The Lost Legend of Zelda Trilogy We Never Got

This video was supposed to be half this length.

These games deserve the same remake treatment Link's Awakening got.

Man, I remember being a child and loving the commercial for Season/Ages everytime it came out on TV back then. I only had Ages, and played it for hours and beat it so many times too

One crazy idea for a Farore storyline was to have Farore is that she is actually playing an instrumental role in ensuring that Link is successful. After all, the entire secrets system implies that Link is somehow able to convey future knowledge to his past self, use that to obtain some new item, and then collect that item in the present as well. This involves some level of manipulating time to his advantage, which is consistent since both Din and Nayru do manipulate time in one way or another. The idea is that Twinrova had a failsafe plan for Farore in case their plan failed. As for the villain who would do this, I decided that the jeweler Vasu and his snakes would be an ironic twist. They are the only other place where secrets can be used.

if they had to scrap the third game, maybe they just retconned link's awakening to have been the game of courage

the oracle games are so amazing but overlooked

Minish Cap is basically Oracle of Secrets, given the focus on exploration with essentially a second version of the world hidden within the regular one

I always found it a bit odd that most folks think Seasons happens first, followed by Ages, when, in linked versions, Onox remarks that Link must have defeated Veran, while Veran makes no remark about Onox. Clarification: Hyrule Encylopedia stating OoX Link is the same as ALttp and LA despite coming after is a translation error; in the original Japanese, he is described as a separate Link.

Translation note: the Subrosians are still called the “Uura”(ウーラ族) in Japanese OoS. It’s a play on the word “ura” (裏) meaning like “back/reverse side” or “hidden.” So it could have worked as another dimension or underground, either way. Personally I prefer the localized term for its creativity.

Let's just be honest. Nintendo doesn't think about a real time line in Zelda games and just tries to fit things together retroactively

These games were my introduction to the Legend of Zelda franchise, which makes it very disappointing that no one ever talks about them.

Coolest thing was coming back 10 years or so after I beat Seasons and buying Ages on 3DS and the codes just working from my 10 year old save on a different console

20:23 "Your wife NEVER leaves the house? EVER? That seems a bit regressive-" "How many times do I need to explain that she's literally rooted to the ground?"

Oracle of Ages was my first ever Zelda game so I’ll always show up when someone talks about these games. While I did always know about the 3 game thing and whatnot, your explanation for which of the original trilogy became the eventual duology is new to me and explains to me specifically why all material I encountered always treated Seasons as the first of the two games. When I got Ages as a kid I also had an official strategy guide which covered both Oracle games and the thing that always bothered me was how it treated Seasons as the one you’re supposed to play first. Honestly the strategy guide was my only motivation for wanting to get the second game. And you know, despite having a tight video game budget similar to yourself I was able to get seasons eventually as a kid and got to enjoy all the password shenanigans therein. Nevertheless, I do await the day that these games get their dues in remakes and for the possible third game to come to fruition under the right team and the right idea. I do have hope for that since Hidemaru Fujibayashi was part of Flagship and he’s such a prominent person in the Zelda team today.

So, weird suggestion: I highly recommend checking out the novelization of these games. Yes. It exists. In English. They were COYA novels, and relatively short. They also tried to incorporate the link mechanic from the games INTO A DAMN BOOK! Weirdly, my parents refused to get me a GNC back in the day, so...the books are the way I got to experience these two games as a child.

I remember having the strategy guide for season. And for a while I packed it everywhere. To school, everywhere. To the point it started to break. I loved looking at the artwork for hrs. I love and miss them both

A couple of the things that I like better by doing Ages first and Seasons second are the new additions that happen from doing Seasons as a linked game. Mentok mentioned the Ambi finding her lost love at last one. But one he did not mention is that the despair flame getting lit via Zelda's kidnapping makes a lot more sense in a Seasons linked game. In a linked Seasons, Zelda spends her time at Impa's house right outside Holon Village from the start. The implication is that she really gets to know the denizens of that locale and they really get to know here. Right before you enter the 8th dungeon, Zelda gives this really cool (in my opinion) rallying speech to the very worried denizens of Holon to not give into despair and keep hope that everything will be alright in the end. And it's backed by this one awesome track that I love, this epic music that goes so well with the epic speech. This works to tide off the encroaching despair. But it creates an unforeseen vulnerability in the denizens that Twinrova exploits when they kidnap Zelda at the end. In the linked Seasons, Zelda actively became the embodiment of hope, and so when the denizens witness her being kidnapped, their hope is essentially stolen right before their very eyes, and they immediately fall into despair. And it's one strong enough to light the Flame of Despair. Not only do we get treated to an awesome speech from Zelda, really characterizing her in a way that she doesn't get the opportunity to be if you played Seasons first instead of second, but the whole "Oh snap, we still need to light the Flame of Despair, naow !1!" angle works a whole lot better because of it, since it actively makes sense where that sudden surge of despair needed to light it came from.

The Oracle games have always been my favorite Zelda games, and i still have a lot of fun playing them again from time to time. Mostly. I definitely agree that Ages is the more polished of the two. Seasons is an absolute slog to get through. Its a real shame we never got to see the third game. Storywise, I can understand that how much of a nightmare it would have been to link everything together into a coherent story that works regardless of which order you play in. I never bought the excuse that they couldn't make it work with the password system. I reverse engineered them several years ago and the passwords are incredibly simple. I think they only mentioned them as an excuse because the secrets just look like nonsense to most players.

I remember getting Oracle of Seasons because I had a mega kid crush on Din, while my older brother got Oracle of Ages a year or so later, so I was eventually able to play both! Never got very far, though, despite having a strategy guide...

LOVE these games, even 20+ years later. They awakened my zelda obsession as a kid