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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, released in Japan as Zelda no Densetsu Fushigi no Ki no Mi Daichi no Shō (ゼルダの伝説 ふしぎの木の実 大地の章, Zeruda no Densetsu Fushigi no Ki no Mi Daichi no Shō, lit. "The Legend of Zelda: Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of Earth"), is a video game developed by Capcom in conjunction with Nintendo and published by Nintendo on February 27 2001 in Japan, May 14 2001 in North America, and October 5 2001 in Europe. The game was released for use on the Nintendo Game Boy Color, but special features, such as additional items, are available when played on a Nintendo Game Boy Advance.

After experimenting with porting the original The Legend of Zelda to the Game Boy Color, Yoshiki Okamoto's Flagship team began developing a set of three interconnected Zelda games that could be played in any order. The complexity of this system led the team to cancel one game; the remaining two were adapted into Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. The two games, released simultaneously, interact via a Game Link Cable and a password system.

Plot

Template:Spoiler According to the instruction manual, the Triforce called out to Link from within its Temple. Link approached it, and 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. Template:Endspoiler

Gameplay

The gameplay of Oracle of Seasons is similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, copying basic controls and some graphics and sounds from the Game Boy title. Like all 2D Zelda titles except Zelda II, exploration and combat take place from an overhead perspective. Link uses a sword for his primary attack, complemented by secondary weapons, such as bombs and a boomerang. Most of the game is spent finding the eight Essences of Nature, each hidden in a dungeon — a large, self-contained underground area containing enemies and puzzles. Each dungeon culminates with a boss that guards the Essence.

When not in a dungeon, Link explores the overworld of Holodrum and the subterranean world of Subrosia. The two are linked by several portals, allowing Link to traverse Holodrum quickly by using Subrosia as a shortcut. Certain areas of Holodrum are accessible only from Subrosian portals and vice versa. Both Holodrum and Subrosia contain optional side quests and upgrades for Link and his equipment.

The central item of Oracle of Seasons is the Rod of Seasons. By standing on a stump and swinging the rod, Link can change the season and affect his surroundings. For example, to cross a body of water, Link can change the season to winter and walk on the ice. Changing the season to summer causes vines to flourish, which Link can use to scale cliffs. Link obtains the rod from the Temple of Seasons in Subrosia, but initially cannot use it. Throughout the game, Link visits four towers that house the four spirits of the seasons. Beginning with winter, each tower Link visits allows him to control an additional season.

Interaction with Oracle of Ages

Although the two are built on the same game engine, Oracle of Ages concentrates on puzzles, while Oracle of Seasons focuses on action. Each is a complete self-contained game capable of interacting with the other, using passwords or a Game Link Cable.

Upon completing Oracle of Seasons, players receive a password that can be used to play an alternative version of Oracle of Ages. In this version, some characters mention passwords that can be given to characters in Oracle of Seasons in exchange for an item or upgrade. Then, by taking a new password back into Oracle of Ages, the item or upgrade can be transferred. Rings can be traded by this password system or randomly created by connecting two games with a Game Link Cable.

The alternative game has many extras. Some items move around and must be found in different places. 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 defeat both Twinrova and Ganon. Upon completing the alternative game, another password is shown that gives the player the Victory Ring, which commemorates their defeat of Ganon.

Development

Yoshiki Okamoto, a game director for Capcom, worked with a team to create a Zelda title, but could not agree on the direction the development should take. Okamoto wanted to remake the original Legend of Zelda for the Game Boy Color, using it as a test and moving on to a "more ambitious game" if successful. Other members of the team wanted to create an original Zelda title immediately. Dismayed by the rate at which the team had been spending money for a year without results, Okamoto recruited Capcom director Yoshifumi Yamashita to the team. He also asked Shigeru Miyamoto, the game designer at Nintendo who created the series, for help. Nintendo and Capcom began collaborating concurrently on six Game Boy Color Zelda titles: two based on previous games and four original works.

The design team immediately ran into several problems. First, Okamoto wanted to release games in quick succession, spacing sequels only four or five months apart. Because Nintendo does not work in this fashion and Miyamoto was involved with other projects, the team asked Flagship, a design studio headed by Okamoto and funded by Nintendo, Sega, and Capcom, to develop scenarios for the games. This is in sharp contrast to Miyamoto's usual strategy of creating a game's plot and setting only after the gameplay has been defined. As a result, Flagship had to constantly rework the scenario and maps to match the changing gameplay. The Game Boy Color's screen presented additional problems when attempting to rework existing Zelda titles. Since the Game Boy Color's screen is narrower than that of a television, players could not view an entire room without scrolling; this made it easy for the player to overlook stairways or clues on walls.

