WHY is Majora's Mask the DARKEST Zelda Game?

foreign [Music] hi there I'm Skippy mcdew Majora's Mask is a dark game no really it's like a really dark game you might even say and this is a brand new idea I don't think anyone has ever said this before Majora's Mask is the darkest Zelda Zelda in its entirety is not afraid of dealing with some dark themes you know the Series dates way back to the 1985 NES classic The Legend of Zelda so it's seen its fair share the series has of just about any kind of topic or theme that you might want to cover take for instance the moment you step out of the Temple of Time and Ocarina of Time you know suddenly you're seven years older and you learn that Gannon has taken over Hyrule and Princess Zelda is missing then right as he come upon the familiar and jovial Castle town uh everybody's uh ugly or how about the time in Wind Waker when Link's sister is kidnapped by a giant bird he has to go save her but like I mean he's just a kid just a few hours ago they were playing games around the island but now his poor grandma has to watch as both of her children are swept into the treacherous oceans but hey at least she seems to take it pretty well or how about this or this or how about this or this oh or that and especially whatever the heck this is but even with all that going on Majora's Mask still seems to be pretty much unanimously agreed upon as the darkest Zelda and in my opinion it is undoubtedly the darkest Zelda game I think that that's a pretty uncontroversial thing to say for the most part the question that I have is why why is it the darkest Zelda game what makes it so dark I mean is it the game's atmosphere or the melancholic Story the themes of death and hopelessness perhaps you know honestly I think the answer is pretty clear can see Kana Canyon okay okay I mean yeah that area alone makes Majora's Mask the king of creepy games creepiest Zelda game of all time but I think the answer is a little more nuanced than that I mean sure any game can just throw a bunch of creepy stuff in there and call it a day boom creepy game I think that Majora's Mask is special the game garnered the cult following that it has today not just because it was creepy because it made us feel things so here's the deal Majora's Mask is vastly different from any other Zelda game it's not just that it's dark it carries with it a very real sense of emotion so in Majora's Mask if you focus only on the main quest You'll find yourself left with a pretty short experience compared to other titles in the series but the game makes up for this with a wide array of side quests in the land of termina almost every single character you interact with needs something this is a land full of people who are hurting tragedy looms around every corner things are not well in termina and most of these misfortunes are the product of Majora's wrath take for instance the southern swamp in the southern swamp the water has become poisonous rendering the land impossible to Traverse for anyone other than the native Deku scrubs to make things worse the Deku princess has been kidnapped and is being held captive in the recently monster infested woodfall Temple on the other end of the swamp a defenseless witch has been knocked down by an unknown perpetrator as she is unable to make it back to her feet thankfully link is here to save the day he saves the old witch and goes on to rescue the princess ridding the swamp of its poisonous bog in the process then over in the mountains to the north the normally beautiful and sunny region has been engulfed in its own ice age the mountain and even some of its residents have been frozen solid the leader of the gorons in the area has gone missing and his infant son has grown inconsolable the great Goron Warrior darmani met a tragic end when he journeyed to the snowhead temple in hopes of ridding the icy curse from the mountains so the gore on people have no one left to turn to and they're stuck in this Frozen Wasteland at least that is until link comes to unthaw the residents defeat the evil and snowhead Temple and rescue the Goron Elder bringing Joy back to the distraught infant and Armani though he was unable to protect his people is given peace as he knows that the evil has been vanquished though unfortunately the same peace has not come to the Zora of coastal termina here we meet a rock band formed entirely of Zora musicians called the Indigo goes they've been rehearsing diligently to prepare for their performance at the carnival of time but unfortunately there have been some tragic events that have completely halted all progress Lulu the band's lead singer has lost the eggs containing her seven children the eggs in question have been stolen by the Gerudo pirates in the area the worst news however is that her partner and father to these children Macau has tragically lost his life in search of these eggs it is up to link to locate these children some held captive by Pirates and some hidden at the bottom of the ocean and returned them to their mother thus link has saved the day and ensured that mikao did not die in vain then completing our circle around termina around Clock Town we head to ikana Canyon when the link arrives to Akana Canyon a scientist uh you know what actually I think there might be a better way to go about this I think I'm just going to show you exactly what happens here because everybody who wants to talk about dark Zelda needs to see this but I will warn you this scene when I was a kid gave me nightmares so uh yeah [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so the little girl that comes to the rescue of this terrifying creature is a young child named Pamela that monster it's her dad