Majora's Mask • Analysis (Monomyth Breakdown).

thanks to its unique approach to adapting Joseph Campbell's monomyth it's embraced with the player in its carefully constructed world Majora's Mask is a game that's better than it by any right should be in my ocarina of time video I mentioned that I thought Majora's Mask captive links a rock journey better than that game did I feel that's a bad thing to put at the end of a nearly hour-long video without really backing it up so here we are in this video I'll be going over Majora's Mask in-depth and I'll be discussing among other things the game's place in history the intent of the developers and how that intent comes through in the game additionally like my opening suggested I'll be using this video as an opportunity to fix some of my issues with my ocarina of time video and doing justice to some of the material I attempted to cover there hi I'm Ison aesthetics and I suggest you grab yourself a cup of coffee before proceeding because for the next 64 minutes we'll be going in-depth on The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask [Music] majora's mask launched in the year 2000 on the n64 this was only the final hurrah that console would see which explains why it didn't touch the 7 million sales number achieved by its immediate predecessor ocarina of time picking up immediately after that game Majora's Mask uses the same engine many of the same assets and stars the same link the development for this game was around one year which was a requirement for its director ieg al Numa to get to make it in the first place there are some contradictory stories on how the discussion went but essentially Shigeru Miyamoto industry Legend and weird decision maker extraordinaire wanted our Numa the dungeon director from ocarina of time to remake some of that games dungeon sanam re release that it utilized the n64 four megabyte expansion pack now Numa wasn't thrilled with that task reasoning internally that the dungeons he created back then were already as good as they could be and thinking that he should instead create grand new dungeons when he proposed this to Miyamoto the weird decision maker extraordinaire he got a counterproposal our Numa would be allowed to make notches new dungeons but a whole new game if he could complete it in one year Shigeru Miyamoto has made some weird decisions in his time but even among those this one is cannibal in ocarina of time was one of the best regarded video games of all time and it released seven years after its immediate predecessor of course the entire industry was turned upside down in those seven years with the arrival and standardization of 3d polygons but why Miyamoto decided to greenlight a sequel right away and why he'd make our Numa make it in one year it's beyond my understanding but then I didn't produce Majora's Mask which went on to sell over three million copies so Who am I to criticize Majora's Mask was developed with the production model which Miyamoto had originally intended for ocarina of time where his involvement was to be minimized with separate parts of the game being handled by different directors in the years since its launch Majora's Mask has become the subject of immense theorizing and interpretations this is the part of the video where I explain my analytical framework but before I do I want to touch a bit Unseld the fandom like all fan bases zelda has its cool people and its weirdos I would definitely sort myself in the former group but I want to make it clear that I am NOT a blanket Zelda fan I think this series has had its misses and I don't think it's missteps are above criticism furthermore I'm not hesitant to say that this is not my favorite series of video games nor do I think it's the most consistent in quality having said that I want to front-load my bias for this video but saying that while Majora's Mask is not in my favourite series of games nor is it my favourite game I do believe it is incredibly well made and I would go so far as to say that it's not only the best Zelda game by far but also one of if not the best mass-marketed video games of all time up there with untouchable titles like Shadow of the Colossus Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2 for my analysis I'm looking at the stated goals of the developers whether or not they were achieved and if they were how so I'm also making an effort to present the game on its own terms that means no outsider interpretations or reframing of the developer's intent is included in this video I will be using the monomyth to frame my discussion of the story but only because it's a good way to frame that discussion whilst also talking about Link's development in researching Majora's Mask I read and watched every developer interview I could find and came across three recurring goals the developers had for this game one was to do justice to the material that got relegated to side content in Ocarina of Time another goal was that they wanted Majora's Mask to be a mysterious game and finally Nintendo wanted to continue exploring the theme of growth from ocarina of time in addition to that research I replayed Majora's Mask three times on my 3ds that means that this video is actually a Majora's Mask 3d analysis but that differences are not really that significant all things considered now with all that out of the way let's go over Majoris story according to Miyamoto and now Numa the stories in Mario and Zelda games are constructed after the games they are there to give context to the actions and rarely make great impact on the design of the actual game the monomyth or hero's journey originates from Joseph Campbell's 1949 book the hero with a thousand faces that book pulls concepts from Sigmund Freud Carl Jung and Arnold Wong connect to name a few to deconstruct the journey of the archetypical hero of myth and folklore the first thing to understand about the monomyth is the Union archetype basically we have because of evolution built in schemas which we use to understand the world trees are good because for millions of years our ancestors lived in them to hide from snakes and snakes are bad because for millions of years they were the arch enemy to our ancestors there's a lot more to understand about this but it's not central to majora's mask so i'm not going to divulge the monomyth is at its core the story of transformation and growth it sees an ordinary man or woman go from their ordinary world to one they never knew before coming back forever changed the story is usually about the hero uniting opposing concepts or phenomenon conquering the two warring kingdoms bringing balance to the light and dark side of the force facing the shadow self and learning to integrate it without it destroying oneself or like we're about to see returning the balance to order and chaos those that highly regard Campbell's