Yes I have seen the video with the weird thumbnail.
Majora's Mask is a game that's haunted me for well over a decade. I picked up the original N64 copy by accident in the late 2000s (I think) thinking it was Ocarina of Time (I wanted the N64 Zelda game my cousin had, but didn't know there were 2 on the system). After getting over the disappointment of getting the wrong game, I played it for a while and didn't really know what to think of it at the time. The 3 day time limit, mask transformations, and just the overall world left various feelings for me. As time went on, I realized I just didn't like the game. It's not a bad game, but it's not for me. I decided, after watching that video several times, to finally put the game behind me using the 3DS remake since every time I tried the N64 version, I couldn't get past Great Bay Temple. Most of this review will be just my thoughts on Majora's Mask and only a bit will be about this specific remake.
I guess the best place to start is with the most divisive thing about the game, the three days mechanic. If you don't know, in Majora's Mask you're given 3 in game days to get as much as you can done cause time resets at the end of the third day. You can use the Song of Time to reset early, but there's no difference between letting the third day end and playing the song. The 3 day cycle ends after an hour outside of pauses for text boxes and menus. You can extend it to 3 hours by playing the Song of Time backwards and I believe this has been altered in the 3DS remake (although I can't find any definitive answers on that). The point is to create a sense of urgency in the player, to keep them constantly moving forward cause otherwise everyone will die. However, this isn't the case for everyone and I'm part of this camp. Personally speaking, I just found it annoying. While I never found myself running out of time, I just don't like forced time limits in games. It causes stress I'd rather not be feeling when trying to relax. I know I have tons of time to get things done, especially if you restart time after activating the owl statue (the fast travel spots) right outside the dungeon, but try telling my brain that. I also really didn't like everything in the world resetting cause it just lead to repetitive moments, especially towards endgame where I was running around grabbing all of the masks and heart pieces. Having to fight the bosses again (I can't tell you how many times I had to kill Goht) just to have the area in a state that I can use to do sidequests was annoying. Not to mention leaving me with the feeling of "What's the point?". I know this can also be argued away with "Well you can optimize your playthrough better by doing things after beating the boss the first time", but even then there's still times you're gonna have to refight the bosses. Not to mention I don't like factoring replays into my reviews since I tend to only play games once and move on.
As far as the actual core Zelda experience goes, it's fine here. Not really a fan of the dungeon items just being the elemental arrows since it feels like it limits some creativity you can have with having a variety of different dungeon items, but I guess this is sort of made up for with the 3 transformation masks. They're used well enough in the dungeons and surrounding area, although I will say it can feel that Deku Link drew the short straw cause after the forest he's barely used even for sidequests. The bosses are fine, but Twinmold can actually just die in a hole. This is easily the worst change the 3DS version made cause it's a fight that takes forever, doesn't telegraph what to do well, and feels random on when it'll let you know you're doing the right thing. Like this is a game with a time limit on everything you do, so why does this fight (and Gyorg although I didn't find him as bad especially after the second time fighting him) take so long to end? I'm also not a fan of how the game kind of forces you to go get the sword upgrade like immediately after the second dungeon. Enemies gain lots more health, especially everything in Ikana Canyon, Ikana Castle, and Stone Tower Temple, and it just feels so arbitrary.
As far as other things with the 3DS version are concerned, only other big change I cared about was the change to how Zora Link swims. I don't mind the slow swimming since it makes it easy to get around when near where you want to go, but draining magic when trying to do the faster swimming wasn't the right idea. If you don't do it reguarly, it'll be more annoying when going for the Beaver races or the Gyorg moon challenge (granted both are optional so technically the faster swimming is never required). Everything else honestly didn't bug me or I found better. Yes it's dumb that they added giant eyeballs to the 4 main bosses, but it never detracted from my experience. The addition of gyro aiming is an absolute godsend. The change in how saving works would honestly be something I never would have noticed had someone not told me. Basically in the original you had 2 ways of saving. You saved automatically when going back in time and you could also create temporary saves by using the owl statues. In this remake, they got rid of the travel back in time way to save and made the owl statues permanent along with adding a bunch of extra save statues that can't be used as fast travel locations. The reason I say I wouldn't have noticed this is cause even when I played the N64 version, I still always used the owl statues to save. It was my personal way of being 100% sure I did save after everything I did.
Majora's Mask will always be a divisive game. You'll have people that absolutely adore it and consider it one of, if not, THE best Zelda game ever made and possibly one of the best games in general ever made. You'll also have people like me who find Majora's Mask frustrating and hard to get into in comparison to the rest of the series. I can't help how I feel and I doubt I'll ever become a fan of it.
