The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Nintendo 64
Back in the late 90's I was all about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was the first and only game I ever waited in line to purchase on the exact day it hit the shelves. Never mind the 60 plus dollar price tag, 16-year-old me wanted this game and he wanted it NOW. And it turned out to be well worth the money.
I played it religiously inside and out. I beat it a countless number of times, discovered every secret there was to discover. I don't think I even realized I was playing "the greatest game of all time" like some people seem to have dubbed the title. I just know that I really liked the game and that the game was stuffed with so much content that it kept me coming back time and time again.
You would think it would only be natural for me to snatch up Majora's Mask when that game came out a couple of years later. But I didn't. And I can't really remember why. I had read all the previews for the game before it came out. Maybe I thought it looked too similar to the original game? Maybe when it came out I read a bad review somewhere along the way? The game's price could have also played a factor. I remember that this game required an extra expansion pack to play it. So you not only had to buy the game, you had to buy the expansion pack to play the game as well. Maybe I just couldn't afford it at the time?
Whatever the reason, I missed out on an excellent game. I had another chance to play Majora's Mask a few years later when it came out on the Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition disc for the Gamecube. I think I even fired up the game and played it for a half hour or so. I didn't save my progress, telling myself I would come back to it later. But then I broke up with the girlfriend I was with at the time. She insisted that the disc was hers and took it when we split.
It wasn't hers, but we had been arguing so much that I didn't feel like pressing the point. Bad move, especially when I see how rare that collection is and how much people are willing to pay for it. I should have found a way to hang on to that disc!
More years passed. And passed. And passed. 2016 rolled around. 16 years after this game had originally came out, and I STILL hadn't played it yet. Well, sure I had played it for a half hour once back in the day, but I didn't count that as really playing it. I kept noticing that the game was coming up in all of my online circles. Everyone seemed to love the game. I really wanted to join in the conversations, but I couldn't because I hadn't played it. So I made it my goal to find this game. Somewhere, somehow, I was finally going to play Majora's Mask.
I ended up downloading the game from the Wii Virtual Console. But I didn't play it right away. More months passed. 2016 melted away to 2017. But thoughts of playing the game still lingered in the back of my mind. I was just waiting for the right time.
Finally the right time came. I was finished with all the other games I was playing. I was jonesing to start a longer game that I could dedicate 100% of my attention to. There were no outside distractions, nothing heavy was on my mind. It was time to finally play Majora's Mask.
The game certainly starts off with a bang. Link is riding Epona through the Lost Woods, looking for Navi, who had disappeared at the end of Ocarina of Time. There he runs into Skull Kid, who you may remember from the original game. He is wearing a very strange mask. This mask gives Skull Kid super powers, and he uses these powers to steal both Epona and the Ocarina of Time away from Link. Link gives chase, and the chase leads him to a giant hollowed out tree with a large pit in the middle of it. This is seemingly where Skull Kid has escaped to. Link takes a leap of faith and jumps into the pit.
Link survives the fall only to be cursed by the Skull Kid and turned into a walking Deku Shrub. Link makes his way through a series of underground passages and emerges in a strange place called Clock Town. There he finds a man known as the Happy Mask Salesman. This creepy looking dude explains to Link that Skull Kid had managed to steal Majora's Mask from him. Majora's Mask gives whoever is in possession of it god-like powers. It becomes your quest to stop Skull Kid and return the mask to the salesman.
When gameplay resumes, you head out to explore Clock Town. You discover that Skull Kid has used the mask to make the moon fall from the sky. This moon is on a direct collision course for Clock Town. It will impact in three days.
Controlling Deku Link, you confront Skull Kid on the third day. You manage to get the Ocarina of Time away from him, but find that he is too powerful to defeat. You hear a mysterious chant that tells you that you need to visit several areas in the land to find what you need to win. Before the moon can crash down and destroy everyone, Link plays the Ocarina to return back to his first day in Clock Town. He encounters the Happy Mask Salesman again. The salesman agrees to turn Link back into a human if he uses the Ocarina to stop Skull Kid once and for all.
And this is where your true quest begins. You must visit all four areas mentioned to you during your battle with Skull Kid and retrieve four masks which will help you win your fight.
There are four major regions in the game, with Clock Town sitting squarely in the middle acting as a central hub. The southern section represents the swamp lands, populated by the Deku. The west is Great Bay, home of the Zora. The north is snowy mountain territory populated by the Gorons. And the east is a rocky area which is under siege by ghosts and the undead.
You must visit each area, unlock its temple, and retrieve the mask from each temple. Once you have all four masks you can return to Clock Town and take on Skull Kid in a battle for Majora's Mask. You may think that with only four temples to beat, the game would be really short. But it is not.
All four temples require a lot of work to unlock. You must help the inhabitants of each area before you can access each temple. For example, in Great Bay to the west you must collect a bunch of Zora eggs which have been scattered throughout the ocean and return them to the hatchery before you can access the temple. In the east you must find out what is causing all the dead to come back to life before you can proceed. So on and so forth.
Each quest you must undertake is lengthy and time consuming, taking nearly as long to complete as the actual temples them selves. So while in concept this game may seem like it would be pretty short, it really isn't. Especially if you are playing without the help of the internet or a strategy guide. The game doesn't always make it clear what you are supposed to do next. And that really adds to the challenge of the game.
