Now that the seed business with Ambi is concluded, Link can go back to the forest and use a bomb to blast open the entrance to the next dungeon. (It’s a lot less fragile in the past.) The dungeon has a lot of color-themed puzzles: the color cube returns from the last dungeon, and both in this dungeon need to be adjusted so the direct path leaves the right color up. The minecarts from Seasons show up here, with gates that need a color puzzle solved to lift before the cart can carry Link to his proper destination. There are tiles on the floor that Link can change the color of by jumping over once he gets the roc’s feather; sometimes this is the puzzle itself, sometimes it has other effects, like dictating what color statues can be pushed to resemble the pattern of the other set of statues in the room. And there’s a room where the whole room changes color at once, revealing some camouflaged enemies who all need to be killed before they can change again.
Lost in all this is the miniboss, Swoop, who is a straightforward boss that hovers over Link and tries to smash him, becoming vulnerable after making its crash landings but ripping holes in the floor. The end boss, Head Thwomp, may well be the most annoying boss I’ve faced in any Zelda game yet. The mechanic is simple to explain: it sits in the center of the room, spinning between four colors. Link has to throw a bomb into it; if it goes in while the face is red, the boss takes damage. If it goes in on any of the other colors, it uses an attack (always the same attack per color). There have been puzzles involving throwing bombs into containers. Sometimes they’ve even required good timing with which way the container has faced. But they’ve never made a whole boss fight out of it (until now, I mean), and there’s a reason for that. IT’S NOT FUN. This fight is terrible.
Past Inventor, Future Inventions
Link gets the Ancient Wood, the next Essence. The leaf graphics for when the Maku Tree makes contact change from past to present, which is a nice touch. This time, she says the next Essence is on Crescent Island to the south. Before Link does anything else, there’s a heart piece in a cave along a road branching north from the return road across holes he can cross now with the roc’s feather. Southeast of the city, Link can now find his way to Cheval, who’s working on two things: flippers and a rope that won’t decay in water. As Link leaves Cheval’s house, Ralph shows up to tell him that the name appears on a tomb back in the future [1] and gets back to whatever it is he thinks he’s doing. Before heading back, there’s a girl south of the Black Tower who has a secret to being lucky she meant to tell someone headed to Holodrum. Her description makes it sound like it’s one of the pirates.
Link returns to the city and goes through a portal to the future. Bob’s fully grown to an adult; in my games, he became an arborist just like Bipin. In the graveyard, Moosh is being tormented by some ghosts, who Link drives off. In return, Moosh helps Link navigate a section of the graveyard to the northwest, where Cheval’s tomb lies. In navigating the tomb, Link finds Cheval’s inventions, so he can swim and use the rope for whatever it’s going to be used for. There are two more secrets to be found now: First, the mayor’s mother has a secret for Horon City’s Mayor Ruul. Second, a fairy has set up camp over the wreckage of Wing Dungeon, and she has a secret for a fairy hiding in the Temple of Seasons in Subrosia.
With three secrets, now’s a good time to switch games to cash them in. Passing the secret to the mayor upgrades Link’s ring box to one that’ll hold five. The fairy in the Temple of Seasons awards Link with a ring, a lesser version of the Heart Ring, but hey, it’s another box ticked off. Finally, when Link finds the right skeletal pirate, who was left behind when the ship set sail again, the pirate challenges Link to get his ore chunk total to a lucky 777 before giving the rewards. Once that’s taken care of, he increases Link’s bomb capacity to 50. Switching back to Labrynna, Link cashes in the return secrets to be able to carry 3 rings and 30 bombs, and add the ring to his list.
Next: Link loses his stuff.
[1] It feels wrong to me to refer to the two eras as “past” and “present,” so I’m going with “future” for Link (and Ralph)’s native time.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Friday, October 12, 2018
Oracle of Ages: The Harp of Ages
The Key to Time Travel
Shortly after coming out of the dungeon, Link has his first encounter with Maple in Labrynna. It’s basically the same as in Holodrum; there’s a heart piece to be won here just like there. Before Link leaves the graveyard, there’s a few things to collect. First, there’s a ghost who’s trapped from moving on to the afterlife by its tombstone. Link pushes the stone out of the way for the ghost, and the ghost gives Link its poe clock before leaving. Another ghost asks if Link believes what he sees, and teaches him a secret code to pass along to the inhabitant of a grave in Holodrum. Finally, there’s another heart piece that he can get to now that he has the power bracelet.
As Link explores the woods for the next dungeon, navigation starts getting screwy. After he makes it far enough into the forest, he finds three fairies, who have messed it all up, and challenge Link to a game of hide and seek. They scatter to the screens Link hasn’t been able to make it to, and hide under rocks and bushes and wait for Link to find the right paths to their hiding locations. Once the fairies are all found, they fix the forest paths, so Link can finally go to the dungeon. There’s just a rock in the way, which is no match for his power bracelet, so he lifts it, and…
Uh…
Well…
There was a sign near the dungeon entrance that warned that it would crumble easily. So, when Link lifted the rock, the whole thing kinda collapsed. Fortunately, the game involves time travel, so maybe the essence will also be there in the past. However, Link can’t just freely travel through time, he needs portals and a way to activate them. On the Maku Tree’s suggestion, he goes back to Nayru’s house and discovers Impa investigating drafts coming from the basement. He heads down and finds the Harp of Ages, with a pre-recorded message from Nayru saying that something must have happened to her and teaching him a song to use the harp to activate portals. Link returns to the city and uses the harp to activate the portal near the Maku Tree.
Mystery Seeds for the Queen
In the past, Link returns to Lynna Village. He’s got enough money now to buy out the Advance Shop’s inventory. The postman in town needs help knowing what time it is for his scheduled deliveries, so he trades some stationery for the poe clock. Near the edge of the village, there’s an outhouse with… okay, apparently in the Zelda world it’s common for people to get trapped down toilets and stick their hands out in desperate need of paper. The stationery from the postman is good enough for this purpose, and the hand gives Link a “stink bag.” There have been some one-sided deals since Link’s Awakening introduced this type of sidequest to the game, but I think I can pretty surely say that this is the crappiest one. On the plus side, Link can have some fun throwing other things down the toilet, like ember seeds or the pot that’s sitting next to it.
