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

Question: Can you hurt yourself with the spiked ball in Digdogger's room if you pull it in too close with the magnetic gloves?

You can! If you pull on it for too long, the spiked ball can come hurtling back into Link, taking off a heart or so of damage. It makes damaging Digdogger a little tricky, since you have to try and aim for him without going overboard with the gloves.

Sorry about the delay between posts - this week has been pretty shitty, and I didn't really feel up to working on it much this week. But enough moping for now, we've got a world to save, remember?

Anyway, last time we picked up an interesting new toy and completed a dungeon that could have been done ahead of time if I wanted to. Which I didn't, because Sequence Breaking is for chumps and Metroidvania fans and I'll have no part in that kind of tomfoolery.



In any case, there were a few magnetic poles we past through in Subrosia that you all may have remembered seeing. Might as well pull out that new gadget of ours and take it for a test drive, no?



Two of the magnetic poles in the area brings us to a pair of differently coloured ores. I'm guessing the red and blue colouring is to indicate their magnetic chare? In any case, how interesting! However, they don't have much value to us right now as-is - after all, what use could we have for regular, ol' junk ore?

(We also pick up a ring in the dirt patch to the south, but that's neither here nor there.)



Of course, we could always melt them together to form one super-ore* if we wanted to. And with the guys at the furnace still waiting for us to follow up on that favour they promised us, we might as well take them up on their offer shouldn't we?

*Note: metallurgy doesn't really work like that.



Ore-smelting is a bit of a lengthy process, so the Subrosians decide to pass their time in the only way they know how: through the power of dance. They're pretty good at it too - I wonder if they practice down at the dance studio in their spare time?



Well, anyway. Our ore's done and it's smoking hot. But we still can't do anything with it yet, outside of clubbing monsters with it in hand. (and even then, we could always shark in the Fool's Ore for that purpose.)

If you thought that you have to forge it into something else, pat yourself on the back and give yourself a cigar because you're exactly right. Who knew you had to use ore at a blacksmith's, of all places? The world may never know.



However, in a strange twist it's not for our sword, but our shield that will get forged into something else. Our shield... made of wood. Maybe it's best not to think on this too hard - the important point is that we can turn our drab shield into something fab for no extra cost! There's only one question we have to answer: do we tell him to make it fine, or let him do whatever?



Why, do whatever, naturally. A master bows to no man's whim, and it's being done as a favour! Who are we to argue with him over the details?



Unlike the guys back at the furnace, the master manages to finish the job in a single cutaway, netting us the Iron Shield! I'm... not exactly what the Iron Shield does better than the Wooden one (blocks fireballs, perhaps?), but that old, rotting thing could have used an upgrade anyway.



Once we drop out of Subrosia, Maple drops by for her weekly clash and we pick up another Magic Potion to replace the one we lost from before. Score!

Now that we've gotten that shield business out of the way, we might as well drop by on our old haunts. Note that the Iron Shield that we just had custom-made will start appearing in shops from now on. I'm guessing the Master also deals in selling his wares to other shops, or is it just another cheap knock-off like that Rolez watch I bought the other day?



We also manage to pick up some pretty sweet swag from our Gasha Trees during the interim. 200 Rupees? The second time this playthrough? Oh my.



Anyway, now that that's over with, we might as well go collect... whatever that sparkly thing on the map is. It appeared roughly when we bought that treasure Map from the Town Shop and the other three sparkly thingees turned out to be Jewels. I'm sensing a pattern here.



Ooh, hey, a cave with a chest in it. And it's a ring! Nice.



Sorry, no backtracking this time. A short swim later, and we drop by yet another hermit buried away in the scenery, and he looks just like all of others. Either he's related, or they're all part of some sort of guild somehow, but either way he sees the five essences we've picked up so far and practically throws the last jewel at us.



Well, that's all of them I suppose. Guess we should move on with it then?



Right, let's go then. The Maku Tree mentioned Link being in a large ruin, and this place fits the bill perfectly.

A bit of a forward-thinker, that Shopkeeper is. I wonder if he went to that other Oracle for advice?



Judging by those indentations in the wall and a little bit of trial-and-error, it turns out those jewels we got earlier fit perfectly and the mechanism in the walls churn to life to pull the gates open. ...You know, this seems a little bit too perfect, if you ask me. How is it that the Shopkeeper knew that we would be passing through here at some point? And why was it that the Treasure Map he had turned out to conveniently have marked on it the locations of the keys to the gate here? Inquiring minds would like to know, but alas, we never will.

