The Bittersweet Comfort of Majora's Mask

in my final hours i wonder if i'll have any regrets things i could have done places i could have been sites i could have seen even outside of death this recurring thought seems to show itself from time to time as things beyond my control hang over my head and i fight to stay afloat i tend to ask myself have i done enough here i tend to internalize my existential dread and one of my coping mechanisms has always been video games particularly the legend of zelda my favorite video game series and one that always provides me with a sense of comfort immersion engagement and wonder it mixes all of my favorite video game elements into a cohesive adventure each and every time comfort is defined as a state of physical ease free from pain or constraint or as an alleviation of grief or distress by these definitions all but one zelda game could potentially fit this description majora's mask by all accounts is not comforting death looms over you the clock is always ticking the people of termina all slowly become aware of their fate and react to it in their own ways and the game has this persistent air of dread hanging over it at all times it encompasses the very word uncomfortable and yet i find comfort in it anyway majora's mask is one of the most compelling video games i have ever played i seem to crave everything it has to offer its subject matter its gameplay its atmosphere everything i crave how uncomfortable this game makes me it's rare that a game can be so stressful so defeating and so depressing yet it still manages to be a game that i have tremendous amounts of fun with one that i could lose myself in for hours on end but why why is majora's mask not only a fun game but also one that shattered my preconceived notions of tension and stress and game design what lengths does it go to to make dread a core part of everything it attempts how does it address existentialism and fear in ways that remain unique to any art medium above all else why is the comfort i cherish in majora's mask so bittersweet perhaps the best place to start is where most of us began when i first played this game as a kid i was completely lost skull kid steals your ocarina and transforms you into a deku scrub the happy mask salesman gives you three days to retrieve majora's mask from him and you're stuck in clock town for about an hour as you adjust your new form here is what i remember from my first playthrough of this game back in 2009 yeah i was a bit late to the party i wasn't sure of how i was going to reach skull kid at first but i did learn that deku link could burrow into deku flowers and launch into the air as soon as i exited the clock tower basement i saw a flower on my right that was a different color from the rest once i talked to the scrub that lived there i had my goal what followed was a lot of wandering around and figuring the game out for myself in concept this sounds just like the original legend of zelda which let the player loose in an open world without any prior knowledge of what they were supposed to do but what actually ensues here is a lot of running around aimlessly a lot of talking to people a lot of reading a lot of hide and seek and a lot of tingle this part of the game can take an entire three-day cycle to complete if you don't pass time with the scarecrow which means the first hour of the game could just be the player endlessly wandering and collecting information it also probably didn't help that link had a completely different set of abilities than i was used to for the vast majority of the game's introduction beyond the tutorial i found myself further overwhelmed as i played through the game i learned about the song of inverted time and double time as well as the usefulness of certain masks but for the longest time i was struggling for starters the bombers notebook was an incredible concept with everyone moving and adhering to their own schedules keeping track of their requests felt like you were playing an entirely different game within majora's mask that rewarded you with helpful items for use with the main quest but what scared me away initially were the sheer amount of side quests 52 heart pieces 21 optional masks and only 4 dungeons majora's mask is asking a lot of the player's own ingenuity from the get-go especially as you move from cycle to cycle by playing the song of time it may not even align with what most people came to zelda for at that point linked to the past and ocarina of time both struck a balance between the main quest and your exploration for upgrades majora's mask does strike a similar balance in its own ways through its increase in difficulty over ocarina of time and fascinating locales like ikana castle and the pirates fortress but the game really wants you to focus on the side quests for reasons that weren't apparent to me at the time even if you managed to pick up on some of the side quests on your first playthrough there's a chance you might run into a dead end or miss your window of opportunity forcing you to start all over again on another day there's also the issue with some quests forcing you to re-enter dungeons and re-fight bosses just so that you can restore peace to a certain part of termina just for a heart piece for a first timer it is simply impossible to plan out routes ahead of time because there's no way of knowing what will be possible after finishing a dungeon nor will you have enough time to do everything that's possible in one go although i did finish majora's mask back then and i found myself enthralled all the same i didn't even come close to appreciating everything it had to offer to be fair i was quite young and i didn't have enough experience with games that revolved around time management so it took me a while to approach the game again later as time went on i seemed to be able to recall a single moment that made me want to give majora's mask another shot someday up until the final day there's a huge boulder blocking your way to the romani ranch once that boulder was finally cleared i made my way in i saw a wide open range to run around in and a familiar tune began to play i was excited to see what this place had to offer as i approached the buildings in the distance i noticed my horse was locked up romani was acting like she had seen the end of the world and the ranch was shrouded in an atmosphere of distress that i'll never forget it left such a huge impact on me i didn't know how i was going to help them but i knew that i wanted to and little did i know that would be an integral part of what makes majora's mask special about a year after my first playthrough of majora's mask the creepypasta ben drowned took the internet by