Why Majora's Mask is My Favorite Work of Art Ever Made

it means another whole year of birthday school [Music] funding for shaperless is provided by surfsharkvpn tune until the end to find out about their amazing service once in a blue moon we all come across that one work of art that completes us that book film show or game that plays into all our sensibilities and experiences leaving a profound impact on our lives as a result sometimes it takes years to discover that piece of art and you wonder where it's been all your life the search for that beloved and invaluable piece of art can take you to many unexpected places it can find you when you least expect it to i was 13 and just starting to get interested in nintendo as a whole most of the credit for this interest goes to two things first super smash bros brawl which gave me a taste of a wide array of gaming worlds i knew nothing about mario was the only thing here i was incredibly familiar with but i wanted to expand my nintendo knowledge so desperately the second thing keeping my nintendo obsession thriving was hey everybody it's sugarcon or seriously i can't overstate how integral chugga conroy was in terms of getting me hooked on a variety of franchises such franchises include pikmin mother pokemon and most significantly of all zelda summer of 2011 was dominated by watching suga's wind waker let's play and getting so intrigued by this cel-shaded adventure skyward sword was the first zelda i played when i asked for it that christmas but wind waker was technically my first zelda experience even if i wasn't playing it but in between these two events was something far more significant the thing that truly cemented my zelda obsession and made me fall in love with the series as a whole on september 30th 2011 chugga kicked off his let's play of the legend of zelda majora's mask i quickly became enamored with nearly every aspect of this game its gripping time mechanic its dark themes its wonderful characters and its exhilarating story by the time the let's play came to a close in early december i knew i needed to play this game and fully experience it for myself but problem i only had a wii and while majora's mask was available on the wii through the virtual console service i needed two things in order to access it a classic controller and an internet connection since all i had was a pile of wii remotes and my mother didn't believe in wi-fi for some reason i accepted the fact that i wouldn't be playing it for a while and asked for the shiny new zelda game oh excuse me the shiny new zelda game that had just come out for christmas and don't get me wrong i love the skyward sword they don't call it baby's first action adventure game for nothing but i really wanted majora's mask back in my life man my brother got a ds for christmas which we probably traded in for a 3ds picking up ocarina of time 3d in early january that was obviously excellent but it's one of those games that didn't fully click with me until i was a little older it just still wasn't the same as having majora's mask in my hands but then later that same january 2012 a miracle one of my friends got mario kart wii and asked if we could play online to which i asked my mom gee i don't know can we play online and she said okay i got my ace in the hole baby online connection secured finally later that month we went to the mall and i came prepared with just enough money to buy a classic controller and 2 000 wii points majora's mask was mine [ __ ] i got home to finally play it and it was the greatest gaming experience of my entire life the ability to manipulate time the pressure to plan the most effective schedule possible the fantastic complex dungeons the chance to form bonds with these characters i only watched on screen before after a single playthrough i had deemed the legend of zelda majora's mask to be my favorite video game of all time and after eight years after seeing the wide array of games the entire industry had to offer after getting engrossed by metroid pikmin animal crossing xenoblade kid icarus fire emblem splatoon earthbound uncharted kingdom hearts the last of us spider-man celeste near automata resident evil metal gear solid knack even my beloved persona to this day none of these can even come close to my passion for the legend of zelda majora's mask why do you suppose that is well let's explore that shall we i've been teasing this video for years ever since my ocarina of time review coinciding with the game's 20th anniversary in late 2018. i've put this video off for so long because well it's just incredibly daunting to have to describe what i love about my favorite thing on planet earth but i'm gonna try my best and not be super formal with it since this is a wacky ass game so let us begin it is truly poetic that a game with mechanics revolving around time management and dealing with the constant pressure of getting stuff done under a looming clock was created by a team who had to prioritize time management and deal with the constant pressure of getting stuff done under a looming clock you all know the story by now the zelda team released ocarina of time the most acclaimed video game ever and this is how they reacted now what miyamoto figured i don't know let's follow this game up with a remixed version everything is the same except the dungeons are changed up onuma was like bro these dungeons we made are perfect that's not happening and miyamoto is like okay you dumb [ __ ] you can make a new zelda game but it has to be done in only one year bye and anumo was like [ __ ] but to be fair miyamoto and his buddy yoshiaki koizumi contributed a neat idea to the project a time loop mechanic where the player constantly rewound time in order to solve certain puzzles how numa and his team rolled with the concept as was the decision to reuse character models from ocarina in an effort to save development time despite this intense race against the clock they finished the game in time the story in this game's development is nearly as impressive as the game itself but that's just an abridged version of the events and truth be told it's not what i want to focus on for too long it's important to consider the context behind many of the design choices present within the game but overall i just want to take a look at what we got without really delving into the development history too terribly much it's not like i knew any of this history during my first few playthroughs anyway so the game starts out by recapping a certain legend of zelda specifically ocarina of time yep just a friendly reminder that you link are the hero of hyrule you kicked ganon's ass you restored balance to the world you are a legend and now you've quietly slipped away in search of an old friend a beloved and invaluable friend not exactly how i described navi but oh well the main takeaway from this opening text is that link is some pretty hot [ __ ] he overcame an insurmountable challenge in the form of his time travel battle with ganon and now nothing can stop him except this sneaky freak and his fairy friends yes link has just been mugged by the skull kid and i don't know about you boys but i for one was pretty freaked out by that pounding instrumentation and creepy laughs surrounding