The forest is all abuzz with activity, with lots of people looking for mystery seeds that Ambi desperately wants. It’s not an easy path to get to the tree with the seeds, and along the way Link can find another heart piece and a Deku scrub who knows a secret part of a song, which he wants Link to relay to the scrub in the Natzu Wasteland, the one who’ll refill Link’s seed satchel for stopping by. Once Link has the mystery seeds, one of Ambi’s soldiers recognizes him and brings him to Ambi to present them as tribute. Ambi rewards Link with bombs, and Nayru is pleased to have the seeds.
Switching back over to Seasons for a moment, Link finds a ghost in the graveyard who, after learning the first secret, plays a game with him, asking him to tell whether there are more red or blue ghosts in a given set. The first set is very one-sided, while the latter two are closer. When Link gets it right, he gets an extra heart container. The Deku scrub further increases Link’s seed satchel capacity, to hold 99 of each type of seed. They each give return codes, which in Ages Link can tell to Farore, the third Oracle who makes a home inside the Maku Tree, and get the rewards for the secrets transferred over. (His seed capacity is still limited to 50 until he finds an upgrade in Labrynna, but on the plus side he gets a full complement of mystery seeds after Ambi stole all he found.)
Next: A colorful boss, minus the colorful language I directed at it.
Shortly after coming out of the dungeon, Link has his first encounter with Maple in Labrynna. It’s basically the same as in Holodrum; there’s a heart piece to be won here just like there. Before Link leaves the graveyard, there’s a few things to collect. First, there’s a ghost who’s trapped from moving on to the afterlife by its tombstone. Link pushes the stone out of the way for the ghost, and the ghost gives Link its poe clock before leaving. Another ghost asks if Link believes what he sees, and teaches him a secret code to pass along to the inhabitant of a grave in Holodrum. Finally, there’s another heart piece that he can get to now that he has the power bracelet.
As Link explores the woods for the next dungeon, navigation starts getting screwy. After he makes it far enough into the forest, he finds three fairies, who have messed it all up, and challenge Link to a game of hide and seek. They scatter to the screens Link hasn’t been able to make it to, and hide under rocks and bushes and wait for Link to find the right paths to their hiding locations. Once the fairies are all found, they fix the forest paths, so Link can finally go to the dungeon. There’s just a rock in the way, which is no match for his power bracelet, so he lifts it, and…
Uh…
Well…
There was a sign near the dungeon entrance that warned that it would crumble easily. So, when Link lifted the rock, the whole thing kinda collapsed. Fortunately, the game involves time travel, so maybe the essence will also be there in the past. However, Link can’t just freely travel through time, he needs portals and a way to activate them. On the Maku Tree’s suggestion, he goes back to Nayru’s house and discovers Impa investigating drafts coming from the basement. He heads down and finds the Harp of Ages, with a pre-recorded message from Nayru saying that something must have happened to her and teaching him a song to use the harp to activate portals. Link returns to the city and uses the harp to activate the portal near the Maku Tree.
Mystery Seeds for the Queen
In the past, Link returns to Lynna Village. He’s got enough money now to buy out the Advance Shop’s inventory. The postman in town needs help knowing what time it is for his scheduled deliveries, so he trades some stationery for the poe clock. Near the edge of the village, there’s an outhouse with… okay, apparently in the Zelda world it’s common for people to get trapped down toilets and stick their hands out in desperate need of paper. The stationery from the postman is good enough for this purpose, and the hand gives Link a “stink bag.” There have been some one-sided deals since Link’s Awakening introduced this type of sidequest to the game, but I think I can pretty surely say that this is the crappiest one. On the plus side, Link can have some fun throwing other things down the toilet, like ember seeds or the pot that’s sitting next to it.
The forest is all abuzz with activity, with lots of people looking for mystery seeds that Ambi desperately wants. It’s not an easy path to get to the tree with the seeds, and along the way Link can find another heart piece and a Deku scrub who knows a secret part of a song, which he wants Link to relay to the scrub in the Natzu Wasteland, the one who’ll refill Link’s seed satchel for stopping by. Once Link has the mystery seeds, one of Ambi’s soldiers recognizes him and brings him to Ambi to present them as tribute. Ambi rewards Link with bombs, and Nayru is pleased to have the seeds.
Switching back over to Seasons for a moment, Link finds a ghost in the graveyard who, after learning the first secret, plays a game with him, asking him to tell whether there are more red or blue ghosts in a given set. The first set is very one-sided, while the latter two are closer. When Link gets it right, he gets an extra heart container. The Deku scrub further increases Link’s seed satchel capacity, to hold 99 of each type of seed. They each give return codes, which in Ages Link can tell to Farore, the third Oracle who makes a home inside the Maku Tree, and get the rewards for the secrets transferred over. (His seed capacity is still limited to 50 until he finds an upgrade in Labrynna, but on the plus side he gets a full complement of mystery seeds after Ambi stole all he found.)
Next: A colorful boss, minus the colorful language I directed at it.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Time Travel
North of the village, there’s a pair of caves. One of these is the Hero’s Cave, which only appears in a linked game and requires most of the available items to complete. It requires the power bracelet (or sword upgrade, both of which come later) to even start, so let’s leave it alone for now and head over to the other cave, which is a straight path that leads to the Lynna City Maku Tree. This Maku Tree is female, a fact that’s emphasized heavily by the few facial features it has. I hate this design; looking at it makes me cringe. The Tree starts by recapping what we already know about Veran, and then disappears as something horrible happens in the past. Link heads over a screen from where the Maku Tree was, and finds Ralph waiting by the portal that Veranayru dove into earlier. Ralph goes through the portal to save Nayru, and Link follows.