storm on its 10th anniversary i decided to relive it and it holds up surprisingly well despite seeming a bit cliched now you have to understand that ben drowned invented these cliches at the time it was a groundbreaking experience to watch unfold and one that actually encouraged people to play majora's mask of course the game isn't nearly as disturbing as the creepypasta but it certainly was dour whether it was the uncanniness of this statue or how unsettling the song of healing is when played in reverse there were a lot of places to draw inspiration from in the source material anyone who plays majora's mask will tell you about how creepy it is the things that people say and do the locations you visit and the events that take place are all abnormal for a game that proudly carried an e for everyone rating and abnormal for zelda as a whole the scene where link is transformed into a deku scrub accurately mirrored a nightmare co-director asianuma had the night before as he and his team were working around a hectic development schedule not only was this the first game aonuma had ever directed it had to be developed in one year i can't help but feel as if they let the stress that came from developing majora's mask pour into its narrative and world the game's cult following the art that it inspired as well as the strict development cycle in this game guaranteeing aonuma-san his position as zelda series producer allowed majora's mask to cast a large shadow over me as a zelda fan it was waiting in the background for me to play it again someday almost staring me down and a couple of years later that day came like magic everything began to click with me i caught myself planning out my days ahead of time i was grabbing every stray fairy that i could in dungeons and i was always reworking an optimal route in my mind to collect each mask and heart piece in the least amount of time suddenly i was in love with majora's mask so what happened what caused this huge shift in perspective well let's start over here we are again at that first part of the game where you run around clock town as deku link although i didn't realize it at the time and not most of us would have this segment is absolutely necessary it's an essential part of majora's mask and it might just be one of the most important tutorials in zelda history but without a doubt the most important part of the tutorial is the part where you wander around desperate for information when i was younger i didn't understand why i needed to talk to all of these people at first but now that i've played majora's mask several times thanks to its stellar design concepts and addictive feedback loop i've discovered its relevance this kind of information seeking is exactly what you need to do in order to help the people of termina you do this throughout the entire game not just to further your bomber's notebook but also to progress through the primary quest every time you enter a new area you'll need to consistently assess your surroundings in the same manner as i familiarize myself with the various buildings and locales within clocktown like the stockpot inn the milk bar and the various mini-game huts i learn of new ways to potentially expand my arsenal or solve problems i learned that there's a bank i can store my rupees in for rewards and for emergency purchases if need be i listened to dialogue to stay informed of what's to come in my quest as well as the circumstances of the people of clocktown all of this information proves to be crucial later on as i explore termina for heart pieces and upgrades it proved to me that my attentiveness would pay off in the long run both for progression's sake and my own let's take a look at snow head as an example of how attentiveness in the act of examining things or simply talking to people can help as you enter there's a tall wall a freezing goron a cabin that casts a stark contrast over the endless snow and two paths to take one leads to a goron village with a baby crying for his father and the other leads to snowhead mountain if you talk to the people in the cabin you'll learn that they're willing to enhance swords when it's not freezing this gives you something to look out for later down the line after retrieving the lens of truth and learning how it works if you come back to the area with the cabin and look at that wall again you'll see that it's actually scalable once you climb it you'll retrieve the goron mask and from there many more possibilities open up to you stemming from the exploration and information seeking you've already done even after you complete the dungeon and spring returns to snow head if you remember to pay the blacksmiths another visit and pursue the gilded sword by winning the goron race your reward will be a weapon that deals twice the damage now i'm not going to summarize the rest of the game as if this is a walk through i just wanted to give you a glimpse into what the attentiveness in clock town teaches the player later down the line and these quests in particular where you're running around looking for your transformation masks and helping the people of termina demonstrate the three things that make the feedback loop of majora's mask so endearing first of all they act as a culmination of skills you learn and practice over the course of the main quest part of what makes the density of majora's mask so lovable is its ability to flesh out concepts through both level and puzzle design for example one of the first minigames you can attempt features a bunch of moving platforms with deku flowers on them on the first day they move up and down on the second day they move in circles of varying sizes and on the final day they do both of these things at their own wild pace seems like a difficult challenge to place at the start of the game right well once you reach woodfall you'll have to sneak into a holding cell to free your monkey friend after overcoming a game of stealth you'll find yourself flying across platforms with deku flowers and taking out a few scrubs that attempt to impede your progress this is followed by a trip through the swamp as enemies fly around and swat you from the sky if you manage to cross this treacherous landscape unscathed you'll earn a piece of heart as well as the entrance to woodfall temple although the deku flowers progressed smoothly in difficulty on their own because i had cleared that mini-game i was able to adapt to these challenges much quicker it demonstrates the duality present in majora's mask's design and how your own drive to seek out side quests can influence the main quest there are plenty of examples of this kind of difficulty progression in majora's mask before you attempt the goron race