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This originally appeared on Games of November 2019 with some updates and edits.

When I first wrote the review (in 2015) for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (hereafter known as "Seasons") I seemed more excited about the times I played it rather than the game itself, and promised more of the same for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (hereafter known as "Ages").

While each game is different (no, it's not like Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue) and the game you play next functions as "part two" of the last game, I always played Seasons first. I realize that playing Ages after Seasons denies you the revelation that the pirate captain is Queen Ambi's lost lover, but while playing Seasons was charming, Ages just seemed like a chore. Running around activating the specific portals from the past to present (they aren't in the same place), irritating sequences between dungeons (and you thought the Subrosian Dance was hard), some unmemorable dungeons, and other things add up to make it a frustrating experience. To me, I think it's because Link's Awakening was a solid 2D adventure in the vein of A Link to the Past but scaled for the Game Boy, with Oracle of Seasons expanding on it, utilizing the assets but adding many things to it (seeds, mechanics, Maple, minigames, etc.). Unfortuantely, Ages strips what made LA and Seasons good and expounds on the nonsense that makes Seasons weaker than it could've been.

Moreover, the items are so much worse in Oracle of Ages. Roc's Feather no longer has an upgrade (the amazing Roc's Cape), but the Power Bracelet does, in favor of the Power Gloves, which, like Link's Awakening have zero use outside of their dungeon. The Slingshot is ditched in favor of the Seed Shooter, which is clumsy and slow, and the Magnetic Gloves (which was one of the weaker items of Seasons, to be fair) are replaced with the Switch Hook, an item like the Hook Shot, but even more useless with no real offensive capabilities. The Cane of Somaria makes a re-appearance, but the worst item is the Mermaid Suit, an upgrade to Zora's Flippers that actually makes navigating underwater WORSE by forcing you to continuously tap the direction you want to go. The Boomerang not only has no upgrades but you don't get it until near the end of the game.

The big showdown with Ganon (if you play a linked game) is underwhelming, there's no additional dungeons to crawl through and Ganon is pretty easy, especially if you got the "Level 3" Sword (the Master Sword) through a linked game. At the end of the linked game, you do get a password to play the game "normally" to get the rest of the rings and see everything you might have missed, but playing games again without allowing you to skip or do portions easier (like many of the "New Game +" features of Square Soft games) is for suckers. All they give you is one extra heart!

There are a few more things I wanted to mention. One thing is the complicated development of the game with originally three games rather than two, with one of them being a remake of the original The Legend of Zelda. Very little of this shows up in the games due to the development cycle, though Gnarled Root Dungeon's exterior and its boss are the leftovers of it.

FINAL RATING:   

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