Majora's Mask
How do you follow the best game of all time?!
By creating Link's Awakening.
... okay, kidding aside, Nintendo definitely found themselves in a dilemma. They'd made what many gamers at that time considered the best game of all time, so how did they follow up that act? Well, for the first time in the series history, they would do it by recycling a game engine. Each Zelda game up to this point would have a completely new engine built for it. Majora's Mask, instead, merely took the Ocarina of Time engine and tweaked it. What Nintendo were probably thinking was that it was a safe bet, that if they stuck with what people were in love with, it'd be easier to make a followup hit.
Oh, and switching up the gameplay formula entirely.
Majora's Mask is not your typical Zelda. It plays similarly enough to one to narrowly avoid being plopped into that "black sheep" category along with Zelda II, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures. Well, in my opinion; I can easily see why someone else would want to lump it into that group. But while it has dungeon-crawling and objectives to reach between each dungeon, it does so... with a twist.
You only have three days.
The biggest and most obvious change-up in the game is the clock system. The moon is falling, you have three days to save the world. 72 hours. Each in-game minute takes only a second in real life, meaning you have exactly one hour and twelve minutes to beat the game. Okay, so the restraint's not that tight, as you can reset the three-day period by playing the Song of Time on the Ocarina of Time. But that comes at a price: All ammo and rupees will be lost, bottles will be emptied, and any good deeds you did will be forgotten. You'll still keep all the weapon items, gear, and masks you find, though.
That leads to the next big shake-up: The masks. The Happy Mask Salesman from Ocarina of Time returns, but now he's not merely some creepy-grinned guy behind a counter lending you masks to sell to strangers; he's actually one of the catalysts of the plot. Seen traveling with a large backpack speckled with various masks, he's had one stolen from him from another returning character, the Skull Kid. A mischievous little imp, he takes the mask for fun, not realizing the evil energy inside the mask that he unleashes upon wearing it. The world of Termina—nope, not Hyrule—is thrust into chaos, as just about everyone's lives are impacted by some strange magic the imp has cast. Including pulling the moon from its orbit.
Wait, that was more about the plot than the masks. Uh... well, the mask transformations are restricted to five (two with limited uses), and turn Link into new forms: Deku Link, Goron Link, and Zora Link. And no, they're not just magic masks that you can buy from the Happy Mask Salesman; you're actually allowing the soul of a deceased being to inhabit your physical form. Sound strange? You ain't heard nothing yet.
It is, in fact, the Deku Link form that you play through most of the beginning as. It starts as Link rides Epona through the Lost Woods, searching for Navi, when he's ambushed by two other fairies and his horse and Ocarina are stolen by the Skull Kid. Passing by the deceased form of the Deku whose soul now inhabits you, you make it to your first encounter with the Salesman, who tells you about the falling moon, the Skull Kid, Majora's Mask, and sends you on your way.
It's this point in my writing I realize I'm practically breaking down the game minute by minute, so I need to shift gears before this becomes the largest post on the site.
Majora's Mask is an experiment. Nintendo wasn't afraid to completely shake up everything and give it a new spin. They did that by... only giving us four main dungeons? Okay... The focus of this game is now upon sidequests, and exploration. Thorough... thorough exploration. Almost all of the masks you receive are through sidequests. Some grant interesting abilities, others do nothing but give you a Heart Container Piece if you use it in the right location. In fact, several masks are needed just to get other masks. But few of them are actually useful in the game's progression, the rest being there for only a few conveniences that are otherwise unnecessary. Helpful, but unnecessary. Though, I suppose that adds a bit to the depth of the game, like how the multiple items in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time can lead to multiple ways to fight enemies.
Unfortunately, most of these sidequests end up pretty tedious. A lot of them feel unpolished and several of them require waiting till a certain time of day to participate in, so you'll often find yourself standing around doing nothing while waiting for that time. If you're knowledgeable, you can look into other things to do while you wait, but there's always the risk of being late to the original sidequest, so this can be risky. There's also the fact that you have to learn about the sidequests first (assuming you're not using a guide), which also lends to quite a bit of tedium. Sure, there's a helpful addition in the Bombers' Notebook, but this can be missed easily if you don't catch all five Bomber boys again as regular Link; you already know the password to the observatory, so why would you want to unless you knew you had to?
Sure, it's very, very interesting that all the NPCs are tied to the clock, and you can even observe them moving about and coming and going. But the game tends to be pretty rough around the edges because of the potentially-confusing aspects and often-tedious quests. It may seem the most like a living, breathing world because of that, but the clock function and rewinding of time is a feature that, in my opinion, should be a one-and-done feature, never to return. Zelda games play best without restraints, as the series has proven time and time again. That's not to say the feature is bad, it's just different, but one I'd rather not see again.