Well, the area's got nice music, at least - probably one of my three favourite tunes in the game easily.



Anyway! So. The Tarm Ruins, essentially, boil down to being one giant environmental puzzle, where shifting the seasons around is key to making your way forward. For instance, pushing this statue here activates the release for the staircase on the wall, which in turn can be reached during winter when the snowbanks pile up.



The next section afterwards also contains a little bit of seasonal tomfoolery. Push the statues onto the ice and they'll fall in and form a bridge across the rocky wall inside to cross.



And the mushrooms... well, you probably already know the answer to that at this point.



Burning a rather conspicuously-placed bush reveals yet another entranceway into the earth, though this time it's home to a Deku Scrub instead of a grumpy hermit. One with a fine taste in music, might I add.



All right, let's rock this joint.

In appreciation for our excellent taste, the scrub tells us the path to his secret grove. Note that the directions remain the same every single time you play the game, so if you wanted to you could skip the entire Goddamn trading sequence and pick up the special item there.

No, no, I'm not bitter.



Since seasonal weather tends to vary greatly across the planet (as it rightfully should), it bears mentioning that the order of warming temperatures is Winter -> Autumn -> Spring -> Summer. Y'know, just because.



Could it be...?



Dun dun dun dun dun... da... DA.... DA...-

Oops, sorry. Wrong game.



Anyway, thanks to the Deku Scrub's help we pick up the second Sword upgrade, the Noble Sword! With it, we can deal twice as much damage as before and can even shoot our sword with power when we're full of heart. Talk about a sweet deal, eh?



Shortly after heading back into the forest to the east, our custom Iron Shield gets eaten by a Goddamn Like-Like. Fuuuuccckk

Well, we've spent too much working our way through this maze to give up now. Onwards!

...I, uh, don't actually remember where you're supposed to hear the hint for the puzzle, but the solution is the same as before, albeit a little different - head counterclockwise through the forest in the order of warming seasons like before, starting west and ending north.



Watch out for those statues - I hear they can leave a pretty nasty bite.



Thank God, a seed tree. Time to head back to Horon Village for a replacement shield. Just gotta change the seasons to pick up the seeds...



...and away we go.



Along the way, we bump into Maple again and this time she drops her sole Piece of Heart! It's nice that we lucked into this right away - lord only knows how long it's taken me in the past. We also manage to snag a ring from her from the deal, and speaking of which Vasu's right here to do it for us too.



...Eh, I'm none too thrilled. The Fist Ring let's us punch for a small amount of damage, but otherwise it's more of a novelty than anything, and the Octo Ring isn't good for, well, anything. As for the final ring, The Maple Ring would have come in handy if we hadn't just picked up her Piece of Heart, but as it is we won't really need it at this point outside of easy Magic Potion refills and extra rings.



I also stop by the Horon Shop to pick up another Iron Shield. Man, why did that Like-Like gotta do a thing?

Anyway, we're back. That bush in the corer seems like it's hiding something, and burning it reveals a Gasha Seed. That should help us out with that final Piece of Heart later on.



Heading north, we reach another stairway upwards that needs to be reached by snowbank. You have to wonder how the ancients got around their own dungeon when it's design hinges on only being able to climb it 3-4 months a year.



But who cares when we've pushed open a shortcut involving another gimmick during another, completely separate set of months/year. Convenient!



Hello, what do we have here?



Oh, fuck you. I just earned those 200 rupees, you prick! Bah, just be lucky Link doesn't gut you in return for that.



Just outside the entrance to the dungeon (finally!), we run into a mysterious witch with an equally-forboding message.

That... doesn't sound good. That doesn't sound good at all. Wait, now that we know, couldn't we now find a way to stop it from happening? Or did they maybe tell us that so we would try to prevent it, thus in a way resulting in its fruition? Or maybe they know that we know that, and thus are trying to psych us out by telling us the plan so their other plan would work, but then again...

...my head hurts.



Well, no sense in worrying about it for now. We've got a country to save afterall, so onward ho, to the Ancient Ruins!



A large part of the dungeon revolves around the spinner in the center of the first floor, pictured here. Most of the rooms rotate around each other but only in one way, so learning the layout of the ruins and manipulating the spinner's ever-shifting path is key to making it through this point. For now, we'll have to head east so let's step onto it as-is now.



Ugh, why did it have to be snakes?



