The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Documentary) | 20th Anniversary Retrospective

[Music] you [Music] you creating a brand-new full game isn't easy a new game requires new ideas to be built from scratch assets mechanics narrative concepts animations and a plethora of sweat resources and especially time to fully flesh out these ideas into a game that hopefully ends up being akin to a well-oiled complex machine that gamers all around the world love to tinker and play with with three years to make the game itself and resources that a company like Nintendo would have on offer ocarina of time would release to the public in 1996 as allotted and extremely positively received a title for the Nintendo 64 this was the ideal scenario to create a new game but to create one that follows up on the success of one of Nintendo's most beloved games to date now that is a mountain to climb if you're part of a giant's company like Nintendo most resources are likely more than manageable to work with however no amounts of money or resources that any giant corporation has can quite defeat time itself whether that be time necessary to make new ideas and put them into practice or the time required to refine these ideas into fabricating something truly special when a team at Nintendo attempted to do just that with a sequel to a beloved and critically successful Zelda game and intended to do so in an absurdly short amount of time they succeeded in both creating a full new game in a short time span as well as constructing a surprisingly mature world that gamers all around the world adore that's not to say Majora's Mask didn't have any flaws or common grievances aimed at it but considering time constraints and drastic risky changes in overall tone and direction it sounds more like a recipe for disaster if the directors and staff hadn't been any more innovative the engine anymore reusable or the game anymore unique it might not have been well regarded at all in place of potential disaster however is still one of the most recognizable and highly regarded titles in the zelda franchise an innovative and risky venture for nintendo to be sure but one that paid off handsomely when released by reinventing The Legend of Zelda's gameplay and story to some extent Nintendo had created a game in the franchise with its own identity to differentiate itself from other Zelda and Zelda like games while still remaining faithful to its origins with its overall critical success Majora's Mask was even able to develop its own fan base separate from the previous titles be ported to multiple consoles and was even remade 15 years after its initial release throughout its ups and downs struggles and triumphs this retrospective is a way to take a look back to see what made this game such an anomaly within the Zelda franchise and to celebrate its success and long lasting reverence the game known as The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask to understand where Majora's Mask came from and how it separates itself from the Zelda franchise it becomes absolutely essential to first look at its immediate predecessor ocarina of time after directing the 1996 hits Super Mario 64 series creator Shigeru Miyamoto was now in charge of several directors as a producer and supervisor for Ocarina of times development over the course of development many different parts of the game were handled by various directors with teams that grew over time Eiji Aonuma was one of these directors and handled the game's dungeon design while development on ocarina of time and majora's mask were in the mid to late 90s NUMA had unique ideas for what could be implemented in games since long before then ideas that would soon be realized more fully in Majora's Mask he stated that while his first encounter with the franchise was in 1988 he didn't enjoy many of the combat actions or anything that required fast reflexes but was instead more pulled end by adventure oriented tasks such as cutting grass lifting stones and unlocking doors with keys it would be many years after 1988 when Aonuma would finally get the opportunity to direct a game with more freedom and control its vision 1996 to be precise this was the year that a japan-only video game in a similar style to The Legend of Zelda released with a ánewá at the helm as director marvelous another Treasure Island was the game in question and the adventure elements are immediately apparent with its abundance in puzzles and emphasis on non-combative actions connected or not it was soon after this game's released when Miyamoto instructed to aonuma to join the team to work on new Zelda titles it was around this time when animal would work on ocarina of time and while his work was limited to dungeon design adventure elements become apparent even here by looking at his work regarding events like rescuing trapped gowron's or hunting down poe sisters ocarina of time would release in 1998 as a critical success with over 7.6 million time copies sold worldwide for Nintendo and the team didn't wait long to start developing a follow up during the Game Developers Conference in 2004 and Numa spoke of how after finishing work on ocarina of time Miyamoto wanted to use its engine to create a second version of the game with rearranged gameplay that was known as eras Elda after finishing work on ocarina of time mr. Miyamoto instructed us to use the Ocarina of Time engine to create a Zelda a very Zelda series typical Zelda series second version with rearranged dungeon gameplay satisfied on his dungeon design