The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

THE BAD:
Lack of Zelda (seen in 2 scenes tops) will annoy Zelda purists; a little on the short side; mask sidequest can get a bit on the annoying side; clock system really annoys first timers (it annoyed the hell out of me the first time playing); requires expansion pak to play, so if you don't have one, you're out of luck.

SUMMARY:
Detailed Summary:
Back in 1998, Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time was the shiznit and everyone I knew then owned it (many bought a Nintendo 64 JUST for that game and Goldeneye 007). It was revolutionary and a riot in a cartridge! We had a fair amount of those sorts coming from Nintendo on the NES/SNES (Super Mario Brothers 1, 3 and 4 [World], Chrono Trigger, and many more), even for other Zelda titles (Link To The Past and the original ones, anyone?), so it was no surprise that Ocarina Of Time had to be one as well.

However, when I heard there was going to be a direct sequel and the first non-portable game not involving Ganon(dorf) (buzz off Link's Awakening), I was thinking "is this going to be disappointing like Link's Awakening or a masterpiece just like Ocarina Of Time" Well, after buying it on the release day and playing it for quite a few weeks, I came to a conclusion; it's way better than Link's Awakening, but not quite as good as Ocarina Of Time. While it was still a fun experience (after figuring out how the hell to get through some parts - thanks GameFAQS), the fun and excitement of this game starts to wear thin after...6 years? Yeah, I got tired of it in 2006. Yeah, I bought it in 2000 and got tired of it in 2006. Talk about fun...No, it's serious fun!

Here's my honest opinion - aside from Twilight Princess, this was the last Zelda game to come close to being considered a masterpiece. Both Oracles' were good games but not as good as those before it, while Wind Waker, Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass are massively overrated (though Minish Cap is a bit better than the other two).

Story: 9/10
This is the second time the series deviates away from being Ganon taking over the world or even involving Ganon or Hyrule, but the first time it's done very well (Link's Awakening did alright, but I prefer Majora's Mask's story over that). Link's Awakening didn't exactly have a main antagonist, well not at least for god knows how long into the game. Here, the main antagonist is revealed a little over....20 seconds into the game? Yeah, that was quick. Quicker than Ocarina Of Time's really (took about a minute or so there to reveal Ganondorf in Link's dream).

So anyway, the plot is that it's about 3 or 4 years since the events of Ocarina Of Time (well, 3 or 4 years after young Link's time, making him teen Link). Link is riding Epona though the Lost Woods to look for someone (Navi I assume) but he gets attacked by the Skull Kid and his two fairies. The Skull Kid takes the Ocarina and Epona and runs off like a coward, with Link having to chase him. When he gets to the Skull Kid, he gets transformed into a Deku Scrub and has to further chase him down...as a moving Scrub. One of the Skull Kid's fairies, named Tatl, is left behind and has to tag with Link until it can find the Skull Kid (though it ends up staying with Link). He eventually meets up with the mask salesman from Ocarina Of Time and learns of a mask known as Majora's Mask (which is what the Skull Kid wears on his head) and that he must get that mask back in 3 days or a homicidal moon will destroy all of Hy---erm, Termina (he also learns he's not in Hyrule anymore, but Termina) with him on it. He must make haste to make sure that everyone lives. Meanwhile, there's a festival which - just like with the moon destroying Termina - occurs in 3 days. Difference; the moon destroys everything, the festival just occurs in the central hub of this game (aka Clock Town). Just some festival, not celebrating much (well, it doesn't celebrate anything important). Anyway, Link has to find where the Skull Kid is, so he goes to an observatory after playing a little hide and seek game with some kids who blocked his way to there, and finds the Skull Kid...ON THE MOON! Maybe Majora's Mask lets him breathe in spa---oh, wait, that moon is pretty damn close to Clock Town so it doesn't matter in terms of oxygen...anyway, Link has to wait until the clock on the clock tower allows him to get to the top of it, which is at the last 5 minutes of the third day. Anyway at the top, Skull Kid has the Ocarina, Tatl meets up with the other fairy but refuses to go back to the Skull Kid. Anyway, Link manages to snag the Ocarina off him. You can't defeat him so you have to go back 3 days in time to "THE FIRST DAY", and everything and everyone (except Link and, to a certain extent, mask salesman) is back the way they were that day. Link then learns a song which turns him back to normal and the mask salesmen tells Link that he needs to go to the four corners of Termina to get the four guardians' masks and use them to stop the moon from destroying Termina, as well as finally defeat Majora's Mask.

