Echoes of Wisdom ~ Magic Rings to Accessories

In Echoes of Wisdom there is a total of 28 different accessories for you to find and equip, which give you a variety of smaller buffs. And while this might be similar to the outfits and armor items from previous titles, it's primarily a translation of the Magic Rings from Oracle of Ages & Seasons.

It's more than that, because it improves on the system in every possible aspect. You can carry all accessories with you, instead of being limited to five. And you can now equip up to five of them at once, instead of just one. Each accessory also has an effect, no downsides, and a designated spot to obtain it. Grezzo essentially took the Magic Rings and removed many points of criticism that you may have had about them... And made them look more unique on top, because it's not just rings this time, but also anklets, pins, brooches, footwear, belts, and more.

Source

You can still see how the Magic Rings were the foundation here, however, mainly because a good number of the perks are basically identical... And some of them are uncommon in the series, like the protection from quicksands, where the only other game to feature similar ones was Tri Force Heroes with its outfits. Here is a list of what rings were turned into accessories:

• Swimmer's Ring → Zora's Flippers (Swim Speed Up)
• Zora Ring → Zora Scale (Dive Time Up)
• Quicksand Ring → Gerudo Sandals (Quicksand-Proof)
• Snowshoe Ring → Ice Spikes (Slip Reduction)
• Steadfast Ring → Stone Anklet (Knockback Reduced)
• Discovery Ring → Might Bell (Might Crystal Detection)
  
• Blue Joy Ring → Heart Pin/Barrette (Heart Appearance Up)
• Red Joy Ring → Silver/Gold Brooch (Rupee Appearance Up)
• Blue Ring → Ancient/Curious Charm (Damage Reduction)
  

That may not be a whole lot, but when you look at the list of Magic Rings, then you will realize that there isn't much left that would have made sense in this game. There is no need for something like the Bombproof Ring, for example, because you're already not taking damage from your own bombs or the bombs of your echoes. Or there is no gain from letting you transform into monsters when you can summon all of them. And many of the rings don't have any effect to begin with, since they purely act as trophies.

However, there are some rings left where they could have turned their effects into an accessory. The following ones probably make the most sense:

• Red Ring / Rang Ring L-1/L-2 / Blast Ring (Damage up)
  
• Light Ring L-1/L-2 (Shoot beams at -2/-3 hearts)
• Green Holy Ring (No damage from electricity)
• Roc's Ring (Cracked floors don't crumble)
  

There could have been an accessory that increases the damage of your echoes in general, which would be the equivalent to the Red Ring, Blast Ring, and so on. Another accessory could have made it so that you always can fire sword beams in your Swordfighter form, not just at full hearts, which would be similar to the Light Rings.

As for protection from elemental effects, you do have the smoothies for that, but they also could have offered accessories or clothing to achieve the same. But at least smoothies aren't entirely obsolete this way.

Finally, the Roc's Ring might not seem as useful on first glance, because there are only very few cracked floors in the game. However, they could have extended this to clouds, so that they don't dissolve when you stand on them, which would make this very useful. And the more useful accessories there are, the better, because it makes the choice of what to equip all the more interesting.

With that in mind, the Pegasus Boots also should have been an accessory that make you walk faster – maybe not as crazily fast as the Cheetah Costume from Tri Force Heroes, but a small buff. And it makes sense to have, since there is something to increase your swimming and climbing speeds, but not your walking speed for some reason.

Seeds of Courage

"The Legend of Zelda: Seeds of Courage"

This is what I would call a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons at this point, mirroring Echoes of Wisdom in title. As explained in my Oracle of Worlds concept, which I wrote five years ago after the release of Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, I would combine both of the Oracle games into one experience, where you travel between Holodrum and Labrynna via a portal inside the Maku Trees.

With such a combined experience, the game will need a new title, however. In Japanese this completely straightforward, because both games had the same subtitle, but they were divided into chapters. Oracle of Seasons is called "The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Seeds - Chapter of Earth", while Oracle of Ages is called "The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Seeds - Chapter of Space Time". So, if Nintendo were to remake both games into one, it probably would just be The Mysterious Seeds, without the chapter annotations.

Sadly, this isn't as simple for the rest of the world. You could name such a game "Oracles of Ages & Seasons", but then the title would get much longer and be a bit of a mouthful, while the triple plural isn't exactly nice either. Hence my proposal to call it differently.

And the title "Seeds of Courage" would do a number of things, all in one. As already mentioned, it would mirror Echoes of Wisdom, where wisdom stands for Zelda and the echoes are the main mechanic. While the main mechanics are different for the two Oracle games, they do share the importance of seeds. The Maku Seeds are the end goal, you plant Gasha Seeds all over the world, and then there is the Seed Satchel as one of the most important items. (Which I'd love to see expanded with Frost, Razor and Armor Seeds.)