Lynna Village, 400 Years Earlier
Four hundred years in the past, Lynna City was just Lynna Village. Some of the equivalents of the key NPCs from Horon Village are here: Pippin, Bipin’s ancestor, who gives Link his first Gasha nut, and the Advance Shop, which sells another Gasha Nut and two rings. The city’s all abuzz because of the tower the queen is constructing. Apparently, she has a missing lover she wants to lead home, and so she’s building a tall tower and has everyone in the city working on it. All was well for a while, but then Nayru came and they started working harder and the day never ends so they don’t get breaks for nighttime, so the village is being overworked and is full of piles of dirt, including blocking the way to the Maku Tree. Fortunately, the need for workers is so intense that if Link goes into the castle, they hand him a shovel without thinking anything of it. It immediately proves useful to him, because there’s a piece of heart in the tower area he can get with the shovel.
In the past, the Maku Road cave is a bit more like a minidungeon, with some simple enemies to fight and puzzles to solve. There’s a heart piece along the way, and then Link finally comes to the Maku Tree’s clearing. The Maku Tree at this time is a lot smaller – barely bigger than Link – and she’s under attack by pig moblins. Once rescued, there’s some nonsense about her wanting to marry Link, and she opens up the way back to the village, where Link can now return to his time.
The Quest Begins
The Maku Tree is back to her normal spot, and she remembers her plan to marry Link, only she remembers it as a promise Link made. Her memory’s generally fuzzy because of Veran’s interference in the timeline, so she asks Link to gather the eight Essences of Time [1]. The first Essence of Time is in Yoll Graveyard to the east, and she gives Link a seed satchel with ember seeds to start his way. The ember seeds are needed to clear a few trees out of the path to the graveyard, and then in the graveyard to light the torches to summon the key to the first dungeon, Spirit’s Grave.
Oracle of Ages is a lot more puzzle-oriented than its sibling, and while this dungeon eases into it, there are hints of how things are going to get. One new element is a block with different-colored faces that rolls at it’s pushed. So, it not only needs to be pushed into place but rolled so that the right color is on top when it reaches its destination. The only one of these blocks in this dungeon starts perfectly placed and oriented so that if you just push it directly at its slot, a face with the correct color is up when it gets there. But it’s the first dungeon, so there’s lots of time for puzzles involving that kind of block to get tougher.
The miniboss, a giant ghini, is a fairly direct fight, although it has little ghosts that will swarm Link and limit his movement, leaving him vulnerable to the boss. The final boss is more of a puzzle. It’s a ghost in a jack-o-lantern that creates a body for itself. When the body is hit enough, Link can access the jack-o-lantern, picking it up (the power bracelet is the dungeon’s treasure) and tossing it aside, revealing the ghost. The ghost is now vulnerable so it tries to get back into the jack-o-lantern, but it dies after a few hits, allowing Link to claim the first Essence of Time, Eternal Spirit. The Maku Tree contacts Link to say that the next spirit is echoing from the Western Woods.
Next: Dungeon crashing.
[1] Or in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil… gal, I guess?
Lynna Village, 400 Years Earlier
Four hundred years in the past, Lynna City was just Lynna Village. Some of the equivalents of the key NPCs from Horon Village are here: Pippin, Bipin’s ancestor, who gives Link his first Gasha nut, and the Advance Shop, which sells another Gasha Nut and two rings. The city’s all abuzz because of the tower the queen is constructing. Apparently, she has a missing lover she wants to lead home, and so she’s building a tall tower and has everyone in the city working on it. All was well for a while, but then Nayru came and they started working harder and the day never ends so they don’t get breaks for nighttime, so the village is being overworked and is full of piles of dirt, including blocking the way to the Maku Tree. Fortunately, the need for workers is so intense that if Link goes into the castle, they hand him a shovel without thinking anything of it. It immediately proves useful to him, because there’s a piece of heart in the tower area he can get with the shovel.
In the past, the Maku Road cave is a bit more like a minidungeon, with some simple enemies to fight and puzzles to solve. There’s a heart piece along the way, and then Link finally comes to the Maku Tree’s clearing. The Maku Tree at this time is a lot smaller – barely bigger than Link – and she’s under attack by pig moblins. Once rescued, there’s some nonsense about her wanting to marry Link, and she opens up the way back to the village, where Link can now return to his time.
The Quest Begins
The Maku Tree is back to her normal spot, and she remembers her plan to marry Link, only she remembers it as a promise Link made. Her memory’s generally fuzzy because of Veran’s interference in the timeline, so she asks Link to gather the eight Essences of Time [1]. The first Essence of Time is in Yoll Graveyard to the east, and she gives Link a seed satchel with ember seeds to start his way. The ember seeds are needed to clear a few trees out of the path to the graveyard, and then in the graveyard to light the torches to summon the key to the first dungeon, Spirit’s Grave.
Oracle of Ages is a lot more puzzle-oriented than its sibling, and while this dungeon eases into it, there are hints of how things are going to get. One new element is a block with different-colored faces that rolls at it’s pushed. So, it not only needs to be pushed into place but rolled so that the right color is on top when it reaches its destination. The only one of these blocks in this dungeon starts perfectly placed and oriented so that if you just push it directly at its slot, a face with the correct color is up when it gets there. But it’s the first dungeon, so there’s lots of time for puzzles involving that kind of block to get tougher.
The miniboss, a giant ghini, is a fairly direct fight, although it has little ghosts that will swarm Link and limit his movement, leaving him vulnerable to the boss. The final boss is more of a puzzle. It’s a ghost in a jack-o-lantern that creates a body for itself. When the body is hit enough, Link can access the jack-o-lantern, picking it up (the power bracelet is the dungeon’s treasure) and tossing it aside, revealing the ghost. The ghost is now vulnerable so it tries to get back into the jack-o-lantern, but it dies after a few hits, allowing Link to claim the first Essence of Time, Eternal Spirit. The Maku Tree contacts Link to say that the next spirit is echoing from the Western Woods.
Next: Dungeon crashing.
[1] Or in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil… gal, I guess?