however Aonuma while hesitantly obliging to Miyamoto's request secret Elise started creating new dungeon designs that weren't in ocarina of time anima thought it to be too limiting to only change puzzle solving elements and eventually gathered the courage to ask Miyamoto whether he could make a new game instead while Arizona eventually reappeared many years later as ocarina of time Master Quest at the time Miyamoto accepted Animas proposal and instructed the team to create a new Zelda game to make effective use of the lengthy development cycle in creating Ocarina of times engine the development team was greatly reduced to about half of what was needed for ocarina of time and they started discussing ideas around January 1999 programming started on the 1st of the following February the longer the game was being developed however the more Miyamoto realized more people were needed to create the game quickly with the sizable six major directors working on Majora's masks game design and creating the foundation of the game it was clear that Nintendo was dedicated to creating this game with passion and in a timely manner Miyamoto had recalled many more of the original team members and ended up with around 70% of the ocarina of time staff looking back at development Miyamoto implied that he gave all freedom to Aonuma after setting up the foundation for development so this time the task was to make a game with Eiji Aonuma as the director and with fewer people assigned to create the game in a very short amount of time just one year to be exact heya Numa became focused on thinking of how great it would be if he the team could make that happen and how disappointed he'd be if not even going so far as to become angry with Miyamoto upon being told that the game's release could be delayed while Miyamoto may have offered to delay the game's release out of concern for the team and how much they had pushed themselves there exhaustion may have led to the creation of a particular cutscene in the final game a Onuma claims of having dreamt about being chased by a Deku before being woken up screaming and states that when he went to work the next day Takumi Kawakawa who was in charge of cinematic sequences for the game showed him a cutscene for the deck ooze and a anima says it was exactly like what he'd seen in his dream alongside this example of how the hard work had taken such a toll that it had made its way in game there were also some references to real life from the citizens of termina the English screenplay writer Jason whoom stated that the development team rarely got to go home and as a result many characters like the Deku scrub talked about not being able to spend time with their wives even implementing an inside joke with the mayor stating a phrase commonly said at the office all of this hard work and effort would be much anticipated by Zelda fans all around the world and much information about the game would release to the public prior to release Majora's Mask would be first announced in mid-1999 and known as Zelda Gaiden expected to be shown at the upcoming space world first scene a couple months later and still tentatively known as Zelda Gaiden majora's mask was shown with actual screenshots of the game where it's unmistakably Majora's Mask and a basic summary of what the game had in store was spoken about the game was later shown off at space world the same year and much of the action speaks for itself this was definitely different in many ways from Ocarina of Time The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask for the n64 is coming October 26th some consider it a sequel to the greatest video game ever others claim that it's much better than the original The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask would release for Nintendo 64 on April 27 2000 in Japan and October and November for North America and PAL regions respectively in the same year subsequently ported to GameCube from 2003 to 2004 Majora's Mask would be well sold over its lifespan with over 3.36 million copies sold worldwide after an approximate year of stressful and condensed development the team at Nintendo had achieved the difficult feat of releasing a full new Zelda game around the time they had originally desired to in 2000 the fans were finally able to get their hands on the game to see the result and we're likely surprised to see that this Zelda game wasn't quite like what the series had been known for previously being a Zelda game Majora's Mask retained enough familiarity for its Korra audience to understand what kind of game this would be on a base level but because of many drastic changes made to its story and many gameplay offerings that had the game would also be unique enough so that many who may be interested don't write it off as a copy-paste at sequel The Legend of Zelda was pretty much always based around a similar formula the player plays as link who's tasked with stopping the evils of Ganondorf saving Hyrule and its princess using the pieces of an ancient relic known as the Triforce in the process this Zelda game however had only one of those concepts in common the player still plays as link in still attempts to stop certain evils from destroying the land nearly every aspect of majora's mask story however was very different and while some similarities still remained in the gameplay even that was ultimately transformed due to innovations the game introduces from the beginning of the game while sequels that release quickly after their well-received predecessors tend to be regarded as