"Courage" stands for Link, of course, highlighting that this would be his game again, for all those who may not have been happy with a playable Zelda. But it also stands for Farore, who would get a more important role in the remake, connecting the lands of Holodrum and Labrynna.

Finally, this is also a throwback to the unreleased third Oracle games, "Mystical Seed of Courage", where the other two games used to be called "Mystical Seed of Power" and "Mystical Seed of Wisdom", representing the Triforce. So, this should get some fans excited, though technically this won't come with a third Oracle game.

PS: When I first saw the trailer for Echoes of Wisdom with the scene where Link fights Ganon, I even thought for a second that they are going to make a third Oracle game, which takes place after the events of the first two games. "Oracle of Echoes".

U-King-O and Edward

There were some interesting rumors from last month that I have yet to discuss and those revolve around recent codenames of Nintendo projects. Nintendo uses internal codenames for all their games and hardware, where in case of Zelda this has looked like the following on Nintendo 3DS and Switch:

• Knife: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
  
• Queen: Ocarina of Time 3D
• Joker: Majora's Mask 3D
• Jack: A Link Between Worlds
  
• Alice: Tri Force Heroes
  
• U-King: Breath of the Wild
• EX-King: Tears of the Kingdom
• Richard: Link's Awakening
• Shoebill: Skyward Sword HD
  

Source: The Cutting Room Floor

Yes, the codename of Tears of the Kingdom very blatantly labels the project as an expansion for Breath of the Wild, but that's not the point here. A leaker named Midori has recently shared some more project names from Nintendo and this is where it gets interesting. There is a bit of drama around this account right now, but overall it seems to be credible.

Anyway, the two codenames that I'm interested in are U-King-O and Edward. Project names with an additional letter at the end are often for remasters and ports, where the first one is seemingly a remaster of Breath of the Wild for the upcoming Nintendo Switch successor, codenamed "Ounce".

Apparently, Nintendo has demoed an enhanced version of Breath of the Wild at last year's Gamescom for select developers to show off the capabilities of their next system (source). This would be a similar story to Ocarina of Time 3D, which started as a tech demo for the Nintendo 3DS as well, before it became a dedicated project.

Since the next Nintendo system will likely be backwards compatible, I personally didn't expect to see a remaster of Breath of the Wild so soon, but after playing Tears of the Kingdom the game already feels a bit antiquated, because the "EX-King" came with so many improvements that all would be nice to have in the original game as well (more on that later).

As for "Edward", this could be a follow-up to Richard, where I'm really hoping to see a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons as well, maybe already in the upcoming June Nintendo Direct. Of course this doesn't necessarily have to be, but Richard and Edward seem to be somewhat related. Well, Richard is also a character from Link's Awakening and The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls, while there is no Edward in the Zelda series, but it's more likely that these are just supposed to be the names of British kings.

In the past most Zelda games were just codenamed as "king" in some form, e.g. DSking and wiiKing2 for Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword, which is even still true for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. But otherwise this seems to have evolved somewhat.

The most common suggestion I keep seeing is either The Wind Waker HD or Twilight Princess HD, mainly the latter, but if we still were to get them now for Nintendo Switch, they would be released as ports and their codenames would probably reflect this, e.g. "ckingS" for The Wind Waker HD on Switch. They could also go for both games in one, but I would expect this to be named "S-kings" or so. Of course there is no real science here and Nintendo will pick whatever they feel like, so I'm not claiming that "Edward" can't be Twilight Princess for Switch. I just don't think it's likely.

Alternatively, it could also be the codename of a brandnew top-down Zelda game, but I wouldn't expect this to be released on the Nintendo Switch still. I am currently predicting such a title for the upcoming Nintendo system, however, for reasons explained in January, and "Edward" could also be that game's codename. I would be quite sad if they completely skipped over the Oracle games, however...

Update: It's very likely that "Edward" is Echoes of Wisdom, the newly announced Zelda game in the style of Link's Awakening.

Oracle of Ages & Seasons @ Nintendo Switch Online

As a small surprise today, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons became part of the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy library. So, anyone with the basic subscription can play these Zelda classics now on their Nintendo Switch.

This may bode ill for a potential remake, but only for a moment. And we just got Tears of the Kingdom anyway, so there won't be any other Zelda releases in the near future, probably not before 2024, which gives a remake enough time to be of interest.

For those who have already played the original games, the Nintendo Switch Online version won't make much of a difference and they might want a remake for the novelties it brings alone. And those who are giving them a try for the first time now might find the password system to be too archaic to truly get into the whole mechanic of linking both games.

