[Lynk Former]

It's one of the titles which most people overlook for various reasons, but it is no doubt the most mysterious Zelda game ever created. Many people considered this game to be a small side story, but is in fact one of the most well thought out games in the series with a lot of depth and mystery. To add to that, the game has some very dark and disturbing themes which most people overlook... most people.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

MAJORA'S MASK

I'll let the Wikipedia article of Majora's Mask explain all of the standard details of the game because what I want to write about in this thread goes well beyond that.

It's been 8 years since the game was released back on the Nintendo 64 and in that time there have been many discussions and debates on the net about various things within the game. In fact, once a year I go hunting for threads on Zelda and gaming forums looking for threads where people have been debating and discussing Majora's Mask... these threads can last for many years and go on for 20 to 40 pages full of some pretty hardcore discussions. People still talk about Majora's Mask, even to this day!

I was wondering if anyone else here has played Majora's Mask? I know it's a long shot, but hopefully at least one of you has cause I really feel like discussing some things about the game with someone... I've started replaying it again as well XD It's so awesome.

[Chimasterwang]

I played Majora's Mask a while back on GCN with LoZ: Collector's Edition ;p
The various different stories and time related events add extra fun/challenge to the game maybe XD
I probibly overlooked some of the darker/deeper parts and i never completed it 100% XP
You can tell it has more depth than OoT because it deals with individual characters more maybe =P

[spinkle]

I played the hell out of this game, but given its non-traditional structure (in terms of Zelda games) I had a lot of difficulty with it and didn't manage to complete most of the "side quests." Of course (again citing non-traditional) because almost every "side quest" in Majora's Mask is actually "1/24th of the main quest" I never finished the game, although I got through a significant amount of it--far enough to get to, but not past, the final fight of the game. (not enough masks)

I can't say I didn't like it; I did. I can't say I didn't have fun with it; I did. But goddamn if it ever frustrated me. In fact, the original NES Legend of Zelda frustrated me *less* than Majora's Mask (and in 1988 I was throwing controllers at the television, so that should put this into some perspective.) I've thought of going back and replaying it, either via emu or by actually hooking my N64 up and waking it out of its GCN-induced hibernation. Maybe I will do so just to give Lynk somebody to talk with about the game. XD

It's definitely an oddball...almost to the point of being a non-Zelda game with the only touchstone of familiarity being the use of the sprites (not sure if this is the right word? maybe characters is a better choice?) from OoT. It's definitely a darker-themed game and works the repetition-of-play-leads-to-familiarity angle, since the game essentially requires a large number of full playthroughs [of the three days in which the game takes place], allowing the player to see only fragments of the story at a time and watch it take shape from the perspective of all of the characters rather than being primarily concerned with Find Item-->Beat Boss-->Get Heart-->Move On.

Even still (as you can probably see) I'm ambivalent about this game and I kind of dread starting it over, haha.

[kin37ik]

ive only every watched someone play it, looks pretty good though

[Lynk Former]

I played Majora's Mask a while back on GCN with LoZ: Collector's Edition ;p

I remember buying Majora's Mask on the day it was released... I actually owned this game before I owned Ocarina of Time... it's a very bitter story *shakes fist as he remembers* My mum even said when she got me Majora's Mask "see, I finally bought the game for you" to which I replied "this is the sequel to the game I've been trying to get you to buy for me for all these years!"

For a long time I wanted to get Ocarina of Time, but at the time it was difficult for me to come by enough money so I tried to get my parents to buy the game for me on my birthday or Christmas. They never did... in fact, my mum made it a point NOT to buy it for me... they even bought me OTHER games instead of Ocarina of Time... those games were good games, of course, but I didn't understand why they refused to get this one game for me... I also remember this one particular Christmas when she got something I didn't want at all AND it cost more to buy than Ocarina of Time actually cost... grrrr. It wasn't until 2001 that I was able to buy it second hand for really cheap... and yes, it was the gold cart version.

