Poll of the Day > I just finished a linked completion of Oracle of Seasons and Ages (spoilers?)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Excellent games that have surprisingly aged well. I've found them just as enjoyable as I did in 2001. The last time I played through both was probably 2009-ish.

Seasons definitely is the better of the two. It's clearly more combat oriented, but its puzzles are well crafted as well. Ages has better puzzles for sure, but the quality of the bosses in Ages is very poor.

There's a boss in Ages that's basically a bomb roulette. Not even remotely fun. Another boss is just a straight up puzzle using the Cane of Somaria, virtually no combat at all.

While the plot of each game is pretty minimal, Ages tries to be more ambitious yet misses the mark with poor story writing. Ralph is told that Queen Ambi is his ancestor, yet he tries to kill her anyway? Furthermore, you need the Maku Seed to get to Queen Ambi, how does Ralph beat you there? In Seasons, Onox plays nearly no role aside from the beginning and the end, but at least there aren't story issues that arise from that.

Seasons has a better overworld, but I can respect Ages overworld for incorporating a ton of puzzles in it. That was Skyward Sword's main focus, and Ages did it much better. I liked Season's overworld better simply because it seemed full of enemies and new environments, and changing the seasons to access different areas in different ways was very creative.

In terms of the final bosses, Veran is much more challenging than Onox, and I had the Master Sword to fight her, instead of just the Noble Sword for Onox. Her spider form was confusing though, you need to use bombs to stun her, but the first several bombs I used did nothing, leading me to try other things.

The true final boss of Twinrova and Ganon was an awesome way to end the linked games. Twinrova isn't that great, and using Mystery Seeds to hurt her while stunned was a lucky guess on my part (totally forgot about that). Ganon is pure classic 2D Zelda, but with the Master Sword and the Red Ring was much too easy.

All in all, Seasons gets a 9/10 and Ages gets a 8.5/10 from me. The only handheld Zelda that's better is A Link Between Worlds (not counting BotW).

You know what's 10/10 though? You, if you read the whole thing.
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Definitely great games. I love both a lot but I'm very biased towards Season since it was the one I played first.
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trodi_911 posted...

Definitely great games. I love both a lot but I'm very biased towards Season since it was the one I played first.

I've worried that's my case, too. I got Ages like 6 months after Seasons.

Replaying them both back to back has relieved those worries. I'm nostalgic for both equally, but Seasons definitely is better.
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Yeah I liked seasons more myself I never delved into the whys like you it just had more charm to me. Twinrova can go fuck themselves though. Hardest boss fight between the two games imo.
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What really stood out for me this time through was that we got TWO complete Zelda games on the same launch day that each had a very impressive 8 dungeons. 1998 to 2003 was truly the golden age of Zelda.
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faramir77 posted...

What really stood out for me this time through was that we got TWO complete Zelda games on the same launch day that each had a very impressive 8 dungeons. 1998 to 2003 was truly the golden age of Zelda.

What I liked on top of that was iirc the link in these games have appeared in more games than any other. (Lttp oracle games and links awakening) so it makes him one of thr most accomplished links
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These are my fav zelda games, Im way more ages biased tho, still havrnt done a linked completion though, been meaning to get around to it
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TheSlinja posted...

These are my fav zelda games, Im way more ages biased tho, still havrnt done a linked completion though, been meaning to get around to it

Only thing that sucks is you have to do a linked completion both ways if you want to do/see everything.
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I hope if the Link's Awakening remake sells well enough that Nintendo will consider remaking them as well.
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Zareth posted...

I hope if the Link's Awakening remake sells well enough that Nintendo will consider remaking them as well.

To be honest all id want out of a remake is a better looking sprite for link. The black hair when i know he had orangish blonde looking hair in the art was off putting to me.
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i dont really want a awakening style remake, not a fan of the aesthetic. it looks beautiful but I never thought of the games looking like a toy set, in my head they looked like the opening cutscene style
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TheSlinja posted...

i dont really want a awakening style remake, not a fan of the aesthetic. it looks beautiful but I never thought of the games looking like a toy set, in my head they looked like the opening cutscene style

I just now finally looked at it. Eh i could live with that. Id personally prefer just much better 2d sprites though
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Zareth posted...

I hope if the Link's Awakening remake sells well enough that Nintendo will consider remaking them as well.

I was thinking this, too! But I wonder if the fact that they were developed by Capcom will put a wedge in that ever being a possibility.

Regardless, I'd rather see new 2D style Zelda games over remakes.
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