him it feels like a taste of something darker to come his two fairies argue and then he hijacks your horse now we finally have a chance to play his link again giving chase to this mischievous imp we do a few sick backflips and then uh oh a gigantic pit of doom a bunch of freaky faces what does it all mean is link dead probably not but it's fun to speculate after landing the ominous floating skull kid tells you that he got rid of your horse and then proceeds to do some spooky stuff to your face you're caught up in this real-life nightmare surrounded by deku scrubs unable to escape your terrible fate skull kid gave you the ugly one of those mean ass fairies hisses at you but then she gets separated from her brother and the skull kid and now all of a sudden she wants to work with you to get out of here yeah okay i'm never gonna help you actually i guess link doesn't talk so he can't object to this so it doesn't really care after a quick tutorial of how to fly around your new deku form and a quick look at this sad looking tree that may or may not be important we go through a twisted corridor as a new melody rings through our ears even more so than the great fall this twisted corridor signifies to me personally that we're not in hyrule anymore toto and this steel door closing behind you signifies that there's no going back nothing left to do but press on and find that mean old skull kid before you can leave however you're greeted by this [Music] the happy mask salesman is easily one of my favorite zelda characters if i had to pick any ocarina of time npc to center an entire new game around he would totally be my first pick it always felt like he knew more than he let on he always carried this insane air of mystery with him you see him as a child but he's completely absent from the world when you're an adult maybe he became one of these redheads in hyrule town oh oh wait no he's here during the credits well then where did he go during those seven years maybe he traveled to this strange new realm and hid out here who knows the mysteries keep piling up with this guy but the game smartly knows that it's better off keeping his backstory as a mystery it doesn't matter where he's from or who he is all that matters is that he can help you become human again but you need to get both your ocarina and his mask back within the next three days that's bizarre and ominous but okay looks like we don't have a choice and so we venture out into the unknown the first three days are an excellent way to ease the player into this unfamiliar setting they don't take too long to get through for returning players cough kingdom hearts 2 cough and they help newcomers adjust to the bizarre new world this game takes place in life kinda sucks as a deku scrub the guards won't let you out local business owners don't respect you enough to take your patronage doggos hate you you're powerless to stop crimes and these kids are just flat out racist this is a mess brother after ocarina of time put link to a harrowing adult experience this game knocks him down get it and it turns him into even more of a child than he was before accordingly you just kind of do childish things play hide and seek with the other kids check out their cool surreal colorful hideout help put big mama back together and get the power to shoot snot out of your hole all pretty whole some stuff oh brother this rather stinks still it's kind of weird right ocarina of time let you explore a neat tree-tastic dungeon almost right out of the gate and this game makes you do this kitty nonsense did anyone expect to be doing this stuff when they first booted up the game probably not it's almost as if your expectations have been subverted anyway let's talk about subverting expectations real quick i've come to realize over the years that one of the most brilliant things a sequel can do is subvert expectations and push the narrative in a really unexpected bold new direction i love the surprise direction metal gear solid 2 went in it's a major reason why i enjoyed its narrative so much in spite of some significant pacing issues and flaws i love the surprise direction the last of us too went in it's a major reason why i enjoyed its narrative so much in spite of some way more significant pacing issues and flaws i love the surprise direction the last jedi went in too bad canto bites sucks or i would have actually considered this one of the best star wars movies but i don't and it's not but like tons of people hate these sequels and the hate was especially strong when all of them first came out people don't like going in expecting one thing and getting something else completely different that was his great dare finish that sentence don't do it i'm sick of it people don't like bold creative decisions that they consider to be products of shock value and nothing more on the other hand tons of people adore these sequels they give them perfect 10 out of 10 scores and they think they're the holy grail of storytelling in their respective mediums which like sure if you think so yeah go ahead i'm not one to talk i'm in love with a game where you play as a tree for the first hour and play hide and seek with a bunch of rowdy kids i love this sequel to the most acclaimed video game of all time which sees its protagonist constantly beaten down and mentally scarred and generally in a much darker place than he was before i love it because it does something wildly different and doesn't try to be a bigger better version of its predecessor how do you top ocarina of time trick question you don't ganondorf was such an insurmountable threat to hyrule and trying to make him return as a bigger threat or just generally putting hyrule in some sort of jeopardy again would have been really lame it works for games that star different lengths and showcase different versions of hyrule but this link needs a more personal creative compelling thread in order to really justify this continuation to his story turning him into a helpless tree boy who's treated like a child in this town full of weirdos that's creative and compelling and it immediately hooks me into his story it's a risky decision that might alienate some people but it really works for me on a 10th playthrough yeah i want to skip it and get to the really good stuff but again it's important story-wise the town is still pretty charming and it's still not kingdom hearts 2 intro long good god it's a great intro to the game's world and story but you still wonder why the mass salesman needs this job done in 3 days can't you just take your time well as it turns out no no you can't maybe you didn't notice anything wrong until the dire music started kicking in on the third day maybe you walked in on a panic-filled meeting at the mayor's office maybe you gazed through the telescope as the game asked of you in order to progress or maybe before that you had the sudden inclination to gaze around in first person and then you looked up the game doesn't spoon feed information to you it doesn't point out the massive threat encroaching on the land of termina you need to discover it on your own at your own time and place and once you put the pieces together and realize that the moon's slow plummet is the cause of that pesky clock