The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

A little too straightforward compared to the ambitious (if not obtuse at times) Ages

really dug the magnetic gloves though

Surprising how involved the overworld was in this one, Ages was pretty on rails in comparison

Pleasantly surprised to have come back to this and recognized some Higemaru/Goof Troop DNA in these games. The Great Moblin fight is copy-pasted from the boss fight with Keelhaul Pete, scent seeds function just like the bell item, and even though the shovel and other items appeared in LttP and LA first, their bigger emphasis and implementation here feels like a bit of a nod. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but at least Great Moblin feels like an obvious shoutout. Makes sense since Goof Troop in particular was pretty transparently aping a lot of Zelda qualities, but still, it's nice to see Capcom making use of those older games in new ways.

For some reason struggling with this game sometimes. The combat is hard. And some of the boss runbacks are horrendous. Still an amazing fun game tho.

seeing the straight up platformer secondary is so jarring

The music and overworld are better in this one. I also love the much more original seasons mechanic over the time travel one. But man, this is so empty of story content and memorable characters compared to OoA. Also the dungeons aren't as creative as OoA.

Not quite done yet and haven't played OoA but I'm really enjoying this. It's no Link's Awakening of course but great overworld, items (love the magnet gloves!), etc. Dungeons are a little too repetitive but that doesn't hold it back much