This is my favorite Zelda game.

After loving Ocarina of Time for the 3DS and N64, I wanted to play more Zelda. I can't remember if this was the next one I played, but it was certainly not too far behind me first playing OOT. I still remember getting an expansion pass and DK64 for christmas one year and getting Majora's Mask not too long after (I think? Or maybe I also got it on Christmas I forget). I played it and I remember just loving it. I had trouble with some of its time loop content, but I was absolutely hooked. I remember having a prima guide I would use for all the specific time stuff and all the stray fairies. I even remember busting that out in the middle of my Let's Play I did back on my (now deleted) old Youtube channel. I really loved this game but I also didn't replay it much at all. I played the 3DS version but as for the original, back in 2022, it was only my third time playing this game basically. Still, revisiting it then made me appreciate the game even more than I did before. So much so, I decided to bump it to a 10/10 because you its spectacular. Now though? Not only is it still a 10/10 in my eyes, but it will also be cemented in my top 5 for a long time I reckon.

The story this time around is the weirdest it's even been in a Zelda game to date. Link, after transforming back to his child self at the end of OOT, is wandering through some woods on Epona when suddenly two fairies spook her knocking Link to the ground. Then this masked figure appears out of nowhere, steals Link's ocarina and eventually Epona and escapes. Link runs after them, falls down a very trippy hole and lands in front of both fairies and the masked fella. Right away, this mysterious fella puts a spell on Link and transforms him into a Deku! One of the fairies leaves with the masked fella while the other is accidentally left behind with Link. This fairy is Tatl, the other fairy is Tael and the masked fella is Skull Kid we eventually learn from Tatl. Tatl wants to get back to them and so she apologizes to Link for the earlier instance and pleads him to help her in reuniting with Tael and Skull Kid. Once you go further and try to escape out of wherever you had been, you end up in mesmerizing clock tower of sorts. As you try to leave, a strange fella (that might seem familiar if you played OOT) stops you. "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" is what he says. This is the happy mask salesman, and he tells you he can change Link back to his human form if he gets his ocarina back, but he also has to get the mask skull kid was wearing and stole from him back as well. You then spend 3 days in Clock town, a town in the land of Termina, and learn that people of Clock town are worried that the moon above you will fall and kill everyone. If you look up, yeah there is a very menacing moon that is much closer than usual. You do some things around clock town that eventually lead Link on top of the clock tower. He gets his ocarina back, remembers the song of time, plays it and somehow gets transported back to the beginning of those 3 days. The happy mask salesman transforms Link back to the human form, while also turning the deku form he was in into a mask he can use anytime, and then when learning Link didn't get the mask back..tells him why he wants it back so badly. The mask is Majora's Mask, an evil mask with dangerous powers to control the one who wears it. Thus, it's up to Link to get the mask back in the end. He also must worry about the moon, that will eventually crash down on Termina, killing everyone. He must explore Termina to see how he could possily do that though. I'll spare anymore story details but yeah this story is very weird and also depressing because the entire time you play, you realize in just 3days everyone and everything will be destroyed by the moon. And for that reason, I love the story of this game. It's not as grand or as a classic of a story as something like ALTTP or OOT, it's more experimental and thought-provoking which I love.

Let's get into the general gameplay loop. The three-day cycle mechanic is something you either love or hate I've noticed. There are three days before the moon crashes into Termina. You can only stop it from doing so at this point, by playing the song of time and going back to the beginning of the three-day cycle. Any progress with quests or dungeons is reset and any consumables are gone from your inventory. The catch is, you keep stuff like ocarina songs, weapons, your masks, your dungeon items etc. I can kind of see why people wouldn't like this mechanic but with the song of inverted time, you get PLENTY of time per three day cycle. I literally beat every dungeon on the first day, besides stone tower but that was because I was dumb, so like running out of time is kinda hard to do I feel. If you don't know to play this song before the start of each cycle, I can understand the frustration tho. As it stands however, I really love it personally as it feels really good to plan out a cycle, get it done as well as other stuff if you have time and then finally playing the song of time so you can save everything you did. That's the other thing, you can only fully save by resetting a cycle. Owl statues let you temporarily save but if you reset the game again after owl saving and don't owl save again, you go back to your actual save. I personally never had an issue with the save system in this game and again actually find it pretty satisfying.

