This game is an utter masterpiece and I will treasure it forever.
In a setting mostly divorced from the Zelda standard, Link finds himself trapped in a land facing imminent annihilation by a gigantic moon being brought down to the earth over the course of three days. There is little Link can do until he reacquires his ocarina and is able to reset to the moment he arrived...but he can keep key items he's collected along the way to become stronger.
Majora is minimalist game design since it was made very shortly after Ocarina and had to reuse most of the same assets, but it feels shockingly modern next to Ocarina. Living in a linear time loop, learning the routines of characters, and growing to make more progress each time is really advanced and richly explored, and the game includes four transformation movesets that amount to Link becoming multiple playable characters in a way that also holds up today. Things keep the loop fresh, like having to deposit money each time to get it back the next loop, or trying to figure out how to visit places earlier in the sequence than you're initially made able to.
But this game is most known for its atmosphere. It's a game about the horror and tragedy of impending apocalypse, keenly highlighted by creepy masks, a grimacing plummeting moon, and stories of people who stand to be lost at the end of the world. As the time winds forward each three-day loop, the threat grows closer, and the final hours are sublimely terrifying and bleak as you await the end. The game is heavily built on sidequesting in a way that works beautifully with time-loop learning and observation, and the stories of the people you meet see terror, regret, sadness, anger, and joy amid the end. Ocarina of Time felt entirely emotionally stale to me, with a generic story and tired comedy. Majora's Mask nails every emotional beat and it's the most hard-hitting, unusual, powerful Zelda story as a result. Excellent writing. I'll never forget things like a ghost wishing he hadn't died, a sick father locked up by his terrified little daughter, or lovers separated by a curse and insecurity. You know all of the joys and sorrows of this little world, and it makes the inevitable annihilation all the harder to think about—and all the more important to avert. The music is also excellent and the 3DS remake's graphics feel leagues above Ocarina 3D's.
While the game makes sidequests a rare delight, the dungeons themselves did not satisfy me. On a time limit, it's a little unfair to expect dungeon-solving to work out, and the bosses in the remake can be pretty BS and frustrating due to some mechanic and rule changes. That can't undo the power of the story and atmosphere, though.
This game is not typical Zelda, but I find it to be a case study in huge success with a radical time-rushed game design and in supremely dark, supremely humanist fantasy narrative writing for kids.
Grim, poignant, and with shockingly rich gameplay.
This game is an utter masterpiece and I will treasure it forever.
In a setting mostly divorced from the Zelda standard, Link finds himself trapped in a land facing imminent annihilation by a gigantic moon being brought down to the earth over the course of three days. There is little Link can do until he reacquires his ocarina and is able to reset to the moment he arrived...but he can keep key items he's collected along the way to become stronger.
Majora is minimalist game design since it was made very shortly after Ocarina and had to reuse most of the same assets, but it feels shockingly modern next to Ocarina. Living in a linear time loop, learning the routines of characters, and growing to make more progress each time is really advanced and richly explored, and the game includes four transformation movesets that amount to Link becoming multiple playable characters in a way that also holds up today. Things keep the loop fresh, like having to deposit money each time to get it back the next loop, or trying to figure out how to visit places earlier in the sequence than you're initially made able to.
But this game is most known for its atmosphere. It's a game about the horror and tragedy of impending apocalypse, keenly highlighted by creepy masks, a grimacing plummeting moon, and stories of people who stand to be lost at the end of the world. As the time winds forward each three-day loop, the threat grows closer, and the final hours are sublimely terrifying and bleak as you await the end. The game is heavily built on sidequesting in a way that works beautifully with time-loop learning and observation, and the stories of the people you meet see terror, regret, sadness, anger, and joy amid the end. Ocarina of Time felt entirely emotionally stale to me, with a generic story and tired comedy. Majora's Mask nails every emotional beat and it's the most hard-hitting, unusual, powerful Zelda story as a result. Excellent writing. I'll never forget things like a ghost wishing he hadn't died, a sick father locked up by his terrified little daughter, or lovers separated by a curse and insecurity. You know all of the joys and sorrows of this little world, and it makes the inevitable annihilation all the harder to think about—and all the more important to avert. The music is also excellent and the 3DS remake's graphics feel leagues above Ocarina 3D's.
While the game makes sidequests a rare delight, the dungeons themselves did not satisfy me. On a time limit, it's a little unfair to expect dungeon-solving to work out, and the bosses in the remake can be pretty BS and frustrating due to some mechanic and rule changes. That can't undo the power of the story and atmosphere, though.
This game is not typical Zelda, but I find it to be a case study in huge success with a radical time-rushed game design and in supremely dark, supremely humanist fantasy narrative writing for kids.