Something tells me that my ring guides will get a lot of visits soon... and I'm happy to answer the same questions for the hundredth time, where this will always remain a convoluted topic.

A remake would certainly help with that and make the whole experience a lot more accessible. So, the Nintendo Switch Online release can be seen as an appetizer for the real deal. Not everyone will bite afterwards, since getting into the emulated Game Boy Color classics will certainly be good enough for some and a remake will be sold at full price, as usually, but the Nintendo Switch Online release won't make it obsolete or undesirable by any means.

Also, like on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, you are unable to enter the Game Boy Advance exclusive shops. You can still get the rings in there via password manipulation, though, which is also covered by my guides. But this is another thing where a remake will certainly shine, because some features simply are not accessible on the emulated versions and a remake can come up with new things to replace them.

Unlike on the Nintendo 3DS, however, you can still talk to the Blue Snake and you can also select the Game Link option when creating a new file, but both will give you an error. It might be that you can get Ring Fortunes via online play somehow, but I doubt it and I won't have the time to investigate stuff like this myself, sadly.

Of Charms and Magic Rings

Playing Hollow Knight really made me appreciate its Charm system, which is somewhat similar to the Magic Rings from Oracle of Ages & Seasons. And if these two Zelda games were ever to be remade, then they would profit from a few adjustments to the ring system, where the developers could learn a thing or two from the Charms in Hollow Knight.

The main difference between the Charms and the Magic Rings is that you can equip multiple Charms based on a number of notches. In Oracle of Ages & Seasons your "notches" came with the Ring Box, where the L-3 Ring Box could store up to five Magic Rings. However, you could only ever equip one ring at a time, which could be changed on the fly.

This had quite a negative effect on the gameplay, because there is an incentive to go into the menu and change your equipped Magic Ring based on the situation. Attacking some foes? Equip the Red Ring. Dodging some traps? Equip the Blue Ring. Going for a dive? Equip the Zora Ring.

An extreme example could be a difficult boss fight, where you might want to switch from the Blue to the Red Ring whenever you're about to strike and then back to the Blue Ring when you have to dodge some attacks. I actually did this when I first fought Onox in his second phase and the fight turned out too difficult for me at the time.

But this leads to constant interruptions of the gameplay, because you keep going into the menu. One of the major improvements that came with the Link's Awakening remake was that you didn't have to constantly open the menu to switch your items any longer, since most of the important items got their dedicated button. The Oracle games will profit from the same thing, but the Magic Rings were yet another reason to go into the menu more often than necessary if you wanted to make the most out of them.

A simple solution would be to follow the example of Hollow Knight and let you equip multiple Magic Rings at the same time, as many as there are slots in your Ring Box. This even makes sense, since Link has more than just one finger to put a ring on.

This idea may seem somewhat broken at first, especially when you could get the benefits of the Red, Blue, and Green Ring all at the same time, so you could increase both your attack power and defense simultaneously. But keep in mind that you had to play through most of both Oracle games in order to even obtain these rings. If they were to turn the Hero's Secret into a Hero Mode with the usual shenanigans, such as increased damage and no hearts, then having a new advantage will be good. Plus, you still will need to find those larger Ring Boxes in a New Game+, so you're not overpowered from the get-go.

Some rings might cancel each other out, though, where it will have to automatically remove the conflicting rings, with the most obvious example for this being the different transformation rings. So, there will be some limits to all of this, but it would still be much more interesting than in the original.

The main problem with the Magic Rings in Oracle of Ages & Seasons was that some rings were simply too good, first and foremost the aforementioned Red, Blue, and Green Ring, and with that there was little to no reason to try (m)any of the other rings. Some were useful, no doubt, but just not useful enough to remove the bigger advantages. But if you could equip multiple rings at the same time, then this would make some of those perks suddenly a lot more interesting, e.g. the Red Joy Ring, which lets you find more Rupees, or the Swimmer's Ring.

In addition, now it would even make sense that the game lets you keep inferior versions of certain rings, like the Heart Ring L-1 or the Rang Ring L-1. If you could use them together with their upgraded counterparts, their effects would stack. If you equip the Light Ring L-1 and L-2, for example, which let you still shoot sword beams after taking two and three hearts of damage respectively, then you will be able to shoot beams after a deficit of five hearts now.

Hollow Knight actually does something similar, where some Charms are stronger versions of others, though the system there works even better thanks to the Charm Notches, where more powerful Charms use up more notches. They also could do something similar with the rings, but it wouldn't make much sense, because it's not like one ring would be larger than the others and then waste more space in your Ring Box. And it's best to keep it simple, where the system shouldn't change too much.

