Rounded off my revisit marathon of the old isometric Zelda games with a linked playthrough of the two Oracle games on the Gameboy Color. As with Link's Awakening, I just bought them on the Japanese 3DS eShop, as it was the cheapest and easiest way to play them for me (and I'd never gotten a chance to play through them in Japanese before, so this was a very neat way to do that~). Ages took me just under 13 hours to get through, and Seasons took me just a hair over 10 hours. I didn't do alll the content in both (and made no dedicated effort to collect rings in either), but I did do most of the heart pieces and the trading sequence in each. They're games which were released as a pair, and even have content that can only be accessed by using a code at the end of one at the start of the other. All of my praises and comments of one are really directly linked to the other in many ways, and the way they were developed side-by-side as well just made it make more sense to me to do a combo-review for them both instead of just constantly referring back and forth to each of them in two separate reviews to make all the same points twice XD.

The first thing I'll comment on is the original translation of the games. Other than some super minor things like General Onox being named General Gorgon in this version, the translation is pretty hard to find differences in compared to the English version. Nowhere is there something nearly as blatantly obvious on a visual level as Link's Awakening's changing of you returning the mermaid's bikini top to her (instead of her necklace as it is in the English version). However, the one REALLY painfully obvious bit that was changed for the English version is the ring-shop owner. The Oracle games have a ring-system that is basically just passives that Link can equip several at a time at the ring shop after having them identified. In the English version, the ring shop owner is just a bit of an eccentric guy who loves rings and sharing them with people. In the Japanese original, however, the ring shop owner is a pretty damn offensive gay stereotype who hits on Link in like every conversation they have together (he even gives Link the ability to use rings because he says Link is "his type"). '~' to emphasis syllables being said lyrically and hearts punctuate his speech constantly, and I'm just glad he's a pretty easily ignored part of the game, because it's honestly a pretty terrible portrayal that has NOT aged well (although is hardly a rare sight in Japanese media from back then, unfortunately). Like, at least he isn't a villainous character, but using "they're queer" as shorthand for eccentricity is just such appallingly lazy writing on top of the offensive trope that I really can not let it go unmentioned here in good conscience. And while I can let Nintendo themselves slide on this one, as Flagship wrote the scenario for this instead of them, main villains like Yuga and Girahim in more recent Nintendo-written and developed Nintendo games show that they still aren't afraid to use queer-coding to denote eccentricity :/

Pivoting to their design, both games take a lot of graphical assets, like a LOT, from Link's Awakening, and both play pretty similarly to that game. There has clearly been some engine work done on more subtle mechanical levels (for example, picking up pots with the power bracelet takes ever so slightly longer), as well as more directly and immediately noticeable ones (like how you need to be moving forward to throw a bomb/pot in front of you, and not just drop it on top of yourself). Other than that, though, the way the game plays should be immediately recognizable to any who has spent any length of time with Link's Awakening, even down to how you can still reassign any item you have to either the A or B button.

The main difference that is most immediately obvious is how much this game has improved its signposting compared to Link's Awakening. You just about always have a character whom you can go back to talk to for a hint about where to go next, and they always hit you up with a quick, mandatory cutscene not only after dungeons but after key plot developments to give you a kick in the right direction. Knowing where to go next and how to do it is FAR less of a problem in the Oracle games than in Link's Awakening, and it makes getting from point A to point B in each game a much easier affair.

These games have an interesting history that really shows in their final presentation. Originally intended to be SIX games developed by Capcom for Nintendo, two of which being remakes of the first two NES Zelda games, that was soon scaled back to three new games that would be interconnected, and then again scaled back to two. This can be seen not just in how Seasons has many dungeon bosses that are straight-out of Zelda 1 (likely assets finished before the decision was made to scrap that remake idea) to how similar the sub-items in each game are to one another.

However, the other thing I really noticed that made sense with this history is just how much Oracle of Seasons feels like the "first great idea" for the interlinked-game premise, and Oracle of Ages feels like the "good enough supplementary idea". Oracle of Seasons is superior in so many ways to Oracle of Ages, mostly on account of each game's respective gimmick, that is makes Oracle of Ages look a lot worse quality-wise when the direct comparison is forced due to their connected nature.

