I will be discussing the events of the Linked Game in this review since this was my linked game in my playthrough.

Both Oracle games I think are massively overlooked and underrated. They both offer different experiences from each other and highlight different elements of the Zelda series. Oracle of Ages is apparently the one focused on puzzles.

Oracle of Ages starts exactly the same was as Oracle of Seasons but now Link is transported to another kingdom and a different villain captures another Oracle. I was worried that I was about to go through the exact same game again but thankfully that’s where the similarities end between the two.

Also I forgot to note in my previous review that the art direction in both of these games is fantastic. I really love all of the character designs in these games.

I enjoyed Oracle of Ages more than Oracle of Seasons because it really felt like there was a lot more going on. There was focus on more characters like Queen Ambi and Ralph who are the only ones to have actual arcs across these two games. The story isn’t super special but I’m glad it does SOMETHING.

The dungeons in this game are all great. Capcom knows their way around creating good dungeons huh? Also once again this game has really great items unique from Oracle of Seasons. The Seed Shooter, Cane of Somaria and The Switch Hook are some of the best items in the series as well. With the Switch Hook being the highlight for me. The bosses are also all great! Vire’s boss fight being a Donkey Kong callback is genius!!!

Now on to the Linked Game content, uhh I expected a bit more but it’s cool I guess. Certain aspects carry over between games in cool ways. Princess Zelda also appears throughout your linked game only to get captured when you learn about Twinrovas super shocking super secret master plan which forces you to fight one more boss. I like that the linked content provides a better, more conclusive ending to the two games.

In some ways, Oracle of Ages feels like a greatest hits games. You liked the time travel in Ocarina of Time? Here you go! You liked the two worlds mechanic from A Link to the Past? Here you go! Zoras! Gorons! Jabu-Jabu!!! And you know what? I’ll eat it all up.

Both Oracle games are very close in quality and I can see the argument for preferring either over the other. However, Oracle of Ages is the definitely the one that resonated with me more.

So this was actually the final Zelda game I played in a long marathon of basically every Zelda game ( I was waiting for this one to come out on NSO).

Unfortunately I made my backloggd account well after having played all the other Zelda games so this will be the only one that gets a review till I replay some of the others.

I’ll be honest I’m not the biggest fan of this one. I think there’s some novelty in how it connects to Oracle of Seasons. I will say I preferred this one over Seasons for it’s time mechanic and bigger focus on puzzles.

But I don’t know I just find a lot of moments in these earlier Zelda games frustrating and difficult. Which did lead to me looking at a guide on occasion and using the rewind feature on NSO a bunch near the end.

I will say I’m impressed with there being 8 whole dungeons in this and the other gambit color Zelda games. It’s a pretty impressive feat we wouldn’t see in a handheld again till Link Between Worlds on the 3DS.

I know I’ve been a bit negative on it but the game isn’t bad there was a bunch of moments I enjoyed it just wasn’t really for me.

While it might not have the polish of link to the past, oracle of ages has such a magic to it that it surpasses every previous game in the franchise for me. With a fairly limited map it gives me the Hyrule that so far in my Zelda journey I've most enjoyed exploring. The characters have so much personality, the various groups that live here are all so distinct and well implemented. It also gives you really unique things to do that extend past the classic trading quests (although they don't go away), one stand out for me is the Goron dance, essentially briefly turning the game into a rythm game and it's fun as hell. Another section I absolutely adore is when you wash up on Cresent island and you have all the belongings you've acquired up to this point stolen, it makes for a really memorable puzzle and hammers home exactly how certain abilities need to be used. It's not a perfect game, there's some annoying design to be found and I haven't played the linked game stuff so I can't fully comment on that, but I just loved my time with this game so much. Also it has moosh in it

Played this one as a linked game, enjoyed it even more than Seasons.
It's own story is good and richer than the Seasons one, the overall conclusion that appears in the linked game is even better. For that reason I think it might be worth it to play Ages>Seasons to balance out the amount of interesting plot, although I didn't play this way myself yet.
I also really liked both new characters and returning ones from N64 Zeldas.

