Games I Have Finished (as far as I can remember)

[A Black Falcon]

Game Boy Color
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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (non-linked game) - I beat this back in 2001 some time after buying both games that summer in a linked game (ie Ages first, Seasons second), but years ago I started a non-linked game, so that I could beat it in the other way as well. There were ... many delays ... thanks to various things, including cartridge damage -- the cart's plastic shell's bottom right corner is broken off, and while the game works in GBC systems fine, in GBA systems (GBA/SP/GB Player) it won't work without thick tape covering that edge, and it's tough to get a cart with duct tape on it to get into the cart slot... and then getting it out (to switch games) is even harder. So I decided sometime last year (I think) that I'd just leave Seasons in the GBA until I beat it... but I didn't do that anytime soon. That's one reason why I got that GBA-SP late last year, I wanted another GBA (other than the GC+GB Player) so I could play GB games without the frustration of dealing with removing that Seasons cart. :)

I quit for a particularly long time in Seasons' Lost Forest-like maze square, that was a complete pain and I couldn't figure it out without a guide, and I was always playing the game away from my computer and then not caring quite enough to just go look it up and get past that point.

But I finally did, and after probably a couple of years (or more, I really have no idea when I started this Seasons-first playthrough) of occasional play, playing it for a little while and then not again for months, I finally decided to try to finish it a week or two ago. The eighth dungeon was really, really hard, but I got through it, and then got to the boss... but he was even harder, so I realized that what I needed was the medicine that gave you a full health recharge. I couldn't buy it from the witch, so I looked it up in a guide, and it turned out that I'd never started the trading game after getting the first item. I used the guide to quickly get through the trades, got the potion (and L-2 shooting sword, though it's not that big of an upgrade really, just looks cooler because it can shoot), tried the final boss...

And got stuck for several days, until finally managing to beat him today with the help of a technique from the web (using pegasus seeds to try to jump back and forth between his hands, instead of just getting in one hit each time you get onto his hands). That was the key, and I just barely managed to beat him, after several tries, with 3/4ths of a heart left and having used the potion. Pretty awesome. :)

Now, I can finally play Ages again, in a linked game, and see if it's as good as I remember it being... in '01 I liked Ages more than Seasons. It is the more popular of the two, but I wonder what I'll think now. :)