I’ll confess: I’ve never beaten a single Zelda game in my life. Sure, I grew up a Nintendo kid playing almost nothing but Mario and Pokemon, but for some reason I never really felt enticed to give Nintendo’s most critically acclaimed series a serious shot. I’ve tried out the opening hours of Wind Waker (something that I desperately need to finish one of these days) and have played plenty of scattered hours of Ocarina of Time at a friend’s house, and yet it wasn’t enough considering the series has eluded me until now. So, it felt like a solid challenge to cap off 2023, given my recent run with time loop adventure games… and that poyfuh recommended the game to me over a year ago. It took a while to muster up the commitment, but I finally got there! Feel free to take my readings here with a grain of salt given my lack of nostalgia for Zelda, but hopefully I can bring something different to the table by focusing on what impact it had upon a relative newcomer.

For lack of better words, The Legend of Zelda is an adventure game series. Maybe the adventure game series. Quite a few good friends and users I closely follow have commented about how Zelda is really a mish-mosh of different genres, which in essence forms the adventure game. Innuendo Studios has defined this as “games that tell stories using puzzles,” though this is a very loose definition as both narratives and puzzles take many different forms. Essentially, the genre has become a blanket term that has come to incorporate many different types of games. Zelda, as the platonic encapsulation of adventure games, has as a result, come to include many different types of genre-specific gameplay in one cohesive product. To sum this up, here’s a bit that I’ve jokingly brought up with friends: every game is basically Zelda, because Zelda is basically every game.

What I’m trying to say here, is that Majora’s Mask, much like the rest of Zelda, is not so much about any one single game mechanic so much as the coalescence of them all. No one particular element is going to stand out as exceptional because many games before and after have surpassed them, but the whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts. Much like how a classic adventure game is a fusion of different game mechanics, Majora’s Mask focuses on the intersection of different narratives and activities to evoke “the adventurer’s spirit.” It’s very easy to be critical of specific mechanics and ideas presented within the game in isolation (and I absolutely will be due to my point of reference), but they nevertheless come together to create a game unlike any other.

I suppose the easiest way to explain the premise of Majora’s Mask is to describe it as a cross between a metroidvania (item/ability gating) and a mystroidvania (knowledge gating). The time loop facilitates both of these aspects: as Link repeats the three-day cycle to gather information regarding Termina’s workings, he also gains new key items (both classic Zelda tools like the Hookshot and masks to wear/transform), learns new songs for his ocarina, and gains access to new areas and allies that can further aid his progress. The pressing issue then, is that Majora’s Mask doesn’t fully lean into the strengths of either genre.

Majora’s Mask feels underwhelming when compared to traditional metroidvanias, because key items feel underutilized. Much of this is due to the lock-and-key nature of the puzzles. Classic Zelda games focused on items with multiple facets via both dealing damage in fights and traversal/exploration: one classic example is the hookshot, which can let Link grapple up towards wooden surfaces/chests while also acting as a ranged weapon capable of pulling items and enemies towards him. However, Majora’s Mask focuses on the collection of masks as the vast majority of key items, and most are used for one exact situation (i.e. Don Gero’s mask lets you talk to frogs) and nothing else. Additionally, the masks aren’t very balanced in terms of utility, as some masks are useless once obtained (i.e. the Troupe Leader’s mask) while some are so conventionally strong that you’ll be constantly relying upon them (i.e. the Bunny Hood increases Link’s running speed and agility, so it’s a godsend for general traversal and boss fights).

On the other hand, Majora’s Mask also feels a little lacking as a mystroidvania, because there’s relatively little observation involved when compared to similar titles. The Bomber’s Notebook is your main tool is your main tool to keep track of everyone’s schedules across the three-day time loop, but it’s a bit limited in scope. There’s only twenty inhabitants recorded with schedules, and of those twenty, at least a fourth of them can be stamped as resolved by simply speaking to them once at the right time with the right item/mask. In fact, there’s only two side-questlines that force Link to commit to strict and specific time limits across the three-day cycle (Kafei and the main Romani Ranch quest). As a result, completing the Bomber’s Notebook is surprisingly straightforward, and usually doesn’t require more than one iteration of the time loop to follow and solve each case, given that Link has the appropriate items on hand when necessary.

That's not to say that the time loop is a net negative in the scope of Majora’s Mask, but rather that in comparison to other time loop games since then, it doesn’t capitalize as much in its execution. For example, there is very little usage of the time loop in regards to its four main dungeons. As Scamsley has pointed out, the presence of a time loop should lend naturally to speedrunning (via both knowledge gating to clear the dungeon faster with skips and ability-gating to use obtained items for shortcuts), but this is more or less made redundant by beating the dungeon’s boss, as the game is content giving you a direct teleport to refight dungeon bosses in subsequent resets instead. Additionally, almost all of the time-sensitive content is located within Clock Town; while it’s quite satisfying figuring out how schedules play out in the main hub, it feels like a squandered opportunity to not include enough specifically timed events elsewhere to fully utilize the three-day cycle. The presence of owl statues throughout the map sort of speaks to this; rather than have the player spend time traversing on foot and potentially stumble upon other time sensitive events, the developers would prefer for players to jump to whatever destinations they had in mind as to avoid wasting time in areas where these time-sensitive quests didn’t exist.

On top of all of this is a general clunkiness that exists between many of the game’s various systems. There’s just enough quality-of-life to where the game feels thoughtful for its time, but also plenty of wasted time here and there that made me wonder if the developers could have gone a little further. The sheer number of key items in the menu is a huge culprit; with only three key item slots accessible at any time (and the ocarina/three transformation masks constantly taking up slots), the player is constantly roaming through the four menu screens to select the appropriate item for each situation, and it’s made worse because most items are used once and then immediately replaced as a stream of inventory puzzles. There’s also a ton of downtime from having to watch the same cutscenes over and over even if you’ve seen them in previous loops, and from being subjected to the same non-skippable Song of Soaring animation every time you teleport to an owl statue. At the very least, you can skip the mask transformations once viewed for the first time. Parsing through the three-day cycle can also be a bit annoying; the Song of Double Time does at least let you skip a full twelve hours ahead to the start of each day/night cycle, but oftentimes the timed events in question begin at midnight or midday, meaning that you’ll have to wait around for a few in-game hours since the Song of Double Time plants you at 6 AM/PM. Finally, I think it’s an interesting idea resetting the player’s rupee and general ammo count (i.e. bombs, arrows, Deku Nuts, etc) with each new loop while allowing the player to farm pre-existing Rupee chests that have been opened in previous cycles. However, while there is a bank that allows the player to store Rupees between loops, there’s no item storage facility to stockpile ammo between loops, meaning that the player will likely spend a few minutes at the start of each loop whacking bushes and enemies for basic resources (or at least eat into the player’s account to buy supplies at shops, if they don’t spend time farming chests for the Rupees instead).

Honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg when trying to judge Majora’s Mask against today’s standards of what we consider a “good” adventure game. I do have other scattered complaints, such as boss fights being generally underwhelming (I might have legitimately spent more time fighting dungeon mini-bosses than the four main masked bosses themselves), certain tedious side-games like the RNG-heavy Dampé grave digging or the Goron race with rubber-banding AI, a few overused mini-bosses such as having to fight Wizzrobe six different times, and how outside of the Stone Temple, mask abilities are never satisfyingly blended together in puzzles/quests. The cherry on top of all this is the presence of the Stone Mask, which I’d say is a bit too good since it lets you completely ignore most dungeon enemies. That in itself made me question the quality of that one forced stealth section in Great Bay; if the optimal solution is to wear a mask which lets you outright ignore the entire system, then should it even exist? Even from the perspective of someone who’s never cleared a Zelda game before, I find myself nodding in agreement when others claim that Majora’s Mask shows its age a bit more than Ocarina of Time.

But that’s not really why we play Zelda games, right? Despite the clunkiness of some mechanics and the many areas of potential improvement, many of us are willing to sit through and accept these flaws because the general experience is the selling point. The obvious argument to be made is that while plenty of MM’s mechanics feel undercooked, the actual mechanism of gameplay is constantly shifting about to suit the specific context. In a sense, Majora’s Mask can be viewed as an antecedent to the modern possession game: the basic control scheme remains the same regardless of the mask worn, but the functionality of the basic control scheme differs. This allows the game to stick to a grounded and consistent formula even though Link’s toolkit is constantly evolving on the fly, and while there are occasional moments of jank from certain side-games, most are over in a flash and still contribute positively towards the final goal of gaining enough knowledge and utility to prevent the impending crisis.

