This project is made with help of AI. Please be aware.

Also, since it wasn't clear to a few users (thanks bug reports!) This is an early test release, hence it's not versioned 1.0 or higher. Thank you for understanding. :)

VERY IMPORTANT:

THIS VERSION REQUIRES YOU TO MAKE A NEW FOLDER, THIS LAUNCHER IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OLD STRUCTURE, DUE TO THE MERGING OF GAMES. IT WILL COPY YOUR ROMS AND SAVES INTO THE NEW STRUCTURE WHEN YOU REBUILD.

NEW

The Lost Age Support (Experimental)

• Added preliminary support for Golden Sun: The Lost Age!
• Personally tested up to Air's Rock to make sure all settings work and graphical glitches are kept to a minimum.
• I'll continue playing through TLA to test the remaining parts of the game.
• Please note: Support is still experimental! You may encounter crashes, performance issues or graphical glitches, especially in areas I haven't tested yet.

Seamless Mode

• Added Seamless Mode for playing through both games without manually transferring saves.
• Starting a new game in The Broken Seal now asks if you want to enable Seamless Mode.
• Finishing The Broken Seal with Seamless Mode enabled automatically imports your clear save into The Lost Age and starts a new game.
• Already have a save in progress? Seamless Mode can also be enabled through F1 → Game before finishing The Broken Seal.

Save Transfer

• Starting a new game in The Lost Age now asks if you want to import a save from The Broken Seal.
• Select a completed The Broken Seal clear save to automatically transfer your party data into The Lost Age.
• A clear save is required! Regular saves from an unfinished playthrough cannot be transferred.
• Save transfer is performed when starting a new game in The Lost Age.
• No more Gold Passwords!

New Launcher

• Completely redesigned the launcher. (Direct3D is only a fallback, don't use it unless you need to)

Skip SHA Checking

• Added a Skip the ROM Check checkbox to the launcher settings, allowing patched ROMs to be loaded.
• Added following a player request. Patched ROM compatibility has not been tested, so your mileage may vary.

ENHANCEMENTS

Walking Speed

• Walking speed settings now also affect climbing and walking on ropes.

Even More View!

• Expanded the available view sizes, allowing you to see even more of Weyard!

New Aspect Ratios

• 3:2 (Original): Original GBA aspect ratio.
• 4:3: Traditional display format.
• 16:10: Widescreen format.
• 16:9: Widescreen format.
• Window Size: Stretches the game to fill the window. Requires disabling Sharp Pixels in the F1 menu.
• Minimal Sharp Pixels: Previously available in the F1 menu, now also selectable as an aspect ratio option.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Important technical details

• Install into a new folder. Unzip 0.5 into an empty folder and select the same ROM file you used before. Saves stored beside that ROM are imported automatically. Do not unzip over 0.4.4.
• Both games build again on first launch. The engine moved, so the launcher shows Needs rebuilding for The Broken Seal and The Lost Age. The first build takes longer than usual. After that, only changed parts are rebuilt.
• One shared engine. Both games now run on the same engine copy. Fixes to the core, such as the unpacker safety net, the field renderer, F12 rewind captures and options, apply to both games at once.
• New program layout on Windows. Each game’s engine is now a plug-in (GoldenSunEngine.dll, TLAEngine.dll) started by a small program that keeps the old names (GoldenSunRecomp.exe, TLARecomp.exe). This lets Seamless mode keep a single window open when The Broken Seal hands over to The Lost Age.
• Seamless mode saves the Clear Data straight into the save file you are playing when the ship sails off, and then starts The Lost Age in the same window, which imports that save. The Lost Age must be built before you turn Seamless on. If a hand-over step never arrives, the black screen lifts after 10 seconds.
• Unpacker crash safety net now covers both games. The Lost Age contains the same decompressor that caused the old Broken Seal crash.
• “Skip the ROM check” is a new per-game launcher option for translations and hacks. Those ROMs are untested and unsupported, so use it at your own risk.
• Smoother start-up in The Lost Age. The sound library’s wait for the screen is now skipped like other idle loops. A rare freeze on a wait that can never end now gives up instead of hanging.
• Always on: frame rewind (F12 captures), screen filters and the unpacker catcher.
• Release safety: every file shipped is checked against both ROMs before the zip is made, so the release contains no game data.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Mars Star graphical glitch: The graphical garbling involving the Mars Star is still present.
• Unpacker crash: The unpacker crash is currently worked around by the safety net. You should be able to continue playing without any issues.
• Linux launcher: The Linux launcher may ask you to submit a bug report even when the game has been closed normally.

