How do you possibly follow up the biggest adventure you’ve made thus far? Most companies would resort to trying to make something bigger; bigger map, more dungeons, elevating the formula. Not Nintendo though. They took a totally different approach and ended up making the weirdest, most creative sequel to the most critically acclaimed game of all time. When I say weird I don’t mean in a wacky way like Link’s Awakening, Majora’s Mask is more weird in a bizarre, freaky, and eerie way.
Majora’s Mask shines through its theming. It is for sure the most thematically mature game in the franchise. They go weird places in this game that you wouldn’t expect from Nintendo. The main premise is quite simple: you’re stuck in a 3-day time loop where you have to save the world from a world-ending crashing moon. I mean what makes that so special? Hyrule has always been under threat throughout the series. Well Hyrule is not Termina. It might look similar due to all the models being ripped from Ocarina of Time’s engine, but Termina carries itself differently than Hyrule does.
I talked about how Ocarina of Time is a very welcoming game that makes sure you’re fully equipped for the journey before embarking on it. Majora’s Mask is nothing like that. You start the game with your items and horse being stolen from you, falling through a hole, being cursed into becoming a Deku Scrub, and being terrorized by a dog in your first few minutes of the game. You look up at the sky and WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? The moon has a creepy face and is slowly hurling towards you. You then realize how the NPCs are aware of their impending doom and are dealing with it in their own different ways.
Everywhere you look in Majora’s Mask gives you an overwhelming sense of stress, dread and despair. From the UI constantly showing you a countdown to the end of the world to the brooding atmosphere accompanied by the unnerving music. The atmosphere is the main thing that sets this game apart from the rest of the series for me. Majora’s Mask is a moody, dark, and occasionally introspective game. Death is around every corner in Termina and it forces all the characters to reflect on what life means for them.
The main quest is simple but doesn’t shy away from its own emotional punches. Every region you go to has a major issue happening and has you discover a member of that tribe who didn’t die in peace. With your ocarina in hand, you play them one of the most powerful melodies in the series: The Song of Healing. As you help these inhabitants swiftly move on to the other side, they leave a mask behind with all of their sorrows. Which brings me to the main gimmick of the game: Masks. Termina definitely has a thing for masks, everybody has a mask for some reason. Some masks, like the ones acquired through the main story, transform you into the person who left that mask behind for you. Allowing you to play as a Goron, Zora and Deku Scrub for the only time in the series. Each with their own unique play styles and mechanics. Not all of the masks transform you however, some have unique quirks like making your run faster or invisible to enemies and some are purely cosmetic.
While there are only four dungeons, they are all great. All four of them are some of the best dungeons in the series to be honest and have such creative gimmicks and ideas. I’ll never forget the feeling of figuring out I had to flip the entire dungeon in Stone Tower to solve some of its puzzles. They did a fantastic job designing all of these. Especially with translating the difficulty progression that would normally span across 7-10 dungeons into 4. The first dungeon is pretty simple and good at easing you into the game but they get real tricky right after.
What I love so much about Majora’s Mask is that everything in its design is intentional and is there to drive the themes of the game home. While the map is significantly smaller than its predecessor, the compact world of Termina is a lot more deliberate in its design. Every corner of that map fulfills a specific, thought-out purpose in your journey. NPCs are sprinkled all throughout the map and my oh my are these some of the best NPCs I’ve encountered in any game. Each one of them either helps you, or gives you a meaningful side quest and they all feel like real people who have things to do and worry about. The happy-go-lucky postman that’s constantly running around town? Follow him around and you’ll see him cry in his bed after his shift due to the impending world’s end. Every part of the map and every NPC in the game is vital to Majora’s Mask’s revolutionary way of storytelling.
The side quests are one of the many integral ways Majora’s Mask approaches storytelling. Everyone in Termina is going to die and they know they’re going to die. With so much character given to the NPCs, you can’t help but feel bad for everyone. Death is looming around the corner for all of these people and they’re all in despair. Most of the side quests carry the general subtext of “I need to do this one thing so I can die in peace” and my god do they all carry such emotional narrative weight. From simple things like a farmer wanting to see his chicks grow up to be roosters to the shy inn keeper wanting to get married to her missing fiancé. All the side quests perfectly tug at your heartstrings as they give the people of Termina lives with hopes, dreams, and regrets. These side quests are home to my favorite moments of Majora’s Mask and are the main reason Termina is the most immersive setting in the series by far.