book will note that these 70 steps catch you the Egyptian myths as comprehensively as they do the Aztec myths in the ancient Chinese myths the African myths and the northern European myths the monomyth has been applied to every great historic mythology and without fail it keeps cropping up ancient tales have a purity to them because they traveled from mouth to mouth over centuries this means that they were filtered through dozens and dozens if not hundreds and hundreds of miles before being written down that filtering left no place for unnecessary details or so the proposition goes that filtering process is why the monomyth is so interesting because if it was insignificant then it ought to have been filtered out the monomyth is broken up into three parts and when they are relevant I'll break them down into their individual steps the three parts are the departure the initiation and the return [Music] when you boot up the game the first thing you see is Majora's Mask rotating in complete darkness before the arrival of the happy mask salesman who will rotate with the mask in the dark we then segue into sweeping camera shots that showcase the world of termina while some upbeat music plays after this video has been going on for a while the music gets a bit deranged and we see on top of the clock town clock tower the Skull Kid and the moon after watching this or instead of watching this if we'd have skipped it we can start a new game the opening of Majora's Mask does a good job of setting up the stakes reintroducing the gameplay from Ocarina of Time and giving the player a taste of the overall experience first we see some text that briefly goes over the events of Ocarina of Time and then elaborates on them explaining that link is currently searching for an invaluable friend which he got separated from at the end of his last great adventure that's Navi by the way after the text fades away we see link sleeping on Epona assumably lost in a forest we also see the fairies tattle and tail who start Aleppo now which gets link knocked out this is where the skull kid wearing Majora's Mask shows up and steals links ocarina when link wakes up we get the start of the monomyth the call to adventure is the first part of any great journey it's the moment the hero is allowed or prompted into venturing from their world into one they never knew and here it's represented by the Skull Kid stealing the ocarina the chase that ensues as the Skull Kid ride away on Epona and Link holding on for dear life in an attempt to catch him after losing its grip link has to proceed on foot and this is where the player is given control for a moment in this brief tutorial the player basically walks a straight line to the tree that sends them to terminal we see that link has advanced some since his ocarina days specifically he's more acrobatic and is able to wield the Hylian Shield in one hand if a Selda newcomer were to pick this game up they might be somewhat underwhelmed at how much they are not thought to do but Majora's Mask was very much designed for returning players which is why the tutorial has gotten over with in such a hurry here links newfound acrobatics are made irrelevant in the next part of the departure the refusal of the call according to kampl the refusal does not need to be a conscious decision and it needs not be of the hero's hand to refuse the call simply means that the hero does not immediately go out to confront destiny after falling through the tripi termina travel tree Ling confronts a more malicious Skull Kid earlier when he stole the ocarina he didn't seem to be anything more than a mischievous and curious boy but masks were about to see that's no longer the case link does not refuse his call to adventure outright but it's denied it by the Skull Kid who transforms link into a Deku scrub before leaving link to his own devices in leaving the Skull Kid is separated from the fairy Tavel she's not very pleased about being separated from her brother so after taking out her frustration on link she demands that he fixes her dilemma the to pair up after this cutscene and go through another tutorial together this time however the player is being taught to play as they cool ink there's not much to discuss here with the exception of the butler son and the spiraling hallway the son is probably the Deku spirit that enables link to transform all transformation masks seemed to be imbued with the power of a dead person and this hallway is reminiscent of the one in ocarinas forest temple I can't say to what extent it's a reused asset from that dungeon but I can say that this guy is definitely the guy we met in ocarina of time upon entering the clock tower the player is reunited with a happy mask salesman but this time around he serves as the monomyth mentor the mentors or supernatural aides if you prefer his role is to aid the hero in their transition from their ordinary world to the more fantastic link was already an established hero at this point in that he had completely conquered Hyrule back then he had the great Deku Tree to guide him but since termina is a different world whose challenges are of a different nature a new mentor was necessary and the happy mask salesman is a really good one he makes link a deal to bring him majora's mask with the Skull Kid stole from him and in exchange he'll helped transform link back into a hill again not having any better options link agrees and embarks out of the clock tower to clock down which represents him crossing the first threshold this is the point in the hero's journey where there is no turning back it can be argued that link fallen through that repeat read earlier was him crossing the first threshold but this is a better representation of it because the fall was an accident whereas this is a choice we see here that being turned into a Deku scrub is not enough to break links spirit and over the course of three days we play as him an attempt to get the Ocarina of and majora's mask back the Skull Kid has both and is located on top of the clock tower it will only open during the eve of the last day which coincides with the festival of time and is when the moon would collapse on terminal day cool ink cannot reach the platform that will give him access to the clock tower roof unless he uses the nearby Deku flower only it's inhabited so link must purchase it for the small price of one moon tier acquiring this moon tier is relatively simple if you make the effort to talk to the people and explore the town which makes this game echo a design decision Miyamoto made during the production of zelda 1 when people first got their hands on it they didn't really understand their objective so Miyamoto thought to remove their sword and make them find it that taught them what the game was all about exploration making the player go out of their way to reach the Clocktower