Monday, October 8, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Introduction and Story
So, here’s where I’d usually write about the game’s background and what I know going in, except I covered most of that with its sibling game, so it’s straight into…
Previously on The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons…
The opening cutscene for Ages is similar to the one for Seasons: Link’s riding a horse in answer to the Triforce’s call. Choosing “Secret” when starting the game and entering the code given at the end of Seasons starts Ages with Link having already completed the other game. He doesn’t get to keep most of the stuff he got, but does start with an extra heart container and a basic sword. (Unfortunately, that basic sword is hidden in his inventory rather than equipped, and the start button’s disabled at first, so I assumed the inventory was empty, and spent like five minutes trying to figure out how to get out of the opening area without a sword.)
And, since Seasons revealed Twinrova to be the mastermind behind Onox, Ages shows them from the start. Though Onox was defeated, the destruction caused by his actions have lit the Flame of Destruction in Twinrova’s lair. Now they just need the Flames of Sorrow and Despair to join it, and they’ll be able to sacrifice some poor sap to bring Ganon back.
The Oracle of Ages
The Triforce has refined its method of sending Link places, because he arrives in Labrynna completely okay. Good thing, too, because he hears a cry for help, and it’s Impa, surrounded by monsters. The monsters scatter as Link approaches, and Impa thanks him. (Given the other callbacks to the original game in Seasons, this event – evocative of the original Link’s meeting with Impa that kicked off that adventure – might have been a better fit there.) She doesn’t seem to recognize him, despite them working together back in Holodrum, which should be a clue things are not okay, but Link doesn’t pick up on it. She takes him to a rock blocking a path and asks him to move it for her so they can find Nayru, and Link obliges.
Nayru is singing to a circle (mostly animals, one person), and once Link’s bothered all of them, one moves out of his way so Link can watch her sing. A guy standing inside the circle recognizes the symbol on Link’s hand and introduces himself as Ralph, Nayru’s friend. Nayru welcomes his help to stop whatever troubles Labrynna is about to face, but Ralph says he thinks he can handle it. Just then, Impa starts laughing, and the sorceress who had been possessing her reveals herself. She introduces herself as Veran, thanks Link for getting her past the barrier rock, and possesses Nayru. Ralph pulls his sword on her, but relents when he realizes he can’t hurt Veran without hurting Nayru. Veranayru uses her powers to open a portal to the past and go through, mucking with the past to make bad things happen in the present. A man rapidly ages in front of his girlfriend, a bunch of monkeys are petrified and disappear, and a kid is petrified.
The Adventure Begins
Ralph has a bit of a meltdown over not being able to protect Nayru, and ends up running off, screaming her name. That’s going to end well. Meanwhile, Impa is back to herself, and she recognizes Link now, and gives him a shield that Zelda entrusted to her. Impa heads to Nayru’s house, while Link sets out on his adventure.
The main village this time is Lynna City, and it’s got a lot of the same things we remember from Horon City: a shop with a secret basement, a ring shop, and even some people have moved across the world: Bipin and Blossom, and their son Bob, who seems to have contracted that condition children get that make them grow up to being a teenager while their parents gain maybe a year or two. Bob and Blossom have questions for Link so he can continue influencing Bob’s growth. The ring shop is also run by Vasu and his snakes, and after getting reacquainted with the basics of ring ownership, Link can use the ring secret to repopulate his ring list with his rings from Seasons. The ring box stays at the basic box that can hold a single ring, but that’s okay, it’s early enough that just slipping on the double rupee ring is fine.
Next: A Link to the past.
Previously on The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons…
The opening cutscene for Ages is similar to the one for Seasons: Link’s riding a horse in answer to the Triforce’s call. Choosing “Secret” when starting the game and entering the code given at the end of Seasons starts Ages with Link having already completed the other game. He doesn’t get to keep most of the stuff he got, but does start with an extra heart container and a basic sword. (Unfortunately, that basic sword is hidden in his inventory rather than equipped, and the start button’s disabled at first, so I assumed the inventory was empty, and spent like five minutes trying to figure out how to get out of the opening area without a sword.)
And, since Seasons revealed Twinrova to be the mastermind behind Onox, Ages shows them from the start. Though Onox was defeated, the destruction caused by his actions have lit the Flame of Destruction in Twinrova’s lair. Now they just need the Flames of Sorrow and Despair to join it, and they’ll be able to sacrifice some poor sap to bring Ganon back.
The Oracle of Ages
The Triforce has refined its method of sending Link places, because he arrives in Labrynna completely okay. Good thing, too, because he hears a cry for help, and it’s Impa, surrounded by monsters. The monsters scatter as Link approaches, and Impa thanks him. (Given the other callbacks to the original game in Seasons, this event – evocative of the original Link’s meeting with Impa that kicked off that adventure – might have been a better fit there.) She doesn’t seem to recognize him, despite them working together back in Holodrum, which should be a clue things are not okay, but Link doesn’t pick up on it. She takes him to a rock blocking a path and asks him to move it for her so they can find Nayru, and Link obliges.
Nayru is singing to a circle (mostly animals, one person), and once Link’s bothered all of them, one moves out of his way so Link can watch her sing. A guy standing inside the circle recognizes the symbol on Link’s hand and introduces himself as Ralph, Nayru’s friend. Nayru welcomes his help to stop whatever troubles Labrynna is about to face, but Ralph says he thinks he can handle it. Just then, Impa starts laughing, and the sorceress who had been possessing her reveals herself. She introduces herself as Veran, thanks Link for getting her past the barrier rock, and possesses Nayru. Ralph pulls his sword on her, but relents when he realizes he can’t hurt Veran without hurting Nayru. Veranayru uses her powers to open a portal to the past and go through, mucking with the past to make bad things happen in the present. A man rapidly ages in front of his girlfriend, a bunch of monkeys are petrified and disappear, and a kid is petrified.
The Adventure Begins
Ralph has a bit of a meltdown over not being able to protect Nayru, and ends up running off, screaming her name. That’s going to end well. Meanwhile, Impa is back to herself, and she recognizes Link now, and gives him a shield that Zelda entrusted to her. Impa heads to Nayru’s house, while Link sets out on his adventure.