Essentially, many of the previously mentioned shortcomings end up inverting in on themselves. While Majora’s Mask has plenty of rough edges due to its rushed development and heavy re-use of assets, it’s these rough edges that lend so much towards its personality. I love how absolutely absurd and deranged the writing becomes, and the adventure game structure lets Majora’s Mask take complete advantage of the situation. One minute you’re tracking down a circus performer so he can spill his life story about joining an animal troupe since humans are also animals, then the next minute you’re fending off these zombie lantern alien ghosts with searchlight eyes so they don’t kidnap your new friend and her cows before the sun rises. The seeming lack of focus with the constant barrage of minigames and side-quests keeps the player constantly guessing what the next twist of events will bring, and the game is more than happy to ask rather than answer questions.

The backing time loop connecting all of these events together is really what drives the message home. Even though it’s absolutely tedious having to watch the same cutscenes over and over again, nothing illustrates the plight of Termina more starkly than forcing players to endlessly relive the day’s events and realizing that they are the only chance this world stands at reaching a new timeline. The ending credits bring such a gratifying emotional rush because the game deliberately withholds any semblance of permanent catharsis until you finally break through. You can’t help everyone in a single time loop, and they will never be free of their troubles until the moon stops falling. Until then, they’ll be hopelessly repeating the same tasks three days at a time, waiting for the dawn of a new day that will never come.

At the end of the day, I could keep finding things to nitpick about Majora’s Mask, but I also can’t imagine the game without these shortcomings since they form an integral part of the game’s identity. The masks might be glorified gimmicks, but they’re fantastic symbolism that are forever carried with you upon your journey even as time is constantly erased, and ultimately strengthen the adventure game aspect by assigning you new tasks to peruse. The time loop might not be fully utilized outside of Clock Town and contain extended gaps of waiting to get to important events, but it’s the forced repetition of the three-day cycle’s events that enforces the gravity of the situation upon the player. Individual characters aside from Skull Kid might not have the fleshed-out backgrounds that I had hoped for, but it’s a non-issue when Majora’s Mask is ultimately the story of Termina itself, formed from the intersecting schedules of all the different characters and elements at play. Separately, I think all of these elements are easily picked apart, but meshed together, they contribute to this pervasive nightmare of abject misery where even in the face of imminent death, fleeting moments of joy and comfort are enough to humanize the fantastical elements of Termina and keep the player moving forward towards a better future.

The story of and surrounding Majora’s Mask fascinates me, especially when learning that director Eiji Aonuma has since expressed regrets regarding its development. I and many others, however, see nothing to be ashamed of with their final product. If anything, Majora’s Mask is classic Nintendo at its core: instead of making a product that was visibly better than its competition, the developers took a chance and sought out to make something that was visibly different. The Wii is often cited as the most prevalent example of this “blue ocean strategy," though I firmly believe that Majora’s Mask was Nintendo’s first notable crack at it. Having to follow-up a game considered by many as the greatest of all time with an even shorter development period was a daunting ask, but as far I’m concerned, they absolutely succeeded. It doesn’t matter that other time loop adventure games have since outclassed their grandfather; there’s simply nothing like Majora’s Mask, and I doubt there ever will be.

In the 1998 film Run Lola Run, written and directed by German-born and future Wachowski collaborator Tom Tykwer, everyone in it are undergoing a cyclical loop where things often repeat. Due to it being 80 minutes long, it's safe to cut up each act as about 27 mins in length, each being split apart by an interlude where Lola and her boyfriend Manni talk with each other about their personal feelings regarding each other, as well as general senses of time and emotion. One could make the argument that Lola's rather antagonistic due to her efforts demeaning and devaluing lives of different people within each cycle, though this is a bit of a rough read and, cynically viewed, a shallow takeaway. Disregarding the notion most of the denizens within are just as, if not more harsh towards Lola, her actions are driven purely by brash instincts, manifested by the urban jungle and poverty-riddled sections deep within the area she and her mate are inhabited in. Some of the people she bumps into along the way, such as her father, take advantage of her predicament, often impeding on her goal within each cycle. Could she still be viewed as evil? I mean, probably, but even then her actions become polished and in-line with her intentions over the course of time, even to the point she's able to influence a few people off the brushes of shoulders or inaction. If nothing else, it's a story about preserving love and adoration despite the hostility of loss and tragedy.

In the 1998 film 2000 video game Majora's Mask, spearheaded by Shigeru Miyamoto, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Eiji Aonuma, with additional scripting done by Mitsuhiro Takano, everyone in it are undergoing a cyclical loop where things often repeat. Due to it being 80 minutes roughly 21 hours long, potentially up to 34 if everything in it is done, it's safe to cut up each act as roughly 4-6 hours in length, each being split apart by an interlude where Lola and her boyfriend Manni Link and his begrudging ally Tatl are communicating with individual Giants, each talking about past scenarios and events involving Skull Kid. Some have viewed Skull Kid as the antagonist due to their efforts demeaning and devaluing lives of different people within the city region Termina, though this is a rough read and, cynically viewed, a shallow takeaway. Disregarding the notion fact that Happy Mask Salesman, just mere moments after the first Song Of Time reset, prattles on about the legend of the titular Majora's Mask, Skull Kid's actions are driven purely by brash instincts, harboring a deep-seated pit of jealousy and grief by how the Four Giants have left them behind despite always being there for their upbringing and antics buried within his mind. The mask takes advantage of this linger, and exploits SK into endangering the four quadrants and center of the discordant land. Could they still be viewed as evil? I mean, probably, but even then there are subtle or outright explicit analogs within each individual act's story, somewhat tying back into the fear and anguish SK is feeling by then. If nothing else, it's a story about preserving love and adoration despite the hostility of loss and tragedy.

Miyamoto, Koizumi, and Aonuma have gone on at different times about how RLR, in one form or another, influenced the shape and foundation of Majora Mask's narrative and structure, and while they didn't intend to have the cycle be in three days, it's perhaps fitting that this amount ended up coinciding with the same as RLR's. I've mentioned Lola and Skull Kid, but without getting too deep within the film's plot and moments, I'll mention that every supporting or background entity of each piece face their own level of growth after each cycle, nudged thanks to the influences of our heroes and villainous force - or, in one case, just being as omnipresent as we are. I haven't watched RLR in about two years, and I tackled through MM last year, but even still I thought about both for numerous reasons, regarding how the former's one of the more pitch-perfect examples of a movie functioning snugly as a game, and the latter being a game functioning snugly as a movie. With that said, some of what I've said in my summary last year still apply here; I prefer the dungeons of Ocarina's despite acknowledging how this game utilizes and extrapolates its Mask mechanics to a joyous degree, I find some of the side tasks and goings-on such as the Mayor in Clock Town and several unlocked events after Great Bay Temple's revitalized spirit to be rather unfulfilling, representing a stark contrast to not only this game's but its predecessor's. Even still, the fact all of this was able to get down as short of a time as it received, and became this high quality, is nothing short of a miracle itself.

Sorry to be That Guy and make this the last thing to comment on, but play the original first instead of opting straight to the 3DS remake. I cannot stress enough that "the nitpicks" snowball into a fundamentally different experience, regardless of its holistic quality. Nerrel and several contributing people have made an HD texture mod for the N64 version a few years ago, to which he himself made a guide on getting up and running, and there's also the option of using MM Redux through Patcher64 which Nerrel also tutorializes on. One or (preferably) both of these are far better alternatives, but I'll also make mention of Project Restoration, an effort to add and revamp many aspects of MM3D if you're still dead set on using that remake since it can be used on hacked (New)3DSes as well as Citra.

At some point in the future, I really ought to write a great deal more about this duology, but having just completed my revisit I wanted to voice my initial thoughts. Whether or not I prefer certain aspects of Ocarina to this game, whether or not I resonated with one half more than the other, or whatever other gripes and nitpicks I have - as a conclusive, consecutive whole piece, that is both halves of this duology combined, I believe the Nintendo 64 Zelda duology very well may be Nintendo's magnum opus.

