Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Difference between revisions

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{{tropelist}}

* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: The Wise One is revealed to be a creation of the precursor to prevent Alchemy's release, so it allowing the Warriors of Vale, after a test of character, to light the final beacon makes him an example, thankfully of the "on the heroes side" subtype.

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: The party members, as long as your frame of reference is the English language. We have Karis, Tyrell, Rief, Himi, Eoleo, Amiti, Sveta...and Matthew. [[Sesame Street|Which one of those things is not like the others?]]

* [[Casting a Shadow]]: The [[Mana Burn|Psy Grenades]] that Tuaparang [[Mook|mooks]] use go off with this effect, to say nothing of the [[Demonic Spiders]] unleashed half-way through the game.

** {{spoiler|In fact, it turns out that Tuaparang is part of an "Umbra Clan", whose Adepts use a new type of darkness Psynergy.}}

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: The game gets very dark (pun intended) after the {{spoiler|Grave Eclipse}}.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]

* [[Deus Ex Homine]]: The Wise One, mentioned in its encyclopedia entry.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: Just as in the first two games, Camelot prepares for every possible contingency and every possible action that the player will take, and accounts for it in one way or another.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|Did You Just Bitchslap A Bird God]]: In the wattle, twice. And then we kicked his ass and took a short walk [[Womb Level|through his insides]].

** Though to be fair, kicking its ass was only made necessary by [[We Need a Distraction|Blados and Chalis]], who had them sticking around longer than they needed to.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: With humans and the beastmen, though the human population of the beastmen's homeland of Morgal tends to tolerate beastmen better than the humans elsewhere (with Saha Town being populated by both and having a statue commemorating the unity of Morgal's humans and beastmen). However, a version of this combined with regular racism still occurs within Morgal towards humans who are ethnically Sanan due to the conflict with Sana in the (recent) past, with this pretty much being the reason for the imprisonment of a member of Sana's nobility (as opposed to how the son of the closest thing Champa has to a ruler was imprisoned for crimes committed in Morgal's territory; specifically, piracy).

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: Angara's role as Weyard's equivalent of Eurasia is more obvious than it was in the previous games; for example the eastern part is known as Ei-Jei, which sounds similar to Asia and contains Sana (equivalent to China), Champa (named after an ancient Vietnamese kingdom), and Ayuthay (based on Siamese kingdom [[wikipedia:Ayutthaya Kingdom|Ayutthaya]]). Nihan is east of Angara and isn't even trying to sound different from Nihon (the Japanese name for, well, Japan). In addition, Kolima's new position on the world map makes it easier to make the connection with the [[Real Life]] Kolyma region of Russia, which is in the northeasternmost part of Siberia. Between the clothing influences, Sanan imperial occupation, and Volechek being based on [[wikipedia:Altan Tobchi|Borte Chino,]] an ancestor of Genghis Khan (he's explicitly named after Chino in the Japanese localization), Morgal appears to be a mixed-basket analogue of Tibet and Mongolia.

** [[The Hero]]: Matthew

** [[The Lancer]]: Amiti

** The Djinn now all have unique designs, the problem is that a number are punning off their Japanese name. For example, Rescue (English: Breath) looks like a knight's helmet and Kiss (English: Steel) now has a pair of puckered lips. <ref>Though in Steel's case, it should be noted that the description still states it kisses the foe to [[A Worldwide Punomenon|steal]] their HP</ref>.

** Tyrell instantly realizes a connection between Chalis and Blados explicitly because of their names (which is reinforced by using the same mooks). A very easy (and within character) observation to make about the names "Heart" and "Spade," not so blatant or in character with the subtler names based on historical/tarot suits.

* [[Lost Forever]]: In a major change from the first two games, about a third of the Djinn and six summon tablets can end up as this if you're not careful, due to a great majority of the locations becoming unreachable after the turning point of the plot. Make sure you have explored everything you can before {{spoiler|activating Blados's trap at the end of Konpa Ruins}}, {{spoiler|battling Blados and Chalis in the Belinsk ruins}}, and {{spoiler|leaving Belinsk after the Grave Eclipse activates}}. Special mention to the Djinni Brick, who is the only thing missed at {{spoiler|leaving on the cloud climb}}.

* [[The Lost Woods]]: The [[Noob Cave|Tanglewood]] and, later, Kolima Forest.

* [[Magic Skirt]]: Karis has the "nothing modeled above the thigh" variety (can be seen on the stats screen if wielding a sword/staff).

** Which is kind of weird since she's wearing leggings/tights underneath.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: "Matthew," the main character's name, means "gift of God." {{spoiler|This is interesting considering the Wise One, who may very well be Weyard's [[God]], attempted to kill Isaac using ''his own father'' as a tool in a [[Secret Test of Character]]... but also in terms of Isaac having been imbued with the power of the Mars Star.}} His Japanese name "Mut" can be seen as a play on mute, as he [[Heroic Mime|takes after his dad]].