her father is a scientist who has consumed himself with his research of the bizarre arrival of undead beings in the area tragically This research has taken him too close to the undead and he himself has become a victim of its curse young Pamela fearing for her father's life has locked him in a closet in her basement and is hiding in the house the nearby gibdos in the area which are basically mummies for anyone not familiar can smell the presence of a being that is becoming just like them not quite human not quite gibdo they want to change that the gibdos circle the house incessantly attempting to make contact with Pamela's father thankfully link once again comes to save the day his duty is to make his way into the house and play the magical Song of Healing on his Ocarina healing the curse and reuniting Pamela with her father and of course these are just the people that link helps in the main quest there are still lots of other people in termina who are in danger of encountering a terrible fate in the nearby Farmland of Romani Ranch the namesake of the ranch a young girl named ramani is preparing for something truly grim she warns link of the arrival of ghostly alien-like creatures that will come down from the sky in the middle of the night to steal the cows from the ranch she begs link to help her fend off these creatures should link fail the cows will be abducted into the sky so will Romani it is up to link to save both Romani the ranch and Romani the girl no then taking a trip back over to Clock Town on the night of the first day the old lady who works at the bomb shop is struck by a thief named sakon who steals her Wares unless link is there to stop it then there's the man who cares for the chickens at the ranch who is desperate to see his baby chicks become chickens before the potential end of the world and Link has to help him by performing a special song that mysteriously causes rapid maturation of chickens and honestly we could go on and on about all the different people that he helps throughout the various side quests and branches from the main quest but there's one more little piece of evidence that I would like to go over before we move on because if we're talking about quests and especially side quests and any Zelda game let alone Majora's Mask we have to talk about anju and Cafe this iconic side quest takes an entire three-day cycle to complete in this Quest we find a distraught woman named anju not to be confused with the chicken lady from Ocarina of Time and we learned that her fiance Cafe is missing they were meant to Wed in just three days coincidentally on the day of the carnival of time however Cafe is nowhere to be seen this is big news around clock town because Cafe is in fact the mayor's son we learned that Cafe has been in hiding because skull kid has placed an evil curse on the poor man transforming him into a child and to make matters worse Cafe's ceremonial wedding mask has been stolen once again by saccon what a guy in order to move further in the quest link must gain Cafe's trust and help him retrieve the mask from sackcon then link must make sure that Cafe can reunite with anju and he has to do this all within three days if link succeeds anju and Cafe will go forward with their wedding and live happily ever after well I mean not exactly there's this whole thing going on up here it's a threatening everyone's lives but more on that later of course if link fails even one of the many objectives in the three-day side quest the marriage is doomed and the two are forced to face the approaching apocalypse completely alone and heartbroken [Music] laughs so like yeah we get it link helps a lot of people in this game and there are a lot of dark things that happen to people that means that this game is dark right we all we've already established that Majora's Mask is a very dark game because dark things happen to people in the game and Link is able to save these people from these dark occurrences happening but he does that in every game right every single Zelda game you're helping people the main quest is something like destroy Ganon and then you have to go through and you have to beat up all these different bosses and and rid the curse from all these different lands but in this game it's different all right work with me here Majora's Mask is a little more intimate than other Zelda games everywhere you look there's another character ready to tell you their story and interact with you you make friends and enemies in this game you become a part of these people's lives in Majora's Mask you're in close quarters with the characters around you the world is small and there's a lot of characters within its walls and that small world size means that many of the characters know each other even if they live in totally different parts of the game for instance the thief second that we keep talking so much about it's confirmed that he is actually working with the man who owns the Curiosity shop it's also confirmed that anju is the best friend of Crimea romani's big sister and the proprietor of Romani Ranch and the manager of the Zora band the Indigo goes remains in close contact with the Maris of Clock Town also known as Cafe's mom and preparation for the upcoming Carnival of time so what I'm getting at here is that the characters in Majora's Mask are all intertwined everybody knows something about somebody else somewhere else in the world and there's one thing that's bringing everyone together and that is the carnival of time this is a massive event in the land of termina and it takes place three days after the day that link arrives in terminate you know too bad that it also just coincidentally happens to be occurring