One other effect of a few Charms in Hollow Knight is changing interactions with certain characters, similar to the masks in Majora's Mask. And that's even something you would expect from a variety of the Magic Rings, e.g. the Friendship Ring, or basically any ring that acts as a trophy. Imagine Impa being very confident about you in the beginning of a New Game+, because you are wearing the Victory Ring. This doesn't have to be anything major, but some altered dialogues here and there depending on your rings could be interesting.

Mysplaced Copying Link's Awakening

Mysplaced has been all the rage on social media today, which is an indie title presented in IGN's Rogue Jam. You can watch a small preview on Youtube and by doing so you will immediately notice how the game has simply copied the art style and core gameplay of the Link's Awakening remake, while it's non-linear and comes with some mechanics of its own.

It's like they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And this looks so beautiful that it makes me want to play Link's Awakening on the Nintendo Switch again. More importantly, this makes me want to play remakes of the Oracle games in the same art style sooner than later. If GREZZO is not up for the job, then maybe Nintendo should just hire the two indie developers behind this project, who call themselves Clear Sky Games, because they pretty much nailed it...

Looking at this footage really made me fantasize about how the Oracle games could look in the same style. Take for example this windmill:

There was a windmill next to Horon Village, at the Eastern Suburbs, in Oracle of Seasons, where you meet Guru-guru. This one:

This really could be taken to the next level in a remake, imagine the whole upper area as one giant windmill structure. It could look absolutely fantastic.

Mysplaced also has winter themed areas, where seeing the different seasons in Oracle of Seasons in this art style would be a dream. Just imagine these little, snowy dioramas. Though, it makes me wonder how they are going to pull off the switching seasons between the areas in a remake, since you should also have the continuous scrolling and not some screen borders.

I suppose, it could work similarly to going into the foggy Mysterious Forest, where you can see from the outside that the area is different and then it morphs the visual style once you enter it. They could even use such a remake to properly showcase the madness of having all these shifting seasons right next to each other in ways that simply weren't possible on the GameBoy Color...

Anyway, since Twilight Princess HD is seemingly out of the picture for this year, I keep seeing mentions of the potential Oracle remakes for 2022. And while I would absolutely love to be wrong here, I feel like it's a bit too early for those, especially since GREZZO was hiring for some other project just last year. The timing would be absolutely fantastic, though.

Oracle of Worlds – Remaking Oracle of Ages & Seasons

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.

Link's Awakening Remake: Potential Follow-Ups

When A Link Between Worlds was first announced in April 2013, one of the first things that came to mind was a new Four Swords for Nintendo 3DS, which in a way became a reality two years later with Tri Force Heroes.

Now, after the announcement of Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, we're looking at a shiny new style for 2D Zelda games and with that come many possibilities for future titles. While we haven't even seen much of the remake yet, it's already quite likely that this style will be re-used for at least one more release on the Nintendo Switch. So far every 2D Zelda game on a handheld has gotten at least one follow-up title with the same graphics...

• GameBoy Color: Link's Awakening (DX) → Oracle of Ages & Seasons
• GameBoy Advance: Four Swords → The Minish Cap
• Nintendo DS: Phantom Hourglass → Spirit Tracks
• Nintendo 3DS: A Link Between Worlds → Tri Force Heroes
• Nintendo Switch: Link's Awakening → ???

Whatever comes to our mind now could become a reality in a couple of years, so we shouldn't dismiss any ideas right now, even if it's quite early to think about the next games already. Let's go through some of those ideas here.

 

Oracle of Ages & Seasons Remakes

This is by far the most obvious thing to do after Link's Awakening. Both games follow the same graphical style, where everything is in the GameBoy "chibi" graphics. Remaking the Oracle games would be already worth it for Subrosia alone. This place was practically made for the new art style and would certainly look amazing in HD on the Nintendo Switch.

One major reason to remake the Oracle games, however, would be the outdated password system. Linking the games with the "secrets" had its merits, because you could manipulate the passwords or even use password generators, but it always has been an inconvenient way of linking both games. With new games on the Nintendo Switch, there would be no need for passwords. They could simply share a save file, where everything gets transferred automatically.

Ideally, both games would even get released together as one big game (on one cartridge), so you don't have to (physically) swap between both games all the time. This alone would make the remakes more than worth it.

This all sounds so good that there shouldn't be any reason not to do it... However, we don't have a clear picture of the legal situation here, since those games were made by Capcom's studio Flagship. There might be some issues with character and music rights that we don't know of.