Despite these problems, the team's experience porting the original The Legend of Zelda to the Game Boy Color emboldened them to work on a series of three games. This trilogy was referred to as the "Triforce Series", named after a fictional holy relic known as the Triforce that plays a major role in many Zelda titles. The Triforce is composed of three parts: the Triforces of Power, Wisdom, and Courage; each game in the trilogy was to be associated with one of the Triforces.

The first game of the three was demonstrated at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show in 1999 under the working title The Legend of Zelda: The Acorn of the Mystery Tree -- Tale of Power. This action-oriented game concerned Ganon's theft of Princess Zelda and the "Rod of the Seasons", which threw the seasons of Hyrule into chaos — a clear precursor to the plot of Oracle of Seasons. In the playable demonstration, Link solved puzzles by using the Rod of the Seasons to manipulate the environment and change the current season. Tale of Wisdom, which focused on color-based puzzles, and Tale of Courage, which used times of day to solve puzzles in a mechanic similar to the use of seasons, were not shown. The Japanese title of the series was later changed to The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Acorn: Chapter of Power, Chapter of Wisdom, and Chapter of Courage. In the US, the games became The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Power, Mystical Seed of Wisdom, and Mystical Seed of Courage.

The games interacted with each other: players could begin with any of the three titles and have the actions of the first game affect the story of the other two. The developers considered using a cell phone adapter to transfer data, but later decided on a password system. The limitations of this system and the difficulty of coordinating three games proved too complicated, so the team scaled back to two titles at Miyamoto's suggestion. Condensing the games into a single cartridge was never considered, as the prospect of multiple endings and the added replay value afforded by the ability to play the titles in either order was very attractive. Oracle of Seasons (Chapter of Earth in Japan) was adapted from Mystical Seed of Power, Oracle of Ages (Chapter of Time and Space in Japan) was adapted from Mystical Seed of Wisdom, and Mystical Seed of Courage was canceled. Staggered releases were abandoned in favor of releasing the two games simultaneously. This made it easier for the team to test the interaction between the games and keep the style consistent.

These sweeping design changes pushed the release dates closer to the upcoming release of the Game Boy Advance (GBA), the next system in the Game Boy line that is backward compatible with Game Boy Color games. The team considered adding special functionality to the game triggered only when played on a GBA, but was afraid that the additional development time required for the addition would cause the games to be released after the GBA. When the release date of the GBA was postponed, the team was able to incorporate GBA functionality and still release the games approximately a month before the GBA was released.

Reception

Gamespot gave Oracle of Seasons a 9.2, like its counterpart Oracle of Ages, and IGN gave it a perfect rating of 10. All five Nintendo Power reviewers gave the game five stars out of five.

See also

• Oracle of Seasons and Ages manga

Notes and references

1. ^ "Now Playing", Nintendo Power, vol. 144, p. 117, May 2001{{citation}}: CS1 maint: year (link).
2. Pelland, pp. 120-121.
3. ^ "The Legend of Zelda: The Third Oracle profile". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
4. ^ Pelland, p.120.
5. ^ Pelland, p.124.
6. ^ Shoemaker, Brad (2001-06-04). "The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-03-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. ^ Pelland, p. 128.
8. Pelland, p. 121.
9. ^ "The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons Interview". Nintendo. 2001. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
10. "Six Times Zelda". IGN. 1999-07-28. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. "Flagship (JP)". Retrieved 2007-03-30.
12. ^ "Miyamoto Speaks on Zelda GBC". IGN. 1999-08-23. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. ^ "Okamoto on Zelda". IGN. 1999-11-16. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. ^ "Hands-on Zelda". IGN. 1999-08-27. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
15. "Official US Names for Tri-Force series". IGN. 2000-05-13. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Zelda Every Six Weeks". IGN. 2000-01-13. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Zelda's Tri-Force Down To Two". IGN. 2000-07-24. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
18. Carle, Chris (2001-05-14). "Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons review". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

• Pelland, Scott (ed.) (2001). The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Player's Guide. Redmond, Washington: Nintendo of America, Inc. ISBN 1-930206-10-0. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Tremende, Rex. "Guides: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
• "Oracle of Seasons Walkthrough". Zelda Universe. Nintendo. Retrieved 2007-04-01.

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
• Template:GameFAQs

• 2001 video games
• Nintendo games
• Game Boy Color games
• The Legend of Zelda games
• Game Boy Advance games