Oracle of Seasons: Introduction and Story

Now I enter the Dark Ages, which I mean in the sense of “I know almost nothing about these next several games,” not “the next several games are bad.” (I mean, they might be.) When Twilight Princess came out, I thought it was the first new Zelda game since Majora’s Mask, although I was somewhat aware of the GBA A Link to the Past remake with Four Swords and I may have heard of Minish Cap.

So here’s what I know about Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages:

• They’re related games, meant to be played one right after the other with links between the two and a true final boss after the two are completed.
• They don’t take place in Hyrule.
• Even by Zelda timeline discussion standards, their place in the timeline is controversial.
• One game involves manipulating seasons, the other… time travel?

Two Games, One Overall Story

Let’s touch on that first point some more. From reading the manual and playing the game some, there a lot of references to sharing things between the two games using codes. Right now I’m kinda ignoring all this and focusing on a straight run through Oracle of Seasons, to be followed by connecting that with Oracle of Ages. Then, quite likely, Oracle of Ages followed by Seasons so I can see how they play out like that and, if necessary, wrap up collecting rings.

The Story, Such As It Is

I’m not going to judge it just yet – Link’s Awakening didn’t seem to have much of a story at first, but a memorable twist turned it into the most haunting story of the series so far, so maybe this will develop as well. Link rides to a chamber where Essence of the Triforce is, and is sent on a quest to Holodrum. He enters the world rather roughly and is nursed back to health by a dancer named Din. Link comes to and starts talking to Din’s friends, and after dancing a bit with Din, a tornado comes, knocks everyone out, and kidnaps Din in the name of someone named Onox. Din is the Oracle of Seasons, so Onox’s master plan is apparently to seal her in crystal, bury the Temple of Seasons, and cause Holodrum’s seasons to go wonky and kill everything.

After being knocked out a second time (by the tornado), Link meets Impa, who was Din’s troupe’s cook, except in a shocking twist, she’s actually Zelda’s nurse and came to Holodrum to bring Din to Hyrule before Onox could do his thing. Well, as we now know, that didn’t work out. So Link needs to go to Horon Village and talk with the Maku Tree. Before Link can do that, he needs a sword, which makes me question the Triforce’s foresight if it sent him here without one. There’s a cave south of the town where Link can get a sword, and that opens the way to meet to Maku Tree. The Tree tells Link where Onox has made his hideout (where the Temple of Seasons used to be, duh), and that he’ll need to gather the eight Essences of Nature, which will be needed to break Onox’s barrier so Link can confront him and save Holodrum. The Maku Tree gives Link the Gnarled Key, the key to the first dungeon.

Or, in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil guy. It’s basically the first game, only the names and places have been changed.

Fun Around Horon Village

The core collectible in Oracle of Seasons (and Ages too, I think) is rings. Link gets his first ring and a ring box from the town jeweler, and it’s mostly there to introduce the concept of rings. There are a couple other rings for sale at a shop in town for 100 rupees each, which is a little pricy. However, with this game made with color in mind, farming rupees isn’t as tedious as it was in Link’s Awakening where they only ever dropped one at a time (there were more in some chests), and especially when every 30 enemies defeated causes a witch to spawn who’ll drop a lot of rupees (and sometimes other stuff, like rings or a potion or even a heart piece). And there’s one other source of rings: Link can plant Gasha trees, which will eventually grow Gasha nuts, which contain useful items including random rings. I was able to get, without spending too much time, the shield and bombs from the town shop, the two rings from the other shop, and six rings appraised (one was a duplicate, so it got sold for more than the appraisal cost). One of the rings turns out to double the value of rupees Link picks up, so if there’s a bow that requires 980 rupees or something, it’ll only take half as much farming to get.

There was one more interesting thing in town: a couple with a new baby they hadn’t come up with a name for. They ask Link to name it, which of course means it actually falls to the player. After considering all sorts of ridiculous names (“Biscuit” is too long for the field, sadly), I settled on my default name of Bob.

Next: One hell of a nostalgia trip.