A little bit in, we manage to pick up 5 rupees from a nearby chest. Well, if it'll help pay off that debt from those hermits...

Anyway, not before long, we loop back to the spinner and head west this time.



As you've probably already seen so far, the dungeon's practically crawling with Gibdos and we'll have to kill many of them before the level's out. The big danger with dealing with them is that they don't stun when you hit them, which often results in them charging towards you while you're desperately swinging away.

Interestingly enough, if you launch an Ember Seed at them they'll turn into Stalfos instead, though whether you'd want to deal with hyper-athletic skeletons or unrelenting mummies is more a matter of taste than anything.



There's a chest in the room off on the far wall, which we reach by heading south and climbing the stairs there. Inside is the dungeon map, which we probably won't need but is nice to have anyway just-in-case.



Heading further in leads us to a room with another polarized iron ball as well as a few hardhat beetles and sparks. Draggin the iron ball across the room and dropping it on the switch nets us a small key.



Hey, 10 rupees.



Jumping over the myriad blade traps and hitting the switch brings us to this room on the right here. We can't do anything here just yet, so let's leave it along for now.



Heading south past the dungeon map loops us all the way back to the beginning again.

With the path west now open, we can now make our way to the north.



And with a little magnetic magic, we can head upstairs.



Hate this room so much.



Looks like that shield came in handy after all. Anyway, with the beetles dealt with, we grab the key and get the hell out of there.



This time, we backtrack a bit and head for the locked door to the east of the spinner.



Oh God, the Beamos Statues are back and in a room with moving platforms too. HATE HATE HATE

We grab a compass from it, but still. HATE



With that all done, we hit the switch nearby and dash for the upstairs.

Where there's bombs, there's a weak wall nearby. I know I shouldn't think about it, but...



Well, anyway. Heading south leads us to another chest in the middle of an empty room, but watch out, it's a trap!



A little further in from there and we spot a trampoline. Up, up, and away we go!



After that, it's only a short walk east...



...and we find the dungeon item, the Magical Boomerang!



How do you improve upon a boomerang, you ask? Improve the range, make it remote control, and let people go crazy with it. By holding down A, you can control the boomerang's path and guide it around the room, collecting valuables and stunning monsters that winds up in its path. There are limits to it, of course - since it curves, it tends to underperform in cramped spaces, and can't connect with multiple objects - but that simple element of control makes it one of my favourite items in the entire series.

Anyway, with the boomerang in hand, it's time we backtrack and pick up a few things we missed.



First things first, we head back to the room we saw before and give our new boomerang a whirl. Hitting the switch lets us head further in.



You can't tell by the picture here, but the blade traps are circling through the room incredibly fast, enough that you'll take a few hits trying to work out where they're going at first. Annoying, but what are ya gonna do.



I hate snakes.



Dodging a few arrows shot from the wall, we make our way to the second of the Magical Boomerang's switches thus far.



Our Magic Potion kicks in at some point, refilling our hearts to full yet again while we make our way to the other side. I, uh, was having a bit of a bad day. :/



O-oh... oh God...

This section here is, single-handedly, the worst section in the entire game. Taking the rupee pictured on the left (which won't even be added to our wallet), the rooms will begin to close in on our intrepid hero as we circle our way through the room and around the various obstacles along the way. This, of course, is easier said than done, and downing a Pegasus Seed is pretty much the only reliable way to make it through. Worst part? I'm pretty sure it's an automatic Game Over if you don't make it through in time. So, yeah. Fuck this room.



At least we get the Boss Key out of the experience.

What's this? A staircase back where we came? A little... unintuitive, but it'll do, I suppose.



Huh, must've missed something along the way. Backtrack!



Thankfully, we end up picking it up while making our way through the third floor.



We also passed up a room on the first floor, too. Hrm...



Jackpot. That should about cover our money problems.



Anyway, with that done, let's head further in.



Introducing Vire, another carry-over from Link's Awakening and the original game. However, back then he was merely yet another monster with no personality to speak of - now that he's in Onox's (and, later, Veran's) services, he's taken on a little bit more character development with the role. But not much, really.

Vire's a bit of an asshole, as far as text is concerned. The jerkass keeps bleeding his lines into the next text box, making screencapping his dialogue a bit of a nightmare to par down.



Oh yeah? Bring it.



Vire's entire strategy relies on keeping himself out of range while he pelts at you from afar with fireballs and the like, making fighting him annoying. To say the least. He tends to leave himself open from time to time when he does though, so at least you can still hit him.

