If Nintendo/Grezzo remake the Oracle games, should they revive Oracle of Secrets/Mystical Seed of Wisdom?

JazzPotatoes

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Following on from the smash success of the Link's Awakening remake, I feel like chances are pretty high that Grezzo will be remaking Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. They're both just as beloved as the original Link's Awakening, and have their own unique spin on the top down Zelda formula.

What many fans don't know is that there were originally three games planned: their original names were Mystical Seeds of Courage/Power/Wisdom. Each game was intended to represent a different element of the Triforce. Development on all three games went ahead, and the third game Mystical Seed of Wisdom was only scrapped when the developers at Capcom had difficulty implementing the password system across three different games.

There's an archived IGN article from back in the day that sheds some light on how the three games would have worked:


"One game was to focus on action (Chapter of Power), one was to focus on puzzles (Chapter of Wisdom), while the gameplay focus of the third (Chapter of Courage) was never officially announced. Each was also to have a theme -- The Tale of Power was about the four seasons, with the Rod of the Seasons able to change the seasons which then change the game areas; The Tale of Wisdom was to use a color theme, with various events and areas and tools built around certain colors; The Tale of Courage was to have the theme of time, where you could need to use morning, noon, evening and night in order to solve various riddles in this game. Each was also to have its own Oracle as the pivotal character of the story -- Din in the Tale of Power, Nayru in the Tale of Courage, and the lost Oracle Farore in Tale of Wisdom. All three games were to use Nintendo anticipated-at-the-time cellphone adapter technology for some form of data transfer. The plan at the time was to stagger the release of each game by six weeks to build anticipation for each new game and its cross-link compatibility."

"In 2000, the 3-game concept became too much for the platform and the limitations of the password system used for the games, so the team scaled the project back to just two games and restructured the password system and storyline. Mystical Seed of Power became Oracle of Seasons and Mystical Seed of Courage became Oracle of Ages, and both were released in 2001. The third chapter, Mystical Seed of Wisdom, was never finished, and it is unknown how much of the game was ever completed or how much was re-created in future Zelda titles. "

Fast forward to twenty years later: If Nintendo and Grezzo decide to follow up LA with the Oracle remakes, how likely is it for them to revive the cancelled third game? I imagine a lot would need to be reworked from the original cancelled project, but the idea of a game focused around colours would still slot in incredibly neatly alongside the other two games' focus on seasons and time.

Maybe it's overly optimistic, but we're living in a world where Metroid Dread got announced less than six months ago and is now out and playable after 15 years of intrigue. Could Oracle of Secrets get the Metroid Dread treatment?
 

Pineapple Pizza

"Mmm... Can't beat the smell of fresh soil."
I really really do not want them to remake the Oracle games in the new Link's Awakening style. I actually would prefer the sprites to have a face-lift à la Four Swords on GameCube. The performance of the remake was woeful.

The idea of resurrecting the abandoned part of the trilogy... I can get 100% behind that.
 
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JazzPotatoes

JazzPotatoes

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Would be cool, but do we know how far the development got for the third game?
They've never officially said too much about it, but we know development got far enough along that they had issues implementing the password system across all three games. What we know about the colour theme (having puzzles, events and tools be themed on colours) is a solid enough concept alongside the other two that it seems reasonable to have had a lot of work put into it.

Wikipedia has this:

"The games interacted with each other: players could begin with any of the three games and have the actions of the first game affect the story of the other two, a concept conceived by Okamoto.[26][39] More than ten of Flagship's scenarists, among them Resident Evil writer Junichi Miyashita, worked on the three stories."

So I think it's safe to assume that the third Oracle game was definitely more than just a collection of ideas, and was at some point a real project. In much the same way I imagine previous versions of Dread were up and running on various Nintendo dev kits.
 

Leo

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At this point it would be as good as any new 2D game.

I do wish they would remake the Oracle games, I really like them but it's difficult to go back to only two action buttons, it's a pain to change items all the time.
 

Raytro

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Would love it since I really liked Seasons, didn't play Ages and always wanted the 3rd game to come out. Oracles remakes on Switch would be a highly anticipated release for me.
 
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No. 3 games at once is just too many. If they couldn't deal with the complexity of making that many games at once the first time, it's going to be very much more difficult on modern consoles.

Just make one really good new game or do the two oracle remakes as they were.
 

Illucio

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I really want them to remake the Minish Cap next. <3

I have no attachment to the Oracle games.
 

Fireblend

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I would love for the best 2 Zelda games to be introduced to a new generation in whichever format they preferred. I don't know what it would look like to develop the third game, as I kind of assumed removing the third game from their plan allowed them to increase the scope for the other two, but I guess I wouldn't be opposed (I would be over the moon, in fact) to another 2D Zelda whether it fit into the Oracle series in some way or not.
 

WestEgg

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I think rereleasing the Oracle games would be somewhat challenging. Not saying it won’t happen, but I don’t think it’s the obvious next move for Grezzo or another studio for a few reasons. First, I think the toy model art style works well for Link’s Awakening because of its more whimsical and surreal tone, but the Oracle games are more traditional fantasy and the art style would either need reworked a bit or risk feeling a bit off.
Second, the two release nature of the series is a bit problematic for Nintendo. If these games came out together like the previous ones, that would be $120 for the “full experience” assuming they retain a single linked ending. I still think the games are largely distinct enough that grouping them together like Pokémon or Fire Emblem Fates is silly, but that’s the optics of the situation. The best way to handle this in my opinion would be to stagger the releases, pick one to release in the spring, the other in the fall, that way it helps make each release feel more distinct to justify a $60 price tag, you can have two marketing cycles, and helps fill out the calendar.
And third, I think the games just internally don’t have the same clout as the EPD developed games. Don’t get me wrong, Capcom did a great job with the Oracle games and Minish Cap, but they’re somewhat creatively restricted compared to the rest of the series, needing to borrow assets or art designs from other games in the series rather than forging their own more unique identity. The games aren’t especially huge successes for the series, each pulling in only a couple million, which isn’t great for the Zelda series, so I don’t think Nintendo sees this as a priority the way some might.
 