The three day cycle plays a big part in the different events that happen throughout Termina. For example, the only way to get in Romani Ranch without going out of your way to get a powder keg, is to wait until day 3. This is because day 1 and 2 has a giant boulder blocking the entrance. The only issue is Romani, who is the sister of Cremia that owns the ranch, will be all weird on day 3. She will just spout nonsense and Cremia is worried about her and only wished she listened to her before. If you want to see what she means and what happened, you must wait until you get a powder keg, explode the boulder on day 1, and you'll see Romani in the ranch all good. She says that aliens are going to come very early that morning to steal their cows, so you wait until the time she tells you and yeah you defend the ranch from the aliens until sunrise. Then she's all good on day 3. I know that was a long explanation for one side quest, and that's not even getting into the milk delivery one that Cremia gives you the next day and can only be done if you fend off the aliens, but that's just how a lot of the side quests are. They can be very dependent on the time of day and three-day cycle but as such they're MUCH more fleshed out and way more interesting than the ones in OOT. There's a reason people say they're the best in the entire series, though that's also because a big chunk of the games run time is all this side activity. It just makes the entire world of Termina feel so alive, even compared to OOT the world feels way more realized here. That's not even getting into the Anju and Kafei side quest that is easily the most fleshed out in the game.

This game had a very short development cycle, notoriously so, so they had to reuse a lot of assets including character models. However, with these more fleshed out side quests, and the fact the game feels all weird and a bit dream-like at times, I think the reused models from OOT actually maybe elevates the game a bit because of the atmosphere it provides. That's not to say everything is reused. There are still plenty of new character models too. In fact, there are several new Goron and Zora designs that I think vastly improved those races and made them feel more distinct. The biggest improvement to a race though is the Dekus. Not only do they actually have an actual location here, the Deku palace. Unlike OOT, there actually are distinct designs here like the Deku king and princess and the Deku butler. Just makes me like the Dekus a lot more than I did in OOT.

Something else that's more fleshed out in this game is its overworld. Termina field is way more interesting visually than Hyrule field, and the secrets are way better too. It visually looks better because of the four different regions making each section of Termina feel different. It also helps this game just looks a lot better visually in general, no doubt due to the expansion pass. The secrets aren't just random bombable holes. They're pretty much all holes still, but they're either just under a boulder like before or are open already and you just have to actually find them. Like some of them are hidden in tall grass and the only way you'd know is because butterflies tend to fly above them. That's not just a random invisible hole you'd only know is there because of a rumble add-on, that's a natural visual cue which I much prefer. Also, the main Zelda theme here is just such a banger and I prefer it over Hyrule Field's theme. The areas that branch from Termina field are all great too in terms of their secrets, though they were also good in OOT as well. Outside of this though, you have Clock Town. I think this is hands down the best hub world/starting town (whatever you want to call it) of all time. It has memorable characters, it has plenty of things to do, you go there A LOT and will learn all the ins and outs of it., it has it all. That combined with the impending doom of the moon, and the various dialogue of what they are thinking on each day. It's just so good. The dialogue actually can change in each day as well. By day 3, some characters could be cowering in fear knowing they are about to die while others have accepted it and want you to make sure they have no regrets. The characters in Clock Town honestly make the story.

Still on the gameplay side of things, let's talk about masks. There are 24 masks in this game and they all do something. Some transform you into races with different move sets, others are just used with side quests but it's up to you to learn when they're needed. Going back to the transformation masks, they're all amazing. You already know Deku Link is a thing but he has the ability to go into flowers that shoot you out into the air so you can fly temporarily and get to certain places. You have a nifty spin that's pretty fast and you can also shoot magic bubbles as a projectile. Goron Link is strong and tough, can actually use those aforementioned powder kegs and is easily the fastest thing on land because of his roll. Seriously it's fun as hell to just roll through termina field. Small tangent quick, I also much prefer getting around in Termina compared to Hyrule. Instead of having just an alright warp method, you not only have a much better one here. You can also use Goron Link to get around super fast AND if you have no magic or just want to play as Link, you can use the bunny hood which like doubles your speed. It's great. Anyways, the third transformation is Zora Link. Zora Link is taller and can grab some taller ledges (I think Goron Link can do that too actually), you have an attack that's basically the boomerang from OOT and the most important thing is you can swim in water. The Zora swimming in this game is phenomenal, it's very response and feels amazing to use and it's just super-fast as well. All three transformations are amazing, and I honestly can't pick a favorite. There's also the giant's mask which is used in one boss fight. Kinda cool but it's just the same as Link's move set. Fierce Diety though is insanely powerful and super cool, but you also don't get that until the very end of the game, right before the final boss.