mirrors removing links sword in that it places the impetus on the player to advance the adventure proactively they must find the moon tier to do that they must Allen themselves with the Bombers and to do that they must help the nearby fairy doing this will result in the player entering every section of Clock Town at least once it will result in them knowing how to use the Deku bubble it will make sure they've gotten exposed to various characters in the town and it will make sure they're familiar with a bombers notebook which they'll be making use of as they proceed through the game when the final evening arrives the clock tower opens so link is able to confront the Skull Kid unfortunately in his current sorry state he's not up to the task of defeating the Skull Kid the best he can do is knock the Ocarina of Time out of his hand after picking it up we see a cutscene of Link and Zelda parting ways and then link plays the song of time and travels back to the start of the three days the next part of the story is to meet the happy mask salesman again who teaches length of the song of healing after link plays it we see a cutscene we're in the Deku spirit leaves and lake waves it could by link now has the Deku mask which he can use to change form at any moment this is when the happy mask salesman asks for majora's mask only to learn link did not acquire it [Music] he briefly freaks out and gives some exposition on precisely what this mask is and what it's capable of the happy mask salesman finally backs were linked to return it which is where the cutscene ends and the final part of the departure comes the belly of the whale this is the part of the story where the hero is submerged in a dangerous transformative place here it's reentering clock town and by extension the rest of termina as he'll Ian link fully aware of the looming threat but undeterred in the fight for righteousness the whale in the belly of the whale phrase is irrelevant it's the swallowed part that's important and link is swallowed by the moon it's going to crash so everything he does he does under the pressure of having to confront the moon regularly the moon crashing is the dark and foreboding belly from which there is seemingly no escape proceeding from this point on not only puts us on the next chapter of the monomyth but it also ends the game's tutorial it's been pretty long all things considered but it's also taught us an abundance of systems and set us up for the experience we're familiar with movement is both alien link and a stack Island that's a version in the opening where we only got a taste of the link we knew before being forced to play as something more pathetic for an hour or so went a long way in establishing the tone of the world and being detained within Clock Town has done at least two things it added to the oppressive atmosphere of the game and it has built up exploration as something the player has earned the right to do in this tutorial we've also gotten the Bombers notebook we've interacted with characters we know the town layout were familiar with combat and we know about the three-day mechanic and the only way to combat it the spine of the cell de series is exploration and although the world has been gated away from us up until this point we've gotten to interact with another form of exploration which is the exploration of the characters and the exploration of the timeline and although Clock Town is in the grandest area in the world it's still a respectable n64 era hub area and we've certainly had to explore it we searched for the missing ferry the five hidden bombers we found a way to the Clocktower etc in addition to all of this we have a solid grasp of the game which supports this experience the long-term objective is clear but how to achieve it is not so the player must explore for elaboration on that front all things considered this is a good tutorial the Selda series is at its core about exploration problems are solved by it and indulgence in it is incentivized like in ocarina of time the terrain for exploration here is threefold first is the obvious exploration of the world as a physical object then there's the exploration of the characters in the world and finally as an extension to the exploration of the characters is the exploration of the stories which play out during the three days the exploration of the timeline as I'd put it earlier the world of termina is a lot of moving parts which might take a few go through for a player to memorize but that's okay because repetition is the natural mode of play the characters can be used to gain hints and insights into some of terminus phenomenon and there are enough secret areas to make going through the same area often rewarding as stressful as the game can be it's also very lacks about what you do in it you have a constant deadline but it's only have irrelevant when you decide to make genuine progress if you'd rather just relax you can just go take some photos or play some games if you want to collect money just roll circles around clock down what I'm getting at is that Majora's Mask did not abandon the playing to win is suboptimal philosophy from Ocarina there's a lot of content that goes completely unutilized when a player takes this experience as a race from beginning to end you're supposed to walk around and see what the world has to offer listen to rumors and connect with termina in all the ways you're able to the developers one-year deadlines meant that content needed to be reusable and while this wasn't the core reason the team brought the three day structure into this game the two still gel together really well if we take a look at the experience in this game and compare it to the one in ocarina of time we see something very interesting when the two games are stripped to their monomyth framework we see that ocarina of time was stretched out over about 25 hours and looked like this notice how most of the game is spent in that one single part of the story there's a lot of value and tight theming crammed into those 20 years hours but the mostly static nature of Hyrule makes those 20 hours enjoyable only in the moment engagement and in the contextual interaction with the world seeing areas that were ones full of innocence be taken over by ravenous wildlife for example that represents the world developing over time and what it does for link is had the player contrast his separate ages against one another that game was all about uniting youth and maturity so that's a good way to frame the experience even so when we compare rocker enough times structure with a one in majora's mask things get interesting take a look the pacing of this game is a lot more focused and there's not a single dungeon or any story segment that doesn't add two links a journey when you complete a dungeon here there's a genuine change in the world you