We know that Nintendo has the publishing rights for the old games, since those are on the Nintendo 3DS. We also know that the Oracle games got featured like any other Zelda game inside the Goddess Trilogy books. But we also know that Koei Tecmo had difficulties with Vaati in Hyrule Warriors and that the Symphony of the Goddesses doesn't have any rights for music from the Capcom Zelda games. These cases might have something to do with licensing things to third parties, but right now we can't be sure that Nintendo can just remake these games without getting any permissions. We'll have to see.

 

Third Oracle Game

Let's say both Oracle of Ages & Seasons get remade and both games share a save file, where everything gets linked and shared automatically without the need of passwords. Without any of these "secrets", there would be one person in the game without a job: Farore, the Oracle of Secrets.

Well, she still could be responsible for giving you item upgrades from the other game or she still could reside inside the Maku Trees for a new feature, but it's also possible that she could finally star in her own Oracle game that gets added on top. It would have to be a standalone episode, however, because squeezing in a third game between the two existing ones would still be difficult, even without a password system. But the game could still receive item upgrades from the other two Oracle games and share the list of Magic Rings.

It doesn't even have to be anything out of the ordinary. It could be a short game that mainly focuses on some challenges for seasoned Zelda players. A fun bonus episode that explores some more possibilities within the era of Oracle of Ages & Seasons.

 

A New (Multiplayer) Game

Other than a new Oracle episode, they could do any new Zelda game, really. It's actually been over 14 years that we've gotten a new connected 2D Zelda world with the Hyrule of The Minish Cap. All the other top-down Zelda games either re-used some older 2D worlds (A Link Between Worlds, Link's Awakening) or segmented their world into smaller areas or levels (Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Tri Force Heroes).

It would be really refreshing just to get a new, normal 2D overworld at this point for us to explore. But at the same time it feels more likely that Nintendo and Grezzo will just do another multiplayer game like Tri Force Heroes, because multiplayer Zelda games have become a thing of their own and want something new as well. However, it's already possible that Link's Awakening might feature some sort of (coop) multiplayer in some form.

 

Zelda Maker

Well, if Nintendo is unwilling to make a new 2D Zelda world, they might be willing to give us the tools to make our own. The idea of a "Zelda Maker" has been in people's minds ever since Super Mario Maker made its debut. And if Nintendo doesn't want to make a Shrine Maker, they could go for a tile-based 2D Zelda Maker instead.

Of course this wouldn't end up as sophisticated as the "RPG Maker" for example. We probably wouldn't be able to write dialogues or even use NPCs in any form. Maybe even creating full Zelda games won't be an option. But it could go in the level direction of Four Swords and Tri Force Heroes, the multiplayer Zelda games, where you work with item sockets and the like.

Basically, they could even let this go hand in hand with a new multiplayer Zelda game that comes with a main campaign, but also with a level editor to create more stages.

Zelda Encyclopedia: Errors, Oddities and Contradictions

What a book! I've spent the majority of this Saturday's afternoon with sitting on my balcony, skipping through the The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia, probably the most extensive work in Dark Horse's Goddess Collection. Much like Arts & Artifacts provided an amazing visual journey through the entire Zelda series prior to Breath of the Wild, it's nice to have this comprehensive collection of information about all the games in the old timelines with Encyclopedia.

I do enjoy having this clean cut created by the 30th Anniversary of Zelda, where everything was coming together once again in these books, before Breath of the Wild created a massive milestone afterwards, essentially starting a new era for Zelda. Well, Breath of the Wild is so expansive, it probably could fill its own book, where there's actually one with Master Works, which will be released in English later this year, also by Dark Horse.

That being said, with a book of this size (328 pages full of information), it is prone to errors. And while it bothers me to have small translation errors here and there, I'm more angered by the fact that the original writers "added their own interpretations and expanded upon the games' stories" seemingly without any supervision. This effectively makes this whole book "non-canon", as thorough as it might have been researched.

Some of these "own interpretations" feel like cheap fan theories, which shouldn't be part of such a book. With Hyrule Historia I was overall fine with what they had established as "facts", but the Encyclopedia went a little bit too far and might even contradict the games at times. I guess, I have to let to sink some of the information in, but here are some larger things of notice:

Oracle of Seasons & Ages in the Timeline

The changed / fixed the timeline placement of Oracles of Seasons & Ages to their own era after Link's Awakening. This is completely fine and it really can go either way. The ending of the Oracle games made it look like they were a prequel to Link's Awakening, where Link sets off in a boat that resembles the one from the intro, where he gets stranded on Koholint. And since Link's Awakening was always said to be a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, Hyrule Historia placed the Oracle games between the two classics.

But, this was always a controversy... Link and Zelda in the Oracle games looks much younger than in A Link to the Past, following the games' main artworks. And when Link and Zelda meet, the dialogues make it sound like they meet for the first time, with Zelda introducing herself. So, this never added up and it's probably a good thing that this was now changed in hindsight.