Seasons' gimmick is a rod that lets you change seasons by standing atop stumps you can find throughout the game. A mechanic that Minish Cap would later almost directly copy with how you can only shrink on top of certain stump (or stump-like objects). You change the seasons depending on what season-spirits you have, and it's an animation that takes roughly a second and a half. The world around you will change depending on the season (snow piling up to make new platforms in winter, leaves covering up pits in fall, water drying up in summer, flowers blooming in spring) and can allow you to access new areas because of it. It works really well, and even though you need to find the stumps to progress are easy to find as the world map is telegraphed very naturally to lead you where to go next. The game has lots of effectively micro-areas that are explored on their own and lead to the next dungeon, and it gives the game a very nice flow that is reminiscent of how quick the pacing was in something like LTTP.

Ages' gimmick is a harp that allows you to change time periods between the present and a hundred years in the past. This is done first through special spots on the map where you can activate a time portal, but you eventually get the ability to do it anywhere in either time period. However, you need to do this a LOT, and the animation for changing time period genuinely takes like 10 seconds, and it's not loading times or anything. It's just a luxury animation that takes that long to do. This means, especially later in the game when you're trying to find out just where to go next, the trial and error to find those places takes FAR longer than in Seasons' where the season changing is so quick. The methods of design necessitated by these gimmicks is where the steep shift in quality between them originates from.

Originally, there were going to be the three games, one for each part of the Triforce: power, wisdom, and courage. Courage (and the intriguing concept of it being based around a color gimmick, not unlike Link's Awakening DX's color dungeon) was scrapped and Power became Oracle of Seasons and wisdom became Oracle of Ages. This means that, as a deliberate focus of the design, Seasons has a bigger focus on combat, and Ages has a bigger focus on puzzle solving. But this extends further than just a marketing platitude.

Ages' focus on not just puzzle solving but time travel means that it has a MUCH larger focus on narrative than either of the other GBC Zelda games, as the causality-focused time travel game mechanic is inseparably linked to the game's narrative. The evil Priestess Veran is constantly coming back up in the story with a new scheme to alter time in her favor usually involving the titular Oracle of Ages, Nayru. By comparison General Onox (aka General Gorgon in the Japanese version) and the Oracle of Seasons he kidnaps, Dinn, are so rarely even mentioned, let alone present, in Seasons' narrative it can be easy to forget they're even there.

But this has the knock-on effect that Ages is a much more frustrating and rigid game to get through, as many more NPC-related sidequests are required to get from dungeon to dungeon as Link alters their fates through the time stream. This ends up slowing the game WAY down with a lot more dialogue (and time travel cutscenes), especially if you can't quite work out how to progress the plot. The signposting in these games is better than Link's Awakening, but it's still noticeably rougher in Ages than Seasons. Where the end of a mini-area in Seasons is often capped off with entering the dungeon for it, Ages is plagued with frequent back-tracking through an area and its NPCs to try and find the dialogue cue you missed that lets you get the next thing that will let you get into that dungeon in the first place.

Seasons still has puzzles, and good ones too. I found them more often far more intuitive than Ages, where I frequently had to look up online how to progress because I just wasn't getting what the game wanted from me. Ages' focus on puzzles for the sake of them really slows the whole game down, and can make its dungeons feel labyrinthine and kinda devoid of enemies because the puzzles are the focus. This makes Ages' dungeons feel like far more of a slog where progression is incremental and mechanical, like work, where Link's Awakening and Seasons' more mediated approaches to dungeon design give them far better pacing and makes the dungeons more fun. Sure, Seasons has a lot of bosses recycled from Zelda 1, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it as far as I'm concerned. Seasons' re-use in a GBC-style of Zelda 1 bosses (and one Link's Awakening boss as a mini-boss) gives it ultimately better boss fights than Ages, which often feel more like an afterthought (or a frustrating, poorly explained puzzle in and of themselves that require looking up how to even harm). Ages feels like its focus on puzzles comes at the expense of the rest of its design, where Seasons feels like a more balanced experience overall, and only has a more pronounced combat focus in comparison to Ages. As far as overall balance is concerned, Seasons feels like a much more natural successor to the pacing set forth in Link's Awakening than it does as a companion game to Oracle of Ages.

