Golden Sun

Golden Sun
Also known as: Ōgon no Taiyō: Hirakareshi Fūin (JP) Developer: Camelot Software Planning Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: August 1, 2001 Released in US: November 12, 2001 Released in EU: February 22, 2002 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has a prerelease article

Golden Sun is what happens when Camelot takes a break from making Mario sports games and creates their own RPG series. It did well enough to receive two sequels.

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Debug Mode

Golden Sun contains a debug mode that can be enabled by changing the value at 3001F54 to 01 (for the German version, the address is 3001F64). This enables several hidden features:

• In the File Select screen, all saved games display the text "Continue from a Sanctum," and when loaded, the player will start out from the sanctum they last visited before saving the game.
• Three new options appear in the Start menu, none of which do anything when selected. All of them have an otherwise-unused trashcan icon. The German and Spanish localisations have text overflow issues.
• Holding L allows the player to walk through anything.
• Pressing Start + Select pauses the game. In this state, you can press any button to advance frame by frame. Pressing Start returns the game to normal.
• Pressing L + R during a cutscene skips all dialogues.

Japanese	English	French
German	Italian	Spanish

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  Walking through everything.

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  Skipping dialogues until a yes/no choice.

Warp Menu

Press B + Start to open the warp menu, which allows you to warp instantly to any map in the game. Press Up and Down on the D-Pad to switch between selecting the map or the destination point, and Left and Right to increment/decrement the currently-selected one. The menu displays the selected map's name, internal codename, and number. Pressing A warps you to the currently-selected map and destination point, and B closes the menu.

The two debug rooms, "Increase item and level" (id 199) and "Menu test" (id 200) can be reached from this menu.

Flag Menu

Press B + Select to open the flag editing menu. In this menu, you can use the D-Pad to select a flag, press A to toggle it between 1 and 0, and R and L to move through the different "pages" of flags. Pressing B closes the menu.

Turn on flag 16D in the Flag menu, go in battle, and during the Attack Sequence (or during fleeing) you can do the following:

• Press R to destroy the enemy's team.
• Press Select + R to destroy your own team.

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  Flag menu.

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  Killing the enemies by pressing R.

Palette Debug

Press L + Start to open the palette editing menu. The menu displays the RGB values of the selected palette. Use the D-Pad to select a value, A and B to increment/decrement it, and R and L to switch palettes. Holding Start makes the currently selected color flash, and pressing Select closes the menu.

Hidden Menus

Psynergy Menu

This menu cannot be accessed by the debug mode mentioned above, so you should replace the pause menu by doing 08015374:0801C49D. Most of these text strings don't make sense, but there are two options in this list that you can set. The top one is for setting the Psynergy Shortcut of the L button. The bottom one is for the R button. All psynergies that your characters have are listed, not just the ones used on the field. When this menu is accessed, some basic abilities are given to you, but note that the character must be in your party to see them in the list.

Isaac: Move
Garet: Move
Ivan: Move, Mind Read, and Whirlwind
Mia: Ply
Jenna: Move

The sequel has a different version of this menu that lists all the field psynergy in the game.

Music Menu

To do: Explain the menu.

This menu lacks a GUI. The Lost Age has this menu too, as well as a GUI version that this game might lack, so use it as a reference.

Replace the Pause menu with 08015374:080F9051 to access.

Debug Rooms

Access these debug rooms through the Warp menu, or enter the following master code and one of the debug room codes, then walk through a door to enter the debug room.

Action Replay V1	Action Replay V3	GameShark (Codebreaker)
Must Be On [M]
72CB4343 F0C15E4F 6F5E501F 7FE05A78	D06E067F 8055B26F E0CE785B D8990E3E	00009B1A 000A 100036E6 0007
Room 199: Increase item and level
DCAC7712 58F48E11 FB09392F 3A30CC7D	60FF6450 D96B96FB 4553DE0F 0913E722	32000400 00C7 32000408 00C7
Room 200: Menu test
32D269FA 3ED79985 19CB68FA 1D7923F2	92B5130F 1B7FA51A 0DFA4AD9 3B7A93E7	32000400 00C8 32000408 00C8

Rooms 191 to 198: Test0-Test7

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  These are seemingly identical copies of the same empty room. To the right side of the map, there are four Djinn (one of each element), though only two are visible (Venus and Mercury); the other two are outside the bounds of the map, but can be interacted with anyway. Talking to each Djinni will grant the first Djinni of its element (i.e., Flint, Forge, Gust and Fizz).

