The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages & Seasons

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons are a pair of classics that were designed to be played in any order, with linked gameplay: beat one, and you can carry over progress to the other for the true ending. Ages focuses on time travel, with Link hopping between past and present to solve puzzles and reshape history. Seasons, on the other hand, lets Link control, you guessed it, the seasons, changing the environment to progress. Both games drop Link into new lands (Labrynna in Ages, Holodrum in Seasons) with fresh villains (Veran, the Sorceress of Shadows, and Onox, the General of Darkness) instead of the usual Ganon shenanigans, he’s not totally absent tho.  

The core gameplay is classic top-down Zelda, but each game has its own flavor. Ages leans heavier on puzzles, with time-based mechanics that’ll make your brain work overtime. Seasons is more action-oriented, with season-changing altering terrain, freeze a river in winter to cross, grow vines in spring to climb, etc. Both have unique items: Ages gives you the Time-Shifting Harp, while Seasons hands you the Rod of Seasons. The dungeons reflect their themes too, Ages has more intricate, cerebral layouts, while Seasons' dungeons often rely on environmental manipulation.  

The games also have version-exclusive content. Certain items, side quests, and even characters differ between them. For example, Ages has the Maku Seed side quest, while Seasons has the Sunken City quest. These games have creative mechanics, and that addictive «one more dungeon» vibe. However, Ages can feel sluggish if you’re not into backtracking and puzzle-heavy design, while Seasons might disappoint if you crave deeper story beats.

The biggest gripe? Some puzzles are obtuse, expect to bomb random walls or talk to NPCs five times to progress. Also, the Ring Collection system (equippable buffs) is cool but feels underutilized. Still, the games hold up surprisingly well. If you dig old-school Zelda, these are must-plays, just be ready for some jank. And hey, playing both is the real move; neither feels complete alone!

So, I’ve got some awesome patches fixing some of the jank that made Oracle of Ages and Seasons feel a little dated. The underwater tweaks alone make Ages way less frustrating, and the font patch is just a straight upgrade.

The GBA version of these games had minor tweaks: lighter colors to compensate for the GBA’s dim screen, and an exclusive shop with a few extra rings. There's a patch that forces the game to boot in GBA mode without needing a GBA; paired with the palettes patches, they let you keep the original palettes while still enabling the other enhancements. Best of both worlds!

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons