M A R M

oh fuck yes the oracle games are coming to nintendo switch online?? finally the excuse i needed to play the only main series zelda games i never got around to let's fucking go

just wow. what an incredible game. i won't lie: having rewind was a great help because there was a fair bit of wandering around/backtracking i was happy to skip through but other than that... it's been a long time since a zelda game has challenged me like this.
so many moments of going "wait what do i do? where do i fucking go? .... OH WAIT I FIGURED IT OUT YES"
i don't get that too much these days. most games want to make sure you know exactly what they're asking you to do, but oracle of seasons isn't afraid to be like, "hey asshole its a puzzle there's only so many rooms to check - you figure it out"
AND THE ENEMIES ARE ACTUALLY DANGEROUS IN THIS ONE. never have i been so desperate to scrounge for recovery hearts. i was forced to respect every enemy because even losing half a heart could mean the difference between surviving a boss or miniboss and losing. i legit finished more than one battle with less than a full heart remaining.
and i've said it before but man the capcom zeldas just absolutely nail the Vibes. the characters, the music, the art, god the beautiful full-size Pixel Art that i still can't believe they shoved into a gameboy color cart...
i can't believe i slept on the oracle games for so long. true primo classic zelda top to bottom. so excited to start Ages after this :)

oh fuck yes the oracle games are coming to nintendo switch online?? finally the excuse i needed to play the only main series zelda games i never got around to let's fucking go

this shit hits. i wish i'd played these games back in the day bc it's so good. it reminds me of zelda 1 but less confusing because there's actual characters and dialogue to point you in the right direction lol.

like the first dungeon is a clear reference to level-1 in original zelda, the old men who live in holes are back (and sometimes take your money lol), sometimes you have a dungeon room that's just four blocks and a bunch of enemies, you've got the 2D sections returning from link's awakening also calling back to zelda 1... they even bring back some of the original boss monsters!

but also it's just so charming - you can see the throughline from this to minish cap for sure (also they kinda recycled the stump gimmick i never knew that lmao)... nothing else in the series has quite the same vibe as holodrum/subrosia (and that was a surprise! i wasn't expecting a whole alternate underworld in this one!). the random encounters with syrup, the big animal friends, the sidequests... you can see that the capcom-zelda approach is to give as much personality to the world and characters as possible because it comes through big time.

i have gotten lost a couple of times (i never would have thought to pick up the stupid squid miniboss out of the water i mean who touches enemies on purpose still mad about that one), but i think in general the game does a great job of dropping hints so that a player who likes to explore will remember to return when new areas open up or when it's time to check in on certain characters (like for the trading quest, the pirates, the old man with the gem, etc). plus you can always get a hint on where to go from the maku tree and impa. i've only gotten stuck and had to look up what to do two or three times, and i don't really feel bad about that because it's like really specific stuff that would be hard to hint more strongly without just doing it for you. most of the time if i'm lost i can fumble around and find someplace to go/something to do until i realize where i'm supposed to go and it's pretty satisfying to uncover the path forward like that.

i don't have a big point i'm trying to make except i guess Oracle Games Good, Actually :)

oh fuck yes the oracle games are coming to nintendo switch online?? finally the excuse i needed to play the only main series zelda games i never got around to let's fucking go