I'm sorry for your loss. Don't feel bad though, I'm sure your counterpart in the Termina alternate universe of Earth had the life-changing experience you could never have. Too bad they're doomed to die at the hands, or should I say, face of a cursed moon in absence of a chosen hero, but that's the beauty and fragility of life, man. Live for today, not The Final Day.
...Or is that live every day like it's The Final Day?
Anyway, Anju's mine and she belongs to me and I'll take on anyone, even you, Mr. Asparagus. Ain't scared of a bloody nose!
...Uhhhhhhhhh... okay then!
Well, this is one of the biggest laughs I have had all day. It would have been the biggest indisputably, if I had not rewatched a YouTube video about Super Mario Bros. without touching the ground. Thanks for your... kind... words. And thanks for understanding.
Also, was that, by any chance, a Veggie Tales reference?
I understand. I actually really liked this game back in its time, but when I got it again for the 3DS, I couldn\'t stand it. It made me very aware of how the game\'s flow is basically puzzle, puzzle, puzzle. Not combat, not exploration, just puzzles. It felt like the reward for solving a puzzle was often another puzzle.
I still really liked it back in its day, but I\'ve since wanted a different experience, and Breath of the Wild provided it, shifting back to action and exploration over puzzles.
I absolutely understand where you are coming from. Several of the things you mentioned are things that kept me from enjoying Majora\'s Mask when I played it myself. The first cycle, when most of the control of actually doing something and having you stuck in Clock Town, is very boring. And unless one realizes that they can use the scarecrow to dance away most of the time, it\'s also a really long section. It was a very boring, slow beginning.
The whole aspect of having to rewind time to actually complete the game (though it can be done in one cycle, but only if you super micromanage everything in the game) really hurt it for me. I don\'t mind replaying games, including Zelda, but I never had that desire with this game. Probably because it felt like I was already replaying the game by having to rewind time to actually get anything done. I didn\'t find the shrines interesting, I didn\'t care about any of the characters in the game and had no desire to help them and I, honestly, felt like the game was trying very, very hard to be dark.
And it forced its darkness so hard, it immediately caused me to not care what happens to anyone.
Not everybody is forced to like a game, not even the \"acclaimed\" ones. This was an insightful review. =)
Mind you, I do like the game, but I admit it\'s by no means perfect.
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I... Could Not Like It...
Majora's Mask was a major factor in convincing me games are a very subjective form of entertainment. I played it when I was just a kid... and I didn't like it.
The game starts with you searching for a friend you never find, and then you're mutated into a wood midget. You hobble around trying to figure out how to recover your ocarina. I found this segment painfully restricting, and figuring out what to do next was a chore. No saving for the first 3-day cycle was also a pain; you had to do it all in one go. The game had a dark, twisted tone which I didn't like (I played this after the (mostly) bright, cheery Wind Waker). Eventually, I got the ocarina and reset time.
Then I proceeded through the main quest, and constantly found myself in Guide Dang It! situations. How was I supposed to know how to give that witch the soup instead of drinking it myself? How was I supposed to know that I could keep this item in the time loop and not that item? To play this song here? How to save your rupees? To finish this dungeon before I ran out of time? There were only four main dungeons and I found them frustrating and confusing. If I didn't play the song of time before turning the power off, or if I couldn't finish an objective in time, I lost all my progress. This also erased all my progress in most of the stray fairy hunts.
Apparently sidequests are the meat of this game, but I couldn't even figure most of them out. There was a kid who walked to his house on the first day, but I couldn't get his attention, and ringing the bell only got him out to run back in. Oh well, I hope I didn't miss out on a wonderful sidquest I'll never get to experience myself! Many things in the game seemed confusing and cryptic, and the time mechanic discouraged me from exploring freely. Were my actions even making a difference? Was I in the wrong place at the wrong time? Would I run out of time? I at least did the one with Romani and Cremia; that was okay, but still exhausting to figure out.
Eventually, I beat the last boss (blasting him with light arrows was really satisfying), and was rewarded with a happy ending cutscene. But now I was left feeling happy that I was done with the game, rather than feeling happy that I played it. And we leave Termina.
Being a kid probably hurt my experience, but games are for kids too, and I think this is a valid perspective to put out there. If you loved the game, I understand, but please try to understand me. Many praise this game as a Sacred Cow, but no Zelda game is perfect. Not even this one. If you want to try it, I recommend using advice or a guide, or trying the 3DS remake; I believe it fixed some of these flaws. I do NOT recommend playing this if you haven't played Zelda before; it's not very accessible. I wish I enjoyed my playthrough more, but without an Ocarina of Time, that can't be changed.