Ages' narrative is really nothing special either. It's the most dialogue-heavy of the handheld games for sure, but both Oracle games came out after both N64 titles (and each actually feature NPCs from each N64 game to boot). Ages narrative, the most noticeable and pronounced part of its design, does not do nearly enough legwork to make up for the overall quality lost in its mechanical and design aspects, and even then doesn't hold much of a candle to either N64 game's narrative.

Verdict:
Oracle of Seasons: Highly Recommended.
Oracle of Ages: Hesitantly Recommended.

Both Oracle games were designed around gimmicks, but where Seasons exceeds its status as a gimmick game and just feels like another good Zelda game, Ages feels bogged down by its gimmick every step of the way and never escapes feeling like a gimmick title. Oracle of Seasons feels like a natural progression of the good combat and dungeon design of Link's Awakening with better signposting to boot. Oracle of Ages, on the other hand, feels like a monument to compromise in many ways, and it consistently feels like a game that was put together to fit the theme rather than the other way around, and the quality suffered because of it. Oracle of Ages certainly isn't a bad game, but if you can only play one Oracle game, make it Seasons. Seasons has always been my favorite isometric 2D Zelda game, and this replay re-confirmed that for me. However, all my replay of Oracle of Ages did was cement it firmly at the bottom of the list of my favorite 2D isometric Zelda games.

The dungeons lack the finesse of other 2D Zelda games where there are a lot of dead ends that only serve as rooms for keys, forcing you to backtrack through the platforming rooms after obtaining the items on another end. In some cases it's actually quicker to save and quit so you respawn back at the entrance of a dungeon to get to where you need to go next.

The last dungeon, Sword and Shield Maze, contains one of the most annoying soundtracks in the series, which is made even more so by having the dungeon being one of the largest and longest as well.

Despite those issues, I had a good time with this game again.

Oracle of Seasons is a remarkable game for the 2D branch of the franchise. Of the pair of games released for the GBC, the focus of this one is towards a sense of adventure at its purest, setting simple puzzles to solve, but with sections focused on challenge and discovery, making it a highly enjoyable experience.

The novelty that distinguishes this title from the rest, is that here we will travel through a land in which the seasons have gone out of control, so that it can be winter, but from one moment to another can also be spring, summer or autumn, which is not only an aesthetic change for the map, for example, in winter there can be a mountain of snow or frozen rivers, which we can take advantage of to reach places that otherwise would be impossible to reach, but in summer for example, vines grow on some cliffs which allows us to climb them. It's an idea that although not as ambitious as the parallel worlds of A Link to the Past, it's still pretty cool for making exploration more entertaining and interesting, not to mention that exploring Holodrum in different climates/states of the year has its charm. I feel this in turn is also a creative way to expose the difference it makes to have color in a game versus not having it, as in the original GB a concept like this would have been somewhat impossible to execute just having the green/gray scale.

This game takes place in the kingdom of Holodrum, where Din lives, the oracle of the seasons, but after an event is kidnapped and thus the different seasons of the year lose control, so it will be our duty to get the 8 essences of nature of the 8 temples scattered around the kingdom to rescue Din.

The temples generally present a very good and creative design, almost always being quite intuitive for the player, mostly with simple puzzles, but that are still quite entertaining and will require from your part a little ingenuity to be solved, presenting this game also some pretty cool items that have become some of my favorites, such as the magnetic gloves. I especially like the fact how in this game hearts do matter, as unlike most Zelda games, the enemies and boss battles can be a bit challenging, not that it's a difficult game, but if you get overconfident you could end up seeing the Game Over screen on more than one occasion.

Something I love is that the exploration and discovery factor of the early Zelda games is very present in this title. It pays to be curious and attentive, as many times some puzzles or secrets are revealed when we go to a place with a certain season. There are a lot of references to the first Zelda game, like some of the temples, bosses or even some caves with old people inside that have strange dialogues and sometimes can be tremendous trolls, and curiously, there are also references and inspiration from games like Mega Man, which we can notice especially in those 2D platforming type sections. If you played Mega Man X, the final boss will look familiar.

