Played on 3DS Virtual Console

Following the success of two of the most celebrated entries in the Legend of Zelda series, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, Nintendo quickly came out with the next two titles in the series: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. This almost felt like a step back for the series, given how ambitious the two Nintendo 64 titles were, but it’s important to remember that these two games were released on the GameBoy Color, which had very limited hardware capabilities. So, these games actually were pretty ambitious for that handheld, but I don’t think that exempts them from scrutiny. Although Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages are separate games, they were released at the same time, and so they are linked, much in the same way that many of the Pokemon games are released. The two games are apparently meant to be played one after the other (although it doesn’t matter which one you play first), and then they’re supposed to be linked with a password so that you can play one final linked section. I’ll say up front that, as of the time of writing this review, I have only played Oracle of Seasons. I plan on playing Oracle of Ages at some point, but as of right now I can’t speak to the linked experience of the games. As such, this will only be a review of Oracle of Seasons as a standalone experience.

Oracle of Seasons sees Link in the land of Holodrum. The villain this time around is named Onox, who winds up capturing Din, the Oracle of Seasons. This throws the seasons into disarray within Holodrum. To save Din and defeat Onox, Link must collect the eight Essences of Nature, which are located in eight different dungeons throughout Holodrum. Around this point, the stories in a lot of the Zelda games weren’t fully fleshed out, so this is a pretty bare-bones plot that’s mainly just there to set up the gameplay. I’m not criticizing the game for this though. It’s just a product of the time, and so I only mention it to those of you that may have played a newer Zelda game and were hoping for a richer story. You won’t find it here.

The gameplay in Oracle of Seasons is also pretty cookie-cutter for the series. It most heavily follows the format of Link’s Awakening (which I think is a slightly better game, so play that over this if you haven’t already), the Zelda GameBoy game that came before this. I’ll offer a brief explanation for any newcomers, but I don’t really think it’s necessary to go too in-depth since it’s not that original, and I doubt many people will play this game as their first Zelda game. Anyway, basically you explore the overworld from a top-down perspective. While there are other things you do throughout the overworld, your primary goal is to find the next dungeon. In these dungeons, you’ll find a handy new item, fight a mini-boss, and then fight the main dungeon boss before getting the dungeon’s Essence of Nature. Link can then use any new items or abilities he’s gotten to open up new areas of the world and do other new things. It’s pretty standard for a Zelda game, so if you’ve played one before you won’t be too lost here.

The main “gimmick” that’s original to Oracle of Seasons is the functionality of the seasons. In a similar vein to how you had to manipulate time in Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask, in Oracle of Seasons you manipulate the seasons, unsurprisingly. While it’s not my favorite Zelda gimmick, I find that it’s the thing that helps this game stand out the most. Basically, every screen on the overworld will look different depending on what season it is, and so some will allow you to pass by easier than others. You don’t gain control over every season right away, so you won’t be able to do everything at the start of the game, but over time you can change things up enough so that you can do things differently. It didn’t necessarily add a ton to the game for me, but it was cool enough that it helped it stand out.

The other main additions are that Link can collect rings in this game. When equipped, they affect his stats differently. This is most similar to wearing the masks in Majora’s Mask, but for some reason it just wasn’t as satisfying here. Most of the effects are just kind of standard, and so if I’m being honest I didn’t even really bother with this system that much. It doesn’t have much of an effect on the game.

While it’s hard to be impressed by the graphics of a GameBoy Color game nowadays, I will say that Oracle of Seasons looks better than I remember a lot of games on the system looking. I’m not going to say it looks amazing or anything, but everything is at least visually appealing. The music does leave a little to be desired though. As I’m writing this, I honestly can’t remember any particular tune in Oracle of Seasons, whereas all you need to do is say the words “Gerudo Valley” to me and I’ll recall the memorable tune from Ocarina of Time. I don’t think the music here is bad or anything, it’s just not quite the same level of quality as I’d hope for.

I think it goes without saying, but if you come off of playing one of the console Zeldas before playing Oracle of Seasons like I did, just don’t expect it to be nearly as long of a game. This is a GameBoy Color game, so I wasn’t expecting it to be very long, but it winded up taking me about 14 hours to beat. To be honest, I’m perfectly fine with a game like this being that length, as I would have felt like going past that would have dragged on too much. I love the length of the longer console games, but for this it was better off being a smaller experience. There actually isn’t really a ton of sidequests in this game, and even some of the normal sidequests like collecting heart pieces wind up not taking as long (there are only 12 to collect in this game). So, you really do spend most of your time playing through the main game.

I might sound slightly negative here, but in the end I did still enjoy Oracle of Seasons. I think the best way to explain this is the moment I realized how I really felt about the game. I was telling somebody that I’ve been playing the game, and they asked me how it was. I thought about it for a moment, and then just replied “I mean…it’s Zelda.” And that’s really all it is. Zelda games have a pretty assured level of quality usually, and so Oracle of Seasons follows the Zelda formula just fine and ends up producing a pretty decent adventure as a result. However, because the Zelda series has such a high level of quality, many people have come to expect more and more each time. The series has had a history of continuing to innovate with each new entry, and Oracle of Seasons just doesn’t really do that. After the Nintendo 64 games revolutionized the series, it was just hard to take a step back and play a Zelda game that’s just doing the bare minimum.

So, with that, here’s where my final recommendations come in. I’ll try to address as many types of audiences as possible. If you’ve never played a Zelda game, don’t start here. Play a different game in the series, either one of the 3D ones or one of the earlier entries in the series (A Link to the Past will always be my personal favorite). If you have played Zelda games before and hated them, then Oracle of Seasons isn’t likely going to convert you. If you’re only trying to play the absolute best games in the series, then skip this one. There are definitely many other games that I would recommend over this, as it’s probably one of my least favorite entries in the series. If you’re a casual fan of the series, this one isn’t one of the required ones. However, if you are a diehard Zelda fan and haven’t played Oracle of Seasons, then go for it. I stand by the fact that there is still a lot of enjoyment to be had with the game. The only problem ends up being that it doesn’t stand out as well as some of the other games in the series. Otherwise, it’s still a Zelda game, and so in the end it winds up being pretty good.

3.5/5