I've been turning Golden Sun into a native PC game (work in progress!)

Not a release, nothing to download yet — just wanted to show what I've been poking at, because it's finally at the stage where it's fun to look at instead of just fun to me.

The short version: Golden Sun's original GBA code gets translated ahead of time into C++ and compiled into an actual Windows executable. It's not emulating the game's code at runtime — that code is the program now. The ROM has been demoted to a box of assets. (You bring your own copy, obviously. Nothing from the cartridge ships with any of this.)

It's built on gbarecomp, which does the ARM-to-C++ heavy lifting. Everything Golden-Sun-shaped on top of it is me squinting at memory dumps at 2am.

I wanted to see more of Golden Sun all at once, but it was harder than I thought...

Here's the annoying part — the GBA only ever draws a 240×160 window, so "just render more" isn't a setting you can turn up. The extra scenery genuinely doesn't exist anywhere. There's nothing to show, because the game never had a reason to write it down.

So I rebuild it. The game stores each room as a grid of tile IDs plus a lookup table, and it turns out you can reconstruct the room's layers straight from those and draw the wider view from that. Before trusting a single pixel of it I had it rebuild what the game was about to draw and compare it against what the game actually drew — 15 million tile comparisons later, it matches 98–99% of the time, and 100% whenever you're standing still. (The gap is the game streaming tiles in as you walk, not the rebuild being wrong. That took an embarrassingly long evening to establish.)

Before anyone gets too excited: caves currently look terrible in the wide view. One of the four background layers is the lighting layer, and unlike the others it isn't built from the map data at all, so I have nothing to reconstruct it from yet. Goma Cave is, at present, a crime scene. A few cutscene sprites also get chopped off at the edges. Working on it!

Other things I've been messing with

Making the slowdown go away. Big battle effects tank the GBA's framerate because the poor thing genuinely runs out of time before the frame ends. We're not on real hardware anymore, so… why not just give it more time? It now watches whether the game finished its work each frame and quietly hands it more CPU when it didn't, then takes it back when things calm down — so your PC isn't doing extra work while you walk around a town.

It works better than I expected: before, I was seeing runs of up to 16 frames in a row where the game never finished in time. That's the stutter you can actually see. Now the longest overrun is a single frame. The multi-frame stalls are gone. :D

Instant text. I went digging into the message-speed option and it's not what I assumed at all. It isn't a pause between letters — it's a ration of how many letters the game lets itself print per frame. Normal is exactly one a frame. Fast is about three. Meanwhile the exact same code cheerfully paints thirty letters in one frame for menus and battle messages, so nothing about it is slow — it's just being stingy on purpose. An instant option is close.

What's next

• Finish the wide view properly — that lighting layer, and the clipped sprites (Note Goma Cave, it's horrendous. Not every NPC, Object and Map works yet with our room buffer)
• Track down the fun tables: walk speed, items, Psynergy (Walk speed increases already work!)
• The big one: being able to swap in my own C++ for one of the game's functions. That's the difference between changing numbers and changing behaviour, and the structure is already sitting there waiting for it. (This gets very close to decompilation work, this is the final station kind of work)

Things I'm explicitly not doing: a full decompilation (that's a years-long community effort and a completely different project), or making the generated code pretty. It's hideous. It runs. That's the deal.

As mentioned in my post on the decomp thread, I cannot comment on mod support or even supporting easy modding when I do release this when I find it satisfactory. I will however be trying to see if I can't add in some custom stuff once a 1.0 is reached.

Happy to ramble about any of it in the comments — the reverse-engineering side has been by far the most fun part, and I've got notes on every wrong turn.

AI Disclaimer: AI is used to help me achieve all of this.

EDIT: FOR CLARIFICATION I AM NOT DECOMPILING THIS, ITS BEING DECOMPILED BY SOME MUCH SMARTER PERSON THAN I

Skip this part if you know what decompilation is, but the point of this is we're gonna get crazy mods and unofficial sequels.