you'll have to have cleared that tricky spiral on snowhead before you enter the great bay temple with the zora mask and attempt to navigate that central complex of tunnels with currents that suck you away as well as the various mazes throughout you can follow these beavers through rings in a race against time to become proficient with the swimming controls that of which are beautiful yeah the transformation masks are so fun that they make up for a small item selection in this game they add a significant layer of depth to the way you can interact with the world and these examples i've given stem simply from the core abilities of the transformation masks i haven't mentioned the nuances that can give you an edge like how deku link can spin just as he leaves a lily pad to maintain his speed and momentum as he skips across the water this has saved me more times than i can count and it's incredibly satisfying to pull off consistently or how about landing on a higher platform after leaping from the water as zora link if you get your trajectory just right i'll be discussing them further throughout this video but it was a breath of fresh air to have three new fleshed-out ways of interacting with a zelda world and it still is speaking of the limited item selection i think that's part of the reason these examples work so well in the context of the game's design yeah bombs arrows the hook shot the lens of truth and a few random assorted perishable items that return from ocarina of time thanks to their utility the others pertain to a handful of side quests while the majority of other side quests are solved with masks masks have very specific uses in termina making their application feel all the more rewarding when you realize what can be done and your acclimation to the utility of these masks improves with each playthrough something that i didn't realize when i first played the game but i have since embraced garo's mask will enlighten you to some tricks you can use in iconic castle the gibdo mask lets you sneak past or otherwise make gibdo's docile and the mask of sense allows you to sniff for mushrooms in woodfall to create blue potions and here's a really weird example just outside of the romani ranch is a race track for dogs before you bet on which dog you think will win you can throw on the mask of truth and read their thoughts if you bet on the one that says i'm here for my wife and kids there's no way i'll lose it will have a very high likelihood of winning and it's guaranteed to break the top three every time with weird masks that have specific uses across termina this leads us into the second part of majora's feedback loop the rewards every reward you obtain in majora's mask seems to lead into another quest somehow or contributes to your main quest the residents of termina have intersecting schedules which lead you to more quests which grants you more rewards and masks which unlock more possibilities as you fall further down the rabbit hole let's start with one of the most important rewards in majora's mask empty bottles in this game there are six and although the usual uses for them still exist in this game like storing potions milk and things to sell they are pivotal in one of the game's primary quests in order to return lulu's voice and reunite the indiegogos you'll need to retrieve her stolen eggs and learn a song from them that is a very strange sentence anyway in order to complete this task in one trip to the pirates fortress you'll need at least four empty bottles this is one of those moments on my initial playthrough of majora's mask that annoyed me but i came to understand the importance of it later on here it became clear to me that empty bottles were extremely valuable in this game whereas i could take or leave empty bottles in ocarina of time depending on how good i was at resource management they were a necessity here here are three key reasons you should be collecting empty bottles in this game 1. this game is much harder than ocarina of time we'll go into more detail about this soon but let's just say you might want to hold on to any fairies that you can bottle up for some green potion when you need to fire off a few more elemental arrows even some of the mini-games can be tough the treasure chest game is pretty strict both of the shooting galleries esc a lot of your own reflexes and overall proficiency with the bow and honey and darling's mini games want you to aim bomb chews bomb throws and your arrows as the platform constantly rotates this game is brutal sometimes but as you'll learn in due time it's welcome number two they play an active part in progression as demonstrated here meaning that you'll always have to go out of your way to explore the world solve puzzles and help people just as zelda has always wanted you to do number three they allow you to hang on to miscellaneous items you could find on your quest like post souls which go for a pretty penny at the curiosity shop this allows you to put more money in the bank and as you save up you'll upgrade your wallet size and eventually earn a piece of heart this not only sets a standard for the importance of rupees but it's also yet another example of how certain quests can branch off and affect other quests throughout the world when you're not clearing dungeons you're navigating an addictive interconnected puzzle box for goodies and one of zelda's best at that the motivation behind these philosophies applies to basically all of the rewards you can find in termina sometimes the rewards can be disproportionate to the tasks at hand but they make sense when you consider how investigative you have to be in order to find them for example on the outskirts of vikana canyon there's a circle of stones in ocarina of time this would signify that you could drop a bomb in the middle to reveal a hole in fact majora's mask still has those circles but if you instead use the lens of truth you'll see shiro a lonely soldier that blames himself for being hidden away from the naked eye by curing him with a red potion you'll get the stone mask although its purpose isn't immediately evident and it seems to be a humorous representation of this soldier's problems had you nabbed this mask before the pirate's fortress your time there will be made infinitely easier the pirates that guard the eggs won't notice you at all befitting of this poor guy's struggles the level itself is an exceptionally fun and non-linear puzzle box and although the stone mask completely annihilates the stealth elements of this level i don't think that's a bad thing it feels like a great reward because of how easy it is to miss this mask in the first place another example these two characters never interact