The Sacrifice
Contrary to what I thought after playing through this, Link can leave the Room of Rites if he wants to stock up on seeds or get another potion if he had to use the one he had against Veran or he just wants to explore the world. The first few rooms of the area are a maze that Link needs to navigate by looking at the statues: they look in every direction but the one he needs to go in. He eventually finds his way to Zelda, but Twinrova summon him to another room for the final battle.
The first phase of the Twinrova fight is basically adapted from their first phase in Ocarina of Time, with Link having to deflect Koume’s fireballs at Kotake, and Kotake’s ice attacks at Koume. It sounds easy enough, but with the two of them swooping around the arena, it’s hard to find a place to stand, and even harder to find the precise place to stand so Link can deflect the attack at the right sister. I eventually settled for running around the arena, unleashing a spin attack when one of the attacks got close and hoping it went in the right direction. After a few hits, they merge, and alternate between fire and ice forms, changing the arena to suit. After a few hits from the sword, they’re stunned so Link can hit the merged form with a scent seed, and after a few rounds of this, Twinrova is defeated.
Even in defeat, they refuse to be stopped, using their own deaths to bring Ganon back. Because the ritual was incomplete, Ganon is more bestial than he was before (more like he was in The Legend of Zelda than in Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past). He has several attacks, but nothing too hard to dodge and counterattack. His only particularly neat trick is changing the floor so that the D-Pad controls are backward, and even that’s not too hard to overcome. Link defeats Ganon again, and all of Twinrova’s efforts come to nothing. He rescues Zelda from the altar, and as Twinrova’s palace collapses, the Maku Tree teleports the two of them out and to her clearing.
Victory!
Impa, Nayru, and Din are there to welcome them back. (Poor Farore. Her game got canceled, so all she gets to do is ferry secrets between the two.) After everybody exchanges thanks and congratulations, Zelda kisses Link, leaving him stunned (and the Maku Tree does her “upset” face at them) to send the game into the credits. The credits show Ralph helping Nayru with her shopping, a crowd gathering to watch Din dance, Link watching the animal companions pass by, and Zelda looking up at the stars from a balcony. Finally, after it’s all done, Link sails away on a boat, with the possible intention that it’s the same boat that will get wrecked, leaving Link to wash up on Koholint Island for Link’s Awakening [1].
I really liked these games, even if Ages sometimes made me curse the people who designed some of the tougher puzzles (and anyone who could have prevented the mermaid suit controls from being as horrible as they are). I think Ages is the slightly stronger game, with a better supporting cast (okay, Ralph is too one-note), and the heavier puzzle emphasis makes it more fun for me.
After the credits, there’s a Hero’s Secret, which will let the player start a new game (of either Ages or Seasons). The idea is to use this code to start the game you just finished, which will let you see how that game plays without the alterations caused by finishing the other game first. Ring secrets can be shared with games started with a Hero’s Secret, which is good because doing both games twice, reversing the order between runs (e.g., Seasons > Ages > Ages > Seasons) is the only way to get the complete list of 64 rings. In a single run through of the two games, the most available is 60.
[1] As I said in my first post on this subseries, the timeline placement for these games has varied, even from official sources. Hyrule Historia puts them between A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, and a later source has them after Link’s Awakening with a different Link. I think the current official version is after Link’s Awakening but with the same Link. I think the simplest idea is to accept that any Zelda timeline is going to have quibbles and don’t look too closely at the details.