The way Majora’s Mask carries and presents itself is unlike any other game I’ve ever played. It can get really playful and witty and shift to some really depressing territory. The game never feels like too much though despite its heavy subject matter. There’s always a sense of hope you carry with you from helping Termina and its inhabitants. That’s what makes the main quest and the side quests so rewarding. You, the player, are directly responsible for making the game less stressful and less gloomy by helping as many people as you can. That is what I mean when I say every part of Majora’s Mask feels like it was created with intent. Everything just organically works into pushing the narrative and theme of the game without trying hard.
I really wasn’t planning on writing such a long review for Majora’s Mask but it’s really hard to talk about this game briefly. I always found Ocarina of Time to be the vastly superior game but playing these two back to back offered me great insight. Despite my emotional connection to Ocarina of Time, I feel like Majora’s Mask builds on its foundation in elevates on it in every way that matters to me. Bigger isn’t always better for me, I much prefer the approach the team took here into delivering such a heartfelt, meaningful, bold, and powerful game. Is it my absolute favorite Zelda game? It just might be. Majora’s Mask now sits at the top of my marathon ranking so far when pre-marathon it sat at fifth place under Ocarina of Time. I’m excited to see if favorites of mine like The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess manage to resonate with me more than Majora’s Mask did.
Majora’s Mask shines through its theming. It is for sure the most thematically mature game in the franchise. They go weird places in this game that you wouldn’t expect from Nintendo. The main premise is quite simple: you’re stuck in a 3-day time loop where you have to save the world from a world-ending crashing moon. I mean what makes that so special? Hyrule has always been under threat throughout the series. Well Hyrule is not Termina. It might look similar due to all the models being ripped from Ocarina of Time’s engine, but Termina carries itself differently than Hyrule does.
I talked about how Ocarina of Time is a very welcoming game that makes sure you’re fully equipped for the journey before embarking on it. Majora’s Mask is nothing like that. You start the game with your items and horse being stolen from you, falling through a hole, being cursed into becoming a Deku Scrub, and being terrorized by a dog in your first few minutes of the game. You look up at the sky and WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? The moon has a creepy face and is slowly hurling towards you. You then realize how the NPCs are aware of their impending doom and are dealing with it in their own different ways.
Everywhere you look in Majora’s Mask gives you an overwhelming sense of stress, dread and despair. From the UI constantly showing you a countdown to the end of the world to the brooding atmosphere accompanied by the unnerving music. The atmosphere is the main thing that sets this game apart from the rest of the series for me. Majora’s Mask is a moody, dark, and occasionally introspective game. Death is around every corner in Termina and it forces all the characters to reflect on what life means for them.
The main quest is simple but doesn’t shy away from its own emotional punches. Every region you go to has a major issue happening and has you discover a member of that tribe who didn’t die in peace. With your ocarina in hand, you play them one of the most powerful melodies in the series: The Song of Healing. As you help these inhabitants swiftly move on to the other side, they leave a mask behind with all of their sorrows. Which brings me to the main gimmick of the game: Masks. Termina definitely has a thing for masks, everybody has a mask for some reason. Some masks, like the ones acquired through the main story, transform you into the person who left that mask behind for you. Allowing you to play as a Goron, Zora and Deku Scrub for the only time in the series. Each with their own unique play styles and mechanics. Not all of the masks transform you however, some have unique quirks like making your run faster or invisible to enemies and some are purely cosmetic.
While there are only four dungeons, they are all great. All four of them are some of the best dungeons in the series to be honest and have such creative gimmicks and ideas. I’ll never forget the feeling of figuring out I had to flip the entire dungeon in Stone Tower to solve some of its puzzles. They did a fantastic job designing all of these. Especially with translating the difficulty progression that would normally span across 7-10 dungeons into 4. The first dungeon is pretty simple and good at easing you into the game but they get real tricky right after.
What I love so much about Majora’s Mask is that everything in its design is intentional and is there to drive the themes of the game home. While the map is significantly smaller than its predecessor, the compact world of Termina is a lot more deliberate in its design. Every corner of that map fulfills a specific, thought-out purpose in your journey. NPCs are sprinkled all throughout the map and my oh my are these some of the best NPCs I’ve encountered in any game. Each one of them either helps you, or gives you a meaningful side quest and they all feel like real people who have things to do and worry about. The happy-go-lucky postman that’s constantly running around town? Follow him around and you’ll see him cry in his bed after his shift due to the impending world’s end. Every part of the map and every NPC in the game is vital to Majora’s Mask’s revolutionary way of storytelling.
