Majora's Mask
Nintendo
Review/Critique: I'm going to start off this review by saying that I've been a Zelda fan for as long as I've been able to hold a controller in my hands. Starting with Wind Waker on the Nintendo Gamecube all the way up to Breath of the Wild just a few year ago, my love of the series has not waned for a second. Because of this, it's rather awkward as a long time fan of the series to tell people that two of it's most critically acclaimed games, TLOZ Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, are games I've hardly touched. What makes this even more embarrassing is that I've had access to physical copies of both of these games for over a decade and still never played them. I have the collector's edition for the gamecube, the 3DS port of Ocarina, and as of a short five years ago, a physical copy of Majora's Mask for the N64. Even though I haven't played these games before however, they still feel like cornerstone pieces of my childhood. They're to me like relics of a childhood I didn't have, and while I did have some hours on Ocarina from when I got it for the 3DS, Majora's Mask is a game I have literally never touched. Despite this fact, I've always been drawn to it. For being the worst selling 3D Zelda of all time it receives an insane amount of praise and media attention, and is to my knowledge the favorite Zelda title of every friend I have who has played it. Not only that, my friends also predicted that once I played this game it would be my favorite too. Even with all of this in mind, it wasn't until I decided I had to play Ocarina of Time in January that I realised I would have the perfect excuse to play Majora's Mask. After all this waiting then, all this build up, is the game as good as most people said? Is it my favorite Zelda game? Nostalgia aside... yeah I think it might be.
Majora's Mask is one of those lightning in a bottle games. It's a game that had absolutely everything going against it. Not only did it have to succeed what many people consider to be the greatest game ever made, it had to do so with 1 year of development. It would also be released right around the time the next gen consoles were coming out, the PS2 coming out before it, the Gamecube coming out one year after. With all these limitations known, the popularity of Ocarina looming over it, Majora's Mask decided to take a risk and be something completely different, a choice that would go on to cement its legacy. Majora's Mask is nothing like any Zelda game I have ever played. Sure when you look at the game from a surface level it seems normal. There are dungeons, key items, regular Zelda enemies, even recurring characters from Ocarina. At it's heart though, it's something bizarrely other. Most of what makes the game so different can be attributed to the three day system it utilizes. The world has a set path that it follows during these three days and you as Link have the ability to alter what happens during this time. Once time has run out, you must play the song of time to go back to the beginning of the first day, or die alongside the rest of Termina. All progress you've made during your time playing is set back to 0 aside from you keeping a few key items and masks, and you get to watch all the citizens of Termina go about their days exactly the same as they had before. What I've just described is the heart of Majora's Mask, and is what allows the game to tackle ideas in a way no other game I've ever played or may ever play has done. It's an ingenious work around for a problem that many developers had at the time and honestly still struggle with, that of making NPCs feel like real people. Since every NPC follows a set routine, it really does feel like they are living lives apart from the player. Each NPC has a job and agenda during the three day cycle, meaning if you don't talk to them they will still do stuff. It's hard to understand without playing it but the NPCs in Termina don't feel like NPCs, they feel like real people going about their lives. This makes it incredibly easy to empathise with all the characters, and makes it all the more heartbreaking when you realise anything you do to help them will all be for nothing come the end of the next 72 hour cycle. It's something unique in style to Majora's and is something the game is absolutely overflowing with. It's been said many times, but talking to people during the last 6 hours of the moon falling, a beautifully melancholic ballad playing in the background, is one of the most indescribably tragic moments I've ever experienced. I wish I could do a better job at describing these unique moments, but they're just really hard to capture in words. It's an atmosphere unlike any other that you need to play to experience. Maybe what's most impressive about Majora's Mask though, is that in all of this it still finds time to be an excellent Zelda game.
