The Legend Of Zelda Returns To Oracles Era For A New Adventure

If you grew up playing The Legend of Zelda, chances are you have a soft spot for Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, which are arguably some of the franchise’s most fondly remembered games. They were released in 2001, and despite being some of the best Zelda games we’ve witnessed, they’ve always lived a little in the shadow of the series’ modern adventures. But that may be changing, thanks to a fan-made project that’s giving one of these gems a serious makeover.

You can now download a free Game Boy Color ROM hack called Moonrise Regalia, which is built on top of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. Developed by someone named Pontius Stone, the hack was shared online by multiple content creators, many of whom laid out details about the project and highlighted its best features in full playthroughs. Rather than just being a reskin or a difficulty tweak, Moonrise Regalia rebuilds the game around its dungeons. The overworld is smaller and more tightly packed than the original, but the trade-off is that there’s additional content in it, while the dungeons themselves take center stage.

There are nine main dungeons to work through, plus four smaller ones tucked in between, and the puzzles inside them have been described as custom-built for the hack rather than lifted from the original game. That’s worth pointing out because a lot of these fan projects lean on the source game’s existing puzzle structure and just change the surroundings. It also comes with a fresh soundtrack, so even the music doesn’t feel like a straight copy-paste of what came before. Understandably, not everything is new. You will come across useful items like the Switch Hook and a Cane from the original game that will help you get through those puzzles.

Moonrise Regalia has received some positive reactions since it started making the rounds online. Some players who’ve caught wind of it on YouTube have spoken up in support, with a few saying they wished more Oracle-focused projects like this one existed. It’s a small sample of reactions rather than any kind of broad verdict, but it does suggest there’s an audience out there who loved the split structure of Seasons and Ages back in the day and would happily take more content built in that same spirit, especially since both titles have received relatively little attention compared to newer Zelda releases.

For anyone curious enough to try it, you can now install the hack for free. Many Zelda players have also been streaming Moonrise Regalia and uploading full playthroughs, so you can get a sense of the dungeon design and the new mechanics before committing time to it yourself. Note that you’ll need your own copy of the original Oracle of Ages since the project is being distributed as a patch rather than a standalone file. You can download it via the ZeldaHacking Wiki or the Wind Fishes’ Breeze Discord.

Whether Moonrise Regalia becomes a major name in the ROM-hacking scene remains to be seen, but it’s already giving fans another reason to revisit one of the Game Boy Color era’s most beloved Zelda games.