After the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch, it's only natural to assume that GREZZO will continue to work on the other GameBoy Color Zelda games: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. While those were originally made by Capcom, let's assume for the sake of this article that this won't be an issue. And Nintendo does have all the rights for the scenarios and its characters, only the music might become an issue.
In any case, the Oracle games would really profit from such a remake if it were to happen. There are many things that could be improved with these games, where this post will offer a complete concept for a remake in the same style as Link's Awakening.
A Tale of Two Lands
The main idea behind this remake is that there won't be two separate games any longer and there also won't be any passwords, the so called "secrets". That's all history. There will be only one game, where there won't be Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, but only "Holodrum" and "Labrynna". It will be one adventure with two big chapters, spanning the two different lands, as it was originally envisioned.
Similar to Link's Awakening, there will be three save slots and one auto save. You start with a single save file and in the beginning you can choose whether the Triforce should send Link to Holodrum or Labrynna. Depending on your choice the adventure will unfold in that land.
After beating Onox or Veran respectively, the second chapter will begin and you will arrive in the second world. So, if you've started in Holodrum, you will now go to Labrynna and vice versa. In the second land you will always have the opportunity to return to the first world via a portal. You can't bring any items or additional hearts through the portal, however, so you can only use items in the second land if you also acquired them there. The exception are the Magic Rings, which are always transported between the lands via your ring collection at Vasu's shop.
There are also the special side quests that span both worlds, where you can get certain item upgrades, Magic Rings, as well an additional Heart Container. Here you will be able to get these items in the second world as well, so it's worth it to return to the first world and attend these quests. Originally, you needed to tell certain people "secrets" for this, now all you need to do is talking to the right persons to initiate the quests. Since these messages are delivered vocally by you, you can actually bring them with you through the portal, unlike items.
Hero Mode
After beating the real final boss you will now have the possibility to start Hero Mode, a New Game+, where your entire Magic Ring collection will carry over, but you will also take double damage and more enemies will appear. This will effectively replace the "Hero's Secret", while combining it with the typical Hero Mode feature as a balance for keeping all your (strong) Magic Rings.
Again, you will have the choice whether you want to go to Holodrum or Labrynna first. If you do the opposite now, you will be able to experience different scenarios in the second chapter, as well as new world-spanning quests with some exclusive rewards, where in the end you might get a complete ring collection for the first time. If you start another Hero Mode from that file, you will eventually be able to start a new adventure where you have all rings in your possession right from the get-go.
This system has the disadvantage that you won't be able to carry over your rings to your older save files. So, those save files will always stay incomplete, but in a way this was also true on the GameBoy Color with the one missing Heart Container. The big advantage is that this system will be much easier to understand and that it's highly compatible with the save file system from Link's Awakening.
In a way all of this is very similar to the old linked game system, but instead of passwords you have one big, shared save game, in which you can switch between Holodrum and Labrynna at any time. How will this happen? Well, meet the new star of the remake...
Farore, the Oracle of Worlds
On the GameBoy Color the third of the Oracles had a relatively minor role. She was known as the "Oracle of Secrets" and was responsible for managing the passwords, which let you link both Oracle of Ages and Oracle Seasons and get some special items. In the remake her role will be similar, but also more important.
There will now be a portal inside both Maku Trees, which links both Holodrum and Labrynna, but only after you've already visited both lands. Maybe it's opened by one of the Maku Seeds. Farore, who is now known as the "Oracle of Worlds", is the gatekeeper of this portal and will explain the whole thing to you. Remember that you can't bring any items through this portal, so your current equipment is tied to the land that you're in.
If you now go on world-spanning quests, she will also be the one to reward you afterwards. So, if the Great Fairy in Holodrum asks you to visit Tingle in Labrynna to tell him that he's not actually a fairy, he will reward you with a bigger Seed Satchel for this intelligent insight. If you now return to Holodrum, Farore will give you this Seed Satchel upgrade there as well and a pat on the back.
"Wait a minute! This isn't much different from what Farore did on the GameBoy Color... How is she any more important in the remake now?"
Excellent question! This is where the following comes in...
World Seeds
Whenever the Maku Tree grows after you've completed a dungeon in either Holodrum or Labrynna, you will be able to pick "World Seeds" from its top. This will be a new item in the remake and the big new feature, essentially this game's version of the Chamber Dungeon, where Farore will be its host, like Dampé in Link's Awakening.
Farore can use these world seeds to create small new worlds inside the Maku Tree, which you can go explore through a portal. Her new item, replacing the Book of Secrets, may even reflect that, where she could have a magical watering can for example, like a gardener of worlds. Or maybe she still has a book and you will have to collect pages for her "Book of Worlds".
