Game Review: "The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of the Seasons"

Game: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of the Seasons
Director: Hidemaro Fujibayashi
Publisher: Nintendo
LB Rating: 5/5

Aptly named--this game is legendary.

A common thread in all art and literature I thoroughly enjoy is deliberate design. I will always appreciate when all the elements of the art or literature piece are intentionally placed, guided by a coherent thematic design in view of a meaningful goal. Conversely, I tend to consider fillers as waste of time. I like a piece where I am convinced to check out every nook and cranny because I know that each detail contributes to the grand meaning.

Oracle of the Seasons is exactly that.

When that theme kicks in, you know an epic adventure is incoming.

In general, Oracle of the Seasons tasks the player the ultimate quest: rescue Din, the Oracle of the Seasons, and restore order in Hyrule. The main quest is presented in quite a straightforward manner. At the onset, the Maku Tree tells the player the general direction of where to go for the entire time. However, player does not simply walk from dungeon to the other. The Maku Tree directions are vague--when the player gets to the directed part of the map, it is still necessary to figure out which tile, among the ten or so tiles, contains the entrance to the dungeon. Even then, there are roadblocks.

General Onox rudely interrupts your dance off with Din.

Wakey-wakey Mr. Maku Tree!

There also side quests such as the Trading Sequence, Golden Beasts, and the Piratians. These side quests are not filler quests, like those random dungeons in Skyrim or delivery missions in Assassin's Creed. In Oracle of the Seasons, each side quest either rewards the player with a significant power boost or actually progress in the main quest. For example, the Trading Sequence ultimately nets the player the Noble Sword, which makes the fights easier than with the Wooden Sword. The side quests are scattered across the map. Side quests are also ridden by roadblocks, but sometimes, the side quests themselves are the roadblocks to the main quest.

Roadblocks, be it simply learning how to push aside a large stone or even getting a large undead ship to serve as a bridge, constitute a significant part of the game. To overcome them, the player has to assess the present equipment and think creatively how to use them; or to check whether help can be obtained from characters.

Equipment interaction with the environment plays a huge role in solving roadblocks. Holes can be jumped over through the Roc's Feather. Boulders can be pushed over or lifted up through the Power Bracelet. The most interesting equipment among the others is the Rod of Seasons. This item can switch seasons: spring, summer, autumn, or winter. The thing about the overworld is that each tile or area has a different version according to the present season. Each season solves roadblocks in certain tiles. In spring, giant trampoline flowers bloom. During summer, climbable vines grow and bodies of water dry up. Come autumn, leaves cover holes creating treadable paths, and rock mushrooms blocking paths may be moved. In winter, snow build up creates high paths to previously inaccessible areas. The player must use all these tools to get to places in the overworld.

The Rod of Seasons is the most impactful and interesting equipment of the game, second to Roc's Cape.

The player is not granted all the necessary equipment at the beginning of the game. Actually, the player has nothing in the beginning. This is where dungeons come into the picture. Storywise, the player is instructed to go through dungeons to retrieve Essences that reinvigorate nature, which restores the strength of the Maku Tree. Once the Maku Tree is fully replenished, it gives the player the Huge Maku Seed which allows the player to enter the final dungeon and defeat the final bosses.

Through the Maku Seed, the player is able to get into the Onox Castle.

Gameplay-wise however, the dungeons serve as the places to acquire equipment. The first dungeon, which is the Hero's Cave, is where the player gets the Wooden Sword. Brandishing the Wooden Sword opens the gate to the Maku Tree and begins the main quest. The dungeons are the source and testing grounds for the equipment. Completing dungeons are the definitive markers for progress in Oracle of the Seasons.

Before the player gets to Onox Castle, the player must go through the Hero's Cave and ten Dungeon Levels to obtain the equipment found therein.

Dungeons in Oracle of the Seasons are giant puzzles. Conceptually, dungeons follow a principal blueprint: 1. Get a key, 2. Backtrack and use the key to open a previously locked room that contains the new equipment, 3. Backtrack to previously inaccessible rooms using the new equipment, 4. Defeat the mini-boss, 5. Get the boss key, 6. Defeat the final boss, 7. Get the Essence. 