The main village this time is Lynna City, and it’s got a lot of the same things we remember from Horon City: a shop with a secret basement, a ring shop, and even some people have moved across the world: Bipin and Blossom, and their son Bob, who seems to have contracted that condition children get that make them grow up to being a teenager while their parents gain maybe a year or two. Bob and Blossom have questions for Link so he can continue influencing Bob’s growth. The ring shop is also run by Vasu and his snakes, and after getting reacquainted with the basics of ring ownership, Link can use the ring secret to repopulate his ring list with his rings from Seasons. The ring box stays at the basic box that can hold a single ring, but that’s okay, it’s early enough that just slipping on the double rupee ring is fine.
Next: A Link to the past.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: The End
Onox’s Castle
As Link approaches Onox’s Castle for the final showdown, the hooded figure from before confronts him to laugh at the futility of his efforts. Then the figure transforms into two witches – Koume and Kotake – Twinrova. They say the Flame of Destruction will soon be lit, and then they’ll perform a ritual to bring “the Evil King” back to “spread darkness across the land.” With some evil laughter, they fly off, and Link’s contacted by the Maku Tree, who’s worried about what Twinrova’s threats mean, but there’s nothing to do about that just yet. Link decides to focus on the threat at hand, Onox, and deal with Twinrova afterward.
Onox’s Castle is a fairly short dungeon: there are three rooms in a row to the north where he has to defeat all the enemies for the northern exit to lead to the next room. The first is filled with wizzrobes, the second darknuts and floormasters, and the third features another appearance by Facade. If he ever goes left or right, he finds himself in a room with a spinning tiles floor trap. There’s a chance to get fairies in these rooms, but entering resets his forward progress, so it’s basically only worth it if he does really badly at one of the fights and desperately needs a little extra health. After one final room, he comes to the final confrontation with Onox.
Onox is a giant soldier in golden armor, who attacks with the second biggest flail I’ve ever seen. He also sometimes jumps causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. After a few hits, he brings out Din in crystal to protect him; if Link hits the crystal with his sword, he’s electrocuted. Now, one of Link’s rings makes him immune to electricity damage, so he can hack away with impunity… but I didn’t bring it [1], so I have to do it the hard way. And this adds a pretty fun twist to the fight: Link has to bat the Din crystal away from Onox with the Rod of Seasons (not an obvious trick!) and then quickly hit Onox before she floats back over. After enough hits, Onox is seemingly defeated, but then the floor starts collapsing and Link eventually falls through.
Onox returns to confront Link, before assuming his true form of a dark dragon, whose weak spot is a crystal on his forehead. The crystal is immune to ranged attacks, so Link needs to dodge his attacks, jump on the hands (feet? paws?) when he has a chance, and hit the crystal with his sword. (Yes, just like the Wolf Sigma fight from Mega Man X. Capcom’s influence, I see you.) Once defeated again, Onox says that he accomplished enough for Twinrova’s aims, even if he lost in the end, and he dies. Din is freed from her crystal prison, and the seasons return to normal across Holodrum. The two set out to return to Horon Village, but Twinrova’s watching and says basically the same thing Onox did.
One World Saved, One to Go
As the credits roll, scenes from Horon Village play: Link and Din’s return, Maple crashing into the Maku Tree, Link and Din going to tell Impa the good news, and the Triforce mark appearing on Link’s hand. After they finish, a code appears… more on that in a minute. Returning to the game after the credits and talking to Din again, she says that Impa received a letter from Labrynna saying things weren’t well there, and left, setting the sequel hook for Oracle of Ages. The code that appeared after the credits can be used to start a “linked game” which starts with Twinrova already known as the mastermind and will resolve the story of their plot to revive Ganon. There’s one more code available right now from the red snake in Vasu’s (the ring merchant) shop, which lets all the unlocked rings transfer over by talking to same NPC in Ages. Farore, the Oracle of Secrets whose own game got cancelled because the logistics of linking three games was too complicated, has set up a little area in the Maku Tree where both codes are stored in a book, along with some blank spots. Hrm.
So, Oracle of Seasons was pretty fun. Hard, in a way thing’s haven’t been for a while, but fun. The reworkings of all the original game’s dungeon bosses were fun to see, and Twinrova as the mastermind was a cool and unexpected twist. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in part 2.
[1] I will when I come back on a linked game from Ages.
As Link approaches Onox’s Castle for the final showdown, the hooded figure from before confronts him to laugh at the futility of his efforts. Then the figure transforms into two witches – Koume and Kotake – Twinrova. They say the Flame of Destruction will soon be lit, and then they’ll perform a ritual to bring “the Evil King” back to “spread darkness across the land.” With some evil laughter, they fly off, and Link’s contacted by the Maku Tree, who’s worried about what Twinrova’s threats mean, but there’s nothing to do about that just yet. Link decides to focus on the threat at hand, Onox, and deal with Twinrova afterward.
Onox’s Castle is a fairly short dungeon: there are three rooms in a row to the north where he has to defeat all the enemies for the northern exit to lead to the next room. The first is filled with wizzrobes, the second darknuts and floormasters, and the third features another appearance by Facade. If he ever goes left or right, he finds himself in a room with a spinning tiles floor trap. There’s a chance to get fairies in these rooms, but entering resets his forward progress, so it’s basically only worth it if he does really badly at one of the fights and desperately needs a little extra health. After one final room, he comes to the final confrontation with Onox.
Onox is a giant soldier in golden armor, who attacks with the second biggest flail I’ve ever seen. He also sometimes jumps causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. After a few hits, he brings out Din in crystal to protect him; if Link hits the crystal with his sword, he’s electrocuted. Now, one of Link’s rings makes him immune to electricity damage, so he can hack away with impunity… but I didn’t bring it [1], so I have to do it the hard way. And this adds a pretty fun twist to the fight: Link has to bat the Din crystal away from Onox with the Rod of Seasons (not an obvious trick!) and then quickly hit Onox before she floats back over. After enough hits, Onox is seemingly defeated, but then the floor starts collapsing and Link eventually falls through.
