Oracle of Seasons

*“Hya ha ha! I have found you, Din, Oracle of Seasons! You hid yourself well, but you cannot escape Onox, General of Darkness!”*

— Onox

## Oracle of Seasons

### Release dates

 February 27, 2001
 May 14, 2001

## Map

***The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons*** is the seventh installment in the *The Legend of Zelda* series, released in 2001 for the Game Boy Color. It is preceded by *Majora's Mask* and succeeded by *Oracle of Ages*. The Hero of Legend is the main protagonist and General Onox is the main antagonist. Holodrum's monsters are the villainous faction.

It is the seventh game in the series, and the second in the Downfall Timeline, set very soon after the events of *A Link to the Past*. It follows the same Link, called to the Triforce again to be sent on another mission, this time in the foreign kingdom of Holodrum. This game can be linked with *Oracle of Ages* to fight the true final boss, which is Ganon, resurrected by the Twinrova sisters.

## Synopsis

*After saving Labrynna and Nayru from the evil Veran, Link is sent on another quest to another region known as Holodrum. Here he is tasked with defeating the evil Onox and saving the Goddess Din. He uses the Staff of Seasons to change his environment and collect the Essences of Nature, which he uses to defeat Onox for good, saving the realm. Link soon discovers that these two events were connected because the evil witches known as Twinrova were using the essences of Onox and Veran to ressurect the evil Ganon. Ganon's resurrection goes awry, and he is brought back as a mindless primal beast. Link uses the Master Sword to defeat him and save all three realms. He returns home to Hyrule by boat.*

## Summary

*Oracle of Seasons* opens up the same as *Oracle of Ages*, with Link riding a horse. Spying a castle on the horizon, he goes inside and is sent by the Triforce to help a land being ravaged by the ruthless General Onox. Link is teleported to the land of Holodrum and after a bit of exploring discovers a traveling troupe. After hanging around and dancing with the troupe's main attraction, Din, the sky becomes dark and General Onox strikes. In the ensuing chaos, Din revealed to be the Oracle of Seasons, gets kidnapped, taken to Onox's mountain fortress, and imprisoned inside of a crystal. As a result, the Temple of Seasons falls into the earth and the seasons of the land begin to become erratic.

Link embarks on a quest to save Din and restore order. The young hero learns from the Maku Tree that in order to penetrate to the center of Onox's fortress, he needs to collect eight Essences of Nature.

While in the process of visiting the dungeons, Link spies a shady character moving in the weeds. He sneaks by her and the girl disappears. After some exploration, he uncovers a strange-looking portal. Stepping on it, he is teleported to the lava-hot underground land of Subrosia. Looking to his left, he sees the missing Temple of Seasons. Taking the Rod of Seasons that he borrowed from the Temple itself, he learns seasons from the temple that become useful in his quest to retrieve the eight Essences of Nature.

After finishing the last of the dungeons and destroying Onox and his evil dragon alter-ego, Din is released and the seasons become regular once again. However, the adventure is far from over. The Flame of Destruction is already lit by the destruction Onox caused. Observing Link from afar, a mysterious pair laughs, saying the true evil had yet to arrive...

The adventure carries on in a Linked Game of *Oracle of Ages* (or a linked game of *Seasons* if *Ages* played first).