This project is made with help of AI. Please be aware.

Also, since it wasn't clear to a few users (thanks bug reports!) This is an early test release, hence it's not versioned 1.0 or higher. Thank you for understanding. :)

VERY IMPORTANT:

THIS VERSION REQUIRES YOU TO MAKE A NEW FOLDER, THIS LAUNCHER IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OLD STRUCTURE, DUE TO THE MERGING OF GAMES. IT WILL COPY YOUR ROMS AND SAVES INTO THE NEW STRUCTURE WHEN YOU REBUILD.

Website: https://shmargus.github.io/GSRecomp/

Download: https://github.com/Shmargus/GSRecomp/releases

Github: https://github.com/Shmargus/GSRecomp

It's no secret that I hate genAI, so let's get that out of the way.

You all saw over the last few weeks a LOT of post about "Eh I recompiled Golden Sun" "Eh I ported Golden Sun" "Eh I REMADE Golden Sun" etc etc etc.
Some more overtly full of genAI than others.

Remember when we had a vote about allowing genAI content on the sub and we overwhelmingly voted to ban it ?

This illustrate an issue that other creators have pointed out in the past: when people do not realize or can see how that tech affects a creative space and that its to make something they want or enjoy, they suddenly don't care its AI anymore.

Let's not be that kind of hypocrites.

Accepting those slop-compilations is opening the door to allowing more and more of it. Until we get flood of just genAI images again and it drowns out actual artists posting their work.

Just like those things are drowning actual passionate devs who work on that kind of recomp for months or years. Usually by stealing their code.

Listen to people who have been doing that stuff for a long time, almost every time you'll hear the same warnings:
-The code is poorly written and the person "making" it wouldn't be able to fix any of the bugs.
-It's a fad and they give up once they lose steam or got enough clout out of it, leaving an half baked project that'll never get updated.
-It muddies the water and make it harder for well made projects to get attention.

I get it. The idea of people making a native pc port of Golden Sun, relinking the two games to auto-transfer saves and all is very enticing. And I'd love to see it happen.
By actual members of the community who are passionate about it, not grifters who showed up 3 days ago and only do it so they can hype up AI on their socials and blue checkmarks accounts on twitter.

It's smokes and mirrors, it looks impressive and in a way it is. But it's still genAI at the end of the day, with all the issues associated with it.
Support projects who put in the work, make well documented code (and open source) that anyone could pick up and continue if they left for any reason. Stuff made by people.
Not vibecoded slop made by grifters who want your attention without earning it.

Be better, you deserve better.

We deserve better.

🦇

Howdy folks, I'm Pascal Pixel, and I'm decompiling both Golden Sun games using AI, in a single project called ⛰️ Alchemy. A couple of weeks ago I shared that we hit 75% and the sub went absolutely nuts. Thank you for cheering things on. Golden Sun deserves the love and I'm glad we're bringing some much needed life back to our favorite game

So: after three months of work, ☀️ The Broken Seal is fully decompiled in all six languages, and work has already moved on to decompiling ⚓️ The Lost Age 😄

Repo: https://github.com/PascalPixel/alchemy

As I said last time, a year ago I burnt out after spending three years building a browser by myself, and needed to learn to relax again. I got back into gaming, but playing FF7 Remake was such a bad experience I had to force myself to finish it, and I couldn't tell why. I thought perhaps I'm just not much of a gamer anymore. That is, until I decided to play Golden Sun for the first time since 2002, and loved every minute of it... so it wasn't me 🙃