unlock new minigames in new areas and the cruel fates that those places had been subject to because of Majora's Mask are undone you clean the poison from the swamp melt the snow of the mountain return proper temperatures to the ocean and lull the undead back to sleep then in a final act of chaotic cruelty the game asks you to return to the first of the three days effectively redoing those places to suffer while you go off and look for masks and heart pieces and in addition to tying the feeling of actual progress to every area in this game we also see Nintendo exercised away some of the game stopping cutscenes you're still around and if we count the dialogue between two characters as a cutscene then I'm sure there are even more of them in this game than in Ocarina but it feels like there are fewer because the cutscenes and dialogues don't come at the expense of actually playing the game you advance in the story by unlocking more means to interact with the world and the interactions with the characters in the main and side quests are not as big a contrast as they were in Ocarina in both the optional and the mandatory parts of this game you solve problems by probing around and solving for character problems and whose grandmother gives the player the backstory of the world if they can stay awake to hear the great fairies have been broken into 15 pieces and must be reassembled the mayor's office is in turmoil because two factions are arguing about what to do about the moon that's about to collapse and all of these issues are solved by acquiring a mass now I'm expecting at least some of you wanting to not have played majora's mask before or to not have completed it so let me ask you which of those three problems do you think are part of the games mandatory package the fact that I'm asking obviously reveals this to be a trick question and so it is none of those events are mandatory for a quote-unquote completing the game previous Elder games use this sort of optional content to reward player exploration but here we see a shift towards the prioritization of this sort of site content after leading Clock Town the next story segment as the player enter phase two of the monomyth the initiation and as I've just discussed this face along with the return face is repeated five times every time link completes a dungeon his journey is reset to this point but to maintain some sort of clarity I'm not going to talk about all five repeats right now just for a fun [Music] the first part of the initiation phase is the road of trials and it's here where the hero starts fighting their way out of the whales belly they usually take a proactive role in their own salvation and their salvation is often linked to the salvation of their homes or the world at large as I mentioned earlier the whale in this context is the moon and the first step link takes after being swallowed by it is to head to would fall which is the game's swamp area in the repeats he goes to snow at the Great Bay in ikana canyon and in all four of these areas link will complete at least one major dungeon he needs of those dungeons he can collect 15 straight fairies and if he does he is able to move on to the next part of the monomyth journey the meeting with the goddess in this game that step is an optional one but recommend it because completing it makes the game play better the 15 stray fairies were once great fairies but the Skull Kid smashed them into those 15 pieces usually in this step of the monomyth the goddess will reward the hero with a spell protection or something of that nature and from the four great fairies in the initiation phase link obtains an upgrade to the magic mirror he got from the great fairy in Clock Town an upgraded spin attack a defense increase and a new sword all of these rewards are immensely useful and they certainly encourage the player to explore the dungeons more thoroughly exploration being that it's the heart of the Zelda series is usually made to be a net positive but in this game we see that trope being subverted the next part of the monomyth is the woman as temptress it's named after the ubiquity of seductive women in old mythological tales but what it really refers to is the hero's struggle to stay focused on their mission if the hero does not stay focused they are punished and both the temptations who leave the designated path and the punishment for doing so exists in the game as you've probably guessed the temptation is simply the abundance of sight tracking the world offers you might decide to play one minigame or help one character or fight a couple of enemies fall in a few holes or explore a few caves the punishment for doing so is obviously losing time if the player does not manage to fight temptation they face maybe having to repeat a section of the game the next part of the initiation is the atonement with the father the father in this context simply refers to a god-like power which the hero must make their own or must obtain the approval of Link's father in this game is the Giants after each successful run through the four main dungeons he'll come face to face with one of them and they all promise to answer his call when the time is right an important part of this part of the monomyth is that the power is something that the hero does not have yet but is able to obtain later on or is able to produce from a third party additionally it's rare that this power is not necessary for the hero to succeed in their overall mission finally if a hero fails their journey then this is usually the part where they do when they are unable to make the father's power of their own through virtuous means they usually turn to tyrannical means and that leads them down the dark path but that's not really relevant to Link's development so let's move on to the apotheosis the apotheosis is when the hero transcends or reaches a higher place due to their voluntary confrontation with danger and them taking upon themselves the burden of lessening the suffering of others the hero grows and can take on greater dangers this transformation is obviously represented by the transformation masks link obtains one for every one of the five initiation repeats and they are always immensely useful for combating the final boss of cheerio they also elevate Lakes ability to interact with the world at large after he's completed the dungeons the initiation ends with the ultimate boon which is where the hero is rewarded for accomplishing their goal after each dungeon boss link obtains a health upgrade which would be enough but there's also a bow upgrade in each of the four main dungeons first the bold and the fire arrows ice arrows and finally light arrows after each dungeon boss is defeated the ill effects of Majoris influence are cleansed from the land and Link is able to engage with the NPC's and see just how much he's relieved