Bully!



After a while, Vire gets desperate and splits himself into two smaller Keese. Both of which are easily killed, mind you.

Yeah, I don't know where he was going with that either.



At this point, he sees that he's lost and, like any self-respecting henchmen, gets the fuck out of there ASAP. I guess that's the last we'll see of him!



The next few rooms could be described as a trapsetter's wet dream, to put it nicely. The latter-most one is probably the most devious, since the switch that drops the Ropes changes each time you press it, and there's no indication of which one's the right one.



Since we've mostly dealt with hardhat beetles by shoving them into pits, this room may confuse you for a while. But don't worry, there's no glitch - just drag the nearby iron ball and shove it into the beetle repeatedly to kill it.



Another switch puzzle, this time involving hitting all three. Thankfully they don't time out, so just take 'em out one at a time.

And here we are, the last room of the dungeon. Using the trampoline on the bottom floor, we'll just leap up to the left side after a bit of trial-and-error and hit the switch, lowering a set of stairs to the other side.



One jump down later, and we're before the next boss. Introducing Manhandla, the boss of the Ancient Ruins.



Manhandla is a bit... unique, as far as bosses have gone so far. Hitting him with the sword results in Link being shocked back, and the only way to damage the four mouths is to nail them with the boomerang. This, of course, runs into several problems, such as the fact that Manhandla's moving all the while and the conveyor belt floor makes it hard to stand still. Even worse is that Manhandla is firing at you all the while, so you have to keep moving in order to dodge them. Quickly, this turns into a bit of a frantic fight as your doing your best to balance attacking and dodging at the same time.

Thankfully, things tend to ease up once you've taken out a few heads. While on one hand Manhandla begins to move faster when you've taken one off, on the other hand the loss of a head means one less source of fireballs to be gunning for you, making dodging overall less of a crapshoot. While on the surface it may appear as a source of cheap frustration, there's a bit more complexity at work to it that tends to mitigate it somewhat.



Once Manhandla's lost all of its heads, you're in the clear. Simply nail it with the Magical Boomerang a few more times and slice at its core, killing it once and for all.

Once outside on the roof, we find the sixth Essence of Nature, the Blowing Wind!



All in a day's work.



Why, that's just amazing, Maku Tree! Tell us more about it, in vivid detail.

With the Blowing Wind in hand, the Maku Tree tells us to go looking for a pirate ship of some sort. Pfft, yeah, like we'll find that out here in the boonies. Right.



Next time: The Explorer's Crypt and the Seed of Life!

Couldn't Link just, uh, manufacture the seed of life himself?

Actually, if you save before going to one of her screens, you can reset if you don't get the heart. It can still be annoyingly random, but better than fighting 15-30 enemies between appearances.

I dislike the Moblin King, because he marks the point in the series where Moblins in general transformed from anthropomorphic bulldogs to anthropomorphic pigs, and I found the former more unique.

The Owl in Link's Awakening, "Kaepora Gaebora"? He's just the Owl.

The Magical Boomerang would be a good item if it were more maneuverable. As it is, I find it blunders into walls more than it actually functions as intended.

I kind of like the room with the crushing wall in the Ancient Ruins. It fits the setting, and while it's dangerous enough to create urgency, I don't think I've ever actually died by it.

Well damn, you're right. I thought he had the name but it never got mentioned in-game, but it turns out he really is just "the owl". Stupid OoT, messing with my head like that.

See, I thought it might be that, but the way the old hermit words it in this game is a bit weird:



Written like that, it's vague enough that it could have just been a coincidence for all I knew (especially since the Eye of Skull in the original referred to the dungeon's map rather than a specific room) and it only really became obvious once you reached the room in question, so I just let it lie instead of bringing it up. In hindsight, it turns out I was probably wrong, but them's the breaks, I guess.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates recently, everyone. I'll try and aim for one more sometime tonight, and hopefully the daily pace will resume from there.

I thought that was retconned to be K.G.? Or maybe that's just insane fanboy ramblings I picked up on a Zelda fan site (much like a rash).

Welcome back everyone, sorry for the delay. Last time, we infiltrated an ancient ruin, found a nifty toy and proceeded to beat a four-headed flower-slime... thing to death with it. With the Blowing Wind in hand, the Maku Tree has told us we're to go look for some crypts and graves to rob.

But first: obligatory pre-dungeon checklist time!