Room 199: Increase item and level

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  Debug room 199.

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  Gives any item in the game.

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  Level-up menu, A gives 1 level, Start gives 5.

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  Consult every Psynergy's data in the game.

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  The Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and French versions of the game don't have the Psynergy data NPC.

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  Displays a speech bubble and some text.

• 

  Menardi's feet display a portrait viewer.

• 

  The Spanish, Italian, French, and German versions show random texts which distort the screen and even crash the game in the German version.

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  The English version shows different names for characters, such as calling Jenna by her Japanese name. Some other names don't match the portrait, and this happens in the Japanese version too.

Room 200: Menu test

In this Debug Room, you control a full party of Adepts, with them all level 30, except for Isaac, who is level 50.

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  Debug room 200.

• 

  You went up 10 levels, actually.

• 

  Jenna gives some of the best equipment...

• 

  ... Including unused weapons.

• 

  Ivan gives some consumable items...

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  ... Including a lot of stat-enhancing items.

• 

  Mia on the bottom-left lets you rename Isaac.

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  Kraden lists your items and their selling price.

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  Dora gives everyone 7 Djinn, except Ivan who gets 6.

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  Menardi gives quest items and Psynergy items.

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  Saturos is evil, he injures your Adepts...

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  ... and gives them status ailments.

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  A shop which gives you 200 000 gold.

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  It equips a broken Muramasa to Isaac.

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  Standard Healer menu, works as intended.

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  Saturos is worried about the Boulder.

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  The bush displays an icon viewer.

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  It can be blown away using Whirlwind.

• 

  Felix talks a lot. You can stop it by pressing B.

• 

  That's an annoying chatterbox.

Maps

Link Lobby

• 

  The Link Lobby has four corridors that are not seen in actual gameplay.

Cutscenes

After reaching Biliblin the player is free to either go the Mercury Lighthouse or to Kolima. Because of this cutscenes in Kolima can either happen with or without Mia. Therefore every cutscene is programmed to be with or without Mia. But the cutscene after the party gave Tret the Hermes' Water can only happen with Mia because the Mercury Lighthouse has to be completed. But there is still a cutscene without Mia despite being impossible to trigger this cutscene without Mia.

To trigger the cutscene without Mia unset bit 02000040:08 before giving Tret Hermes' Water.

Unused Menu Options

There are a few unused entries in the internal list of menu options, which indicate Golden Sun was originally planned to have all out-of-battle actions be selected from a menu like in Shining Force. The names for all of them are still intact in the string table, and a couple of them even have unused icons:

ID	Icon	Name
8	—	Check
9		Use
10	—	Give
11		Drop
12	—	Speak
13	—	Equip

Notably, the icon for 'Drop' is also used for the extra options added to the Start menu when Debug Mode is active.

Unused Graphics

To do: Add unused menu divider tiles.

Upward Text Prompt Crystal

Graphics for an unused upward-pointing version of the text prompt crystal, located directly after the graphics for the downward-pointing one.

Used	Unused

Early Menu Option Box

This was used with an early version of the menu option graphics which were much more similar to the ones from the Shining Force games, which can be seen in early screenshots. It also has a graphic for flashing red when selected, again like in Shining Force.

There's also an unused graphic for the item boxes used in the final game to do the same animation.

Unused Range Indicators

These are ability range indicators, with columns representing ranges of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 targets, which can be used in menus that show Psynergy abilities. The top row is used for abilities with diminishing effectiveness ratios, while the bottom would likely be used for abilities without these ratios. However, the game does not have any means of using the bottom row except in cases where abilities have a set range of "All" targets (for example, Break); the bottom right-most indicator is used in these cases. While the top row is fully implemented, ability ranges 9 and 11 are not assigned to any abilities that appear in these menus so they also go unused.

Each indicator uses two tiles, with the second being mirrored horizontally.

Placeholder Icon

All moves the player can't legitimately have in their Psynergy or Summon menu are given this icon. This icon is ID 0 for move icons and status effect icons, so it's used as a fallback for all moves and status effects with invalid or undefined icons. Strangely though, for items the icon with ID 0 is a coin, so items will use that as a fallback icon instead.

Early Equipment Icons

Early versions of the icons for a few of the basic armor items still exist in the ROM, but were overwritten in The Lost Age.

