Level Up: Majora's Mask

First, gonna say, I don't know what's up with the previous post, but I can't delete it. However, it's just image and text, so it's not hurting anyone. I'll just leave it. Anyways, here's the review that wasn't posted last week cause of it.

When I did my review of The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, I felt as if I was being a little unfair to the series. The point I was trying to make was that every game that Zelda touches isn’t automatically great, and some should just be considered on their own. The reason I felt bad though was because I was using an already beat down game to make that point, which made me feel like I was picking on the series for doing ONE bad thing. To make up for it, I am going to review a Zelda game that truly does stand on its own, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64.

Coming off the success of Ocarina of Time (the game all future Zelda titles would be compared to) Majora’s mask was trying to continue on Link’s adventure, but I would consider this more of a spin-off, since so much is different. You start off as young Link travelling on Epona looking for unnamed friend (it’s hinted to be Navi, who doesn’t appear in this game, but this plot point never comes up again anyways). During his search, Link gets knocked out and knocked off Epona by a skull kid wearing an odd mask. Waking up and realising that his magical ocarina has been stolen from, Link chases after the Skull kid only to fall down a hole. The Skull Kid laughs at Link and uses the mask’s power to turn Link into a Deku shrub. (Yeah, crap has already hit the fan.) The Skull kid then escapes, but leaves behind Talt, who reluctantly becomes Link’s fairy for this game. Link loses the Skull Kid, but meets up with Traveling Happy Mask Salesman. He informs our transmuted protagonist that he can help him out, but needs the Ocarina and would like the mask the Skull Kid had on (which was stolen from him) back. Link is given 3 days to complete this task.

I am now going to stop here, even though I could go on forever about the little details in this game’s story. It has a lot of depth and cool happenings in it. However, part of the fun of the game is experiencing it all first hand. Besides, this is where the game actually begins, and I think that’s a fair reason to move onto the game play.

If you haven’t guessed it already from our “No Ganon, no Zelda, no Hyrule” plot, this game is anything but typical for the series, and there are two Big curve balls to the game play: a time cycle and the masks. It has the normal Zelda adventuring elements, but these are the points WORTH mentioning.

I’ll start with the masks. I already told you that Young Link gets turned into a Deku, but eventually the Happy Mask Salesman helps him out by turning Link’s Deku form into a mask, allowing Link to transform back into one whenever he wants. There are a total of 3 transformation masks that Link will be able to use at any time: Zora, Goron and the already mentioned Deku. As you would imagine, each one has its own use (example: Zora has limitless swim ability and will never drown). There are other types of masks and they all do something special (mostly obtained during or relating to side quests), but these 3 are the real game play element; you’ll always be using them. And rolling around as a Goron is so fun it’s worth mentioning.

The 3 day cycle, though not as fun, is something that was just inspired. Majora’s Mask has a clock in the game that works on 3 (not real time) days. At the end of the third day, it’s game over. However, after you get back your Ocarina, you can go back to the start of the first day. The truly inspired thing is that this game is full of events, and some of them just happen at certain times. For example, there’s an alien abduction scene (once again, far from typical Zelda) and it only ever happens during the night of the second day. You should eventually become impressed by how much time specific stuff is happening in this game outside of the actual adventuring. Restarting the 3 day cycle, however, will undo some events, such as paths you unblocked or people you helped. While this can seem like a headache (especially since its how you save) I think it helps with the replay value of this game: you can redo any dungeon you would like at any time.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is an awesome game not afraid to take risks. Yet, it’s also quite similar to Ocarina of time without being a direct sequel by making references to some of the bit characters seen before and giving it more depth (the Happy Mask Salesman for example). Some may critic it for being short (4 real levels, plus the intro and outro) but the side quests should keep you busy for a while. This game is just all around enjoyable: from the natural feeling setting, to the fun game play, to the creepy pasta story and cut-scenes. Seriously, what can you hate about a game with a gold cartridge? Especially one that lets you roll around as a Goron! I give the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 10 levels out of 10.