but they are connected if you listen to this guy's problems he'll thank you and give you the bremen mask it allows you to march along with small animals if you do this with the baby cucos here this guy will give you the bunny hood my favorite mask in the entire game you run faster and jump farther with it equipped even after you rescue your horse it's a godsend it saves plenty of time when traversing any area and it can even be beneficial in a couple of side quests like the race with the deku butler or that jumping mini-game in great bay basically anything that tests you on or requires movement is made infinitely easier with the bunny hood and if you ever need to take it off to make precise jumps or slow down all you have to do is press a button another mask i love is the blast mask at the expense of some health it can completely replace bombs this is another example of a reward that feels appropriate given how obscure the task is in the grand scheme of things this mask is obtained in north clock town on the first midnight to figure out that it exists you have to either be hanging out there by chance to spot this mysterious lad or learn about it through a gossip stone with the mask of truth yeah there's another use for that thing making it one hell of a reward in the long run it can clue you into some amazing stuff and once again how much you learn about majora's mask depends on your willingness to accept and explore every inch of its dense and diverse world what do all of these rewards have in common though they're all examples of just how detailed and intertwined every aspect of termina can be in every minute detail no matter how miniscule a problem might be solving it just might lead you to something grander there are still rewards i have yet to mention but that's because they tie into much bigger concepts that i'll discuss eventually even with all of this on the table there's still one element that ultimately ties this game's feedback loop together time management it creates the tension that makes majora's mask such an incredibly fun game to play there's so much to do in termina and yet so little time to do it thus you must pick and choose what you can do during any given cycle the clock is always ticking even as your arsenal expands but at the same time how much you can fit into a 3-day cycle can determine how long your playthrough lasts you have to constantly strike a balance between prioritizing the main quest shorter side quests and longer side quests throughout a repeating three-day cycle making sure that you never miss an appointment or an opportunity to grab a mask or piece of heart the game first introduces you to effective time management in where else the tutorial with a game of hide and seek between you and the bomber society if you don't catch them all by the time the sun goes up on any given day you'll have to start over you're only informed of these circumstances through failure which is something that majora's mask banks on in its design i mentioned a downside of this earlier in the video there are moments in which no one would realize they'd miss their chance at quests like the frog choir which requires you to have enough time after clearing the dungeon in the first place if you miss your chance you'll have to re-fight goat and waste your precious time thus one can only truly understand what makes majora's mask a great game by putting the time in to learn about its world as we've already discussed a lot can come out of this but what comes next is planning out your route that deku scrub mini-game symbolizes the beginning of this process although it's accessible from the very beginning of the game it just might prove too difficult to complete on your first cycle this is something you have to prepare for ideally you'll have a schedule lined out according to your bomber's notebook and your mental notes of how long each quest should take but sometimes things don't go as planned what if a dungeon takes longer than you predicted will you still be able to finish off those side quests in time or will you have to re-fight the boss on a news cycle can you fit smaller sidequests in with a massive 3-day undertaking how much can you do before the moon crashes into termina efficiency in doing this can lead to a shorter playthrough intense satisfaction when you meet all of your deadlines and at the end of the day an addictive feedback loop this self-imposed challenge is what makes majora's mask an immensely replayable game here is a recap of the moment i realized majora's mask was more than just a pretty face this happened on my second playthrough in 2012 when i had a semi-developed brain just after i had finished the stone tower temple i decided that i was going to spend the remaining time i had left on the game's long-winded trading quest in each of the game's primary areas you'll find a deku scrub wanting to see the world if you trade land deeds with them you'll gain access to a piece of heart by the end you should complete a new heart container and gain 200 rupees in the process grabbing heart pieces incrementally as you gain new transformation masks can be tantalizing but it ultimately wastes time the best course of action is to do it all in one shot although this can be time consuming it also gives you a chance to revisit areas and grab what you might have missed to maximize my efficiency i wanted to make sure that i didn't leave any stone unturned after finishing the dungeon i finished up a few mini-games as i went along clearing the swamp spider house the two beaver races some clock town stuff and i even finished off econo canyons bonus content in the nick of time and even as i finally met all that criteria i laid out for myself i was wondering what i was going to do on the first day of the next cycle perhaps attempt the ocean spider house for the final wallet upgrade set up the most infamous quest in the game rupee chess respawn after you return to the first day so maybe i'd grab a few rupees to make up for lost time i caught myself in this moment and paused the game realizing that i'd been playing for nearly 6 hours it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea if you're playing through the main game and ignoring heart pieces and masks almost none of this will be apparent to you even those that struggle most with dungeons will still be able to finish them off in one cycle as long as it's their only focus but as i ventured further into termina and as i expanded my arsenal i discovered what the gameplay of majora's mask is really all about with experience my efficiency through the three-day cycle sharpened it's an endearing cycle of risk vs reward as i race against the clock to both expand my