Last Rant on Videogames: A Tale of Two Links

So, I mentioned a while ago that the Oracle games were on sale.  Unsurprisingly, I bought both and have been playing them.  I've gotten far enough in them that I'm going to talk about them briefly, because that's what I do!

This is one of the few Zelda games with what I would refer to as a gimmick.  Essentially, you play two completely separate games, but you can transfer items and powerups between them either by the old GB Link Cable.  If you don't know what that is, you're not missing much.  Basically, way back when, wireless communications weren't really a thing, so you needed an awkward cable that always got lost to link to GBCs.  Pokemon made copious use of it.

That's not super important, but it's kinda neat.  Basically, you have a game system based off of the old Link's Awakening system.  It looks a lot like the original Zelda; it's isometric-ish, 2D, fairly exploration heavy.  The games are unique from each other in terms of story and map, but share common controls and some items.  Some shared items include a bracelet for lifting stuff, seeds of varying effects, and the ability to jump.  Yeah, that last one's an item; it's a dirty feather.

I'm going to keep this one short, so here's the quick rundown.  Basically, Seasons is more action oriented while Ages is more puzzles oriented.  Both are pretty good games, actually.  I have said on more than one occasions that I prefer Seasons, but I don't think I ever gave Ages a fair shake.  After playing them through, Seasons first, I think I actually prefer Ages.

In keeping with the puzzly theme, Ages has complicated dungeons, a bit of weird time travel stuff to be doing on the world map, and not a lot of directed instructions.  Seasons, by contrast, focuses more on making you jump a lot.  The puzzles usually have pretty obvious solutions, and the dungeons are a bit more straightforward.  I found, upon my second playthrough of Ages, that I substantially prefer the dungeons in Ages.  They have more strenuous puzzles and more interesting design.  The last one also does a great job of tying together elements from all the previous ones.

Really, though, if these games stay as cheap as they were, both are easily worth the price.  While I do like the dungeon design in Ages more, the game is really only marginally better than Seasons, and both stand well on their own.  I got at least 15 hours out of both of them (though I don't think time is a good indicator of quality).  They're quite fun, and solid entries to the series.  If you like Zelda games and have never played these ones, I highly recommend grabbing one.  Or both.