their suffering which is why the refusal of the return occurs the refusal of the return is the first part of the final phase of the monomyth the return to travel back to the start of the three days is harder than it should be because the massive influence link has had on the land and the people in it is removed in this part of the monomyth the hero link has transformed themselves or the world and hearing that they must go back is difficult because they are usually at the top of some hierarchy here our feelings about a place are influenced by our experiences in that place and having to leave a place that's come to represent triumph is hard hard but necessary the Magic Flight is usually the mad dash back home but right now it refers to time traveling back to the start of the initiation phase usually the hero will have brought with them a treasure or power that they'll share with their all neighbors and friends this will improve their living standards but here link simply returns with the ability to progress after finishing his business in the swamp link has the arrows he needs to access the mountains after finishing his business there he has access to the bombs he needs to access Romani ranch where he can acquire Epona Epona helps link access the Great Bay where he gets the hook shot he needs to access ikana canyon the next part of the return is the rescue from without it refers to a point where the hero is struggling and is saved from peril by an unexpected source if you fail to rewind time the moon will collapse and destroy terminal then the happy mask salesman is heard laughing and he returned to the start of the three-day cycle he is clearly the unexpected source who saves link and what's interesting in Nintendo having cast him in that role is that it suggests that he's very likely more powerful and more involved with a plot than he lets on but for now he's just the one who rescues link from without there's not much to be said about the crossing of the return threshold it's just getting back to a familiar place that's safer than the one the hero just left and in that first four instances of it in this game the crossing of the return threshold simply refers to link having come back to that first day and then master of the two worlds is represented by Link's transformation masks the Deku mask gives link the ability to traverse through the air the Goron mask gives him the absolute mastery of the ground and the ability to walk on harmed on lava the Zora mask makes him a master swimmer and after finishing the stone tower temple link is ready to take on majora's mask freedom to live usually refers to the hero's freedom to be their new selves in their old world but it's all about the hero recognizing that they've changed and then integrating that change into their character after each successful dungeon go through link exchange the big difference between Hyrule and termina is the philosophy of the developers in designing each world ocarina of time is a fantasy world that was supposed to ah the player but Matthias mask is a fantasy world that was supposed to entice the player with mystery compare link answering Hyrule Field to him mentoring termina field the former is a colorful and vast landscape but the latter is a bit darker and tighter this fundamental difference is why this game cultivated a much larger theory crafting crowd than ocarina did there's simply a lot more to interpret in termina than there was back in hyrule additionally much more of Majora's story is optional these games play best when the player is doing their own thing and because they do making optional what ocarina made mandatory helps the experience in termina feel more natural sure it's not as straightforward to know what to do next but that's ok because it's very hard to feel like you're wasting your time there's simply not as stark a separation between spinning your wheels and advancing in this one what the mandatory areas and the optional areas have in common is that they reward the player with the ability to more easily travel through the world the optional parts usually just give the player a health upgrade but in terms of link mastering the worldly terminal that's really all they need to do if link is able to more thoroughly engage with the world then the player can be sure that they've done something right you know what let's go a bit more in depth on this part of the game [Music] all right so if you've watched some of my other videos you've no doubt heard me bang on about how great fantasy universes tend to have unique phenomena that enable the storytellers to have their characters express themselves or be presented in interesting ways the unique phenomena in this game are the greatly expanded roles of the masks from ocarina and the three day cycle the three types of exploration are all utilized by various quests and like I did my ocarina video I'm going to go through a few quests to see how they utilize each aspect of the exploration the exploration of the world is most literally translated into the story of the business grubs they all inhabit holes which stay cool ink can use to launch himself to areas that it otherwise be outside of his reach housing a piece of heart each one is willing to fork over their whole in exchange for a desired item the first one is acquired by trading the moon tier but subsequent ones are acquired by trading the holds you've already amassed the business grub in a County Canyon wants to tan near some babes and he'll trade links some money in exchange for the ocean title boom that's acquired by trading the mountain title lead to a business crop who desires to live in the mountains there's also a secret hideout belonging to the first business scrub with the Lincoln get to if the player observes the clock town business scrubbed from the astral observatory they'll notice that the scrub flies to a secret grotto if the player follows him there the scrub will offer link a peace of heart and some cash in exchange for keeping it secret the completion of this quest requires the player to travel across the entire world of termina and it constantly rewards them with pieces of heart Anju's grandmother is a good example of a quest driven by the exploration of characters Andrews grandmother is a senile old woman whose stories put its listeners to sleep she asks questions about those stories which reward the player with a piece of Hearts to the answer correctly the problem posed here is simply to stay awake and the solution is to acquire the all-night mask which has some causality conditions to acquire if the player wears it and talks to her they'll be able to hear her stories would skip some lore about terminal like I said she rewards the player with pieces of heart but I think the law really is reward enough the quest is essentially about finding a way to overcome the challenge