The Oracle of Ages
The Oracle of Ages is one of the two adventures developed by Flagship and published by Nintendo. Unlike Pokemon games where there are generally an initial release of two titles that are very similar normally just a few different pocket monsters Zelda - The Oracle of Seasons and Ages both differ quite greatly. The Oracle of Seasons is more action orientated while The Oracle of Ages is more of a puzzle solver.
The Story
The Triforce calls Link whom is transported to the dark depths of the forest in Labrynna after following a beckoning. Alarmed by a loud scream Link finds a woman cornered by evil minions scared by the presence of The Hero of Time. After rescuing the maiden known as Impa the two venture on to find a young woman with blue hair singing on a tree stump named Nayru. Veran emerges from Impa's body an Evil Sorceress of Shadows and possesses the body of Nayru. The abduction of Nayru's body sent the land of Labrynna into mayhem and the flow of time is disrupted. Link must retrieve the Eight Essences of Time to defeat the Evil Sorceress Veran.
The Oracle of Seasons/Ages Reception
The Oracle of Seasons and Ages were rated commercially as successful selling just fewer than 4 million copies each. Reviews from most gaming magazines were quite positive some evaluations being "best games made for the Gameboy Color" - I wouldn't disagree with that. Nintendo Official Magazines' poll of 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time voted in The Oracle of Seasons and Ages at a joint 57th place. The highlights being the interconnection between both titles and the ability to play the games in any order making for a replay value transferring passwords.
The Development of The Oracles
Nintendo and Capcom both collaborated developing originally 6 Zelda Gameboy Color titles - two that were based on already previously released titles and four fresh new works. Designing faced several problems however firstly initial ideas were to release the games in a relatively speedy progression of several months between each. Since Nintendo don't like to rush things and always produce quality this was not to be the case and Flagship were involved for designing scenarios for upcoming Zelda releases. Flagship were constantly changing the scenarios and map designing as orders from Shigeru Miyamoto. The screen of The Gameboy Color presented early issues when trying to recreate existing Zelda titles for instance clues and stairways could be overlooked because the screen is much narrower than that of a television.
The early development resulted in games of three known as "The Triforce Series". The Triforce represents Power, Wisdom and Courage. The first game to be aired was at Spaceworld 1999 with the working title The Legend of Zelda - The Acorn of The Mystery Tree: Tale of Power. This was to be an action orientated game with Gannon Kidnapping Zelda along with The Rod of Seasons. These actions caused by The King of Gerudos threw Hyrule into a fit of frenzy resulting into a catastrophic changes in seasons across the land. Obviously you can see where this idea went on to with the final development in The Oracle of Seasons. There was a Tale of Wisdom which featured colour based puzzle elements and finally The Tale of Courage of which was not shown but was to solve puzzles later on to be used in The Oracle of Seasons. In Japan title were changed to The Legend of Zelda - The Mysterious Acorn, Chapter of Power and Chapter of Courage while the American gamers would have been treated to Mystical Seed of Power, Mystical Seed of Wisdom and Mystical Seed of Courage.
The games could be played in any order and featured the same password system used in the final games although it was considered using a mobile phone adapter to transfer data which was dropped. The difficulty of development originally planning 3 games proved far too great so Flagship decided to draw back to 2 games. More than one game was always the case as they wanted different endings replay value to come as a big aspect. The Mystical Seed of Courage was completely cancelled and the other games were adapted into the final releases that we know and love today The Oracle of Seasons and Ages.
Since there were such great changes in development the release date was delayed for The Gameboy Color and the addition of The Gameboy Advance to Nintendo's handheld console was pretty imminent. In the light of backwards compatibility for The Gameboy Advance meant Gameboy and Gameboy Color games could be played on the new system. The Oracle of Seasons and Ages were developed so that new features were included once the game cartridges were played on a Gameboy Advance since the initial delay of the new handheld console the development was on schedule for the new additions.
Essential Zelda Purchases
The Oracle of Ages and Seasons do essentially have to be purchased together to experience the most enjoyable pleasure out of the whole adventure. If you have not played these before then I would highly recommend them some of the best puzzles and action used in Zelda games ever made. The Characters are funny and along with some fan favourites from The Ocarina of Time there are various new ones like Maple The Witch who appears every so often make sure you don't let her steal your rupees but make sure you grab her prized possessions sometimes dropping potions for health. Quite possibly this is one of the first times The Zelda games must be played more than once to get the best out of it. I think they really went all out war for this and it paid off both games differentiating so vastly makes for a similar style but an extension to the amount of hours spent playing the Oracles. If you haven't go these games what are you waiting for or if you have maybe reading this will make you want to play them again, works for me.
Sounds: Nothing special but it was the Gameboy Color and sound is a bit part for you then it's not going to blow you away. I was happy to hear the Zelda Theme Music return though!
Graphics: Not much has changed in style to Link's Awakening, addition of colour slightly more detailed, quite crisp on the Gameboy Color screen. I would suggest playing this on a Gameboy Advance SP to get the best out of it and benefit yourself with the use of a backlight wherever you are.
Replayability: This has to be played along with Seasons a few times over so there is more to come back to and try collecting all the rings now there's a challenge.
I Award The Oracle of Ages: 8/10
Facts & SecretsPlay this adventure on The Gameboy Advance and a special shop will be available to the advance ring. If you attack a cuccoo enough times he will call for help and a swam will swoop for Link. Just exit the screen to make for a swift exit. |