poor in quality due to rushing the product to market for the sake of a quick buck Majora's masks success implies otherwise for itself 12th best-selling Nintendo 64 game worldwide and critically well-received to this day Majora's Mask was effectively an instant classic upon release while the game was well-received there were still some commonly stated criticisms that usually detailed how different the game is from its predecessor and how off-putting that is or a greater emphasis on its side stories rather than the main story Majora's Mask was still largely praised overall due to its engrossing atmosphere inventive premise high quality side quests and intriguing mysteries following up a claim to title the Ocarina of Time Majora's Mask was a risky endeavor at the time but was also a worthy successor and more importantly proved itself as a worthy game on its own merits [Music] majora's mask follows hero of Ocarina of Time link as he finds himself in a fog filled forest on his trusty companion Epona when two fairies ambushed them causing link to fall onto the ground an opportunistic skull kid' with an unusual tribal mask reveals himself and successfully steals Epona and Link's treasured and mysteriously powerful ocarina after chasing school kid into a dark cave link is taunted as school kid casts a curse that transforms link into a Deku scrub [Music] [Applause] instead of just retrieving his trusty steed and ocarina from school kid link now has a more pressing issue of what to do about this curse that's just been inflicted upon him the two fairies title and tail following school kid become separated from him as he moves through a door holding link responsible for their separation tattle insists on him navigating the two out of the cave in an attempt to catch back up to her brother while link can no longer utilize his typical variety of weaponry in this Deku form it's also immediately apparent that there are new things he can do such as burrow into the ground and use flowers to fly into the air for a period of time link can find the hollowed remains of a mysterious tree's trunk along the way out of the cave before making it out of the confined paths a man known as the happy mask salesman offers to heal links curses in exchange for retrieving a precious item and a precious mask for him within three days referring to the Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask respectively as the hero and his reluctant fairy companion leave the tower to enter a new town known as Clock Town tattle recommends link to see the great fairy in town in hopes to defeat the Skull Kid while this hope doesn't come to fruition the pair learns of Skull Kid waiting at up clock tower in the middle of town and finds out when said tower opens up after familiarizing themselves a little with the town's inhabitants and events throughout the three days link and his fairy companion are now able to walk to the top of clock tower to confront Skull Kid [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a distressed tale mentions to a sister and link of a swamp mountain ocean canyon and to bring the four who reside there to Clocktower before being promptly smacked away by Skull Kid who proceeds to use the masks power and accelerate the moon speed to collide into terminal unable to fight Skull Kid or the moon link instead manages to acquire the ocarina of time from his hands by using the Deku forms powers [Music] after a brief flashback to learning the song of time link decides to play the song with the ocarina that now takes the form of Deku pipes due to his transformation into a Deku scrub you [Music] [Music] you [Music] the song of time takes link and title backwards through time to three days prior with their memories intact in the ocarina in links possession presumptuously seeing the ocarina in hand upon reconvening the happy mask salesman enthusiastically teaches link the song of healing which transforms him back into his human form and seals the Deku spirit into a mask that can transform back into a Deku scrub upon reuse the happy mask salesman soon thereafter realizes that link had only acquired one of the two precious items he asked for and panics he then more thoroughly explains how powerful and evil the mask is reiterating how necessary it is to retrieve the mask with this information at hand wink and tattle must now find a way to defeat the Skull Kid and retrieve his mask aware of what will happen at the end of the next three days if left unchecked and with the power to now go back in time when needed Lincoln tattle set out to save termina [Music] gameplay within the Zelda franchise has historically included the same bunch of mechanics of combat and dungeons as the primary focus upon being faced with the difficult task to follow up the critically-acclaimed at zelda game that sold over 7 million copies worldwide the team came up with a brilliant idea that would change how the Legend of Zelda could be played while making it more manageable to develop the game in only a year puzzle solutions would be found in a series of recurring events after adopting a three day time system that's full of events meant to be played through multiple times to figure out what to do these ideas also helped from a technical standpoint by having the game data more compact while still providing deep gameplay that stands out from the previous Zelda games Majora's masks three-day time system is arguably the largest difference from all previous Zelda entries for the aforementioned reasons the game is played in 72 hour cycles