Majora's Mask is the Yin and Yang of Hope and Pain

[Music] you've probably heard this before chopin's funeral march for nearly two centuries it has been a musical archetype evoking images of solemn processions gothic structures and black guard however it's only a fragment of chopin's sonata number two despite facing his own mortality chopin complimented his death-centered masterpiece with moments like this conveying hope contentment a life well lived take the first familiar sound by on its own and you have what is probably now considered a cartoonish level of despair but listen to the sonata as a whole and you get a silver lining intertwined with riffs as odd as life itself now the real question is what does all this have to do with the legend of zelda majora's mask everything [Music] hey listen we know ocarina time has the groundbreaking success that brought the legend of zelda series into the third dimension it was gorgeous for its time its lock-on combat was a game changer and it gave its cast of characters an emotional depth unseen in previous titles after link's awakening zelda fans had to wait five whole years for the next installment and in 1998 we finally got the 3d game of our dreams majora's mask had to follow that this was that game that built upon the success of its older brother while simultaneously creating its own identity all within the incredible time constraint of one year how was nintendo able to deliver on this herculean task they must have rebuilt it bigger stronger more enemies more dungeons more weapons more grand expanses of open world to explore and at the end of it all a showdown with ganon unlike the land of hyrule had ever seen before it right well no nintendo wisely recognized their time constraint instead of making the game bigger they balled up ocarina's design and rolled it down an unsettling rabbit hole majora's mask is one of the few direct sequels to a zelda game as is tradition you take on the role of a young green clad warrior named link but specifically you're the same link that recently saved hyrule in ocarina of time while in search of his famously annoying fairy companion link encounters skulkin who's in possession of the almighty majora's mask or you might say the mask is in possession of him skull kid has summoned the moon to descend and obliterate the land of termina in three days link must free the giant guardians of termina in order to stop the moon from falling and then separate skull kid from the malicious majorist mask the game handles similarly to ocarina in terms of combat and exploration you get similar gear like swords shields bombs and bows but you also get an array of new abilities thanks to the masks you collect some have a very specific use while others full-on transform link to a different race allowing him more variety in terms of fighting and puzzle solving furthermore the various masks dictate how the inhabitants of termina respond to link contributing to the game's emphasis on interpersonal relationships but perhaps even more notable than the masks is the progression of time over a three-day cycle ending with tremendous demise thankfully one of the many songs link has in his repertoire can turn back time and start this cycle all over again now look majora's mask is my favorite 3d zelda game of all time yes brother the wild is great yes i love twilight princess and yes skyward sword is a zelda game but for me it's all about the mask i don't deny that the circumstances surrounding my first playthrough back in the fourth grade or what envelops this game in warm nostalgia for me my older brother and i don't share many interests but he's the one that took me to pick up that sweet golden n64 cartridge of majora's mask and the two of us spent every hour we could together getting lost in link's oddest adventure yet couple this nostalgia with the fact that majora's mask checks so many boxes for what i consider a game to be great and it's no surprise that it gotta complete it for my video for the original version i went so far to say that completing it was the only way to feel like i had actually beaten it filling all those side quests and obtaining that special completion bonus i'll get to that later is a must for me because it adds so much to the gameplay and to the story and that's just how i felt about the original version majora's mask 3ds was by and large an improvement so it's even less surprising that i gave it a completed as well [Music] now i've been around long enough to experience the double-edged sword of remakes and remasters some surpass all expectations while some left me wondering why who why having completed both the original and 3ds versions of majora's mask multiple times at this point comparing the two is pretty effortless especially since i tackled both back to back from my recent live streams for new game plus while i love them both one pulls ahead as the clear front runner making me wonder if i'll ever revisit the other again i can say with confidence that the 3ds release of majora's mask is the superior experience in my opinion by just a little bit at a glance it seems very much like the same game as the original but with the obvious benefit of being cleaner more vibrant and overall a nicer look to it but i'm playing both versions to completion i found far more resounding reasons as to why i'd recommend the 3ds version to those both familiar and unfamiliar with majora's mask exhibit a maps appearing on the 3ds as a second screen is useful beyond measure as a kid i remember getting turned around time and time again especially in the great bay temple this happened the less with subsequent playthroughs of the original version but even if i had played it again right now i know i would still lose my sense of direction in comparison the first time i experienced the second screen map of the 3ds i was amazed by the efficiency of how i was able to navigate i felt like i was now playing areas like the great bay temple the way they were meant to be played with more emphasis on combat and puzzles and less on trying to memorize my surroundings and with my recent 3ds playthrough i knew where i was going 100 of the time easier navigation made this recent 3ds playthrough by far the speediest treasure chest locations were easier to remember and collecting