However, the English version states on page 19 that the hero in the Oracle games is the same one as from A Link to the Past... Which doesn't make any sense at all. Why would they put the games AFTER Link's Awakening, where Link's fate originally always was unknown, if not to make this a story of a new Link? But as far as I know, this is a translation mistake in the English version and the Japanese version states the opposite.

All the timeline diagrams also always put a gap between Link's Awakening and the Oracle games, which symbolizes a jump between different eras, which makes it quite clear that this is supposed to be a new Link and a new Zelda.

Termina Vanished

The Encyclopedia explains that Termina was created by Majora's Mask from the mind of the Skull Kid and that it ceased to exist, after the Hero left... Which doesn't seem to be the case in the game, because we saw the people celebrating, after Link had left. We also saw the Deku Butler mourning for his son in what should have been a part of the Lost Woods... But apparently it was all just another Koholint.

It feels like Nintendo just wanted to shut up the fans asking for another game taking place in Termina, but this kind of kills the mystery surrounding these lands... It does explain, how both Link and the Happy Mask Salesman disappear into thin air at the end of the game. But the thought that you can find your way to Termina through the Lost Woods was always exciting.

Geographical Guesses

Other than the fact that Termina apparently doesn't exist, the book also some controversies about Hyrule and the countries surrounding it.

It treats both Holodrum and Labrynna as some "parallel worlds", while we know that both Zelda and Impa travelled there from Hyrule. Characters from the Oracle games also travel between the two lands, so everything should be connected somehow, but not according to the Encyclopedia...

It doesn't get better with Hytopia, where the book downright states that it lies north of Hyrule, a fact that's coming out of nowhere and has no evidence whatsoever. To make things worse, it formulates the theory that the Northern Hyrule from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link might be, where Hytopia is located, because the people there are so "fashionable". What...?!

At least it acknowledges the fact that the southwest corner of the map from Zelda II is supposed to be the old Hyrule from the first game. But it then tries to make sense out of things by placing the first Hyrule at the foot of Death Mountain from A Link to the Past... I guess, you can see it that way and the Graveyard location does match, but it doesn't explain, how there's suddenly an ocean to the southeast.

So, the book tries to connect similar areas from different eras, where some of these connections are quite questionable. Another example would be Dragon Roost Island, where every fan would have guessed that this is actually Death Mountain from Ocarina of Time. But, no, apparently it's Zora's Fountain, simply because the Zora evolved into the Rito...

If they wanted to theorize about connections like that, they could have used the "Lost Woods" in Oracle of Seasons, where you can find the Master Sword in a Linked Game, as an indication that Holodrum is a neighboring country of Hyrule, instead of deeming it as some parallel world like Lorule.

The Noble Master Four Sword

Apropos Master Sword in the Oracle games... Now, this never made any sense and the Encyclopedia explains it with the Noble Sword receiving the Master Sword's powers. But this doesn't make any sense either, because you never upgrade the Noble Sword, you always get a new sword. And in one case you can even find the Noble or Master Sword on a pedestal in Holodrum's Lost Wood, which is very reminiscent of how you find the Master Sword in A Link to the Past...

At the same time the book states that you can "swap" the Four Sword in Four Swords with the Master Sword by unlocking it in A Link to the Past (page 131)... In reality the Four Sword gains a sword beam akin to the Master Sword, but it doesn't become the Master Sword. The unlockable ability is simply called "Master Sword", but you don't wield the Master Sword in the game. But apparently no one told this the the authors of this book...

Here it would have been correct to say that the Four Sword gained the powers of the Master Sword. The ingame icon for the ability even clearly shows the Four Sword shooting a sword beam, not the Master Sword.

The Dungeon List

The Encyclopedia comes with an extensive "Database" section, where they have a list of "all" the dungeons from all the games. But this one feels rather inconsistent. For starters, they've listed both the Pyramid of Power and the "Mountain Cave" as dungeons in A Link to the Past. Why?

You would think that they are simply being thorough, but it's really an exception. It doesn't list the Maku Path from Oracle of Ages, for example, which at least has a dungeon map screen and is certainly more of a dungeon than some normal caves. How's the "Mountain Cave" any different from other cave complexes in other Zelda games?

In Link's Awakening they list the Southern Face Shrine as a dungeon (that's three rooms), but not the Dream Shrine (that's four rooms). It also doesn't feature the Royal Crypt from The Minish Cap, even though that's an excellent mini-dungeon.