on the same day that everybody is going to be uh going to the Moon but because of this coincidental timing the carnival of time serves as the good ending so to speak the carnival of time is an ancient tradition shared by all of the cultures across termina according to anju's wise Grandma during her story time Quest we learn the carnival of time is when the people of the four worlds celebrate Harmony and request fruitfulness for the next year for ages people have worn masks resembling the Giants who are the gods of the four worlds from a top of the clock tower roof a ceremony to call the gods is held in an ancient song is sung all of these festivities for the carnival of time are held so that we may ask the gods for a Rich Harvest in the year to come so the carnival is a moment for everyone in termina to come together and enjoy Harmony and unity and just look forward to a great New Year it's basically like what we do for New Year's except it's got like a whole lot more uh Zelda religion fantasy stuff thrown it it's it's more important it's it's a spiritual thing just as much as it is a a celebration each year the people of termina laugh and play and enjoy a night of fireworks and live music and really good juggling you know the works it is a great time of joviality to be had by all except as we've stated this year is likely to go much different a time that is usually spent preparing for the most important in grandiose Festival of the year is instead spent in a state of panic the public is not at all in a festive mood this should be a special time but instead things have become quite dire in termina when link first comes to town he learns that the moon will fall to the ground crushing everything in a blazing Inferno should this happen there would be no chance of survival for anyone in termina once again just as he did in high rule in the events of Ocarina of Time link must save the day he has to do whatever it takes to stop this from happening it is his duty to defeat the evil demon Majora and free the land from this curse saving everyone in the process [Music] and a a little side note here uh so you're probably thinking about how um so the moon's gonna fall on the world right like everybody's everybody's in the world and the Moon is just gonna [Music] um and yeah that's the case and you might be thinking does that include Hyrule and if that includes Hyrule does that mean that that it like the entire world of people that link just got done saving from Ganondorf you know all the all the kakariko village and uh and Death Mountain you know is Mido gonna die is what I'm saying and uh the answer is kind of controversial it's kind of confusing it's never actually explained in the game but some evidence that we have for what the answer would be is that um if you look directly at this cutscene where the moon falls down on termina um you can see that it's falling directly on to the center of clock down meaning that it's hitting termina directly at least so that's confirmed but also if you look at the Zelda encyclopedia it confirms canonically that termina is indeed an alternate Dimension so we can assume based on these couple of facts that um that the Moon is really only falling down on termina not Hyrule Hyrule is safe from this term it has this weird alternate Dimension some people think it's Purgatory some people think that uh that link is dead but that's just a theory a game theory but uh yeah um if you ask egionuma and all the people who are in charge of Zelda lore Zelda Cannon termina is its own world Hyrule is safe but link is not safe the hero of time from Ocarina of Time is stuck here in termina he's not sure how he got here and he's also unable to leave if termina goes down so does he of course there's still all these other people that we just spent so long talking about as well the people of termina who desperately cling to their lives they are all surely doomed if link cannot stop the apocalypse then everyone he has met and come to know and care for over the past three days will meet their end all right so before we go any further what does all this mean I mean yeah the player has a ton of side quests that they can do and Link meets a ton of characters that he can interact with and learn everything about and like we really care about them like it's safe to say that the characters in this game are a lot more alive than the ones in Ocarina of Time you know no green out of time they're just kind of the NPCs there to tell you about how the world works and and be like oh well if you press B then you can open a door but in Majora's Mask you know it's it's a whole lot more like like instead of like hey if you spin some rupees you can get something good instead of that it's like hey I uh I have Ambitions and dreams that I would like to accomplish um but that thing up there is not looking so good it's making that face at me and I would like to please live please so basically what I'm trying to say is that when you're in termina you're playing Majora's Mask you can feel the woes of this land you know you can relate to these characters and you want to root for them you want to see anju and Cafe get married you want to see the monkey's life be spared the Goron people escape the Winner's Wasteland the singer reunite with her eggs the farm save from Aliens Etc but in the end link saves the day right that's how every Zelda game is link finds some people who need help and he helps them all while saving the world from whatever evils might be causing a stir you know at the end of the game everybody is celebrating and having a great time and yay the world is saved right right you've met with a terrible fate haven't you those eight words might