Even with all of these fantastically unique elements, Majora's Mask never loses sight of its heritage. It is through and through a hearty Zelda game. It has great dungeons, actual puzzles (looking at you Ocarina), a grand over-world to explore, everything you'd expect and want from a Zelda game. It's honestly sad to say, but Majora's Mask kind of just dwarfs Ocarina in every way. The dungeons are better (though less plentiful), the over-world has far more content (though in scope it's smaller), and there are actually fucking puzzles in the fucking game! And on top of this, the rest of the content is some of the most awesome otherworldly shit gaming has to offer. I know I'm just gushing at this point, showering this game with praise, but honestly it deserves it. I do have issues with the game: combat is still clunky, Z-targeting still sucks balls, there are clipping issues, the game freezes a lot (which in combination with the shit saving system can be maddening), many of the masks have no purpose, I could go on. At the end of the day though, these issues are nothing when compared to the gargantuan list of positives the game has going for it.
I want to wrap up this review by summarising my spoiler free thoughts a little bit. Majora's Mask is one of the strongest standard Zelda experiences there is with the best side quests and atmosphere of any game I have ever played. It's core mechanics also bring about some of the most unmatched experiences gaming or any piece of media for that matter has to offer. This game isn't perfect, it does little to improve on most of the negatives that plagued Ocarina of Time (the point of a puzzle is not to make you bash your brain into a wall when you find out the answer), but overall the positives of the experience greatly outweigh the negatives.
Recommendation: I will say then that if you like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask will not do you dirty. It's an improvement in virtually every way. As well if you have ever had the desire to play this unique gem of a game, you should probably act on those desires as soon as conceivably possible. It's only fifteen bucks on the 3DS after all and will objectively make you a more whole person. The only people I think this game wouldn't appeal to are people who get easily frustrated by dated controls and game-play elements. They're by far the worst part of the game and do bring down the experience for some more than others. Overall though, I recommend this game more strongly than any I've recommended before. It's one of the greatest games I've ever played that allowed for some of the most magical moments I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. My only regret is that I could not go into the game 100% blind.
...
And that's my review of Majora's Mask! This one took a while since the game is really long. I'll be coming out with my picks for November shortly, stay tuned.
Until then!
Nintendo
Review/Critique: I'm going to start off this review by saying that I've been a Zelda fan for as long as I've been able to hold a controller in my hands. Starting with Wind Waker on the Nintendo Gamecube all the way up to Breath of the Wild just a few year ago, my love of the series has not waned for a second. Because of this, it's rather awkward as a long time fan of the series to tell people that two of it's most critically acclaimed games, TLOZ Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, are games I've hardly touched. What makes this even more embarrassing is that I've had access to physical copies of both of these games for over a decade and still never played them. I have the collector's edition for the gamecube, the 3DS port of Ocarina, and as of a short five years ago, a physical copy of Majora's Mask for the N64. Even though I haven't played these games before however, they still feel like cornerstone pieces of my childhood. They're to me like relics of a childhood I didn't have, and while I did have some hours on Ocarina from when I got it for the 3DS, Majora's Mask is a game I have literally never touched. Despite this fact, I've always been drawn to it. For being the worst selling 3D Zelda of all time it receives an insane amount of praise and media attention, and is to my knowledge the favorite Zelda title of every friend I have who has played it. Not only that, my friends also predicted that once I played this game it would be my favorite too. Even with all of this in mind, it wasn't until I decided I had to play Ocarina of Time in January that I realised I would have the perfect excuse to play Majora's Mask. After all this waiting then, all this build up, is the game as good as most people said? Is it my favorite Zelda game? Nostalgia aside... yeah I think it might be.