The Ocarina pairing carry themselves with a certain sophistication and solemness rarely felt in the company's other titles. What I felt these games have to say about the passing of time, of childhood innocence warped and cast aside, the process of growing up and the relationships, expressions and experiences that carry us through to adulthood... that's the sort of magic that this group of creatives was capable of in this era. The sort of knowing adoration poured into this duology, into Mario 64 and into MOTHER2. It's Nintendo at their absolute peak, and I don't want to get into my displeasure with the company as they stand and have stood for years now here... I simply want to commend them and express my gratitude for this two-headed beast, this totemic work of human expression they took the Nintendo 64 to its limits to produce. I'm not the Nintendo fan I was as a kid... far from it. But during those moments in Ocarina and Majora... yeah. I believe.

The Happy Mask Salesman is the creepiest character in gaming.

Have you ever noticed how shady online ads will start off with "This is not a scam!", or how propaganda sites always have "Truth" or "Facts" in their title, or the more guilty someone is the more they constantly talk about how innocent they are? In the exact same way, this mask salesman is very clearly not happy. His smile and laugh are nothing more than a front, and are as unnerving as the constraints of the N64 would allow.

While Majora's Mask itself is the emblem of the game, Mr. HMS is a better representative of the game as a whole. On the surface, it's a unique mix of joy and terror, yet beneath that facade lies a crazy mess of complex emotional issues.

Skull Kid lines up pretty closely with HMS, as a sort of foil. On the surface, just smiling, hanging out, having a good time. But any bit of prodding makes them instantly lose their friggin' mind. This game, like these two opposing forces who drive the story, is one eye twitch away from blowing up. The tension is palpable in every moment. (There's honestly nothing I can say about the ever-visible Moon that hasn't been said before, so we'll leave it at that)

More than any other Zelda game, Majora's Mask puts you in Link's shoes emotionally. You feel tense and frustrated because it makes sense for Link to feel that way in his situation. As you channel Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, you gradually become so familiar with repeating events that the frustration turns to expertise. Each time you repeat the three day cycle, you become more and more its master.

I get why this game can be divisive. I'm sure it feels repetitive to some. But to me, this is the best possible version of the Roguelike concept. You start over again and again with more abilities and knowledge, improving gradually until you're able to complete your goal.

As you assist other characters in completing their goals, you find their rage giving way to peace, just as yours does. Whether it's the incensed Deku King, the spirits of the transformation masks you acquire, Anju and Kafei, or the father and daughter in Ikana Canyon, the game is all about turning anxiety to calm; hate to acceptance.

And that's the most beautiful thing a Zelda game has ever done.

Trivia Time!

Chateau Romani was not actually a euphemistic replacement for beer! In fact, the Milk Bar was included as a reference to director Eiji Aonuma, whose everyday diet largely consists of alcoholic milk!

I mean, It's not even Egg Nog or anything, it's just... whole milk that somehow has 40% ABV. He won't tell us where he keeps getting it!

Stay tuned for more Trivia Time segments in the near future!

For the past few years, I have thought about writing a "walkthrough" for this game, repurposing that format to make something more tailored to this game's distinct structure than a typical essay or review. I still want to do that, but until then consider this a loose sketch of the primary ideas:

Western pop culture since the debut of Star Wars in 1977 has become obsessed with Heroes, their Journey, and their One Thousand Faces. In the 21st century, interpretations and explorations of heroism have largely become addicted to Joseph Campbell's monomyth structure by way of its diluted Hollywood cliffnotes versions from Christopher Vogler, Dan Harmon, and their like. What began as a loose interpretive tool for comparing existing myths and stories across cultures has become a rigid instructive tool for constructing and reconstructing the same stories over and over. Entries in the Legend of Zelda series have often employed this structure. Compelling as it is, it's the sort of truth you get from telling a lie often enough. Majora's Mask strives to be more honest about heroism.

Link is already The Hero when you start the game and though his journey was completed, time travel erased it from history. It now exists only in Link's memory (and yours, if you played that game first). Already we are in a textual knot: the hero's journey is shown to be entirely optional due to the overwhelming power the goddesses bestowed on Link and Zelda, but it did have to happen in the first place in order for it to then never have happened. The Hyrule fantasy in all its iterations is a rigged game, the Triforce having so many failsafes to prevent it ever being wielded for evil and always resulting in a two-on-one showdown. Majora's Mask swiftly plucks Link out of this dynamic and drops him into a new world called Termina.

Termina does not have a bucolic time of grace to fall from, but it has a sense of history culminating in a contemporary-feeling society. It has no divine order preserving it, but instead a singular core evil seeking to destroy life. People are not standing still waiting for the Hero to rescue them, but rather are in-fighting and exacerbating a bad situation through prejudice and selfishness. There are Heroes aside from Link, but they have failed. Similarly, the problems plaguing each region and Termina as a whole are not static: they worsen day by day until they become catastrophes. In prior games and later games people's situations were binary, being in peril until Link flipped their switch to rescued and caused them to say the same dialogue for the rest of their existence.

Like everyone currently alive in our reality, Link is born into a world that won't necessarily survive and not for lack of trying by well-intentioned people. The two powers that distinguish Link from those people are remembering and trying again; save and load. Every other verb necessary to succeed is either something anyone could do (listen/observe, communicate, exchange) or is a power given to Link by someone else. And each power allows you to solve the problem of another, making you a medium between people who cannot interact for lack of knowledge or who failed in the attempt. Everywhere you go, Link is just finishing a quest someone else started and by extension everyone you meet is a potential hero.

That is, until the game introduces Ikana. Ascending, inverting, and saving Stone Tower is not possible by any person you've met, not by any single form Link can assume: he must use shells of his forms to stand in the right place at the right time in order to progress, he must swap between all forms, and he must grow. No one person can save the world.

In a sense this was also true of Ocarina of Time or Link to the Past before, with the Sages/Maidens and Zelda assisting in defeating Ganon. One can play Majora's Mask like those games, such that Link prevents the primary apocalypse and everyone is in a roundabout way saved. Doing so would mean the Deku princess remains trapped and the monkey is still imprisoned; that Lulu does not perform again; that Romani Ranch is devastated; that Anju and Kafei never reconcile.

It also cannot be understated that no one helping Link or being helped by Link is a higher being chosen by fate. They have no magic, not even a magic of friendship as they will forget you in due time. They are all the people that in the prior game stood around helplessly and waited for you to solve their problems for them, feet nailed to the ground. Now they move and try but fail, only able to try the once. They are never in the right place at the right time until you use memory and communication to guide them there. If they could remember and try again, they could do it themselves. You were not chosen by fate, you are not a component of a formula, you are merely the person who remembers being a hero and is willing to try being one again.

If you play Majora's Mask like a conventional Hero's journey, jumping from region to region and vanquishing monsters, you arrive at its final challenge poorly equipped. The manifestation of evil will tell you plainly that you "only have weak masks". It can be defeated this way, and the conclusion is satisfying if you wanted a story about a hero narrowly defeating evil through their own cunning and some supernatural aid. When the credits roll, you will be shown the masks you didn't collect. Characters will be conspicuously absent from the celebrations of your victory over evil.

If you play the game caring about people and learning from them, you gather a number of masks to wear and identities to assume. Help everyone you can and bring their memory with you and give that memory to others, and the manifestation of evil will call you "the bad guy". You gain a new power that lets you steamroll over evil easily. The ending adjusts accordingly, and you see everyone you helped making each other happier.

Evil in Termina in not a person or demon, but a mask worn by the frightened to justify acting on their worst impulses. Throughout the world you learn of the direct damage Skull Kid wrought under the mask's influence, and the indirect damage forms a shadow of that same cruelty cast on other faces. Wear the evil mask to convince yourself you're good, and call someone wearing its opposite bad. Goes on so easily, grips so tightly. Just as anyone here could be a hero, anyone here can (and sometimes becomes) a villain.

Link's Awakening introduced the trading sequence to Zelda, and many games that follow incorporate it as a side quest. The structure is simple: you find something someone needs, you give it to them, out of gratitude they give you something someone else needs, repeat. Majora's Mask proves this is ultimately the only quest worth doing. Go among people and link them. Link as many people as you can, make them happy, make them willing to help each other, and evil finds nowhere to take root. You will never be picked by goddesses to go save the world by collecting crystals or medallions or triangles, so stop waiting for your journey to begin.