you realize just how bleak your adventure really is this revelation comes to a head when the clock tower finally opens up and the somber music comes pouring out this is it luigi it's time to do or die or else the entire town's gonna get destroyed or worse no best not to think about it after scaling the stairs of the clock tower tail presents you with a vague sort of quest something that can stop this nightmare perhaps who knows skull kid shuts tail down and proceeds to taunt you with the might of his massive round thing if it's something that could be stopped then just try to stop it bro i'm a tree person who can't even stop a thief hopped up on happy pills how am i supposed to stop this giant lunar travesty with a face well there's only one tool in our arsenal powerful enough to stop this the snot of justice ah damn it i lost it i lost it perfect don't pick that up hey don't pick that up okay i'm gonna pick it up so you get your ocarina back and reminisce on your time with princess zelda why not you got time yeah i've got time in this flashback zelda bids farewell to her champion and plays the song of time for him before he departs this is the only true piece of connective tissue between ocarina and majora and i honestly think that's for the best there is no narratively satisfying way to continue the story of child zelda or the triforce or hyrule for that matter so this brief cameo is the perfect little moment to have and to hold on to before the harsh reality sets back in you can't do anything to stop this you didn't have enough time unless yeah i've got time [Music] [Music] wow i can't believe that worked yep you're back at the dawn of the first day somehow and the happy mass salesman is finally able to restore you to your former glory all you need to do now is give him his mask oh [ __ ] let go of me oh my god yeah the happy mass salesman is a little bit cross with you i love how he manages to be creepy and funny at the same time it's great stuff but yes the beans have been spilled when slow majora's mask is a mysterious hexian artifact that the salesman went to great lengths to acquire however the skull kid knocked him the [ __ ] out man and stole it in order to cause mischief now we've got to try and get it back within the next three days and stop the moon from crashing into the earth and killing everyone how's that for a creative setup that raises the stakes over that of the original the thing with ocarina of time is that even though ganondorf rules the land the world is still semi-standing people are still alive you can still go fishing that's all that really matters but in majora the world will literally end you can reset things as many times as you like but you and everyone else in this world are never gonna see a new day after the third there's no time for fishing my boy except in the 3ds version you can fish there if you want but regardless even though it seems like there's less pressure from link's perspective since he can just keep resetting these three days as many times as he needs you as a player might have to grapple with the fact that you're actually failing to save the world again and again let's say you managed to somehow beat the game with only six time resets that's a pretty low impressive number but just so you know you have now created six alternate timelines all of which are the darkest timeline because everyone dies you manage to save the world and everyone goes on living in that seventh timeline you now live in but damn you really just failed everyone six other times you can subscribe to the theory that time is rewound every time link plays a song but i prefer the bleaker approach it makes more sense to me that the world continues to die over and over again so that's the effect the time limit has on link what about the player this is the real make or break element of majora's mask the one aspect of this game that causes people to either love it or hate it take a guess which side i fall on i am obsessed with time management nothing is more fun to me than figuring out the best strategy to make the most of a real life or in-game day when i go to new york city i'm like okay we can hit the nintendo world store the broadway musical bookstore the hamilton merch store and the shake shack before our 2 p.m broadway matinee plus all the places you want to go to insert friend who is here on the trip with me sound good cool cool cool i get everything i want to do done as efficiently as possible and the day feels exponentially more rewarding as a result and then there's video games who wants to play have you ever wondered why i'm so obsessed with pikmin to the point where it's my favorite nintendo franchise that isn't zelda or mario or smash simple it's the time management franchise every day in pikmin is so carefully plotted and i have so much fun getting as much done as possible i will never get tired of replaying these games because each playthrough is totally different depending on how much i can get done and then there's persona how many confidants can i rank up to the max before the game is over it's insanely fun to try and get as many as possible then get super frustrated when i got that rich girl from persona 4 up to rank 9 on the third to last playable day of school then had her not show up during the last two days are you kidding me but on each playthrough i get a little better at time management getting more stuff accomplished in shorter and shorter amounts of time is honestly an obsession of mine it is so much fun and the exact same principles apply to majora's mask doing as much as i can in a single three-day cycle choosing from an abundant list of side quests and making decisions about which ones i should prioritize and when it's just the most rewarding gameplay i've ever experienced it's also amazing from a story perspective since you get to experience the darkest part of the story over and over and see how it affects different characters seeing how things change for them in these last few hours depending on your interventions and realizing that no matter how much you try you can't save these people from their impending demise unless you follow tails cryptic advice and bring four of something back here looks like we don't have a choice so you set off on your adventure towards shrek swamp and oh a cutscene we get to see how tattle and tail befriended a lonely little skull kid who had been fighting with his friends this is just such an adorable scene that really makes you understand the tragedy of the skull kid he's not some evil warlord or phantom ganon menace we need to kill he's just a sad confused frightened child who was given a bit of warmth in his life and yet an unspeakable darkness called out to him it took hold of the weakness within his heart and convinced him he would not be satiated until he received true power and now it's up to you and tattle to work together and free the skull kid from the darkness that has consumed him no pressure anyway now comes the tricky part of the video my ocarina of time video was so straightforward and easy to write since all i had to do was talk about the main quest and how emotionally significant it was from a storytelling perspective majora's mask is nowhere near that simple since