as well be the tagline for Majora's Mask it's the emotional synopsis of the game The crucial piece of the Majora's Mask experience the happy mask salesman utters this chilling phrase every single time the moon falls to the ground take that in for just a second every time the moon crashes to the land not once not twice but every single time the link is unsuccessful in defeating Majora and defeating Majora is no small task either so for those who aren't familiar here's how the game works in order to defeat Majora link will need the assistance of the four giants who watch over the land of termina wanted a swamp one in the mountains one in the ocean and one in the canyon this means completing four temples defeating their respective bosses and collecting The Remains which provide access to the Giants not only that but link must accomplish tasks leading up to each of these temples before he can even gain access to them he will need to learn songs that allow him to enter collect gear necessary for completion of said temples heal the wounded Souls of Brave Warriors like darmani and Macau who have lost their fights against the evils brought on by Majora and all of this must be completed within three days even the most skilled speedrunners cannot accomplish every single thing that I just listed in one three-day cycle I mean that's debatable speedrunners can do a lot of crazy things and uh and yet some of them can beat the game in three days but uh the average player of midora's mask is not a speedrunner who knows how to beat the game in three days to the average player link controlled by them cannot possibly achieve all that must be done within one three-day cycle not to mention all of the side quests and various other individuals around termina in need of some sort of help link cannot possibly help everyone in One three-day cycle he will sooner or later have no choice but to play the song of time on his Ocarina and return to the dawn of the first day but what happens to everybody else like we just said link is safe but what about all of those people that he just left behind when he played his song and teleported back to the dawn of the first day I mean sure we see them in town right now you know they're having fun playing and laughing it's the dawn of the first day everybody's having a great time but these same people were just fleeing Town terrified of the Fate that lay ahead now Zelda as a series is no stranger to the concept of alternate timelines I mean just take a look at this horribly controversial and confusing piece of lore so with that in mind why should we assume that this time the scenario link just left behind when he played the song of time isn't Canon of course it's Canon this isn't new for Zelda games either I mean the Wind Waker and A Link to the Past both canonically happened within the Zelda Universe even though they were in completely different timelines so with all of that in mind we can deduce that the timeline that link just left behind when he played his song that timeline still exists and it's Canon and link is not there link left the characters who were just fearing for their lives didn't just reset or travel back in time alongside link no in these timelines link ran out of time each and every time that link played the song to take him back to the dawn of the first day he left a canonical new version of termina a new one created every time he played that song completely defenseless and without a hero face the Moon falling down onto the world each of these worlds completely without a hero [Music] [Music] so it's worth mentioning that this scenario can only be made possible by the most unique feature in Majora's Mask the time mechanic so down here in the bottom of the game's UI is a clock it changes colors based on the current speed of time and displays which part of the day the player is currently on this is the most important piece of the game's UI because the entire game is built around this mechanic every single day comes with its own possibility and if we peel back the fourth wall a little bit and look at the game's development we can actually see that in the real world this mechanic came about through a sense of desperation a well-known fact about Majora's Mask is that it was created in just over a year after the game's director ajiao Numa took on The Challenge from Shigeru Miyamoto to develop a new Zelda game in record time the only real assistance being that alnuma could recycle the assets from Ocarina of Time however even with the assets already accounted for completing the development of such an ambitious game in just a year was an impossible task but still it was a task that must be done Uma got to work and began casting out pieces of the game's Foundation author of The non-fiction retrospective book titled The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask Gabe Durham describes one of the most important decisions made by alnuma in this early stage of development overwhelmed our Numa reached out to one of his fellow Ocarina directors yoshiaki koizumi was already in the early stages of designing an exciting new board game about cops trying to catch robbers in a limited amount of time one where as aonuma put it you would play in a compact game world over and over again however al-numa pitched the new Zelda game to him anyways koizumi replied that he'd work on the new Zelda game only if you let me do whatever I want al-numa agreed and thus the time mechanic was born expanding off of the Ocarina of Time day and night cycle the new three-day clock in the bottom of the screen would dictate everything happening at any given time in the lane of termina not only that but because of this mechanic