Spring forward? Fall back? Let's Play The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages!

So, uh, hi.

Well, to be short, FFIX fell through as an LP for now since I won't be able to screenshot it for a while yet. I... don't really want to go into detail about it, but the long and short of it is that the PS2 broke and money is short enough as it is. However, I'll definitely be able to get around to it later this year once school finishes and work starts up again, so rest assured I'll definitely be getting around to it eventually - I've got big plans for it, afterall, and I won't be letting them go to waste that easily.

In any case, with FFIX off the menu for now, I decided to switch things around a bit and take on another one of the games I've got queued up on the list. So without further ado, I present to you:



The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages! A pair of games released for the Game Boy Color by Nintendo and Capcom that (allegedly) take place after A Link to the Past, the two are connected together by an overarching plot and an intriguing password system that allows for one game to lead into another and unlock secrets and items in both. The games also contain a lot of visual and techincal cues from the other games in the series, most notably Link's Awakening, so familiar faces and concepts alike will be rearing their head over the course of the LP. Can you count the number of references made?

Now technically, you can play through the games in either order, as the stories for both games are made so either one can be used as a starting point. However, there's something about the Seasons>Ages progression to the story that just feels right for some reason. Possibly because the order of the Goddesses I'm used to begins with Din, or maybe just because this one is my favourite of the two, but nevertheless this is the order I'm going with and you all can just stuff it.

-Table of Contents-

Book 1 - Oracle of Seasons

Part 1 - Hero's Cave
Part 2 - Gnarled Root Dungeon
Part 3 - Snake's Remains
Part 4 - Poison Moth's Lair
Part 5 - Dancing Dragon Dungeon
Part 6 - Unicorn's Cave
Part 7 - Ancient Ruins
Part 8 - Explorer's Crypt
Part 9 - Sword & Shield Maze
Part 10 - Onox's Castle

Book 2 - Oracle of Ages

Part 11 - Maku Path
Part 12 - Spirit's Grave
Part 13 - Wing Dungeon
Part 14 - Moonlit Grotto
Part 15 - Skull Dungeon
Part 16 - Crown Dungeon
Part 17 - Mermaid's Cave
Part 18 - Jabu-Jabu's Belly
Part 19 - Ancient Tomb
Part 20 - Black Tower

Book 3 - Oracle of Secrets

Part 21 - Hero's Cave
Part 22 - Ganon's Lair



First we'll have to name our sucker- I mean, hero. Note the secrets option in the menu - if we were following up the game from Ages instead we would be able to input a password given from the other game to continue the story from there and unlock a bunch of interesting bonus content as well. However, none of that really matters right now so file this away under "Post-Game stuff" and forget about it until later.



Mostly because it's series tradition for the protagonist to be named Link (and because I wouldn't trust you guys to name him with my life), we'll be going with the default moniker for now. Last thing we want is for him to be traipsing around named after clothing or something stupid like that.

Yeah, you people know who you are.



The story so far: After saving Hyrule from the likes of the nefarious evil king, Ganon, in the events of A Link to the Past (maybe), Link decides to pay a visit to the Triforce to see how it's doing. However, due to either boredom with peace or perhaps out of sheer maliciousness, the Triforce pieces orders Link to due their bidding and wisks him away in a flash of light to a faraway land...



...and here we are. But who's this?



Later on, we awake by an empty caravan, music and laughter echoing in from the east. Perhaps we should investigate.



It seems like the lady called "Din" was the one who found us lying around the countryside and took us in. How nice of her! Though it's interesting that her parents named her after one of the three Goddesses of legend. I wonder what the story behind that is?



Aww, she cares about us. And... knows our name too. Seems like everyone knows Link's name nowadays.

After explaining how she came to find us, Din offers to let us dance with her a bit. Um... I'm not really a good dancer, but... what the hell.



Looks like Link isn't much of a dancer himself. Poor guy looks like he's got a bit of stage fright there.