the emotional significance this game offers is divided between the main quest and the side quests and there's no obvious order to talk about these things in since there's no obvious order to complete main and side objectives in this game i guess we might as well pick up with the deceptively powerful main story later and for right now just take a look at this game's wide array of amazing characters [Music] majora's mask offers one of the most compelling and twisted settings in the entire zelda series and video games in general taking the established ocarina of time character models and putting them in a twisted bizarro alternate dimension was a stroke of brilliance seeing these familiar faces in wildly different roles is absolutely fascinating and unlike ocarina which mainly focused on the sages and your journeys with all of them this game focuses on the regular people of the world the one note characters who you only needed for a short quirky side quest here and there in the previous game here these characters have routines they have personalities they have interactions they have ambitions you spend a lot more time with them you see their plot lines intersect you see them in multiple different roles throughout the course of the game it's easy to simply boil majora's mask down to a series of fetch quests but that's not what this game is at all that's not what any zelda game is unless it's skyward swords majora's mask is about meeting helping and forming bonds with people nice it's the closest this series has gotten to the confidance and persona i adore the loving sisterly bond between romani and cremia the anguish of the postman and his inability to abandon his post the regret felt by camaro after he failed to share his art with the world the sorrow gorman experiences over his personal and work failures and the immensely powerful cafe and anju relationship that needs no introduction we'll get into these side quests more later let's just focus on the characters and how they distinguish themselves from their ocarina of time counterparts in my ocarina video i talked about how despite his childlike appearance this link was forced to experience the horrors of the adult world his childlike innocence is gone likewise the child like whimsy of the characters from ocarina is very rarely found in the world of termina a great example is the froggy choir look at them in ocarina of time hey we're the huge frogs the fabulous froggy tenors hooray let's eat some bugs you did great yippee now this is mod racing see this is some cute kitty stuff with the frogs then you go to termina and they're this refined choir who have been longing for spring to come again to the village in order to perform ah don juro it has been so long let us conduct our chorus but they're all spread out across the world some of them have even been turned into mini bosses you have to slay in the temples but once you reunite all five frogs and perform your refined world famous frog choir it feels significantly more rewarding than we froggy bug fun yay the ocarina frogs feel like cute npcs the majora frogs feel like real individuals with a history rooted in this world before you got here link has grown up and the people around him have grown up with him another example is anju you know why she's better written in majora because in ocarina she didn't even have a name she's been around since game five and she still doesn't have a name what it's hilarious go to her page on zelda wiki her name is kaku lady her purpose is to ask link to get her kakuz back and give him a bottle and then she juggles kakuz in the credits at the end such is the entire life of kaku lady meanwhile let's see what anju does in majora's mask according to zelda wiki leaves the kitchen to prepare granny's lunch argues with granny over her refusal to eat leaves granny after being unable to convince her to eat leaves argues with granny overall speaks with her mother about leaves granny after she has a life she has a tangible routine across the three days she has a best friend cremia she has a hilarious interaction with her grandma and an emotional breakdown with her mother both of which the game doesn't tell you about you have to find them yourself there is so much care and love put into turning these silly npcs into interesting relatable people here are some of my favorites kumei and kutake ganondorf's evil caretakers in ocarina of time have gone from bosses to friendly swamp workers that's bonkers the running man is a cute but pointless addition to ocarina now he's an integral npc as the postman in majora giving his running tendencies a clever new purpose maelon is seen as both a child and adult in ocarina and both character models are present here through romani and cremia meanwhile melon's father telon is now the super chill mr barten completely unrelated to the farm sisters ingo was split up into three identical brothers one of which became an entertainer while the other two got stuck with ranching duties and there's even some completely original npcs who aren't based off of ocarina time models like the homoerotic mountain smithies zubora and gabora and even [Music] okay so we're doing this now i think you guys know by now that my favorite works of art are the ones that can make me laugh and cry it takes skill to do either one but doing both in the span of the same work takes an exceptional creative vision i talked about it before in my disney renaissance ranking video movies with perfectly plotted narratives are great and all but if they give me an extra factor of fun then bada boom they are now one of my favorite pieces of fiction ever made majora's mask employs this technique to a t not only is it one of the funnest and funniest zelda games out there but it's just plain bonkers [Music] that's bonkers the weirdness just keeps coming and it won't stop coming and it won't stop coming and it won't stop coming and the living embodiment of this game's weirdness is its most recurring creation tingle yes this is the game that invented tingle and i think he's emblematic of every strength this game has first of all he's weird look at him he's not he doesn't fit in i mean why does he wear that stupid hat that's weird that was in the script i just i just put that in just now improvising let me let me start that over that's oh god first of all he's weird look at him what the hell is even that he's a 35 year old man who dresses up in a green skin-tight leotard with red underwear on the outside and he desperately craves a fairy godparent of his own he does a little song and dance routine and then tells you that you'll get in legal trouble if you copy his valuable intellectual property whatever that means okay so the character designer said all right we got this weirdo map seller npc now we just plop him into random spots in the overall and call it a day right you fools he's gonna blow up his big red balloon that matches his panties and he's gonna float in mid-air you gotta shoot him to get his patronage that's insane [Music] don't drown he's also related to this random swamp tour guide picture contest man dude you can get a piece of heart from this guy by showing him a picture of the deku king or a picture of tingle not only does this offer some