I know, a little long winded, but that's the gist of the plot for the game. There are some sub-plots which are restricted to a corner of Termina, but they aren't all that important, plus they're also forgettable and short. Short and not all that important is good for sub-plots, but forgettable isn't. The main plot is all that matters, though, so let's focus on that. I thought that this was way better than Link's Awakening in every way. Might sound a little cliched, but at times, it's also quite deep and, well...not so cliched (maybe a little, but not a huge amount), plus Link's Awakening's plot was incredibly dull, even for a Gameboy game. I could get into other Gameboy games with more primitive plots, but their plots work. That game didn't work out too well IMO. This will works out quite finely, and the not-so important sub-plots did their thing; not get in the way, restrict to the area and still be...well, half decent, but like said, they're forgettable. And that really detracts from the story (which is why it's a 9/10 instead of a 10/10).

Anyway, kudos to Nintendo managing to make this game's plot look like a direct sequel while not involving Ganon and still being good. Well done.

Gameplay: 9/10
This nearly borders on perfection! The simple, easy to learn, addictive hack and slash gameplay that makes Ocarina Of Time so good makes a brilliant return to Majora's Mask. If you don't know how Ocarina Of Time plays, move out of that rock and read carefully, because a lot of this applies to Majora's Mask just as much.

Link is armed with a sword, a shield and a bunch of items, with the latter increasing in quantity as you go on with your quest and the former which can be upgraded at the top corner of Termina if you get certain items. Link uses his sword to cut through enemies and bosses like they're nothing, his shield is really his only defense and his items can be used to defeat enemies or to solve puzzles. You know, basic survival physics, as he has to survive in Termina with just a sword, shield and some items he finds on the way. He can also perform certain actions (when prompted) to climb blocks, open doors, talk to people or open chests (among others) in order to go through dungeons or to get to dungeons. Items found in chests are usually used to solve dungeon puzzles. Take the Snowpoint Temple up north for example. Fire Arrows are used for melting the ice in the temple so you can proceed after melting ice. There's the Pirate's Fortress you must go through before you can enter the Great Bay Temple at the right corner of Termina. Using the Hookshot, you can go to places too far or guard infested for Link to go (provided the hook connects with the target). There are a lot of examples I can use, but I'll be rambling on for a long, long time. On top of that, you have rupees, which make up the currency of the game. These are used to buy items like bombs and arrows. These are found by slicing through bushes and killing enemies. You can store them in the bank in Clock Town for future use (more on this later). They are mainly used for buying (much like money). So the basic premise is to try to find and get into dungeons, then use your wits to get through dungeons to get items and the 4 guardian masks (which you get from bosses) to stop a homicidal moon from destroying Termina. Sounds simple and like a good idea, it's been done in Ocarina Of Time but hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

There are a few differences between Ocarina Of Time and it's sequel, and I thought that they added a fair bit of innovation into the series (or at least one of them).

One has to be the masks. They are much, much more important here than in Ocarina Of Time. In OoT, they were a fun little money making sidequest for young Link to do, but there were only 8 masks available and didn't really add to much. In this game, masks are law! If you want to get anywhere in the game, you have to have AT LEAST ONE MASK EQUIPPED AT ALL TIMES! Certain masks get certain reactions. Wearing the Stone Mask will make you invisible to enemies, so you can get by without detection (very useful in Pirate's Fortress). There's Postman's Hat which lets you search through mailboxes to get some rupees. I would go on with more examples, but that'll take all day and you'll figure it out for yourself. I found this to be pretty unique (especially for Zelda). At first though, I thought that this was the extended version of the mask sidequest from Ocarina Of Time. Well, it is, but it's way better than that. I found these masks helpful only for pieces of heart (which ups your health bar if you find four of these, and for the masks, there's obviously some exceptions, but many of them are used for that, which is alright I guess, it adds more to replay value with a huge sidequest like that).