Majora's Mask is one of those lightning in a bottle games. It's a game that had absolutely everything going against it. Not only did it have to succeed what many people consider to be the greatest game ever made, it had to do so with 1 year of development. It would also be released right around the time the next gen consoles were coming out, the PS2 coming out before it, the Gamecube coming out one year after. With all these limitations known, the popularity of Ocarina looming over it, Majora's Mask decided to take a risk and be something completely different, a choice that would go on to cement its legacy. Majora's Mask is nothing like any Zelda game I have ever played. Sure when you look at the game from a surface level it seems normal. There are dungeons, key items, regular Zelda enemies, even recurring characters from Ocarina. At it's heart though, it's something bizarrely other. Most of what makes the game so different can be attributed to the three day system it utilizes. The world has a set path that it follows during these three days and you as Link have the ability to alter what happens during this time. Once time has run out, you must play the song of time to go back to the beginning of the first day, or die alongside the rest of Termina. All progress you've made during your time playing is set back to 0 aside from you keeping a few key items and masks, and you get to watch all the citizens of Termina go about their days exactly the same as they had before. What I've just described is the heart of Majora's Mask, and is what allows the game to tackle ideas in a way no other game I've ever played or may ever play has done. It's an ingenious work around for a problem that many developers had at the time and honestly still struggle with, that of making NPCs feel like real people. Since every NPC follows a set routine, it really does feel like they are living lives apart from the player. Each NPC has a job and agenda during the three day cycle, meaning if you don't talk to them they will still do stuff. It's hard to understand without playing it but the NPCs in Termina don't feel like NPCs, they feel like real people going about their lives. This makes it incredibly easy to empathise with all the characters, and makes it all the more heartbreaking when you realise anything you do to help them will all be for nothing come the end of the next 72 hour cycle. It's something unique in style to Majora's and is something the game is absolutely overflowing with. It's been said many times, but talking to people during the last 6 hours of the moon falling, a beautifully melancholic ballad playing in the background, is one of the most indescribably tragic moments I've ever experienced. I wish I could do a better job at describing these unique moments, but they're just really hard to capture in words. It's an atmosphere unlike any other that you need to play to experience. Maybe what's most impressive about Majora's Mask though, is that in all of this it still finds time to be an excellent Zelda game.
Even with all of these fantastically unique elements, Majora's Mask never loses sight of its heritage. It is through and through a hearty Zelda game. It has great dungeons, actual puzzles (looking at you Ocarina), a grand over-world to explore, everything you'd expect and want from a Zelda game. It's honestly sad to say, but Majora's Mask kind of just dwarfs Ocarina in every way. The dungeons are better (though less plentiful), the over-world has far more content (though in scope it's smaller), and there are actually fucking puzzles in the fucking game! And on top of this, the rest of the content is some of the most awesome otherworldly shit gaming has to offer. I know I'm just gushing at this point, showering this game with praise, but honestly it deserves it. I do have issues with the game: combat is still clunky, Z-targeting still sucks balls, there are clipping issues, the game freezes a lot (which in combination with the shit saving system can be maddening), many of the masks have no purpose, I could go on. At the end of the day though, these issues are nothing when compared to the gargantuan list of positives the game has going for it.
I want to wrap up this review by summarising my spoiler free thoughts a little bit. Majora's Mask is one of the strongest standard Zelda experiences there is with the best side quests and atmosphere of any game I have ever played. It's core mechanics also bring about some of the most unmatched experiences gaming or any piece of media for that matter has to offer. This game isn't perfect, it does little to improve on most of the negatives that plagued Ocarina of Time (the point of a puzzle is not to make you bash your brain into a wall when you find out the answer), but overall the positives of the experience greatly outweigh the negatives.
Recommendation: I will say then that if you like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask will not do you dirty. It's an improvement in virtually every way. As well if you have ever had the desire to play this unique gem of a game, you should probably act on those desires as soon as conceivably possible. It's only fifteen bucks on the 3DS after all and will objectively make you a more whole person. The only people I think this game wouldn't appeal to are people who get easily frustrated by dated controls and game-play elements. They're by far the worst part of the game and do bring down the experience for some more than others. Overall though, I recommend this game more strongly than any I've recommended before. It's one of the greatest games I've ever played that allowed for some of the most magical moments I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. My only regret is that I could not go into the game 100% blind.
...
And that's my review of Majora's Mask! This one took a while since the game is really long. I'll be coming out with my picks for November shortly, stay tuned.
Until then!
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