But here's the funny part... I may not have OWNED the game, but I had played it and finished it 100% long before I bought myself a copy in 2001, in fact I had finished the game 100% back in early 1999, only about 4 months after it was released down here. The reason I was able to do this was because I hired the game constantly from Blockbuster video... and I do mean constantly. There were times when I had hired the game for a week, returned it, and then the next day after returning it I'd hire it again. In the end the cost amounted to more than the game was worth if you bought it brand new... but it didn't bother me, it was my parents who paid for it in the first place... if my mum had just bought the game for me in the first place she wouldn't have ended up wasting all of this money... so I guess I got the last laugh (and my revenge)

I no longer own the N64 cart versions of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask though... I made the mistake of trading them in sometime around 2003 or 2004... BIG MISTAKE. Oh well... but I do have Majora's Mask on the same Zelda Collector's Disc for the GCN that you have, Chim. I also have many different versions of Ocarina of Time XD The one found on the same collector's disc, TWO copies of the one you got with The Wind Waker, the Master's Quest disc, and the version on Wii Virtual Console. The WiiVC one is obviously the best one and the controls are very tight on it too... I wonder what's taking them so long to release Majora's Mask on WiiVC, bleah. HURRY UP!!

The various different stories and time related events add extra fun/challenge to the game maybe XD

Yeah, they do. It's one of the things people really wanted out of Twilight Princess. It's a shame that TP didn't really deliver what the people wanted. Nintendo heard people say they wanted more livelier towns like in Majora's Mask, but what they gave is Castle Town with a lot of NPCs who simply walk around but you can't interact with in any way.

I probibly overlooked some of the darker/deeper parts and i never completed it 100% XP

Most people did, but it's also a matter of noticing it, but not picking up that what you just noticed really is something very significant...

You can tell it has more depth than OoT because it deals with individual characters more maybe =P

Actually, there are some pretty old interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma and some other folks who work on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask reveal some pretty interesting information.

According to the interviews, a lot of features which appeared in Majora's Mask and even Twilight Princess were first thought of for Ocarina of Time. Apparently there was meant to be A LOT more side quests in Ocarina of Time, really large ones like the Biggoron Sword and the Happy Mask side quests. They wanted to put a lot of depth into Ocarina of Time, but they had already spent a lot of time rebuilding the game from the ground up from several earlier versions. As some of you may know, Ocarina of Time was meant to be a launch title for the Nintendo 64 but was delayed for 2 years. They couldn't delay it any longer so a lot of what the folks at Nintendo wanted in the game didn't make it in... including the horseback battles which we all finally got to experience in Twilight Princess.

I played the hell out of this game, but given its non-traditional structure (in terms of Zelda games) I had a lot of difficulty with it and didn't manage to complete most of the "side quests." Of course (again citing non-traditional) because almost every "side quest" in Majora's Mask is actually "1/24th of the main quest" I never finished the game, although I got through a significant amount of it--far enough to get to, but not past, the final fight of the game. (not enough masks)

I've completed the game 100% over and over again... in fact, probably more times than I've bothered to do with Ocarina of Time.

From the very first time I played it, I loved how it wasn't a traditional Zelda game. I mean, if you've spent quite a lot of time on OoT and then go onto MM, you don't want just another OoT, you really do want something different, and Nintendo delivered in every way. It also does deal with a lot of things that Ocarina of Time wasn't able to, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of character development for The Hero of Time himself. What I mean is, in Ocarina of Time, we saw Link as a child and then as an adult... but we never got to see the world through his eyes between that time when he grows up... that's where Majora's Mask comes in. In fact, the game makes it a point to point out that Link is just a child who doesn't understand "grown up matters"... but as you begin to interact with the townsfolk in Clock Town and around Termina, you discover that Link is experiencing some things that he never did experience on his grand adventure to save Hyrule from Ganondorf.

The best example is the second time you take Cremia's carriage ride after you've gotten Romani's Mask the first time around... Here's a video of it on youtube... it's the best I could find, it's some guy on an emulator + the music is added: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjH1aP0g-QQ The scene starts at 2:06. For those who are wondering... yes, that is a real part of the game.

(Rwar.)