Then you have 5 different masks which transforms Link into a Deku, a Goron, a Zora, a gaint and a darker version of adult Link. And with these transformations comes it's own different gameplay and controls. For one, Deku Link can spin around and blow bubbles at enemies, as well as hop into hollow flowers, jump out and fly for a brief period of time. He is quicker but weaker and he can hop 5 times across water before drowning (therefore he can't swin in this form). Goron Link can punch and roll. Rolling helps get uphill after it gets to a certain speed, and punching can really hurt an enemy. Unfortunately, he's slow, can't really dodge hits from enemies and can't swim at all. Zora Link can swipe at enemies with his fins (as opposed to with swords), throw his fins like boomerangs, swim exceptionally well (which makes up for Deku/Goron Links' inability to swim) and somehow raise an electrical barrier underwater (WHERE IS THE LOGIC, WOULDN'T HE GET ZAPPED TOO!? WHAT ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE UNDERWATER, HUH!?). Actually, he reminds me of adult Link there, but fishier. Giant Link...just grows really tall, it takes up a lot of MP (which you get in magic jars...oh, if you run out, the mask stops working) and is only useful for the 4th boss. Then there's Fierce Diety Link aka Dark Adult Link (he looks like a much dark version of adult Link) whose only use is to kick the crap out of the final boss with a large sword (no, not like Cloud's or Ike's swords and it's nothing like Sephiroth's long as crap sword either). I think this adds a nice twist to the gameplay as it does get a bit boring only travelling as a human, plus it'd be cool to be other Zelda species aside from human or elf, and hey, I guess humans can't do everything, huh...my only complaint is that they're only useful for the level you get the mask from (Deku Link for the intro + Woodfall Temple, Goron Link for Snowpoint Temple, Zora Link for Great Bay Temple, Giant Link for Ikana Temple's boss and Feirce Diety Link for final boss), plus the fact that there's only 5 dungeons + intro at Clock Town, but I guess that's alright as well because it mixes up the gameplay a fair bit in the dungeons. Let's face it; if we had every dungeon accomodate to all four forms, it'd get tedious having to change masks and items around. So I say...pretty good idea.

The second has to be the clock system. As I mentioned, Link has three days to complete his quest, but at any given moment, he can whip out his Ocarina, play the Song Of Time and travel back to hour 0 of day 1. Anyway, the clock system has each hour = 1 minute in the real world, so it'd take about 72 earth minutes to destroy Termina. Here's the thing, though: Before the world gets destroyed, you have to play the Song of Time on your Ocarina to go back in time, yeah that's been established. There's a drawback though; you lose all rupees you had in your pockets as well as all your ammunition and supplies for major items (you just have a bow and a bag to put bombs in, as well as the ammunition-less items like the hookshot and Ocarina). You WILL need to get your money to the bank before turning time back, because you'll need money to buy certain stuff in the game (like items). Back to clock system, it was something different indeed for the Zelda series. Some find it annoying, and I can sympathise. I, at first, hated this, as I didn't have much time to think ahead. Now, I like it. It keeps you on your toes while dungeon exploring or getting heart pieces (basically, it tells you to hurry up). There isn't much else to say except this - if you don't like the clock system, try adjusting to it. If you can't adjust, you will not be able to enjoy this game as a whole as this game revolves its sidequests (and to a lesser extent, its main dungeon crawling, Skull Kid killing quest) around this.

How? You'll notice that, at certain places at different times of the day, different things happen. North Clock Town, for example, has kiddies at day time, and during nighttime of day 1, there's an old lady about to get robbed. Next night, she isn't going to be there, she'll be in a hotel expecting you to listen to...something, I'm not sure what exactly because it gets skipped with Link either falling asleep or pretending to say awake depending on what mask he's wearing at the time. Yes, wearing the right mask when talking to people will affect dialogue. If you're wearing a mask known as the All Night mask (which is an alternative to taking all-nighters for Link) before talking to the old lady at the hotel during night 2, you'll be able to get a piece of heart. If you're wearing a different mask or not one at all, forget it, you'll fail and won't get the piece of heart you might really need and will need to turn back time and do all that crap again.

