Oracle of Seasons Part 1: Link dances with the ladies, passes out in a few places and then gets advice from a narcoleptic tree.

I hope Link didn't leave the iron plugged in.

Like I said previously, the introduction is identical in both games - Link rides up to Hyrule castle with the intention of checking on the Triforce bits, and then they teleport him off to a mysterious kingdom where he has to complete some kind of quest.

Link is passed out in some bushes when the game opens, and much like Maron in Link's Awakening, he's found by a cute girl who decides for some reason to look after the freak of the week who happened to land in her back yard. What a nice person!

Hopefully they're not planning to trade Link's o

rgans for booze.

Anyway, once Link wakes up, you find that the girl who found you is named Din, and she's part of a travelling troupe of entertainers. The troupe's cook, named Impa (yeah) tells you that Din is apparently a popular dancer and she's been caring for you until now. Personally, anybody who drags in random strangers off the road seems a bit sketchy to me, but whatever. Link is trusting.

Link's dance moves are unsurpassed.

Once you talk to Din, she gets you to dance with her for a bit and you get a cute little cutscene image in full color, much like the ones in Link's Awakening. I wouldn't say that I'm over the moon about their quality or anything, but it's a nice touch and it enriches the atmosphere of the game a lot.

After Link impresses everyone with his solo jumpstyle moves, Din takes a second to notice the triforce mark on Link's left hand and comments that this means he's got a special fate and is a hero and whatever. They share a nice little moment, and then lightning starts shooting from the sky and destroys the troupe's wagons and makes the sky go black.

There's a scary disembodied voice called Onox which addresses Din as the "Oracle of Seasons" (must be some new age thing). It generally makes a dick of itself and then kidnaps Din in a big blue tornado, which Link is helpless to stop because he is so danced out. 

We get a helpful cutscene which shows Din imprisoned at the top of some kind of tower, where Onox explains to her that since he's captured the Oracle of Seasons, the seasons will be disordered and everything will die. I guess he thinks that is basically a good thing. Maybe he has hayfever or something. There's another cutscene in which the Temple of Seasons sinks into the ground, and we see that all over the land of Holodrum (where this is set) the seasons are changing rapidly and at random.

Link passes out in a snowy bank (he should really cut back on the partying) and is awakened by Impa, who explains that she's not a cook and is in fact the nurse of Hyrule's Princess Zelda. Impa was sent to collect Din, the Oracle of Seasons, and bring her back to Hyrule Castle because Zelda's psychic powers informed her that Din was in danger. Good job, Impa.

Anyway, she foists the task of saving Din on to you and asks you to go talk to somebody called the Maku Tree in Horon Village, who is the guardian of all Holodrum.

The first thing you'll notice as you start to wander around is that the seasons change as you go from place to place, which is marked by a little season icon that flashes up in the upper left corner of the screen. Depending on the season, some of the features of the terrain will change - snow banks in winter, fruit in the summer, etc. These seasonal changes are the gimmick of this game, and block or allow access to various regions depending on the season. As you control more and more of the seasons, you can access more and more different areas.

You have to go on a little fetch quest before you can even see the Maku Tree, which involves getting a sword from a cave on the beach. The similarities between Link's Awakening and this game become really apparent at this point - you'll see what I mean if you get a chance to play it. The items work the same way as they did in Link's Awakening, in that you can assign one item to A and one item to B, allowing for a variety of combinations depending on your circumstances.

Anyways, once you find the Maku Tree (pretty much the Deku Tree, you've seen it all before) Link wakes him up from a nap. The Maku Tree is pretty irritated that Din was kidnapped and the Temple of Seasons disappeared while he was sleeping, but says that the seasons being all wacky has sapped him of his power so it's pretty much your problem. He tells you you'll need eight essences of nature to get into the Northern Peak, where Onox is, and then gives you the key to the first dungeon (several of the dungeons in this game need keys to get into, just like Link's Awakening.)

So there's the intro to the game. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!