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

I love pun-names.

So hard.

Man, I spent probably 15 minutes using the boomerang or jumping at that heart piece before I realized it wasn't real.

If you don't feel like swapping items throughout the whole battle with Frypolar and you're willing to trade some hits, you can just equip the Slingshot with Mystery Seeds, and the Power Bracelet. Use Mystery seeds on the ice sword thing to transform it, then you hit Frypolar with the seeds to change him to his fire form, and then you pickup and throw the ice thing at him.

You can also stun Medelock with Pegasus Seeds from the Slingshot to stop it for a second or so. I couldn't get it stuck in a corner on my playthrough, so the stun effect really helped me out.

Rosa's got such a swanky ribbon. I sent her a friend request on HySpace, but she never got back to me.

Also the Seed of Life is testicles

That sounds a little too inconvenient for me, to be honest. Frypolar already moves fast enough as it is and the Power Bracelet makes you a very easy target, so generally I find it's a bit easier to just use the Hyper Slingshot and be done with it, even if it gets annoying after a while.

Using Pegasus Seeds against Medelock, however, makes a little bit more sense. The options boil down to moving in or stunning him, and either way works really. I tend to prefer the latter though, since the fight tends to end faster that way.

>



And so, welcome back. Last we left off, we, uh... hold on a second.



Dude, do you mind?



Anyway! So. Last time, we visited the bipolar Sword & Shield Maze, picked up the largely-superfluous Hyper Slingshot, and collected the eighth and final Essence of Nature. With all of that done and taken care of, the Maku Tree told us to drop by his home back in Horon Village so he can give us something helpful.



Immediately after landing back in Horon Village via Gale Seed, we bump into Maple pretty much right away. She's got nothing really of interest, however.



Afterwards, we drop by Vasu and get out Rings appraised once again. We've already got a copy of Maple's Ring (Maple encounters ^) so it gets sold, but the Steadfast Ring is a welcome addition to our collection. It lowers the knockback of attacks from larger enemies, which comes in handy on occasion.



And, of course, it's time once again for the daily Gasha Seed harvest. Since this is the last episode of Oracle of Seasons and the last one before the Final Boss, it's time we hunker down, planted some seeds, and seriously went about picking up that last heart piece. This might take a while, since the entire thing's random, but might as well give it a shot, right?



Initially, things don't start off very well...



...and trying again right away afterwards doesn't work out, either. Darn. Well, so much for that plan.

We drop by the Town Shop to purchase the last Gasha Seed there for a cool 500 rupees, in order to replenish our emptied stock.



We plant it, wait for it to grow...



And begin savescumming in order to force the game into giving it up. This shouldn't take too wrong, right? Right?



...

If I told you that I spend 31/2 hours attempting this on 3x speed and nothing - nothing - came up, would you believe me? *sigh*



At least we got a few rings out of it. The Quicksand Ring (prevents falling in quicksand) and Red Joy Ring (doubles rupees earned) are only situationally useful, but not so much that you'll almost never end up using them like, say, the Holy and Luck rings. The latter should come in handy later on in this very chapter, in fact...

On another note, the Maku Tree wanted to give us something, didn't he? To the Maku Tree's Grove!



Yep, we sure did. Good times, good times.



In reward for this, he gives us his, er, seed. Which should help "penetrate" evil forces, according to its description.

...I'm not saying nothin'.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away...



Um... sure? That's not what I heard, but whatever floats your boat. As long as it distracts me from the fact that the Maku Tree just handed me his "seed".



Anyway... dropping by the Town Shop's Members section reveals that he's converted the place into a chest minigame. After we pay, he presents to us a pair of chests, and we have to guess which one contains the huge rupee. If we guess correctly, we're given the chance to double up again and again, improving the quality of the item we get from the chest. Of course, since we have to open the chest up to four times to get the best item, that leaves the odds of getting all four in one go at around 6.25%, which is... bad.



However, this being an emulator there's nothing to stop us from "cheating". Heh heh heh...



All four levels of prizes consist of rings, so there's no large incentive to really bother with playing the game multiple times. Thankfully we luck into a good gift right away - this Gasha Seed we've won here is perfect for what we'll need, as it'll double the speed at which Gasha Trees grow!



Just to test things out, I plant a seed I bought from Syrups soon after and kill off a few enemies to help it grow. We only get rupees as a prize, but I think that'll do just fine.

Now that we've got the Gasha Seed and a great deal of time on our hands, it's time we realy begin some hardcore Gasha Seed planting. Buying one last Gasha Seed with the money we've got, we plant it and begin our search for rupees and glory and search out for all fifteen dirt patches across Holodrum.

