The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (2015)

My progress on this is slow going for a interesting reason. More than the game challenging my exploration and reasoning skill the 3ds is challenging my hands abilities to withstand agonising cramps !_! I've no idea how I put so much time in with this system in the past x_x

The little nub on the right is the enemy! I don't even have very sweaty or oily hands and my thumb keep ls slipping off that cursed nub.

I always wished I could play these with the 3d on but that seems like a unique super power to those who can manage it. I cannot but it still looks really cool with it (When the system is at that perfect angle)

Can finally say I've beaten Majora's Mask after so many failed attempts over the years. I recently dug out my 3DS in preparation of playing Four Swords Anniversary Edition (which I failed to get working on there) and went down nostalgia street looking through my activity log. This was the last game I played before the Switch came out 6 years ago. Apparently, I started this a month before that, but never finished it due to a certain other Zelda game that released and consumed my life.

One thing that stood out during my playthrough were the side quests in this game. Easily the strongest of all the Zelda games I've played. They all felt very unique and interesting and had memorable characters. There's some really sad ones (like the Anju/Kafei one where I finally figured out who the Pikachu Mask Person is) and lots of wacky ones which really show their Nintendo-ness. Collecting unique masks through these really made it more rewarding and hope it's something future Zelda games take note of rather than rewarding you with rupees or 💩 nuggets.

The dungeons were all really unique and interesting. The boss fights (which I used a mod to remove the huge googly eyes) were very different and somewhat challenging, especially the final boss which I needed a few fairies on (I tried limiting my use of Fierce Diety mask as that made it too easy).

One thing I learned which would have been nice to know at the start is rewinding time whenever going on a time consuming quest or when starting a dungeon (for collecting Stray Fairies). It was a little frustrating when I had done so much and "lost" progress when running out of time at the end of the three day cycle. This almost bit me again when I did the whole Gerudo fish egg collection and unlocked the dungeon before rewinding time and saw everything reverted, but luckily was able to just play the song to wake up the turtle to go the dungeon.

It was nice finally seeing the origin of some Smash references like the Great Bay stage and the Bunny Hood item. Now I feel like another fun marathon to go on would be to play all the games based on all the Smash stages.

Overall, this is a top five Zelda game for me.

Since the original release, I've restarted this game a bunch of times, at first always getting stuck in the clock town, and then eventually getting to Goron Village when playing on 3DS. I've just reached that point now replaying on Steam Deck and feel like I can go all the way this time. I didn't realize how long it's been since I've done 3D Zelda dungeons since I've mostly played the 2D Zeldas and (dungeon-less) BOTW. Probably the last time was... when playing this same game years ago haha.

I'm enjoying it much more with the 4K mod + Project Restoration. Recently was amazed by how the Deck's trackpad can be mapped to the touchscreen/second screen which makes it so much easier to play 3/DS games. Also, just found the HUD HD mod which moves most of the relevant information from the bottom screen to the main screen so I can play on full-screen top screen most of the time which makes it even more emersive. This definitely feels like the definitive way of playing this game!

Playthroughs-

• 100%, All Masks, All Heartpieces & Upgrades, Bank is not full to max though
• I will play this again on my 3DS. I'm not a fan of the visual differences in the 3DS remakes and some other changes, but they are still fine to play on their own merit.
• Interested in seeing this upgraded in HD/on a bigger screen via mods