These worlds will be randomly generated and always consist of a small overworld area and at least one dungeon. Defeating all dungeon bosses will clear the world, where Farore will reward you with new Magic Rings, Pieces of Heart, additional World Seeds, or a new Heart Container.
Every World Seed will be based on your finished adventures. So, if you've beaten the Spirit's Grave, you will get access to a Halloween-themed graveyard world and a tomb dungeon, where you can fight against Pumpkin Head again. If you've beaten the Moonlit Grotto, you will be able to visit an island world. And beating the Ancient Tomb lets you play a dangerous fortress world full of Darknuts and Lynels... You can also combine multiple seeds to get a larger world that mixes the different themes, like a desert next to a graveyard.
But all of it can look very different for every player, where both the overworld and the dungeons get procedurally generated via certain patterns and templates. You can always abort your adventure and ask Farore to re-plant the World Seeds if you didn't like the outcome. But if you like the current world, you can also save it to an amiibo, so you can play it in other savegames or share it with friends.
So, in many ways this will be like the Chamber Dungeon, just that instead of building something that you need to beat afterwards, you will always go explore something new and unknown. And instead of collecting chambers for a dungeon, you collect different themes for the worlds based on the adventures in Holodrum and Labrynna, where you can even mix the two. You will be able to replay bosses this way, but also face new challenges.
You start with zero equipment and the items that you'll get are based on the selected seeds, e.g. you will get the Magnetic Gloves in a world that has the Unicorn Dungeon theme. In a way it will be like playing your own small Zelda game.
Other than the World Seeds that you get from the Maku Trees, there will also be additional ones that you can get from Farore, shops, mini-games and maybe even your amiibo. These will either add new worlds or enhance existing ones. There might something like the "plus effects" from the Chamber Dungeon to make the worlds more challenging or more forgiving.
All in all, there will be many similarities to the Chamber Dungeon here, just without the baggage of the limited dungeon builder and with focus on an almost "roguelike" experience with procedurally generated levels.
Seed Satchel & Mystical Seeds
The Mystical Seeds are some of Link's most important items in the Oracle games, where the Seed Satchel was basically the Magic Powder on steroids. It was quite inconvenient to switch between the different seeds, however, because similar to the Ocarina in Link's Awakening you had to go back into the inventory, re-assign the Seed Satchel to a button and select the Mystical Seed you need in a small pop-up menu.
In the remake this will be much easier. With the Pegasus Boots gone (which got replaced by the Pegasus Seeds), the Seed Satchel will take its place on the L-button, so you can always quickly use your currently selected seeds, which are shown in the bottom right of the screen with their amount. Using the right analog stick will now activate a small ring menu with all the different Mystical Seeds in them. If you remember their positions, you can easily switch between seeds with a single flick of your R-stick.
If you have the Seed Shooter or the Slingshot equipped to the X or Y button, then those will also make use of your currently selected seeds. This will make certain fights, where you constantly have to switch between different seeds, much easier.
Well, with such a ring menu it could easily support up to eight different seeds instead of just the five from the original. And since it only takes a couple of seconds to come up with three new Mystical Seeds, these get added to the remake as new items:
- Razor Seeds
- Armor Seeds
- Frost Seeds
The Razor Seeds and Armor Seeds should sound familiar, because those already were a thing in Four Swords on the GameBoy Advance, made by the same development team as the Oracle games. In the remake they will function like the Piece of Power and the Guardian Acorn from Link's Awakening, where you get an attack or defense boost for 30 seconds.
To balance this properly, you will only be able to use one at a time and there will be a cool-down for both of these seeds afterwards. Unlike all the other Mystical Seeds you will also only be able to hold a few of them, 5 in the beginning, 20 in the end.
The Frost Seeds are basically the opposite to the Ember Seeds and let you freeze enemies and extinguish torches. You will only be getting them near the end of the game and they will be very helpful when fighting Frypolar or Twinrova, since you now can damage both their fire and ice forms with the respective seeds. (As for Frypolar, using his own ice pillars against him will still deal massive damage, unlike the seeds.)
With these new types of seeds, there will also be Razor Trees, Armor Trees, and Frost Trees present in both Holodrum and Labrynna for additional warp points. Those will be in areas that need them the most, like North Horon, Mt. Cucco, and the Temple Remains in Holodrum. You will also be able to warp directly to the Maku Trees now.