(Oh yes, that's right. One more thing: since I'm emulating this, I decided to bring the Fool's Ore out of mothballs and give it a test drive for today's installment to see if it holds up to my memory of its use. It, in fact, does; the Fool's Ore takes these Lynels here out in a single hit, where it would normally take the Noble's Sword two-to-three hits. And it's not just them, either - Like Likes, Gibdos, Darknuts... you name it, it can OHKO it. A shame they took it out once you got the Roc's Feather back, but eh.)



This is gonna take a while...



Yep.



Oh hey, it's a Gasha Tree I planted earlier. Since I'm already collecting all of the seeds I can, I might as well cut this one down and replace it. Taking the seed nets us (surprise, surprise) yet another Magic Ring.



And it's back to finding the dirt patches again... I think I'll spare you the monotony of the process and skip right to the conclusion, but needless to say it took me hours to finish digging up enough money to buy the seeds necessary for this. So, yeah. Figured out why this particular Piece of Heart is a pain in the ass yet?

Oh, I don't fucking believe this. First seed we cut down - the very first - and we grab the PoH on the first try. After hours of savescumming, rupee hunting and Gasha Seed planting in order to try and tip the odds in our favour, and the damn thing just drops into our lap right away. Long story short, this Piece of Heart's drop is completely and utterly random, and odds are this is going to happen to you almost every time, no matter what you do. Fuck you, Capcom. Seriously, fuck. You.

Might as well show the rest of the seeds I guess...






That's a whole lotta rings there... guess we'll have to appraise these too, huh? God, kill me now. For those curious, the locations from top to bottom, left to right:

01] Tarm Ruins
02] Sunken City
03] Temple Remains
04] Mt. Cucco
05] Northern Peak
06] Holodrum Plain
07] Holodrum Plain
08] North Horon
09] Horon Village
10] Woods of Winter
11] Western Coast
12] Samasa Desert
13] Eyeglass Lake
14] Spool Swamp
15] Spool Swamp

Happy hunting!

Out of the eleven or so rings we've picked up, only these four are ones we haven't picked up yet (the rest were duplicates, some from these very four!). The First Gen Ring is another transformation ring, however this one is at least moderately interesting as it turns you into the Link from the original game. Nostalgic!

The other three consist of the Toss Ring (which increases the distance of thrown items), Bombproof Ring (prevents damage from your own bombs), and the almighty Protection Ring (sets all damage to one heart), all of which are great rings to have. The first two are good for reasons that should be obvious, helping to cut down on the risk for some of the more common things you'll have to pull off for the game, but that last ring? Well... It may look terrible at first glance, but the Final Bosses and Final, Final Boss of the linked sequel can and will do more than one heart of damage with some of their attacks (and the latter with all of them), and the Protection Ring prevents them from cutting through. So, yeah. Great rings, huh?



So... that's it. We've got all of the hearts, found all of the equipment, and have everything we'll need to survive whatever's left. We've got all of the Essences of Nature, and the Maku Tree has given us his blessing. The season is summer.



Let's rock.



Oh, right. That subplot's still around, isn't it?



You have got to be kidding me. Aren't you two centuries dead? And I mean really dead?



Yes, you want to summon Ganon back to wreck our shit. We get it. However, if you don't mind, we were kinda in the middle of something...?

Goddamn it, not you too, Maku. Give it a rest already!



Anyway, so. Ten updates later, and we're finally here and in the clear. Onox's castle is mostly a straight gauntlet to the final battle, with three straight rooms of combat that we'll have to cut through in order to reach Onox. We're stocked to the brim, however, so that's no longer an issue - it's time we put this baby to bed and go home.



(Of course, if you're ever finding yourself a little low on hearts, you could always stop by the room on the left and/or right to pick up a faerie to heal yourself with, but that comes with the caveat of having to dodge the floor tiles and we're already doing fairly well as it is.)



The first room is essentially pulled from OctoPrimes deepest, darkest nightmares, filled with seven Wizzrobes of all three kinds all shooting beams at you as they drift across the room. Nothing too bad if you've got the Noble Sword charged up, but it can still get a little close at times.



Room #2 seems like it was pulled directly from my nightmares this time, incorporating Darknuts and Wallmasters into the picture. The Darknuts aren't too big a deal, but the Wallmasters can send you back to the beginning, which is bad bad baddity-bad.



And the third room has, of course, Facade. He's a chump though, so ignore him.



This is the last room before the boss, so we might as well take the time to restock a bit...



Inside we find Din at long last, and Link runs out to try and free her. However, things aren't quite as they seem...



So we meet at last. Onox, General of Darkness, and the guy who got us into this mess.