Each Essence reinvigorates the Maku Tree.

I don't speak for everyone, but the dungeons (except the first three) were mentally challenging for me. Perhaps it's because in playing games, I rely more on my intuition more so than my memory. That said, the part that I usually had a hard time is the backtracking. The way dungeons work conceptually requires that I memorize the rooms I could not get into first, and get back to them once I get the item. As the difficulty of the dungeons increase, dungeons place more inaccessible rooms or the paths to them become complicated, resulting in more things to memorize. I am quite bad at memory work, so I had to be patient with these. In the end, my dungeon experience is ridden with confusion more so than mechanical difficulty.

This is the entrance to the most confusing dungeon, the Sword and Shield Maze (Level 10).

This is not to say that they are not enjoyable. Even if the backtracking is a pain in my neck, I liked the upfront mental challenges the dungeons pose. I liked the room puzzles, such as those involving replacing statues or ice blocks, and navigating tight mazes filled with Chasers or blade traps. I also enjoyed the huge puzzles which become the main piece to the dungeon's difficulty, like the alternate revolving roundabout or the mine carts. Any time I use the Magnetic Glove to move about or to flip a switch, I feel elated.

This puzzle was really clever.

My dumbass took so much time figuring this one out.

Another creative statue puzzle? Sign me in!

It was so fun seeing the game explore the uses of the magnetic ball.

Some puzzles are uninspired, like this one.

What I do not have patience were the platforming shtick that requires precise movement. I hated any sort of sliding floors, especially those sliding blocks in the underground paths (looking at you Sword and Shield Maze). I also do not like getting through moving platforms (with random moving Keeses or spiked floors that knock me off) and collapsing floors (yeah I know the ring exists).

This is not puzzle-related, but I also hate the rooms with Magnites. The fireballs that these assholes shoot hit me easier just because I attract them closer using the Magnetic Glove. And when I swipe my sword, they move away just in time. Asses, each one of them.

Speaking of fights, dungeon mobs are generally easy. Usually, sword slashes are enough. The Boomerang and the Magnetic Glove may be used at times, but they are mostly optional. 

How about bosses? Well, they are generally easy. It is usually a matter of figuring out which equipment is required to defeat the boss during the times when the sword slash doesn't cut it. The Dodongo battle required bombs and the Power Bracelet. The Digdogger battle, the Magnetic Glove. The Mandhandla, the Magic Boomerang. The fight with General Onox took me a while because I didn't realize sooner that he only takes damage from spin attacks and that the Rod of Seasons is required.

Using the Rod of Seasons did not come to me naturally.

The other bosses were pretty much spam-the-sword-button. The last boss battle with the Dark Dragon was underwhelming because all I had to do was jump on the hand, charge a spin attack, then release the attack while jumping. The attacks of Dark Dragon were easily to dodge. Actually, it might have been because the Roc's Cape is overpowered in this game. Not to mention I had the Noble Sword and the Power Ring equipped at the time. Still though, the spam-slash fights were not physically demanding.

The entire fight involves alternating between dodging its attacks and slashing its head off.

However, boss battles are still mechanically intensive if compared with the usual fights in Oracle of the Seasons. The most mechanical intensive fight in my opinion was the Manhandla fight, which was virtually irritating. In that fight, I had to control the trajectory of the Magic Boomerang while dodging the homing fireballs from four different sources while navigating on moving floors. That's quite an overload of movements to control in a span of a few minutes.

The fight against Manhandla was the most annoying fight in Oracle of the Seasons.

Gleeok was also mechanically intensive. I had a hard time at first only because I tried to hit both heads as fast as I can. The fight became somewhat easier when I slowed down and actually time-dodged its attacks. The Frypolar mini-boss is another action-packed fight in my opinion but waiting for the ice spike attacks then chucking it back to Frypolar was really fun. The Digdogger fight was also enjoyable until I learned of the exploit with the metal spiked ball.

