The Legend of Zelda: Ranking Every Game From Worst To Best

11. Oracle of Seasons / Oracle of Ages

Zelda Oracle Of Seasons €œHe€™s combining two different games into the same entry AGAIN?€ I know, I know, I€™m cutting corners. As with #14, I understand that these are two different games. But they were both released at the same time, have nearly identical names, and are meant to be two games that form a single experience. Nintendo realized that Pokemon€™s dual-game formula was making them money, so they decided to apply it to other franchises. I€™m surprised they didn€™t do the same thing to Mario. Anyway, the Oracle games were developed by Capcom, which was a big deal because they were the first Zelda games developed by an outside company that didn€™t totally suck. In fact, they were actually pretty good. Each game had a unique focus, with Seasons paying more attention to combat and Ages being more puzzle-oriented. This made sense in theory, since the series has always been renowned for its perfect mixture of combat and puzzles, but when playing these games individually, that perfect mixture is missing and the overall experience suffers for it. Had Nintendo and Capcom not opted for the Pokemon model and instead created one focused, balanced game, they could have had another Zelda classic on their hands. What we got was certainly no dud, but it makes you wonder what could have been.
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J.D. Laney is an aspiring novelist and screenwriter from Cleveland, Ohio. When he isn't trying to write his own material, he is constantly consuming the work of others for analysis and, occasionally, for fun. He has a particular interest in film, literature, and video games.