After playing through Oracle of Ages and being less than impressed by it to put things kindly, I went into this game with a solid amount of caution, expecting to get burned again. Luckily, I am glad to say that I found this game for the most part more enjoyable than Ages. Rather than focus on puzzles and being obtuse like Ages did, this game makes things more streamlined and action-y which not only keeps the pace flowing constantly with little downtime, but also lessens the overall inventory nonsense that plagued Oracle of Ages. The sub-world is smaller and more interesting than the whole past-future nonsense done in Ages, with it instead being this goofy volcano world full of weirdo lookin cyclops dudes, and while season changing definitely got annoying for some parts it wasn't nearly as bad as the constant back-and-forth that you had to do with warping in Ages just to get places.
What kills this game for me is how there's a huge difficulty spike right at the very end, ESPECIALLY if you are playing off of a linked game like I did. The final bosses are aggravating damage sponges that practically require you to at least upgrade your sword once (something that I did not do as sword upgrades are tied to the trading quest for each game, something that is rather easy to overlook one aspect of and not finish the quest for.) The only other form of upgrades to make the last bits easier is to use a ring, though ring drops seem to be entirely RNG based which makes a ring grind screech this games pacing to a dead stop if you aren't lucky. I was lucky enough to get a ring that slowly restores health on my Ages playthrough to make the last bosses for that game manageable, but didn't have that kind of luck here. Regardless, I don't think the spike in difficulty at the end is warranted. The bonus final bosses with the linked game are even harder, as they expect you to have the strongest sword in the game as well as multitudes of rings and secrets unlocked (things that I unfortuately overlooked.)
Regardless, now that I've played through both Oracle games, I can't really say I can recommend either of em. If a game like Majoras Mask is a good example of a game reusing engines and assets to create something fresh and new at the fraction of the time and cost, these two games are the opposite. Not only do the Oracle games not really fix the problems that existed in Link's Awakening, they arguably make those problems worse and spread it across two playthroughs instead of one. Definitely my least favorite games in the series out of the ones I have played so far.
What kills this game for me is how there's a huge difficulty spike right at the very end, ESPECIALLY if you are playing off of a linked game like I did. The final bosses are aggravating damage sponges that practically require you to at least upgrade your sword once (something that I did not do as sword upgrades are tied to the trading quest for each game, something that is rather easy to overlook one aspect of and not finish the quest for.) The only other form of upgrades to make the last bits easier is to use a ring, though ring drops seem to be entirely RNG based which makes a ring grind screech this games pacing to a dead stop if you aren't lucky. I was lucky enough to get a ring that slowly restores health on my Ages playthrough to make the last bosses for that game manageable, but didn't have that kind of luck here. Regardless, I don't think the spike in difficulty at the end is warranted. The bonus final bosses with the linked game are even harder, as they expect you to have the strongest sword in the game as well as multitudes of rings and secrets unlocked (things that I unfortuately overlooked.)
Regardless, now that I've played through both Oracle games, I can't really say I can recommend either of em. If a game like Majoras Mask is a good example of a game reusing engines and assets to create something fresh and new at the fraction of the time and cost, these two games are the opposite. Not only do the Oracle games not really fix the problems that existed in Link's Awakening, they arguably make those problems worse and spread it across two playthroughs instead of one. Definitely my least favorite games in the series out of the ones I have played so far.