hidden fairies more quickly meant i was able to sooner receive upgrades like enhanced defense and a super spin attack and it's not like i played the original majora's mask and needed the game to be easier it's just that adding things like this second screen map smoothed out the roughness of the original making the remaster a superior streamlight experience speaking of streamlined more control over the progression of time on the 3ds was a feature that i relished in even more this time around with my recent back-to-back playthrough of both versions i was unwittingly speedrunning much of them due to being so familiar with majora's mask however it was 3d's added adjustment of time control that was a huge aid in zipping through that version in the original you can use the song of double time to jump forward to either 6am or 6pm forcing you to wait for any specific events occurring between those hours if i needed to be at a specific location to meet a character at let's say 5 pm in order to complete one of the many bomber notebook side quests then i would need to risk jumping to another task and hopefully return in time or i would sit around and do nothing until 5pm rolled around so when i first played the 3ds remaster i immediately fell in love with being able to jump to a specific hour in order to be where i needed to be at a much more efficient time and now having played it again i know i will never want to return the originals time controls ever again now i do want to point out the last time i played the original version of majora's mask it was on that zelda gamecube collection pack and the reason why i played it on the collection was because i was doing a collection overview over the course of 10 episodes i used to do that every 10 episodes i would take one game from a collection pack and talk about it but knowing that now and looking back i made a huge mistake as the rom that was ported to the gamecube collection was filled with tons of game breaking bugs which only made my playthrough majora 3d so much sweeter but this time around i played the original rom on the nintendo wii u and had no issues at all so my experiences on both versions were virtually great one of the more fascinating things about the 3ds remake is that once again grezzo the team behind the 3ds version of ocarina of time did this remake as well but there was a weird caveat here in the ocarina of 3ds port the devs left the bugs in the original game in that version so the fans could have a faithful one-to-one experience while also working hard to improve the experiences made from the past with majora's mask 3ds they took out all of the bugs and glitches but because the internet is the internet i learned and taught myself several new glitches and bugs throughout my playthroughs that once again added to my own little fun journey of replaying this masterpiece but with the vast highways leading me back to the 3ds version there were some minor exceptions that had me wishing they hadn't reinvented the wheel here when link transforms into a goron it's fun as hell his spinning attack turns link into a rolling ball of destruction and makes taking down the god boss a grand all time it's easily the best thing about being a goron and unfortunately it isn't satisfying on the 3ds version why because the 3ds controls are hypersensitive with the analog stick and if you're not facing the exact direction you need to be facing you can easily roll past an enemy or off of a cliff i found it way easier to correct any mistakes on the virtual console controller while i found myself constantly overcorrecting with the 3ds controls and as i said earlier i had more of a speedrunning itch gnawing at me this time around and i couldn't always scratch it i had to be more controlled and patient especially when rolling around the snowhead temple just wanted to roll man but falling off one of these precipices often led to a long climb up another major change that i'll highlight is the twin mold boss and the use of the giant's mask after one snake is defeated you have the opportunity to use the giant's mask to destroy the other making the fight a hell of a lot easier now in the original version the mask drains link's magic and when it's depleted you're back to fighting a normal size on the 3ds however link remains a big bad giant and can throttle the twin mold to the bitter end with jabs and uppercuts and spinning it by the tail now admittedly it's pretty cool on paper when applied however i found that i'm just bad at it fighting the 3ds version of the twin mold was harder for me than it had ever been on the original game and unfortunately that carried over in my recent back-to-back playthroughs of both versions i always managed to struggle with the quick time events making this battle well not so quick time as cool as it is to see link bear knuckle a snake i got more enjoyment out of returning to normal size and letting my sword do the punching that's more my speed another big gripe that i have with majora 3d is the swimming now most people say that swimming sucks in both games and i do agree and i think in the 3d version the swimming is overall a bit better however the biggest problem i have with 3d version is the fact that you cannot swim quickly without using the special blue or a boost that drains your meter i wish it was a toggle but it's not this fundamentally led me to either constantly filling up my magic meter all the time or using an infinite magic potion just to ensure that i would never run out of meter it's kind of frustrating and what's this oh that's right it can't be oh my lord folks here it is nintendo heard your cries and they answered in kind i forgot that majora's mask 3ds added a brand new mini fishing game now here's the thing you all know this maybe you don't but i'll be honest i don't care about fishing it does nothing for me in fact as a completionist all it does add to the list of things i need to do and getting every type of fish can literally take hours some can only be caught at certain times of certain days and even then you have to rely on pretty unforgiving rng to get the rare ones for your collection and i get it there's many of you out there that are totally stoked for this type of stuff and i'm happy for you but for me it's just more work