Hey look, it's Maple. It seems she's gone and upgraded her broom to a new vacuum with the money that's changed hands all of the times we've run into each other. It was built to be stronger, faster, better in every way and the fact that it sucks up items faster proves it.

Of course, we win anyway. Go team!



I won't lie to you - the Gasha Seed Piece of Heart is a royal son of a bitch to find, and stumbling onto it is purely a matter of luck. I'm not even sure what affects the appearance of it, to be honest; some people say that the soil patch's location affects it, but often I've found the Piece of Heart in easy-to-find locations. It's a mystery.



Anyway, might as well take those rings in to be appraised. Oh look, we've already got them! How annoying.



Elsewhere in the village, it seems little Lupin's come down with a cold and they lackk the funds for a check-up. Curse this ineffective health care system!

We'll... we're loaded with rupees so let's help the little tyke out.



Bah... take as much as you need. Really, I don't mind.



Please, really. Don't mention it.

Our last stop for now is by Syrup's shop back in the Sunken City. Our Magic Potion ran out last time so we'll want to have a replacement just in case.



Anyway, with that done it's time to head on. It seems like someone's dug a way down underground in Horon Village, so let's investigate.



What's this? A portal to Subrosia, hidden away right under our noses? How devious! But that's nothing a little Magic Boomerang-ing can't fix.



The portal drops us off outside a house in the southern end of the underworld right beside a... skeleton pirate. Hmm, curious.



Seems like the true owner of the house is a bit frazzled by his unwelcome guests. Let's see what's holding them up, shall we?



A bell? If that's all you're looking for, I could probably find it for ya. It's not like I've got any other leads at the moment, so consider it on the house.



Yep, you heard me.

You've got good eyes. I won't let you down, Cap'n!



Might as well learn the "secret" password before we go. For those following along at home: 3(2), 2(1), 1(2), 4(3). What is it for, you ask?





Contrary to common belief, Subrosians are also pretty mortal too! And... they bury their dead in graves shaped like galleons? Wait, what?



Oh, this must be the ship that Cap'n crashed. I knew that.



Anyway, where there's sand, there's the beach. As such, it's time we head back to the overworld and go looking in some sandy dunes for a pirate bell.



The guard keeping watch at the site is ecstatic at our arrival and leaves the work to us once we give him the word. This shouldn't be too difficult to pull off.

Right-o, the password's in and the door's open. Let's roll.



The desert section here is lousy with sandtraps and leevers, which makes it one of the more annoying sections of the game. However, we'll have to search all around here to find Cap'n's bell so let's just suck it up and get it over with quickly.



Further in near the center, we find the other end of the ship. ...Hrm. There's something wrong with this picture, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe someone could elucidate it for me?



Anyway, so. Inside we find one of Cap'n's crewmembers, flickering in and out of view after he died (again?) and became a ghost. It seems he can't seem to move on into the afterlife unless we find that bell. Well, might as well, right? His skull's rolling around in the desert somewhere, so let's go pick it up and find that bell finally.



Note that if you want to take a shortcut back to Subrosia, you can just push that block in the center and climb the stairs. No, really, that's all it takes.



Before we move on, we jump down in this suspicious-looking sandtrap here, finding an underground passage full of water. Swimming through it brings us to a chest containing another magic ring for us to appraise; here's hoping it isn't as shitty as all of the others we've been finding so far.



Right by the oasis we find Red's Skull. With the bracelet in hand, we pick him up and use him to track the bell's location.

This is roughly where the desert shifts from "slightly annoying" to "hate so much" territory. As long as you're holding onto the skull, you're left wide open to attacks from the infinitely-respawning levers that infest the place. This wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the numerous sandtraps littering the place for the skull to fall into. Oh, and he vanishes if he gets thrown out of range of the screen, which is bound to happen as you make your way through the place. So, yeah. At least it's short, but...



Anyway, not soon after that we find the bell! Dun-dada-dun!



It's awful rusty though. I'm not sure he'll like to see it like this.



Before we can ask him for tips on how to polish this baby up, red skull takes off for the afterlife and leaves us in the lurch. Thanks for nothing, jerk!



Oh well, let's take the bell to him anyway, see if he'll accept it.

Fingers crossed, everyone...



Damn. And after all the "bell" we went through to get it, too!



Fine, fine... Jerkass.



Well, off to the Subrosian Smithy to get it polished.



He's not only going to polish it, but he's going to do it now. We've already wasted enough time on this charade as it is.