arsenal and progress through the game against some of the toughest challenges zelda has ever had to offer against the oppressive backdrop of a doomed world i strove to do everything that i could because of the pure fun majora's wealth of sidequests provides i was conditioned to discomfort and found pure bliss even still there are things left to be discussed when it comes to this feedback loop primarily what it's all going towards although majora's mask has a lot to do in its overworld i feel it is ultimately to set you up for the game's dungeons and bosses otherwise it'd be hard to justify having 52 heart pieces and boy let me tell you these are some of the most creative compact and challenging dungeons zelda has ever seen not only that but they too encompass the three components of this game's feedback loop let's start by discussing the ideas and difficulty implementation woodfall temple takes place across two floors and features a smooth progression and ideas not unlike what i've discussed previously using deku flowers to traverse is followed by puzzles wherein you need to figure out how to reach higher areas with said deku flowers you use them for combat skip across poisonous water and once you get the bow you have to quickly adapt to your surroundings in creative ways even if you haven't played a zelda game before the clues are laid out for you here this torch is lined up precariously with the unlit central torch and as the platform spins you'll no doubt connect the dots here this sets the player up for the honey and darling minigames actually once again everything is connected the final room combines the two concepts you'll have to hop from one platform to another before you run out of time although there are some tricky puzzles in woodfall the digestible 2 floor layout makes it very straightforward and a great way to ease the player into the rest of the dungeons with snowhead temple things ramp up and challenge there's a central tower that connects to each floor and you can jump over to other platforms with a full power goron roll your objective is to solve each room raise the towers you ascend and climb your way to the top these rooms focus on testing your knowledge of goron link your spatial awareness and so much more after retrieving the fire arrows more rooms open up that give you more information on how you're gonna reach the top eventually you'll need to knock this central platform down a few pegs with some goron punches to connect the pathways although very puzzling it is a natural evolution of the ideas fleshed out in previous areas and it plays with verticality and layout memorization in tense but satisfying ways from here the dungeons become significantly more brutal asking you have you been paying attention have you been seeking out upgrades are you actually prepared with a constant focus on redirecting the flow of water two challenging mini bosses and a confusing maze of tunnels in a central pool the great bay temple doesn't mess around but through the previous dungeon's subtle methods of conditioning me to these ideas i was able to find my way i'm also a huge fan of how they incorporated ice arrows into puzzle solving here you can use pillars of ice to tilt platforms halt the flow of water in certain areas it even crossed pools of water by creating platforms for yourself out of ice because of the aquatic nature of this dungeon it became apparent to me that not only does the challenge develop from how well you can think about a situation but also how well you can navigate not just through the outstanding swimming mechanics brought to the table by the zora mask but also through the utilization of the ice arrows and knowledge of how the redirection of water affects the entire dungeon however the prime example of that balance between navigation and puzzle solving and the pinnacle of design down these avenues is the stone tower temple this dungeon is insane although the path forward is relatively clear most of the time it is filled to the brim with some of the biggest head scratchers in majora's mask hands down all three transformation masks get their moment in the spotlight with even the music reflecting this in each area an instrument was used to represent the mask you'd be obtaining stone tower temple uses all three of these instruments in its music plus the ocarina to represent link the underused mirror shield returns from ocarina of time and after being reintroduced in ikana castle it is significantly fleshed out here there's one room in particular that always stuck out to me you have to stand in the light and charge up the mirror in front of you and then quickly run over and point towards the path you want to take by the end you're transferring light from one mirror to another i don't even understand how that works or how i was even able to figure that out but damn did it feel good to clear this room but just as you might think you've cleared the dungeon and come out of it in one piece you'll have to literally turn the dungeon on its head welcome to the stone tower temple inverted if you'll allow me to go on a bit of a tangent this dungeon is discussed by npcs as an extremely dangerous area for humans its exterior looks as if its eyes are hollow and its mouth is crying out in despair the music sounds sad as if any attempt to clear the dungeon is meaningless and although there are some tough enemies abound none of them can compare to the danger present as you avoid perpetually falling into the sky the music sounds even more dire than before utilizing a sample so crystal clear it sounds like it shouldn't be possible on a nintendo 64. it pans around your ears and challenges your senses while some rooms and puzzles may still be familiar with the inverted gravity the experience is drastically altered a room that once housed a massive pool for zora link to swim around in and solve has been flushed completely and now asks you to hover and hook shot around ever so carefully navigation is unorthodox and simply getting from point a to point b becomes the main challenge at the end i had to kill this igor with my light arrows but i ran out of green potions i distinctly remember panicking in this moment but i calmed myself down and took a look at my immediate surroundings i found boxes filled with magic jars and after scrambling i managed to find my way back up thanks to a chest that was left over from the first half of the dungeon flipped upside down and stuck on the ceiling this lateral thinking makes the stone tower temple one of my favorite zelda dungeons of all time so many elements were accounted for and yet it still managed to shatter any preconceived notions of what the dungeon would have been focused