Onox returns to confront Link, before assuming his true form of a dark dragon, whose weak spot is a crystal on his forehead. The crystal is immune to ranged attacks, so Link needs to dodge his attacks, jump on the hands (feet? paws?) when he has a chance, and hit the crystal with his sword. (Yes, just like the Wolf Sigma fight from Mega Man X. Capcom’s influence, I see you.) Once defeated again, Onox says that he accomplished enough for Twinrova’s aims, even if he lost in the end, and he dies. Din is freed from her crystal prison, and the seasons return to normal across Holodrum. The two set out to return to Horon Village, but Twinrova’s watching and says basically the same thing Onox did.
One World Saved, One to Go
As the credits roll, scenes from Horon Village play: Link and Din’s return, Maple crashing into the Maku Tree, Link and Din going to tell Impa the good news, and the Triforce mark appearing on Link’s hand. After they finish, a code appears… more on that in a minute. Returning to the game after the credits and talking to Din again, she says that Impa received a letter from Labrynna saying things weren’t well there, and left, setting the sequel hook for Oracle of Ages. The code that appeared after the credits can be used to start a “linked game” which starts with Twinrova already known as the mastermind and will resolve the story of their plot to revive Ganon. There’s one more code available right now from the red snake in Vasu’s (the ring merchant) shop, which lets all the unlocked rings transfer over by talking to same NPC in Ages. Farore, the Oracle of Secrets whose own game got cancelled because the logistics of linking three games was too complicated, has set up a little area in the Maku Tree where both codes are stored in a book, along with some blank spots. Hrm.
So, Oracle of Seasons was pretty fun. Hard, in a way thing’s haven’t been for a while, but fun. The reworkings of all the original game’s dungeon bosses were fun to see, and Twinrova as the mastermind was a cool and unexpected twist. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in part 2.
[1] I will when I come back on a linked game from Ages.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Explorer's Crypt and Sword & Shield Maze
Explorer’s Crypt
En route to the graveyard dungeon, Link can find the last of the golden beasts in spring, a golden darknut. With that victory, Link returns to the old man who gave him the quest in the first place for his reward: a ring, which appraises to the red ring, which doubles sword damage. At this point my ring box was pretty well set: the red joy ring for double rupees, the L2 heart ring for emergency health recovery, and the green ring which increases sword damage and decreases enemy damage for boss fights.
The dungeon in the graveyard is the Explorer’s Crypt, and has some challenging puzzles. Notably, there are rooms where if all the lights go out, Link is taken back to the start of the dungeon. He can stop the trap by defeating a poe in a nearby room. The two poes turn out to be the dungeon’s miniboss, where in addition to attacking Link, they try to blow out the torches around the room. Link has to avoid the attacks, keep the torches lit, and fight back against them. It’s a lot to deal with, at least until one of the two is defeated and Link can focus on the remaining one. The treasure is the roc’s cape, an upgraded jumping item that lets Link glide short distances. Of course, the jumping puzzles make the holes Link needs to cross correspondingly bigger.
The dungeon boss is Gleeok, completing the reimaginings of the original game’s dungeon bosses. It’s only got two heads, but the heads will try to reattach themselves once Link’s knocked them off, only failing if Link’s hacked off the other head first. Once both heads are gone, Gleeok starts hopping around the room, so Link needs to use the roc’s cape to float to avoid being stunned when it lands. All in all, it’s a lot simpler than the dungeon’s miniboss. The seventh essence is the Seed of Life, and the Maku Tree can’t tell where the final essence is.
Before leaving the graveyard area, there’s a heart piece Link can get now that he has the roc’s cape. Now, despite the Maku Tree’s lack of helpful information, the last essence is probably in that large unexplored area in the north where the Temple of Seasons used to be. There are a couple portals to Subrosia in the area. At the first, Link finds a cave where a Subrosian is tossing things into a volcano trying to get it to erupt. Always the helpful one, Link tosses in a bomb, which does the trick, altering the terrain back on Holodrum’s surface. En route to the second portal, Link can find the final heart piece. Going back to Subrosia through the second portal, Link finds the final dungeon hidden in a volcano.
Sword & Shield Maze
The dungeon’s called the Sword & Shield Maze after its map design, but it could just as easily be the Fire & Ice Maze for its terrain. Link has to walk over ice, jump over lava, fight fire keese, and memorably, near the end of the dungeon, toss ice crystals through holes to the basement to freeze the lava to give him a path to the final boss. The miniboss, called Frypolar, also ties into the fire and ice theme, transforming between a giant fireball and a giant snowball. The snowball is vulnerable to ember seeds, although each time it’s hit by one it transforms back to the fireball, making for a long fight.
The treasure is an upgrade for the slingshot, allowing it to split its shot into three, with some puzzles requiring the triple shot to activate groups of statues or light groups of torches quickly. The final boss is the only unique dungeon boss in the game, Medusa Head (AKA Medelock). Medusa Head has a petrification attack derived from its namesake, plus fireballs and optic laser beams. It’s vulnerable to being stunned with Pegasus seeds (heh), then whacked with the sword. After it’s down, Link can claim the final Essence of Nature, Changing Seasons. That’s an odd one, given how much the seasons have been fluctuating already. But anyway, he now has the full set, and the Maku Tree summons him to give him a huge Maku Seed, which will let him breach the magical barrier around Onox’s Castle.
Onox calls Link out from a distance, saying that even with the huge Maku Seed, he’s still no match for him. He invites Link to a final confrontation, should Link wish to prove him wrong.
Next: The mastermind revealed.
En route to the graveyard dungeon, Link can find the last of the golden beasts in spring, a golden darknut. With that victory, Link returns to the old man who gave him the quest in the first place for his reward: a ring, which appraises to the red ring, which doubles sword damage. At this point my ring box was pretty well set: the red joy ring for double rupees, the L2 heart ring for emergency health recovery, and the green ring which increases sword damage and decreases enemy damage for boss fights.