I played this game when I was six years old and it was new. I replayed it as a teenager, in my early twenties, in my late twenties; it had aged but was not old. When I began exhibiting symptoms of chronic illness around the age of 8, I would have good days and bad days. I found that after three days of feeling good or bad, my body forgot what it was like to not be how it had been for the past three days. When depression manifested later on in my life, I found a similar cycle. Three days in it and I feel like I will never be happy again, and fear I never was before. My mind needs to remember what my matter cannot. I come back to this game to strengthen my remembering; that every time I wake up facing three miserable days in which my world could fall apart, I can fight that off and maybe make for myself or someone else three better days. After all, I am at least waking up.

"And sure, if fate some future bard shall join
In sad similitude of griefs to mine,
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such if there be, who loves so long, so well;
Let him our sad, our tender story tell;
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint 'em, who shall feel 'em most."

I've talked before about how some games leave such an impact on me that they become inextricably linked to a certain memory, time, or place. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask doesn't conjure up a particularly potent memory, or one that is all that interesting, but which has nonetheless left me nostalgic. I remember paying this sitting maybe two feet from the TV (contrary to popular belief, this will not ruin your eyes and is in fact the coolest way to play video games) waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to be ready and wasting hours trying to make heads or tails of its bizarre time looping system. I didn't make it very far. I was a very stupid child - who has become a very stupid man - and at that point in time I was not mentally prepared to chain together any sequence of actions needed to progress.

As an adult, I think that's why I love Majora's Mask so much. A lot of Zelda puzzles are pretty braindead. These are games ostensibly designed for children, after all. But Majora's Mask demands a little bit more thinking out of you, it expects that you engage with its world and its time loop critically and it's not sorry if you don't "get it." Even coming back to it today I find myself needing to pull the Nintendo Player's Guide off my shelf and thumb through its pages for hints, and I gotta admit, that's a pretty good feeling.

There's been a lot written about its darker, edgier atmosphere, or how unnerving and dream-like tone is. And yeah, it's definitely got a more haunting quality to it than any other Zelda game. Anyone who has been following my reviews for any length of time has probably picked up on the fact that I love games with bizarro atmospheres.

There's also a subset of people who desperately want the game to have a more insidious tone than it already does, which I know is a pretty common thing with any kids-oriented media that gets even slightly dark. Lore theorists are rotten creatures, and there's some real psycho shit out there. This is perhaps not even worth bringing up, but I do think part of Majora's Mask's enduring legacy is due to its mysterious, haunting tone, and there's a side to that coin that makes me wanna barf.

You know what else makes me wanna barf? Some of these minigames! I decided to take on the absolutely demented task of 100%ing this game. Some of the side quests can be pretty difficult if not actively unfun, but the reward you get for satisfying the many demands of Termina's residents is pretty satisfying. Obviously the best way to enjoy the game is to take on however much of it feels right to you, and personally I think I'm happier just sticking mostly to the story. Though there are only four main dungeons, each one of them is a total banger, and there's plenty to do to even gain access to them to fill the void. Majora's Mask can definitely seem like a much smaller game than Ocarina at first glance, but it's still pretty meaty.

I also think the main time looping mechanic is a lot of fun. I know some people bounce off of it immediately and I don't blame them. Again, it seems pretty staggering at first and it can be easy to lose sight of how everything you're doing is meant to click together. However, it remains one of the most inventive systems in any Zelda game, and it's remarkable how well it holds up (though there's definitely some QoL issues.) Once you complete a few tasks and get a feel for how it works, it becomes a lot easier to find the rhythm of Majora's Mask's puzzles.

This was the last game I played in 2019, and one I was a little apprehensive to play. I inherited a CIB copy from my grandfather after he passed, along with a bunch of other games we played together when I was a kid. I was surprised to see how good the condition of the box was, as well as its contents. The manual is pristine, and the cart looks brand new. In fact, it was still inside its plastic wrap, which was cleanly opened at the top but nevertheless kept the game itself safe from wear.

I loaded it up and saw my grandpa played 2 hours of this game and gave the fuck up. So, that explains a lot. But hey, at least it has a completed file now.

This is a very long explanation of why I’m not the most enthusiastic person about Majora’s Mask. TL;DR I agree with people’s opinions that the characters, side quest and world of Termina are fantastic; however, as a Zelda game, I think it leaves a lot to be desired and I don’t think its strong elements are enough to make up for that.
If you’re interested in my opinions, I would love to have a discussion about this game, since I feel like I’m the only one who isn’t ecstatic about it and want to know what others think of my takes.



I feel like I have more to say about Majora’s Mask than I do about any other game I’ve ever played. I didn’t hate this game, but I far from loved it. My perception of it is all over the place, and it especially sucks that I seem to be the only person who doesn’t like it. Sure, I’ve heard plenty of people say that they couldn’t get into it, or maybe there are some out there who were overwhelmed by it for various reasons, but this was my first time playing this game and I 100% it, and even still I don’t agree with the unbelievable amount of praise this game has received. That being said I still think I understand why other people love it so much, and if I’m correct in my assumption, then the things people love about this game are unquestionably the best parts about it. That “thing” being, again the world of Termina itself.

It’s easy to separate this game into two parts: the Zelda game part, and the side quest part. Personally, I really don’t like the Zelda game part. With one exception, I didn’t like any of the temples or the stories that were told in these areas.

Woodfall is ok; it’s inoffensive, the conflict that happens here is serviceable, and the temple is really simple but it’s not bad.

Snowfall is one of the biggest “mehs” in a Zelda game for me; the whole plot is about stopping a baby from crying (so it’s not exactly the most engaging conflict) and there was too much backtracking in the temple for my liking. I was constantly confused about how to progress or where I needed to be, so I ended up running back and forth through the dungeon and not having the best time. I blocked this whole area out of my memory and don’t remember very much about it.

I DO, however, remember the Great Bay. I had absolutely zero fun in this area. Zora swimming is cool I guess, but this place is so big and empty, the Pirate’s fortress and retrieving all of the eggs is so tedious, and it takes an eternity to finally get to the temple. I think it took me three hours from entering it to getting to the dungeon. And the dungeon itself is pretty lame too. It’s better than the first two because it has an interesting gimmick unlike Woodfall temple, and it isn’t confusing to navigate like Snowhead temple, but it doesn’t really have much going for it. It takes a long time to complete, has the worst boss in the game, and its mechanics weren’t fun to solve or execute. I might have found the story here more interesting if I didn’t absolutely hate everything else about it.

Ikana Canyon is the best area by far. It has the most interesting story and the most compelling characters in my opinon. What happens with the little girl and her dad is the most moving and beautiful thing in the entire game, and the area as a whole has an air of regret and decay that is unrelenting. The dungeon is also the best in the game because it effectively uses all of your tools and has a neat gimmick where you flip the entire dungeon upside down and have to explore it on the floor and the ceiling. Unfortunately, while this dungeon has the highest highs, it also has the lowest lows.

Just getting to this place is a nightmare; playing the elegy of emptiness dozens of times, unnecessary micromanaging of your inventory, and having to repeat it whenever you want to switch the temple upside down. It’s padding and tedious. I also had a rough time playing this dungeon in particular; when I got through the dungeon, I was on the night of the final day, and when I fought the boss for the first time, I used up all of my magic and couldn’t use the giant’s mask anymore. I was a bit confused on how the fight worked to begin with, magic drops would despawn before I could pick them up, and trying to hit them with arrows as regular link was practically impossible; essentially, the fight was unwinnable with my current knowledge and arsenal.

So, I decided to use the ocarina to head back to clock town and get some Chateau Romani to get infinite magic. Unfortunately, since I was on the night of the final day, I had to reset the cycle. You wouldn’t think that would be so bad since I’d already finished the dungeon and so I could go straight to the boss. I thought the same thing, but unbeknownst to me, when the cycle reset, so do chests and small keys. I had to play through the entire dungeon again, trying in vain to remember how to spawn the chest I needed to hookshot to and where the small keys were (some small keys didn’t even respawn and just gave rupies instead, forcing me to waste even more time trying to find the specific keys the game respawned). Over an hour went by before I finally had reopened the path to fight a boss I already didn’t enjoy fighting. I realize that this is a very specific instance, and perhaps I shouldn’t use this example to speak on the game’s objective quality. But I hope you understand how frustrating it was for me to go through, why it left a bad taste in my mouth, and why it negatively impressed my opinion on this dungeon, this area, and the game as a whole.

Aside from the areas and dungeons, I have two larger, more general complaints with the Zelda side of the game that were present throughout my playthrough.