What this means is that I think the dungeons do not revolve around their respective bosses. They are a mere cherry on top of the actual challenge of the dungeons, which is the puzzle-solving and memorization. In contrast, a lot of areas in Dark Souls are defined by the difficulty of the boss fights. In Anor Londo, the hard part is not getting to the boss room, but actually defeating the boss: Ornstein and Smough. I think that this is not the philosophy of boss fights in the Oracle of the Seasons. This game, after all, was not made for masochistic veteran gamers.

From the main quest, the overworld, the roadblocks, the equipment, to the dungeons, the consistent objective in this game is to pay attention to detail. Paths to progress are only seen through exploration. Clues for keys can be found by prompting characters, signs, and other texts. The ways an equipment can overcome roadblocks or mobs or bosses can be observed by trial and error. Any path not available now will definitely be available later--and so, the player must remember blocked paths for later use. Thus, to finish Oracle of the Seasons, the player has to immerse with the details of the game.

The game rewards each attempt for exploration.

Fortunately, the game is easy on the eyes and memory. The art design of Oracle of the Seasons is rich and colorful. Every detail can be distinguished from the other. A design choice I marvel at is how a different color palette is used for each season. This makes it easier for the player to realize what available paths are there simply by noticing the colors. It can be seen that even the choice of color in Oracle of the Seasons serve to assist the players in the completion of the main quest.

On the subject of art, I really like the dungeon boss design of Oracle of the Seasons. Each boss is unique from each other. This especially true with the Dark Dragon, the final boss, where even the camera perspective changed to show how the Dark Dragon is way larger than any other dungeon boss.

I-impossible! How can I defeat this boss?!

The art design greatly influences the establishment of mood. But this is better done by the music. One cannot review any Zelda game without giving due regard to the masterful music. All the music in Oracle of the Seasons work so well in informing the player on the ambience of the environment. The slow tunes of Horon Village tells the player that this place is safe and homely. The mysterious and ominous music before the Maku Tree shows its grandiose and timelessness, that anything the Maku Tree says is wise. The adventurous medley with a tinge of Zelda theme when traversing the overworld nudges the player to keep exploring and keep checking each tree or rock for clues to move forward. The threatening silence of dungeons tells the player to take time in solving the puzzles. The adrenaline rush of the boss fights keeps the player moving about, to figure out the boss as soon as possible. The music is another detail that packs a lot of meaning and helps the player feel what is the necessary action for each area.

This is not to say that every single thing in this game must be completed to get the full game experience. However, the skippable elements of the game are either really useful or really funny. The rings, for instance, can be overlooked in a playthrough but the powerups by some rings are very handy. The Moblin Keep is also skippable, if I recall correctly, but defeating the Moblin King is entertaining. The Golden Beasts quests can also be skipped but why should anyone pass up the opportunity to get the Noble Sword? The skippable parts comprise like 5% of the game so it's not much of a hassle to strive for 100% completion, unlike some other games (still looking at you, Skyrim and Assassin's Creed).

Ladies and gentlemen, the Moblin King and his goofy ass.

Apparently, there was a side story involving the Piratian captain and his lover.

The windmill old dude was shown early in the game, but he was at the last leg of the Trading Sequence.

One cannot help but smile when Subrosians dance.

Nothing in Oracle of the Seasons is excess fat. Each element of the game serves a purpose contributing towards the main quest. When I finally finished the main quest, I realized that went through each tile of the map, talked to all characters, . It was fulfilling, like a long meaningful journey. While the puzzles and the backtracking become tedious at times, these are overshadowed by the fact that no tedium is wasted in this game. No experience is wasted in Oracle of the Seasons. Everything is in the right place by deliberate design.

Of course I got you, Din.

That is why Oracle of the Seasons gets a 5/5 from me. What a beautiful game! I cannot wait to get start my linked quest with Oracle of the Ages.

Took me a while (I started playing Oracle of the Seasons in 2015, but I always put it off because I can't figure out the dungeons), but I finally finished the game.