The dungeon in the graveyard is the Explorer’s Crypt, and has some challenging puzzles. Notably, there are rooms where if all the lights go out, Link is taken back to the start of the dungeon. He can stop the trap by defeating a poe in a nearby room. The two poes turn out to be the dungeon’s miniboss, where in addition to attacking Link, they try to blow out the torches around the room. Link has to avoid the attacks, keep the torches lit, and fight back against them. It’s a lot to deal with, at least until one of the two is defeated and Link can focus on the remaining one. The treasure is the roc’s cape, an upgraded jumping item that lets Link glide short distances. Of course, the jumping puzzles make the holes Link needs to cross correspondingly bigger.
The dungeon boss is Gleeok, completing the reimaginings of the original game’s dungeon bosses. It’s only got two heads, but the heads will try to reattach themselves once Link’s knocked them off, only failing if Link’s hacked off the other head first. Once both heads are gone, Gleeok starts hopping around the room, so Link needs to use the roc’s cape to float to avoid being stunned when it lands. All in all, it’s a lot simpler than the dungeon’s miniboss. The seventh essence is the Seed of Life, and the Maku Tree can’t tell where the final essence is.
Before leaving the graveyard area, there’s a heart piece Link can get now that he has the roc’s cape. Now, despite the Maku Tree’s lack of helpful information, the last essence is probably in that large unexplored area in the north where the Temple of Seasons used to be. There are a couple portals to Subrosia in the area. At the first, Link finds a cave where a Subrosian is tossing things into a volcano trying to get it to erupt. Always the helpful one, Link tosses in a bomb, which does the trick, altering the terrain back on Holodrum’s surface. En route to the second portal, Link can find the final heart piece. Going back to Subrosia through the second portal, Link finds the final dungeon hidden in a volcano.
Sword & Shield Maze
The dungeon’s called the Sword & Shield Maze after its map design, but it could just as easily be the Fire & Ice Maze for its terrain. Link has to walk over ice, jump over lava, fight fire keese, and memorably, near the end of the dungeon, toss ice crystals through holes to the basement to freeze the lava to give him a path to the final boss. The miniboss, called Frypolar, also ties into the fire and ice theme, transforming between a giant fireball and a giant snowball. The snowball is vulnerable to ember seeds, although each time it’s hit by one it transforms back to the fireball, making for a long fight.
The treasure is an upgrade for the slingshot, allowing it to split its shot into three, with some puzzles requiring the triple shot to activate groups of statues or light groups of torches quickly. The final boss is the only unique dungeon boss in the game, Medusa Head (AKA Medelock). Medusa Head has a petrification attack derived from its namesake, plus fireballs and optic laser beams. It’s vulnerable to being stunned with Pegasus seeds (heh), then whacked with the sword. After it’s down, Link can claim the final Essence of Nature, Changing Seasons. That’s an odd one, given how much the seasons have been fluctuating already. But anyway, he now has the full set, and the Maku Tree summons him to give him a huge Maku Seed, which will let him breach the magical barrier around Onox’s Castle.
Onox calls Link out from a distance, saying that even with the huge Maku Seed, he’s still no match for him. He invites Link to a final confrontation, should Link wish to prove him wrong.
Next: The mastermind revealed.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Ancient Ruins
Upgrading Sword and Shield
Just because Link has the power to summon all four seasons doesn’t mean he’s done with Subrosia just yet. There are two special ores he can get to now with the magnetic gloves, which he can then take to the Great Furnace. There, the workers melt and fuse the two into hard ore, using a process that apparently calls for the three of them to line up and dance. Then, Link goes to the Smithy, where the master smith takes interest in upgrading Link’s shield to the iron shield. Back on the surface, Link can find an old man who, now that Link has five Essences, will give him the round jewel, completing the set. The jewels can be placed into sockets of a wall, allowing Link access to the Tarm Ruins.
As Link progresses through the ruins, he’ll find the third golden beast, a lynel. There are a couple of Deku scrubs in the area, too; one fights Link, the other wants to hear a melody on the phonograph. Both give Link directions through the Lost Woods area that’s just ahead. Passing through the Woods requires going in a proper set of directions, while manipulating the seasons between each move. The phonograph scrub’s directions lead Link to a grove where the second sword, the Noble Sword, rests. The second set leads him through the Woods. Along the path through the rest of the ruins is another gale seed tree, so Link can warp here freely should he need to.
Ancient Ruins
As Link approaches the ruins, a hooded figure appears and taunts him that stopping Onox won’t be enough. They also mention a plan to revive the Evil King. So there it is, some mastermind has concocted a plan to bring Ganon back after his defeat in A Link to the Past, and what Onox is doing in Holodrum and whatever’s going on in Oracle of Seasons are a part of it. There’s more to uncover, like who the hooded figure is and how to stop Ganon’s resurrection, but for now, it’s a big piece of the puzzle.
The tower requires a lot of travel between floors, with hidden staircases, pits to fall down, and trampolines to bounce up on. The most memorable puzzle is a trap that causes the walls to close in on Link; if he doesn't navigate the rest of the hallway's spikes and bats in time, he'll be crushed, resulting in an instant game over. The treasure is a boomerang upgrade, which travels farther and faster and gives the player more control over its arc; Zelda boomerangs have already pretty well established they’re immune to real physics, so this one just pushes it a little further. (Hey, it’s magic.) The miniboss is Vire, which is a boss version of the already annoying Link’s Awakening version. It’s very good at staying out of Link’s reach, and unusually for any boss, complains each time it’s hit. When it’s hit enough, it retreats, leaving a couple bats behind for Link to kill.