Item	Early	Final
Iron Helm
Knight's Helm
Knight's Shield

Unused Items

There are a few unused items in this game, obtainable only through GameShark codes or the debug rooms. All of them became proper, fully-coded items in the second game.

No.	Name	Type	Description	Effect	Buy price	Sell price	GS:TLA equivalent
7	Masamune	Long sword artifact weapon	Long Sword	Attack+115 (no unleash)	13400	10050	Fire Brand
10	Sol Blade	Long sword artifact weapon	?	Attack+138 (no unleash)	19000	14250	Sol Blade
26	Kusanagi	Light blade artifact weapon	?	Attack+135 (no unleash)	19000	14250	Masamune
111	Mysterious Robe	Artifact robe	Robe	Defense+40	11000	8250	Mysterious Robe

Unused Psynergy

There are several unused Psynergy attacks left in the game. Some of them are fully-coded status-inflicting moves that were never assigned to any class's moveset, while others indicate scrapped status effects that were never implemented. You can access them with the code 82000558 0xxx (replace xxx with the Psynergy's hex number), which hacks them into the first slot of Isaac's moveset.

No.	Hex	Name	Description	Element	PP cost	Target	Effect	Animation
114	072	Taint	?	Venus	4	1 enemy	May inflict poison.
115	073	Poison	?	Venus	6	1 enemy	May inflict venom.
117	075	Confuse	?	Jupiter	6	3 enemies	May inflict confusion (unused condition; has no effect on enemies, but will disable action/turn input when used against player characters; unfinished effect).
118	076	Charm	?	Jupiter	9	1 enemy	May steal an enemy's heart (unused condition; has no effect on enemies, but will disable action/turn input when used against player characters; unfinished effect).
119	077	Paralyze	?	Jupiter	7	1 enemy	May inflict stun.
128	080	Regenerate	?	Mercury	6	1 ally	Inflicts ~60 damage on ally, then regenerates 60% of HP for 5 turns.
129	081	Reflect	?	Mercury	5	1 ally	Target "feels the effects of Reflect" (does nothing).

Unused Characters

Dummied-out character positions for Felix and Sheba are in the first game, though never playable. They are in the sequel, though. There's also a dummied-out character position named "PC07". They can be put in a party by editing the savefile. All of them have zeroed stats for everything and have "NPC" as their class. Felix and PC07 have no small sprite, but Sheba does (although she's looking sideways). Only Felix and Sheba have a portrait in the Status menu; PC07 will show the last portrait seen. During battle, PC07's portrait is visible in the Status menu: it's an otherwise unused Alex portrait. In battle, they all use the Vermin battle sprite and will be incapable of fighting even if given positive stats.

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Unused Music

Within the ROM lies an earlier version of The Lost Age's title screen music. Besides the instruments (which are slightly different between GS and GS:TLA), it seems the volume for some tracks is different from the final. Both songs are in the same position, since GBA Mus Riper names them both as "song040".

Unused track (GS):

Used track (GS:TLA):

Unused NPC

In Link Lobby, there is an NPC who is out of bounds. If you talk to him, you can pick a party setup by number, though you can't see what they are before choosing them. His dialogue has been localised in every language the game is available. His first line of dialogue will have the Karagol ship captain portrait.

If you choose a number which is too high, the NPC will say that the parameter doesn't exist, and that you should ask “Mr. Sugimoto” (the Spanish, Italian, German and French localisations curiously omit this last part), presumably Yūsuke Sugimoto who is listed as "Assistant Director" and "Game Design" in the credits . The last message appears when pressing B in the number selection screen.

Japanese	パラメータセットのせんたくをするんだな	０	せっていできたぞ あとはお前のセッティングしだいだ	そんなパラメータないぞ すぎもとさんにきいてみなさい	なんだ　ひやかしかい
English	Choose your parameters here.	0	The settings are made. The rest is up to you.	There's no such parameter. Ask Mr. Sugimoto.	What is this, just a tease?
Spanish	Cambia aquí la configuración.	0	Las opciones están fijadas.	No hay dicha opción.	¿Qué es esto, una broma?
Italian	Qui puoi scegliere i parametri.	0	Impostazioni completate.	Questo parametro non esiste.	Che fai, perdi tempo?
French	Choisissez vos paramètres ici.	0	Le paramétrage est fait.	Ce paramètre n'existe pas.	Qu'est-ce? Une vanne?
German	Wähle deine Einstellungen.	0	Die Einstellungen sind getroffen.	Diese Einstellung gibt es nicht.	Was soll das? Veräppelung?