The Other Items
The inventory itself will have 16 slots, just like in the GameBoy Color games. Sword, Shield, Power Bracelet, Power Glove, and the Seed Satchel are permanently assigned to certain buttons, where they will be replaced with four Fairy Bottles. This leaves the following items on the remaining twelve slots:
- Rod of Seasons / Harp of Ages
- Flute
- Roc's Feather / Roc's Cape
- Shovel
- Boomerang / Magical Boomerang
- Switch Hook / Long Hook
- Magnetic Gloves / Cane of Somaria
- (Hyper) Slingshot / Seed Shooter
- Bombs
- Bombchus
- Biggoron's Sword
That's eleven items in total for Labrynna and ten items for Holodrum. But the Biggoron's Sword will take two slots now, both in the menu and on your X and Y buttons. This might even be a good reason to keep the Roc's Feather as a normal item
and not have a dedicated button for it as well, because the Biggoron's Sword
will come with the tradeoff that you won't be able to jump using it.
Anyway, we're still one item short in Holodrum, since you can't get the Switch Hook there. So, there will be a new optional item instead to make things more even: the Whip. It lets you fight enemies and grab items from a certain distance, like a quick alternative to the normal Boomerang.
The Rod of Seasons will also be now more convenient to use by swinging it in a certain direction for a specific season. Up will summon winter, right will summon summer and so on.
Also, with having a dedicated action button (A) and a dedicated sword button (B), the swimming with the Mermaid Suit can just function normally now, since you can swim and use your sword at the same time.
Magic Rings
In the original games you were able to collect up to 64 Magic Rings and of course the remake will add to this count for a total of 100 Magic Rings to collect.
All of them will have unique effects, where the remake will focus much more strongly on rings with transformation abilities. On the GameBoy Color you could become NES Link, a Moblin, a Like Like, an Octorok or a Subrosian. The remake will add the following:
- Stalfos
- Darknut
- Armos
- Gibdo
- Lynel
- Guard
- Zora
- Goron
- Tokey
- Tingle
- Shadow Link
Basically anything interesting that can walk. With some of these transformations you will even be able to use sword and shield, while others might give you unique attacks or abilities. Using the Guard Ring for example lets you freely walk around Ambi's Castle undetected.
The First Gen Ring now will work similar to the Timeless Tunic in Tri Force Heroes, so it turns Link into a voxel being and the music will turn into the 8-Bit soundtrack of the GameBoy Color originals. The GBA Time and Nature Rings will have to be replaced with something as well, since it won't make sense to have any GameBoy Advance-exclusive rewards in the remake.
Other than transformations there will be new abilities as well. Here are a few ideas:
- Piece of Power Ring: Lengthens the Razor Seed effect
- Guardian Acorn Ring: Lengthens the Armor Seed effect
- Spiked Ring: enemies will take damage if they run into you
- Whip Ring: increases Whip damage
- ...
The most important change to the Magic Rings, however, is that getting them all won't be left to chance any longer, which means there won't be any randomization behind finding the rings. You will still be able to obtain duplicates, but each and every ring will have its dedicated way of obtaining them, whether it's a certain treasure chest, shop item or mini-game score. You will also now find them more often in the environment, similar to Secret Seashells.
Gasha Trees will now all have one primary reward, which you will get after growing the tree for the first time. This will either be a Piece of Heart or a specific ring. Afterwards the trees will give either Rupees, Magic Potions, Hearts or Fairies. This will be an incentive to find absolutely all Gasha Spots in the world and to plant at least one tree on every spot. The trees will even stay there after you've grown them for the first time, so you will know immediately whether you've already planted a Gasha Seed there or not. This also means that Gasha Seeds will become a strictly limited collectible, where there's one to find for every Gasha Spot.
Also, Maple will now always drop both Maple's Ring and her Piece of Heart until you got them both. Afterwards she will keep changing to new rewards, like other rings, but it will always be a specific ring that you can get next. Like the Trendy Game in Link's Awakening she will add new rewards after every dungeon.
Pieces of Heart
Like with Link's Awakening, the total amount of hearts will be increased to 20. The fourth Heart Container that you get from starting a game with a password will now be gone and instead replaced with a Heart Container you can get from Farore for exploring World Seeds. Otherwise there will be 16 new Pieces of Heart in both Holodrum and Labrynna for you to find.
In the original both game worlds did have their empty spots, where adding Pieces of Heart (as well as new Magic Rings) will make exploring every nook of Labrynna, Holodrum and Subrosia will be worth your time.
As already mentioned before, both Gasha Trees and Maple won't handle their Pieces of Heart at random any longer. There will be specific Gasha Trees that give you Pieces of Heart with their first Gasha Nut, while Maple will always drop her Piece of Heart until you get it.