Throughout the game, as his adventure progresses, the game really makes it a point to show that Link is growing up in Majora's Mask... which actually makes it more in line with the traditional idea of the first Zelda game more so than Ocarina of Time is. The idea of the first Zelda, according to Shigeru Miyamoto was to show a young boy coming of age, growing up and becoming strong enough to face the world around him.

Also, I really love how they got you to know the ins and outs of almost every aspects of each characters life. Especially for the epic Anju & Kafei sidequest... which really is, truly epic... and brings a tear to my eye... *cries*

Oh, and as for the final part of the game, you don't need all the masks to fight Majora's Mask at the end. The only reason to collect all of the masks is so that if you have them all and then complete the four tasks, then you'll get the Fierce Deity's Mask which happens to be the last mask in the game.

Here's the final battle with Fierce Deity Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRH4EN_KDnY

And yes, I bunny hood around the place all the time just like everyone else does XD I love the bunny hood!!

All hail the bunny hood!!

I can't say I didn't like it; I did. I can't say I didn't have fun with it; I did. But goddamn if it ever frustrated me. In fact, the original NES Legend of Zelda frustrated me *less* than Majora's Mask (and in 1988 I was throwing controllers at the television, so that should put this into some perspective.) I've thought of going back and replaying it, either via emu or by actually hooking my N64 up and waking it out of its GCN-induced hibernation. Maybe I will do so just to give Lynk somebody to talk with about the game. XD

It's definitely an oddball...almost to the point of being a non-Zelda game with the only touchstone of familiarity being the use of the sprites (not sure if this is the right word? maybe characters is a better choice?) from OoT. It's definitely a darker-themed game and works the repetition-of-play-leads-to-familiarity angle, since the game essentially requires a large number of full playthroughs [of the three days in which the game takes place], allowing the player to see only fragments of the story at a time and watch it take shape from the perspective of all of the characters rather than being primarily concerned with Find Item-->Beat Boss-->Get Heart-->Move On.

Even still (as you can probably see) I'm ambivalent about this game and I kind of dread starting it over, haha.

*points* You really should play it again! Goddamn!

Oh, and I VERY MUCH disagree that it seems like a non-Zelda game. I think a lot about this game is very true to what The Legend of Zelda is. It's just that people started to expect a Zelda game to be Link saving Hyrule and Zelda from Ganondorf thanks to games like A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. Plus, Majora's Mask wasn't the first game to take the series outside of Hyrule and familiar themes. That honour goes to Link's Awakening.

Also, sprites are used to describe 2D pixel objects from 2D and even 3D games. An example of sprites being used in a 3D game is Mario Kart 64, where all of the characters on their karts were simply sprites which would change depending on the angle they were viewed. It wasn't until Mario Kart Double Dash that we saw a Mario Kart game use full 3D character models.

They did reuse a lot of character models, but they remade and created a lot of new ones as well.

The way I see it, Majora's Mask falls into the same field as No More Heroes... it's a game that dared to be different, is very much misunderstood by most people... but for the people who did get it, they realised how well made and totally awesome this game really is... and also how disturbing some of the things in the game really are.


I'll talk about some of those things in later posts in this thread...

[Black Howling]

was an awesome just so damn hard =.= to get to grips with and even then it was still hard

[Lynk Former]

One of gameplay elements of Majora's Mask which is pretty cool are the transformation masks which allowed Link to transform into a Deku Scrub, Goron and Zora (as well as a giant and the Fierce Deity... but we'll talk about those later).

Most people catch onto this as they play the game, but at the start, you don't realise how tragic the stories behind these masks are...

Many wonder where the Deku Scrub spirit came from which you eventually turn into a mask by playing the Song of Healing. Later in the game, after you've completed the Woodfall Temple, you learn from the Deku Butler that his son left the kingdom to travel on his own. The Deku Butler even says that Link reminds him of his son...

What the Deku Butler doesn't realise is that his son has died at the hands of Skull Kid who tore the very soul from the Deku child and turned him into a sad, withered tree... the very one you find at the start of the game which Tatl uses to teach you Z-targeting. It isn't until the very end of the game until the Deku Butler learns of what has happened to his son. In a sequence during the last parts of the end credits of the game you see him kneeling down in front of the withered tree, crying...

