I remember before the 3DS remake I really wanted to see Majora's mask remade, and I wanted it BADLY. Mainly because I had watched a fan made WiiU trailer on YouTube and was all hyped up for the potential of what a Majora's Mask remake could be.

When the remake did release for 3DS it was disappointing even without my unrealistic expectations (the fake trailer was for WiiU. What did I expect?). But I wasn't the only one disappointed. Playable characters were nerfed to be slower and have less momentum, bosses had goofy eyeballs coming out of them, and many other things were changed for the worst that I won't get in to. There are videos about it.

So why am I giving this 4 stars? because I played it with the Project Restoration Mod that fixed a lot of unnecessary changes on top of adding new improvements like adding transformation masks to the arrow pad. With the mod it's a good time, closer to the N64 gameplay with 3DS graphics. Best of both worlds now, but still inconvenient that it has to be updated this way. Nintendo should have fixed it themselves with an eshop patch after they heard the complaints. But they didn't. If you want to play Majora's Mask 3D with the improvements, you have to mod your 3DS with the online guide and learn how to add patches to games. It's not too hard and low risk. I thought it was worth the extra work. Without the mod I probably would have given this 2 stars.

With the completion of this game, I have now finished every single-player-only entry in each of Nintendo's original three: Mario, Metroid, and now Zelda. The latter definitely takes the biggest swings, and tries so much more than most, but that comes with a pretty distinct drawback—that only four or five of them are ever worth playing more than once, and most of the rest are frustrating to the point of being unenjoyable, especially when played in a modern context (though in my defense, the reason I didn't play this and Ocarina on the N64 back in the day was because even then I thought they controlled like ass... and after Breath of the Wild their shitty control is only amplified—necessary or not, the auto-jump is -never- not annoying).

Honestly? I hated this game, but I also pretty strongly dislike every 3D Zelda save for parts of Wind Waker and all of Breath of the Wild. For me, the latter is the only 3D Zelda game to actually feel like Zelda. The original on NES was one of the first games I ever purchased, and Link to the Past remains, to this day, one of my favourite games of all time, but I was one of those who felt left out in the cold with the transition to 3D. While Mario and Metroid felt like they retained the feel of their franchises when moving into the third dimension (even if it happened years later with Prime), Ocarina never felt like Zelda to me... and this is as infuriating as that game, but with the added "fun" of a timer, which for someone with anxiety was never not a pain in the ass that needled away at my brain. In short, the basic design of this game was never going to work for me, and it definitely did not in the end. That plus the constant needing to repeat things because of the loop, the over-abundance (to the point of fury) of mini-games—which are the worst part of every 3D Zelda... yeah, I did not enjoy this much at all.

But hey, at least I can now do a very scientific* ranking of the single-player entries in the franchise.

(*not remotely scientific)

From best to worst:

Breath of the Wild

Link to the Past

Link Between Worlds

Link's Awakening (both versions)

Wind Waker

Zelda I

Twilight Princess

Minish Cap

Oracle of Seasons

Oracle of Ages

Zelda II

Ocarina of Time

Majora's Mask

Spirit Tracks

Phantom Hourglass

Skyward Sword

Majora's Mask on the n64 is my favorite Zelda game and in my opinion one of the best sequels ever made to any game franchise. I give it a 5/5. While I think the 3DS version is overall worth checking out, I felt like it over corrected it's accessibility to the detriment of game play. Not all changes were bad, some I appreciated. Overall, I would have preferred a 1-to-1 remake over what we ended up with.