Majora's Mask is a game that's haunted me for well over a decade. I picked up the original N64 copy by accident in the late 2000s (I think) thinking it was Ocarina of Time (I wanted the N64 Zelda game my cousin had, but didn't know there were 2 on the system). After getting over the disappointment of getting the wrong game, I played it for a while and didn't really know what to think of it at the time. The 3 day time limit, mask transformations, and just the overall world left various feelings for me. As time went on, I realized I just didn't like the game. It's not a bad game, but it's not for me. I decided, after watching that video several times, to finally put the game behind me using the 3DS remake since every time I tried the N64 version, I couldn't get past Great Bay Temple. Most of this review will be just my thoughts on Majora's Mask and only a bit will be about this specific remake.
I guess the best place to start is with the most divisive thing about the game, the three days mechanic. If you don't know, in Majora's Mask you're given 3 in game days to get as much as you can done cause time resets at the end of the third day. You can use the Song of Time to reset early, but there's no difference between letting the third day end and playing the song. The 3 day cycle ends after an hour outside of pauses for text boxes and menus. You can extend it to 3 hours by playing the Song of Time backwards and I believe this has been altered in the 3DS remake (although I can't find any definitive answers on that). The point is to create a sense of urgency in the player, to keep them constantly moving forward cause otherwise everyone will die. However, this isn't the case for everyone and I'm part of this camp. Personally speaking, I just found it annoying. While I never found myself running out of time, I just don't like forced time limits in games. It causes stress I'd rather not be feeling when trying to relax. I know I have tons of time to get things done, especially if you restart time after activating the owl statue (the fast travel spots) right outside the dungeon, but try telling my brain that. I also really didn't like everything in the world resetting cause it just lead to repetitive moments, especially towards endgame where I was running around grabbing all of the masks and heart pieces. Having to fight the bosses again (I can't tell you how many times I had to kill Goht) just to have the area in a state that I can use to do sidequests was annoying. Not to mention leaving me with the feeling of "What's the point?". I know this can also be argued away with "Well you can optimize your playthrough better by doing things after beating the boss the first time", but even then there's still times you're gonna have to refight the bosses. Not to mention I don't like factoring replays into my reviews since I tend to only play games once and move on.
As far as the actual core Zelda experience goes, it's fine here. Not really a fan of the dungeon items just being the elemental arrows since it feels like it limits some creativity you can have with having a variety of different dungeon items, but I guess this is sort of made up for with the 3 transformation masks. They're used well enough in the dungeons and surrounding area, although I will say it can feel that Deku Link drew the short straw cause after the forest he's barely used even for sidequests. The bosses are fine, but Twinmold can actually just die in a hole. This is easily the worst change the 3DS version made cause it's a fight that takes forever, doesn't telegraph what to do well, and feels random on when it'll let you know you're doing the right thing. Like this is a game with a time limit on everything you do, so why does this fight (and Gyorg although I didn't find him as bad especially after the second time fighting him) take so long to end? I'm also not a fan of how the game kind of forces you to go get the sword upgrade like immediately after the second dungeon. Enemies gain lots more health, especially everything in Ikana Canyon, Ikana Castle, and Stone Tower Temple, and it just feels so arbitrary.
As far as other things with the 3DS version are concerned, only other big change I cared about was the change to how Zora Link swims. I don't mind the slow swimming since it makes it easy to get around when near where you want to go, but draining magic when trying to do the faster swimming wasn't the right idea. If you don't do it reguarly, it'll be more annoying when going for the Beaver races or the Gyorg moon challenge (granted both are optional so technically the faster swimming is never required). Everything else honestly didn't bug me or I found better. Yes it's dumb that they added giant eyeballs to the 4 main bosses, but it never detracted from my experience. The addition of gyro aiming is an absolute godsend. The change in how saving works would honestly be something I never would have noticed had someone not told me. Basically in the original you had 2 ways of saving. You saved automatically when going back in time and you could also create temporary saves by using the owl statues. In this remake, they got rid of the travel back in time way to save and made the owl statues permanent along with adding a bunch of extra save statues that can't be used as fast travel locations. The reason I say I wouldn't have noticed this is cause even when I played the N64 version, I still always used the owl statues to save. It was my personal way of being 100% sure I did save after everything I did.
Majora's Mask will always be a divisive game. You'll have people that absolutely adore it and consider it one of, if not, THE best Zelda game ever made and possibly one of the best games in general ever made. You'll also have people like me who find Majora's Mask frustrating and hard to get into in comparison to the rest of the series. I can't help how I feel and I doubt I'll ever become a fan of it.