With mini-dungeons it seems to be quite a picky list overall, not featuring the optional ones from the N64 games. It does have the Cave of Ordeals and Cave of Shadows from Twilight Princess, but not the Savage Labyrinth from the Wind Waker, even though those are effectively the same dungeon concepts in the same size.

It lists the "Dark Realm" as a dungeon from Spirit Tracks (it's really not a dungeon, it's just Pac-Man rail tracks), but not the Lost at Sea Station dungeon, which was a huge homage to the Ocean King Temple.

It lists all 32 levels from Tri Force Heroes, plus the Den of Trials, but it doesn't have the Realm of Memories, nor the Hero's Trial from the Four Swords Anniversary Edition. Which leads us to the following point...

Four Swords Anniversary Edition as a Side Note

While the book goes thoroughly through all retail releases of the Zelda series, the enhanced digital-only release of Four Swords for the 25th Anniversary apparently isn't even "canon". It got put on the same page as the BS-X Zelda games, Link's Crossbow Training and the Twilight Princess Picross...

The book is mentioning that this new release has levels based on three past Zelda games, but it doesn't give a name and doesn't mention the Hero's Trial in any form, as if this never existed. It feels like the writers never got to play this version of the game and decided not to bother with it at all. Very disappointing. It would have been nice to read some explanations for both these areas or to at least have their existence acknowledged somehow.

"Minor" Mistakes

While I haven't read everything yet, I've noticed some obvious errors here and there (this list will be updated):

• The timeline page (11) claims that Ganon was part of the story from Four Swords, probably confusing things with Four Swords Adventures. Again, did the authors even play these games? Probably not.
• The Lorule pages (32 and 33) have a caption "Life in Hyrule", despite showing villagers wearing monster masks in Lorule.
• The Item Database lists the "Piece of Power" from Link's Awakening as a "Critical" (= main quest reward) item, while it's just a "Consumable" power-up. Someone probably confused it for the Triforce of Power here.
• ...

Don't Be Fooled by Their Similar Names

My Nintendo has currently an offer, where you get 40% off of Oracle of Ages, Oracles of Seasons and Skyward Sword. What caught my attention is the following description about both Oracle games:

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons are Game Boy Color classics. Don't be fooled by their similar names - both games offer a unique story and are packed with adventure, puzzles and classic Zelda action.

Even 16 years after their release, Nintendo seemingly is still afraid that there might be confusion about this being one and the same game with different features. And there really might be. They have Pokémon to thank for this mentality. And even at the time of the release, Nintendo had to do a lot of advertising to communicate that these are actually two fully developed Zelda adventures. I still have some flyers and magazine ads from that time stating "an adventure too big for just one game". And even up to this date Nintendo is still fighting the Pokémon stigma about the Oracle games.

This might even be the reason, why Nintendo never tried something similar again with the Zelda series. This is somewhat of a shame, because the games were ahead of their time and today they could function without any complicated password system. But of course today they can put 32GB of data on a cartridge, so there isn't even a good excuse to release two similar games separately at the same time. Just the opposite, like with A Link to the Past & Four Swords they could put two games on one cartridge. Even at the time of the GameBoy Color, it was technically possible to put both games on one cartridge (the games used 2MB cartridges, while 4MB and 8MB GameBoy cartridges existed - you could even find a version with both games on one cartridge). Or if Breath of the Wild is any indication, they could just develop one big game, instead of two smaller ones.

Breath of the Wild: Golden Enemies?

With the upcoming DLC of Breath of the Wild Nintendo will introduce a "Hard Mode", where all enemies move up one tier by default. This raises the question, what will happen to the different silver enemies, which are currently the top tier? In their press release Nintendo talks about "higher-ranking enemies players wouldn’t find through normal play", so apparently there will be a new level for enemies. And you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that this will probably lead to the return of Golden Monsters:

Golden Monsters were first seen in Oracle of Seasons, where there was a Golden Moblin, a Golden Octorok, a Golden Darknut and a Golden Lynel found in certain spots in the overworld only during specific seasons. They had a lot more health than their normal red and blue counterparts and some of them would also attack a lot faster.

Golden Monster returned later in The Minish Cap with Golden Octoroks, Golden Tektites and Golden Ropes that get spawned after certain Kinstone fusions. They also have a lot more health than usual enemies and attack with excessive speed. (Other than that golden enemies were also a thing in Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland.)

Much like Breath of the Wild, both of these Zelda games were directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise, when certain features of these game see a return. Breath of the Wild makes much greater use of enemy tiers than any other Zelda game in the past. There are the traditional red and blue tiers, as well as the black tier, which has been quite rare in the series. The game also introduced the silver tier as enemies, which are a lot more resilient.