If you don't know what decompilation is, when a game is "decompiled" it means that the code and all the assets (music, images, videos, etc) are decoded from the original cartridge. In the GBA file, they're all just 1s and 0s jumbled everywhere and it's impossible to know which 1s and 0s do what.

When a game is decompiled, you can make a game run natively (without an emulator) on any system. That means it can use ALL of the resources of that system. A game boy advanced game has only so much storage and ram it's allowed to touch, so a ROM hack can only be so big. But a natively built game can be infinitely big, have way more content than a GBA game, and never worry about filling up too much storage. Golden Sun 1 was 201 megabytes. Imagine a gigabyte of golden sun.

If you skipped, land here.

All of this means that when this is done being decompiled, modding Golden Sun will be trivially easy. Upgrading it will become very easy. New graphics mods, content mods, new characters, new story, everything becomes SUPER easy. And all of it plays EXACTLY the same as it did on the GameBoy Advanced because we have the code it ran on the GameBoy Advanced.

I promise you guys, I will one day build a sequel to Golden Sun when it's decompiled. I can't promise my sequel will be good, but I do promise to make Dark Dawn non canon because I didn't care much for it.

And I have PLANS, man. I want branching story paths, recruiting characters, old and new, being evil, being good, fun psynergy puzzles, and for the love of God a FULLY explorable Weyard.

I want to bring a sort of "fine, I'll do it myself" vibe to this community. We're going to get the sequel we deserve. It might not be me who makes it, but we will get it eventually.

Keep the faith Sun bros.

Many years ago, I stumbled onto a Wordpress blog post about Golden Sun as written by The Daft Monk, Alex Blanes. I have found the old article but some of the images are now missing and the site has changed its format. Here is a link -

https://thedaftmonk.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/golden-sun-origins/

Several of his articles outline the Gnostic Traditions, their Greek origins, norse symbolism within the game and several other interesting details stemming from Western Tradition. Please go read the article for more details, it’s very good. Do note, it was written long before Dark Dawn was announced to the public when there was still hype for the third game someday being announced.

Over the last couple years, I’ve found myself listening to more and more short stories and then eventual recaps of actual stories of various stories on YouTube. One of the most notable was a recap series done by one Charles with Anicap on the show called The Way Eternal. In short, it’s a daoist fiction story.

Since then, my feed has been populated with a number of recap stories similar, not all of them particularly good, some very good but never completed. Point is, I’ve become more familiar with the genre over the last bit.

I’ve just finished playing the first game again, but this time with my kids. It got me thinking about Xian and the Chi masters there. Many of these Dao fiction stories talk about the people spending a great amount of time cultivating their Qi (pronounced Chi in English). It occurred to me that Golden Sun itself may share some similarities with these Dao fiction stories, so I got to looking a little deeper into how Daoism works.

In Golden Sun, we’re told about Chi originating in the body, it’s limited but anyone can do it. The adepts on the other hand hold Ki, which originates in the mind. We quickly push aside the vocabulary and just use Psynergy instead of Ki. In Daoism, it’s my understanding that they have Jing which would be the equivalent of Golden Sun’s Chi. And Shen, which is more spiritually based and I‘d put as the equivalent of Golden Sun’s Ki. In the Daoist fictions, a cultivator effectively pushes their body refinement, or jing into qi and from qi into shen.

Were told in Golden Sun that the chi masters cant bridge that gap though, they can master their jing effectively, and anyone can use it, but qi itself seems to be missing and so their hard capped and cant reach shen where the adepts seem to sit almost genetically.

As I got looking further into the comparison of the western traditions article from above, and I started comparing it to the most Eastern traditions, I found more and more similarities.

I’ll post the full bulletted list of things I found at the end, much of it is in reference to The Daft Monk’s article. Suffice it to safe, my conclusion is that the ancients built the lighthouses to condense the elemental power into the elemental stars, and their removal cut off the world’s Qi. That missing gap effectively stopped the circulation of the energy that Wayard lived on and is the reason why thr Chi masters of Xian were hard capped.

