The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

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, also known as OoS, is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Nintendo in conjunction with Capcom. Although the game was originally released for use on the Nintendo Game Boy Color, it exhibits special features, such as additional items, when played on a Nintendo Game Boy Advance.

Gameplay

This game is the counterpart of , which was released at the same time. These two games have the ability to link with one another, using either passwords or a cable, so that a person could play one game, and then transfer his or her progress to the other game. In addition, this is the only way to reach the "true" ending of the game. These two games were originally going to be themed parts of the Triforce Trilogy along with . Each of the three games originally had a piece of the Triforce and one of its qualities (Wisdom, Power, Courage) assigned to them. This idea was scrapped relatively late in the development process, and the games were re-branded to remove all mention of this Triforce theme.

The biggest difference between Seasons and Ages is that each focuses on a different aspect of the classic Zelda formula: Ages is puzzle-heavy while Seasons is action-oriented. It's worth mentioning that Seasons and Ages are fully self-contained games that can be played and completed without each other.

Story

Deep inside the Temple of the Triforce, Link slowly approached the golden relic when a voice called out to him. Without warning, he was sucked into a vortex that tossed him out into a dark forest where upon landing, the young hero heard music and voices from just beyond a group of trees. In a clearing, a group of traveling entertainers were cheering a beautiful red head who was dancing around a fire. The dancer motioned to Link for him to join her. She welcomed the Hylian to Holodrum, and mentioned that her name was Din. Din took Link's hand and the two began to dance around the fire. Din notices a strange triangle mark on Link's hand, but won't say much about it... The other people started cheering them on, but the happy moment was short lived.

The sky over the forest became covered in black clouds followed by several strikes of lightning and booming thunder from which an ominous voice spoke. The speaker declared himself as Onox, General of Darkness and added that Din was the Oracle of Seasons.

After his short speech, a funnel cloud dropped from the sky blowing back everyone including Link before sucking up Din into its dark heights. As the tornado dissipated, the seasons of Holodrum fell into disarray with them changing rapidly.

The Rod of Seasons is a powerful item that holds some of the power of the Oracle of Seasons, Din. The item is hidden in the world of Subrosia where it is said that the Temple of Seasons is buried. When obtained, swinging the rod results in a change of season.

The lands of Holodrum and Subrosia

Oracle of Seasons features two worlds, Holodrum and Subrosia.

Holodrum is much larger than Labrynna in , but it has no underwater or Past to explore. However it does have the tiny subterranean world of Subrosia beneath it—the name is derived from , meaning "secret", and the people of Subrosia are very secretive about their rare movements on the overworld.

Subrosia acts as a go-between with the upper world, with shortcut portals to take Link to different parts of Holodrum quickly; similarly, warping to a different location on the overworld can lead to different Subrosia portals to access isolated areas of Subrosia that cannot be reached via the underground plane alone.

Characters

• Link, as always, (apart from Wand of Camalon and Zelda's Adventure) is the hero of the game.
• Princess Zelda requests that Link saves the Oracle of Seasons, yet unknowingly also a target as she is the key to releasing Ganon.
• Impa is Zelda's messenger.
• The Maku Tree is a large magical tree similar to the Great Deku Tree.
• Din the Oracle of Seasons who was captured by Onox General of Darkness and must be saved by Link.

Development

Links to Oracle of Ages

Upon completing Oracle of Seasons, players will receive a 20-character password. Upon starting a new game, players can input the password to play an alternative version of . The alternative version features people who will mention passwords. Upon telling these passwords to people in Oracle of Seasons, their Oracle of Seasons file will receive items of some sort. Then, by taking a new password back into Oracle of Ages, the new item can be brought to the game. Rings can also be traded this way, either by password or by Link Cable.

The alternative game also has many extras. Some items move around and must be found in different places. Princess Zelda appears and must be rescued. The pirates appear in a different place, and in the alternative version of Oracle of Seasons, it is mentioned that the pirate captain was the long-lost lover the Oracle of Ages character Queen Ambi has been waiting for. Also, once Veran is defeated, the witch Twinrova appears. Veran and Onox were ploys to light the Flames of Sorrow and Destruction. Upon kidnapping Princess Zelda, the third Flame of Despair lights, and Twinrova attempts to offer Zelda as a tribute, along with the energy of the three Flames, to revive Ganon. Link must then enter Twinrova's lair and stop the ritual. Upon completing the alternative game, players receive yet another password. When used to start a new game, players receive the Victory Ring, which commemorates their defeat of Ganon.

Manga

The official but non-canonical manga introduced plot-lines and characters that were un-indentified in the original game. It introduced Link's grandparents and established that he lived in the country with them. It also introduced more of Din's troupe and gave names to the unidentified characters. They included Johvan the troupe leader, Barrot the guitarist, Mel and Rom, tamborine-playing twin sisters, and finally Jonvan's son Rishu, who aspires to become a fighter. Also included was a small Cucco chick named Pyoko, who acted as one of Link's companions.

Reception

Gamespot gave Oracle of Seasons a 9.2, like its counterpart Oracle of Ages, and IGN gave it their perfect rating of 10.

Notes and references

External links

• [The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons official site]
• [Collection of reviews of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons]
• [The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons] at MobyGames
• [Legend of Zelda:Oracle of Seasons- cheat codes and walkthrough]

 

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