Buddhist philosophy intersecting Mesoamerican/African mythology (sort of shares a property with the Star Wars prequels in which some of these fictional cultures definitely feel racially undertoned but trying to place a finger on what specific race makes YOU the racist one. Current working theory is that the Zora are either Swedish or Korean.) in a game that's so good it doesn't make sense it exists. Escapes the humongous shadow OOT casts over the franchise by unashamedly bogarting every single asset that game had and becoming an unimpeachably weird, sombre but never maudlin, beautiful freak of a sequel. One sidequest of love and tragedy that spans 3 days and 3 nights ends a minute and a half before the moon crashes into the earth, forces you to rewind the clock, and 10 seconds later, it's like it never happened at all. Memento mori - remember you will die. You loop through Samsara, you do it all again.

Link becomes the de facto sin-eater of Termina, coming and going without a trace. You can't be everywhere. You can't save everyone. You loop through Samsara, you do it all again.

First timer here! As someone who grew up with Wii games and onward, early 3d games offer a LOT of friction for me. Majora's Mask can be pretty uncomunicative, janky, and a lot of times frustrating. But damn, it's quite the lovely game.

The world, grounded in this really cool time loop mechanic, feels exciting and welcoming to explore, and all of the places and environments we visit while traversing merely 4 dungeons are intriguing and full of life even without doing most of this games' supposedly really good side quests.

The kokiri temple is the simplest and most forgetable one, the Goron mountain was creative and clever, Great Bay had me racking my head in the best possible way, and Stone Tower Temple was fun, but maybe a biiit disappointing for a final dungeon. They really should've thrown a final moon dungeon, but still, all of them are good.

The bosses kinda lagged though, and Twinmold in particular might be the worst boss in any 3D zelda, but the final boss somewhat made up for the rest, it was a really great challenge.

While Ocarina of Time was the standard, shining introduction to the new 3rd axis, Majora's Mask is bold, freaky, weird and experimental in all the best ways, resulting in a game that, while a bit rough in a lot of ways, was an improvement to what came before.

Genuinely one of the greatest peices of art ever created. There's nothing on earth quite like this game. It takes full advantage of the medium, requiring investment of the player to get everything out of the experience. Challenging dungeons and fun side quests, alongside some quite story-heavy and intricate side quests, this game never has a dull moment. While the dungeon selection is small, this game's temples will fully test your awareness and puzzle-solving skills. 100% must play and my personal favorite Zelda game.

Still peak fiction. Huge shoutout to the PC recompilation, plays perfect with NSO N64 controller mapping and is now the ideal way to play Majora's Mask.

Key features:
Autosaving
D-Pad mapped to transformation masks and Ocarina (way less pausing)
Widescreen
Higher frame rate
Faster load times
Gyro aiming (not on the controller I used but is supported)

Cannot wait for Ocarina and future N64 games to see the same support, it's really impressive.

Majora's mask is one of those gems that everyone praise and everyone will consider the biggest videogame ever made. Over the years I tried to play it in different ways but I never been 100% into it
Most of the time I gaslighted myself by thinking "I don't get it" or "I am the problem and I don't play it correctly"

But I decided to give it a definitive shot and finally finish it thanks to the NSO
And after clearing all the dungeons, completing a lot of the side quests and beating the final boss without the Fierce Deity mask, I concluded that..... imo Majora Mask is not a game for everyone

The idea behind the game is phenomenal: a race against time against the literal end of the world, an end that only Link is able to escape thanks to a clever implementation of the Ocarina of Time, the only big artifact returning from the prequel. An incredible idea with a more than incredible realization in terms of its portrayal of Termina: the townsfolks you meet in this world are not regular NPCs, but real people, with deep backstories, realistic routines and actual emotions and reactions to the moon falling. You actually want to know and pass time with all of the friends and comrades you meet in Termina..... so it hurts even more when the final night approaches and all you can do is just..... go back, as they just run desperate, accept their fate, hide the truth to the kids, or straight up serving alcohol to their younger sister so she will not feel anything.......

I have never seen this vibe in a piece of media, let alone a nintendo game. To this day this defines Majora's mask, and it is enough of a reason why EVERYONE should try this title.
Of course this feeling can be alienating for a lot of people, specifically because Link gets treated like dirt by the townsfolks in the first 3-days cycle and what you have to do when you first arrive is not really clear.

I also like the idea of the villains of the game. Skull Kid is a tragic figure that you feel sorry for as you advance throught your mission. I also like how nobody points out about the freaking nightmarish moon, and you technically can't even notice it until it's too late, only hint of the impending doom is the music speeding up to raise your heartbeat.

