue. The gargoyle springs to life suddenly, and while the orchestra is still unaware, many others burst from their mountings. The conductor, a young woman in a red floor-length dress, hesitantly looks back over her shoulder towards the oncoming assault. As one gargoyle makes a dive downwards, the audience members crane their heads to observe in fascination as it barely misses the conductor.
Violinists in the ensemble set the tips of their bows alight with flame from their lamps, and fire a barrage into the wave on the conductor's command. Pierced by the flaming bows and pinned to the walls, the gargoyles flail wildly. However, a gothic angel hurls its stone halo spinning towards the orchestra; an elderly musician destroys it by clashing it between his cymbals. The musician returns the attack by sending one of the cymbals careening towards the gargoyle, decapitating it.
Still conducting vigorously, the conductor turns to witness a crystal chandelier descend upon the orchestra and transform into a dragon-like monster named Crystallux. The crowd watches on expectantly. The music climaxes as the two opponents confront each-other in a brief standoff, with Crystallux breathing a beam of energy at the conductor. She dodges, and as Crystallux lunges again, the conductor seizes one of the protrusions on its underside as it overshoots her position. Gazing up at Crystallux, the conductor thrusts her baton into the air and strikes the monster with a thin arc of magical energy, shattering the crystal and brass that compose it and slaying it. As shards of glass rain down, the conductor kneels to pick up a crystal rose from the ground, which transforms into a real flower as she brings it to her nose. She pirouettes, her dress now white as the crowd applauds. A disembodied pair of hands holds a Game Boy Advance towards the camera in one of the galleries, the same that the skeleton was observing from at the begining though it is now a living man, recognizable by the same facial hair and opera glasses in hand. Looking at the disembodied player, the words "Culture Advanced" appear and footage from the game is played, with the words "Life advanced" shown just as the commercial cuts.
While the commercial is seemingly unrelated to the game, several similarities are hinted at:
- Several monsters in the commercial appear in monster lines in the series: a Skeleton and Gargoyles.
- The volley of flaming bows resembles the Atalanta summon, and the act in itself is meant to be an allusion to the Summon spirit gameplay concept.
- In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the dragon-like chandelier seen in this commercial is featured in the form of the a Summon spirit, Crystallux, a dual-elemental spirit that requires three Venus and two Mercury Djinn. When summoned, the background changes to a theatre, in which Crystallux emerges from the ceiling and bombards the target with beams of light.
Golden Sun: The Lost Age: Summoning Wind
This is the English region commercial for 'Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Viewable here.
The scene, presented entirely in monochrome, showcases a medieval-era boat stranded in the middle of the ocean without any wind for its sail to catch. One of the two men on the boat, a hooded wizard, chants a magic spell while holding a magic staff, attempting to summon some wind to propel their boat forward. Soon, however, they get much more than they bargained for: a summoned dragon flies out of the sky - perhaps representing the Wind-aligned summon Eclipse - and attacks with blue fire, destroying the boat. Then, as game footage from The Lost Age is shown, a narrator's voice advertises "Harness the power of the elements. Summon great forces in Golden Sun: The Lost Age! Rated 'E' for 'Everyone.'" It immediately returns to the scene, where the two men surface and hang onto the broken remnants of their boat in the middle of the ocean; the wizard's none-too-amused assistant tells him, "I thought you were going to summon some wind!" The wizard snaps, "Shut up!"
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Use Your Djinn Responsibly
This is the English region commercial for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Viewable here.
The scene is the living room of a townhouse that has obviously seen better days - it is internally damaged and in shambles to a degree that may be considered comical, and of a four-member family sitting down, three are completely covered in bandages and immobile on their sofa while the family son, Kevin, casually reclines in his own chair. The family dog at the door, Baxter, needs to be taken out for a walk, and the father asks Kevin; Kevin simply responds that he's "really busy right now", but adds that "that's a really awesome job for my Djinn." The camera pans over to four life-like Djinn on the ground, one for each of the four elements, that perk up in response, just as menacing music cuts in. The two parents panic as Kevin lets his Mars Djinni and Jupiter Djinni walk over to take care of the dog issue. As the two Djinn walk across the living room to the dog off-screen to the left, the mother repeatedly exclaims, "Djinn are for slaying monsters!" Both parents scream in terror as the two Djinn exit off-screen and let loose an explosion that fills the living room. The message of the ad is displayed on-screen: USE YOUR DJINN RESPONSIBLY
After the next nine seconds shows footage from the game on a Nintendo DSi XL as well as advertises that the DSi XL is now $20 off, the aftermath is shown on-screen: while Kevin plays on his DSi XL, his three bandaged family members remain in the exact same positions, but now the dog accompanies them, completely covered in bandages and rendered immobile practically to the point of being a statue. All it can do is let loose a bark from its mouth.