He's a man of few words, admittedly.

Phase one of the fight is simple enough. Onox swings his Ball-and-Chain, we dodge and hit him with a Spin Attack. Nothing too difficult, really.



This, of course, changes after a while when Onox adds something new to the equation.



Halfway through, Onox pulls Din into the fight and uses her as a living shield against us. Hitting the crystal stuns and damages us, so we'll have to knock it away safely with the Rod of Seasons before moving in to attack. It's a little tricky, and it restricts how much we can attack, but otherwise it's still not a big deal.



Soon after, the floor begins to collapse and we fall to the room below...



Well now, this is new.



Onox, fed up with us messing things up, takes flight and transforms into his true form. Looks like the gloves are finally off.



Oh hell.

I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the fight against Onox plays out almost identically to that of Sigma's final form in Mega Man X. The gist of it is that we'll have to jump onto Onox's hands when he swings them down and let them carry us up to his face, after which we'll leap off of them and spin attack him right in the jewel on his forehead.



However, this isn't all fun and games as Onox has a few attacks of his own up his sleeve. The dark flame in particular is insidious - the blasts lock onto your position, so you'll have to keep moving in order to dodge them in time. However, they linger on the spot you left, so it's very possible you can find yourself locked into a position where you'll have to take a hit. Very annoying, indeed. The other attacks aren't too bad, since you're given enough notice to move into position and dodge, but it's still possible to take a hit from them regardless. Onox isn't messing around here - even going in with a full heart meter and a Magic Potion, the fight was down to the wire right to the very end. Don't let up and hit him with everything you've got to take the Dark Dragon down once and for all.



For me? Or rather, for you?



That Flame of Destruction again. What about it? Why do you and Twinrova keep mentioning it? Sheesh.



Well, that's the end of him. I guess that's it!



With that, Din drifts down from the room above and finally breaks free. Hooray!



And everything goes back to normal...

Good job, team! Now let's go home.



Of course, the plot insists on involving us in a little more adventure...



This vague-but-obvious foreshadowing is really getting on my nerves, you know that?



Bah.



And... roll credits!



Looks like everything's back to normal now. Hooray!



Oh, Maple. You really should watch where you're flying, you know?

Here's a pat on the back. For luck!



And, of course, the triforce symbol that got us into this mess in the first place. Ooh, shiny.



And that's it. Thanks for reading!



...not. We're only halfway-through, remember? We've still got that subplot with Twinrova to deal with, after all, and there's still another Oracle out there to save. So! Let's copy this password down and get ourselves ready for our journey into the sequel.



Next time: The Oracle of Ages and a whole new adventure!

I think Onox may be the boss who killed me the most between the two games.

I don't believe this is the case, actually. At least, I'm confident there's some deeply arcane variable that takes effect when you plant the seed, or depending on where you plant it, or something predetermined. That's why repeatedly save-scumming on the same tree always proves ineffective.

It could be that it's randomized from when you plant the seed, rather then when you harvest the nut.

This, I think. The piece is more likely to appear in the more out of the way soil locations from what I remember on the message boards of yore.

Yes?

Nope. From what I've read and heard, there are some variables that affect the chance of a seed dropping the Piece of Heart - the three most well-known ones being the location of the seed, the number of enemies slain since it was planted and the number of soil locations discovered - and Bippin even tells you as much when you talk to him over the course of the game*. However, the item in the seed is actually decided when the seed drops (which I found out when I tried the savescum attempt; even savestating and cutting it down resulted in different items if I approached the spot from a different number of quadrants), so luck still plays a very large part in receiving the Piece of Heart in the end.

*Which I stupidly forgot to screenshot for this LP. Go me.

But it's not total luck, or else you could get it by save-scumming.

This topic is dear to my heart, because I really wish you could get it by save-scumming. God knows how long I tried that tactic for both the Heart Piece and some of the rare rings, to no avail.

Fair enough. Still doesn't make it any less obtuse or infuriating, but I guess being able to mitigate the odds helps somewhat.

Honestly, though? I'm not even entirely sure that these tactics even work in helping to coax the last piece out of hiding. Sure, Bippin gives you a few of these hints, but the monsters thing could be taken to mean that it just makes them grow large enough to seed (which it does), and the others could just be to get you out and exploring for every soil patch. As far as I've looked into it, there hasn't really been much research into the mechanics to prove this, so the structure behind it could be anything for all I know. As they say, it's a mystery.

Though really, I wish savescumming worked too, so all those hours I spent didn't go to waste like that. Stupid Capcom, hiding the last piece under something like this.

At least it isn't kinstones. Stupid kinstones.