Looks like we're a dancer and we never really... chanced... her. All right, so I'm not really a poet, sue me. At least Link and I had fun! Though it seems Din's noticed the mark on our hand.



Yes, we know. We just (supposedly) spent the last game recovering the Triforce from a mad pig king and purified a sacred realm, after all. This stuff is par the course at this point.



Sure, why not? I'm pretty sure nothing at all suspicious or world-threatening will happen in the next few-



...oh.

Gasp and alarm!



Onox is then on the scene, blowing everyone around and away as he slowly and erratically makes his way to Din. Link steps up to the plate, and...



...chokes and blows the whole damn thing. Damn it Link, don't you think you'd remember to bring your sword along with you when you travel by now?



Meanwhile, at Onox's palace of doom, darkness and despair...



Yeah, why did you just kidnap Din right now?

Yes, that's all well and good, but really, why are you doing all of this now?



You're going to be one of those villains, aren't you. Well screw you too.



Then, in a flash of light, Onox seals her in a crystal for no apparent reason whatsover. You know, if you really wanted to fuck things up Onox, you could just, I don't know, kill her? ...Then again, we don't want that to happen to her so maybe it's a good thing the guy is genre blind.



After that, Onox uses his tremendous powers of plot to sink the Temple of Seasons, forcing the surrounding environment to go through severe climate change! Snowball Earth, here we come.



Looks like Onox tossed him pretty far. And... he's not at all bothered by the cold. All the better for us, I guess.

The large, boisterous woman from before reveals herself to be Princess Zelda's nanny, Impa, and that she was helping to smuggle Din into Hyrule so this kind of shit wouldn't have gone down. Of course, she failed, and now it falls to us to pull Holodrum from the mess it's in now.



Sure, we'll visit the Maku Tree, but not after exploring a bit. To Horon Village!



First stop, the village shop. Nothing's going on right now, but needless to say we'll be dropping by here a few times to pick up a few trinkets over the course of our adventure.



Next on the list is Vasu, the jeweler. He'll be appraising the number of magic rings we'll be finding on our adventure... for a price. However, in order to get any use out of them, we have to drop them by Vasu here in order to unlock their "potential". Or something. For all we know, it could be an elaborate scam and Link could easily check them himself by chucking them down sinks, but who cares? They're magic rings, man!



However, before we can have our possessions identified, it seems we don't have a Ring Box to store the magic rings in just yet. Because magic rings, according to Vasu, "lose" their power after being appraised if they're not stored properly, he gives us a Lv 1 Ring Box on the house so we can get to lugging those rings around for us. It can only hold one ring so far, but that's not too bad. Vasu also gives us a ring on the house just because he's that nice of a guy.



The appraised ring turns out to be a Friendship Ring, which is, to put it bluntly, useless. But hey, the thought counts right? Vasu then let's us equip the ring, ending the tutorial session. Of course, from now on he'll be charging us a flat rate of 20 rupees to identify every other ring from now on, but thankfully he'll also buy pack any duplicates we find for 30 rupees as well. Not a bad deal; odds are these rings will be paying for themselves in not too long.

After exploring Horon a bit, Link drops by the Maku Tree to ask for some tips. However, it looks like we'll need a symbol of courage to get through, and not even the Triforce on our hand will suffice. Looks like we'll have to explore some more, then.



Dropping by the beach brings us to the Hero's Cave. Since heroes = courageous, surely the item we're looking for lies somewhere inside?



There's not really much going on in the first "dungeon" - most of the puzzles inside are simple block and switch puzzles that anyone familiar with basic problem solving can figure out. So... yeah.



Link then reaches the dungeon's treasure, finally picking up the damn sword that he should have had the decency to bring with him in the first place. He shows off for a bit before being teleported back inside.



Not before backtracking a bit for some extra scratch. 30 rupees? That's nice.



Before we head on, we just drop by briefly to pick up a Wooden Shield. Hey, you never know when it may come in handy.