he poses falling asleep and the solution is the same as the solution in this game tends to be get the right mask said note she seems to be faking senility in order to avoid having to eat induce cooking that's optional knowledge gained from reading her diary which is another small example of character driven exploration Anju's and cafes wedding is probably the best quest that's driven by exploring stories while much of this quest is optional the story of cafes and Andrews wedding does need the player to know sack on the thief and when he strikes to know about a goron with a similar name to themselves staying in the stockpot in to know when cafe gets his mail delivered and to be able to find seconds hideout there's much more to it but I'm trying to keep this run-through brief this quest rewards the player with the couples mask the kid mask and the post man's hat and this quest is all about getting the timing of the characters correct and making sure you're in the right place at the right time and speaking of being in the right place at the right time let's briefly Segway into the story about the time when our Newman was in the wrong place at the wrong time the production of this game coincided with the Thai Padang uproar Tabo dong is a Korean word and refers to a large watery place in 1998 North Korea launched the tybo dong-won this was a rocket that housed their very first satellite the kwan-yuen song won like most things in that crazy country the rocket failed and it never reached orbit from briefly glimpsing some headlines I gather that the launch might have originally been announced as a missile test which correlates with our new much wedding story during this launch he and others of the development team were attending a wedding in South Korea after the initial shocks they began talking about life under constant missile threat this discussion served as a big influence for the moon in majora's mask the wedding of cafe and Anju came about because of this event and the idea of living out your last days became a big inspiration when the team rode other stories during the moon fall some characters choose to stay in town others choose to leave and the player can influence some in one way or the other the characters from ocarina of time were better than most 1998 NPCs but still fairly two-dimensional here on the other hand a layer of depth is added to them because they are used to showcase the three-day system and the masks these characters have journeys that changed when the player toys around with that timeline and personalities that address the different masks differently the characters are still here for the players benefit sure but being unable to 100% rely on every character being where you want them at every moment was considered a step-up in immersion back in 2000 to complete the site content the player needs to engage with the characters so Nintendo did a double whammy they created engaging arcs for them to get the player to care then they viciously tossed them aside during the eve of the final day when the moon comes crashing down a recurring and painful reminder of why we should care about saving termina from total destruction in the first place and that total destruction is the dramatic irony which helps create the game's atmosphere and the overcoming of this dramatic irony is what our new moment one is that that the fierce deity is the will of all the people of termina they overcome their fates because although they are ultimately all tossed into the fray over and over again they give linked masks that symbolise their wills and then having existed by trading in all of those masks Lee will acquire the feeder state a mask which lets him take on a new form one would steal south swift justice to any boss he can face it's very clear that the game does not think its characters are a joke or that they are disposable link quite literally monetize it as engagements with them for the achievement of an ultimate form and that ultimate form and how it brings links journey to an end is something in enough itself but to fully appreciate why that is we're going to talk about the monomyth as it pertains to this game one more time in this final go through the player is sent back to the beginning of the initiation phase and in this run through these steps I went through earlier described significantly larger and sometimes altogether different events the road of the trials was defeating the dungeon bosses the meeting with the goddess was about acquiring the upgrades woman as the temptress was all of the distractions the player managed to steer clear off or do and prolong their journey the atonement with the father was linked obtaining the giant's favor the apotheosis being a transcendence of some sort has up until this point been presented with the player mastering the transformation masks and here it's in reference to link elevating to the moon where he can transform into the fierce deity which is also the ultimate boon after the player completes a few minute entrance meant to test them and reward them for collecting every mask in the game the fierce deity mask is an immensely satisfying transformation that makes short work of Majora's masks many forms the refusal of the return occurs because the hero has achieved enlightenment or an elevation of beat they belong where they are and might be reluctant to let their adventure end one interpretation of this is that if the player chooses not to engage Majora's Mask right away then they can rewind time and keep on playing the game until they're ready to let the adventure end alternatively it might be shown in that link does not proactively leave but rather he does so because the happy mask salesman tells him do the Magic Flight is the hero hurrying back to the homeland here it's simply link riding me poni back to Hyrule they're asking from without your first one old ally or an unexpected source saving the hero usually at the last minute and it's pretty obvious to me that that old Ally coming to rescue link is Epona typically when the hero crosses the first threshold it symbolized a death of the life and world they used to know the return threshold is there for the rebirth of the hero back into the old habitat but now they are an elevated beam it's seen here in Lincoln back to Hyrule the hero manages to complete their journey because they mastered themselves and the world around them that's usually but not always what is meant by the master of the two worlds link has conquered termina at the game's end he can warp to any area he desires and he's removed the suffering of every culture he's visited he's also mastered himself in the beginning he was degraded and turned into a Deku scrub by the end he's transformed into the fierce deity transformation started out as a curse which link had to overcome but by the end it's become his