First and foremost, Majora's mask won't be for everyone. It's the most challenging and stressful Nintendo game ever made. The added dimension of a time loop adds primarily a layer of psychological stress and elevates the difficulty of Majora's Mask well above any of it's Nintendo peers before and since its release. This slowly weighs on the psychology of the player from start to finish resulting in an unparalleled atmosphere. The only other games I have played that does atmosphere as well is the Return of The Obra Dinn, Planescape: Torment, Unavowed or Disco Elysium. What makes the atmosphere so memorable is the time constraint, the sense of futility from your actions since everything you do will be reset once you start a new time cycle, the amazing sound track and how the time loop enabled the developers to create a semblance of complex behavior. What I mean by the later is that most NPCs will have a routine they follow every time loop. A large chunk of the puzzles in the game will revolve around learning these routines to complete side quests. The beauty of this design is that it required low memory to emulate complex behavior and breathed life into most NPCs. Zelda has never come close to this level of complexity in the NPCs since.

The biggest criticism, excluding the polarizing time constraint, most people would levy against the game is the lack of dungeons. I would push back against this given how well regarded the 4 dungeons are. They are among my favorites (and others), excluding the Woodfall Temple, and each presents an interesting gimmick that is well explored. The stone temple is a standout for me because it utilizes all transformation masks effectively and features one of the best gimmicks in any Zelda Dungeon that is both interesting and economical (they get to reuse the same dungeon twice which was a genius design decision).

A common issue with most Zelda games is how certain items become futile after their dungeon introduction excluding the hookshot and bow. This isn't as problematic with Majora's mask since the transformation masks act as multiple items which was a brilliant change to streamline keybinding different items. It fixes the infamous issue with the iron boots from OOT with the Zora mask acting as a swim upgrade, iron boots, breathing under water and the boomerang. There are still some items that end up being useless, such as deku sticks, the lens of truth or deku nuts.

The primary reason why the lack of dungeons seems to garner negativity is the perception that it makes Majora's Mask a shorter game. It's not entirely true. Majora's Mask makes up for this with more mini dungeons and a plethora of side quests. The mini-dungeons are engaging though not without their baggage. I don't think anyone would defend the tedium of the bottom of the well (it is a cool concept though)... Some of the side quests are among the best side content in any Zelda game are present an interesting challenge of learning the routines of multiple NPCs over the 3-day loop. Not all are rewarding or memorable, but the Anju and Kafei quest and Romani Ranch are challenging and have narrative pay off. The 3DS added a few new side quests, but they're not that interesting. One involves getting Gorman's special milk which looks pretty disgusting and depraved to be honest... you see the Gorman brother turn around and do something questionable with himself and the bottle...

What did the 3DS change? I won't cover every detail, just the big ones. The biggest and best change was the ability to set the time you want to skip to (within a given day) while using the song of double time. In the original release you could only skip to 6am or 6pm. This resulted in a ton of tedious waiting. While this is important while learning a routine for a NPC, it ceases to present a challenge or puzzle once you know the exact time for a given action from a NPC. I wish they took this further and let you set the time between any of the three days. As is, you would need to play the song of double time 3 times to get to the end of a time cycle.

They added tons of features that makes the game more 'accessible.' I would argue that most of these changes were superfluous at best and patronizing at worst. There are now more save points so you can save in almost every hub. This is mostly superfluous since you will likely only have to travel a few minutes to get to the original owl statue. It's an inoffensive yet unnecessary change. They changed how saving works in general too. There was a purpose to the convoluted saving system before. The reason why owl statues only created a temporary save was to prevent save scrubbing to elevate the difficulty and stress of the game. Thus, you were forced to repeat the Anju and Kafei quest from day one if you failed. In the 3DS version it is now possible to save scrub until you complete the quest... I kind of wish they included a play option to keep the original way to save on a hero mode or something.

Another significant change is the bosses. They changed the four dungeon bosses but kept Majora the same (kind of odd to not change this as well). The first two are fine (though not better than the originals) and the last two are awful. Gyorg has a second phase where he swims around frantically. You need to bait him into sucking you in, stop swimming, hit a mine so he swallows it and then you can hurt him. It's janky, tedious and time consuming... Twin Mold has a great phase 1 but then gives tonal whip lash and frustration in phase 2 when you turn into a giant WWE wrestler. I think the concept of phase 2 is amusing, it just doesn't fit the tone of the game and feels janky and tedious anyways. I was also not a fan of the aesthetic of the large pulsating eye you need to hit to kill every boss. Just looked shoddy IMO.