My first issue is with the controls. I should specify that I played this game through the Wii virtual console with a GameCube controller, so it’s possible that these complaints are due to my control method and not the game itself. One issue is the fact that the N64 buttons are mapped to the GameCube c-stick. Needless to say, trying to replicate button presses by assigning them to an analog stick isn’t ideal, and I constantly had misinputs whenever I was trying to use an item or play the ocarina. What I didn’t know until my last few hours of playing is that they’re also mapped to the x, y, and z buttons. While this helps dramatically with item usage, it’s even more cumbersome to play the ocarina this way imo, the up button is still only mapped to the c-stick (as far as I’m aware at least), and the fact that it isn’t labelled as their respective buttons creates a disconnect between my muscle memory and what my eyes tell me (which isn’t the games fault, obviously, but with using the GameCube controller on the N64 rom).

Another issue is with item management. With the wide array of standard Zelda items as well as a couple dozen masks to sort through, going through your menu will happen more often in this game than it will in most other Zelda games save for Link’s Awakening, or at the very least it feels that way because of how slow it is. I really don’t know why the three transformation masks and the ocarina of time couldn’t have been mapped to the d-pad. All the d-pad does in this game is function identically to the b button when you’re in the bomber’s notebook (weirdly specific, I know). I realize this might be an awkward move for your hand to make considering the d-pad and the analog stick weren’t easily accessible together on the N64 controller, but this method would still be faster than sorting through menus manually and essentially give you 7 item slots for quick access; on top of that, you’ll rarely have to switch between transformation masks or use the ocarina in tense situations, so it’s not like it moving your hand over would put you in a disadvantageous spot in a boss fight or something like that.

My last control issue is that the inputs aren’t very snappy or precise. I’m not sure if this is because there’s some input lag, or if it was a programming limitation on the N64, or if it’s a GameCube controller issue, or something else entirely, but I’ll try to explain what I mean. The two specific actions this is an issue for it is bomb throwing and camera resetting. With bomb throwing, you can’t simply hold forward and immediately throw the bomb like you can in most other Zelda games; trying to do it that fast will just have Link set it down in front of him like a dumbass and blow himself up. He has to have a running start in order to throw it in front of him. This led to me failing the bomb minigames multiple times.

The camera reset is a bit harder to explain. If Link faces directly at the camera and you hit the L button to reset it behind him so that the camera turns completely around, but then immediately hold forward after the camera has finished moving, Link will do a complete 360 and keep walking in the direction he was originally facing. In order for the camera to stay set behind him, you half to wait about a half-second and then hold forward so that it doesn’t spas out. I’m sorry if I’m doing a bad job of explaining exactly what this is like, but it’s similar to Mario’s turnaround controls in Mario 64, where you have to wait a half second for Mario to make a complete stop before turning around, otherwise he’ll turn in a semicircle and fall off of platforms. The point is, I had trouble with the camera in this game, and while it didn’t cause me to take unnecessary damage or lose progress, it led to a lot of waiting if I wanted to simply turn around as well as making locking on to bosses harder than it needed to be, and this is something I had to deal with for the entire game.

My second larger, general complaint is with the puzzles in this game. Puzzle solving in this game can be very cryptic, and very often has at most two but usually one solution to problems; I noticed this most in Snowhead temple, the two skulltula houses, and a few places on the overworld. I’ll try to keep this part brief because I understand that this is an issue that is present in pretty much every Zelda game prior to A Link Between Worlds, but this is the game where it got on my nerves the most, and I wanted to give a few specific examples.

In Snowhead temple, your progress to multiple rooms is blocked with icebergs covering doors that you need to fire arrows to melt. There were some torches next the icebergs in the central room, so I tried shooting an arrow through them in order to melt the icebergs; the game had previously confirmed that using arrows to transport fire from one place to another is something that the game is capable of doing, since you had to figure out how to do that to clear poison from the water in the Woodfall temple. My friend also swore that he had done this exact thing and it worked for him, but we tried it dozens of times from multiple different angles and it never worked. I also tried punching the icebergs with Goron link, because the game had previously confirmed in another room within the same temple that Goron link could punch through ice enemies that would normally freeze you if you touched them, as well as the fact that Goron link could break through snow boulders outside the temple by punching them, but those didn’t work either. I had to get the fire arrows from somewhere else in the temple and then come back and melt them with those because the game only allowed for one specific answer to the puzzle.

Another example is in the skulltula house in woodfall. There’s a room where some skulltulas are hiding inside large pots and another where they’re in a tree that you can’t get on top of. In both cases, in order to reach them, you have to either roll into them with regular link or punch them with Goron Link (who has a janky hitbox that doesn’t always hit in front of him). I was stumped on these, and I tried pretty much everything except for the specific answer the game wanted; the pots couldn’t be broken with swords or bombs or any other attack like the smaller pots could, so I didn’t think hitting them anymore would be a worthwhile idea. The tree couldn’t be burned with fire, even though there are torches in the room and I thought that burning would be a logical solution, especially when fire could burn up your wooden shield back in Ocarina of Time, which has the exact same engine as this game. In neither case does rolling into them as regular link make sense (I don’t understand how a 10 year old boy hitting a pot three times his size would make a spider the size of a dog bounce out from the top, or how doing the same thing would knock them down from a tree), and I actually did try hitting them with Goron link, but neither time did it work at first, partially because of the aforementioned janky hitbox, but with the pot room specifically, you can’t see the skulltulas, so it’s impossible to tell which ones they’re in. You’re supposed to rely on the sound they make to determine where they are, but there are two of them and the pots are so close together that it’s impossible to determine which ones they’re in by sound alone.

I’m explaining my process in so much detail to try and show how this game often requires one specific solution to problems that realistically have multiple, and that it often discouraged experimentation and just made me frustrated. I could give more examples, but I’m hoping that these were enough to prove my point. I realize that this is pretty standard early Zelda stuff, but again, I found it the most egregious here.

I’ve been very negative so far, and perhaps even really nitpicky, but I’m trying to give an accurate description of what my experience playing this game for the first time was like. With that said, I think it’s time to move on to the part of Majora’s Mask that I really liked: the side-questy part.

The other half of this game has to do with the game’s time loop mechanic, the world of Termina itself, and the side quests associated with the games many characters. I actually don’t have a lot to say about them, surprisingly enough, but this part of the game is the real bread and butter, pretty much the only thing anyone ever talks about, and exclusively why everyone loves it so much.

This part of the game is focused exclusively on the narrative, and I think it is an interesting parallel to Ocarina of Time’s narrative. In Ocarina of Time, the focus was on Ganondorf; he was a constant intimidating figure, his influences on the decay of the world was very authentic and impossible to ignore, and the entire story centered around the importance of stopping him. In Majora’s Mask, the focus isn’t on the villain and their effect on the world (I’ll talk more about that later), but rather on the people that already existed in that world and how their lives have been impacted.

In that regard, Majora’s Mask is a massive success. The people that inhabit the land of Termina are about as far from stock characters as you could possibly get. They all have their own schedules that revolve around the time loop, and by reading their dialogue you learn so much about their ambitions and personalities. At first I took the curious shop owner to be some shady creep, but learning that he was actually one of Kafei’s closest friends and helps both of you in Kafei’s quest made me appreciate him as more than some NPC, but as a multi-faceted human being.

And the time loop being used as a way to have jumbles of polygons feel like people with their own lives and agendas is one thing, but it also reinforces the air of hopelessness surrounding this world as well. I start to feel a little funny whenever the last six hours begin to tick down, as I see the moon almost take up the entire sky, with most of clock down deserted and the few who are left either panicking, hopeless, or have accepted their demise. There’s a somberness that comes with the realization that the end of the three days is inevitable, so you reset the cycle with the somewhat vain hope that next time things may be different.

I could go on, but I likely don’t need to say anything that you already believe or have heard countless other people praise, and I don’t want to spoil some of these best moments, because I absolutely agree that this is where Majora’s Mask is at its best. Nothing is as it seems and seeing everything that happens is excellent (I will say my personal favorite quests were the Romani sisters, Kafei and Anju, and perhaps ironically the hand in the toilet).

But here’s where I get a bit less positive again. For as much as I love this part of the game, I think that it isn’t enough to save the game from how much I didn’t like the Zelda part of it. I also think that it could have been so much more than what it already is. I have a few complaints and a couple suggestions for how I think this could have been even better.