It seemed like a weird choice to use "silver" for the strongest enemies in the game, but it appears that Nintendo simply reserved the gold tier for the DLC. At first these silver enemies can be quite annoying, especially since during the midgame they start appearing everywhere, even when you're not prepared for their strength at all. But when you reach an endgame status, it becomes much and much easier to defeat them quickly. So easy in fact that golden enemies would be a welcome challenge later in the game.

Only Lynels might be a little more interesting, because the silver variants didn't gain any health over the White-Maned Lynels, they have the exact same stats.

And to be honest, they didn't have to, because they still are furious tanks and the toughest enemy in the entire game. Golden Lynels with even more health certainly would become a big challenge, even with endgame gear.

Of course all the golden enemies should be worth the trouble. Ideally all golden enemies would have a high chance of dropping Diamonds and Star Fragments, especially since you need so many of the latter to upgrade all armor available in the game.

Blocks of Choice

While replaying the Minish Cap on the Wii U Virtual Console, an odd detail about both the Minish Cap and Oracle of Ages came back to mind. With the exception of Four Swords, all Zelda games directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi present the player with various choices during sidequests that affect the gameworld and its characters permanently in various ways. This includes the animal buddies or the son of Bipin and Blossom in the Oracle games, the Oracle housings in the Minish Cap, as well as Peatrice's affections and Cawlin's letter in Skyward Sword.

If you want to experience the different results with all of these interesting choices, you have to replay the games. But there's also another choice found in two of these games that can only be labeled as "minor". There are blocks that can be moved in either direction that will stay in their new position for the rest of the game. One is the barrier rock found at the beginning of Oracle of Ages:

You can move to the left or the right. And it will stay in that position indefinitely. Moving it to the left is preferable, because it never gets in the way there. But with the nature of having various savegames in the Oracle saga to experience it all, you might want to have at least one savegame, where the rock is moved to the right. For the sake of completion, basically.

This same behavior has been copied in the Minish Cap by the statue of Minister Potho that can be found inside the Funday School:

Again, you can move this to either side and it will stay there for the rest of the game. Now, if you're replaying the game to have different Oracles inside the houses, you might also want to consider to change things with the statue, just so that your different savegames cover all possibilities. It's a minor thing, really, but that's what makes it so noteworthy. It's odd, how such an unimportant choice can leave a mark on your savegame.

Also, I think, the same applies to the one throne in Dark Hyrule Castle, where you fight the first Darknut. You can also pull the throne either to the left or the right and it will stay there.

Well, Hidemaro Fujibayashi will be back to directing Zelda with Breath of the Wild... Let's see, what weird choices we will have to make then.

Breath of the Wild: Potential Seasons

The latest trailer for Breath of the Wild also brought along another topic - a potential change of seasons or at least seasonal areas:

With a giant open world Zelda game I always imaged having a dynamic change of seasons inside the game world. It wouldn't necessarily have to be a big gameplay element like in Oracle of Seasons, but something that makes the world feel more alive by simply altering the visuals of the environment. It could work like the fishing pond in Twilight Princess, just in the grand scale of the entire game, instead of being constrained to a single area. Realistically only the winter would make any real difference with frozen waters and snow masses. The other seasons would simply be there for a visual change.

It could even tie in to the internal clock of your Nintendo system, similar to Animal Crossing, but this would just make people change the clock around. It's better as an ingame system, but where you also want something like the Rod of Seasons to change between seasons. It could be as simple as "sleeping" through many days or it could be an item / ability or even something in the environment that manipulates the seasons, like some Sheikah weather control system.

However, it's doubtful that Breath of the Wild will offer actual seasons and a way to change them. It's more likely that we simply have areas in different seasons. In the trailer the transition from green trees to a Fall color doesn't happen in the same spot, they show us different trees. This week they also released a screenshot on Facebook that gives as a different look at colored trees:

It might be that this is just a junk in an otherwise green environment. Unless of course that those are simply a type of tree that gets colored leaves first, which would be pretty impressive, if they took this all into consideration.

But if you think about it, the game already has snowy / winter areas like the Mt. Hylia and the Hylia River at the Great Plateau. They would lose some of their meaning, if all of Hyrule could look like this. On the other hand, in Winter you could potentially go snowboarding everywhere, which would be pretty awesome. And even in Oracle of Seasons the game world had areas, which weren't affected by the seasons, like the Samasa Desert and Goron Mountain, where the latter was always in Winter as well. There are also deserts in Breath of the Wild, which wouldn't be affected either, and it simply could be that the change of seasons is something going on in the "normal" areas.

It's hard to tell at this point. Realistically we probably should only expect areas with different seasons, but Nintendo has teased it in a way, where a dynamic change of seasons also comes to mind and with it some fun potential, mainly through the Winter.