Finally, the worst changes are with the ice arrows, the momentum change while skipping water as Deku link and the change to Zora link's swimming. The ice arrows now only work on spots that are sparkling on the water. This ruins secrets in the temple and limits the creativity the player can employ to explore the environment. Additionally, you can now only freeze sparkling enemies...this felt patronizing to me personally. With Deku Link, if you used you are dash attack your momentum would carry as you hit the water propelling you forward. This was satisfying and added some skill while using Deku link. In the 3DS version, all momentum is halted once you hit the water slowing down any water traversal significantly as Deku Link. The worst change is with swimming as Zora Link. In the original you would zip around and could use magic to create a barrier. Now you doggie paddle unless you use magic, making water traversal easy and slooooooooooow. A middle ground of tapping a button to set speed could have been used to have the best of both worlds. I get that swimming in the n64 version was tough but rewarding if you were willing to engage with the game's mechanics.

Overall, I love Majora's Mask and while I don't view the 3DS as the definitive version it is still worth checking out.

This is, without a question, my favourite game ever. Pretty much everything that was great about Ocarina of Time was improved in Majora's Mask, and the upgraded graphics and 3D make it even better.

The 3DS version has a few changes, most of which I approve of wholeheartedly. The banker and the first Save Owl were both moved so they are right beside each other now, which is just convenient; there are more save pedestals, and the added ones cannot be flown to, which really just serves to make the game easier with more places to save; and the bomber's notebook is so much more helpful, if sometimes making some quests too easy (literally telling you what you were supposed to do if you failed, sometimes).

Now for why I love the game itself. I really love the fact that the entire game is one giant puzzle. Because the game operates on a 3-day cycle, everyone's movements and actions are basically on a giant loop that you need to figure out in order to do the side quests. The mask collection is by far my favourite side-quest gimmick in all of Zelda. Not only do you get to collect them in fun, different ways, but then you get to wear them around wherever you want. Some are useful, some are just amusing. And then the payout if you collect all of them... I won't say what it is so as not to spoil it. One of these quests in particular--the Anju and Kafei quest--is definitely my favourite side quest of all time. If you don't know what it is, either play the game and figure it out, or go watch some videos about it.

One of the criticisms of Majora's Mask is the lack of dungeons, but I really don't buy into that. First of all, the four main dungeons are some of the best in the series. They are each unique, challenging, and fun, and the bosses are great as well. Two of them are amongst my top ten best Zelda bosses ever. But aside from that, people forget that each dungeon actually has its own unique mini-dungeon leading up to it. They're not all dungeons in the traditional sense of having keys and mini-bosses and such, but I really love every one of them, and some of them are just as long as the main dungeons. I generally do the mini-dungeons on one 3-day cycle and then start a new cycle to do the main dungeon. If you include all of these smaller ones, there are actually arguably 9 dungeons in the game, which is just as many as Ocarina of Time, not including the Well and the Ice Cavern.

Finally, the atmosphere is so great in Majora's Mask. The whole game has this dark, hopeless feel to it that is reflected in the colour schemes, the music, and the people inhabiting the land of Termina. Yet throughout the game, you're constantly bringing healing and joy to all these hopeless people. It's incredibly satisfying. Even if some parts of the game are pretty weird and don't make a lot of sense, everything just comes together to create an extremely enjoyable and satisfying experience, and I really doubt a game will ever mean as much to me as Majora's Mask.

UPDATE: I really wanted to 100% this game without using the Internet at all, but I ended up being short 2 masks, 1 item, and 6 pieces of heart (3 of which I found using the in-game hints) when I finally gave up. Most of those were all part of the same sequence of events, so I don't feel as bad. I ended up looking up how to do the last few things.

Pros:

Really good balance between overworld exploration and dungeon exploration. I was pretty much always ready to be done with a dungeon once it was over, and I was pretty much always ready to play another one once I got there.