There's a way to speed up that process; play Song Of Double Time! The Song of Time has alternate ways to play it to make it literally the Song of TIME. Anyway, Double Time can be played by pressing each note twice as opposed to just once. You go ahead half a day to the 12th, 24th, 36th, 48th and 60th hours. Afraid that's the only good you can get out of it. The Song Of Inverted Time, which is the Song of Time played backwards, slows down time. It takes 144 minutes instead of 72 minutes (in real life time) until the moon destroys the world and give you a big fat game over screen. The slower time works best if you're just starting to play this game because the dungeons can get quite complex for a newbie. FYI, the only way to get game over is to have the world be destroyed. It restarts time sort of like the Song Of Time does, however it doesn't save. Having the world destroyed puts you back to when you last used the Song of Time, so plan usage of the Song Of Time; you have 72/144 minutes to complete a dungeon at least. If you're only halfway through a dungeon but have like 2 or 3 minutes to go, better play that Song Of Time. It'll restart the dungeon, but at least you'll have all the items you got while going through it. Playing the Song Of Inverted Time while you're still trying to get through a dungeon at first, or having a walkthrough with you (whatever works), will help a LOT.

The third and final thing to look out for would be the save system. You can't just save anywhere anymore, that'd be way too easy! This game would suck! So anyway, if you want to save your progress, you have to either play the Song Of Time or hit these owl statues and press A when you approach it after being hit. The owl statues are found all over Termina, so expect one or two at each end of Clock Town's boundaries. There's even one at Clock Town itself! When you save this way, you're essentially doing a quick save - as in it exits from gameplay to the title screen. However, if the world blows up, you go back to the last time you played the Song of Time, not to the last owl statue. This is a fair way to save; either start the dungeon all over again or observe the statue, follow prompts and come back later. At least it's not anywhere you want. Fair call!

Why this isn't at a perfect score is because the clock system is actually hard to adjust to at first. That's my major problem with the game. That, and its main quest is a little short, barely bordering over 8 hours, although most of its length comes from the sidequest, which this game actually feels like at times; one huge sidequest. Far from the same way you could interpret Final Fantasy X-2 when compared to Final Fantasy X, because this game is actually good, plus it's only at times, not all the time (FFX-2 = huge sidequest and it won't stop shoving it down your throat, while Majora's Mask will only do that when you're up to the last level). However, the good outbalances the bad, so I don't care and neither should you, the reader!

Graphics: 4.5/5
Much like with Ocarina Of Time, the only bad thing you can pick out of the graphics would be the polygonal appearances. Although by today's date, that's abysmal, but back then, this is all they can do, and there is much worse nowadays so if I were you, I'd feel good about these graphics. Besides, the blocky stuff is actually very appealing to look at. In fact, you can barely notice the blocks within the characters. You can already tell that these were the best graphics of their time, and quite good graphics these days. How? Well, normally, an N64 game of this calibre wouldn't normally be impressive, but these are still pretty impressive. In fact, I find these graphics to be really nice and smooth. Unfortunately, you will need an expansion pak for this, because the game won't play if you have the...uhh, non-expansion pak (for lack of better words). Annoying but I heard this game used to come with an expansion pak (as well as the ones which needed an expansion pak I believe, though I reckon they're more with certain copies than just any copy...I could be wrong). The expansion pak itself enhances the graphics by a crapton.

The character models are simply clusters of clay molded together in a great way. The facial features are drawn quite well onto the characters and the mouths when they gasp or something like that are at the right precision, although talking is non-existent so it appears that they cannot do the lip-syncing at all. To be honest, it doesn't matter. The character models are done very well.