When you are clearing an area you gain access to masks that make it possible to access the next area of the game. For example, in the north you can wear a Goron mask that turns you into a Goron. You can smash stuff, lift heavy objects, and roll over your enemies. There is a Zora mask that allows you to swim underwater. A Deku mask that allows you to fire bubbles at your enemy, skip over water, and fly for a limited time through the air. These are the three major masks you will find throughout the game and that you need to have in order to advance.
I was a little intimidated by the whole mask aspect of the game, but really once you get used to it it all becomes second nature. Just picture changing suits in OoT to fit whatever environment you are trying to conquer. It is similar to that concept, although I must admit that you will be pausing quite a bit going around and selecting masks to add to your quick select menu.
In addition to these three required masks, there are also a countless number of optional masks you can collect by completing side quests through out the game. These masks can do things like collect fairies, make you invisible to enemies, and many other small things that will help you on your way.
The game controls just like Ocarina of Time. If you have played that game (or really any 3D Zelda game released since then) you will feel right at home playing Majora's Mask.
Graphically, the game looks really good. It is a very similar style to Ocarina of Time. I think technically this game probably looks a little better, but not overwhelmingly so. It has definitely aged well, especially when you factor in all the wonky, trippy colors and bright visual effects - plus how immersive each environment is. This is definitely a game you can lose yourself in playing it in the dark with headphones on.
The music is great too. I loved hearing the classic Zelda theme on the overworld map. All the little town themes, area themes, and dungeon tunes are great as well. I don't think the game has quite as many memorable tracks as other games like OoT and Wind Waker, however. But that's okay. All the classic Zelda sound effects are present as well, most of them ported directly over from OoT.
Now I must discuss the major twist of this game, what sets Majora's Mask apart from all the other Zelda titles: the whole three days before the end of the world concept. You have three days (in-game days) to beat the game before the moon crashes into Clock Town. If you don't finish it in three days, you die. But how is this possible, you may ask? Simple - you are in possession of the Ocarina of Time. You can and will use this object to manipulate time to allow you to complete your quest.
If you have ever seen Groundhog's Day or Edge of Tomorrow - you should be a little familiar with the game's twist. You must accomplish as much as you can in the three days you are allotted, and then use the Ocarina to send you back to the beginning of the three day cycle again. When you travel back to the beginning of the cycle - you keep all the special items you have picked up (your bow, for example), the Ocarina songs you have learned, and the masks you have collected. That's it. Most of the progress you make before resetting the cycle is lost.
So for example, you collect all the Zora eggs and learn the song that lets you unlock the water temple. But you look at the clock and see that you only have half a day left. No way to complete the temple, right? Warp back to the beginning of the three day cycle. You know the song you need to unlock the temple. Come back, unlock the temple, and you now have three days to complete it. But say you don't learn the song to unlock the temple. You collect 90% of the Zora eggs but then run out of time and have to warp back to day one. You lose all progress and have to run the side missions to learn the song all over again.
If you are taking too long to complete a temple once you are inside it and find that you have to reset the three day cycle - you lose all progress you made in the temple. When you come back to it, you will have to do everything all over again. There is definitely a learning curve here. And to me that makes this game a lot more challenging than almost all of the other 3D Zelda games. That feeling that you are working against the clock. I must admit, every time I hear that ringing of the bells that indicates that another day is about to pass, I just about crap myself. But in a good way. I hated this twist when I first started to play the game, but it actually started to grow on me after a while. It really makes the game a true challenge while at the same time adding to the intensity and desperation of your quest.
When I did beat the game, I had to sit back and take a deep breath. This isn't your typical Zelda game. It is difficult. Its intense. It is very dark in its tone. But I liked it.
The game narrowly misses out on a perfect score, mainly because I only award that to games I consider all time classics. And there were some flaws here. I was having to pull out the ocarina and perform songs waaaay too often for my liking. And with all the masks and items you carry around, three inventory slots is not enough. I was having to pause the game every minute or so to change things around. I found the whole item system to be very inefficient.
The save system is flawed too. You can only save after resetting the three day cycle. If you want to save at any other time - you can. But the game makes you quit playing. When you resume, that save is deleted. It is only temporary. You can't save for insurance in case you die and then continue playing. I found this to be extremely annoying.
And I do feel as if the game could have done a better job directing you as to where to go or what to do next. I don't need the game to hold my hand, but I get the feeling that if I didn't have access to help from the internet I would have gotten stuck a lot and gotten very frustrated as a result. Especially considering the game has you working against the clock.
Despite the flaws, I still loved the game. I wish it didn't take me 17 years after the game came out to finally getting around to playing it. I have a feeling I would consider this an all time great if I had grown up playing it. Now I simply think it is an excellent Zelda title, no more.
But you know that this must be a good game when I want to turn around and immediately play it over again. I NEVER feel that way with anything. I ended up not playing this a second time, but I have no doubt in my mind that I will be returning to it in the coming years. I vowed when I started up this blog that I wouldn't replay a game in my collection until I had gone through everything I own and reviewed each title. But I have a feeling Majora's Mask is going to be the game to make me break that promise.
Overall:
A
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