in-game and allows the player to revert back to the beginning of the 72 hours whenever they want this allows some key items of the game like masks Quivers and bomb bags to remain permanent while others are reset completely Aonuma himself stated that losing certain items when you travel through time while seemingly unreasonable is actually the result of many delicate modifications to make the game work initially this 3-day cycle was actually originally planned to be a repeated 7 days something didn't quite feel right however as aonuma felt the game might drag on a bit too long to go from the beginning of the week all the way to the end of it a full week would likely end up with too much for a player to need to remember for the in-game events and the team wouldn't have been able to make the game so quickly with so many in-game days to develop for after deciding upon the 3-day cycle many events only occur in a specific timeframe for link to see or take part in to ensure this doesn't become too boring to progress due to wait times or to pressuring due to how quickly the in game timer moves link can find ways to either slow down time or to skip some of the game designer and director Yoshiaki Kazumi wanted to implement all of these time-based events and systems in Clock Town and was therefore responsible for planning clock town's events a Numa wanted to only include time management inside of clock town since events dependent on it can become too strict if plans for dungeons and on the field despite this KOA soomi's work eventually crept its way outside of clock town for a couple areas namely Romani ranch and milk Road Miyamoto also expressed his desires to create a short but dense experience where you had to pay more attention to the details Majora's masks three day cycle allowed this to become true as you need to do the same tasks and to see the same people repeatedly to find their nuances in their own stories a side effect of this deep gameplay system was in providing more context and perspective to many of the citizens of termina although the reuse of character models and assets was largely due to saving time and money and Numa stated that in majora's mask they wanted to give more insight into some of the minor characters found in ocarina of time giving a better look at old characters as well as develop new ones at the same time an example of one of these old characters is the happy mask salesman who aonuma referenced as having ideas that weren't fully realized with the character in ocarina of time and has far greater development in majora's mask clueless on what to do after their encounter with Skull Kid and rambling to link tattle eventually comes to the conclusion they should go to the areas that her brother informed them up swamp mountains ocean and Canyon starting with the swamp as link makes his journey to the swamp south of town tattle recognizes a tree and reminisce of a time when Skull Kid and the two fairies became friends and played around gleefully before he put on Majora's Mask [Music] wink and tattle venture through a now poisoned southern swamp to first arrived at the Deku Kingdom before eventually making their way into the dangerous would fall temple it's here where link defeats the temples boss odolwa removing the poison from the swamp and freeing the guardian giant of would fall in the process [Music] after the giant sings a tune that prompts link to learn a song known as the oath to order tattle alludes to this giant as being one of the four that tales spoke of continuing on their journey through the snow head region a mysterious owl tells link that the gorons land here is doomed to become a land where no living thing can survive soon thereafter link meets a goron warrior spirit darmani the third who turns out to be a renowned goron hero after playing the song of healing to heal the Goron spirit's sorrows link obtains the Goron mask that transforms link into a goron link and tattle successfully traveled to Snowhead temple and after a hard-fought battle with the temple's boss got suppressed the lands extreme conditions and free the second Giants the area that tail mentioned to be after the mountains was ocean but the only possible area that meets this description Great Bay has barriers that link is unable to overcome by himself traveling throughout the land of termina link eventually finds a ranch nearby where a little girl and her sister reside looking around in the ranch the pair discover Epona behind a gate near the sisters after playing a short game where link shoots 10 ghosts shaped balloons in the range on Epona Romani teaches him of Epona's song which allows him to call her to come to him in termina with more Giants to free and Link's trusty companion now finally with him they head off to jump over the barrier in front of Great Bay to continue their journey [Music] [Applause] after arriving two great Bay's beach rink pushes a near death surah Macau to shore before hearing about his story Macao tells of himself as a guitarist and the trouble surrounding the singer of their band before collapsing wink then plays the song of healing to capture his spirit in Azure amass which can yet again be used to transform this time into a Zora after fulfilling macau's request to soothe the troubles of the van singer wink is now able to travel by Giants turtle to Great Bay temple wink navigates the more intricate network of pipes in Great Bay temple to find in battle the boss Georg underwater and free the third of four giants as link attempts to travel east towards iconic