freedom of choice to the player but it gives you a nice wholesome character moment you might not see even if you do 100 this game okay but as if tingle wasn't weird enough there is a hand in the toilet that asks you for paper what does it need paper for who knows it's a mystery but you give it paper and it rewards you with a piece of heart that fell into the toilet implying that somebody shot out a quarter of their heart what anyway toilet hand was such a good character that skyward sword stole the concept and while that game fleshed out its toilet hand side quest much more i don't know i think i prefer the majora version skyward sword has a pretty clear-cut toilet hand it's a ghost that haunts the toilet got it but what the hell is even this is it a ghost is it a zombie is it a horrifying genetic experiment the ocean lab guy created before realizing his work was never intended to be seen by mortal eyes and fleshing his life's work down the drain as a result i don't know and i love not knowing the mysteries of this game continue to pile up but leaving them is just that mysteries is so much more engaging they don't need to be explained for the narrative to work they just exist it seems like there's always some new secret conversation i didn't know about if i talk to a certain person wearing a certain mask at a certain time the attention to detail is outstanding and honestly far exceeds any other game i've played i would go over all of them but i don't have infinite time and i should probably talk about the main story itself pretty soon with that said here's a part of the video dedicated exclusively to empty bottles [Music] let's talk about the greatest weapon in zelda history and the immense amount of reverence this game has for it that's right i'm talking about the empty bottle empty bottles are a godsend in zelda games you can store fairies potions bugs fish soup milk etc the game really starts to open up once you grab the first of these useful multi-purpose items but any zelda gamer worth their salt knows the true value of this little thing you can actually combat lightning bolts from ganondorf the king of evil using your empty bottle some people say it works even better than the sword this works both in ocarina of time and wind waker which is insane this glass jar is truly the gift that keeps on giving now majora's mask being as meta as it is knows exactly what it has here first of all this glorious gift from the goddesses is given a multiplier of six in your item storage by the end of the game most zelda games are content with giving you four bottles but in majora enough is never enough six bottles baby and in the 3ds version they decide to go higher now you get seven bottles in my many playthroughs of the 3ds version i've never had the need for the seventh bottle but let me put it this way there's still less bottles in majora's mask 3d than there are fire emblem characters in smash so i think we're good bottles are important in this game i mean you got the zora eggs to collect and the bottom of the well and all that but whatever we're not talking about that because i don't care we're talking about how this game treats bottles within the text of the world itself termina reveres bottles and i think that's hilarious there are some bottles gotten from traditional organic means like getting medicine to take the kumei and keeping the bottle afterwards or getting a bottle of gold dust for winning the goron race but then there's the graveyard and the beavers on the night of the final day you and dampe go grave digging to search for a legendary treasure left behind by the royal family you dig up the dutchman's treasure fight a big poe and bada boom chest inside lies an empty bottle indicating that the akana royal family treasured their empty bottle so dearly that they took it to their grave this is the kind of bonkers implication that majora's mask leaves you with and yet it fits right into the menotextual treatment of a bottle's role in society look no further than the beavers for proof they explicitly state that they revere empty bottles as a treasure and refuse to relinquish it to mikao moreover the implication that mikao has been here before desperately trying to win this coveted empty bottle is just hysterical it fits perfectly into our meta-textual understanding about the value of an empty bottle in a zelda game something zelda npcs typically don't realize because to them these are just regular old bottles right but we the players know better and for the first time in zelda history the game knows better there have been a lot of accusations flung around that onuma didn't understand the appeal of the original game when crafting the remake and i think the strongest piece of evidence towards this argument is the empty bottle in the graveyard being replaced with a measly piece of heart wait a minute you already get a piece of heart from the graveyard on the second night now there's just another piece of heart here on the final night that's really boring but i guess aonuma really didn't understand the implications of the original work i'd like to think that the empty bottle being placed in the royal family's tomb a place where dante speaks of a legendary treasure was not in oversight by the original developers i'm pretty sure it was a conscious decision that onuma just forgot but it's wildly disappointing in the remake nonetheless the bottle is moved to be the reward for kumei and kotake's shooting challenge but really why do these characters need to give you two bottles that just kind of makes the world feel a little smaller and a bit less creative overall i really like the 3ds version of majora and replay it more often than the original due to its convenient new features but it's changes like this that stopped me from calling this the definitive version of majora's mask the n64 version still has a fond place in my heart and it's not because of the bottles or the swimming controls or the save system that was weirdly archaic and bizarre in the original getting replaced with an actually functional one which some people complain about which like really i get the appeal of the original save system and how it makes the game feel more immersive but the new system is an amazing change this is like complaining about the special edition of empire strikes back replacing this monstrosity with the actual emperor like at some point you have to swallow your pride and admit that some re-release changes are genuinely really good anyway what was i talking about oh yeah the n64 version one thing the original has that the 3ds version could never top is the visuals majora's mask has honestly been enhanced by its outdated creepy n64 visuals which feels weird to say but there's an element of horror that comes into play here solely based on the uncanny n64 models ocarina of time has this benefit over its 3ds counterpart as well with a real air of creepiness to the locations and enemies that are meant to be creepy the trade-off however is that the og ocarina of time kinda looks like ass like i'll take the 3ds version any day the only thing it really ruins is the final boss which is kind of important sure but at least the rest of the journey looks visually stunning meanwhile majora's