Anyway, this update's dragging on a bit as it is and the plot won't be waiting for us forever. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?



...Is he...?



He is. The land around him is going to hell in a handbasket and he's fast asleep. Good lord, no wonder this place is such a craphole.



Of course, that's nothing a little poking can't fix. One swing to the bubble and he's awake with a start. He then goes on about how Holodrum is falling apart and there's an evil influence to the north and blah blah blah, then tells us to go pick up the eight essences of nature to patch things up.



He then drops a key from somewhere in his branches, giving us the means to enter the first real dungeon! Score! But that... will have to wait until next time.



Next time: The Gnarled Root Dungeon and the Fertile Soil!

Ever met a guy named Joshua? Same deal.

These games kind of suck. But do carry on.

Nope: Ages sucks, Seasons is one of my top three Zelda games.

Yeah, Seasons is basically a super-deluxe remake of the original Zelda. It is lovely. Ages sucks, though.

Why start with this game versus the other?

You should be playing these games side by side to make it interesting/confusing.

I will fight you now!

And Ages only kind of sucks because of the obnoxious fetch-questing and awful mini-games you're forced to do about half-way through the game.

Well, those and maybe the Water Dungeon.

Whereas the original Zelda and Link's Awakening had rooms that were elegantly defined by the limits of the screen, both Seasons and Ages scroll all over the place, like A Link to the Past. Except even worse, because you're dealing with the tiny little Game Boy screen.

Also, the randomized ring drops and cartoony animal buddies don't really fit Zelda. And almost all the NPCs are from Ocarina and Majora's Mask, recycled yet again, but without any narrative justification to excuse it. And squeezing two stories between A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening was pretty sloppily done. And, uh...I don't like'em, so there.

I still like Ages, even though the puzzles just get irritating near the end.

time travel is fun!

I'm still going to have to fight you, Kishi. Because your tastes in video games differ slightly from my own. And that cannot stand.

So put up your dukes!

I never did play these games, despite wanting to. Now I can see if I really should! Because I always let other people form my opinions for me.

Whoa, I didn't realize Ages was hated so much. I like it more than Seasons simply because I enjoy direct time travel more than seasonal changes. Then again, I haven't played it for years.

I at one point owned these games. That was a sad period in my life where I would apparently even sell a Zelda game for gaming cash ...

Anyhow, I remember that I played and liked/loved Seasons, but never finished Ages (or, therefore, the end-game content as I was apparently too thick to look up the passwords). And I'm a huge Zelda fanboy, so that must really say something.

I really like the ring system in this game, as it adds a little something to the ol' formula, but I didn't like how some of the rings were completely useless, or that it was hard to figure out that they were completely useless. And of course as a Gameboy Zelda, the inventory system is awesome, though I do wish there was a quick "give me back my sword!" button. Maybe one day we'll get a Zelda game for the DS in this spirit that will let us mix/match all four face buttons for weapons.

I liked Seasons well enough except for the annoying underworld that you have to keep coming back to.

Every paragraph and screenshot should alternate between the two.

I aborted my playthrough of this after the second dungeon. It's not as bad as Ages, but too much of the time I felt like I was stuck on the overworld until toured the map to do more item sequencing.

Man, at one point I was crazy enough to play through both games twice in a row just to get the stupid little triforce symbols next to Link's sprite in the menu.

I haven't played these games in years, but why does everyone say that Ages sucks? I remember it being the better of the two, with more interesting puzzles and a better implementation of its gimmick. Some please explain this insanity.

I've got your back, Prime. I enjoyed them, and the fact that Seasons is semi difficult helps it. I can't remember any other Zelda bosses killing me since Dungeon 2 in Link's Awakening.

And the Magnetic Glove and Switch Hook rock.

I liked them both, though I prefer Seasons. I thought it was proof that Capcom could make decent Zelda games >_>. I mean, what else is a better analog to Mega Man (with its 8 dungeons, Final Boss area, and a tendency to repeat stuff)?