Whelt

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Is it likely? Those were Capcom games. I don't think there is yet a precedent of Nintendo commissioning a remake of a game one of their own internal studios didn't make.
 

Twinsen

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If they do I hope they improve a bit on the visuals/artstyle and the music. I like the link's awakening remake but a lot of stuff just didn't transition to make a wholy superior experience. Hope the oracle games are done a bit more justice. Less puppety looking please. I don't find that a fitting artstyle tbh
 

Yzz

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I am a believer that the Faron game became Minish Cap, which has sort of a forest aesthetic and wind mechanics. Also the concept of becoming smaller sounds like it was going to be the third gimmick.
 

TreIII

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Whatever happens, I just want the legit remake of the first Zelda that we almost got out of the deal, and can clearly see the remnants of in Oracle of Seasons
and the Ganon battle we got in the final part of the linked game
.
 
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JazzPotatoes

JazzPotatoes

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I think rereleasing the Oracle games would be somewhat challenging. Not saying it won’t happen, but I don’t think it’s the obvious next move for Grezzo or another studio for a few reasons. First, I think the toy model art style works well for Link’s Awakening because of its more whimsical and surreal tone, but the Oracle games are more traditional fantasy and the art style would either need reworked a bit or risk feeling a bit off.
Second, the two release nature of the series is a bit problematic for Nintendo. If these games came out together like the previous ones, that would be $120 for the “full experience” assuming they retain a single linked ending. I still think the games are largely distinct enough that grouping them together like Pokémon or Fire Emblem Fates is silly, but that’s the optics of the situation. The best way to handle this in my opinion would be to stagger the releases, pick one to release in the spring, the other in the fall, that way it helps make each release feel more distinct to justify a $60 price tag, you can have two marketing cycles, and helps fill out the calendar.
And third, I think the games just internally don’t have the same clout as the EPD developed games. Don’t get me wrong, Capcom did a great job with the Oracle games and Minish Cap, but they’re somewhat creatively restricted compared to the rest of the series, needing to borrow assets or art designs from other games in the series rather than forging their own more unique identity. The games aren’t especially huge successes for the series, each pulling in only a couple million, which isn’t great for the Zelda series, so I don’t think Nintendo sees this as a priority the way some might.

I'm assuming that if the Oracle remakes happen, Grezzo will keep the assets that worked for Link's Awakening, but rework the more toylike aspects such as character models and the materials - A lot of the base environmental stuff such as trees are pretty close to the original game, it's just the tilt shift effect and lighting that give them the toy-like look.

I'm also assuming that the original Oracle games borrowing art from LA would be mirrored by the potential new Oracle remakes reusing a lot of the stuff created for Link's Awakening HD. Rather than starting over from scratch, I'd imagine remaking the Oracle games would allow Grezzo to carry over a lot of the work they already created and add to it. I don't know if there's any burning need for the games to be too visually distinct from Link's Awakening, when the originals were beloved despite carrying over much of the same artwork.

And in terms of sales, it's difficult to guess what Nintendo's internal judgements are, as currently the Switch seems to be giving major sales boosts to every franchise they release on it. Nothing in the Metroid franchise ever got close to the sales of the Oracle games, but Metroid Dread is now out there beating franchise sales records, and no doubt giving Nintendo reasons to keep investing in new 2D Metroid games. Link's Awakening was a smash success. I can only imagine a re-release of the Oracle games would be judged on those sort of terms (though I would perhaps argue that 4 million combined for both games on the Gameboy isn't that unsuccessful by Zelda standards).
 

Ryosuke

Akagi RedSuns
I really really do not want them to remake the Oracle games in the new Link's Awakening style. I actually would prefer the sprites to have a face-lift à la Four Swords on GameCube. The performance of the remake was woeful.

The idea of resurrecting the abandoned part of the trilogy... I can get 100% behind that.

Same here, I'm really sad that one of my favorite games runs that way. One of the main games I wanted to play on a successor / midgen refresh.
 

PlatinumClover

Retro freak
Whatever happens, I just want the legit remake of the first Zelda that we almost got out of the deal, and can clearly see the remnants of in Oracle of Seasons
and the Ganon battle we got in the final part of the linked game
.
I love to think that the more you think about it, the more Ocarina of Time is a semi-3D-remake of The Adventure of Link. From sage names to progressions to cities to Dark Link to a very same, stupid minor detail: the way Link is knocked back when hit by one of those moving blades is an exact recreation of his damage animation in Zelda 2.
 

Yoshifan31

Rattata
Even though the third game seems to have lived through what we actually got (Ages is blue, has Nayru and it’s about time and puzzles), ideally a remake of the Oracle games would have some kind of additional bonus for the linked quest. Three games in one would be neat. Either way I just want actually original ideas for 2D Zelda, we didn’t have a brand new one since Minish Cap. If an Oracle remake would be merely both of them in the LA remake engine sold at full price for each, while it would probably still get decent sales, we would have insufferable discourse around how “Nintendo is applying Pokemon to Zelda, they are shamelessly anti-consumer”
 
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