mask on n64 always looks significantly better to me than ocarina of time the expansion pack really paid off here with some great dingy textures complementing the oppressive feel of termina everything from the deformed character models to the much scarier moon to the final hours having a blue morning sky that contrasts so eerily with the destruction of the world i love the red sky they used in the 3ds version it's probably better overall but there's something about the juxtaposition between the bright sky and the impending lunar destruction in the original that's so subtly horrific another amazing element of this game is the sound design the music is so melancholy and gives off such a strong sense of remorse and decay but everyone knows how good the music is everyone talks about it no one really talks about the game's sound effects however specifically the ones you hear at the end of the text boxes there's something about that jingle that sounds so sullen and sorrowful and it accompanies some of the more tragic moments in the story very nicely it just fits the game's oppressive atmosphere so well there's a lot of other great atmospheric sound effects like the nighttime ambiance sounds the mechanical noise is a great bay temple and tattle's ringing sound that always keeps me on alert and doesn't make me want to kill myself like navi's voice did you shut the [ __ ] up you shut the [ __ ] up you shut the [ __ ] up i hope you die in a fire my favorite sound effect in the game by far is the jingle that plays when you collect a mask [Music] there's a reason this sound effect plays every time we get to number one in any countdown i make it's just this perfect warmly triumphant sound that makes you feel immensely satisfied i adore it sorry i got a little sidetrack there i should have been talking about empty bottles the part of the game that's actually important but i think i'm done with that part now it's time to talk about something less important like the main quest with all this great side stuff that fleshes out the world and makes it feel more real it's easy to get a little distracted from the main quest which is a shame because this main quest is fantastic there are only four main dungeons in this game sure but considering the fact that three of these four dungeons are bangers on top of the game having so many side objectives that you want to pursue it's hardly a major issue anyway the truly amazing thing about majora's mask is that you can pinpoint the exact moment when the game goes from good to great the sequence for the game transcends being a mere fun experience and becomes art but before we get to that let me walk you through the story where we left it off link's first destination is the shrek in the swamp karaoke dance party where he has to do some pretty childish things pretend to be this deku kid hang out with some monkeys and rescue a princess from a dungeon this first area feels like a simple low stakes kitty adventure just like the first three dungeons in ocarina of time it takes the immense pressure of the impending lunar collision off your shoulders with a pretty simple dungeon and a pretty basic objective you have no real responsibility you're just doing this fun kitty adventure where you stuff the princess in a bottle somehow and give her back to her father who i always imagine is having king julien's voice for some reason i guess all over the world original king julien what a kiss man so yeah goofy kitty fun maybe this adventure won't be so dark after all then you get to the second area the mountain village it's been frozen over and the gorons living here are doomed to freeze to death and after acquiring the lens of truth which lets you see the unseeable you notice a ghostly goron floating nearby you follow him up a mountain to his grave and it's here where he tells you his story how he darmani iii great hero of the gorons perished while trying to drive off a demon and end the eternal winter it's truly tragic in ocarina of time the sages were only maybe dead it wasn't confirmed but here this man lost his life in battle expressing his regrets and then proceeding to ask you to bring him back to life or at the very least heal his sorrows and so you used that song the happy mast salesman taught you to drive those sorrows away this wonderful moment where we see darmani tear up as he reflects on his status as a hero and all the people he's inspired gets me every time this is the moment where the game grows up and becomes something more than a fun dark adventure it's a story about legacy about the part of you that sticks around even after you're gone this isn't just link's quest anymore he carries the regrets of darmani with him he becomes dharmani using the goron mask in an effort to fulfill darmani's last request and restore spring to the village and he continues to fulfill the last wishes of the dead as he progresses through each area the responsibilities gradually pile up and become more serious as the main quest progresses link starts out with a very simple goal help a monkey save a princess he has no real role to play in this story he's just a helpful kid but with snow head he is now thrust into the role of a war hero who must save the goron people from freezing to death it's a pretty heavy burden but then again it's not like this is link's first goron saving rodeo he's played the role of a hero to these people before well the next area thrusts him into a new role that of a father trying to save his kidnapped offspring the legendary zora guitarist mikao tried to save the eggs laid by his girlfriend lulu only to get cut down by pirates you carry out his last request as well masquerading as him and using his abilities to progress i haven't discussed the transformation masks yet since i wanted to wait until this story discussion but obviously they add a ton of fun from a gameplay standpoint i probably spend more time as a goron than i do as a human because it's insanely fun to roll around the world and punch the [ __ ] out of enemies zoro swimming is great as well and while i'm not angry with the swimming change in the 3ds version like a lot of other people i'm not thrilled with it either but anyway after a couple hours with both of these fun as hell transformation masks it's easy to forget just how dark the circumstances were when you got them how these masks are the husks of once renowned legends and how even though you're pretending to be them now they suddenly won't be around anymore once your quest ends and you leave this land it's sad that you have to do this to darmani and macau's loved ones but it's the only way to save this land darmani and mikao's last wishes have been fulfilled and peace has been returned to their homes for the time being ikana kingdom wasn't so lucky everyone in this land has long since died out with a lone researcher and his daughter being the only living residence unfortunately the dead here cannot rest due to a curse cast by the skull kid they linger here as ghosts and skeletons awaiting the one who can break the curse and let their souls rest majora's mask is one of those rare games that works on a perfect upward trajectory of quality only getting richer and more compelling with each new area the tremendous