AN : Golden Sun is such a gem
Saturday 1 Feb 2000
At the Triangle Soft offices, while the release of ZAGE's Digital World was being talked about everywhere, Hironobu Sakaguchi didn't pay it much attention. To be fair, he did care about it a little, but he currently had more important matters to focus on. Right now he was busy writing the script for Triangle Soft's next project, an idea that ca to him after playing one of the ZGBA launch titles, "Golden Sun." Sitting beside him was his trusted right‑hand man, Tetsuya Takahashi, helping him review ideas and notes.
Tetsuya sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. "Boss… did you really have to call in on the weekend? And besides, I wanted to try YouTube and those other new ZAGE websites, you know?" He rubbed the back of his neck with mild frustration. "Everyone is talking about them right now."
Hironobu chuckled softly while holding the ZGBA cartridge between his fingers. "Hey, you were the one who said you wanted to accompany , so don't start whining now, Tetsu." He gestured toward the screen where the ga was running. "Besides, look at this ga—Golden Sun. I honestly didn't expect a handheld RPG on the ZGBA to reach this level."
He leaned forward slightly, clearly impressed. "And rember, this is one of the launch titles for the system. A launch title, Tetsu. Usually those gas are simple demonstrations, but this one already feels like a fully realized RPG."
Hironobu shook his head with a half‑amused smile. "They're really showing the industry sothing with this. ZAGE is becoming a completely different beast compared to companies like us."
Tetsu sighed and crossed his arms. "Boss, ZAGE has always been a completely different beast compared to other ga developers. At so point you have to accept that. Honestly, it feels like you admire them more than you admit. And besides, you're also giving the ZGBA too little credit. That handheld machine is a monster too. I still don't understand how ZAGE managed to build sothing that powerful and sell it for only 11,000 yen. That price still doesn't make any sense to ."
Hironobu's eyes widened slightly. "I may admire what they do," he said calmly, "but I love Triangle Soft too. I built this company with my own hands. I'm not going to just abandon it and join them." He let out a quiet sigh afterward. Building Triangle Soft had not been easy—he started it almost alone—but because of financial struggles over the years, the company was no longer entirely his. So shares had gone to investors just to keep the studio alive. It was a compromise he still wasn't entirely happy about.
Tetsu grinned mischievously. "Who said anything about joining them? Hehehe—you just said that yourself, boss." He leaned forward slightly as if sharing a secret. "Think about it. Rember those discussions we had about ZAGE in private etings before? What if we did sothing… bold. We approach them quietly, outside the attention of our investors, and ask them to fully acquire us. If that happens, our entire team could integrate directly with ZAGE's developnt network."
He chuckled under his breath. "Imagine it. Our storytelling and RPG expertise combined with ZAGE's technology and scale. That could create sothing truly terrifying for the rest of the industry."
Tetsu grinned widely, clearly enjoying the thought. "Imagine working with the great Zaboru Renkonan himself. Just think about it, boss. With their technology and manpower combined with our storytelling—and with Zaboru's leadership instead of incompetent greedy investors—what kind of worlds could we create? How far could we grow under soone like him? Hehehe."
He leaned back in his chair, letting the idea linger in the air. "ZAGE already has the resources, the hardware knowledge, the distribution networks, even the global reach. But what they always appreciate is strong storytelling and good gas developer. That's exactly where we shine as we have na on our own ZAGE will never reject us."
Hironobu stared at him in silence for a mont. He gulped slightly as the possibilities began forming in his mind. For a brief second he imagined what their studio could accomplish with ZAGE's behind them without greedy investors and budget holding him back with Zaboru Renkonan leading them what can Triangle soft do?. After a long pause he exhaled slowly. His eyes widened again, this ti more from surprise than shock at his own thoughts. "That's…" he paused and rubbed his forehead with a tired sigh. "That's a dangerous conversation to have, Tetsu."
He looked down at the ZGBA cartridge still resting in his hand as if grounding himself back in reality.
"Ideas like that can easily spiral out of control," he continued quietly. "And once people start thinking that way, it becos hard to walk it back."
After a mont he waved his hand dismissively as if pushing the thought aside.
"Let's talk about that later, okay?"
Hironobu sighed. "Alright, enough of that discussion. What we should do now is take reference from this. Aside from our current ZEPS‑3 projects, we should also create sothing for the ZGBA—and it has to be a JRPG."
That decision was not surprising. Triangle Soft was already famous for its JRPG titles, so creating another role‑playing ga was the most natural direction for them. Recently, Hironobu had also beco deeply fascinated with Golden Sun.
When he first heard about the graphical capabilities of the ZGBA, he never expected the handheld to reach this level. But Golden Sun proved him completely wrong. The ga was not just "good"—it was beautiful. The environnts were detailed, the character sprites were expressive, and the spell effects looked impressive even on a small handheld screen.
For a handheld title—especially one released alongside the launch of the system—the visual quality was remarkable. In so monts the presentation even reminded him of gas running on the ZEPS‑3. That alone said a lot about how far the hardware had been pushed.