on thematically and your reward for clearing it a kaiju battle now speaking of rewards this is a stray fairy at the beginning of the game you have to retrieve one of them for the great ferry in north clock town this is followed by a rampant game of hide and seek between you and the bomber society so that you can enter their hideout although these two concepts don't seem to correlate at first once you are restored to your original form the great fairy will grant you her mask which attracts all nearby stray fairies to you like a magnet as long as they aren't trapped in a bubble from here you'll find out that 15 stray fairies appear in each dungeon and they test you in various skills that you accrue over the course of the game they are not unlike gold skeletal as an ocarina of time but there is one thing that greatly sets them apart i mentioned in my ocarina of time video that gold skulltulas proved to be the bridge into efficient exploration due to the game's structure majora's mask however features more densely packed areas with a lot to interact with and discover rather than long stretches of land with occasional segmented challenges hidden here and there as such majora's mask didn't need to create that bridge before i even reached woodfall i had completed two extra heart containers just by looking around and using my acclimation to the world as an advantage when solving problems i do however remain steadfast that the stray fairies make the player better at solving dungeons there's just enough of them to keep the player invested in searching rooms for them paying attention to every minute detail spotting that fairy tucked into a pillar or making an excruciatingly difficult jump in snowhead temple or cutting corners with the goron roll to just barely make it to another fairy and stone tower temple felt rewarding enough as a seamless challenge integrated into already engaging dungeons but the truth is although the gameplay felt rewarding the actual tangible rewards for finding them all proved to be the cherry on top since each dungeon is more difficult than the last so are the fairies defined meaning that the rewards for finding them all get progressively better all 15 in woodfall and enhance spin attack fair enough all 15 and snow head a doubled magic meter that's pretty awesome all 15 in great bay they cut the damage you receive in half now that's amazing but finally if you get all 15 in stone tower temple you get the great fairy sword a two-handed weapon to rival big gorons the prospect of making my playthrough easier by putting more effort in is what majora's mask is all about and the stray fairies embody that philosophy through tangible rewards and to come full circle they made me better at finding all of the skulltulas in those spider houses very appropriate our three elements have come together in dungeons the difficulty progression is smooth as silk and its ideas are wonderfully inventive the reward for putting that extra effort in is worth it all around and the time management comes from fitting all of this into a single three-day cycle all of this is what makes majora's mask dangerously fun to play what once terrified me or stressed me out became essential in pushing myself to improve it's tough it's stressful and it doesn't hold back but seeing how gameplay aids in light of that discomfort is how i eventually made peace with it and now it's one of my favorite zelda games i found comfort in a deliberately oppressive video game and i can't commend aonuma's team enough for their efforts and yet there's still something i haven't touched upon with the main quest being so challenging i was given at least one major reason to pursue all of these quests around termina but there's something else that motivated me with everything majora's mask brought to the table in gameplay it equally innovates in storytelling i'm the hero in this story if i was feeling anxious doing everything i had to do before the moon fell imagine how the people of termina feel clock town has three accompanying pieces of music on the first day everything seems hunky-dory as if nothing can go wrong and why would it it is emblematic of how most of us understandably live our lives day by day on the second day the tempo is faster and the instrumentation is scaled back there's a sense of urgency hanging over your every move but even so you cling to those carefree days day three the instrumentation is erratic the tempo is even faster than before and those dire notes symbolize the inescapable fact that time is almost up now despite these compositions egging the player on as time passes clock town is the most social environment in the game everyone seems to reside here and as the days pass more and more people become aware of their impending death this is the story of how majora's mask was able to transform the question of what can you do for me into what can i do for you in previous zelda games the world and its inhabitants were intentionally strewn about as little more than vague motivation or sources of immersion even ocarina of time which featured a deeply personal journey for the player through subtext was subdued in its overt presentation there was however an outlier in the zelda series up to this point yoshiaki koizumi wrote the script for link's awakening which was very direct in its storytelling about the ephemerality of escapism koizumi was the co-director and co-writer for majora's mask and with his love for storytelling and games fueling him he made sure that the inhabitants of majora's mask weren't just a means to an end he and his team created a world unlike anything zelda had ever seen before and one that remains uncontested in its brilliance and uniqueness to this day they created a world where the people came first in the first portion of the game not many townsfolk will take kindly to you in your deku form this gives you time to focus on the rudimentary information seeking that attempts to form habits in the player putting this into practice takes patience but as we've discussed it's necessary in expanding your arsenal what follows is a complete shift in the player's mindset everything you're doing in order to collect information inherently familiarizes you with how this game's circumstances affect people and the more you put in the more you get out of it majora's mask goes to great lengths to make you care deeply about what you're doing there are many optional conversations throughout clocktown if you watch certain characters cross paths although gorman appears outwardly grumpy when you attempt to speak with him at night he'll enter the milk bar and drown his sorrows away on the first day you can investigate a meeting at the mayor's