It's such a contrast with modern games: you get to loop back on your adventure multiple times, there's lots of optional content, and exploration is really rewarded. In modern games if you go all the way to every corner, maybe they'll just leave a chest with a potion in it. It's an afterthought, it's not fun

In Golden Sun you get actual content, like seeing how your family deals with you having left on your adventure, and trying to be strong for you. Its the kind of content we don't see anymore, and it makes the world feel lived in when you go back places and things have subtly changed. You can even loop back alll the way to Fuchin Temple, far off the path we're supposed to go, and there's still new content: Master Nyunpa has fasted until he's skin and bones, everyone thinks he's passed away, but your Mind Read still reaches him

The work and love Camelot put into these games is staggering, and you really feel it even playing it today. It's one of the best RPGs ever made, and now we can see just how much in the decompiled code. English has changes that Japanese doesn't have, and Spanish, French and Italian have updates English doesn't have. So even while the translations were being made, updates were still going in!

The code is now available for all of us to see, and I hope it'll help people make beautiful new stories and adventures. I'll keep chugging on The Lost Age, and my final goal remains the same: fulfill our long-term dream of creating a single game out of both 1️⃣✨2️⃣

We're unleashing Alchemy upon the world! 🌋 Let me know what you make!

Now that we are in the recomp era of modding and jaw-dropping mods for all sorts of games have become possible, we also need one for Golden Sun.

Look at what they did for Pokemon Emerald and imagine our possibilities:

https://youtu.be/99Y390nIudM

I first played through Golden Sun: The Lost Age in 2004, when I was 11 years old. Back then, I had no idea there was a game before it. I was young and clueless.

Funnily enough, though, that made the story take me by surprise in ways I never expected.

At the beginning, I genuinely thought Alex was a nice guy because he helped you deal with the soldiers from Tolbi. Eventually, I reached the point where I thought, “Man, what an asshole... but oh well.” And for the longest time, I actually believed that Isaac's group from the first game were the bad guys, until everything was finally revealed at Jupiter Lighthouse.

It was 2004. I was young, I had no internet access back then, and I just accepted the story as it unfolded. A few years later, I did my research and learned everything I had missed, but it was never quite the same.

And now... in 2026... I've finally done it. I've beaten the first game, including absolutely everything, even Crossbone Isle.

And holy shit, what an experience.

I imagined Mt. Aleph differently, and I had always pictured Mercury Lighthouse as something more epic. Still, the fight against Saturos was incredible.

But the final battle against Saturos and Menardi, the dialogue, and especially the conversations involving Felix... that really got me thinking.

I keep wondering what it would have felt like to experience all of this back then, knowing the full story from the beginning. And I can only imagine what it must have been like to play as Felix, knowing what we know now.

Suddenly, you're playing as the very people you thought were the villains. You're the ones trying to light the lighthouses. And you begin to understand that Saturos and Menardi, despite being assholes at times, genuinely believed they were doing the right thing.

This is what makes Golden Sun so special to me. It's a game that shows you that the world isn't simply divided into good and evil. Sometimes, there is so much more in between.

An absolute masterpiece!

No context here. Just Mia up to no good.

The shaking and chaos seems like it stopped and Garet is is all freaked out like everyone else and says "Do you know what that is?!". And Isaac I imagine also startled, maybe finding his footing, points at it and says "It's a rock!!" 🤣

This is an unresolved childhood memory.

I need a romhack that includes a fight against the Wise One, adds lore to him and a climactic fight against Alex on Mt. Aleph.

Now in the age of "reverse engineering" by AI, can't we get a tool to do Romhacks more easily?

I have sooooo many ideas.

