Over 20 years after beating Oracle of Ages I have finally beat Oracle of Seasons.

Oracle of Ages is and will always be a very special game to me but I can not help but admit that Seasons feels a lot funner to play. The Season mechanic, plus a number of the items, are more interesting to play with than their counterparts in Ages. It just feels like there was a bit more care and attention put into Seasons.

Of course, both still are amazing especially when put together. Finally getting to experience the the true ending after being teased decades ago in Ages felt so fulfilling, even if the extra bosses are pretty easy with how powered up you are at the end of a linked game.

Highly recommend playing both on NSO or wherever else you can play them.

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

OK enough Zelda but honestly at the bottom of the pack. Puzzles are some of the most banal in the mainline series, combat is too heavy a focus for such limited perspective and movement mechanics, uninspired side quests (ring system and seeds, ugh), and tons of backtracking due to the season changing and world layout (especially once Subrosia is introduced). Ended by a final boss that honestly grinds everything to a halt - a completely uninteresting final dungeon and boss fight that build on literally nothing from the game prior. Would be entirely skippable if not for the linked game mechanic.

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.

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.