I really enjoyed the detailed and various sidequests. Some of them could have had more in-game hints (like the Kafei and Anju sidequest, what you do with the couple's mask, etc.) but I liked how they helped you get to know and engage with Termina and its people. The Bomber's Notebook made the sidequesting really satisfying - I loved looking through my completed quests and feeling accomplished at how many I'd done, and being able to see what I had yet to do, and the Bombers giving you information that they'd "heard around town" was a great hint system.

The number and scope of the various collection quests were great. Collecting all the masks, collection the lost fairies in each dungeon, collecting all the heart pieces . . . Also, they had really good prizes, particularly the fairy collection. It didn't feel like Ocarina of Time where I would do something really demanding only to win 500 Rupees that I had literally no use for.

I mostly thought the bosses were fun enough that I didn't mind fighting them several times. Exception: Gyorg. Though even he got better. And it was just the second stage that I hated doing.

Good balance between puzzling and fighting. Not as much "jam A!" as some Zelda games; the fights tended to be more interesting and skill-based.

More involved and satisfying plot than earlier Zelda games! Though still not nearly as fleshed out and satisying as I would've liked. Had really good themes of redemption and friendship.

The setting back time mechanic was really interesting.

Cons:

A lot of parts of the story felt incomplete and unsatisfying. (What happens to Lulu once you teach her the New Wave Bossa Nova? She just keeps standing there? What happens when you beat the fourth dungeon? You just see all these swirly things coming out of the town but the story doesn't really continue, unlike the first two dungeons where there were clear effects of beating them. Why did the giants have to leave Skull Kid in the first place, and why do they leave again at the end? etc.) Also, there was so much space between parts with explicit storytelling that I would just completely lose engagement with it and not be thinking about the overarching story at all anymore.

The setting back time mechanic would really have been more convincing and immersive if the sidequests you completed stayed completed once you turned back time. Instead I would help someone and feel really good about it only to have to turn back time and have them go right back to having the same problem I'd just worked really hard to solve. It was discouraging.

The Zora mechanics were so titchy and difficult to master.

That part where you had to swap masks and make three shells of yourself EVERY TIME YOU WANTED TO GET INTO THE RIGHT-SIDE-UP FOURTH TEMPLE. And watch the cutscenes of all three rocks moving into place. Man that was tedious. Could there not have been a shortcut once you did it once? Like there was for every other dungeon entrance?

Favorite parts: the two Skulltula houses, collecting all the lost fairies, the ending of the story (the moon and Skull Kid's healing), being able to have tiny animals follow me about with the Bremen mask

Least favorite parts: the Water Dungeon (I found it unintuitive and tedious), the Swamp Dungeon's terrible music, the Zora mini-dungeon on the moon, the Kafei and Anju sidequest (again, found it somewhat tedious and unintuitive, though it did have a good payoff)

Overall, this was my favorite Zelda game I've played as an adult so far (excluding Link's Awakening, which is so nostalgic for me that probably nothing can ever beat it.) I can see why Zelda games are often held up as the gold standard for action RPGs. The gameplay is really solid in its balance of exploration, collection, worldbuilding/storytelling, and fighting/platforming.

Jacob Geller confirmed every Zelda game is the darkest Zelda game but here comes the darkest darkest Zelda game: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (2000-2015) (Played on New 3DS)

If I was rating this game on vibes alone it would be a 10/10 easy. Especially given how short the dev cycle was and how much they DID reuse, I was kind of repeatedly suprised by how much new and unique content was in here anyways (especially with detail stuff like increased number of animations for characters). Termina feels more realized and more interesting than Ocarina's Hyrule, the music is fantastic, the story has really interesting and heartfelt beats. There's SO much weird and cool in concept everywhere you look- but then you actually start to play.