The final boss is Manhandla, whose reimagining here seems to be the basis for the Hyrule Warriors version. Its four mouths need to be killed with the boomerang, which reveals the core to be a giant buzz blob. So the core needs to be attacked with the boomerang as well, and after a few hits, it opens up to reveal the heart of the monster, which is vulnerable to the sword. Victory lets Link claim the sixth Essence of Nature, Blowing Wind. According to the Maku Tree, the next Essence is in a graveyard to the west. [1]
A Pirate’s Undeath for Me
The way to the graveyard is blocked by a broken bridge, so Link needs to find a way to repair it. Off to the east of Horon Village, there’s a desert side area with a skeleton pirate hanging out at the gate, talking about his quest to find the captain’s bell. The rest of the pirates are down in Subrosia – Link’s come across the house near their sunken ship during his travels there. Now that Link’s collected six of the Essences of Nature, the captain decides he’s a competent adventurer and asks him to help find the bell. On the upper floor, one of the pirates is working on remembering a sequence, which turns out to be the order Link needs to press the buttons on the desert gates.
Inside the desert, Link finds the other half of the pirates’ ship, with the ghost of one of the pirates who died looking for the bell. His skull’s out in the desert, and once Link finds it, will help him find the bell (if Link can put aside nonconstructive urges like tormenting the skull by throwing it into water or quicksand pits). The two find the bell, the skull departs for the afterlife, and Link takes it back to the captain, who isn’t satisfied because the bell’s all rusty. Fortunately, the Subrosian smith takes an interest in the bell and restores it. Once that’s done, the captain’s ready to set sail, although his crew’s gotten a bit too used to being on land after so long and get seasick. He yells at them for it, only for the sickness to hit him, so they park the ship while they get used to sailing. Conveniently, they park right where Link needs a bridge to reach the graveyard.
Next: The last two essences.
[1] I rewrote the intro to this section after replaying the dungeon and discovering the original opening was inaccurate and I left out one of the most memorable bits. The sentence I removed was "There’s not much to talk about in the dungeon, which is a straight climb up the tower."
Just because Link has the power to summon all four seasons doesn’t mean he’s done with Subrosia just yet. There are two special ores he can get to now with the magnetic gloves, which he can then take to the Great Furnace. There, the workers melt and fuse the two into hard ore, using a process that apparently calls for the three of them to line up and dance. Then, Link goes to the Smithy, where the master smith takes interest in upgrading Link’s shield to the iron shield. Back on the surface, Link can find an old man who, now that Link has five Essences, will give him the round jewel, completing the set. The jewels can be placed into sockets of a wall, allowing Link access to the Tarm Ruins.
As Link progresses through the ruins, he’ll find the third golden beast, a lynel. There are a couple of Deku scrubs in the area, too; one fights Link, the other wants to hear a melody on the phonograph. Both give Link directions through the Lost Woods area that’s just ahead. Passing through the Woods requires going in a proper set of directions, while manipulating the seasons between each move. The phonograph scrub’s directions lead Link to a grove where the second sword, the Noble Sword, rests. The second set leads him through the Woods. Along the path through the rest of the ruins is another gale seed tree, so Link can warp here freely should he need to.
Ancient Ruins
As Link approaches the ruins, a hooded figure appears and taunts him that stopping Onox won’t be enough. They also mention a plan to revive the Evil King. So there it is, some mastermind has concocted a plan to bring Ganon back after his defeat in A Link to the Past, and what Onox is doing in Holodrum and whatever’s going on in Oracle of Seasons are a part of it. There’s more to uncover, like who the hooded figure is and how to stop Ganon’s resurrection, but for now, it’s a big piece of the puzzle.
The tower requires a lot of travel between floors, with hidden staircases, pits to fall down, and trampolines to bounce up on. The most memorable puzzle is a trap that causes the walls to close in on Link; if he doesn't navigate the rest of the hallway's spikes and bats in time, he'll be crushed, resulting in an instant game over. The treasure is a boomerang upgrade, which travels farther and faster and gives the player more control over its arc; Zelda boomerangs have already pretty well established they’re immune to real physics, so this one just pushes it a little further. (Hey, it’s magic.) The miniboss is Vire, which is a boss version of the already annoying Link’s Awakening version. It’s very good at staying out of Link’s reach, and unusually for any boss, complains each time it’s hit. When it’s hit enough, it retreats, leaving a couple bats behind for Link to kill.
The final boss is Manhandla, whose reimagining here seems to be the basis for the Hyrule Warriors version. Its four mouths need to be killed with the boomerang, which reveals the core to be a giant buzz blob. So the core needs to be attacked with the boomerang as well, and after a few hits, it opens up to reveal the heart of the monster, which is vulnerable to the sword. Victory lets Link claim the sixth Essence of Nature, Blowing Wind. According to the Maku Tree, the next Essence is in a graveyard to the west. [1]
A Pirate’s Undeath for Me
The way to the graveyard is blocked by a broken bridge, so Link needs to find a way to repair it. Off to the east of Horon Village, there’s a desert side area with a skeleton pirate hanging out at the gate, talking about his quest to find the captain’s bell. The rest of the pirates are down in Subrosia – Link’s come across the house near their sunken ship during his travels there. Now that Link’s collected six of the Essences of Nature, the captain decides he’s a competent adventurer and asks him to help find the bell. On the upper floor, one of the pirates is working on remembering a sequence, which turns out to be the order Link needs to press the buttons on the desert gates.
Inside the desert, Link finds the other half of the pirates’ ship, with the ghost of one of the pirates who died looking for the bell. His skull’s out in the desert, and once Link finds it, will help him find the bell (if Link can put aside nonconstructive urges like tormenting the skull by throwing it into water or quicksand pits). The two find the bell, the skull departs for the afterlife, and Link takes it back to the captain, who isn’t satisfied because the bell’s all rusty. Fortunately, the Subrosian smith takes an interest in the bell and restores it. Once that’s done, the captain’s ready to set sail, although his crew’s gotten a bit too used to being on land after so long and get seasick. He yells at them for it, only for the sickness to hit him, so they park the ship while they get used to sailing. Conveniently, they park right where Link needs a bridge to reach the graveyard.
Next: The last two essences.
[1] I rewrote the intro to this section after replaying the dungeon and discovering the original opening was inaccurate and I left out one of the most memorable bits. The sentence I removed was "There’s not much to talk about in the dungeon, which is a straight climb up the tower."
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