First time playing so was a bit surprised to not even get a reset for stats! Damn Saturos cursed my main character so now he keeps taking extra damage, if there’s a 3rd phase I’m gonna lose my mind lol.

Amazing game, very excited to suss the sequel out!

Over twenty years of traversing Weyard and playing the games over and over, a lot of fan theories have popped up. Whether it's lore based or your personal theory, what's the craziest thing you've seen or read about Weyard or Golden Sun lore?

I'll start: Moapa and the Hesperians are the remnants of a pre-Alchemy sealing civilization similar to the Lemurians.

With all the commotion around decompilation of the games code lately it got me starting to think about what some good mod ideas would be. I want to share a couple that I had and see what y’all think and also see what other ideas are out there.

My first idea is a slight modification to the djinn system in TLA, to add a “bench” system, wherein the 4 “catch-up” djinn are always made available instead of being catch up. I’d give some new names to these djinn and a fairly generic probably copy of another djinns abilities and stats. One for each element. Now, if you already have all 72 djinn, and then go collect these 4, it would put them into a separate group of djinn called the bench. These aren’t available to use in combat nor do they buff anybodies stats. They’re treated as not actually assigned to anybody. But what this lets you do is now you can swap any djinn from a character onto the bench. Want to play your dream class combination but have one extra mars djinn and one venus djinn too few? Just swap in a venus djinn! This just gives flexibility to have more class combinations without screwing over at least one adept putting them in a weaker class.

Other ideas were a bit simpler, but one is a fast forward mechanic that you can toggle through in game. It keeps the music and sound effects at normal pace but pressing some key combination would cycle through speed increases at 2x, 3x, 4x, then back to 1x.

Same concept would apply for a zoom out function. Cycle through different levels of zoom.

A separate bag for crafting materials. All crafting materials would go in this bag and one person holds it. Same goes for stat boosting items.

What else ya got?

Hi,

I made a fan project that combines Golden Sun and The Lost Age into one GBA cartridge. You play GS1, after the credits TLA starts automatically as "Chapter 2" and your party (levels, Djinn, items, equipment, coins, names) gets transferred like with the link cable. No password needed.

- Both games complete and unchanged
- Separate saves, start menu to switch between both games
- New title screen (GS1 intro, then pans over to TLA)
- English or German

No ROMs included. You build it from your own copies of both games with a small Python script, instructions are in the README. Tested in mGBA.

https://github.com/Penrim/golden-sun-collection

Please note:

- First release. Lots of automated tests, but no full playthrough yet. Small glitches are possible, mostly in GS1. Backup your saves.
- Finish GS1 before you start a TLA save, otherwise your party is not transferred.
- Flash carts / real hardware not tested.
- AI disclosure: made with Claude Code. The middle part of the title screen panorama is AI generated, everything else is from the original games. Mods are ok with the post.

Feedback and bug reports welcome, here or on GitHub. No ROM links please.

Got my Gameboy player and the first game I put in was Golden Sun.

In this third video, we continue following Alex's adventure, written by BIG. For those unfamiliar with it, this is an ongoing project created using GSHTML5. I encourage anyone interested in project updates to visit the GS Dev Discord server (BIG's official server) and the official GSHTML5 Discord server. Leaving a positive reaction can help BIG with the project.

https://discord.gg/QEYjuQkXa

https://discord.gg/fYFSxPMjmS

I believe moving the series to a completely separate universe would be the best way to revitalize the series. A sequel to a nearly two-decade old game would not capture enough of a new audience.

This tattoo was done by the very talented Daylyn Bond (instagram: Illustday) who works out of Oshawa, Ontario.

And i was trying to remember to navigate the dungeon cuz it's been awhile since the last time i tried to fight Dullahan.

Hey everyone

Friendly reminder to not only use save states in case you lose 20 hours of progress and have to start again 🥲

If anyone happens to have a save file for The Lost Age set after exiting Lemuria... Please save me from my current existentialism.

TrimUI Brick Hammer is rad tho. Highly recommend.