One thing that isn’t necessarily a complaint but still something I wanted to point out is that I was surprised by how many lighthearted moments there were in the game. Perhaps this is due to this game’s insurmountable hype, but I had always heard that Majora’s Mask was creepy, scary, unsettling, disturbing, and depressing. While it certainly is all of these things in moments, I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of Dark Souls, Metroid, Hollow Knight, or Hyper Light Drifter, where the atmosphere is absolutely unrelenting in the emotion it’s trying to convey, and for me Majora’s Mask wasn’t that. It is surprisingly colorful, especially for an N64 game, and there are plenty of very silly moments, from the goofy writing, to bonkers characters like Tingle, to the all the energetic and carnival-y music (a lot of which was carried over from Ocarina of Time). I imagine some people really like this diversity (plenty of games have conveyed multiple emotions while still having one central tone after all), but it certainly wasn’t what I thought it would be given what I had heard about this game.

Now I actually do think that the tone is slightly worsened by one thing however: the ocarina of time itself. I said already how I think the time loop is a great gameplay mechanic for telling the stories within Termina, and I especially like how much more use it has compared to Ocarina of Time. However, I can’t help but feel like the ability to freely control time at will takes away from the tone of the game and the stories of the characters. These stories are undeniably complex and emotional af, but by being able to reset the cycle at will as many times as I damn well want, I think it takes away from it. Link is practically a god in terms of what he’s capable of doing. There’s absolutely no limit or consequence to his power, and the more I realized that, the more the gravity of the situation lessened. The inevitability of this world’s destruction and the deaths of its inhabitants began to feel less and less inevitable as I realized I have an infinite amount of time to get everything just right. Perhaps with this realization also comes the realization that in this current loop there can also never be a happy ending, but for me I found my unlimited power came at the cost of me being a bit less invested in what happens to this place and feeling like there was a lot less tension (which I think that keyword tension is really important for both the story and vibe of the game). It also doesn’t help that character quests are completely reset when the cycle is reset, which makes sense of course, but also takes away from their impact, at least for me.

One big missed opportunity that I did notice (which I think contributes to both the lackluster stories within the four major areas as well as my issue with how Link’s unlimited use of the ocarina diminishes the impact of the stories in clock town) is how much Skull Kid’s significance is weakened as the game goes on. Once you get the Ocarina of Time from him in the first cycle, you don’t see him again until the very end of the game. You get one cutscene showing how he became friends with Tatl and Tael, but aside from that he has absolutely no presence in the main story. This is so baffling to me, because the characters in all of the major areas refer to Skull Kid as being the one to cause all the terrible things that are happening, and I’m wondering how that’s even possible and why we never see it. The time between when Link meets Skull Kid in the opening cutscene and when he arrives in Termina is like 10 minutes tops, and we play through our first three days arriving here over and over again. Given how detailed the conflicts in these major areas are and how little time there was for Skull Kid to set them all up, I have doubts that he actually could have been that fast. Sure, it’s possible that Skull Kid set all this up before we even showed up, but there’s also no indication that that is the case from what I recall.

What if we had seen Skull Kid actually wreaking havoc on these places? This alone could accomplish so many things within the story. 1. It would make Link’s drive to defeat Skull Kid much stronger, because he would have a constant presence AND he would always be one step ahead of us. Despite the fact that we can reset time as much as we want, we’re still not fast enough to stop Skull Kid before he wrecks everything (that alone I think would resolve my problem of Link being too powerful). 2. It would make the struggles of these places directly link (hehe) with our own. The stories in the four main areas aren’t nearly as interesting or fleshed out as the stories of the people of clock town are, and I really didn’t care about them to the same extent that I cared about clock town’s residents. If we saw Skull Kid cause the conflicts of the four major areas, we would have a constant threat as the source of everything, and it would help all the stories come together, not to mention make them more interesting 3. It would make the atmosphere of Termina even richer. If we were able to see these places, if even only for a brief second, right before Skull Kid destroyed them, we would have a reference point to know how joyful these places were before Skull Kid arrived, and we would have to live with the knowledge that these places will never be as happy, peaceful, or hopeful as they once were until we stop Skull Kid.

Wow, that’s a lot of thoughts. That’s all of my major points about the game. I’m sorry if this seemed overly negative, but considering how much this game is spoken about in a positive light, I felt that my criticisms were more relevant. I want to clarify that I don’t hate this game at all, I just feel like I have very little to add about what this game does well, and I mainly wanted to express why I think this game is overrated and wonder if anyone else shares my opinions or finds my thoughts interesting, or if I’m completely soulless and suck at video games and that’s why I don’t see Majora’s Mask as the masterpiece everyone else does. I should also clarify that it’s very common for otherwise great games to have notable flaws. Pokémon Platinum, Kingdom Hearts II and Breath of the Wild are my three favorite games of all time, and all of them have multiple noteworthy flaws and I would understand if those flaws ruined the games for some people.

I think that, much like Mother 3 and Superstar Saga, this is a game I will enjoy substantially more on a second playthrough. I definitely will play the 3DS version should I ever play this game again. But something I would really like to see is Bluepoint games remake Majora’s Mask. I realize that Nintendo is never going to outsource any of their properties ever again, but I would love to see what that would look like since Majora’s Mask is pretty much the only Zelda game that doesn’t have a definitive version to play.

Anyway, if you actually read all of this, thank you, and also please let me know if anything I said made sense or if you want to comment on any specific part.

Making a sequel to the "best game ever" is a daunting task, especially when it has to be done in record time. Yet this is the crazy challenge that Aonuma is taking on, at the cost of his and his team's energy. If Ocarina of Time's approach was to create a golden standard for the series and the video game world, Majora's Mask has a more carnal and intimate feel, which is made possible by the main time loop mechanic. This allows for a smaller, but more chiseled cast of characters with their own timeline to focus on. It is the exploration of this tight world and the discovery of its inhabitants that occupies the central part of the title: admittedly, our objective is largely indicated from the start – to prevent the Moon from crashing into Termina and to retrieve Majora's Mask from the hands of Skull Kid –, but Termina acts as a gigantic social dungeon, where you have to get to know the NPCs in order to progress. The mechanics of time appear as a driving force of the playful and dramatic tension, instilling an urgency and sequencing the game phases, thanks to the owl statues. At the same time, the masks act as rewards and specific tools in the progression. The counterpart is the contraction of the number of dungeons, since there are now only four, albeit with a fairly substantial number of more or less optional mini-dungeons. This also reduces the number of non-mask items, compacting the exploration mechanics in favour of interaction with NPCs through masks. This time management and its consequences make full use of the video game medium and are difficult to transcribe elsewhere. A real social web is woven through the encounters with the inhabitants of Termina, which allows human and realistic sensibilities to come to the fore, as in the long quest of Anju and Kafei, which begins as soon as we discover the Romani ranch. Here, it should be noted that developmental angst has infused the game's atmosphere. The first hour is particularly confusing - in its gameplay and narrative. The game has a mysterious and eerie aesthetic, even if it is due to the frame-jumps of the NPCs and the inhuman expressions and movements of certain characters. Unlike Ocarina of Time, we are an adult in a child's body, as Link witnesses the absurdity of the world, which he does not necessarily understand. Majora's Mask paints a human picture of the end of the world, which echoes contemporary concerns. The spectre of death looms constantly, as does the emphasis on the remains, souls and emotions caused by death. Yet the promise of a new dawn is often apparent: the title discusses the importance of friendship, love and the cycle of life. It is in the search for a sense of existence that the game shines: with each return to time, the relationships Link has created with the inhabitants start anew, but the memories live on, as the mask seller points out in the concluding cinematic. As such, Fierce Deity Link is emblematic of Link's goodness and self-sacrifice in his quest to ease the anxieties of the inhabitants of Termina, opening the way for him to answer the simple and profound questions asked by the Moon Children. Majora's Mask is a rough, but grand and timeless game, with an unparalleled elegance in its setting. There was a before and after to Majora's Mask – if only because of Aonuma's prominence – and the Zelda franchise will be able to see new heights to climb.

Majora's Mask, a game created off re-used assets from Ocarina of Time, and in record time of less than two years. I really wonder how a masterpiece of the highest caliber such as this only took them such a short time to make.

