![]() ![]() The Game Boy Color, however, was capable of none of this, and the team at Capcom found a way to make a 2D Zelda feel just as big, but uniquely intimate. Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons made 2D Zelda feel truly grand at a time when the series leap to 3D had completely rewired what everyone thought “big” meant in a game, beginning a sudden shift in game design trends from abstraction to verisimilitude. ![]() Completion of one would give the player a password to enter into the other, which would unlock a bonus act that revealed the events of both games were orchestrated by a mysterious villain familiar to longtime fans. (The Fire Emblem Fates trio is a notable exception.) Oracle of Ages and Seasons weren’t just two complete games they also combined to make one big adventure. Most twin releases - for the few franchises that do them - still follow the Pokémon model, where the game is largely the same and minor differences pepper each version. ![]() The Oracle games being fully distinct adventures was novel then, and still is today. Link’s actions in the past can change the map in the present, and details in the present can give the player clues for how to navigate the past. Using the Harp of Ages, Link can travel back and forth between the past and present of Labrynna, which is represented in two distinct maps. Oracle of Ages is centered more around puzzles, with a time-travel gimmick akin to Chrono Trigger, albeit more localized in scope. Seasons takes a more action-oriented focus, with its central mechanic centering on the Rod of Seasons, a magical staff that allows Link to change the current season in Holodrum, revealing secrets or opening new paths depending on the changes to the map (A lake, for example, might freeze over in winter, allowing Link to cross.). Each game centers around the eponymous Oracles, Nayru in Ages and Din in Seasons, who are then kidnapped by their respective game’s villain, plunging their land into chaos.įrom there, the games diverge wildly. Which land depends on the game: Oracle of Seasons takes place in Holodrum, and Oracle of Ages in Labrynna. ![]() While the games were visually similar to what Zelda fans had seen before on Game Boy, they were jam-packed with new ideas once players dived in.īoth games start the same way: Link, summoned by the Triforce to a remote temple, is magically whisked away to a new land. Developed by Capcom (which would also go on to make the wonderful Minish Cap), the twin Oracle games took after prior Game Boy entry Link’s Awakening, with identical art assets and controls - except, with color. Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were novel for several reasons, the biggest being that they were the first games in the franchise not made by Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons were dubbed “an adventure too big for just one game,” and, surprising everyone, they delivered on that promise. That year, Nintendo’s wildly popular Game Boy Color would get a pair of new Zelda games, riding the wave started by their Nintendo 64 predecessors. Join us on our journey through The Legend of Zelda series, from the original 1986 game to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and beyond.Įxcept, there was. In 2023, Polygon is embarking on a Zeldathon. ![]()
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