The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is not a typical Zelda game. To capitalize on the success of The Ocarina of Time (OoT), Nintendo gave Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, and their team one year to create a sequel using the same assets and engine. Majora's Mask is set in an eerie, dream-like, parallel world appropriately named Termina, populated by doppelgangers of NPCs from OoT. It uses a unique, Groundhog Day-like, three-day cycle, which Link must keep reseting to gain more time to save Termina from its heavenly doom.
An opening cinematic shows the Skull Kid (a minor character in OoT), wearing Majora’s Mask, steal Link's horse and ocarina, then turn him into a Deku Scrub. The mask empowers him to make the moon, with a disturbing grin on its face, hurtle toward Termina. A strange mask salesman, from whom the eponymous Mask was stolen, asks Link to get it back. The first part of the game is completed in Deku form, swordless. Though Link fails to reclaim the mask, the Skull Kid does drop the Ocarina of Time. A fairy named Tael tells him to play the Song of Time to go back in time to the first day (of three). The salesman uncurses Link, and Tael directs him to awaken four gods to stop the Skull Kid.
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| Skull Kid wearing Majora's Mask |
Each day in Termina lasts about eighteen minutes in the real world. You can stretch this out by playing the Song of Time backwards (a must). This song can be learned in Clock Town, the game's central hub, from a scarecrow. An on-screen clock constantly shows what time it is. Unless you want to see the moon crash and the Game Over screen, Link eventually must play the Song of Time to reset the clock, again and again and again. However, he somehow keeps all of his equipment, like the bow, hookshot, big wallet, heart containers, bottles, etc., as well as any rupees he stored in the bank. Disposible items, like deku nuts, sticks, magic beans, bombs, and arrows, are lost. This is not a problem as they are easily regained by killing enemies, breaking pots, and slashing grass. As in many Zelda games, there isn't much use for rupees since every important item is found—unless you struggle with combat and need a lot of health potions.
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| Don't look up. |
With the same engine Majora's Mask looks and plays exactly like OoT. The Z-targeting combat takes a back seat to puzzle-solving and story elements. Putting on masks play a much larger role compared to OoT, and there are many more of them. Three are critical, transforming Link and granting him new abilities. The Deku mask makes him a Deku Scrub. While in Deku form, Link can blow bubbles and launch into the air using flowers. The Goron mask makes him a Goron, able to roll around like a boulder and destroy heavy things with a punch. The Zora mask makes him a Zora, able to swim underwater and throw boomerangs. There are twenty other masks, the vast majority being optional. If Link collects them all, he is rewarded with the powerful Fierce Deity Mask, which can be donned only in boss rooms.
The game revolves around four regions, each with a centerpiece dungeon. These are also seasonally themed: winter is to the north, a snowy mountain; summer is to the east, a scorching canyon; fall is to the south, a swamp; and spring is to the west, the ocean and a bay. Nature is out of whack in each region: the Deku swamp is poisoned, the Goron mountains are frozen, the Zora bay is polluted, and the canyon is haunted. In each place, Link must learn a new tune and play it on his ocarina to access the dungeon. When Link defeats its boss (in addition to gaining an extra heart of health for himself), nature returns to normal—but only until he turns back time again! It feels weird that Link's work is undone, but it drives home the game's cyclical, Sisyphean theme. If you do need to fix an area again to complete a side quest, the dungeon entrance can teleport Link directly to the boss room.
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| Link will play this song a lot. |
The game is linear. First Link heads south to the poisoned swamp. By becoming a Deku Scrub, he exonerates a monkey wrongly blamed for kidnapping the Deku Princess (kidnapped princesses were still a trope in 2000!). Then it's off to the wintery mountain. In his strong Goron form, Link defeats a mechanical monster named Goht, releasing the mountain from its magical winter (another trope). Next is the bay, where Link, as a Zora, helps a Zora pop band named the Indigo-gos. The lead singer, Lulu, has lost her voice: Link retrieves her eggs from pirates (repurposed Gerudo), then enters the Great Bay Temple to defeat a big, masked fish. The final locale is Ikana Canyon. This requires a trip to a graveyard and an ancient castle. In Stone Tower Temple, all three masks are needed. Finally, Link enters the moon to defeat Majora's Mask itself!
Incidentally, the Great Bay Temple is this game's version of the Water Temple from OoT: water-based, elaborate, somewhat difficult, and confusing. Three floors are connected via a central, vertical reservoir. There are one-way water-flows, which change when Link turns color-coded valves (yellow, red, and green). The final boss, a big fish named Gyorg, is easy but fun to fight. I was playing on the 3DS version, which changes some of the boss fights, in this case for the better: eventually, the platform sinks and Link must swim around, cutting loose bombs that Gyorg then inhales.
