Postbox: Ages vs. Seasons

Hi there,

I recently got Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages for 3DS, and never having played these titles before I was looking around to get some insight as to which to play first and why. Anyway, I was also reading through your excellent ring guide here:

Oracle of Seasons Ring Guide - GameFAQs

and there is a part with the following quote:

"(People prefer the first variant, because in a new game without any secret you will be permanently missing one Heart Container. And if you play Ages first, there's one spot on the overworld map, which cannot be visited. By using Ages as your starting point, you can keep both of these flaws in one save file.)"

That was part was confusing to me and kind of sounds counter-intuitive to my mind. I was wondering if perhaps you could offer some further clarity as to why this is desirable? Thanks.

When starting a new game you will have three Heart Containers, as opposed to a total of four Heart Containers, whenever you start a game with a secret (doesn't matter which type of secret). So, in the game file, where you first started, you will only ever achieve 15 out of 16 Heart Containers, which could be viewed as a "flaw" by some.

In Ages there is also a square on the overworld that can only be visited in a Linked Game. Otherwise there will be a blank square on your map, which could be viewed as another "flaw".

So, by choosing Oracle of Ages as your beginning, you only will have one "flawed" savegame at the end, where both the missing Heart Container and the inaccessible square are present.

Keep in mind that you will also play in the other direction afterwards, so you play Ages → Seasons first and then Seasons → Ages in a Hero game. That's a total of four savegames. And only one of them will have "flaws" in the end, so to say.

If you don't really care about that or even are using a generated Hero's Secret right from the start, you can just do whatever you want. But I generally feel like starting with Oracle of Ages is the more rewarding experience, because of the way, how things play out. The "Hero's Cave" (an additional mini dungeon in a Linked Game) is also more fun in that direction.