perhaps it'd be different if catching every fish granted a super cool item a new mask a powerful weapon or even i don't know a cut scene of link with all this fish at a kick-ass grill there's not it's just fish it'll also be known that while i did catch every fish the game does not reward you for catching every fish now if it sounds like i'm griping about a few specs in the super tasty big gulp of orange crush yeah you're right since so many things were done right and correcting the flaws of the game that simply had lower expectations at the time i couldn't help but find it jarring when the 3ds introduced new flaws in exchange however these flaws pale in comparison to the vast improvements made on the re-release if you're a newcomer to this game and have nothing to compare it to you probably won't even see these new flaws as flaws please trust me when i say that the double edged sword of remake swung in our favor this time around and makes majora's mask 3ds a resounding improvement on the original now maybe you don't have a 3ds or maybe your only copy of the game is the old school gold colored in 64 cartridge or maybe you have to deal with the buggy gamecube version like i did for my first playthrough well don't worry even though the original version suffers from limitations of its time you're still going to have an incredibly unique experience like i did when i was a kid check out almost any review or any forum talking about majora's mask and you're bound to hear the same words repeated over and over again weird odd strange dark macabre depressing death toilet hand but what i found to be even more pervasive is that for every somber moment this game delivers there's an element of hope and link is that hope i touched on this on my original video but a little more broadly since i teamed up with my man sunder at the time we agreed to go heavier on the game's overarching story and a few of the theories within playing majora's mask this time around i found myself drawn more into the interpersonal relationships amongst the people of termina and how link's involvement affects them let's start by saying that there are some odd ducks amongst the citizens of termina many of them are alternate versions of the hyruleans from ocarina of time but all in all overflowing with personality i mean tingle why not as odd as they may be however they all have habits that need to be studied to complete the bomber's notebook given to you by a group of kids hell bent on just helping folks out kind of a weird thing by talking to the inhabitants of termina and getting to know them you find out that many of them are just simply going through some i'd love to know what made the developers decide to make these interactions a core part of the game boys i love all these ideas keep them coming freybay what do you got okay you know how link uses bombs to blow up yeah what if goron link uses bigger bombs to blow bigger i love it keep it coming what do you got okay okay okay what if dq link uses these holes to fly up in the air and get cool stuff like heart containers or whatnot good stuff good stuff i love this i love this pat what are you thinking what if link was like was like really there for someone like at the exact moment they needed him to be there hmm could he have a bomb sure yeah with all the stress loss and depression that everyone in termina is going through your goal is to be there for them take coffee and anju for example these two are betrothed to one another but doubts and insecurities sink in from both sides by learning their habits link has to jump through numerous hoops in order to pass along the correct information but the correct people and ultimately get these two to overcome their fears and express their very real love for each other all while being just hours away from certain death through link they realize that a union however brief is more valuable than dying alone let me repeat that one more time they realize that a union however brief is more valuable than dying alone you know after defeating ganon not that long ago i did not see link having to be in this position the filament of this quest rewards link with the couple's mask one of many required to exchange for something special now allow me to bring things back to tinkle yes we all know tingle is a weird thing but a big part of my heart is reserved for him he will forever be a part of me i am tinkle this little guy is 35 years old and his sole desire is to desperately find a fairy friend his father is tired of seeing a man his age acting like a child and tingle is aware of the disappointment he's caused through helping link tingle regains a sense of purpose and link serves as the link for opening communication between the two once again link brings a glimmer of hope into a relationship that was on the verge of falling apart i love you tingle but link's altruism isn't limited to healing relationships he even serves as a grief counselor to a zorro overwhelmed with loss when lulu's eggs go missing her lover macau seeks them out only to wash up wounded on a beach and later dies now poor lulu's children are gone her lover is dead and 4th grade gerard is checking his n64 game cartridge wondering this is ready to eat for everyone right well it was time for me to grow up and become lulu's champion i reunited her with her seven babies and helped her heal by embodying the spirit of her dead lover when playing this game again as an adult for this show i realized that link arguably doesn't belong in this world yet without his interferences lulu wouldn't have gone from a spiraling depression to a spiritual jam session yes her grief would never fully go away but link gave lulu that spark of hope she needed to continue a fulfilling life as for the other characters i could spend an hour talking about their sorrows and how link leads them out of the darkness but i'd like to quickly shine a light on something that doesn't get as much attention the song of healing it's a tool linked repeatedly used to restore hope across termina one thing i wanted as a kid even when initially completing majora's mask for the show was why did it sound so somber why did a song that eased the restless spirit of a grand warrior or bring a tormented half mummified father back to his daughter elicit such a dark