office to discover what's troubling him with the gorman troops performance cancelled due to the impending disaster and lulu of the indigogos losing her voice he regrets leaving his brothers behind at the farm to enter show business if you play the ballad of the windfish for him he'll be moved to tears as you remind him of the reason he went into the business in the first place this allows gorman to vanquish his regrets and enjoy life to the fullest in his final hours this is a recurring theme throughout the game no matter what you do the moon is going to fall and everyone is going to die even as you loop back around you cannot escape this fact until you finally stop skull kid the most you can do is allow the people of termina to enjoy what little time they have left this notion became the prime motivating factor in my quest to expand my arsenal and save termina oftentimes the reward would fall to the wayside as i'd look toward making the residents of this gloomy place feel some semblance of joy in their final hours for example this is the guy that gives you the bunny hood this is what he says before you figure out what to do i heard it from my gramps says the moon's gonna fall with something that big it's sure to take this ranch down with it my only regret is that i won't get to see these guys in their prime as roosters he then hunches over an acceptance of the ranch's fate after going on a jolly old march he proclaims that you've eased his only regret and that he's satisfied with well presumably everything there are plenty of moments like this throughout majora's mask that make even the simplest of things feel like they have an intense emotional weight the mayor sits passively as the soldiers and carpenters argue over how to handle the rumors that have spread about the moon falling his indecisiveness could actively put the whole town in danger this poor little monkey is being shamed for a crime that he didn't commit and in order to prove his innocence you'll have to be the one to clear the woodfall temple and bring the princess back they don't even have a case they're only doing this because punishing someone will bring them peace even outside of quests there is always an air of urgency throughout termina the clock is always ticking the moon is always inching closer and closer it watches your every move the central hub of majora's mask becomes emptier as time progresses as i stepped closer toward my goal i felt as if i was making a difference in improving the lives of everyone across termina even if they were all going to die anyways actually improving their lives that's not entirely accurate they have little time remaining i'm solving their problems so that they can leave this world behind without any regrets so that they can find comfort in finality and this notion is immortalized in one of koji kondo's finest compositions the song of healing the melody is awash with sadness as it descends from an f key as you play this part of the song for the major characters throughout the game it represents them confronting their unfinished business but as the melody progresses it ascends back into hope reassurance for darmani you assure him that his people will be taken care of for mikao you guarantee that his legacy in the band will carry on despite sorrow overtaking their lives and many of these people's lives this song drowns their sorrows and allows them to be at peace both figuratively and literally with this allow me to present to you the big moments that made majora's mask one of my favorite games of all time as you solve these problems the underlying subtext is painful to stomach yet deeply gratifying because you were able to help them in the end just as they were able to help you let's start with the mystery that piqued my interest all those years ago at romani ranch after stocking the bomb shop with powder kegs i brought one down to milk road and cleared a path for myself on the first day now i could catch the events leading up to the disaster before they happened romani is practicing with her beau and she talks about stopping ghosts from invading the farm now as it turns out she was right and the two of you defend the ranch together it's a sweet moment but it proves something to her older sister cremia the next night you can ride with her as she delivers milk to the chateau romani she talks about everything that's on her mind from things going wrong at the ranch after their father's death to questioning if the moon is getting bigger after being intercepted by the gorman brothers and defending the cart she acknowledges you as an adult doing this again before the three-day cycle ends will either net you a gold rupee or an affectionate hug from cremia but as the night of the third day approaches you can find her speaking with romani in the barn cremia has known that the moon will kill everyone no matter what they do and she decides to fill romani's mind with thoughts of happiness and dreams for the future so that she can spend her final night in peace instead of fear when i discovered this interaction i cried i have a younger brother myself and as i've learned over the years i need to be strong for his sake even if i'm scared or upset it kills me to see him the same way when it comes to family majora's mask doesn't shy away from representing familial love and uncertain or otherwise frightening times in ikana canyon there's a house blaring music the door is usually locked until a little girl comes out and stares at the water inside her closet is a half mummified monstrosity of a man and although he is a little creepy he is completely docile thus playing the song of healing will restore him to his former self as soon as this happens the little girl will rush in and give him a big hug reassuring him that he was just having a bad dream it's such a small moment as if the game didn't want you to think twice about it and leave with the gibdo mask but i usually stop here to collect myself pamela had been living on her own and fending for herself ever since her father was put in this state she hid him from the rest of the world protecting everyone at the expense of her own childhood innocence she was the one that had to reassure him a complete role reversal as far as child characters go pamela is one of the strongest i've ever seen for the subtext that comes with her circumstances in saving her father i gave her the opportunity to hug him and be with him one last time before the moon came crashing down but in terms of representing love there's one quest that i could never go without mentioning it both completes the brilliance of this game's writing and embodies everything that majora's mask stands for and consistently delivers on