Just like in OoS, both music and visuals are fantastic, devs could really make wonders on a limited hardware back then. I liked the puzzle focused gameplay of Ages more than combat focused one of Seasons, but it's good they made them different. I think two games connected into one journey was an amazing concept that I would like to see more often. The only thing I didn't like - linked game became way too easy with all the rings and upgrades from the first part.

Pros -
As good as Link's Awakening
Less annoying trading mini-game
It's really cool seeing species from Zelda OoT in an 8-bit adventure.
Some of the puzzles are cool.
Takes advantage of the GBC.
Really unique boss fights. Not the same ole thing again.

Cons -
original music is bad
It's hard. I never would have finished this without a guide.
Ring system feels unnecessary.
Witty dialogue from Link's Awakening isn't here

Good but pretty derivative. There's not much here I haven't experienced in ALTTP or Link's Awakening. Capcom takes the sprites, music, and mechanics from LA to create a new realm of Labrynna with a new villain. This sounds exciting, but with the exception of a few cool items, this new realm is just the same as Hyrule or Koholint with the same NPC races and enemies, and the same time travel/dark world mechanic we've seen over and over.

It's mostly good fun, but it does hang on the edge of being overly long and complex. The dungeons are very complicated compared to other 2D Zeldas and there were many parts of the game where the next objective was so obtuse a guide was pretty much necessary. The music is also a little grating especially for the dungeons, which is unusual for Zelda. Most are just 10 second repeating clips.

It wasn't bad, but at the same time I've seen and done this all before in better games. Minish Cap had the courage to change up the formula a little and it was memorable for it, but this feels more like someone took Link's Awakening and just doubled the length.

My least favourite 2D Zelda so far, but again it's competent enough to still be fun. I liked the Ancient Tomb dungeon, and the first 4 dungeons were also pretty fun. Jabu Jabu's dungeon was easily the most complicated one I've seen in a 2D Zelda, but it was probably actually the best designed in the game and was pretty enjoyable. The Crescent Island part where all your stuff gets stolen is a unique challenge as well.

Having never played Oracle of Ages and hearing that its was more puzzle based I decided to start with it. And I think it was a wise decision. Some of the puzzles require more patience that I would have it if I was playing the Linked game.

JFC, whoever designed those color-based Puzzles deserves a place in hell.

Regardless, I had a lot of fun with Ages and this reinforces my idea that Oracle games are underrated. Yes, the map is kinda small and nothing here is revolutionary for the Zelda formula, but Ages is still an incredible fun adventure worth having.

A mostly enjoyable experience. I've had a difficult time getting into 2D Zeldas, but this is definitely one of the best ones I've played so far. A lot of creativity in its puzzles, and the dungeons are mostly pretty good too. None of them are terribly long, and they do reuse some types of puzzles, but reused content is expanded upon and never actually felt repetitive.

There are also lengthy segments of the game between dungeons. One is downright awful (Goron Dancing and that whole minigame section before the 6th dungeon), but then others are outstanding and make up for it (Tokay Island quest before the 3rd dungeon).

No individual segment, dungeon or in-between dungeons, is very long, so it's pretty easy to play in short bursts and feel like you accomplished something. I often would take a break after finishing a dungeon or reaching the next dungeon. The game has good pacing, and aside from the leadup to the 6th dungeon, doesn't feel like it drags on.

The actual premise of the game is interesting and delivers on its potential. The ability to travel between the past and present is fun and it creates a lot of cool puzzles. Almost everything in the game feels fair to solve as well, although there were 1 or 2 points when I gave up and consulted a guide.

Overall, Oracle of Ages is a pretty good game. It's nothing that will blow you away, and definitely has low points, but its great parts make up for it to me.

8/10

My expectations when I started playing Oracle of Ages after playing Oracle of Seasons two times weren't low, but they also weren't high. As I said previously in my Oracle of Seasons review, these games use Link's Awakening as a base. This gave the developers the possibility to experiment and play with cool concepts. My main complaint of Seasons was that it could be called Link's Awakening 2, because that's what the game, on its own, feels. Hence my apprehension. But now, after playing it, I'm amazed.