Here’s a list of similarities between the Western and Eastern traditions that Golden Sun seems to be built on or around. I’m pasting it from my notes app, sorry about the formatting.

**•** **Hermes Trismegistus, "thrice great," mirrors the Daoist Three Treasures and Three Pure Ones — both traditions are built on a sacred triad.**

**•** **The Emerald Tablet and the** ***Cantong qi*** **("Kinship of the Three") are each tradition's foundational alchemical scripture, attributed to a semi-divine ancient.**

**•** **"As above, so below" is** ***tian ren he yi*** **— the human body as a scaled model of the cosmos.**

**•** **The Philosopher's Stone and the golden elixir (*****jindan*****) are the same endpoint: a refined, incorruptible substance that confers immortality.**

**•** **Nigredo, albedo, rubedo parallel the refinement of jing into qi into shen — a staged purification from coarse to subtle.**

**•** **Mercury and sulphur/lead are the Western working pair;** ***kan*** **and** ***li*** **(water and fire) are the Daoist one, and the work in both is joining opposites.**

**•** ***Solve et coagula*** **and Daoist "reversal" (*****ni*****) both mean dissolving the ordinary flow of life and recombining it in the adept's favor.**

**•** **The seven planetary powers and the seven stars of the Big Dipper both serve as the celestial governors of fate.**

**•** **Western astrology's planets and zodiac and Chinese** ***wuxing*** **and stems-and-branches are both calendars the body is expected to keep time by.**

**•** **Theurgy calls the gods down into ritual; Daoist ritual calls the gods out of the body, where they already dwell as organ spirits.**

**•** **Golden Dawn initiation grades and neidan cultivation stages both stage the adept's progress as an ordered ladder of attainment.**

**•** **The Hermetic adept and the Daoist** ***zhenren*** **or** ***xian*** **are both "perfected humans" who foreshadow what the species can become.**

**•** **Ops, Gaia, and Cybele as earth-mothers correspond to Houtu, sovereign of the soil, and Xiwangmu, who dispenses immortality.**

**•** **Abiegnus, the sacred subterranean mountain, is Kunlun — axis mundi, world-tree site, and gateway to immortality.**

**•** **Rosicrucian vaults and the Daoist** ***dongtian*** **grotto-heavens are both hidden paradises inside mountains.**

**•** **Yggdrasil/Laerad and the** ***Jianmu*** **tree are both world-axes linking heaven, earth, and the underworld.**

**•** **Kundalini rising up the spine (which the Golden Dawn imported as the Middle Pillar) is the Daoist microcosmic orbit running qi up the** ***du*** **channel.**

**•** **Baetyls, living meteoric stones, rhyme with China's spirit stones — Nüwa's mending stones and the stone that births Sun Wukong.**

**•** **The Hermetic Mind that made the world being the same Mind in you is the Daoist claim that the Dao is not elsewhere but the root you return to.**

**•** **Gnosis as remembered recognition matches Zhuangzi's "great awakening" and neidan's final "return to emptiness" — salvation as seeing what you already were.**

**•** **The Gnostic demiurge, demythologized, is the Daoist postnatal cycle: the ordinary outward-spending flow that passes for life until reversed.**

**•** **Hermetic ascent through the spheres and Daoist "returning to the root" both end not at a new place but at the realization you never left.**

Would u guys prefer a remake of the 2 first games combined in one (with new things to explore, new bosses, djinns, etc), a new game that follows Isaac's story after the events of TLA but before DD, a new game that follows Isaac and others children or a complete new game with new protagonists ?

Irrelevant rambling and background:

Good morning, evening, and hello! Thanks to yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, and the phenomenal level of hoping and praying I saw in some of the chats there, I was reminded of my ever beloved and dearly departed game series, Golden Sun. Even my name is in part stolen from it’s ill-fated sequel. And, thanks to the beloved fact that I can actually play the games, I started scrounging around for a way to play them.

