The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color) Playthrough
303A playthrough of Nintendo's 2001 action-adventure game for the Game Boy Color, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and its fraternal twin, Oracle of Seasons, were met with near-universal acclaim when they launched in 2001.
In releasing the pair simultaneously, Nintendo appeared to be leaning into the same strategy that had so far served them well with the Pokémon franchise. However, despite the superficial similarities between the two, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons aren't mere reskinned versions of the same base game. They are two unique adventures with their own worlds, characters, and stories, but when linked, they each become one-half of a larger overarching narrative.
The games are built on the same code that served as the basis for the GBC port of Link's Awakening's (https://youtu.be/0wqmgE39nps) and they reuse many of that game's assets, but the Oracle games aren't lazy rehashes of earlier games. In fact, they weren't even developed internally by Nintendo: they were the product of Flagship, a Capcom-based studio that was created to be a collaborative platform between Nintendo, Capcom, and Sega.
Oracle of Ages begins with Link being summoned to the land of Labrynna where an evil sorceress named Veran possesses the body of Nayru, the Oracle of Ages, to mess up the flow of time by killing the Maku Tree. To prevent this from happening, Link must travel between the past and present to find the eight Essences of Time and open the way to Veran's Black Tower.
The game's structure follows the same blueprint as A Link to the Past (https://youtu.be/-y0H798VHqc) and Link's Awakening in that there are eight dungeons to solve and that the overworld connecting them is a complex jigsaw puzzle that you tackle piece-by-piece as you gain access to new items and abilities. The most notable of these is the Harp of Ages, an item that works like the mirror in A Link to the Past. Portals can be opened to allow Link to jump between eras, and this mechanic plays a major role in just about everything you do in Labrynna.
Oracle of Ages does a nice job of evolving the classic 2D Zelda formula into something that feels familiar yet fresh. The puzzles are tough but satisfying, the world is densely packed with secrets, and the NPCs bring it all to life with just the right touch of humor.
They don't get recognized nearly as often as their console counterparts, but both of the Oracle games are worth checking out for any long-time fans of the Zelda franchise.
*Recorded with a Retroarch shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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