Majora's Mask starts with Link on Epona going through a fog ridden forest searching for "a beloved and invaluable friend". Now who exactly this is, the game never specifies, but considering the subtle hint you get from a well placed sound effect, you can probably guess. We're not even past the introduction and this game is already making great use of small cues to give you information. We see two fairies of opposite colors appear to be watching Link stroll through the forest. All of a sudden they ambush Link by spooking Epona by bonking her, causing Link to fall off and go unconscious. We then meet our main antagonist of the game, Skull Kid. Skull Kid proceeds to loot off poor Link, and finds his Ocarina of Time, which he was entrusted with by Zelda as a parting gift when he left Hyrule. Link comes to, and gives a hilarious facial expression of disgust, Skull Kid is surprised and attempts to hide what he stole behind his back. Link lunges for him, but Skull Kid dodges him, steals Epona, and rides deeper into the forest, with Link giving chase.

This to me is one of the greatest openings to a game I've seen. In just a few minutes, we have our protagonist, his goals, our antagonist, what links them together through the theft of the Ocarina, and a good idea that Skull Kid is a trickster of sorts. These concepts are only further expanded upon later, especially with Skull Kid, Link doesn't exactly develop as usual, but literally every other character makes up for that. Another small, but amazing detail to mention, this particular Link is the same as Ocarina of Time, meaning he's time traveled and has been an adult already. It's never pointed out, but Link as young as he is, same age he started out as in Ocarina of Time, has the mind and skills of an adult. Acrobatic, proficient with the Hyrulian shield, something he couldn't even wield before in Ocarina of Time, as well as other tools and weapons we only saw adult Link capable of using. I love this detail so much, and they use all of its potential in this game so perfectly, this Link is runner up for my favorite besides Twilight Princess Link.

Now the actual story of Majora's Mask is unique for Zelda, but overall is just another point A to point B, complete these dungeons and find items to progress experience. If that's all the game had to offer, which it does not. Majora's Mask adds tons and tons of new additions and mechanics that really only show up in this game period. First, the big mechanic, the time system. Majora's Mask is a game that gives you a time limit, which is three in-game days, which is about fifty four minutes in real time. Each new cycle of the three days, everything resets, and Link will lose all of his consumable items and rupees upon resetting. Not only do you need to manage your time well, but so much of this game is time specific for certain things to happen, it really makes the land of Termina feel very alive and every person has their own schedules they conform to. It's even better that these people's disposition or location will change upon whether you decided to help them or not. Add onto the sheer pressure and anxiety you're given by having that clock on the bottom of your screen slowly tick away until your demise. The game does grant very relieving options to make it far less stressful, such as slowing down time considerably, giving you much more time to do things, as well as being far less punishing to getting to time-specific events. On top of this, if you're waiting around to finish a specific time specific quest, you can skip whole twelve hour intervals with the song of double time, cutting down a lot of just standing around and waiting, very thoughtful game design for the time mechanics here, really makes things a million times easier.

The other defining aspect of Majora's Mask are... well, the masks! Masks in Majora's Mask have all sorts of cool effects and gimmicks, which makes them all memorable and awesome to use. And there's plenty to find and use, but most of these masks are your rewards for the side quests. This is where Majora's Mask becomes a masterpiece, the side quests. Termina is filled with people who need your help, and it's all completely optional if you want to take the time to do so. Every single side quest in this game offers some of the most unique scenarios and gameplay I've ever seen in Zelda, even now. I don't want to spoil any of them, because all of them are so much fun. The best side quests though are the ones with characters who have the most unfortunate circumstances surrounding them. I can't go into detail, but there's some very tragic questlines here, and a lot of them hit me very deeply emotionally, since it all conforms and contributes to the already grim and rather depressing atmosphere Termina seems to have. Being able to help these people find peace before the end of the world, seeing how they deal with it, their resolution to it, it's inspiring, and it never strays from the themes, it's honestly perfect, there's absolutely nothing here that I find bad or wrong, or out of place.

Gameplay itself is fine-tuned perfectly from Ocarina of Time. Link controls great, as well as his transformations. Transforming itself is snappy with no load times in-between, which is astonishing to be honest. Link's arsenal of tools is the most expansive it's ever been, with masks and equipment this time, Link feels the most diverse and capable in Majora's Mask. It is always a blast to use every single one of these items as well, the dev team really got creative with what sort of stuff Link can do this time, and what he has. Combat feels great, and there's a ton of ways to approach fighting enemies, either from range, or get up-close and wail on them, it's up to your preference. Dungeon design is spectacular this time around, there's only four major dungeons, but they're all designed very thoughtfully and play into their themes great. But what's great about them is how unique their theming for Zelda specifically is, you'll never see anything like them again potentially, and that just makes them even more special. None of them feel too long or have puzzles too difficult to figure out, though do be careful when you enter these dungeons. That time limit is still going inside these dungeons, so make sure to set aside an entire cycle to tackle them, unless you're really confident. If you get to the boss room at just the last second, not to worry, just enter the boss room and reset. Once you return to the dungeon, there will be a glowing platform you can stand on to warp straight to the boss, such insightful game design for sure. There's plenty of minor dungeons to sink into as well, most of which are for side quests, however there are one or two you will need to do to progress the main story as well, and they're loads of fun to go through. That to me is what stands out the most, every time I replay a Zelda game, there's always that one dungeon or area you really dread doing, or don't want to do again. I don't feel that way at all about Majora's Mask, everything is fun to do, and nothing feels like a slog to go through for me either, and that's rare, and very commendable once again.

Graphics, somehow aged better than I ever would have expected. This game still holds up to me, the atmosphere of the game alone is so prevalent, and I find the older style to just enhance that feeling so much more. It's unsettling, it's got a much darker color palette than Ocarina of Time, and the areas you visit just continue to hammer home this concept. I will never look at Majora's Mask especially as a game that aged poorly, since that's literally what makes it so good in the first place. There's a certain uneasiness about old games, I mean just look at Super Mario 64 and all the horror stories and concepts that have come from that game alone, it's not a coincidence that Majora's Mask had the same thing happen. Unlike Majora's Mask though, Super Mario 64 doesn't intentionally try to give that impression. Majora's Mask does, and takes full advantage of it, yet another reason I find Majora's Mask to be a masterpiece.

Music, this is a big one. Majora's Mask has a beautiful soundtrack. Song of Healing is all I need to express how perfect this game's soundtrack is, but let's go further than that. Clocktown itself is a song that changes the further in the cycle you're in. The first day, Clocktown is pretty cheerful and calming, it's very catchy and has that great happy town mood you come to expect. Then the second day rolls in, and now it's almost an octane or two lower than before. Not only is this off-putting, but also reflects the current mentality of the people living in Clocktown. First day, no one seems to pay any mind to the coming catastrophe, but now people are starting to worry, taking it more seriously, and start leaving Clocktown. Then Day Three, dear lord, Day Three. The music goes from calm, to unsettling, to frantic and horrifying, the music speeds up in pace, telling you to hurry up and do what you got to do and reset. Once again reflecting the feelings everyone is probably having by now, they're scared, the fear of death is starting to settle in, and a lot of people have begun to even lose their minds, unable to handle their looming fate. And that's just one example of why Majora's Mask music is incredible to me. Dungeon music is also great, incorporating ambient sounds to the themes of the dungeons is brilliant, just like Ocarina of Time. Enhancing their setting and vibe tenfold. Thankfully, Majora's Mask has some genuinely calm and happy music as well, it's just a much rarer occurrence than any other Zelda game, so make sure to take a step back and relax to it when you can, because there's not much opportunity to do so. I always found myself stopping in my tracks to listen the music constantly, it catches your attention all the time, and I was so hypnotized every time, and I almost always felt some sort of emotion from each track in this game, sheer brilliance.

I have so much more to say, but I think I'll conclude my review here. I was honestly kind of worried tackling a game like Majora's Mask, since so many people including myself love this game, and I wanted to give it a review worthy of its stature. Still such a shame this game seems to still not get as much attention as it deserves, but I'll forever recommend and praise this game being one of my favorite experiences in my life. Not even as a game, or entertainment, just as a life experience, this game means so much to me, and always will. You can get Majora's Mask on Nintendo 64, and is on the Nintendo Switch through the Nintendo 64 game collection for Expansion Pass members. You can also get it on Wii U for a good price. You used to be able to get it on the Wii Shop Channel, but not anymore. Finally, the 3DS remake... oh boy, so I can't recommend this version of the game unfortunately, I played it myself, and thought it was... okay, I do think the enhanced graphics, new additions, and changes were for the worst, and ruined a lot about why Majora's Mask is such a good game. Do yourself a favor and play the original, but if you absolutely cannot stand the graphics or gameplay of the original for whatever reason, the 3DS version is fine. No matter what though, please experience this game for yourself, it truly is one of a kind.