Canyon he instead finds a mysterious polka Lecter who only summons a tree out of the ground for link to proceed if he sees link with a particular mask of the leader of ninjas after successfully entering ikana canyon this way and battling through all kinds of undead enemies in the ancient castle of ikana link learns from the undead king of iconic kingdom about the Skull Kid thrusting open the doors of stone tower unleashing winds of darkness throughout the land from here link travels to stone tower and its subsequent temple to eventually defeat its evil boss twin mold bringing peace to the lands undead and spirits in freeing the final giant one major point of praise for the game would be in both its story and dungeon design for these four areas although these praises wouldn't go without some criticism while the four adventure filled the lands of Majora's Mask offered what is arguably a very high quality experience some players were put off by how difficult some puzzles and battles would be while providing little to no hints for the player this would be a point of contention that a future version of the game would attempt to address and some players felt that the game also offered little in terms of Dungeon count only four notable ones to speak of these four lands in their respective boss fights would ultimately be lauded however for their varied and unique mechanics that often enraptured the player as they attempts to stop the moon from crashing into termina and to some players even in joy to the lack of hand-holding in Majora's Mask especially in comparison to its predecessor which has a particular fairy who is notorious for nagging at the player at every corner one thing most players can likely agree on however is just how unique and engrossing of an experience Majora's Mask is with its world relative to the rest of the franchise [Music] basic gameplay for majora's mask consists of quite a few mechanics overall as for mechanics independence of combat walking running limited jumping which now includes new animations are a key part of Majora's masks basic gameplay one major aspect of combat is links use of sword and shield in many different possible combinations for both blocking damage as well as dishing it out via thrusts slashes and spin attacks there's also a variety of weaponry and items that link finds and must use to progress both combat encounters and puzzles this facet of the game is largely identical to its predecessor running on the same engine one aspect where Majora's masks gameplay is vastly different however is in its use of masks while masks in ocarina of time are limited to a side quest and offer no meaningful benefits from a gameplay standpoint they are unquestionably vital to both the gameplay and overall story in majora's mask all 24 masks in the game provides some benefit to the gameplay and some go as far as to transform it along with Linc himself and appearing almost completely different touches of grain being the only consistency to his look transformation masks provide completely different combat options forms of traversal reactions from non player characters inside and outside the main town and are often required to go back and forth between them for varying puzzles there are three primary transformation masks leap we'll be using throughout the game the Deku mask turning him into a Deku scrub the Goron mask transforming him into a goron and the Zora mask turning him into a Zora Deku Link while still being able to combat enemies and solve puzzles must do so in a more limited capacity to his untransformed counterpart he can hop across water traveling much faster this way and is able to avoid toxic water by doing so after bouncing five times on the water however he must land or else he'll sink as he can't swim this form is also capable of burrowing into Deku flowers subsequently launching himself into the air to access otherwise accessible areas and can also be used as an attack if deku link has enough magic he can also create large bubbles that can be used for popping balloons and attacking enemies contrasting greatly with Deku Link göran links abilities are based on his physical prowess his grande punch is a powerful blow that can be followed up by an uppercut and a full body blow after that Garron link can also curl into a ball and slam into the ground with incredible force possibly his most convenient and in some cases useful ability goron Link's ability to roll after curling into a bowl is not only fast but also damaging if doing so with his spikes out like Goran link zora link can perform a combative combo as well but also has some versatility to use his fins as boomerangs as the Zoras are well known as aquatic swimmers Zora link is no different in this regard and can swim very quickly underwater while Zora link may not be the most offensive transformation for combat there's still some added usefulness in the electrical barrier he can put up to fend off enemies and can even be used to attack enemies while swimming fast while ocarina of time as well as the previous Zelda games still provide a lot of gameplay via its weaponry and mechanics Majora's Mask has proven itself to have a vast quantity of options with the added 24 masks that far exceeds any adventure game of a similar style even though the transformation masks can feel over or underutilized relative to each other at times there's still a lot of benefit and utility to be had with each of these masks if you're wanting to beat the game with all four giants freed and the looming threat of the moon