Unused Graphics

This portrait of child Felix goes unused, since he has no speaking lines during the prologue. The portrait can be seen in the debug room's portrait viewer, though, as portrait No. 51.

This portrait of Alex goes unused too. It's somewhat different to his actual used portrait. It's absent from the debug portrait viewer and it can only be seen under specific conditions (read the Unused Characters section). Evidence suggests that Alex was planned to be a playable character earlier in development.

Dummy Items

Among the 269 items in the game, there are 78 dummy ones, which use the coin icon and have the "?" name. Some of them become actual items in The Lost Age. Item No. 0 is a placeholder named "???".

Dummy item in GS	Becomes this in GS:TLA
No. 190 "?"	Mist Potion
No. 198 "?"	Lash Pebble
No. 199 "?"	Pound Cube
No. 208 "?"	Tremor Bit
No. 209 "?"	Scoop Gem
No. 210 "?"	Cyclone Chip
No. 213 "?"	Burst Brooch
No. 214 "?"	Grindstone
No. 215 "?"	Hover Jade
No. 217 "?"	Teleport Lapis
No. 245 "?"	Mythril Bag
No. 246 "?"	Jupiter Star
No. 247 "?"	Mars Star

Dummy Abilities

Abilities encompass everything a player or enemy can do in battle: from normal attacks, Psynergy, unleashes, unique enemy attacks, and even doing nothing (ability No. 0). Among the 519 abilities programmed in the game, there are 128 dummy slots (named "?"), as well as some repeated abilities. Some of those dummy slots become actual, used abilities in The Lost Age. Other 52 dummy abilities (named "=") are linked to dummy Djinni (discussed below), and some of them become actual programmed abilities linked to the new programmed Djinni in The Lost Age. Dummy abilities and those which are only used by enemies are represented with an "X" icon when hacked into a player's Psynergy list.

Dummy ability in GS	Becomes this in GS:TLA
No. 39 "?"	Cool
No. 40 "?"	Supercool
No. 41 "?"	Megacool
No. 60 "?"	Fume
No. 61 "?"	Serpent Fume
No. 62 "?"	Dragon Fume
No. 63 "?"	Beam
No. 64 "?"	Cycle Beam
No. 65 "?"	Searing Beam
No. 87 "?"	Aura
No. 88 "?"	Healing Aura
No. 89 "?"	Cool Aura
No. 133 "?"	Lash
No. 134 "?"	Pound
No. 135 "?"	Tremor
No. 136 "?"	Scoop
No. 137 "?"	Cyclone
No. 138 "?"	Parch
No. 139 "?"	Sand
No. 151 "?"	Burst
No. 152 "?"	Grind
No. 153 "?"	Hover
No. 154 "?"	Blaze
No. 155 "?"	Ma????
No. 156 "?"	Teleport
No. 157 "?"	A??
No. 197 "?"	Diamond Dust
No. 198 "?"	Odyssey
No. 199 "?"	Liquifier
No. 200 "?"	Plume Edge
No. 201 "?"	Thunder Mine
No. 202 "?"	Planetary
No. 203 "?"	Diamond Berg
No. 204 "?"	Death Leap
No. 205 "?"	Epicenter
No. 206 "?"	Thorny Grave
No. 207 "?"	Skull Splitter
No. 259 "?"	Mist Potion
No. 298 "?"	Aurora Field
No. 299 "?"	Djinn Counter
No. 307 "="	Echo
No. 308 "="	Iron
No. 309 "="	Steel
No. 310 "="	Mud
No. 311 "="	Flower
No. 312 "="	Meld
No. 313 "="	Petra
No. 314 "="	Salt
No. 315 "="	Geode
No. 316 "="	Mold
No. 317 "="	Crystal
No. 318 "="	Earth18
No. 319 "="	Earth19
No. 327 "="	Fog
No. 328 "="	Sour
No. 329 "="	Spring
No. 330 "="	Shade
No. 331 "="	Chill
No. 332 "="	Steam
No. 333 "="	Rime
No. 334 "="	Gel
No. 335 "="	Eddy
No. 336 "="	Balm
No. 337 "="	Serac
No. 338 "="	Water18
No. 339 "="	Water19
No. 347 "="	Cannon
No. 348 "="	Spark
No. 349 "="	Kindle
No. 350 "="	Char
No. 351 "="	Coal
No. 352 "="	Reflux
No. 353 "="	Core
No. 354 "="	Tinder
No. 355 "="	Shine
No. 356 "="	Fury
No. 357 "="	Fugue
No. 358 "="	Fire18
No. 359 "="	Fire19
No. 367 "="	Breath
No. 368 "="	Blitz
No. 369 "="	Ether
No. 370 "="	Waft
No. 371 "="	Haze
No. 372 "="	Wheeze
No. 373 "="	Aroma
No. 374 "="	Whorl
No. 375 "="	Gasp
No. 376 "="	Lull
No. 377 "="	Gale
No. 378 "="	Wind18
No. 379 "="	Wind19
No. 384 "?"	Zagan
No. 385 "?"	Haures
No. 390 "?"	Neptune*
No. 391 "?"	Boreas*
No. 396 "?"	Mars*
No. 397 "?"	Kirin*
No. 402 "?"	Daedalus
No. 403 "?"	Daedalus
No. 404 "?"	Iris
No. 406 "?"	Jupiter*
No. 407 "?"	Atalanta*
No. 408 "?"	Procne*
No. 409 "?"	Thor*
No. 410 "?"	Flora
No. 411 "?"	Eclipse
No. 412 "?"	Catastrophe