No one realises that this single Deku Scrub child has died during the game or even recognises Deku Link as the missing child... the most you get is that the Deku Butler says Link reminds him of his child.

The Goron Mask comes from the spirit of Darmani, the hero of the Goron people living in Termina. When you play the Song of Healing for his spirit, you don't turn his spirit into a mask, rather you heal the spirit and remove its sorrow and all of its burdens so that the spirit can rest in peace. The mask itself is the very embodiment of a persons fears and burdens... so it's no wonder why Link cries out every time he puts these transformation masks on. The shock of it all must be too much to bear as he puts the masks on...

The Goron people knew that their hero had died, they even made a grave for him.. yet when they witness him return as Goron Link, they want to believe so much that it's their hero that they actually believe that Darmani has come back from the dead to help them.

Mikau, a Zora who is the guitarist of the Zora band, the Indigo-Go's dies right before Link's eyes... again, Link uses the Song of Healing and unburdens Mikau... and boy did Mikau have a lot on his mind when he died... Mikau was trying to rescue the Zora eggs laid by Lulu, the singer of the Indigo-Go's... what you don't realise until you really think about it is that Mikau and Lulu are mates, and the eggs are THEIR children.

When you heal Mikau with the Song of Healing, you're shown a scene where Mikau and Lulu walk up to the rest of the band members hand in hand... it's the last thought that goes through Mikau's mind as he dies, it's where he finds peace...

The other Zora's don't even realise Mikau is dead, when you talk to any Zora as Zora Link, they immediately recognise him as Mikau...




At the end of Majora's Mask, there are a lot of happy endings for a lot of the characters in the game... but not for all. The Deku Butler loses his son, the Goron people lose their hero and the Indigo-Go's lose a friend, and Lulu loses her mate and the father of her children...

It's also interesting to see the level of familiarity you have with the different peoples you encounter. You feel the furthest removed from the Deku Scrubs... you feel closer to the Goron people as their hero... but the closest relationships you have are with the Zora...

[Lynk Former]

Ah, I was gonna post this up and try to structure it properly for you guys... but it looks like it's all done for me lol.

This is a theory from a guy called "Hylian Dan"... this is actually a pretty old theory, but I'm sure most of you probably aren't aware of it cause... who's really looking? XD lol. Anywayz, here's the link anyone who has played Majora's Mask MUST check out.

http://zelda.vgrc.net/index.php?subactio...1210462851

Majora's Mask is one of the reasons why I laugh at people who dismiss Nintendo, thinking that it's a company who makes shallow games meant for children that don't have any real value.

It's the same feeling I get when I think over the story of Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. There are some very interesting and deep things going on in a lot of Nintendo games which a lot of people either ignore or aren't aware of. Perhaps it's because it's not told to them in any sort of traditional and direct manner...

I've heard a lot of people claim that The Legend of Zelda is a very childish game since you play as a child in the first place (for most of the games)... but I do understand that view. Image is very important for a lot of people, and a lot of people want to be represented by adults who look strong and/or drop dead gorgeous... either way there aren't many games who can claim the depth of Majora's Mask while seeming like an innocent and straight forward adventure on the surface.

EDIT: It seems the site that has that article goes down quite a lot... here's a mirror of it, though it doesn't have any of the pics which I think are pretty important. I suggest that if the site doesn't load for you when you click on the main link, come back later and try again. It's very much worth a read.

mirror: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:htt...=G&strip=1

[spinkle]

Fired up Project64 last night and tooled around in Clock Town for a bit (three days or so ), I'll probably be playing this in between sessions of Contact this evening.

I forgot how distraught Link looks when he sees his reflection in the water as Deku Link, haha. The screenshot of it above doesn't do it justice.

[Lynk Former]

As far as the different Link's go, it's pretty hard to beat the awesomeness of the Hero of Time. Not only is he in two of the best Zelda games ever, but he's also revered as the legendary hero of Hyrule in two other games XD