Onox's second form can be a real bitch, but I found that he's way easier once you start jumping from one hand to the other by using Pegasus Seeds. But he ain't got nothing on the first dungeon's boss in Ages. Seriously, that guy is such a huge pain in the ass.

Also, that Protection Ring sounds nice, but I don't think I've ever unequipped the Red Ring once I got it.

Sir, if you expect me to have particularly good reading comprehension at 5:30 AM, well... I'm afraid you'd be asking entirely too much of me.

Okay, so! Sorry for the delay, but welcome back. Now that we've polished off Oracle of Seasons in its entirety, and as sad as it is to see it go, it's time we move onto greener pastures and start up the second game, Oracle of Ages.

As you may have noticed by now, the Oracle games take a lot of their queues from older games in the series, essentially being love letters to the series itself. However, while Seasons tended to focus more on action and borrowed mostly from the 2D games (namely, the original Zelda and A Link to the Past), Ages is much more puzzle-focused than its sibling game and as such tends to lean towards the 3D entries in the series, most noticably Ocarina of Time. With this said, you'll probably notice a lot of references to said game over the course of the LP, so keep an eye out as we make our way through the second half of this adventure.



First off, in order to continue on from where Oracle of Seasons left off, we'll have to make use of the Secrets option mentioned at the very beginning of this Let's Play. By putting in the password we were given at the very end of the previous game, the game will pick off from after Onox's defeat and will begin the second half of the game's overarching storyline. So, without further ado... let's play!



Oh, hey, it's these two again. Considering how much the game was beating their plotline over our head in Seasons, I guess it's pretty obvious that they would be taking a larger role now. Still, when did Twinrova get so... generic? In Majora's Mask and even Ocarina of Time, they still had more personality than just being Zorn-and-Thorn expys and seeing them dumbed down like this is just awkward. Probably one of my biggest strikes against the two games, really.



Anyway, the gist of this scene here is that, with Onox's death, they're halfway there to bringing you-know-who back to life and only need one last thing before they can bring their plan into action. Namely, a sacrifice of someone who has yet to be revealed. But that... will have to wait until later.



For now, let's join Link as the Triforce yet again dumps him unceremoniously into another land, for reasons that have yet to be explained. At least this time Link has the good sense to land on his feet this time, saving us of too much repetition.



What's this, a cry for help? Looks like we'll be getting into the action sooner than we thought. Away!

Oh, it's just Impa being attacked by Octoroks. One flash of the Triforce is enough to drive them away, though if worst came to worst we could have just as easily, y'know, run away.



Come on now, Impa. Don't you remember Link? The guy who saved Hyrule and Holodrum? The holder of the sacred Triforce? The guy who specializes in monster slaying and dungeon crawling? Really now, if this doesn't raise any red flags, then I don't know what will.



There you go. Now do you remember? Good.



Considering that the last time we saw you, you were attempting to smuggle Din out of the country, I take it that this Nayru is another Oracle as well? Well, considering that catastrophe seems to follow them like a goldfish is followed by its own... you know... I guess we might as well tag along.



Couldn't you just move it yourself, Impa? I mean, Link's just a scrawny little boy while you're really... erm, big.



Fine, fine. I'll get right on it.

Ooh wait, there's a city nearby? Never mind the rock, let's go check that out first-



Oh fine. God, you're such a nag, you know that?



Bah.



So... I take it this is Nayru, then? Seems like she's got quite the audience here... how are we going to push our way through, I wonder?



Damn it, let me through already. We've got a job to do that's more important than your damn song!



That's not why we're...



...huh.

The who and the wazzit? ...Oh! Right. We're here to smuggle you into Hyrule, weren't we?



Introducing Nayru and Ralph, the two most important NPCs of Ages. The former is, of course, the Oracle of Ages and will be important for reasons that should be obvious, but Ralph, interestingly enough, takes a more active role than is expected of an NPC, helping us out like Sokra should of had in Seasons. He also has a larger role in the actual story as well, though I'll elaborate more on that as the LP progresses.



Unlike Din, it seems that Nayru's already aware of the evil at work around her. She's pretty bright, which I guess is to be expected from an oracle.



... You do realize that you're talking to the guy who's fought the unspeakable horrors of the Dark World and won, right Ralph?

Well, if you say so, then. But what evil are you talking about? I don't see anything like that around here...



...Impa? What's so funny? And now that you mention it, why are you so... blue?



Oh my, I think I know where this is going...



Aw geez, we've been had... again! First Agahnim, now... what's her name.



Right, sorry. Veran, the Sorceress of Shadows. But really, what could she possibly do to us now anyway? We've already kicked her pal Onox six ways to Sunday, for crying out loud.