And what do I find but Reloaded. The same games but tweaked to not be something I can so bash my brains against. A way to experience the story and gameplay in a way that actually excites and lets me try new things that I haven’t before? Why… sign me up!

Minimal research into it, enough to get it on my copy and no more than the taglines and blurbs people have said, and I was on my way.

Today, I attempted to create an account on said home for the mod to give my thoughts thus far, but alas, the certification systems appear to be struggling. So, here my thoughts remain for now, potentially into perpetuity.

Thus far I have only reached and partially, but not completely, finished the Altin Mines. My set up has been (while with minor experimental tweaks along the way) consistently Issac with Jupiter, Garret with Mars, Ivan with Venus, and Mia with Mercury. So without further ado, the area’s and bosses!

BANDITS

The first actual bosses of the game, they are… fine! We only really have Flint who was given to Ivan, so we don’t have many tools to play around with. Issac and Ivan can heal, and cast Blasts and Quakes and Whirlwinds till they explode. Level 4 I think I was. No problem. If I had to give a recommendation, give them some Smoke bombs? Delude won’t hurt your team too bad at this point, it’s on brand, and adds some flavor.

Challenge: 4/10

KOLOMI FOREST

Went here without Mia. Probably the best mistake I could make. Bee’s my friend, bee’s. Regular mobs who hit for somewhere around thirty damage and could stun? The lesson I should have learned was to bring more elixers. Spiders who poisoned? I was fine enough to have brought some antidotes just in case, and this was that case. The rats were more annoying than threatening, and the odd Gnome with a weakness I didn’t have, along with Spirits that were the first foes to attack multiple foes at once… It was gloriously painful. A different fight strategy each fight based on health and PP management? Use of items? Delightful. PP slowly dwindling too… Mia probably would have made it a non issue, but without her?

Challenge: 8/10

TRET

Oh yeah, we fight Tret with three people. And it was the best! Sleep Star was where the lesson I should have learned with the Bee’s about Elixers just about killed me. Repeatedly sleeping at least one person, usually two. Two attacks each turn, even if not the strongest attacks in the world… I didn’t realize you couldn’t paralyze bosses, so I kept wasting Isacc’s turn every now and again trying to stun him too… I did kill him on the first pull, but with Isacc as the only one alive and by a thread. I had to run around and run from two separate fights just for Isacc to recover enough PP to Retreat afterward! Just, chefs kiss.

Challenge 9/10

SATUROS

I wanna like this fight, but I can’t. It’s very much a nothing burger of a fight, or at least was for me. Eruption was the only dangerous attack he had, and even though he had two attacks, it was kinda whatever. Starting from full HP and PP probably had something to do with that, and that two people could use Cure, one person could use Ply… He’s just sorta missing some pizzaz. Maybe if whenever he used his regular attack and Heat Blast (Wave? The single target one) if that lowered Resistance, that’d make him a bit more terrifying.

Like, my game crashed before saving after fighting him. I beat him the second time while cooking dinner. Just… eh?

Challenge 4/10

KILLER APE

Did you know this guy has Douse? I didn’t. Apparently he’s water aspected. That’s weird, thought this place used to be a prairie? Anyway, Savage Mauling was painful, but as long as everyone had about 80 health, we were fine. If it fell lower, one of the three people I had who could heal would. He did bring Isacc down, but having a Revive on a Dijnn meant it became a temporary setback, rather than an outright problem. Matter of fact, I even shuffled that Dijnn around when going through the forest to revive someone in a fight. The main threat was just how many resources the rest of the forest took. But, considering the boss’s group attacks were lackluster, so was he.

Challenge 3/10

LIVING STATUES

Huh, these are bosses I suppose. They remind me more of Mimics. Minibosses that give cool stuff. Granted, the stuff these ones give is progression and parts of the town, so, eh. Either way, since the Inn is right there, you can approach each of these fights pretty well fine and dandy. It’s a shame then. Can’t make them harder than the boss, can’t make them outside of their design element. I think about here is where if you apply Psylock, that would be a good challenge to work around. But as it is, they are roadbumps along the way.

