After a couple of Game Boy Advance games, it's a little strange to go back a generation to the Game Boy Color to play The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. It's also weird to see a double entry on the list that doesn't come from the Pokémon series, as Oracle of Seasons was released alongside Oracle of Ages. Together they form the complete tale of Hyrule going squiffy and needing Link to save the day again.
Stranger than all of this, though, is that Capcom made two Zelda games. Let's have a look at what they've done.
Fun Times
In what must be a nod to The Holy Grail, we first see our hero riding into a detailed closeup, before showing off at the edge of a cliff for reasons unknown.
I'm not really sure what happens next, but we sure don't end up looking as heroic as we have just been shown. What's going on?
I'm emulating Oracle of Seasons, based only on the fact that I read that it's more action-focused than Oracle of Ages, which is the puzzle-centric game. The two games can be played in any order, apparently also including at the same time, across two linked Game Boys, because various moments and items are transferred through a save progress/password system thing, allowing each game to reference events of not only the other but of your progress through the other. Still following?
The game plays much like Link's Awakening - we only have a D-pad and two buttons, so it can't work too many control miracles, instead relying on its world and story to stand out. So what's the story?
We're lead to believe that we were found unconscious by a bunch of travellers, but they're not quite who they say they are. One of them, Din, is so powerful a person that she has something to do with controlling the seasons. That sounds important, and a General Onox seems to have finally found her.
Sealing Din away in a crystal and burying the temple of seasons sends Hyrule into turmoil. Seasons no longer follow any logical progression. Winter can lead to Summer in a matter of minutes. Nobody can prepare for that. Nobody can deal with that. But we're Link, and we have a triangle on our hand. That's... good... or something.
Our first port of call to save the world is to find and deliver a message to the Maku Tree. I don't know what the fascination with talking trees is in the Zelda series, but here's another one.
While it's easy to find, it's locked behind a show of courage, and merely having the balls to knock on the door isn't good enough. We're going to need to explore the town a little, chatting to the locals for whatever information they may have.
I generally don't like this bit in video games.
Yep, of course, let's do this.
The Hero's Cave takes cues from the dungeons of the earlier Zelda titles and teaches us that there'll be a fair few blocks to push and keys to find on our travels through the game. It's a little annoying having to run around enemies instead of fighting them, even unarmed, but we're really free in terms of movement, gliding almost effortlessly through these screens. If we were locked into a grid, only able to move left, right, up and down, I'd be stuffed already and at risk of ditching it and moving onto something else.
But, so far at least, Oracle of Seasons is a well-developed game that you can pick up and dive into. And now that we've got a wooden sword, you can bet it'll get even more interesting to navigate this world when you can slash your way through it all, all to the familiar musical cues of the Zelda series.
A quick look at the map shows that there are plenty of areas to explore, and already you can see signs of obstacles that you might be able to find a way through if you have a particular piece of equipment or, perhaps more likely, if the season is correct. Snow melting to reveal a path. Lakes freezing to create one. The possibilities could take us anywhere.
But they first need to take us to the Maku Tree.
Had this tree done his job, Hyrule wouldn't be in the mess it finds itself in, but being a tree, rooted to the earth and all, it is up to us to fix the problem, and that involves finding eight essences of something or other, which do something useful. I glossed over that part, but know that the first is nearby, in a Gnarled Root.
The Gnarled Root is a dungeon, with all the dungeony-goodness you expect. Locked rooms requiring keys, puzzles to solve, enemies to defeat... If you like this part of Zelda, then Oracle of Seasons has you covered. Probably. I don't know, because things started to unravel from here.
Frustrations
While nothing was coming at me and catching me off-guard, and while nothing was too much of a struggle to figure out, my timing and accuracy were leading me into unwanted trouble. Here, for example, are two nippy little... things... blades of some sort, I think. They move darn quick, and they kept chipping away at my health when they got too close. Which was often, despite them only moving up and down, and only when I was close enough to trigger them.
They caused the first death, and suddenly I remembered my troubles with some of the early Zelda titles, where the controls were simple, but the timing of an attack or movement would always get me. It's not that there's lag or anything, or that I can't read the visual cues of glowing swords to tell me that an attack is charged up and ready to be unleashed. It's more that I think I can go somewhere safely, only to find that I can't, and in trying to get back I often also miss-time something, effectively resulting in taking double damage and making little, if any, progress.
Avoiding those guys on my second attempt, I explore the other side of the dungeon, going on my short minecart ride and discovering some bombs to use. A mark on the wall nearby looks awfully suspicious...
Bombing it, I find a maze-like room full of these spinning blade things. For some reason, I ventured through this maze. Painfully. And didn't make it, resulting in another death.
I could have tried bombs. I could have explored everywhere else first, before resorting to this room. I could have checked the map. Maybe that would reveal some clues for me to follow. Instead, I thought to myself "I don't really have a lot of interest for this game, and then there's an entirely different yet similar sister game to look at as well. Do I want to do that?"
Final Word
I didn't. Not now, at any rate.
The characters didn't appeal, the setting wasn't terrible, the idea of the seasons going nuts and you having to control them to solve puzzles sounds excellent, and then you've got to play another game about time travel to see where the other half of the story takes you. And then apparently you'll only get the full story if you play both games a second time but in the opposite order this time. I mean, it's tiring just to be aware of that, let alone go through and play it.
But I'm missing so much, surely. These titles might not rank high in the grand scheme of Zelda games - indeed, I didn't really know of their existence until now - but for titles that weren't developed directly by Nintendo, the Oracle games sure don't phone it in. They've tried to give players a lot of content, based on what they like to do in a Zelda game, and from what I've read, they succeed. Two games that require multiple playthroughs to see everything? That's content, right?
Is it good content? Is it content that makes sense? Does it tell a story worth hearing? Are the characters interesting? Are the puzzles rewarding? I have no idea. For that, I think the only way I'll know is by watching someone else play them. I don't have the time or the skills to control the seasons or the ages, and Capcom and Nintendo want me to do both?
In another age, I might have done. These games are approachable and look and sound pretty good, but I was never really a Zelda fan growing up. It's tough to find a way into a series sometimes, and while Oracle of Seasons/Ages may be technically sound, they feel like games for someone already a fan, rather than games that aim to entice a new audience.
I don't know. All I can say is that now I know Capcom made some Zelda games. Hopefully, that makes its way into a pub quiz...
Fun Facts
Initially tasked with creating six Game Boy Zelda titles, including a remake of the original game, troubles with development would instead lead to a trilogy of games, and then only a couple of games as the launch of the Game Boy Advance came into view.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages, developed by Capcom, first released in 2001.
Version played: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, Game Boy Color, 2001, via emulation.