When I say the Oracle games are some of my favorite games I have ever played I really mean it! Having played through the majority of Ages on several occasions I practically run the game on muscle memory alone. This game challenged me a lot when I was younger, and having to solve all those twists and turns the game gave me was always satisfying when I finally got it. Perhaps the most remember-able thing to me about this game was getting to the Mermaid dungeon. That whole thing is an interesting concept for the Zelda series on its own, with the dungeon interacting with both the past and present. But Ages had a lot of puzzles like it, and overall is the trickery of the two Oracle games. If Seasons is considered the brawn in the Oracle series, then Ages is the brain. The majority of the puzzles obviously involve time in some way, shape, or form. Mainly the player travels back and forth solving puzzles using the information from both the past and present making the game a littler easier to figure out as long as you are always looking around.
The enemies in Ages however aren’t as imposing as the puzzles themselves are. While a lot of puzzles will take a fair amount of time, the majority of the bosses and sub bosses have very easy set patterns. This makes a lot of the boss battles rather dull in comparison and usually ends far quicker than you’d expect. But along with it’s challenging puzzles, Ages also adds more story to its game by constantly explaining or giving hints as to what you have to do between the two time frames. For instance, when you are struggling to go out to sea to find the next essence you stumble upon a guy working on some rope that would work in the sea, although he hasn’t invented it yet. So if you go back to the present you will see that he did make the rope, and has hidden it in his tomb. A lot of the puzzles mix time into them quick well, but not all of the puzzles are time based. One of the more unique bosses actual works like a puzzle within this game forcing you to put him back together only to have a chance in hurting him a little. Ages also has more mini-games to throw at you compared to seasons, and the majority of them are played to make progress throughout the adventure. These range from shooting galleries, to baseball batting, to the dread Goron dancing. Needless to say, Ages throws a lot of things into the mix so you never get bored with it.
For the most part though, both Ages and Seasons look nearly the same. Both are played in top down view, and change their scenery in different ways. Both have the same colorful graphic system like in Link’s Awakening DX, but I would say Seasons has more of an edge considering it uses a more colorful scheme of the seasons compared to Age’s dark past and bright present. The soundtrack in Ages however I’d consider the superior of the two versions though, with a lot of the music being much more varied compared to Seasons, not to mention catchy. The most notable soundtrack coming from Zora village.
Final Thoughts:
Oracle of Ages is for those that want a little more challenge in their puzzles when it comes to dungeon hopping in Zelda. It may not have nearly as many exciting battles as Seasons has or its cooler weapons, but Ages delivers a lot of unique puzzles to the Zelda franchise. As well, I’d say that Ages is the stronger of the two titles as it not only as a more varied soundtrack, but a whole lot more to do in it, such as mini-games and an engaging story seen throughout.