I don't really know how else to describe it except to say from a mechanics standpoint this game feels like it's mad at me for playing it. Given that it opens with the line "You've met with a terrible fate" as a proxy for the devs suffering under extreme crunch, it doesn't feel terribly speculative to say that. Constantly I would be introduced to something that seemed SO cool (This dungeon flips upside down! You can talk to frogs! This mask lets you suplex a sand worm!) only to find them sluggish and frustrating in practice. The transformation masks were such an amazing concept, until you have to shuffle back and forth through the cut scene every time you want to use your bow (Goron Link can't handle normal bombs? Isn't that their whole thing?) Meaningful power upgrades were locked behind fairy fetch-quests, whereas 95% of the rewards for helping the people of Termina (the point) were just heart container pieces.

And the time loop. Listen. I get that it's not only the core conceit but the reason this game was able to get made in the time it did. And I think that's so creative, and again in vibes it gives such a weight and urgency to your actions. HOWEVER. This is Zelda! I want to explore! I want to work at a puzzle until I figure it out! So often in this game I found myself reaching for a guide because I didn't want to waste time figuring something out only to run out of time and have my dungeon progress reset. And I had a way better experience (vs me at 15) planning out my day cycles in advanced (and knowing the reverse song of time exists) but even then, the frustration outweighed the story implications by the end.

And I can't emphasize enough there were parts of this game I loved! Tatl was way more fun than Navi! Seeing the progression of residents over the 3 days, feeling the futility of returning spring back to the Gorons, only to see it reverted next time you return because right, that's the whole tragedy of what's happening here. New 3DS C stick was an actual lifesaver. I think the most shocking thing playing through this was, for all the talk of MM being the "black sheep" of Zelda, I almost saw more threads from this to Breath of the Wild than any other game in the franchise. Curious if that keeps happening going forward with the marathon-ing but that was one of my favorite things playing through.

I wish I had played this when I was a kid, and I didn't have a million other games to play and responsibilities to think about. When I could spend hours digging into every corner and exploring every side quest, and the prospect of redoing content was fun instead of tedious. Then again, that's kind of the whole point, isn't it?

If Grouvee did half stars this would be a 3.5 and I went back and forth on rounding but my heart says 3. Sorry :(.

Next we go for the Oracle games, courtesy of my cool kid Nintendo Ambassador card. 3DS Zelda machine best console ever I am worried my circle pad is gonna break it's FINE.

Despite being developed in just one year, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask remains the most narratively ambitious installment of its franchise. Establishing an oppressive atmosphere from the first few minutes of gameplay, Majora’s Mask presents a world full of darkness, that is defined by the way those who inhabit it are related to the concepts of loss and death.

The game has its beginning soon after the events of its predecessor, Ocarina of Time, with the protagonist Link wandering through a forest in search of an old friend. The boy, however, soon encounters an elf-like creature named Skull Kid, who, wearing a strange mask, scares his horse away and causes him to fall in a hole in a tree. When he wakes up, Link discovers that he was cursed and took the form of a creature made of wood, called Deku. Pursuing his tormentor, he arrives at the world of Termina, by a passage in Clock Town, and is approached by a mask salesman who warns him about an important setback: if Link cannot regain Majora’s mask within 72 hours, freeing the giants from every region of that world, the moon will fall and kill everyone in Termina.

The game’s most important system involves the passage of time and the control of those 72 hours. Every sixty minutes in Termina equals 45 seconds in real life, making the three fateful days last about one hour of playtime. Fortunately, the player can go back in time by playing a song, which takes the protagonist back to the morning of the first day.

The directors, Eiji Aonuma (who remained as producer of the series) and Yoshiaki Koizume (who came to direct the brilliant Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey), do not miss the opportunity to develop this system, stimulating Link to interact with all the inhabitants of the place and solve their problems. As the player encounters too many characters to deal with in just one hour of playtime and many are performing actions at different points in the city at the same instant, the system of time cycles is crucial to allow the player to know everyone without the common sacrifice of verisimilitude in other games, in which the characters’ routine is static in time.