this is the tale of anju and cafe first thing in the morning on the first day a child will drop a letter in the mailbox following the postman will reveal that this letter is addressed to anju and if you piece together the fact that kefay has gone missing you'll no doubt have his mask to show on you that you're willing to help she hints that she's scared to see how he looks and when you deliver her letter and meet with him the next day you'll understand why cafe has been turned into a child by skull kid despite this he still intends to marry anju and he wants to fulfill that promise the two of them at one point were supposed to exchange masks to become engaged but sakon took off with cafe's mask that guy from the curiosity shop so after all of the conditions have been met you can finally wait outside of sakon's hideout in ikana canyon it's time to storm the base and work with cafe to get his mass back oh wait hold on a sec i gotta uninvert the flow of time let me just leave here play the song all right there we go okay here i come why is the door closed why is the door closed okay failing this quest after coming so far not only means going through this process all over again but it also means that you were responsible for not reuniting these two it's one of the most painful quests to fail both from a gameplay perspective and an emotional one thankfully i had a friend in my ear letting me know that i could z-target this sign and side-jump into the room again thank you wolf what follows is a race against time as you rush to clear each room with cafe and stop his mask from being destroyed if all goes well cafe will get it back and make his way over to clocktown to be with anju prior to this anju swore that she would stay in town despite the evacuation orders in the hopes that she could see cafe one last time before they die as the earth quakes and the bells toll from the clock tower you'll get an earful of the most tragic song in majora's mask clock town is nearly deserted people are either accepting their deaths or panicking as the reality sets in but above all else there isn't a shred of hope left for termina as a solemn melody plays despite all of this anju waits at the end for cafe's eventual return she loves and trusts him enough to do so minutes before the moon touches down cafe arrives and they finally embrace your reward for completing this quest isn't just a piece of heart it is a confrontation of this game's most frightening elements in aggressive yet beautiful detail this game may excel in game design but upon further examination it is an exploration of fear that stems from uncertainty and ultimately death but fear is a choice what we decide to do with what time we have left is also a choice so choose and don't waste more time than you have to spare these are cherry-picked examples from a game jam-packed with this stuff i never mentioned the postman being constantly stuck to his schedule despite desperately wanting some time off before the moon falls i never mentioned mr barten waiting for his favorite customer to walk in before he dies that's you by the way majora's mask has always been far more than what it seems in fact i don't think i've truly touched upon its message yet after assembling the four giants and playing the oath to order atop the clock tower the giants will do everything in their power to hold the moon in place and thwart skull kid's plan however when he fails majora's mask takes over to end this nightmare once and for all you must get to the heart of the problem you must enter the inside of the moon this area perfectly encompasses everything that majora's mask does its balanced difficulty progression is reflected in four challenges utilizing all of link's forms that of which you're collecting allows you to access as you need all of the masks to finish them off you're rewarded with the final four heart pieces as well as the amazing fierce deities mask after giving all of yours to the children of the moon seriously this thing tears through majora after all of the work i put in it feels emphatic to have a reward like this for use in the final battle and the final boss is wildly fun and everything but the most important takeaway from the inside of the moon leans into the true heart of majora's mask after clearing their challenges the children of the moon will ask you questions about yourself although vague at first the game's final scene should give you an idea of what these kids were trying to say just before entering woodfall you'll watch a montage of skull kid's life before he got a hold of majora's mask he was happy carefree once majora's mask took him over however his friends left him alone and those friends were the giants and despite thinking his friends resented him for his actions they were willing to forgive him anyway before the happy mask salesman sets off he leaves us with these words whenever there is a meeting a parting is sure to follow however that parting need not last forever whether a parting be forever or merely for a short time that is up to you do we really want our ultimately petty squabbles to crush what were once cherished connections and friendships do we really wish to forget these people ever existed on our death beds do i really want to live only for myself before i ultimately pass on of course not everyone has their own battles to overcome and it's important to remember that allowing ourselves to be consumed by isolation when we never know what tomorrow might bring would not be a good way to exit this life as the happy mask salesman says and as his name implies the masks i have are filled with happiness have i done enough here well who's to say when i've served my purpose the most i can do with what time i have left is be selfless act for the sake of others not for myself as long as i know that i'm bringing happiness to others rather than anger or sadness then i'll feel as though i'm doing my job i may not be able to make everyone happy but i'd regret passing away without being an irreplaceable part of a jovial social ecosystem this is what majora's mask conveys through every aspect of its design and narrative its feedback loop its dungeons its quests and its world as you do everything in your power to help others and spread joy which in turn makes the world a better place before you leave it forever i've been liam triforce thanks for watching you

Channel: Liam Triforce

Views: 255,365

Keywords: Zelda, legend of Zelda, the legend of Zelda, majora's mask, majora, n64, Nintendo 64, review, analysis, retrospective, critique, liam triforce, ocarina of time, ben drowned

Id: 2zQvwq_b7FI

Length: 52min 50sec (3170 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020