The side quests are one of the many integral ways Majora’s Mask approaches storytelling. Everyone in Termina is going to die and they know they’re going to die. With so much character given to the NPCs, you can’t help but feel bad for everyone. Death is looming around the corner for all of these people and they’re all in despair. Most of the side quests carry the general subtext of “I need to do this one thing so I can die in peace” and my god do they all carry such emotional narrative weight. From simple things like a farmer wanting to see his chicks grow up to be roosters to the shy inn keeper wanting to get married to her missing fiancé. All the side quests perfectly tug at your heartstrings as they give the people of Termina lives with hopes, dreams, and regrets. These side quests are home to my favorite moments of Majora’s Mask and are the main reason Termina is the most immersive setting in the series by far.
The way Majora’s Mask carries and presents itself is unlike any other game I’ve ever played. It can get really playful and witty and shift to some really depressing territory. The game never feels like too much though despite its heavy subject matter. There’s always a sense of hope you carry with you from helping Termina and its inhabitants. That’s what makes the main quest and the side quests so rewarding. You, the player, are directly responsible for making the game less stressful and less gloomy by helping as many people as you can. That is what I mean when I say every part of Majora’s Mask feels like it was created with intent. Everything just organically works into pushing the narrative and theme of the game without trying hard.
I really wasn’t planning on writing such a long review for Majora’s Mask but it’s really hard to talk about this game briefly. I always found Ocarina of Time to be the vastly superior game but playing these two back to back offered me great insight. Despite my emotional connection to Ocarina of Time, I feel like Majora’s Mask builds on its foundation in elevates on it in every way that matters to me. Bigger isn’t always better for me, I much prefer the approach the team took here into delivering such a heartfelt, meaningful, bold, and powerful game. Is it my absolute favorite Zelda game? It just might be. Majora’s Mask now sits at the top of my marathon ranking so far when pre-marathon it sat at fifth place under Ocarina of Time. I’m excited to see if favorites of mine like The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess manage to resonate with me more than Majora’s Mask did.
3 Comments
I love the Zelda games but the only other title that feels similarly tight and unified behind a clear artistic vision is links awakening IMO.
@Parallax_M — Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate you reading my reviews as I do put in a lot of effort into writing them.
I fully agree about the Edgar Allan Poe concept. I didn’t really appreciate Majora’s Mask back when I was younger but replaying it as an adult just made it click for me in every way. Maybe because I can catch its nuances more, or maybe it’s because I have lived longer therefore got to experience what some of these characters are going through and found myself relating. Whatever it is, I can finally see Majora’s Mask for its unique exploration of these concepts and for being the most “complete” Zelda experience.
As much as I love the Zelda series, I agree that most of the games aren’t as intentional as Majora’s Mask is. They can be all over the place sometimes. Majora’s Mask, Link’s Awakening and maybe Breath of the Wild to me seem to be the entries that commit the most into delivering their theme and message.
I fully agree about the Edgar Allan Poe concept. I didn’t really appreciate Majora’s Mask back when I was younger but replaying it as an adult just made it click for me in every way. Maybe because I can catch its nuances more, or maybe it’s because I have lived longer therefore got to experience what some of these characters are going through and found myself relating. Whatever it is, I can finally see Majora’s Mask for its unique exploration of these concepts and for being the most “complete” Zelda experience.
As much as I love the Zelda series, I agree that most of the games aren’t as intentional as Majora’s Mask is. They can be all over the place sometimes. Majora’s Mask, Link’s Awakening and maybe Breath of the Wild to me seem to be the entries that commit the most into delivering their theme and message.
Parallax_M
5 months ago
Majora’s Mask kind of makes me think of Edgar Allan Poe’s idea of “unity of effect” where he states that a work of art should be created with the intention of producing a specific effect for the reader and that absolutely everything in the work should contribute to that and anything superfluous should be purged. MM is such a tightly constructed game with a really clear artistic vision. Can’t really think of much in the game - apart from maybe the frog side quest - that doesn’t positively contribute to the games unique identity. Video games rarely feel so unified and rarely have such a clear artistic identity. Really such a treat to play MM in spite of it being a kind of stressful game to complete.