Conclusion
It's certainly a game with a very good design and pacing, it never feels boring, and the mechanics of switching between seasons made the mere fact of exploring more engaging. If you're wondering where the inspiration from the Mega Man games and the references to the first game in the franchise came from, it's because this game was made by Capcom, and started out being developed as a remake of the first title, but then evolved into a completely different game, and in retrospect, I think it was for the best, as it has become one of my favorites.

Secret 1: backloggd.com/u/M----------------

→ The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages - Review

So good. I know the limitations of the GBC can bother a lot while playing (only 2 items at the same time) but the game still shines through!
Classic 2D zelda movement, combat and everything else, which is one of my favorite types of games.
Each season brings changes to the map and how you play/address the environment, which is refreshing. It was a joy to see each map in different season.
I gotta confess that some bosses gave me trouble until I found out how to beat them, and other, even after know what to do had me struggling.
Really, really liked this. Not the best 2D zelda but I had a great time playing it!
Now gotta start Ages with the secret obtained after finishing this one.

Link is pulled into some void after visiting or discovering the Triforce, he awakens in a new world where Din the Oracle of Seasons is suddenly abducted by Onox. Use the Season Rod to navigate the overworld by changing seasons, for example water is frozen in Winter and can be walked over.

It’s a decent take on contemporary Zelda of the time mixed with classic 8-Bit Zelda, the dungeons start a little plain like the original on NES and gradually shifts towards LttP quality dungeons but smaller, with some more contemporary Zelda designs - for example the stealth mini-game.

Of the two, I’ve been told this one is more action orientated which Ages sight unseen is probably true, the last dungeon is an absolute pain and Onox is a well designed final boss for 8-Bit hardware.

I said it once, and I’ll say it again. Forget collecting all of the rings and heart pieces. They’re simply not worth the time sink necessary for the task.

I’m onto Ages, the two can be linked to finish off the established storyline in either game… I wonder who the true villain is?

Beating every Zelda in timeline order 14/20:

A few months ago, I beat Oracle of Seasons for the first time, and it kicked my ass. Maybe it's that I've played 13 other Zelda games before this and I was taking advantage of the linked game mechanics but it felt like a cakewalk this time around. I had a much better time with it the first go-around, but still found a lot to enjoy playing through it again as a linked game and completing the duology. I genuinely love how the two games interact and it makes for a unique experience playing the oracle games back to back. It makes for a really cool finale fight as well. I think I prefer Ages over Seasons but they're pretty similar in quality overall. Both have highs and lows, but Seasons feels a lot more even throughout, and as a result, a little more bland. None of the dungeons really stand out to me. I think an unfortunate symptom of playing the Oracle games back to back is that a lot of the dungeons from both games start to blend together into a gameboy dungeon soup. I couldn't tell you what item I found in the Dancing Dragon dungeon and I played that today. The rod of seasons is a good mechanic, but not as interesting as the time travel in Ages. Oh and the music in these games? Not good!

I like this game, but I find myself having very little to say about Oracle of Seasons when it comes down to it. I don't think it does anything particularly better or different than its counterpart or any other game in the Zelda franchise.

Started out really not liking it, combat and reflexes in gaming are really not my thing. There's also something about having such a big map, but having to load every screen, just makes it impossible to recognize it, so finding every dungeons is just incredibly hard and unintuitive. But the more I went on, the more I started liking it, the 3 last dungeons are amazing and honestly, I didnt expect to say it considering it I really like 3d zelda much more than 2d, but this has one of my fav final bosses of the franchise. Seeing as Ages is much more puzzle based and I'll be familiar with the engine, I'll really love it.

Note: This playthrough of Oracle of Seasons was played as the sequel to Oracle of Ages via the Linked Game feature

What strikes me most about Oracle of Seasons is how different the overall experience feels from Oracle of Ages. While both games in the duology were released on the same day in 2001 and look similar at a glance, Zelda fans of the era were treated to two unique adventures. A common refrain for these games is that Ages focuses on puzzles while Seasons focuses on combat. I personally find this view is a bit simplistic as dungeons in both games contain elements of puzzles and action. Rather, each of these games channel different modes of exploration that the Zelda series tends to draw from. And these modes of exploration can clearly be seen through the design of each game's overworld.