greatest strength having mastered both worlds link is now free to live and that is perfectly represented by this screen the hero having completed his or her journey returns home forever changed carrying the lessons and the power required in this journey with them it's important to note that ocarina of time began in the Kokiri village and Majora's Mask begins in the Lost woods The Lost Woods branch out from the Kokiri village so lake would have returned to his home after the events of Ocarina of Time before venturing out to find Navi Lynx story is therefore brought full circle twice in this game to paraphrase what I said earlier in the video the monomyth is the story of how a relatively ordinary individual is taken into an extraordinary land and through their adventures and struggles in that land are transformed into an extraordinary individual who's capable of uniting or balancing opposites in ocarina of time the player was tasked to reconcile the opposing themes of youth and age to save the world in majora's mask they're forced to reconcile chaos and Orden Majora's Mask is a more thematically elevated game in that sense and in some others those themes that carry over from Ocarina are expanded upon to varying degrees link growing up is a theme that runs through this game it's not as mmediately noticeable as it was in Ocarina but if you play these two games back to back you will see that it's still here adults don't treat him as smoothly as they did back then link starts out with a greater master of the world around them than he had when the ocarina adventure began and his ability to mobilize through the area's will be greatly expanded upon in this adventure as I have already mentioned link masters air-ground water and fire movement he acquires powers that are beyond anything he could obtain in ocarina of time and he fights an enemy more dangerous than Ganondorf warps back in ocarina of time we had the hero villain duality of link and cannon door link explored but Ganondorf was in that same place throughout most of the game lake was young Ganondorf was old lake transformed into a man Ganondorf transformed into the monster Ganon pleased to make for good rivals but what's lacking in ocarinas characterization of good versus evil is significant mechanically relevant subtext back then the game was mostly hammering home the dichotomy of youth and age Majora's Mask is a much more interesting villain than a Zelda game had had up until this point because it enables the after mentioned contrasts and it also gives us a clear characterization of what the story is about but it doesn't do it alone this story is about order versus chaos link is characterized as the embodiment of order throughout the game in subtle but effective ways remember the economy from ocarina of time the wallet they're capped out at 500 rupees but by the time you've amassed that wealth it wasn't relevant because there was nothing that drained your wallet fast enough for a casual collection to not be enough to make it up the wallet in majora's mask however is constantly depleted and once you travel back in time you lose all of your money except if you deposited in the bank the bank can hold a lot of money from link and it even gives him rewards for continually using their services the most expensive item in Majora's Mask requires the link to drain the largest wallet in this game and if you want to reach those 500 rupees you kind of need to use the bank there's not really a reliable way to just casually that sort of money in one Gulf it's not impossible or even very hard to do it but it's something that is likely or to occur naturally over the course of a few cycles while the economy in majora's mask is barely any deeper than it was in ocarina of time the way the player interacts with it is what's changed and that's an example of one area where links new characterization comes from the player is reliably going to go to the bank before returning to the dawn of the first day it's a dependable behavior that emerges naturally from the system's the player is interacting it's a consistent behavior in a world that's being destroyed by chaos I'll admit that this is not big characterization but like with a real bank it compounds over time every dungeon story shares the same structure which again brings us to orderliness yes the world is in total chaos but because you'll go through it several times you'll begin to make more sense often and you'll slowly be able to relax it back to a more natural state but Majora's Mask is not just the opposite of link because it brings about chaotic behavior around it while link brings logical orderly behavior it like Ganondorf from Ocarina also has several smaller but notable black and white contrasts against link Skull Kid has the dark fairy link has the light fairy link moves all around the world but the Skull Kid is stationary in the middle of it link uses and masters several masks but the Skull Kid uses and is mastered by only one mask link succeeds because he makes friends Skull Kid is where he is because he lost his friends and that last part is used to give us sort of bittersweet ending when the Skull Kid and Giants become friends again also this tree trunk with the Giants fairies link and the Skull Kid together a satisfying if earnest and overly sincere conclusion to what I posit to be one of the greatest video games ever made [Music] this video began with me bringing up a loose threat from my Ocarina of Time video where I said that this game caps off links monomyth Germany better than that Kingdom I don't know how many of you watching remember me bringing that up but I'm going to quickly clarify my thoughts on this I no longer consider Majora's Mask to be a good capping off for the monomyth journey from Ocarina simply because really that adventure did at this is barely even a sequel to the story from that game carrying very few characters over you have linked the happy mask salesman Epona Zelda I guess and the Skull Kid this game is not the end of Link's ocarina journey and I was wrong to have said so but I'll still argue that this is an excellent sequel in most cases I think it outshines Ocarina of Time and elevates what he carried over majora's mask is a darker harder and more ambient game the atmosphere here is a weird mixture of hopelessness and that unmistakable early 2000s Japanese horror game on can unis remember that when games had weird localization and everything just felt off so many things in termina are just off it's just about the least controversial thing in the world to say Majora's Mask is the best Zelda game but when you take deeper into that you usually see the same qualifiers for that title it's darker it's more immersive it's better design these statements are in no way the illegitimate nor untrue but it's interesting that Majora's Mask is not being appreciated