Note: Abilities in italics are unused/dummy abilities in GS:TLA. Abilities marked with an asterisk are Djinni summons present in GS that were assigned different slots in GS:TLA to accommodate the new summons.

Unused and Dummy Character Classes

The game contains 203 slots for character classes, of which 113 are dummy (named "?"). There's a placeholder class named "NPC" (class No. 0), which is only used by the unused characters (discussed above). The final classes from The Lost Age are almost fully coded here too, but they can't be obtained because they need more Djinn than you can acquire, and they don't grant any new Psynergy.

Unused classes

No.	Class	Base class	Stat boosts
5	Slayer	Squire	170% HP 130% PP 140% Attack 140% Defense 130% Agility 120% Luck
14	Hero	Guard	190% HP 120% PP 140% Attack 150% Defense 110% Agility 100% Luck
24	Sorcerer	Wind Seer	150% HP 180% PP 120% Attack 130% Defense 170% Agility 110% Luck
34	Angel	Water Seer	160% HP 170% PP 130% Attack 140% Defense 120% Agility 130% Luck
44	Protector	Swordsman (Mercury/Venus)	190% HP 140% PP 150% Attack 150% Defense 140% Agility 120% Luck
54	Radiant	Swordsman (Mercury/Venus)	190% HP 140% PP 150% Attack 150% Defense 140% Agility 120% Luck
61	Templar	Dragoon	180% HP 140% PP 150% Attack 150% Defense 120% Agility 130% Luck
62	Paladin	Dragoon	200% HP 150% PP 160% Attack 160% Defense 130% Agility 130% Luck
74	War Adept (Venus/Jupiter)	Apprentice	190% HP 170% PP 150% Attack 140% Defense 170% Agility 90% Luck
84	War Adept (Mars/Jupiter)	Apprentice	190% HP 170% PP 150% Attack 140% Defense 170% Agility 90% Luck
91	Disciple	Ninja	180% HP 150% PP 160% Attack 130% Defense 180% Agility 80% Luck
92	Master	Ninja	200% HP 160% PP 170% Attack 140% Defense 190% Agility 80% Luck
104	Oracle (Mercury/Venus)	Seer (Mercury/Venus)	170% HP 180% PP 140% Attack 140% Defense 160% Agility 100% Luck
114	Oracle (Venus/Jupiter)	Seer (Venus/Jupiter)	170% HP 180% PP 140% Attack 140% Defense 160% Agility 100% Luck
121	Dark Mage (becomes Conjurer in GS:TLA)	Medium	150% HP 180% PP 130% Attack 130% Defense 160% Agility 90% Luck
122	Death Mage (becomes Dark Mage in GS:TLA)	Medium	170% HP 190% PP 140% Attack 140% Defense 170% Agility 90% Luck
134	Guru (Mercury/Mars)	Pilgrim (Mercury/Mars)	170% HP 170% PP 140% Attack 150% Defense 170% Agility 120% Luck
144	Guru (Mars/Jupiter)	Pilgrim (Mars/Jupiter)	170% HP 170% PP 140% Attack 150% Defense 170% Agility 120% Luck
151	Bard	Ranger	150% HP 170% PP 130% Attack 130% Defense 170% Agility 120% Luck
152	Warlock	Ranger	170% HP 180% PP 140% Attack 140% Defense 180% Agility 120% Luck
165	Chaos Lord	Brute	200% HP 120% PP 170% Attack 140% Defense 160% Agility 70% Luck
171	Ronin	Samurai	210% HP 140% PP 160% Attack 150% Defense 150% Agility 90% Luck
185	Wizard	Hermit	170% HP 190% PP 130% Attack 140% Defense 180% Agility 120% Luck
191	Pure Mage	White Mage	170% HP 190% PP 140% Attack 140% Defense 160% Agility 130% Luck