With just four dungeons, Majora's Mask is much shorter than OoT, and the land of Termina smaller than Hyrule. However, there are a lot of side quests. NPCs move through Clock Town according to a schedule, and almost every side quest involves being in the right place at the right time. For example, ghosts try to abduct the cows, UFO-style, at Romani Ranch at 2 a.m. on the first night. Certain events require doing something on all three days, such as beating a different course of the Deku Scrub mini-game each day or entering a different grave in the graveyard each night. To keep track of everything, Link takes notes in a journal, the Bombers' Notebook. This not only lists quests as he gets and completes them, but shows on which day and at what time relevant events happen. It's a great feature, especially since the side quests occupy a large percentage of game-content. There are mini-games, such as Goron racing, horse racing, dog racing, Zora racing, fishing, and shooting. The most common reward for completing side quests and games is a quarter of a heart container.
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| A game so complex it includes a planner. |
Tingle, a strange 35-year-old man dressed as a fairy, is introduced in this game (not in Wind Waker, as I had thought). In each region, he sells Link a local map. The pictograph box (also in Wind Waker) is also introduced. It can save only one photo at a time, and only one (of a pirate) is needed to beat the game. The gold Skulltullas from OoT appear, but they are confined to two houses, each absolutely infested with the buggers. Clearing the first house earns Link the Mask of Truth, which, as in OoT, allows him to get hints from gossip stones.
Termina's overall aesthetic is strange, otherworldly, and a bit dreary. In my opinion, N64 games didn't look great in the 90's and look even worse today. The 3DS remake looks far better. The re-use of OoT assets lessens the game's visual impact. Ocarina of Time was something new when it debuted in 1998. Majora's Mask looks like a spin-off (like A Link Between Worlds) rather than a mainline Zelda entry. The music, however, is great. Unlike OoT, the full Hyrule theme is heard while in the field.
Okay, back to the timer—a lot of people bounce off Majora's Mask hard because of it, but it frustrated me only in dungeons. Having learned the hard way, I recommend playing the Song of Time and the Inverted Song of Time right before each dungeon. I had to redo most of Woodfall Temple and all of Great Bay Temple. I was almost to the boss when I ran out of time! However, I stayed calm, took a deep breath, and, to my delight, discovered Link could move through it rapidly because he already had the ice arrows. Redoing a temple isn't as bad as it sounds because once Link has the dungeon's new item, he can use it to go to the boss room without retracing every step. I had so much time left after the boss, I re-entered to get the rest of the sixteen stray faeries (each dungeon contains sixteen lost sprites). Upon taking them to the nearby shrine, the Great Fairy doubled Link's defense! It took me a few cycles, but I am now at peace with the time limit. I don't enjoy it, mind you, but it no longer frustrates me. It sometimes creates thrilling tension: when I saw I had just five minutes to beat the boss of Snowhead Temple, I really gave it my all and succeeded! As they say, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
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| Finding all the stray fairies pays off. |
In the retro video-gaming community, Majora's Mask is highly revered. Nintendo Life users rate it the second-best N64 game, behind OoT and (incredibly) ahead of both Super Mario 64 and GoldenEye 007! They also rank it the seventh-best Zelda game (excluding remakes), just behind Tears of the Kingdom. Still, I don't blame anyone who gave up on the game, and I don't expect Nintendo ever to use a timer again. I suspect they came up with it because they needed a unique gimmick to set the game apart from OoT, so that it wouldn't seem like an uninspired, second-rate knock-off.
I was eager to play Majora's Mask because I bounced off it when I got it in 2016 (in part because I was too busy playing Super Mario Maker). This time around I've gotten into it. Now I have finally played every "classic" Zelda game (not counting Four Swords: Adventures). Like all Zelda games, it's excellent. However, among Zelda games specifically, it is probably my least favorite, though I admit I prefer Zelda II purely for nostalgia. I think it's roughly on par with The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword. It reminds me of Twilight Princess because of the dark tone and the fact that Link transforms. So I recommend Majora's Mask for N64 fans, people who think they'd enjoy the timer-system, and anyone who wants a non-standard Zelda game.
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| Grade: B+ |
Linked Reviews
"Majora's Mask is still magnificent, delivering the usual Zelda blend of action and adventure through a skewed, surreal lens that feels thrilling to this day and remains unique in the series."
— Dave Frear, Nintendo Life, 9/10
— Jason Bardinelli, Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the N64 Library, 4.5/5
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