still overhead linked waits until the last few hours when the clock tower opens to Rican front Skull Kid and play the song that he learned from a giant oath to order [Music] [Music] from this the four Giants are summoned together to stop the moon's descent upon termina [Music] you [Music] skullkid is knocked unconscious and the two fairies finally reunite all is not over however as Majora's Mask rises on its own and separates itself from Skull Kid [Music] creating a stream of some sort schoolkid goes up and into the moon taking control of it in an attempt to consume everything linked and teto follows gold Kidd through the stream and find themselves in a land with a tranquil appearance and kids dancing around a tree in the middle wink speaks to the child with Majora's Mask and is transported elsewhere unknown where the final battle takes place with the mass [Music] [Music] [Music] after a hard-fought battle to save termina the mask is destroyed and the moon disintegrates as everyone is greeted by the dawn of a new day [Music] [Music] skullkid trembles after confronting the four Giants realizing they remembered him and still thought of him as a friend [Music] [Music] [Music] with the evil having left majora's mask the happy mask salesman reacquires the mask and says farewell to everyone and leaves link also parts ways by hopping on his trusty companion Epona and most of everyone in the land of termina celebrate in clock town's festival you disconnected from the main stories for Giants and Majora's Mask are all kinds of stories to explore and take part in while most games use secondary quests as a way to fill in some gaps and pad on time to the game majora's mask takes the time and efforts more fully explore its cohesive subplots some of these stories are more memorable to many fans than what the main story provides due to the personal stories that are told in an emotionally impactful way to help understand some more of what makes majora's mask so special not just relative to ocarina of time but to other RPGs as well here are just a few of those sub stories that can be explored in the main game throughout each of the three days the postman is seen checking mail from mailboxes even with the looming moon hovering closer and closer to Clock Town taking his duties seriously the only time we see him with any free time is in the post office mentally training himself and pretending to be running as the moon threatens closer to termina the postman gains the desire to flee but is thwarted by his job being of highest priority if link gives him priority mail the postman delivers it and is subsequently ordered to flee freed from his previous responsibilities the postman gives his hat to link and happily leaves elsewhere and the ranch where link must find his beloved companion Epona resides two sisters Romani and Crimea upon arriving on the first day Romani the younger of the two sisters tells of how alien creatures she refers to as ghosts will come down to steal their cows in the upcoming night if not stopped if link chooses to help Romani comes out to the barn as a last line of defense the alien creatures arrive and Link fens them off for hours before they finally disappear and Romani gives link a milk bottle as a reward in the evening on the next day a lonely Crimea invites link to join her on a trip back to clock town as she tells link of her difficulties in taking care of the ranch on this trip the path is seen clearly blocked off and in making a detour the two are pursued by gorman brothers looking to break creamiest milk bottles after a successful defense link receives a mask from a happy Crimea for the help if wink doesn't manage to help out the two however their cows will be stolen Romani can be found with severe amnesia after the alien creatures come down and Crimea will be in the barn regretfully speaking of not listening to her sister in the mayor's residence link can talk to a woman who gives him a mask to help her find her missing son cafe meanwhile the postman delivers a letter to the innkeeper at stockpot in Anjou for some mysterious reason andrew reacts in great surprise and demands the postman to tell her where the letter came from a request the postman promptly rejects if wink speaks to her with cafes masked on after this Anju asks to meet link in the kitchen late that night later that night Anju reveals to link that cafe had written her a letter and once linked to deliver her response through the mail and eventually meet with cafe after having read the letter from Anju cafe entrusts link with his identity being that he was turned into a child by school kit he further reveals that he promised to greet Andrew only by bringing a ceremonial wedding mask one that was stolen by a prancing man dat name second cafe further shows his trust a link by requesting him to give Andrew a pendant of memories after delivering set pendant Andrew decides to simply wait for cafe as she believes in his return link and cafe waits for the thief to return in iconic Canyon to follow him inside and retrieve the Sun mask for cafe's wedding you [Music] as the moon is less than two hours from crashing into termina cafe is able to meet and you as they both have kept their promise to only reunite with their respective wedding masks the masks of the Sun and the moon [Music] whether it be serendipity or something else this revered quest was apparently inspired by a real-life event around the time the game was being developed upon attending a wedding of a staff member soon before North Korea launched tapered