Dummy classes that become functional ones in GS:TLA

No.	Class	GS:TLA equivalent
200	?	Flame User*
201	?	Witch

Note: In GS, Flame User is class No. 202, the final class in the list. GS:TLA moves it to 200, and then expands the list further to add newer classes.

Dummy Enemies

The game contains 164 slots for enemies. Some of them are multiple instances of a same character (for example, Saturos appears three times, since you battle him that amount of times, and he has different stats each time), 3 are dummy (named "?"), 1 is a placeholder (enemy No. 0, "???"), and 2 are partially programmed enemies with proper sprites (also named "?").

• Enemy No. 104
  

A palette swap of the Chimera monster. This palette would be used later for the Grand Chimera monster in The Lost Age.

• Enemy No. 135
  

A palette swap of the Toadonpa monster. This palette would be used later for the Devil Frog monster in The Lost Age.

Dummy Djinn

The game contains 80 slots for Djinn, but only 28 are programmed and used in the game. The other 52 are dummy Djinn (named "="), several of which became programmed, usable Djinn in The Lost Age.

Dummy Djinn that become functional in GS:TLA

No.	Name	GS:TLA equivalent
7	=	Echo
8	=	Iron
9	=	Steel
10	=	Mud
11	=	Flower
12	=	Meld
13	=	Petra
14	=	Salt
15	=	Geode
16	=	Mold
17	=	Crystal
27	=	Fog
28	=	Sour
29	=	Spring
30	=	Shade
31	=	Chill
32	=	Steam
33	=	Rime
34	=	Gel
35	=	Eddy
36	=	Balm
37	=	Serac
47	=	Cannon
48	=	Spark
49	=	Kindle
50	=	Char
51	=	Coal
52	=	Reflux
53	=	Core
54	=	Tinder
55	=	Shine
56	=	Fury
57	=	Fugue
67	=	Breath
68	=	Blitz
69	=	Ether
70	=	Waft
71	=	Haze
72	=	Wheeze
73	=	Aroma
74	=	Whorl
75	=	Gasp
76	=	Lull
77	=	Gale

Dummy Djinn that change name in GS:TLA, but remain dummy

No.	Name	GS:TLA equivalent
18	=	Earth18
19	=	Earth19
38	=	Water18
39	=	Water19
58	=	Fire18
59	=	Fire19
78	=	Wind18
79	=	Wind19

Regional Differences

Text input screen

The English, French, German and Italian versions have the same characters available. This means German, French and Italian players cannot name their party using language-exclusive characters (like ß, ç, etc.).
The Spanish version replaces some symbols in the last row with Spanish accented letters and Ñ. Interestingly, ü is missing (it is used in words like “pingüino” [penguin]), and the uppercase version Ü (though no native Spanish word begins with Ü).
The Japanese version has a “きりかえ” (Switch) option that switches between two modes: hiragana/katakana and latin characters.

Japanese	English, French, German and Italian	Spanish

? and ! characters

For some reason, the Spanish version has a different glyph for the “?” and “!” characters.

English, French, German and Italian	Spanish

Title Screen

The Japanese game had a subtitle, much like the sequel: 黄金の太陽：開かれし封印 (Ōgon no Taiyō: Hirakareshi Fūin; “Golden Sun: The Broken Seal”).
The English version only has “2001” as copyright date, while the European localisations have “2001,2002”

Japanese 黄金の太陽：開かれし封印	English Golden Sun	French Golden Sun
German Golden Sun	Italian Golden Sun	Spanish Golden Sun

Translation Errors

In addition to story edits to remove references to death (such as Mia's father), and religion (such as the nature of the Wise One and "Healers") and make dialog wordier, the translations have several outright errors.