sense of remorse you feel from the dead from the royal composer brothers to the famed captain kita to the king of ikana himself speaks volumes even the living here are suffering as the researcher has succumbed to the curse of the mummified gibdo becoming one himself as his daughter watches in horror as you plunge further and further into the depths of this horrific land you carry the weight of your promises to the dead upon your shoulders with everything culminated in the intimidating stone tower temple majora's mask may only have four dungeons with one of them being pretty basic and unremarkable but the remaining three are all time greats snow head has unforgettable music and a pristine atmosphere plus it makes excellent use of the goron form and includes a fun tower you get to level with your punches great bait temple has such a unique vibe to it and i love the puzzles that require you to switch the water directions in order to access new areas a lot of people seem to hate this temple but the same goes for the water temple and i already expressed how much i love that place so did you really expect me to trash great bay and finally stone tower temple just brings the house down definitely one of my top three favorite zelda dungeons ever the idea of a dungeon that gets flipped upside down constantly is just too good to pass up i love the atmosphere here and i always look forward to beating this temple in particular every time i replay the game each dungeon sufficiently increases in terms of challenge to go along with the stakes growing higher and i especially love the added challenge of finding stray fairies a couple of them are [ __ ] but for the most part it really enhances my trek through these temples and i wish more zelda games would hide optional collectibles in dungeons but yeah that's the main quest of majora's mask a gradual descent into darkness with the responsibilities and pressures continuing to pile up on top of link as the game goes along it manages to raise the stakes from link's previous adventure and tell an entirely new story about him growing up from a lowly deku child stuck in clock town to a renowned goron hero to a proud zora father to a literal giant during the battle with twin mold it's quite an exceptional transformation and yet there's still one more looming threat that needs to be taken care of with the might of the four giants behind you it's finally time to take the fight to the skull kid or is it we better make sure there's no loose ends first as a kid i always had to 100 my zelda games on each new playthrough i needed every piece of heart i needed to see everything the game had to offer yes that includes getting the entire pictograph collection of wind waker shut up i do what i want nowadays with limited time on my hands and limited motivation to spend too much time on one game in particular when i've got a massive backlog to get through i usually just focus on beating the main quest with a decent amount of side quests here and there i don't need every heart piece every sculptural token every god forsaken peace a korok feces i'm perfectly content with beating the final boss and moving on majora's mask is the one exception this is the only game i've ever played where i feel like if i don't 100 it i'm not playing it correctly every single side quest in this game feels meaningful and i think the reason why is the rewards you get both intrinsic and extrinsic for completing everything the extrinsic rewards are the game's main collectibles the masks some enhance your gameplay some are just there to look pretty and some are just bizarre still it's fun to collect them all over the course of the game and you'll need every single one in order to get the ultra powerful fierce deities mask to the average player it's certainly worth doing it's also fun to fill out the bomber's notebook especially the expanded one in the 3ds version keeping track of all the major npcs routines over the course of the three days is just inherently interesting and it's super fun to get every entry filled in it's a nice extrinsic reward but with these extrinsic rewards comes an even greater intrinsic reward the satisfaction you get by helping people majora's mask is captivating because it makes me want to help every single person in this land because they feel real they express their dreams and desires to you they react realistically to the impending apocalypse some solemnly accept their fate while others cower in fear you often encounter these people at their lowest points only to rescue them from the brink of despair and provide them these precious short moments of happiness and the happiness of these people is reflected in the masks they give you so that even when you reset time and undo the good deeds you did for them you still carry their happiness with you a tangible reminder that yes you made a difference despite the fact that you're the only one who remembers it you gave the postman's life meaning again and got his hat you saved cremia from bandits and received proof of her respect and admiration for you you moved gorman to tears and got an everlasting symbol of this moment you vowed to carry out the last requests of darmani mikau camaro and keita wearing their faces in an effort to fill their final dreams you spent three days helping a couple who had everything stacked against them desperately trying to reunite them before they both perish only to watch them finally come together again mere hours before the end of the world and receiving a pure everlasting symbol of their love while many side quests and majora's mask are simple from a gameplay standpoint the stories they tell and the emotional impact they leave the player with are what truly enhance them and make them some of the most powerful experiences in gaming history completing them makes me feel such a warm tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction and when you take these engaging and tremendously powerful stories featuring npcs that feel like real people add in some incredibly fun and varied gameplay mechanics like goron rolling and zoro swimming provide some exceptionally captivating and complex dungeons to explore and drop the entire package under a three-day time limit that not only throws an amazing real-time strategy element into the mix but also adds one of the most oppressive dark and rich atmospheres ever seen in gaming history is it any wonder why this is my favorite piece of media ever made it plays to every single one of my sensibilities and it's impossible to quantify just how much i adore it it's also impossible to fully comprehend how incredible this game is just by hearing me talk about it or even by watching a let's play it needs to be played to be believed the final area is a perfect eerie cap off to the game its world and its story but in case someone inexplicably made it this far into the video without having played the game i won't spoil it for you but i'm still gonna talk about this part of the game are you kidding me skip to this time frame to avoid spoilers three two one pikmin so you go to confront the skull kid with the help of the four giants you awoke in each of the game's four regions it's a surprisingly somber moment given the fact that you're