My opinion is much the same as Ocarina, give or take a few things. I love Termina and it’s denizens, but I think it feels disconnected from the rest of the in-game world. I like that there’s more incentive to explore, more mini-dungeons and side quests, but the world itself is smaller and more closed off. I like the time management elements that come with the 3 day time limit (and just how meta it is that developers under a time crunch made a game about being under a time crunch), but it also makes the padding and tedious bits more frustrating. I love Ikana Valley and the Stone Tower dungeon, it’s like a precursor to BOTW’s Divine Beasts, but then the entirety of the Great Bay region makes me want to dolphin dive off a bridge. My favourite thing about this game is the atmosphere. The music in the final moments before the moon crashes sends chills down my spine, and Majora’s Mask itself just has this air of lovecraftian mystery to it that I adore. But then core gameplay is the same as Ocarina, meaning a lot of my problems with that translate over, not to mention new ones, like how unintuitive it is to swap out masks relative to how often you’ll have to do it, or how all your arrows and bombs are taken away when you reset, meaning you have to go out of your way to farm them up again, the amount of waiting you inevitably have to do, because even with the ability to skip ahead, some events only take place at specific hours, or all the little things that piss me off and add up, the deku’s stupidly inaccurate snot bubble, that annoying goron race, some of the finicky platforms, etc.

I think the highs in Ocarina of Time were higher, or at least connected with me more, and that game felt like an overall more polished product. Still, Majora’s Mask is interesting and different and despite my issues with it, I see why it’s so beloved.

Banger game. You'd think that with its rushed development and constant re-use of assets from OoT to the point where it might as well be an official romhack, that this game wouldn't be as fun or memorable as its predecessor, but they managed to miraculously make something that I enjoyed just as much as OoT. While this game doesn't have as sprawling of a world and the dungeons are kinda more misses than hits, the real appeal stems from the overall vibe of the game. Exploring a town during the three days before its imminent demise creates this really tense and dark atmosphere, and the lengths taken to essentially give every NPC their own schedule that they follow for the three days makes the world feel rather alive for an N64 game. The dark themes are kinda contrasted by the amount of actual color in the game itself, as I felt like the worlds and areas that ya explore here are way more colorful and vibrant than the muted color palette of OoT, and that was super cool. That being said though, the whole cycle system does mean that ya have to backtrack every time a quest-specific event goes wrong or if some specific item that resets isn't all collected in one time, and that could probably be annoying for some. There is also a bit of an inventory problem with masks taking up a slot on the 3-item wide inventory wheel so it makes frequent menu switching be prevalent throughout the whole game. It ain't perfect, but it doesn't really need to be. It's also a bit stingy when it comes to saving as you can only either save by resetting a whole cycle or by basically making a "suspend point" through owl statues. It never happened to me, but I'd feel like there's gotta be someone who had their play session ruined by something happening to their game before they could reset the cycle after being 2-3 hours in. Regardless, the fact that this game goes so far off the beaten path both in how the game is played and how the story is told makes it feel fresh and stand out in this series, and it's no surprise to me that this game has such a huge cult following.

Majora’s Mask is one of the most unique Zelda games of all time with a ton of rad ideas, surrounded by several annoying mechanics that can leave parts of the game feeling frustrating and tedious.

Similar to Ocarina, I have some very specific memories of playing Majora’s Mask as a kid but not a lot of overall memory of the game itself. My strongest memories are how cool it was that Link could transform into a Deku, Goron, and Zora and that the Couples quest was an absolute pain in the ass. I genuinely have such fond memories of Link being able to transform at will by just throwing on a mask. Even revisiting it now, it’s such an awesome mechanic.

The very concept of making Zelda a time loop game is a cool idea, but I found that that premise ended up causing a few annoyances (like having to have the same conversations with NPCs every single loop). The rules around what resets when you go back in time feels pretty arbitrary. Your ammo resets, but your health and magic do not. Why do I lose my arrows and bombs, but keep my bow and bomb bag? Why do I keep all of my masks? If every element in the world resets, why don’t pieces of heart respawn? Once you start thinking about it all, none of it really makes sense. Which is what leads me to my biggest complaint - dungeon regions completely resetting. One of the most satisfying things in the game is lifting the curses of the different areas in Termina after you beat the dungeon boss and get their mask. So nothing sucks more than restarting the loop and realizing that the poison you cleared from the swamp or the frost you cleared from the mountains is back and the dungeon boss is alive again, even though you still have their mask. What’s worse is that several puzzles require these regions to be in their “healed” states, which means you may need to go back and defeat a boss again. When you defeat a boss, claim its mask, and heal a region, the region should remain in that cleansed state. If not, how are any of the giants actually free? Better yet (even though this would’ve sucked), make the player go through and defeat all 4 bosses in the final time loop before continuing on to the final boss. Either fully commit to the time loop mechanic, or fully commit to your ability to master time.

As I played more of the game,I realized I never actually beat it as a kid or finished getting the masks, so I’m glad I remedied that. Not only did I beat the game, but I finally did the childhood goal I never achieved - I got the Fierce Deity mask, and holy crap was it cool. The little kid inside me was screaming as I wrecked the final boss as Fierce Deity Link. It only took revisiting the game 23 years later, but I finally conquered Majora’s Mask, even if the journey was occasionally annoying.

+ Link transforming into races that all play different is cool as heck
+ Time loop Zelda is an interesting idea
+ Gameplay holds up surprisingly well
+ Soundtrack rips
+ The mask collection aspect of the game is a cool, functional collectible

- Time loop logic feels arbitrary and inconsistent
- Zones resetting every loop is a bummer
- Losing all your ammo every loop sucks
- Having the same NPC conversations over and over is annoying

I think I can generally be pretty cynical in regards to Nintendo and their games in general, mostly a by-product of outside influences I suppose, but I find that despite my best efforts I can't be cynical in regards to a great majority of Zelda games, and Majora's Mask especially. Everytime I play Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask I come away just in fucking love with these games and video games in general. "Ah, fuck!! They're so good at making these fucking things!!"

So much has been waxed poetically about the themes of Majora's Mask that I don't think it's a productive use of your time or my time to get in detail about them. I know what this game is about and so do you, I just feel the need to say that I think the game warrants such deep readings. It does so much to get you thinking and asking questions that it deserves these long-ass essays about the fragility of time and life, and the compassion of doing good things for people who won't even know you did them, it's so rare to feel like a piece of art warrants everyone stepping up to the microphone to say what it means to them.

For me, personally, what it means is a game that I loved playing as a kid and still think is loads of fun. Before this most recent replay I replayed it recovering from dental surgery in 2018 when I was working as a manager at a high stress job so the dread of a looming threat of time felt so very real to me then, and now, far removed from that, I appreciate how Majora's Mask is able to evoke different times in my life for me without coloring my opinion of the game.

But really though, actually playing this bad boy is a blast. This had my favorite bosses in the series and still does, has my favorite dungeons, music, characters, and is far and away the best Zelda game. For the record, my other favorites are Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Ages/Seasons, Ocarina for similarly saccharine reasons, and Oracle for car-rides as a kid reasons.

Sometimes you can feel the changing tides in regards to critical appraisals for games, and I have a feeling Majora's Mask is about due to be the latest in "overrated" games. Ocarina of Time had to be the whipping boy for a few years so it's only fair. I just want to plant my flag now that I think Majora's Mask is a beautiful, excellent, fantastic game and I will NOT rescind my opinion. UNLESS a beautiful girl happens to think it sucks, in which case 1 star.

I think I understand why this game gives people such a weird feeling: it's unsettling but it isn't really dark. Everything is in technicolor, every character is smiling, the music becomes more and more lively as death inches closer. It's like a terrifying carousel ride that never stops. There's nothing as overtly "scary" as, say, the dead hands in Ocarina. It's more uncanny or uncomfortable. Obviously aside from the atmosphere the gameplay here is top notch. The time cycle lets you intimately study each character's behavior and experiment with how small actions can change outcomes drastically. Fewer dungeons means more complexity with most of the dungeons allowing you to change the layout in some major way to progress. Overall probably my favorite Zelda and something I think transcends the medium of video games.