• Breath/Bless (EN/ES/IT/DE)
  

Certain breath-related abilities were mistranslated from Japanese into English. The English localisation team interpreted ブレス as "bless" instead of "breath". The mistake carried over to the Spanish, German, and Italian localisations, which were based on the English version (the Spanish localisation got quite creative with them, though). The errors were corrected in the English version of the sequel (except “Evil Blessing”, which is an ability for a GS1-only bossfight), but the other localisations kept the wrong translations.

Japanese	English (GS, incorrect)	English (GS:TLA, correct)	Spanish (incorrect)	French (correct)	Italian (incorrect)	German (incorrect)
ファイアブレス	Fire Blessing	Fire Breath	Fuego sagrado	Pyrosouffle	Fuoco sacro	Feuersegen
ウォーターブレス	Water Blessing	Water Breath	Agua bendita	Hydrosouffle	Acqua sacra	Wassersegen
ブリザードブレス	Ice Blessing	Ice Breath	Nieve eterna	Cryosouffle	Gelo sacro	Eissegen
ブラックブレス	Dark Blessing	Dark Breath	Fosco sacro	Nécrosouffle	Buio sacro	Dunkelsegen
アシッドブレス	Acid Blessing	Acid Breath	Anatema ácido	Corrosouffle	Acido sacro	Säuresegen
サンダーブレス	Storm Blessing	Storm Breath	Cellisca divina	Electrosouffle	Tuono sacro	Sturmsegen
デーモンブレス	Evil Blessing	N/A (not corrected)	Estigma	Entrosouffle	Bacio demone	Böser Segen

• Cerberus (EN)
  

The enemy found in floor 9 of Crossbone Island is incorrectly named "Cerebus" instead of "Cerberus". The sequel corrected the error, although the enemy went unused.

• Death Size (EN/ES/FR/IT/DE)
  

The monster skill Death Scythe was translated as “Death Size” in the English version, which impacted the other localisations (which used “Sudden death” [ES/FR], “Fatal blow” [IT] or “Deathly grip” [DE] instead). It was corrected in the second game, but only in the English release.

Japanese	English	Spanish	French	German	Italian
デスサイズ	Death Size	Muerte súbita	Mort subite	Todesgriff	Presa fatale

• Translation of “Champa” (ES)
  

“The Shampa who rule the seas are frightful people. Beware.”	“The Shampa are people from a coastal village in Angara.”

The item shopkeeper in post-game Lalivero teasingly mentions Champa, a village that would appear prominently in both sequels (The Lost Age and Dark Dawn). However, the Spanish localisation uses an inconsistent translation here: “shampa”. It's worth noting that in Dark Dawn, the demonym for the Champas in Spanish became “champeño” instead of “champa”.

• Mia's relationship with Alex (EN/ES/FR/IT/DE)
  

In the Japanese version, when your party meets Mia at Mercury Lighthouse, she mentions Alex is part of her family (using the expression “同ぞく”, meaning “same family”). This information was omitted in the English localisation, and thus from all other versions. This seemingly fleeting piece of information is later relevant in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Japanese	English	Spanish	French	German	Italian
このマーキュリーの灯台へ わたしいがいに　入れるのは 同ぞくのアレクスだけ・・・。	Alex is the only one other than I who can enter Mercury Lighthouse.	Álex es el único que puede entrar al Faro de Mercurio además de mí.	Alex est la seule autre personne à pouvoir entrer dans le Phare de Mercure	Außer mir kann doch nur Alex den Merkur- Leuchtturm betreten.	Oltre a me, Alex è l'unico che può entrare nel Faro di Mercurio.

• Lighthouse Aerie (DE/FR)
  

The German and French localisations have a translation error in the place named “Lighthouse Aerie” (the top of Venus Lighthouse). The German version treats “Aerie” as a proper name, and the French version translated “aerie” as “area” or “nest”. The term “aerie” was later translated in GS2 as “Spitze des Leuchtturms” (DE) and “sommet” (FR), though the French text still keeps some references to “aire”.

Japanese	English	Spanish	French	German	Italian
灯台ちょうじょう	Lighthouse Aerie	Cima del faro	Aire du phare	Leuchtturm von Aerie	Cima del Faro