What Majora's Mask accomplishes in terms of its atmosphere and message is immaculate.... but actually playing the game? Ehhhhhh I am not 100% into it sadly. The concept of the 3 day cycle and the fact that every npc has its own routine is incredible for a worldbuilding perspective, but in terms of completing a task or obtaining a specific item (especially if required to reach the end of the story) it means that the game leaves the player with small windows of time where either everything is done perfectly, or you have to restart the whole side mission again and again, a issue I find even by applying the Inverted Song of Time to slow down the cycle.

Need to search for your horse to reach the new dungeon? You gotta go to the ranch but to reach the ranch you need a power keg, that you can obtain only if you complete the task at the goron village, but also remember to buy it later at the goron in the bomb shop for 50 rupies (that you need to farm if you don't have a deposit), a task that takes half a day meaning that you don't have the chance to talk to Romani to fight the aliens, meaning that you need to restart to the first day so she doesn't get kidnapped. This lets you get Epona but now that you got the horse to proceed in the main task, you better don't do it otherwise you have to refight the aliens to have a chance to accompany Cremia to fight the evil Luigis so she can give you the mask to go buy milk, but keep in mind that the bar doesn't give you a glass so you gotta bring your own what kind of bar doesn't have glasses.... GASP.

THE FREAKING GIBDO in Ikana are the worst: I swear, do people like this annoying series of fetch quests? Some of them are just the most tedious "ok go back to this area to find the racist deku that sells Beans, than go to get the milk but they are only open at night so go dance with the scarecrow to make pass the time, then go find a fish that can be hard to find if you don't see it inside the shop.... and all of this to eventually have the chance to enter the Ikana castle where another freaking Power Keg is required so go back in town rebuy a power keg and come back to ikana and have a chance to proceed.

So yeah these types of quests feel kinda tedious. If these were optional I wouldn't mind those being so convoluted.... but considering that the game cannot be beaten without some of them makes their more vague progression a bit irritating to go through.

Of course the reward with the character interaction is memorable: Cremia sharing her troubles at the farm, or the reconciliation of father and daughter in Ikana canyon.... the bartender saying during the last day "everyone left but I will stay open to hope that a trusted customer will come..... and you came! Thank you!" Shed me to tears (like bro don't make me cry I just want some milk). All of these moments are incredible... the issue is that I had no fun in the middle sections to reach these moments, which I felt was just a series of task that can result tedious or kinda not intuitive. Add to that the presence of stricht schedules to accomplish your tasks and I feel this may not be an experience everyone will enjoy.

The dungeons are bangers though. All 4 of them are really fun to navigate and have a great sets of gimmicks. Only exception may be the Great Bay dungeon but mostly because I feel the swimming can be a bit clunky. Also screw that boss fish.

So yeah, Majora's Mask? A title that everyone should give a shot at least once in their life. An experience like no other..... even though its weirder gimmicks and time management shenanigans may not be everyones' cup of tea.

I was never a fan of Zelda games. I always thought that Zelda games are either just incredibly boring or that they are not for me. The only games I had at least a bit of fun playing were BotW and TotK and I thought that was it. But Majora's Mask always looked interesting to me. Ever since I first learned about this game's existence I wanted to play it and now I have. And I gotta say, this game with its slight horror and unsettling setting and themes is probably one of the best things this series has seen like ever.

I really, really enjoyed the whole "time limit" mechanic. It really makes the whole game much more enjoyable in my opinion, since it encourages you, in a way, to keep on playing and make sure you manage to do everything in those three days the game gives to you. I also liked just how many movement options there were in this game. The fact that you could switch between all of them at a moment's notice also helps a ton. At any moment of your playthrough you can switch between 4 forms for Link and all of them are incredibly fun to play as. The only thing I would wish for is if some of the songs actually had more usage besides just being there to "unlock a thing". The dungeons were incredibly fun as well. I don't remember struggling particularly hard on any of them, and also I never got bored of them compared to... some other games in this series. And also, the characters just in general feel like they're actually living people with their own goals and things to do in those 3 days. Some are afraid of the falling moon and try to leave, while the others want to continue the carnival no matter what. And the story in general is just incredible, not much to say here.

And that's why this is the only game I actually wanted to 100%, which I did, and why I think this is an incredibly fun game and if you are like me, not a huge fan of Zelda games, I really recommend you at least try this game and then maybe you will, just like me, understand that there are good games in this series (or at least this one, lol). I wouldn't particularly say it's peak fiction but it's definitely standing very close to a rating like that.

There has been hundreds of games that attempt to replicate some feeling of dread, but I'd be willing to say no game gets as close to putting a pit in my stomach as Majora's Mask. There is no other game so macabre. I think Ocarina of Time is a fine game, but it's sequel is fantastic. Having less dungeons with far more interesting lore than anything from before this point, and frankly nothing in the franchise has reached these heights since.