Oracle of Ages is a puzzle-led exploratory action game. The world of Labrynna is, as its name suggests, a labyrinth. It is confusing to navigate around and requires using your items to puzzle out the path to the next dungeon via the present and past timeline maps. There are specific routes and combinations of items that need to be used to navigate its world.

Oracle of Seasons is a discovery-led exploratory action game. While the overworld still gates specific areas until you get a specific item, you can explore much more of the overworld in a freeform manner. The map doesn't feel nearly as constrained in how you can navigate it. The featured item of the game, the Rod of Seasons, can manipulate how you traverse the overworld by changing the season while standing on a tree stump. This enables the discovery-led exploration. The flow of the game is such that you find a new area with a stump, manipulate the seasons, and explore the surrounding area to discover new changes in the overworld that will allow you to traverse forward. You are also encouraged to keep an eye out during exploration since secret caves, staircases, and portals can become available to you as the seasons change.

With an emphasis on discovery via exploration, Seasons specifically feels like a spiritual successor to the original Legend of Zelda on NES. Having just played the original Zelda, it was fun to spot all of the connections! The manner in which you navigate to Dungeon 1 and its appearance on the outside directly resembles Dungeon 1 in the original Zelda. Seasons also has a mechanic where you can burn bushes, bomb caves, and find other mysterious entrances to reveal old men that do a variety of things. Like in Zelda 1, these characters can steal your money, give you money, or other provide other fun secrets. Even some of the Zelda 1 dungeon bosses make a return!

The other notable feature of the Oracle games is the ability to link the games to each other to create a seamless story. After finishing Oracle of Ages, you are given a password that can be entered into Oracle of Seasons to continue the story. After doing this, Seasons will contain new plot events, a new endgame, and the ability to upgrade items by passing passwords you discover in Seasons back into Ages (and vice versa). Even after finishing Ages, I was constantly dipping back into it during my playthrough of Seasons to get secret items I could transfer back to Seasons. It sounds a bit confusing to type out but works well in practice. It's a cool system that makes these Zelda adventures feel like more than the sum of their parts.

Overall, I enjoyed the flow of Oracle of Ages slightly better than Seasons as my personal preferences for 2D Zelda slide towards puzzle-led exploration. I also connected more with Ages' world since it was a difficult experience to puzzle my way across it. But Oracle of Seasons is an excellent game in its own right and when linked with Ages, these two games provide an epic, handheld Zelda experience. The dungeons are excellent, the overworld exploration is satisfying, and the scenarios you come across are funny and memorable.

Favorite Music: I love the music in Oracle of Seasons so much more than Oracle of Ages. Playing Seasons puts into contrast what exactly I thought was missing in Ages. The town themes and dungeon themes are memorable and atmospheric. The songs below are all unique to Oracle of Seasons while my favorite songs in Oracle of Ages are shared between both games. That fact alone puts my feelings on both soundtracks into clearer focus.

Horon Village: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP5BC6rgFas&list=PLD7475F03564D42CA&index=9

Dancing with Din: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR8TCFjlfxM&list=PLD7475F03564D42CA&index=7

Dancing Dragon Dungeon (Level 4): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhGS79bPPCI&list=PLD7475F03564D42CA&index=21

Tarm Ruins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0EumkAeEAo&list=PLD7475F03564D42CA&index=4

Holy octorok (sorry), the Oracle series is amazing. I went into Seasons thinking it would be quite similar to Ages, but they are entirely two different games.

I played Seasons as a linked game with Ages, and the way these two games piece together is incredibly impressive even in 2024. They seamlessly work together to earn upgrades and complete side quests in a way I haven't experienced in gaming otherwise. I thought the password system was clever as heck, and it's so so satisfying to finally get that master sword after completing the two games. The dungeons and bosses in Seasons are very creative and rarely become tedious. The final boss sequence was also extremely gratifying and worth working your way through both of the games. if you haven't played Oracle of Seasons (and ages of course), these games are a piece of history, and they think WAY outside the box.

Also the ring system rules, I love punching things. thank you Capcom <3