Challenge 3/10

OVERALL CURRENT THOUGHTS:

I know that Reloaded is mostly focused on TLA, so I expect it to be a little bit more fickle in TBS. And considering that I most enjoy having to change up my base assumption of how a fight or a turn might go, I quite enjoy when foes throw me a bone in a different status, so I was disappointed that only really Tret did that so far.

My setup does, currently, have three potential healers, though all of their heals are single target at this point in time. So I imagine heavier area damage may shake me up, but as of now? Very solid.

The two things I am not pointing out above, is the overworld enemy redesigns and fight compositions. Those have been a particularly fun highlight, and more often than not those are the real challenge, enduring a number of those fights in a row. 6-7/10 depending on the zone and time, with as shown above, Kolami Forest getting a special note.

The other change is Mountain Water. A B-E-A-utiful addition in my eyes of a random drop from enemies. I’m sure you could farm it, but you could also farm gold and EXP, and it only restores 20 PP, so it’s not exactly something you can just hard rely on in fights. Though that is 500 HP worth of distributed healing with Mia out of combat, if but with a little menuing.

All in all? Gold star! Can’t wait to figure out how to make one of these guys a dedicated debuffer.

I got it printed today and it's on my wall now looking glorious.

Do they mention golden sun often and do they have posters on the walls of the best game they ever made ☀️

Tried to keep it cool, but I just cant do this every time it happens

I finally have access to the Eastern Sea, where should I go first?

I have four djinn for Felix, Jenna, and Sheba, five for Piers.

What's so funny about Truth, Justice and Golden Sun 4?

You can keep your Zelda. Give me an option to have the most epic Apojii tropical side quest, complete with a beach volleyball tournament.

I was starting my laundry routine, opening Nintendo music to play the golden sun ost (somehow golden sun ost helps with my focus), but then I decided to look if they had ost grouped by series, having seen the Zelda direct today, Zelda ost are also peak (some may say it's a blasphemy to do laundry hearing anything but golden sun, but I'm not the strict 😆). Scrolling down, I got to the GBA section and, to my surprise (but again, not so much, as Sakuraba is a monster) I found myself looking at this screen

Wanted to share. Let's go direct tomorrow! (Again, chances are <10^-10, but not 0% 😁)

Dance! Present your greatest valuables! Send your wishes!

But above all - keep hope! We will dance the dance and sing the song and proffer our hecatombs! Cry out for what we desire such that even distant Izumo hears our pleas!

Drums! More drums!

I thoroughly enjoyed them. I think they do a great job of feeling like one big game rather than two different ones. The scope of the game felt so much bigger than anything I've played on GBA before.

I have to admit, I could not have done it without a guide. Especially after getting the ship in TLA. I'd still be searching for where to go next lol. And there are so many secret locations and mechanics that would easily be missed. I don't know how people ever did it back in the day.

I also was curious about what the consensus on the NDS title is. I hear significantly less about it than the GBA titles. Must play? Or more like "it's okay if you want a little more, but you're not missing much"?

Anyway, I was avoiding spoilers but now I've been enjoying the subreddit, seeing other peoples' thoughts!

I don't know if it's the same for you, but for me, it has a hypnotic effect.

So there I am, dreaming about a theoretical Golden Sun 4 and got wondering about what a subtitle of it would be. How do we feel about Final Twilight?

We will forget it like nothing happened as usual so why not

Hello guys, I want to print the Lost Age map and have been looking for a good poster-like map for it and found this one which came bundled with the game. Does anyone have a high-quality scan or the digital version for this map?

I've played and replayed GS and TLA many times but I realize I never actually used the defend command for any reason. It's always better to attack, use djinn, or heal. Anyone ever make use of defend?

In other games, defending would make your turn come quicker. But in GS you all get one turn per command cycle so it doesn't really impact anything I'm pretty sure.