Oracle of Ages doubles down on the story. Here we have, aside from Nayru the oracle, Ralph, a clumsy but determined hero, and Zelda. The game from the very start hits you with a long cutscene for Game Boy standards, so be prepared to read and watch cute animations. After that you're free to roam through Labrynna, and right away it is clear that the focus here are the puzzles, opposed to the focus on combat in Seasons. The general feeling I had is that Ages is more than its counterpart in everything that is proposed for these titles. I got this feeling from the very start with the variety of characters, scenarios and music. The time traveling mechanic that allows you to alternate from past to present is responsible to make two different maps and therefore different scenarios. It also gives us different soundtracks for the same locations either changing the instruments or tempo of the songs, a welcome improvement. Time traveling is essential throughout the whole game for crossing the map, for solving puzzles and for beating the dungeons. Also the developers were clever to change some subitems in each game to mix things up a little. Here we have the switch hook instead of the boomerang and the pea shooter instead of the slingshot (more puzzle oriented items).

Unfortunately both games suffer with the limitations of the hardware. If Seasons needed enemy variety, in Ages there's a lack of puzzle variety. In the first three dungeons I believe, all of the puzzles were already used. I didn't feel as much because I was invested in the narrative, but I can see someone getting tired of them. Also worth mentioning one of the sections where it's necessary to play a bunch of minigames to progress. The minigames weren't difficult but I felt a bit annoyed by that (I noticed I'm not a big fan of minigames in Zelda).

I forgot to mention that Oracle of Ages has a final boss. Unlike whatever that thing in Oracle of Seaons is, anything but a final boss.

I don't want to be repetitive so as far as the other elements of both games go (like the pets, graphics and difficulty) I think I covered them all on the Oracle of Seasons review because my criticism holds for Ages too on those matters. So to finish the Oracle of Ages review I'd would say that it's a fun game. The focus on the story hooked me and solving puzzles felt nicer than slaying mummies and bats. I don't know why but I like the atmosphere of this game. Zoras's domain, the library and symetry city are lovely. And Tingle is in this game, that's important to mention. There's definetly moments here I think I won't see in any other Zelda games. But as a standalone game though, I still think that Link's Awakening is the one to go.

I'm done with Zelda games for this year. The ones I got backlogged are A Link to the Past, Zelda II, Majora's Mask and Windwaker. Which one should I play next year?

------ There will be spoilers down here ------
I want to use this final section to talk about the linked game and also to appraise the execution. It's important to mention that I'm talking about my experience playing Seasons and then continuing the story on Ages. It's a small game so the main difference are some dialogues and characters from the previous game played. Despite that it is done very well, I felt like being part of a bigger story and the references to the prior adventure are always good. One example is Rosa, a "subrosian" who you help in Seasons. Here the roles are reversed and she's the one to helps you. Also, throughout the gameplay you'll encounter characters that give you codes to unlock power ups on the other game. But that doesn't do much because everything to do in the other game has been done. For the future I plan to replay both games but Ages first and the Seasons.

As for the story and gameplay the reward is minimal. The twins capture Zelda and since them and the other two bosses lit each their own flame, Ganon is back. So we get a 3 stage final battle, the first two stages we fight against Twinrova and the in the final stage we fight Ganon. It's a tough battle, a cool challenge that was definitely missing in Oracle of Seasons.
After that... that's it. A title screen with Link sailing away in the Link's Awakening boat. I won't lie, I was expecting more for completing the story but I think the experience is worth it. I want to point that these are games for people who love the Zelda game series. If you're not invested you won't have a good time with these entries.

Aside from A Link to the Between Worlds, I think I played every handheld Zelda game. I'll summarize my experience with them here:

Link's Awakening: charming adventure that laid the groundwork for the series. Can't recommend this enough;

Oracle of Seasons and Ages: fun entries, despite not adding much to the series they are special in their own way;

Minish Cap: By far the best handheld entry. Amazing graphics, dungeons, mechanics, characters, story, everything. Not for everyone though;

Four Swords: I wish I could play with 3 friends but playing with my friend in school was a good time. They nailed the coop mechanics;

Phantom Hourglass: don't be discouraged by the controls, it's a cool game with a lot of stumbles. Play it if you can.

Spirit Tracks: it improves the predecessor in every way except the world traversal. Play it if you liked Phantom Hourglass.