The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages

In Oracle of Seasons, the environment changes with the season. From top left going clockwise: spring, summer, winter, autumn. Gameplay is sometimes affected by the seasons; during the winter for example, a path opens up that cannot be accessed during any other season; or during spring, the flower can be used to access otherwise unreachable ledges.

The gameplay of Oracle of Seasons and Ages is similar to that of Link's Awakening (1993) for Game Boy, copying basic controls, graphics, and sounds.[5][6] Like most Legend of Zelda games, exploration and combat take place from an overhead perspective. Link uses a sword for his primary attack, complemented by secondary weapons and items. Basic items such as bombs and a boomerang are common to both games. Other items are exclusive to one game, with a counterpart in the other (e.g., the slingshot in Seasons and the seed shooter in Ages both shoot seeds, while the magnetic gloves in Seasons and the switch hook in Ages are used to access otherwise unreachable areas). Unlike most Zelda games, a sword and shield is not always equipped when the player possesses them; they can be assigned like any other item into either of two available slots. Most of each of the games is spent finding the eight Essences hidden in dungeons—large, usually underground, areas containing enemies and puzzles. Each dungeon culminates with a boss that guards the Essence.[7][8]

When not in a dungeon, Link explores the overworld. In Seasons, the overworld consists of Holodrum and the subterranean world of Subrosia inhabited by the dwarf-like Subrosian people. The two worlds are linked by several portals. In Ages, Link travels between present-day Labrynna and the past, connected by Time Holes. In either game, some areas of one world are accessible only from portals from the other and vice versa. Holodrum, Subrosia, and Labrynna contain optional side quests and upgrades for Link and his equipment. One such side quest is ring collection. Rings provide Link with various bonuses and abilities, such as improved defense. Other rings have no practical uses or effects, e.g. rings that weaken Link's attack or defense, or transform Link into an enemy creature. Another side quest is the optional trading game, in which Link receives and delivers special items to certain people throughout the land. Once completed, Link receives an upgraded sword. In both games, there are many circumstances when a previous item can be upgraded into a more useful form. The latter three dungeons in both games will hold a more powerful version of an item received earlier in the game. Both the sword's offensive power and the shield's defensive abilities can be upgraded twice.[9]

The central item of Oracle of Seasons is the Rod of Seasons. By standing on a stump and swinging the rod, Link can change the season and affect his surroundings.[10] For example, to cross a body of water, Link can change the season to winter and walk on the ice. Changing the season to summer causes vines to flourish, which Link can use to scale cliffs. When Link obtains the rod, he initially cannot use it.[11] In the course of the game, Link visits four towers that house the four spirits of the seasons; each tower Link visits allows him to switch to an additional season.[11]

In Oracle of Ages, the central item is the Harp of Ages, which Link uses to manipulate time and travel between the past and the present.[12] In the course of the game, Link learns three tunes to play on the harp. The Tune of Echoes activates Time Portals at fixed locations, the Tune of Currents enables Link to travel from the past to the present without a Time Portal, and the Tune of Ages allows Link to switch between the two time periods at almost any location on the map.

In early 1999, Yoshiki Okamoto, then head of Capcom's screenwriter subsidiary Flagship, proposed remaking the original The Legend of Zelda for the Game Boy Color to Shigeru Miyamoto, the game designer at Nintendo who created the series.[1][29][30][31] Okamoto wanted to remake the original game so that young children could play it, but also as a test for the development team to move on to a more ambitious sequel if it was successful.[1][32][33]

Okamoto wanted to work on games and follow them up with sequels in four to five months, including Zelda games in this workflow.[32] According to reporting by IGN, Okamoto was asked to develop six Zelda games for the Game Boy Color: two based on earlier installments and four original entries,[34] but Okamoto disputed this.[35]

Contrary to Miyamoto's design mentality of creating the gameplay system first, development started out with the scenario writing, which Flagship was in charge of.[33] Some of the staff members, including the team led by director and designer Hidemaro Fujibayashi that was responsible for tasks other than the storyline, wanted to skip the remake and create an original Zelda game right away.[1][34][33] As the original game was deemed too difficult for the new generation of players, more and more changes were applied to the point where it had an entirely different world map.[29] As a result, the team ran into problems because the scenario and the maps had to be reworked constantly to make all the modifications match.[33] The Game Boy Color's screen presented an additional hurdle when attempting to rework the earlier Zelda game as it was narrower than that of a television; players could not view an entire room without scrolling, which made it easy to overlook stairways or clues on walls.[33]