** Sveta means "light," and she's the only one who can wear the Umbra Gear that protects from the light at Apollo Sanctum. Her name in Japanese, "Stella," means "star," playing on both light ''and'' darkness themes.

* [[Nigh Invulnerability]]: Isaac and Garet when they join your party for a while. Because of how strong they were when they saved the world 30 years earlier, they still retain their high defenses, high HP, and ass kicking Djinn. They can be hurt, but since everything thrown at them is pretty much [[Scratch Damage]], nothing can really touch them.

* [[Noob Cave]]: The Goma Plateau, Tanglewood, and Abandoned Mineshaft. Most of the monsters you fight are easily defeated in one strike with Karis' area of effect wind Pysnergy and the first boss fight is easily won due to its weakness to fire and the fact that Isaac and Garet's Djinn is shared with yours, allowing you to use high tier summons. Things start to kick up in difficulty a bit once you head out to the overworld map.

* [[Off the Rails]]: You thought this would be a quick run to get the feather, didn't you?

* [[Older and Wiser]]: While Isaac has always been thoughtful and intelligent, Garet plays this trope straight; his son, Tyrell, behaves much like Garet did in the first two games, and Garet doesn't hesitate to berate him for his behavior.

** When the {{spoiler|Magma Orb is stolen}}, Karis will ask your opinion of the situation. If you select the "angry" option, her response: "Wow...graphic!"

* [[Precursor Heroes]]: [[Arc Words|The Warriors of Vale]].

* [[Punny Name]] - Plenty: For locations there's Passaj (which was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] accordingly), and for people there's Amiti, whose mother was Veriti...

* [[Put on a Bus]]: All of the Warriors of Vale aside from Isaac and Garet, unfortunately. Mia and Sheba's locations are not stated (Ivan and Jenna, at least, are said to be in Kalay, which doesn't appear in ''Dark Dawn''); Felix is said to have left on a journey, and no one has seen him since; Piers is apparently sailing around Angara during the course of the game, but you never cross paths with him, despite the fact that the country of Sana has been trading with Piers's homeland of Lemuria (as mentioned in the Sanan capital of Tonfon), or that he apparently {{spoiler|dropped into Port Rago to help Briggs fix up his ship.}}

* [[The Night That Never Ends]]: {{spoiler|The Grave Eclipse. At least until it absorbs enough light energy.}}

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]: Morgal is in the late stages or aftermath of a bloody revolution against Sana and budding hostilities with Bilibin. {{spoiler|Both of which Morgal's king wants to settle via [[Superweapon Surprise]].}} [[Would Hurt a Child|A little girl is captured and condemned]] to [[Cruel and Unusual Death]] in Belinsk, just for being Sanan nobility.

* [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman]]: As typical for a ''[[Golden Sun]]'' game, if a party member gets a new overworld power (or if the party gets a new member with a specific power), expect to see a dungeon or two built around using that power.

** The only place Sveta's Track Psynergy is needed in the entire game is an extremely contrived puzzle to enter the final dungeon (the dungeon she demonstrates it in is pretty straightforward). Which is sad, because the idea of it is pretty cool.

* [[Western Zodiac]]: The Craggy Peak Ruins houses a set of twelve zodiac-themed puzzles.

* [[Wham! Episode]]: {{spoiler|The Grave Eclipse covers Angara starting with Belinsk}}, in which {{spoiler|the monsters get ''much'' stronger and become [[Demonic Spiders]], the body count starts climbing higher than it ever has in the entire series, the soundtrack gets really depressing/horrifying}}, and worst of all, {{spoiler|Briggs, a classic character from the original games, [[Killed Off for Real|dies in his son's arms]]}}. A clear sign that the stakes have been raised.

* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: In the same town and brought about by the same event as the [[Light'Em Up]] example above, another NPC claims to have gained the power to {{spoiler|calculate compound interest.}}

{{quote|"It's remarkably handy, actually."}}

* [[World of Snark]]: Pretty much all the main characters get at least one or two snide remarks in throughout the game.

* [[Wutai]]: Ei-Jei, a region visited by the protagonists for a fair portion of the game, is [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Fantasy Counterpart Asia]], with various analogues to China, Siam, Vietnam, and Japan, among others. There's a lot more attention to detail than usual, as well; the architecture and, in some cases, clothing is reflective of the real-world culture, and characters from these regions have different facial structures, indicating separate ethnicity from the "European" nations of western Angara. {{spoiler|The fact that one of your party members from this region has a face resembling Mia and others from the Imil area rather than his fellow people of Ei-Jei is a big, whopping hint regarding his ancestry.}}

* [[You Shouldn't Know This Already]]: It is impossible to leave Ayuthay after obtaining the Sand Prince Gem (an item that is required to proceed) until you acquire the Insight Glass (an item that tells you what to do next). This is to prevent players from skipping the long and convoluted sequence of events leading up to getting the Insight Glass (and therefore miss out on recruiting Amiti) because for all of that trouble, it becomes entirely useless if you're on a second playthrough or are using a guide.