There are reprieves, as some of the objectives and quests are fun and interesting. But they can also be confusing and frustrating for first-time players. I suppose the same could be said of other entries in the series, so perhaps it's the time constraint that makes this seem a bit more like a problem and source of frustration. Most of the time, assuming you play the Song of Inverted Time, you'll actually have more than enough time to get through these sidequests the first time, though you'll likely have to reset the cycle to have enough time for the dungeon until you get better at the game. In particular, the Snowhead quest can be incredibly tedious the first time around, and if you don't remember everything later. Ikana can be confusing as well, and the Well portion is in particular a low point. Generally, the other quests leading to dungeons are acceptable and far more interesting, fortunately.
Now, let's get to dungeons. The series' biggest staple. We had nine of them in the original, seven in the sequel, eleven in A Link to the Past (12 counting Hyrule Castle), eight in Link's Awakening, and nine in Ocarina of Time. So of course, for Majora's Mask, we'd get the impressive number of... ... four. Well, I'm sure we can forgive them if their design is all top-notch, right? Well... Woodfall serves as a fine introductory level, but it's also pretty forgettable. Snowhead has an interesting gimmick, but it's also a bit tedious and can get annoying if you miss a jump or mess up the Goron rolling. Which... can be easy to do, and even getting into the place is a chore.
But we have Great Bay Temple, which I firmly believe is the best water dungeon in the series to date, and one of the best dungeons in the series. It's a new gimmick, it's highly interesting, and it provides us a unique and most excellent use of the ice arrows. It's an enjoyable dungeon that I love playing. Following that dungeon, we have the Stone Tower Temple... many claim this as the best dungeon in the series, or one of the best. I... can't see the appeal. It's honestly a bit short and underwhelming. Sure, you can flip the entire dungeon, but it doesn't really open up many new opportunities; they could have used additional floors instead and the experience wouldn't have been much different. And if you forget the boss key too early, well, you'll have to navigate the floor again to get back to it. Don't get me started on the Elegy of Emptiness.
So the dungeons aren't perfect, and it doesn't really help that apart from Stone Tower Temple, none of them have any enjoyable or memorable music. Sure, you can argue that there's still "tons" of other content to sink your teeth into, but considering the vast majority of this is optional and can be ignored entirely, it's not a heavy argument. Sidequests are dandy, but when your main quest is short and not the greatest experience ever, it tends to be a bit of a letdown. Oh hey, all the sentences in this paragraph started with s— aaaaaaaaaaand I ruined it.
But really, Majora's Mask isn't a bad game. It's just... it's not the most enjoyable experience. It feels like an experiment, honestly. With some tweaking and refinement, it would be far more fun. The characters being fleshed out, that's a good thing. Many of the characters are fleshed-out and interesting. There are tons of hidden goodies to find, always a plus in a Zelda series. The music is pretty topnotch. The atmosphere is interesting. The individual sections of the overworld are well-designed and have a life of their own, even if they don't connect as well with each other as Ocarina of Time's did. And Romani's pretty much the most adorable thing ever.
I'll say that if people thought there was nothing to do in Hyrule Field, have fun with the tiny, boring, and... random Termina Field. Even less to do there. It's just... boring. Yeah, sure, I suppose it's less annoying to cross. But it's still... empty. And still nothing to do in it. Not really an improvement.
Last thing I'll touch on is the story. The story is really found in the lives of the individual characters, rather than the game narration. All you know is, Skull Kid took the mask, he's causing trouble, he sealed away the Giants which are the gods of the land, he awakened evil, and sowed general misfortune in all of Termina. Now you got to stop him. That's it. There's really little to the main story, which in a way adds mystery to the land of Termina. But also questions. Questions we may never get answers to. Termina really is a mysterious and interesting place, but... we never really get any history or explanation for it. Most we get is the Giants, otherwise we know nothing about the land itself. There's the Ikana theories, which are excellent, but just that: Theories. It's both fascinating and disappointing...
In conclusion, Majora's Mask is certainly different. Not one of the best experiences ever unfortunately, but still an enjoyable one. If you know what you're doing. Though it can still grate on your nerves with the tedium it contains, and its lacking in dungeon design and quantity. It's my least-favorite of the 3D Zelda games, but that's due to its small scope and various annoyances, and the other 3D Zelda games are just superior in design, in my opinion. It honestly does just feel like more of an expansion than a unique game, but it certainly earns its place in the Zelda series. And I guess Tatl was better than Navi both as a guide and character, but even she gave me moments where I was annoyed with her. Still though, Majora's Mask is not one of the greatest Zelda games ever made, but it's certainly worth a playthrough.