Dismayed by the lack of progress, Okamoto asked Miyamoto for help, who proposed a trilogy of games, each with a different focus on gameplay elements.[29][33] This trilogy was referred to as the "Triforce Series",[36] named after the Triforce,[37] a relic that plays a role in many Zelda games. The Triforce is composed of three parts: the Triforces of Power, Wisdom, and Courage; each game in the trilogy was going to be associated with a piece of the Triforce, with one game being the conversion of the original The Legend of Zelda.[37][38] The first game was demonstrated at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show in 1999, under the working title Fushigi no Kinomi – Chikara no Shō (ふしぎの木の実 ～力の章～).[39] This action-oriented game concerned Ganon's theft of Princess Zelda and the "Rod of the Seasons", which threw the seasons of Hyrule into chaos[40][41]—a precursor to the plot of Oracle of Seasons. In the playable demonstration, Link solved puzzles by using the Rod of the Seasons to manipulate the environment and change the current season. Chie no Shō, which focused on color-based puzzles, and Yūki no Shō, which used the times of day to solve puzzles in a mechanic similar to the use of seasons, were not shown.[36][37] In the US, the games became Mystical Seed of Power, Mystical Seed of Wisdom, and Mystical Seed of Courage.[42]

The games interacted with each other: players could begin with any of the three games and have the actions of the first game affect the story of the other two, a concept conceived by Okamoto.[29][43] More than ten of Flagship's scenarists, among them Resident Evil writer Junichi Miyashita, worked on the three stories.[29][44][45] The developers considered using a cell phone adapter to transfer data, but decided on a password system.[36] The limitations of this system and the difficulty of coordinating three games proved too complicated, so the project was scaled back to two games at Miyamoto's suggestion.[33][46] Condensing the games into a single cartridge was never considered, as the prospect of multiple endings and the added replay value afforded by the ability to play the games in either order was too important.[33] Oracle of Seasons was adapted from Mystical Seed of Power, Oracle of Ages was adapted from Mystical Seed of Courage, and Mystical Seed of Wisdom was canceled.[36]

These sweeping design changes pushed the release dates closer to the release of the Game Boy Advance (GBA), the next system in the Game Boy line that is backward compatible with Game Boy Color games. The team considered adding special functionality to the game triggered only when played on a GBA, but was afraid that the additional development time required for the addition would cause the games to be released after the GBA.[33] When the release date of the GBA was postponed, the team was able to incorporate GBA functionality and release the games approximately a month before the GBA was released.[33] Staggered releases were abandoned in favor of releasing the games simultaneously. This made it easier for the team to test the interaction between the games and keep the style consistent.[33] Each game was shipped on an 8-megabit (16-megabit in Europe) cartridge.[47][48] The music was composed by two employees of the Japanese music and sound effect production company Pure Sound, credited under the pseudonyms "M-Adachi" and "Kyopi".[49] Nintendo artist and series regular Yusuke Nakano designed the characters, and incorporated previous creations from Ocarina of Time into Oracle of Seasons and characters from Majora's Mask into Oracle of Ages.[49][50]

Oracle of Seasons and Ages were critical and commercial successes, selling 3.96 million copies each.[60][61] In Japan, they were the third best selling Game Boy Color game, with 746,054 copies sold.[62] Reviews were strongly positive: Chris Carle of IGN said that Seasons and Ages were "the best games ever made for the Game Boy Color",[58] and Craig Majaski of Gaming Age called them "the two best games ever to grace a handheld system".[63] GameSpot presented Ages and Seasons, collectively, with its annual "Best Game Boy Color Game" award.[64] It was rated the 34th (Seasons) and 39th (Ages) best games made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.[65] In August 2008, Nintendo Power listed Oracle of Seasons and Ages as the fourth and fifth best Game Boy/Game Boy Color video games respectively.[66] The games placed joint 57th in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.[67] Game Informer's Ben Reeves called them the 10th best Game Boy games collectively.[68] The interconnection was seen as one of the highlight features. The ability to play the games in reverse order after completion increases the replay value, as does trading passwords between the two. GamesRadar listed The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons / Ages as one of the games they want in the 3DS Virtual Console;[69] both Oracle of Ages and Seasons were later released on the platform on May 30, 2013.[70]

During the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Oracle of Seasons for "Hand-Held Game of the Year", while Oracle of Ages was nominated for "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year".[71]

Critics enjoyed the graphics; GamePro called Seasons "bright and colorful" with "surprisingly expressive and well-designed" animations,[56] and Gaming Target said Ages is "beautiful and creative", with "meticulous attention to detail".[72] Gaming Age called both games "the pinnacle of good graphics on the Game Boy Color system".[63] Although the two share graphics to a large extent, Seasons is distinguished by swapping the color palette to reflect the current season. IGN felt that the expressive colors used for the changing seasons made Seasons the more graphically impressive of the two.[58]

Reviews of the audio were mixed. Reviewers noted that the sound was hampered by the poor quality of the Game Boy Color's speakers,[56] although it fared favorably compared with other games for the system.[57] The selection of songs was praised for complementing familiar Zelda songs and sounds with new music. The Zelda theme and the traditional sound effect played upon solving a puzzle were considered welcome additions,[63][72][73][74] but other sound effects were criticized as simplistic "beeps".[73][75][76]

Two game books were released based on the games as part of the Nintendo You Decide on the Adventure series by Scholastic. Both were written by Craig Wessel and based on the events in the games with few minor differences. The first one, based on Oracle of Seasons, was published in October 2001.[77] The second, based on Oracle of Ages, was published in January 2002.[78]

• Oracle of Seasons and Ages manga

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• Oracle of Seasons in the Nintendo store
• Oracle of Ages in the Nintendo store