outside of the context of being the sequel to ocarina of time or the predecessor to Wind Waker there's not as extensive appreciation of this game on its own merit but in a way that's very fitting as distant as Majora's Mask is from the rest of the cell the games it's still very much constrained by the same limitations it's not a piece of postmodern art or anything but what it is is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure with a darker edge than the cartoony characters in the Nintendo logo might set you up to expect I've done my best to try to connect the intent of the developers with what the game expresses but you know quality game design is a very difficult thing to quantify you can approximate a lot of it by learning the schemas that make the language understandable but and I'm saying this is a guy who programs when you try to appropriate that knowledge to the actual programming of a game you'll find that the skills don't really carry over understanding and being able to appreciate elevated media does not prepare you in any way for when you decide to make media of your own to understand and to express are fundamentally different actions and although they are connected they can't really supplement or you know make up for a lack in an individual's aptitude for the other what I'm trying to say is that the team behind Majora's Mask are better video game aura terms than I and that if you haven't played the game and really want to understand what makes it so great it's really no substitute for experiencing with your Center many videos and articles have been made in an attempt to clarify and capture what Zell means but I think looking at Majora's Mask is enough to get it to sell the formula is certainly being stretched here but at its core this is just about the most conservative and respect Lantry in this entire series I do think that the sell the identity has in one way or another hurt every cell the game since the first one if only because they are designed with expectations existing that constrain the freedom of the series to grow I say this game is a conservative self entry because much of it is just refining what worked in Ocarina and I say it's a respectful Zelda entry because it didn't just try to recapture the old magic it leans on one of the series's often undervalued strengths and that is its flexibility zelda works in two dimensions 2.5 dimensions three dimensions it works as a side scroller as an open-world etc Majora's Mask was working with the confines of his immediate predecessor so there are a lot of similarities but it takes every underdeveloped implementation from there and puts them in the spotlight whoahhh Carina of time had a day and night system Majora's Mask as a three day system that more deliberately and precisely moves the actors of its world to line up with the changes the player has made to the timeline where ocarina of time has the player running around the world to deliver a couple of masks Majora's Mask has the player running around the world to collect masks in an attempt to more thoroughly conquer the world in addition the beefing up these mechanics it also streamlines many of the tropes that had gotten stale dungeons are still an important part of the experience but there's a dramatic decrease across the board because you're expected to spend your time engaging with characters and exploring the world in this one the world of termina unlocks with the linear progression from ocarina hyrule but it plays a lot better because each area is a more complete journey in and of itself in addition to the end fight on the moon the heroic journey is brought to a satisfying end with every dungeon completed majora's mask is a hell of a game it took the established ground from ocarina and by fully realizing many of that games failed aspirations like the day cycle the masks and the development structure not only evoke the latent potential of an already great game but was able to stand out as its own thing and I think that's why Miyamoto had owl Numa make it he spent years putting ocarina of time together and from the interviews I went over when I made my video on that game it's very clear that while he was proud of the work he did he did have to compromise I mentioned in the opening that this video was my attempt to do justice to the material I'd tried to cover in my ocarina of time video and deliver what I wanted to back then mainly use a cell the game to go over the monomyth if I had to summarize Majora's Mask in a unique way I'd say that much like how this video is a response to my video on ocarina of time this game is Nintendo's attempt to do justice to what they were unable to in ocarina of time and to build upon a great foundation and even greater castle Majora's Mask proves that the Legend of Zelda is not about princesses or Ganon or Hyrule it's about discovery and exploration about overcoming obstacles and becoming a hero [Music] the footage you've been watching were supplied by world of long plays as played by so now familia 83 and Ricky see this will be the final video I make on the Zelda series for a long time so I hope you've enjoyed it if you did be sure to check out some of my other videos because they just might be up your alley if you want to subscribe to the channel that would be cool also like this video share follow me on Twitter for the behind-the-scenes shenanigans through Anna Baca and patreon etc links below in the description box um for my next video I'm going to attempt a spiritual follow-up to my recent video on Silent Hill 2 that was a roughly five hour long commentary where I went through the game with a fine-tooth comb and came out the other end with a very enthused subscriber base I say attempt because long videos are always harder to make and there might not be enough material for an out-and-out commentary and I say spiritual follow-up because the game I'll be analyzing is not Silent Hill 3 but rather something very interesting indeed I'm a sir aesthetics and if everything goes as planned I'll see you guys next time when we play through the entirety of Metal Gear Solid [Music] [Music]

Channel: AesirAesthetics

Views: 54,307

Keywords: Aesir, Aesthetics, AesirAesthetics, video game, in, depth, analysis, explained, majoras, mask, zelda, matthewmatosis, mark, brown, rumination, kingk, symbolism, super, bunnyhop, critical, closeup, legend, heroes, journey, monomyth, joseph, anderson, completionist, game, makers, toolkit, analyzed, boss, keys, miyamoto, wind, ocarina, breath, twilight, link, theory, shintai, pewdiepie, ign, extra, creditz, story, overview, lore, ludology, why, you, should, play, novacanoo, ragnarrox, terrible, fate, grumps, retrospective

Id: JiJVKpF1IUU

Length: 64min 31sec (3871 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/erima]

This video and the predecessor Are awesome. Thanks!