saving the world but that's the magic of this game the ambiguous feelings it leaves you with at nearly every turn the giants are saving the planet but as you learn from andrew's grandmother in an optional side story the giants probably feel a great deal of remorse that they have to challenge the skull kid who used to be their friend but they have a duty to protect this land even from him and after stopping the moon dead in his tracks it looks like everything is finally gonna go back to normal oh my god yeah the mask is alive and after imparting some genuinely chilling words it vamooses into the now gaping mouth of the moon as if this thing couldn't get any more nightmare inducing the batshit insane music here is just the cherry on top of this horrific sundae well nowhere left to go except inside the moon to defeat majora once and for all as i said about a minute ago this game thrives on ambiguous situations joy and sorrow come together in a number of instances all throughout the story and here this serene field with a single tree is both peaceful and eerie how does such a place exist inside this does it even matter here you can throw your masks away by talking to these mysterious lunar children and completing their little challenges all while they ask you some thought-provoking questions about friendship i'm not going to speculate on who these children are or what they represent because i think the mysteries behind this game are better left as just that mysteries this game gives you so much to think about and leaves all of it open to your interpretation and imagination subsequent zelda games have acknowledged majora's mask through little easter eggs or cameos here and there but no game since has ever tried to address or explain majora's events and i wouldn't have it any other way i think it's just inherently fun to wonder and speculate about what transpired in termina before link got here tons of people have their own different interpretations of the world and story and that makes discussing this game in particular way more interesting than discussing other zelda games or other games in general anyway the lonely majora's mask wearing kid invites you to play with or without the fierce deities mask depending on if you collected and gave away your other masks this leads into a truly spectacular final boss fight unless you use the fierce idiot's mask then it's kind of a joke but otherwise majora is creepy imposing difficult and the perfect surreal psychedelic cap off to this weird dark game after landing the finishing blow the moon is defeated and the world returns to normal nature is healing god those words are so satisfying anyway the skull kid finally reconciles with his old friends the giants plus he reconciles with you as well while implying that he's the same skull kid from ocarina of time the happy mass salesman comes across as a little disappointed that the evil has left majora's mask bringing his true intentions in the question as he promptly moves on from that point he bids farewell and imparts some words of wisdom onto link and then poof and with that not only is the land of termina free but so is link he can now continue his quest to find his beloved and invaluable friends after getting sidetracked for quite some time he hops on a pona and rides off though apparently he doesn't quite leave right away since he and his new zora buddies still have a gig these credits are absolutely magical showcasing these people you've grown so attached to over the course of the game living out their lives finally it's not quite as masterful as the ocarina of time credits and ending but it didn't need to be obviously it's not as grand or swelling because that's not the kind of game this is it's a humble peaceful ending for a game so shrouded in darkness and despair until now it's exactly the kind of catharsis we needed in an ending sequence my favorite part among many amazing ones has to be finally witnessing cafe and anju's wedding after you've struggled alongside them in their relationship being broken by the weight of the impending apocalypse finally we see the ultimate payoff for ourselves even if we don't see adult cafe himself cut them some slack do you really think they had time to make another character model for this one scene the dawn of the final day of production was fast approaching but yeah it seems like everyone got a happy ending oh wait no not everyone they're still the butler from the deku palace grieving over the twisted tree we saw at the very beginning of the game he mentioned at one point that he hasn't seen his son in a while and the deku mask is a transformation mask just like the masks that house the spirits of the deceased darmani and macau all these pieces come together here and it's really heartbreaking even after everything link did all the effort he put into helping as many people as possible ultimately he couldn't save everyone and thus we see him solemnly ride off into the forest never to be seen alive again but at least we have this wholesome little stump drawing after going on about majora's mask for this long i still feel like i've only scratched the surface of what i wanted to say about this game my adoration for it is really that expansive but i have to stop sometime because i could literally go on about it for months no other piece of media has ever felt this special to me it's something so grand and bold yet so personal and intimate there's simply no other experience quite like it even within its own franchise as i get older my love for it grows more and more and i hope i convey that love well enough in this insanely long video that took two years of on and off writing to complete it's hard to believe this game has been around for 20 years now and even harder to believe that i wasted half my life not knowing about it but now i have it in my life and i highly recommend playing it as long as you're pretty confident with zelda games since maybe this shouldn't be your first one try wind waker that's a good first zelda game maybe when wind waker turns 20 i'll be forced to make an analysis video on that game oh [ __ ] wait no no no don't hold me to that no please anyway though that's about it now i'm gonna go replay majora's max for the third time this year and hopefully get it done before pikmin 3 deluxe comes out okay bye and now a word from our sponsor i would think of a clever transition but i don't really have time i'm fighting georg right now and he's kicking my ass so let's just cut straight to surfsharkvpn an incredible product that encrypts your data and protects you online surfsharkvpn allows you to access geo-restricted content meaning you can trick your browser into thinking you're in another country thus allowing you to access content you couldn't get otherwise that way you don't have to physically travel to another country to watch 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Channel: Schaffrillas Productions

Views: 316,145

Rating: 4.9572372 out of 5

Keywords: Schaffrillas Productions, Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda, Zelda, Nintendo, Moon, Skull Kid, Happy Mask Salesman, Link, Majora

Id: 722oALnco_0

Length: 57min 57sec (3477 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 26 2020