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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

Gameboy Color (3DS Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online)

// February 22 2024, 4 min read, #gaming #review

Finally, a backlog game! I've been meaning to play this for decades, and it finally became super accessible when it hit the Switch GBA app summer 2023. I picked it up and put a ton of time into it, then put it down for a long time and finished most of the games in 2023 in games part 2 instead. Recently picked it back up and I gotta tell ya, it's fantastic.

Link's Awakening is easily my favoritest 2D Zelda (it may in fact be my first Zelda ever (either that or Ocarina of Time, but memories of my childhood are basically non existent)), and it's just wonderful to be playing a game clearly inspired by it so much that it uses the same engine and systems. Also I love practically every Zelda game that doesn't feature Zelda herself as a damsel in distress. Ages specifically doesn't even feature her at all. That is, unless you do a linked game after completing Oracle of Seasons, but it's a quick sidequest, and the opposite holds true as well.

The linked game mechanism is neat. When you start a new game in one Oracle game you will have the choice to import your finished game data from the other. You can do so via a password system (the passwords are manageable and not gigantic like Golden Sun's "gold" password is (a whopping 266 characters to type by hand)), or via two physical Gameboys connected with a link cable. Importing your data gives you a few things:

You start the game with either a level 1 sword or level 1 shield - in lieu of having to do a quest to acquire it, and which one you get depends on which order you played the games in
The ability to import your rings from the first game - this is actually a separate password though
New characters will appear in the second game that give you small passwords you can take back to the first game you played to unlock more sidequests
Characters and enemies will know about your adventure in the first game, making the two stories feel a lot more connected.
Zelda will appear in the second game and you do have to rescue her, but it's a very brief interlude and then she just kinda hangs around as a talkable NPC.

This works both ways, so you can play the games in either order and it should still feel like a cohesive and complete experience as each game is actually their own fully realized story within their own lands. The stories connect through small bits of dialogue here and there, and then a final true boss fight in the second game only if you imported data from the first. It's a unique experience, and I find it funny that after Oracle of Ages I moved on to Golden Sun which does a similar thing with importing data into Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

If you've ever played Link's Awakening (the original monochrome version or the color DX version, or to a lesser extent the remade Switch version), you'll feel right at home in the Oracle games. They play the same, though some abilities and skills are tweaked to fit the game's progression (in fact, some skills and abilities are different between the Oracle games too - I have played a couple dungeons of Seasons as of this review). It's clearly the same engine as the Gameboy Link's Awakening games, it's wonderful. Capcom actually made the Oracle games, and frankly, they deserve to make more Zelda games. They also did the later Minish Cap which is also a fantastic adventure and also plays very similarly.

Dungeon and overworld design are fantastic, with puzzles in each area ranging from ezpz to challenging but not obtuse. In the Ages game, Link travels between two different time periods to resolve the story in both ages. At first you have no control over the ability to time travel, then limited control, then total control. The progression feels pretty natural and fits the story telling and exploration very well. Some dungeons and overworld situations are in the past, some in the present, a couple are in both and you have to complete different portions in both time periods.

Sounds a lot like Ocarina of Time, right? Yeah it kinda is. The main difference in the time travel mechanic is that while initially portals in specific spots exist to push you through time (much like the Temple of Time), you later gain songs for your harp that allow you to time travel nearly anywhere on the overworld. This opens up more puzzles and mechanics than OoT ever had. It's a lot more of a realized vision of time travel I think. (and the gimmick of Oracle of Seasons is changing the seasons in a similar manner)

In short: It's classic 2D Zelda on the Gameboy. You really can't go wrong with this one.

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#gaming

#review

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