## Box Arts

 Japanese
 USA

## Trivia

* In both the chapter book and the *Oracle of Seasons* manga by Akira Himekawa adaptations of *Oracle of Seasons* and *Oracle of Ages* games, *Oracle of Seasons* is the first game in the sequence. This is also true for the timeline as presented in *Hyrule Historia*.
* After entering Poison Moth's Lair, revisiting the floodgate keeper and speaking to him twice causes him to start spouting some of Impa's dialogue from the prologue.
* The two games were developed by the Flagship studio within Capcom, with some of Nintendo's staff such as Shigeru Miyamoto in supervisory roles. Notably, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, a planner for the duology, would go on to leave Capcom and take increasingly important roles in the *Zelda* series at Nintendo, eventually becoming the director of the 3D games starting with *Skyward Sword*.
* Their original Japanese subtitles translate to *Fruit of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of Earth* (for *Seasons*) / *Space-Time* (for *Ages*).
* These games were first stated to be a midquel between *A Link to the Past* and *Link's Awakening* with the same Link. This has since been modified to be an indirect sequel to both with a new Link.
* The development of these two games is a rather interesting and complex one. There were going to be *three* games, collectively called "The Triforce Series", and would link to each other to form a complete narrative. The "Power" chapter would have gameplay focused on changing seasons using the Rod of Seasons, the "Wisdom" chapter would focus on puzzles involving color and a Magic Paintbrush item, and the "Courage" chapter would focus on time with the day changing between morning, noon, afternoon, and night. However, it was soon agreed that linking three games together in one continuous narrative, but allowing the games to be played in any order, would be too complex (indeed, you would be able to play through such a combination six different ways). Thus plans were changed to just two games, with story and gameplay recycled into the games that became *Oracle of Seasons* and *Oracle of Ages*. As The Artifact entry on the main page explains, elements of the original trilogy intent remain in the final product when one knows them to recognize them.
* In addition to the above plan, the trilogy was meant to be preceded by a remake of the original NES *The Legend of Zelda* for the Game Boy Color, with both the remake and the "Trilogy" project being the result of a Capcom producer outright *threatening* Miyamoto that if his team wasn't given the chance to make a *Zelda* game, Capcom would just make their own Serial Numbers Filed Off version.
* *Hyrule Historia* reveals concept artwork for Ganondorf◊, who only appears as a mindless Ganon, meaning he was considered but cut for unknown reasons.
* Concept art of Onox shows him holding a huge two-headed axe with a flail attached to the handle.
* *Oracle of Seasons* was originally intended to be a Game Boy Color remake of the very first *The Legend of Zelda*, but ideas for this were scrapped early on. This is why almost all of the same bosses return from the original game.
	+ The Gnarled Root Dungeon's outside is directly based on Level 1: The Eagle's design.

## Continuity

* Hyrule Historia marks this game as a sequel to A Link to the Past, and for the most part, the games themselves suggest the same thing. However, implication suggests that the Lv. 2 sword (Noble Sword) and Lv. 3 sword (Master Sword) are one and the same, in different stages of power. It is also heavily implied of both that this is the very same Master Sword seen in many other Zelda games. So... how did it get from Hyrule to Holodrum?
	+ Of special note, it's found sitting in a pedestal in Holodrum, in a place called the Lost Woods. Geographically speaking, if it was the same place as in AlttP, then Link would have been in Holodrum all along.
	+ The Lost Woods have always had strange teleporting abilities.
	+ I see it in one of two ways. Either A: The Master Sword in Oracles Isn't canon. or B: The Holodrum Master Sword is not the same Sword of Evil's Bane. After all the design slightly differs on the crossguard despite the Master Sword's design being concrete at that point.
	+ According to the Hyrule Encyclopedia, the Master Sword as it appears in the Oracle Games is apparently just an upgrade to the Noble Sword, which gives it power that's *comparable* to that of the true Master Sword of Hyrule, but isn't meant to be the exact same blade.
	+ *Skyward Sword* establishes that the Master Sword is sapient and can possibly move about on its own, but this still begs the question of which order of sword upgrades between the two games is canon. Namely, if the broken sword the old Zora gives to you is canonically the last upgrade, that detracts from the notion that it is the same Master Sword, since it's unlikely Fi would be able or willing to snap herself in half for no reason.
* After the release of *Link's Awakening* on the Nintendo Switch, the official Zelda timeline was amended that switched that game and this one's placement in the timeline. They also allege that the Link of this game is not the Hero of Legend but a new hero, known as the "Hero of the Essences." This does not align with the original timeline order and canon, so it is being disregarded for this wiki.
	+ It doesn't make sense when you consider that the whole reason Link goes on a boat back to Hyrule in *Link's Awakening* is because he is returning home from Labrynna after defeating Ganon. The new timeline would allege that Link just up and left for no reason, we have no idea where he went, then came home and got shipwrecked. It doesn't make sense.