Oracle of Ages

They called it that since it takes a friggin' era to get from one dungeon to the next.

I got my hands on the Zelda Oracle games again.  The Seasons cart refuses to load and I'm scared to tell the nice person that loaned it to me that I think its a dead cart.  That was my favorite of the two, too (TOO!)

So I decided to man up and play Ages.  I've had a theory that this was the second game of the pair to be put together, and playing it again really just reinforces the idea.  While the dungeons themselves are fairly normal Zelda fare, the challenge level is much higher than in the Seasons game, with bosses that are plain nasty to boot.

And I forgot about the Tokay.  URGH!  The damn Tokay.  To the uninitiated, they're little lizard guys that inhabit a tropical island to the south of the game's mainland.  You wind up stranded on said island, and bastards rob you and leave you for dead.  That would just be mildly annoying, but then you have to fetch your gear back, including having to fend off enemies without any weapons to start off.  To make things extra tedious, you have to engage in a trading minigame, where you have to pick one of two items and leave a third behind.  Fortunately, the one you trade with (the shovel) isn't required to progress until you have other stuff to barter with, and once you do have the trade goods you need, you can have all three back permanently.  Unfortunately, you have to pick which of the two necessary tools (the Roc's feather and Power Bracelet) to leave behind until you start having tradables.  The icing on the cake is that every time you want to swap, you have to reverse the previous exchange and then pick the item you want all over again.

Tokay suck.  Subrosians have dance parties and dates for miniquests, and have smiths that only do work if you yell at them.  And they hang out in the happiest lava land of doom ever.  Those guys are awesome.  Tokay should be flung into a volcano, while the Subrosians and Gorons and stuff dance to celebrate.

Yes, I'm tired and angry, why do you ask?

In happier news, look to the shadows and never give up!  Here there be dragons; blue ones.