The three-day cycle, the music, everything. It keeps you constantly working, rushing around Termina. With quest lines that take full advantage of the fact you'll be playing the same seventy two hours over and over again. Not only would I say is this the best Zelda game, but I believe this has the best side quests in every any game I've ever played. The Anju & Kafei side quest still sticks with me- as cliche as that may sound.

Play the goddamn game.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

Majora's Mask is a game which I consider to be a genuine masterpiece, one last hurrah for the N64-era of Zelda games.
It is a game where the mechanics tell the bulk of its story and themes, accompanied with a haunting soundtrack that has never left my frontal temporal lobe ever since I first played this game in the year 2000.
It's jam-packed with interesting story ideas bringing forth a vibe that is like nothing I've ever experienced before or probably will ever experience again. It's evidently a depressing game with a profound tinge of melancholy and deep, almost neverending sadness. And I'm still debating myself whether all of this was intentional or just the result of a string of random circumstances.

So let me unpack all of this just to get a sense of what I'm talking about.

BE WARNED THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, widely considered to be one of the best games of all time, if not the best game of all time. It is a seminal piece of work, one of the biggest adventure games in 3D-gaming at the time. It set the standard of what an adventure game should be and how things like exploration and combat should work in a 3D-space. It inspired a lot of games for decades to come and it's still revered to this day.

So Nintendo had big shoes to fill for the eventual sequel. And what they came up with was lightning in a bottle, a sequel that retained a lot of elements from Ocarina but deviated rather drastically in terms of structure, scale and atmosphere.

In the beginning of the game Link gets ambushed by a creature known as Skull Kid wearing the eponymous Majora's Mask. They are accompanied by two fairies, Tatl and Tael. They steal Epona, the horse we rode on and our precious ocarina of time. As Link gives chase, he falls into a hole. Skull Kid is waiting for Link and he changes him into a Deku Scrub. Skull Kid flees, Tael follows them but Tatl gets left behind with Link.

Together they venture forth and they come across an odd tree-like figure with a face.

It looks like the lifeless corpse of a Deku Scrub. The creature looks sad, almost as if it's been through a great deal of pain and agony. As a sidenote, this becomes really important later. It also sets the tone right away and the game doesn't shy away from injecting a lot of heavy themes and messages into the story.

After a while they come across The Happy Masked Salesman, an individual who will be familiar if you've played Ocarina of Time and this is where he will utter the game's most recognized quote:

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

He's now a central character to the plot of this game and acts drastically different than in Ocarina of Time.
Now he's a tad unhinged and a bit menacing. He begs Link to retrieve Majora's Mask, the mask that Skull Kid is wearing. Skull Kid stole the mask from him and he warns Link that the mask is incredibly dangerous and is capable of inflicting a lot of damage to the world and its people. He can also help Link get rid of his transformation if he retrieves his ocarina. But Link only has three days time. After that, the moon crashes into the world killing everything and everyone. The game ends.

And thus Link sets foot in Clock Town, the largest city in Termina and the game finally begins.

Link can't use his sword, people are kinda racist against him and he cannot leave town because the guards view him as a defenseless child.

You as the player know that that's not true, you've proven yourself in the previous game to be more than capable of defending yourself. But the people only look at the mask. Not what's behind it.

Eventually Link retrieves the ocarina of time just before the moon crashes. You reset the timeline and everything goes back to the way it was, right before you enter Clock Town. The Happy Mask Salesman teaches Link the Song of Healing and he turns back to his human self. You obtain the Deku Mask and you can turn back into a Deku Scrub whenever you want. From there you're tasked to travel to the four corners of the earth to find the Gods to help you put a stop to Skull Kid. Or more fittingly, put a stop to Majora's Mask.

That's the basic plot of the story. But everything gets much deeper than that.

From what I remember when this game came out, I get the feeling that it was liked by some but hated by others. For some it deviated too far from the established formula and forced players to play by pretty stringent rules. There is a three day time limit and everything in the game unfolds by a strict schedule. Things happen or don't happen depending on your actions. People move and according to set schedule and you can interact with NPC's in certain ways to influence their actions thus changing the flow of time. When three days have passed according to the in-game clock, your time is up and you have to "reset the timeline", bringing you back to square one. Everything you did will be undone. It is like you were never there to begin with. Everything and everyone lives on borrowed time in this world.

Saving the game is now a rather elaborate affair. What was once a quick and painless push of a button to save your game is now a game mechanic. You can only, truly, save your game when you play "The Song of Time" and resetting the timeline, basically undoing all your progress. You can, however, save at certain Owl Statues but be warned that this is only a temporary quicksave. If you quit after you've saved at said owl statue, the game starts right after your last time reset.