It's odd though- I thought Seasons was considered worse because it focused on combat while Ages went on puzzles. I mean, I didn't have much info, but, come on- I don't remember anyone calling them horrid then or until yesterday. Can anyone explain?

And as for why these aren't done alternately: they're supposed to be done one after another so you can unlock the Secret Ending; the order doesn't matter, it just does some weird stuff here and there which I'm pretty sure we'll get to at some point.

Yeah, I remember that stupid triforce symbol too >_<.

Last time, we dropped by the Maku Tree and managed to swipe a key from the lazy bastard. With it in hand, I guess we could start on grabbing those essence things, huh?



But let's explore a bit more first. The mayor of Horon Village is a bit of a Gasha nut (hah!) and gives us a few seeds to start planting them around Holodrum.



There are main two reasons to bother with Gasha Seed planting. The first reason is that it's a relatively easy way of collecting various Magic Rings; as the seeds grow dependent on the number of monsters slain, you can plant a bunch around the land and come back to find them fully-grown after completing a dungeon. Since there's generally a good chance of them containing a ring, you can collect quite a few of them quickly this way.

The other reason is, of course, that there's a Heart Piece we have to get this way. And you thought the digging games in LttP and OoT were annoying.



Before we explore a bit more, I stop by the shop to pick up some bombs to grab another Gasha Seed. We'll be needing quite a few before the game's over, I'm afraid.



Hey, it's Mr. Write! Or, more specifically , it's his Holodrum counterpart, Mr. Left (no, seriously, that's his name). The scholarly eccentric writer seems to be having trouble reading in the dimly lit room, but we won't be able to help him just yet. However, he's got something we need so we'll be back soon enough to help him out with his light problem.



In the meantime, what we can do is blow a hole through his wall to get to the chest by his pond. And it has 20 rupees! That's not bad.



Well, that's enough of that for now. Key in hand, we pull the next dungeon up by its roots and head inside...



...to Level 1: Gnarled Root Dungeon.

The switch puzzles are a little more difficult to solve this time around, but otherwise it's pretty simple. Pushing the top right block here is all you need to do to move on.



An old hermit lies to the north, giving us a clue vital to solving the latter half of the dungeon. However, torch-lighting has been so prominent in the series at this point that it's pretty much guaranteed we'll see some at this point so his tips will sadly go to waste.



One of the doors is locked, which means we'll need a key to pass. Thankfully, the stalfos in the other room are more than willing to part theirs after a few swings of the sword.



There are a few more stalfos in here as well, however this time they reveal a map when killed. The map is simple enough to navigate, so I'll spare you the tutorial, but picking these up early on is generally a good idea for the tougher dungeons in the game.



Get used to seeing these a lot, as railcart puzzles abound in these games. There's no big puzzle to solve here, just flip the switch and move on.

However, don't forget to pick up the compass before you go. Like in Link's Awakening DX, the Compass will locate the dungeon's chest as well as chime whenever a room has a key. Handy if you're looking for that last chest and don't know where to find it.



One last thing to pick up before riding the tracks is this Gasha Seed here. We're gonna need a whole lot of 'em before we're through with the game.



Anyway, onto the next area!



Before we drop back for the chest we've passed, we'll just bomb open the cracked wall to the north and pick up a nearby key first. The chest contains a few bombs in it, so you'll want to pick them up last so they don't get wasted.



The next room has a few Razor Traps that spring forward quickly when you cross their paths, just like in every other Zelda game. Since you don't have many hearts at this point, you might want to play it safe and trip them prematurely so you can sneak past them.



The next room has a mini-boss fight with a pair of Goriyas tossing a Boomerang back and forth, a bit of a callback to those who've played the original Legend of Zelda. However, just like back then these guys go down like chumps, though they neglect to drop a boomerang for our troubles. The jerks.