The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons is one of the best follow-ups to a game I have ever played. The gameplay is a blast, the mechanics are fun and engaging, and the story has much fewer flaws than its counterpart, Oracle of Ages. Keep in mind that my playthrough was a linked game, so my experiences may not exactly match up with yours in terms of game content. (Go see my review of Ages first if you haven’t already.)
One of the things that truly build up the core of a good game is its gameplay, which this game nails. While Oracle of Ages has more puzzle-focused dungeons and mechanics, Oracle of Seasons has that classic “kill the monsters” feel with which I’m more familiar. That isn’t to say that Seasons is less fun or features less challenging puzzles, it just blends with slaying enemies better than Ages does.
This game makes good use of a new mechanic: the ability to change the season in any given area. For me, this mechanic was a bit of an annoyance at first. Sometimes I couldn’t go back the way I came because the season had changed back, but I got used to it after a while. This mechanic is fun to play around with after you’ve grown accustomed to it. For example, Spring can change rocks to flowers and grow flowers that launch you up ledges, Summer grows vines and dries out lakes, Fall covers holes with leaves, and Winter freezes lakes and makes snow. The rings from Ages are also still present, but I’ve already covered how those work in my Oracle of Ages review.
One of the things that bugged me the most about Oracle of Ages was the story. Its many in-continuities often frustrated me and one or two times interfered with the logic of a puzzle. Oracle of Seasons has little to none of that, partly because it doesn’t deal with time travel, which can complicate a storyline. The main story for Seasons is pretty straightforward: you come across the Oracle of Seasons and her guards disguised as a dance troupe, after introductions are made she immediately gets kidnapped, now the seasons are messed up so go save her. I found the characters and story to be alright, nothing outstanding, seeing as it’s pretty straightforward and stereotypical in some spots, but still pretty solid.
Of course, the biggest part of this game is its connection with The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. After completing Oracle of Ages, you receive a code that you can input when starting a new game in Seasons. Inputting this code, or “Hero’s Secret” as it’s referred to in-game, begins a linked adventure, where the choices you made in Oracle of Ages affect the gameplay and story of Seasons. I like this mechanic because as you go through your adventure in Seasons people will give you more secrets to use in Ages, most of which are used to acquire items only available through a linked game. After telling someone in Ages a secret you got from Seasons, you’ll receive a secret to use in Seasons that will grant you the same item there. Plus you can transfer all the rings you collected in Ages over to Seasons, which allows for true 100% completion in both games if that catches your fancy. The only thing I didn’t like about this mechanic was that after beating Ganon, the final boss of the linked playthrough, it doesn’t put the game in a post-game state, it just lets you fight the final boss again. This disappoints me because Oracle of Ages didn’t do this, it instead had all the characters being all happy and saying that “you saved the day!” and all that. I find this especially disappointing because this is supposed to be the “ultimate” linked playthrough, so while it’s nothing game-breaking, it is a little nitpick I have with games like this.
Oracle of Seasons was a really fun game, made even better by linking it to my Oracle of Ages game. All in all, this was a fantastic play and I’m excited to hear from anyone who took the opposite route I did and played Seasons first and then linked it with Ages. Everything here hit like a good Zelda game for me, and I would highly recommend this game to any retro or Zelda fan.
Gameplay ★★★★☆
Story ★★★★☆
Visuals ★★★★★
Soundtrack ★★★☆☆