LogFAQs > #973197997

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

Grabbed this and Oracle of Ages and a couple Monster Hunter titles just before the eshop closed, not my first time playing through the Oracles but it is the first time I'm playing either of them on an actual handheld system. I played most of this while on a trip abroad at the start of April, doing one dungeon + exploration for the next one each night, but didn't finish it then; it wasn't until this last weekend that I went back to run through the final dungeon and finish the game.

For this particular title (and what I remember of Ages), I'd say the overworld exploration aspect is a bit more scuffed than in Link's Awakening just because of the multi-layered different seasons mechanic making it that much more difficult for it to easily cement in your memory. I also don't quite remember how it works in Ages, but outside of a very small number of extremely specific places there's next to no reason to use the animal buddy mechanic (I always go for Dimitri) so I mostly forgot it was in there. This is alleviated somewhat by the Subrosia segments, which lack the changing seasons mechanic and have a significantly smaller map, making it easier to tell what may be stopping you from going forward, or what places you haven't gone before that you can now.

Bearing in mind that LA is likely my favorite 2D Zelda, one way I would say Seasons improved on its predecessor is the dungeon puzzles, which thanks to a recent (and as of yet incomplete) replay of LA through archipelago multiworld I was reminded of a small amount of quite hamfisted bits to them such as finding a bombable wall through nothing but sword wall-poking; there were a couple puzzles in Seasons I spent a little longer on than I expected but I never really felt like it got to that level. Speaking of dungeons, I would say I found the bosses slightly more confusing/frustrating in this game versus LA, but reflecting upon it that's probably because I'm much more familiar with every aspect of that game so I wouldn't spend any time trying to remember how to effectively hurt some of them. That being said, I did manage to beat all but 2 bosses on the first try; the ones that I didn't I got on the second. I would still probably say that this game's version of Gohma is quite possibly the most frustrating boss in the GB Zeldas just because of how unforgiving the kiting technique you're expected to use is and the relatively limited health/resources you have at the time.

One thing I did markedly dislike about it is how a couple of the heart pieces were distributed; as with the other GB Zeldas there is a relatively small amount to be found, but two of them seem to be based on nothing but RNG (bump into Maple and hope she drops it never happened during this last run, and plant a gasha seed in a high-level spot and hope that's what you get for it), which did leave a bad taste.

The music is quite good in both Oracle titles; Seasons does contain Dancing Dragon Dungeon, which I believe would easily be the most recognizable track between them. There's also pieces like Ancient Ruins, which sounds suspiciously similar to the theme from Gargoyle's Quest, another GB Capcom title which came out a decade earlier (but which curiously enough, neither of the composers for this game were involved with).

Overall, while I don't think it gets to the level of tight pacing/design and memorability as Link's Awakening, Seasons is definitely one to check out if you enjoy this series/style. Now who knows if I'll get around to redoing Ages as well in the same fashion anytime soon...