This was mainly because Zaboru had enhanced the original Golden Sun graphics. Compared to the GBA from Zaboru's previous life, the ZGBA was far stronger in almost every aspect, allowing the team to push the visuals much further than before. Character sprites were more detailed, spell effects were richer, and environnts looked far more alive. But the improvents were not limited to graphics alone. Zaboru had also added several optional dungeons for players to discover, along with many new Djinn to collect and experint with during gaplay. So of them were even hidden as playful easter eggs—such as the "Zabo‑man," Djinn.
Hironobu said, "Still, this ga is really sothing else. The story is good and the scale of the world is huge. I always expected handheld JRPGs to have shorter stories and simpler gaplay—sothing closer to Pokémon—where the main adventure is relatively brief and players extend their playti by taking detours to collect things or complete optional tasks. But look at this. Golden Sun completely proves that assumption wrong. The ga has a large, well‑developed story and it's beautifully presented too. There are many towns, many characters, and so many locations to explore. Honestly, it feels closer to a console JRPG than sothing running on a handheld system. Hehehe… seeing a ga like this really makes my blood boil with excitent. Doesn't it, Tetsu?"
Tetsu sighed. "Anything related to RPGs always makes your blood boil with excitent, Hironobu‑san. But still… they really used sothing similar to our Jewel System, didn't they? That Djinn system feels quite close to our Jewel chanics."
Hironobu chuckled and shook his head. "Well, it's only similar. They're not copying anything directly. Even our own Jewel System was inspired by so of ZAGE's early JRPG designs. Zaboru has always said that inspiring other creators is a good thing for the industry."
He pointed at the screen again. "Besides, the Djinn system is actually quite unique. Look at how it works. At first the Djinn stays in the 'Set' state, which ans it's equipped and passively boosting the character's abilities. Then, when the player activates the Djinn's power, it shifts into an 'Activated' state, giving strong temporary effects or stat boosts."
Hironobu continued explaining with growing enthusiasm. "After that, the Djinn enters a 'Recovery' state, aning it can't be used again imdiately. That cycle forces the player to think carefully about when to use each Djinn. It's very different from our Jewel equipnt system in the Jewel Sword series."
He smiled thoughtfully. "But honestly… it's a brilliant way of designing gaplay depth. Instead of the party depending entirely on equipnt, players must manage the Djinn they utilize. That kind of layered chanic makes the combat system far more strategic and interesting."
He paused for a mont, clearly impressed by the design philosophy.
"Even better," Hironobu continued, "if you use a specific sequence of Djinn, the player can summon powerful spirits. Those summons are not just flashy attacks—they depend on how the Djinn were used and what elents were activated beforehand. That kind of layered system encourages experintation."
He tapped the table lightly with growing excitent.
"Players will constantly think about combinations—whether to keep Djinn equipped for stat bonuses or activate them to trigger stronger abilities and summon spirits. It creates a constant strategic trade‑off. Honestly… it's a really clever system."
Tetsuya nodded slowly, still staring at the small ZGBA cartridge in Hironobu's hand. "That's correct. It's a really cool system… but honestly I still can't understand how ZAGE managed to fit all of this inside a cartridge like that. Sure, they're using a new type of cartridge, and I heard it can hold around 512 MB—almost like a CD. But even then it still feels impossible."
He leaned forward slightly, clearly baffled. "Golden Sun is huge. The towns, the animations, the battle effects, the music, the dialogue… everything feels massive. It's almost the scale of a ZEPS‑3 RPG. A ga like this should require gigabytes of storage, shouldn't it?"
Tetsu scratched his head, still trying to make sense of it. "I an, just the spell animations alone feel like they should take a ridiculous amount of mory. And those layered battle backgrounds, the character portraits, the scripted events… how did they compress all of that into sothing this small?"
Hironobu smiled knowingly. "And that," he said calmly, "is exactly what makes this ga so special. It's not just a great ga—it's also a perfect lesson in how to manage ga developnt properly."
He gently turned the cartridge between his fingers.
"ZAGE always says that even if you have powerful hardware, you should never forget the creativity behind optimization. Hardware alone doesn't make great gas. Smart design does."
Hironobu tapped the cartridge lightly against the table.
"That's why they were able to create sothing like Golden Sun here. Every asset is carefully planned, every system optimized, every piece of data used efficiently."
He then grinned at Tetsu.
"And I'm willing to bet we can do the sa thing too, Tetsu."
Tetsu laughed. "Alright then, boss. Let's get to work." With that, Hironobu and Tetsu imdiately began examining the Golden Sun cartridge more closely, studying how the ga might have been structured internally. They discussed possible compression thods, asset reuse, and clever data managent techniques that ZAGE's developers might have used. At the sa ti, the two of them started brainstorming ideas for their own JRPG project on the ZGBA, sketching rough concepts, gaplay chanics, and story thes on nearby notes while the Golden Sun ga continued running on the screen beside them.
anwhile, at the ZUSUGA offices, the situation was very different. Zanki Zagashira had just received a harsh reality check from his own ga developnt team.
To be continue
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