there now existed a deadline not a very strict one for a link but an all-important one for everybody else the clock began to tick meaning that link had to act immediately it's almost poetic then that the dev team struggled with a very similar challenge with the gamecube's debut swiftly approaching and the watchful eye of Miyamoto anxious to watch how Numa rise to the challenge the game's deadline was non-negotiable in an extreme crunch the team was under immense pressure to get the game finished weddings were spent discussing plot points for the game developers often pulled all-nighters at the office and famously aounuma himself began having nightmares about the game some of which even finding themselves recreated through cutscenes in the game the incredible sense of urgency and stress that the developers felt as they were developing the game no doubt made its way into the game's theme and tone and atmosphere I mean it's a game about completing a Monumental task in an extremely short amount of time just like the story of how the game was made the team was desperate to finish the game just like link was desperate to save the world of termina from certain Doom as quickly as possible this complemented by the game's already eerily unsettling plot and tone creates a very powerful gameplay experience urgency and Dread are the two most prominent emotions associated with Majora's Mask and because of this time mechanic a lot of first-time players it's a very common complaint you know a lot of times they'll say something along the lines of oh well the game seemed like a lot of fun but it was just too stressful for me I always felt like I was running out of time I always felt like I couldn't just do what I wanted to and that's completely Fair everybody is entitled to their own opinions games are meant to be fun but I would also argue that that is the point of the game the time mechanic is meant to unnerve the player when we are first introduced to the clock in the bottom of the screen the game makes no indication whatsoever that we may be able to rewind time back to the start of the first day as a result it really does feel like at least at first that the player is meant to beat the entire game within three in-game days which is 54 minutes if you don't slow down time now again for most players this is not possible but the players just meant to figure it out you know beat this game right now else [Music] so I think it's safe to say that we found our answer what makes Majora's Mask the famous darkest Zelda game like why do so many people associate this game with fear and dread and helplessness and horror and existentialism well the answer is the three day cycle it's the thread that binds all of those emotions to the core of the game I mean let's imagine without the time limit without the three-day cycle Majora's Mask is just like any other Zelda game I mean sure the Moon is gonna fall at some point if link doesn't do something about it but he also doesn't have to do that now he can go fishing or shoot some octaroks or whatever the heck he wants to do before he bothers with the main quest I mean come on he's the hero of time he can do what he wants but that's not the case the time mechanic is in the game and the link cannot afford to waste any time the player cannot afford to waste any time all of these wonderfully expressive and memorable characters that the player has come to know will meet their fate if link takes too long to save them the more times that link is forced to turn back the clock the more alternate yet Canon universes are created in which the hero disappears at the most desperate hour thus dooming the land and allowing the fiery apocalypse to consume termina the three-day cycle is the heart of Majora's Mask and it is a Cold Black Heart it's what sets the game apart from every other Zelda game it is Majora's Mask the three-day cycle is what makes Majora's Mask the darkest Zelda game [Music] and that's gonna do it for this video guys listen I've had a lot of fun looking into all this Majora's Mask is my favorite game of all time and it's also the first game that I ever played as a three-year-old couldn't read still playing Zelda I was running around Clock Town talking to the characters uh scared of the enemies I didn't leave Clock Town I just talked to the characters I couldn't read you see what I'm getting at here I was just running the link around talking to people pretending like in my mind what they were saying and I've been playing the game ever since and listen this game Majora's Mask has such a huge place in my heart and I know it does for so many other people as well and I'm really happy that I was able to make my first video essay on this channel about Majora's Mask because I love that game and I love video essays and I'm really excited to start this Channel and to keep moving forward thank you guys so much for watching there will be more content coming very shortly and I hope that you all have a great day yeah um like comment subscribe if you want if you don't want to don't you know but if you do want to it would help me out a lot because I am a brand new channel and once again I just want to thank you for watching my video and I hope that everything is peachy keen I hope that the moon doesn't fall down on you I'm just rambling at this point I'm just talking to you words flying at you a million miles a minute right at this point I'm just patting for tons and that's not what I'm trying to do so I will see you later bye [Music]

Channel: SkippyMcdoo

Views: 7,335

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Id: RJzg9ecj_HU

Length: 36min 55sec (2215 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2023