The set of dungeons in this game are all great I feel. There's only four but they all feel realized and distinct from one another. Woodfall is the most basic and doesn't have a central mechanic like the other three but it's a damn good first dungeon and probably my favorite starting dungeon in the series. Very visually appealing too, and the boss at the end, Odolwa, is great because you can defeat him however you like. Do you want to defeat him by stunning him with arrows? How about with Deku Link? It gives you options which I love. Snowhead is maybe my least favorite of the four dungeons but it's mechanic of the center having a column you can change in size with Goron Link is really cool. That and it has easily my favorite boss in the game and probably my favorite boss in Zelda, Goht. It's simple, just attack him by chasing him as Goron Link. Simple yet a ton of fun due to Goron rolling being naturally a blast. Great bay has you changing the flow of water and it's honestly a lot better than the water temple because Zora Link isn't tedious like the iron boots. That plus the visuals and music, makes me like the dungeon itself better than the first two. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of Gyorg. It's somewhat tedious to fight and doesn't make great use of Zora Link, however it doesn't damper the dungeon itself which is fantastic. The final dungeon, Stone Tower, is the best of the four and one of my favorite dungeons in the series. It not only makes use of all three transformations, it not only makes good use of the mirror shield and the light arrows, but it's main mechanic is you can flip the temple upside down. This mechanic or reusing the dungeon but being upside down, is brilliant and changes the feel of the dungeon way more than you think. It can definitely be a bit confusing on a first playthrough, I was even confused on this most recent playthrough because I forgot about something (dumb on my part tbh) but the complexity and use of the main mechanic is just fabulous. It's a shame the boss of the dungeon also isn't that great. It's better than Gyorg and isn't frustrating as it is just easy. You put the giant's mask on, and hack away at Twinmold. You have your normal moveset so it kinda just feels like a normal enemy. Kinda cool power trip but yeah it's not as good as the first two temple bosses. Then Majora's Mask, the final boss, and its other phases are really cool and weird and disturbing but they are always so easy because I always use Fierce Diety Link which breaks the fight. It's an amazing reward for sure, you must have every mask in the game and give them to the kids in the moon. I also have to say I love the moons visuals so much, they're so surreal.

This game has my favorite OST in any Zelda game. It's so atmospheric and depressing and melancholic I love it. My absolute favorite song will always be Song of Healing. It's hauntingly beautiful yet full of hope at the same time. Honestly, it's in my top 10 VGM ever, it's simply hypnotic in how good it is. Another song that was always like that for me, is Astral Observatory. I'd literally fall asleep to this back in the day it was so calming to listen to. The Final Hours theme that plays during those last 6 hours are the opposite of Song of Healing, instead they make you feel hopeless and accepting of your fate. Tragic yet fitting for the game, I just love how many emotions this soundtrack can pull out of you. That's not to say there aren't catchy more upbeat songs. Deku Palace definitely fits in that regard and the Stone Tower Temple is probably my favorite dungeon theme in the series, it's so good. I can talk about this game's soundtrack all day, just know it's peak.

This is my longest review at this point and I'm really glad I could do this game justice. Back in 2022, I was trying to think of how to write a review for this game. For days I was putting it off, until randomly I decided to do a shitty two sentence review just so I can be done with it. I never felt good about that because I truly wanted to get my full thoughts out as I just adore this game. Hopefully I've finally done so here, and I hope if you did read this entire thing, that you enjoyed it. I have nothing else to say except play this game, you won't regret it.