The landscapes are also very nicely done. The textures are very friendly on the eyes, and the colors suit the time, place and situation. Such as the stony, dusty scenery seen in the fourth dungeon, as well as the lava and rocks around and the colors you'd expect from rocks. Or the swamp-like landscapes around the swamp area. Or the forest scenery of the Termina Woods. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the landscapes. Just a bit outdated IMO, but at least they aged pretty damn well!

Sound: 5/5
Again, sounds are done so well that words cannot express how good they are without me going on and on about how good they are. The major thing I must point out is that there is no more of those stupid noises Navi makes when she wants to talk to you. Instead, just listen up for a few dings when Tatl wants to talk to you. The dings would sound annoying, but they're actually not only a relief from Navi's constant nagging but also not annoying on its own either. The soundtrack from this game is just as strong as Ocarina Of Time's, but this time, they remembered the bloody theme song! The Termina Field music is actually a remix of the Zelda Theme Song! It's a great remix, and it adds strongly to the already strong soundtrack! Not only are the songs played suiting to the level that it plays in, but on it's own the soundtrack is one hell of a soundtrack to listen to.

Control: 5/5
Same user-friendly sort we got from Ocarina Of Time.

You have a button that you use to slash things with your sword. You can cut things down with it, or kill enemies. Be aware that there are a few enemies that are immune to your sword, so that's where your 4 C buttons come in. They hold your items and they allow you to perform special things with it. Your bow can fire arrows at far away enemies, while your Deku Nuts can stun enemies, and your bombs can blow stuff up to tiny bits. You can also wear your masks via the C button to which it's on (a mask on C left can be worn by pressing C left).

There is also a button where you can perform some neat stuff around certain objects, such as holding a rock while you're pushing it, or grabbing a pot to throw it and get the items out of it. You will learn of the functions of the A button while playing through the Clock Town and the rest of Termina.

There's also the R button, where you can lower yourself and put your shield out to defend against stuff like nuts or swords. However, there are things it cannot guard against. The elements and spiders will hurt you unless you get away from it through evasive methods.

As well, you have a Z button which targets the enemy. If you're surrounded by enemies, it's best that you don't use it. However, if you want to kill a specific enemy, it's best to use this function. If you want to do a stronger strike, you should lock on, have your sword out and then press A, then you can kill them a little quicker. Z can also be used for strafing, which is useful for hiding from enemies in situations such as getting to the Stone Temple and having to get through the valley north of Clock Town to get there while avoiding the enemies/getting cursed by such, or getting cursed/killed.

Now, one thing that makes this game different would be the masks, yeah we figured that already. Thing is though, their actions vary. As Deku Link, instead of rolling, you spin. Instead of slashing, you blow bubbles. As Goron Link, your roll...well, it eventually gives you spikes unless you jump off a ledge or hit something in front, and slashing is replaced by punching. Zora Link controls much like Link, but if you hold B, you can aim your boomerang fins at your enemies. Underwater, Zora Link can swim faster, punch, jump out of water without getting up a ledge (swim fast and emerge from the deep) and form an electrical barrier (latter with R button). Also underwater, control stick controls are the same horizontally, but reversed vertically (up for down, down for up). Giant and Fierce Deity Link control the same as regular Link...moving on...

If that seems like an easy system for you, then that's to be expected since it is an easy system, even for a casual gamer.

Replay Value: 4/5
Well...when you're done defeating the last boss, there's the credits to look forward to and...the end? DAMMIT! Well, even after beating the last boss and loading up the game again, you can finish off any unfinished little sidequests (which is based off the major sidequest) to help increase your mask collection. That may not seem like much, but it is quite a long sidequest, so why not? Once you're done...hey, why not challenge yourself to finish the game in it's entirety quicker? It helps!

Overall: 36.5/40
I wouldn't go as far as saying this is as good as Ocarina Of Time or Twilight Princess, but Majora's Mask is still one hell of a game. There isn't much else to say about this game without repeating myself, so I'll just end with this: Get this game and an expansion pak (if you don't already have them) and play this game! I assure you, you won't be disappointed.

Jak's rating system: 36.5/40
Neoseeker's rating system: 4.6/5.0