Golden Sun is a series of fantasy role-playing video games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. It follows the story of a group of magically attuned "adepts" who are charged with preventing the potentially destructive power of alchemy from being released as it was in the past. Players navigate characters through the game's world by defeating enemies, solving puzzles, and completing assigned missions to complete the storyline.

The original two games, Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, were released in 2001 and 2002, respectively, for the Game Boy Advance. A third game, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2010. In Golden Sun, the player controls protagonist Isaac and his companions as they journey through the world of Weyard to prevent a group of anti-heroes from releasing a mysterious power called "Alchemy" to the world. Golden Sun: The Lost Age follows the surviving members from the previous game's antagonists as they continue to pursue the release of Alchemy by lighting four elemental lighthouses. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn takes place thirty years later and follows the descendants of the previous two games' heroes as they navigate a world adapting to the presence of Alchemy.

The series has received generally favorable reception from critics. The first Golden Sun game has been widely lauded as among the best games for the Game Boy Advance, with the first game receiving Nintendo Power's Best GBA Game of 2001 and ranking in IGN's Readers Choice Top 100 games ever, as number 94. The Lost Age performed even better than its predecessor, ranking 78 on IGN's Readers Choice Top 100 games ever. Dark Dawn, while still scoring highly on Metacritic's aggregation of critic scores, was less well received. Sales figures for the first two Golden Sun games exceeded one million in the United States and Japan, a figure that Dark Dawn failed to exceed.

Games in the Golden Sun series are set in the fictional world of Weyard, a flat and vaguely circular plane whose oceans perpetually spill off the edge of the world into what is seemingly an endless abyss. The first two installments, Golden Sun and The Lost Age, center around two groups of magically attuned "adepts" who are alternately charged with achieving and preventing the release of the potentially destructive power of Alchemy on the world. The force of Alchemy was prevalent in Weyard's ancient past, allowing for the development of great civilizations, but this eventually caused worldwide conflict that subsided only after it was sealed away. The keys to unlocking Alchemy, four magic jewels called the Elemental Stars, have been hidden within the mountain shrine, Mt. Aleph, guarded by the town of Vale at the mountain's base over time. The third installment, Dark Dawn, chronicles the events of Weyard thirty years following the return of Alchemy and the struggles the world's inhabitants face while adapting to their new reality.

In the Golden Sun games, players control a cast of characters as they journey through a fantasy world, interact with other characters, battle monsters, acquire magic spells and equipment, and take part in a narrative. Much of the time spent outside of battle takes place in dungeons, caves, and other locales, which generally require the player to find items that grant their bearer new forms of "Psynergy", or magical spells, to solve puzzles. To complete these puzzles, players must either push pillars to construct negotiable paths between elevated areas, climb up and rappel down cliffs, or obtain a special item to progress through the story and game world. Outside of these dungeons and locales, the player traverses through a world map and navigates between forests, rivers, mountain ranges, seas, and oceans.

A key element in in-game exploration is the use of Psynergy spells, which are used both in battle and solving puzzles. Some Psynergy is only used in combat or in overworld and non-battle scenarios. However, there are Psynergy that can be used in both situations; for example, the "Whirlwind" spell can be used to damage enemies in battle and out of battle to clear away overgrown foliage that blocks the player's path. The player gains more Psynergy spells as the game progresses, both through leveling up and obtaining special Psynergy-bestowing items. With each "utility" Psynergy spell, the party gains access to more locations and secrets in the game world.

In battle, Golden Sun games contain both random monster encounters, featuring randomly selected enemies, and compulsory battles involving set enemies, which advance the story. When a battle begins, a separate screen is brought up where the player's party and enemy party face off on opposing sides. During a battle, the characters and the background rotate to give a pseudo-3D effect. Players can attack enemies directly using various weapons and offensive Psynergy spells, or by summoning Djinn, powerful otherworldly entities that enhance an attached character's hit points, Psynergy points, and other statistics, as well as determining what Psynergy they can perform. Djinn can be set to standby, where players forfeit stat enhancements to unleash a powerful one-time attack that summons an elemental monster to inflict damage on all enemies.

Three years prior to the start of the game's main story, Saturos and Menardi raid Mt. Aleph intending to steal the Elemental Stars, but fail to solve the riddles guarding them and are driven away by the mountain's trap; a magically generated thunderstorm and rock slide.