There are also only four real mainline dungeons, probably the fewest in any Zelda game although I'd argue there are a few mini-dungeons sprinkled in. Some people also took issue with the fact that you're playing as Kid Link and not his adult counterpart.

In some sense, you can view these rules and restrictions as a detriment to the game. Every problem you fixed gets undone.

In truth, they are the game's biggest strength. Every action you take or don't take has its varying degrees of consequences. Almost every character has a name, a story to tell and have relations to other characters in the game. With this the game can differentiate its numerous NPC's and give them real purpose. You really start to feel for these people. The focus of the game isn't to save the princess like the game's predecessors. It is to save the world and its people. This is also where the masks come into focus.

A new set of collectable items in this game are the masks. There were masks in Ocarina of Time but they were only there for a short sidequest. There are three (technically four but I'm not opening the can of worms called "Fierce Deity Mask") that allow you to turn into other characters. There's the aforementioned "Deku Mask" but we also have the "Zora Mask" and "Goron Mask".

As alluded to before, these masks contain the spirits of people who lived and died in the land of Termina. Darmani was a Goron who lived in Snowhead, revered as a hero but died prematurely when he tried to save his people from a calamity. Mikau was a Zora, a guitarist for a music group who died while trying to rescue the eggs of the group's singer Lulu. You play the "Healing Song" to ease their burden and heal their sorrow.

But their work is not done. It is sad to say but they failed in their mission. And now it is your turn to carry on their legacy. The people from their respective habitats look at you as if you are Mikau or Darmani. But you're not. You're just masquerading as them.

Who's the Deku Scrub you might ask? Well we never learn his name. But later in the game there are clues to his identity if you're willing to commit to one of the many sidequests the game has to offer.

To me, this Majora's Mask bread and butter. The ability to tie its story into the gameplay. We can find various themes in this game like identity, dealing with mortality, existentialism. What would you do when faced with the end of the world? Would you help other people? Would you run? Cower? Every character deals with this in a certain way. And it's all tied to their distinct personalities.

These aforementioned masks are not the only ones you can collect. There are a plethora of other masks, each with their varying functionality. There's the returning "Bunny Hood" that lets you run faster, there's the "Bomb Mask" which detonates basically used as a standard bomb and thus blowing yourself up. Some masks are just used once just to collect a Heart Piece. With the exception of the transformation masks, the other masks are a bit underutilized. In some instances you have to do a lot of sidequesting to obtain them and after that, most of them only have a one time use, in most cases to collect a Heart Piece.

So I've extensively written about the story and what makes it so good, what about the gameplay?

It's about the same as Ocarina of Time, you travel the land, collect a key item at the end of the dungeon that you will need to complete the game. It's that typical satisfying Zelda formula of collecting items in order to progress to the next area or unlock upgrades from previously visited areas. To be honest, there is not a lot to talk about here.

The game has some interesting dungeons, most of them will rack your brain more than in Ocarina of Time. Take the second dungeon for example, Snowhead. You have to progress vertically via several rooms all situated around a giant ice pillar. You have to increase or decrease the size of the pillar to progress. The bosses are mostly fought with the masks you use to transform yourself into the other species. It's a unique deviation of the Zelda formula where you would normally fight a boss with the item you obtained in the dungeon.

There are four unique areas ranging from a swamp, a snowy mountain, an oceanside and an area that's filled with ghosts, mummies and zombies. It's all very intriguing and unique.

Let us not forget about the music. The music sets the tone for every location and situation perfectly. Take for example, Clock Town's theme. On the first day, the music encapsulates the mood of a large bustling town with a lot of things to do. People are getting ready for a festival, it's upbeat and lively. As the days go by however, the music gets more frantic, there's a sense of foreboding, the atmosphere gets more dark and gloomy as the moon inches closer and closer to the world. The Song of Healing is maybe one of the most haunting melodies ever composed, an achievement considering it's such a simple melody. The Deku Palace theme is also one of my favorites, perfectly encapsulating the mood of a kingdom in disarray.

If you get the sense that I'm gushing more about this game than critiqueing it then I guess your right. I love this game. Are there flaws? Yes plenty. Most of which are a product of their time, wonky camera-controls, low framerate. But I can't help myself. I just love this game so much.

If you want to play Majora's Mask, you can't fail with the original of course, playable on the Switch NSO. You can play the remake on 3DS, but it changes a lot about the game and I would personally not recommend to play the remake as your first playthrough. I would recommend that excellent Recompilation. It runs at 60FPS, looks incredible, there's widescreen support and there is a fully functioning 3D-camera. It's an incredible achievement.