Mini-Games
GREZZO did a great job at updating all the mini-games in Link's Awakening with new mechanics and rewards. However, there were only three mini-games on Koholint and they were already quite good on the GameBoy.
With the Oracle of Seasons and especially Oracle of Ages GREZZO will have to go wild here, since there are about a dozen mini-games in the worlds of the Oracles, including some of the most-hated mini-games of all time, like the atrocious Goron Dance. Making this more fun to play would already be a huge win for everyone.
This number also includes some of the one-time mini-games that you face, mainly in some of the quests that bring you back to Holodrum, like the diving mini-game or the Old Man's combat test. Those could even be expanded to proper mini-games, which you can keep playing for additional rewards, like some of the new Magic Rings.
The Animal Buddies
Ricky, Moosh and Dimitri – those are your trusted companions during your travels in Holodrum and Labrynna. Well, on the GameBoy Color one of them was, because you only ever could get one flute per playthrough. This even affected one entire environment, where depending on your flute a part of Holodrum and Labrynna will look completely different (more information here).
The remake won't have any of this. Instead you will be able to get three different songs for the flute, similar to the Ocarina in Link's Awakening, one for each animal buddy. And the Natzu and Nuun areas will now be unified with paths for all three animals.
The latter will even be a necessity for the remake if it keeps the seamless overworld scrolling of Link's Awakening, because then you would get something like the following, where you can take a good look at the Nuun Highlands from Lynna City right at the beginning of the game:
Normally, this area won't be determined until after the third dungeon, which is where you were able to obtain the flute for the first time. But if you can already look past Bipin's and Blossom's house, this wouldn't work any longer and there needs to be something fixed here from the beginning. (Or they would have to put the Nuun Highlands so high up that you can't see them early on.)
In Labrynna this change will even be very straight-forward. You will meet and help the three animal buddies around the quest to Crescent Island, exactly like in the original, and when you have to gather all three carpenters in the Nuun Highlands, you will notice that you need all the animal buddies for the job, one for each worker. This brings you back to the Fairies' Woods, where you now have to search for them all and where at the end you get the flute with all three songs.
In Holodrum you will be able to meet and help either Ricky or Dimitri on your way to the Spool Swamp, which will earn you one of their songs. You will also get Moosh's song in the Spool Swamp after rescuing him from monsters. The "Natzu Crossing" will now offer three different paths to the Moblin's Keep and the Sunken City, one for each animal buddy, where you can choose which one you prefer.
Once you've arrived at the Sunken City you will be able to recruit Dimitri, if you haven't already, while you can recruit Ricky at any time by bringing him the boxing gloves from Blaino. And at Mt. Cucco you will need to collect the Bananas for Moosh in any case or else he won't help you. This way all the special animal buddy events will still be in the game.
In the end you will be able to summon all three of the animal companions in both Labrynna and Holodrum for your convenience. There might even be certain Magic Rings, Gasha Seeds, and Pieces of Hearts that can only be gotten with a certain animal friend.
You will also be able to summon while exploring Farore's World Seeds, where some of the worlds might require the usage of either Ricky, Moosh or Dimitri.
Bipin's and Blossom's Many Sons
Other than the animal buddies, there was another thing that could end up being very different on your playthrough on the GameBoy Color: the offspring of Bipin and Blossom. Depending on what answers and help you gave the family, he could grow up to become a hero, an arborist, a musician or a slacker.
The remake will add some new outcomes, but there will also be a new mechanic, where you can get the son to leave and start his own life elsewhere in the world. In this case Bipin and Blossom will quickly make a new child, which then you can influence again and again to experience all different outcomes in a single save file. There might even be some exclusive rings that you can only get if their son turns out a certain way.
Dungeon Scrolling
The dungeons in the Oracle games have larger "chambers" than in Link's Awakening, where as a result it would constantly scroll on the GameBoy Color, because the chambers wouldn't fit on a single screen. This won't be the case in the remake, where it only scrolls, if there are multiple connected rooms, exactly like in the remake of Link's Awakening.
Conclusion
If GREZZO ever were to remake Oracle of Ages & Seasons in the same style as Link's Awakening, there would be lots of things that they could add and improve. No passwords, new Hero Mode, easier to use items, more Magic Rings and Pieces of Hearts, updated mini-games and the ability to get all three animal buddies for the first time would all be good reasons for such a remake.
On top they could add a complete new feature, similar to the Chamber Dungeon, where in this example Farore lets you explore many new small worlds, which get procedurally generated. But of course GREZZO could also go for a more sophisticated version of the Chamber Dungeon or something else entirely.
