With Miyamoto busy on Majora's Mask, Nintendo farmed out two Game Boy Color Zelda titles to Flagship, an outside developer. Best known for the scenario design for the Resident Evil series, Capcom's Flagship team created scenarios for interlocked GBC games that could be played in any order: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. Nintendo handled the game design, and Flagship handled the programming duties. Save data from the two titles could be exchanged via a "link system," and actions in one game affected the other. Additionally, the games shipped with Game Boy Advance support, offering extra surprises when played on Nintendo's 32-bit handheld system.

Oracle of Ages

Oracle of Seasons

Although Seasons and Ages have similar graphics, audio, and gameplay mechanics, the storylines, characters, settings, and items differ. In terms of gameplay, Oracle of Seasons focuses on fighting and battling, whereas Oracle of Ages focuses on color-based events and puzzles. However, each game supplies players with a well-rounded Zelda experience (that is, both games contain puzzles and battles). The games' overworlds are similar to the one in Link's Awakening, but the dungeon design harkens back to the old-school feel of the first Legend of Zelda.

The key to success in Oracle of Seasons is the Rod of Seasons. Using the rod changes the season between spring, summer, fall, and winter. Many of the puzzles are based on variations in weather and climate. For example, a treasure chest blocked by a grove of trees in the spring is easily accessible in winter, when the trees have been chopped down for firewood. Similarly, an otherwise insurmountable cliff can be scaled only in summer, when the humid weather helps a climbing vine grow to the top. Oracle of Ages, on the other hand, introduces the Harp of Ages, which lets Link travel through 400 years of time in his quest of gathering the "essences of time." Advancing in Ages requires altering elements of the past to bring about change in the present. For instance, planting seeds in the past produces full-grown trees and vines in the present, opening up a new area.

Beyond being the two most popular titles on the Game Boy Color, the Oracle games are the only Zelda games released simultaneously and the first to affect each other's gameplay.

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