own missiles an Ummah thought of it as strange to go to a wedding in a situation when missiles may fall down that day as the conversation progressed someone noted how it could fit in the game of majora's mask which is instead being threatened by a moon it was this inspiration that eventually manifested into the NGO and cafe sidequest found in the game today in 2000 a GAO Noma responded to a question of whether the team intentionally made Majora's Mask scary and he states that their primary goal was to present something that's very mysterious instead of scary maybe in the process of attempting to create a mysterious atmosphere for many of the characters came a realistic nuance that surprisingly mature for a franchise like The Legend of Zelda as heartwarming as many of these quests and offense in termina can be to conclude the drawers mask is unique in the zelda franchise as arguably being the first title in the series that's willing to be quite dark in the stories it tells whether it be a dedicated postman panicking at the end of the world two sisters who can no longer live out their lives normally due to severe trauma or a couple destined to be Wed unable to reunite the player gets to see what happens to people in a troubled in sometimes tragic world repeatedly until they're finally able to solve these problems with them but even when the credits roll with all side quests completed not all damage can be undone [Music] you [Music] you [Music] The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask would be remembered within the community as a strange but ultimately great Zelda experience the game would be re-released to GameCube in 2003 and 2004 and remade for the 3ds many years later in 2015 while the former would be lag year than the original release and the latter having made major changes that are questionable to the community to this day they so offer a serviceable experience for Nintendo's ambitious sequel if you're not too hung up on the details in retrospect a aneema seems to have wanted Majora's Mask to be less challenging since in an a wata asks interview he speaks of the game seemingly ashamed at how many things in the game are without hints and may not be discovered by many players in the very same interview Aonuma stated that he didn't want the game to become easier for the 3ds release giving the bosses as an example of intended challenge but satisfaction from finally defeating them however the 3ds release did have bosses changed by adding weaknesses and narrowly focused ways to defeat them sometimes a few other changes were made with a similar story and mechanic is changed to be made simpler but also easier and arguably less satisfying at the same time fan reception to these changes seemed mixed with some stating that the content of the game is diluted less unique less challenging and therefore less satisfying on the other hand many fans embraced these changes because there were many quality of life changes in the less challenging aspects of the game may have not been a big concern to them in the first place ultimately the 3ds version would see commercial success with over 2 million copies sold worldwide with eights and above for its reviews after Majora's masks release came an even more realistic looking depiction as an adult link fights against Ganondorf with better technology showcasing the more realistic models from the already much darker majora's mask to this demo were expecting to see more realistic and more mature depictions of the Legend of Zelda since Nintendo had shown through Majora's Mask that they were plenty capable of doing so while the next major release in the series of Wind Waker wouldn't be what fans expected a darker and more realistic looking Zelda game would eventually release in the form of Twilight Princess in November of 2006 this would arguably be the last zelda game however that featured a dark atmosphere to engross the player as Nintendo's next major Zelda games would feature another almost cartoony art style later on the 3ds games would also change to an even brighter atmosphere in the latest release breath of the wild officially makes it over a ten-year period without any major releases with a somber atmosphere while there's nothing wrong about this in and of itself many dedicated fans yearned for an atmosphere that's easy to become enveloped in that's more mature in deals with topics that are difficult to respectfully depict to an audience many of whom may be young while the Zelda franchise will likely not return to a darkly mature tone as what Majora's Mask depicted anytime soon the fans can hopefully rejoice in the fact that it unlike many other direct sequels with a tight development schedule actually exists as a full well-made game one that's unique in all kinds of ways that few other games have dared to attempt to be it may even be the most special of Nintendo's vast catalog and hopefully I've shown you some of the reasons why thanks for watching you [Music]

Channel: Trogdor8freebird

Views: 25,200

Rating: 4.8912134 out of 5

Keywords: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Documentary, Gameplay, Nintendo 64, 20 Years, Anniversary, Retrospective, Gaming, Classic, the legend of zelda: majora's mask 3d, majora's mask, the legend of zelda series, the legend of zelda, loz mm, legend of zelda, zelda, zelda majora's mask, zelda majora's mask 3ds, ocarina of time, MM3D, review, 20 years later, retrospective review, majora's mask documentary

Id: BnKYz6QXiAU

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020