tranquility well now that i've revisited the game i think i have that answer hope is the form of healing that pulls the people of majora's mask out of despair the acts of service link performs for absolute strangers is personified by the song of healing while hope and healing is often seen as something warm and cheerful it cannot exist unless it comes out of some form of pain or sorrow hope and sadness are two sides of the same coin the yin and yang of existence and i think i just proved that nintendo hit the nail on the head way before pixar did like chopin's funeral march the song of healing reflects a never-ending cycle of hope and sadness the two are inevitable yet comfort lies in being there for each other through both conditions so for completing legend of zelda majora's mask rewards mainly come from you doing two things finding every stray fairy in each of the game's locations and receiving every single mask finding every hidden fairy in an area and returning them to their respective great fairy fountains yields different rewards depending on the area you get things like improved defense for the great fermi sword which is the most powerful weapon in the game now they actually did a reward switch up between the game's two versions in the original the woodfall temple fairies rewards you with a spin attack and the snowfall temple fairies reward you with a larger magic meter for the 3ds version they flipped it and i felt from the very first time i played the 3ds version that this was a very great move it gave me the option to have that improved magic meter while playing through snowhead mountain which meant way more fun rolling around as a big bad goron and when recently playing the 3ds on the heels of the original the benefit of having a larger magic supply sooner was even more obvious as for the trouble it took me to find all the fairies doing so has become a significant breeze over time i remember endlessly searching for these fluttering sprites as a kid with no interest but maybe that's why the locations are nestled well in my memory i procured most of them easily in my original completionist playthrough and i was able to easily find the stragglers again and again that map on the 3ds made things even easier still and since my back-to-back playthrough of both versions was live streamed the very few fairies i did overlook were immediately called out by the numerous fans who live and breathe this game majora's mask's coolest reward however comes from obtaining every mask and exchanging them with majora kid near the end of the game doing this yields the super awesome badass looking fierce deity mask i get excited every time i get this bad boy and no matter what version i'm playing it's no different this mask turns link into a souped-up adult version of himself and makes fighting bosses ridiculously easy i love the game's overall gameplay but being able to stomp on the enemies as this all-powerful version of myself is so satisfying because of the trials i went through to get it i felt like i earned it i feel as though i have grown up and could take on the world but beyond that what you get is not much a small red seal appears in the bomber's notebook when you complete that on the 3ds that's a nice little confirmation that hey that's it i can't only ask for more though since finishing each side quest already rewards link with something like a heart fragment or a mask it would have been damn nice to get something for catching every single fish in the game especially since that takes so damn long but otherwise there's nothing new and i am okay with that i will always be okay with that i go into this game knowing that the real treasures are the friendships i made along the way and i will stone cold stunner anyone who disagrees with that sentiment majora's mask is a rare game for me where completing and finishing are one of the same and i will never not play it without completing it in my journey of re-completing legend of zelda majora's mask and majora's mask 3d there were 25 hours played straight through with the short break between the games zero deaths in the original version and about three in the 3d version i'm a fierce deity baby come at me bro 48 masks proceeds twice culminating in a train for the fierce duty mass 26 ocarina songs learned ranging from manipulating time to making a scarecrow appear 40 entries made in the bombers notebook 13 bottles collected 6 in the original and 7 on the 3ds and 2 khalil brothers who in 1998 had their minds blown by a twisted ass zelda game i never would have dreamt as a kid passing the controller back and forth to my big brother that i would be one day talking to hundreds of thousands of people about the five times i completed majora's mask i never would have dreamt that the game would be remastered into something even better than i was used to experiencing at the time and now looking back on those five playthroughs i can honestly see how this game helped mold me into the person i am today nintendo went far out on a limb by abandoning a cot and dry good versus evil narrative to give us a weird experience that somehow managed to get more real than any other zelda game in my eyes now there are intricacies to this game that maybe i didn't fully understand as a kid but like a fine piece of classical music i was able to appreciate it more over time but that can only be done by going the extra mile to helping everyone in the game that you can and no amount of fishing and catching will ever take away my enjoyment from doing just that so with that in my guys i give the legend of zelda a majora's mask and majora's mask 3d its completionist rating of complete it [Music] you

Channel: The Completionist

Views: 568,843

Keywords: majora's mask, majoras mask, majora's mask review, game review, gameplay, n64, nintendo, zelda, the legend of zelda, legend of zelda, retro gaming, zelda games, triforce, zelda theory, retrospective, video essay, skull kid, phantom hourglass, peanutbuttergamer, gaming, top 10, pbg, completionist, did you know gaming, didyouknowgaming, twilight princess, projared, wind waker, ocarina of time, zelda breath of the wild, nintendo switch, nintendo 64, 3DS, nintendo 3ds, 3ds, majora's mask 3d

Id: mNxLIP9svhI

Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021