Most people in Termina, especially in Clock Town, have a dynamic routine during these three days, moving around the city with a different goal and doing their chores every passing hour. While some are working on the preparations for the local festival that celebrates precisely time, others are arguing with the mayor about the possible end of the world and calling for an evacuation, and the rest are simply immersed in their routines, taking care of their business and personal problems, unaware of the impending disaster.

These people often have narrative arcs that need Link’s help to progress. The city’s postman, for example, is characterized by the strictness with which he deals with his work: his agenda is immutable, and can never be modified or ignored. If Link tries to talk to him during his work, the postman only complains that he is being late and asks him to leave. However, the fall of the moon puts his principles in check, because evacuating the city would force him to leave his post. It is up to the player, therefore, to arrange a solution that will make the character free of his obligations.

Majora’s Mask, due to its premise, is filled with tragic characters. The secondary mission with the most prominence in the narrative, for example, involves the impossible relationship of a young couple: even if Link eventually gets them together, either the moon falls and kills them anyway, or the hero returns in the time, separating the two again.

This constant reversal of events builds an oppressive atmosphere charged with hopelessness. Each one of the protagonist’s victories in curing the ills of that world is annulled by his own hands at the end of each cycle. The developers further reinforce this contrast by making the changes that Link causes in the world far more evident than in Ocarina of Time. When the giant of the icy area is reanimated, for example, a blizzard disappears from the nearby region, which enters springtime. The accessible areas change with the rejuvenation of the vegetation, but the effect only remains until Link comes back in time again, bringing back the ice.

Clock Town is the center in which the rest of the game revolves around. Each new area explored, each mask discovered, each equipment acquired and dungeon conquered, makes new options for dialogue, conflict resolutions, stores and possibilities of interaction become available in the city. Thus, one of Majora’s Mask’s greatest achievements is the paradox of often providing new content even though it repeats the same events continuously and reverts the situations back to what they always were.

There are several systems and mechanics acting in conjunction with the time cycle to prevent it from becoming frustrating to the player. While time travel causes Link to lose all his money and ammo, his masks and equipment remain intact. This allows for a more rewarding gathering of items, unlike Ocarina of Time, where the player often had both ammunition and money maximized and was still “rewarded” with more of them. Certain songs that Link can learn also make life easier: one triples the duration of each hour, giving more peace of mind to the player, another advances Link to the exact time of day that he wants (in the original version, it was only allowed to jump every six hours with this melody) and a third allows teleportation to certain key areas of the map.

As the title of the game indicates, Majora’s Mask also introduces a system of masks in which they assume the most varied functions. Primarily, they are the tools needed to help people around Link, whether teaching two frustrated dancers with the mask of their former mentor, or leaving a lady happy that Link did not sleep during one of her stories because he wore a mask that caused insomnia. Some, however, are also useful to the exploration part, such as the Bomb Mask that replaces the bombs – dispensing with the constant need to gather them, though it does damage to Link – and the Bunny Hood that allows him to move faster. Other masks even transform Link into three different species (Deku, Goron and Zora), allowing new forms of interaction with both the environment – Zoras can breathe underwater, while Gorons are able to roll over steep ramps, for example – and with certain characters, who only are open to the protagonist because they believe he is someone else.

Being a game about adventure, Link’s actions and the places he visits are the most varied possible. In one moment he is sneaking through a Deku Palace to save a little monkey from being burned unjustly by a mad king, in the second he is bargaining with spirits to help a people who is about to be frozen to death and, in the third, he is pretending to be a guitarist and playing in a band formed by aquatic creatures.

And since it is a title from The Legend of Zelda series, Majora’s Mask has the progress of the player marked by the conquest of special dungeons full of puzzles and dangerous monsters. Although they come in smaller numbers, comparing to Ocarina of Time, the dungeons here compensate that in their complexity. If the ones from that title had most of their puzzles contained in their respective rooms, here they are more open for exploration and require the player to understand the full extent of the place’s architecture. It is not a surprise, for example, to notice that a single temple in Ocarina of Time contains almost as many locked doors as the entirety of Majora’s Mask, with its miserable nine keys in total.

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