Very cute, bite-sized 2D Zelda game that strikes a balance from what came before and wasn’t as crusty as I anticipated, very Zelda 1- like in times especially with a thin plot and characters. I don’t have much knowledge of the original Link’s Awakening but the oracle titles separate themselves well in adding small twists on series conventions to give their own identity, especially since the duology wasn’t crafted by Nintendo themselves. The most surprising going through this and still Ages at this point is how much these games lean on adventuring and memorizing the terrain as a means of progression instead of a heavy hand guiding you most of the time. There’s still constraints on places and dungeon order but there isn’t much of a direct path spelling out what you need and have to do outside of what Din says after completing each dungeon; there’s more down time just roaming around and coming across puzzles almost organically and I feel that this is true across both titles, though I felt this a bit more with seasons with how streamlined and less puzzle-centric it is compared to my experience of Ages at this point.
The world design of Holodrum is small and very linear with obvious gated paths or obstacles requiring certain items preventing going forward, but it’s way more open than awakening and even most of the Zelda titles generally feels. Specifically anything revolving around the rod of seasons like puzzles or hidden paths do require added memorization of the world map and exploring the area. I like it more conceptually than in practice since the puzzle solving didn’t amount to much and weren’t as memorable as I expected; finding stumps were a touch annoying outside of using the map but nothing too trial and error-y like the time traveling mechanic with the Harp of Ages can end up being.
New items like the seeds, rings, roc’s cape and the magnetic glove add more weirdness to the journey. The former two add nice customization to combat encounters instead of mostly relying on the regular sword and shield tactic with a set amount of damage given and taken. The seeds have a decent variety of things going on outside of just combat, but the rings did feel somewhat underutilized and negligent outside of a small handful locked behind random chance in mini game challenges or from growing Gasha trees. The latter two were my outright favorites with how unique they are among returning items and the slight satisfaction they brought to some puzzles and late game traversal.
Dungeon wise there isn’t much to talk about as the theming for most are very similar to one another aesthetically and mechanically. I genuinely couldn’t tell you much about 70% of them outside of some shared frustrations with falling down pits. The sword and shield maze is no contest the strongest in its labyrinthine layout that involves many of the items and upgrades gained in the adventure and translating them into pretty meaty and layered puzzles and challenges. Given the developers had to put together 16 dungeons with 8 in each of these games, the results still serve their purpose fine and I liked how some of the dungeons utilized their dungeon specific items in cool ways like anything involving the magnetic glove to zip around and over gaps, but the diminishing returns is pretty obvious with how messy, repetitive and low challenge they fare, surprising in the more combat focused version.
Even though I left not feeling pretty high on this, I appreciate what Capcom did here as someone dying for more 2D Zelda games that Nintendo doesn’t want to do anymore. A remake akin to Link’s Awakening would be great in ironing out the smaller annoyances of menuing and the dizzying sound effects and music, and just bringing this game and its sibling off the dusty game boy color. Revamping how the linked secrets work would be interesting since most of them relied on simple codes rather than interesting discoveries, but the references to the first game played out of the two are cool. Between the two at this point, I’d probably say Ages is a bit more my speed compared to Seasons’ survival emphasis with so many enemy gauntlets and the more simple puzzles than what I’ve seen in Ages so far, but expect something on that soon.
The world design of Holodrum is small and very linear with obvious gated paths or obstacles requiring certain items preventing going forward, but it’s way more open than awakening and even most of the Zelda titles generally feels. Specifically anything revolving around the rod of seasons like puzzles or hidden paths do require added memorization of the world map and exploring the area. I like it more conceptually than in practice since the puzzle solving didn’t amount to much and weren’t as memorable as I expected; finding stumps were a touch annoying outside of using the map but nothing too trial and error-y like the time traveling mechanic with the Harp of Ages can end up being.
New items like the seeds, rings, roc’s cape and the magnetic glove add more weirdness to the journey. The former two add nice customization to combat encounters instead of mostly relying on the regular sword and shield tactic with a set amount of damage given and taken. The seeds have a decent variety of things going on outside of just combat, but the rings did feel somewhat underutilized and negligent outside of a small handful locked behind random chance in mini game challenges or from growing Gasha trees. The latter two were my outright favorites with how unique they are among returning items and the slight satisfaction they brought to some puzzles and late game traversal.
Dungeon wise there isn’t much to talk about as the theming for most are very similar to one another aesthetically and mechanically. I genuinely couldn’t tell you much about 70% of them outside of some shared frustrations with falling down pits. The sword and shield maze is no contest the strongest in its labyrinthine layout that involves many of the items and upgrades gained in the adventure and translating them into pretty meaty and layered puzzles and challenges. Given the developers had to put together 16 dungeons with 8 in each of these games, the results still serve their purpose fine and I liked how some of the dungeons utilized their dungeon specific items in cool ways like anything involving the magnetic glove to zip around and over gaps, but the diminishing returns is pretty obvious with how messy, repetitive and low challenge they fare, surprising in the more combat focused version.
Even though I left not feeling pretty high on this, I appreciate what Capcom did here as someone dying for more 2D Zelda games that Nintendo doesn’t want to do anymore. A remake akin to Link’s Awakening would be great in ironing out the smaller annoyances of menuing and the dizzying sound effects and music, and just bringing this game and its sibling off the dusty game boy color. Revamping how the linked secrets work would be interesting since most of them relied on simple codes rather than interesting discoveries, but the references to the first game played out of the two are cool. Between the two at this point, I’d probably say Ages is a bit more my speed compared to Seasons’ survival emphasis with so many enemy gauntlets and the more simple puzzles than what I’ve seen in Ages so far, but expect something on that soon.