The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is quite a hard game to describe in a review, if you really want to do the game justice you have to ideally talk to somebody about it face to face. So I found it pretty hard to write a review for it. Released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64 Majora's Mask had the monumental task of been the follow up to 1998's masterpiece Ocarina of Time. Some people thought Majora's Mask surpassed all expectations and succeeded in surpassing its predecessor, while others felt alienated by the game's new found way of playing, but either way you look at it Majora's Mask is one of the most important games Nintendo has ever made, whether that be for good or bad.
By now all self proclaimed gamers should have heard about Ocarina of Time. It is 'that' game which many people class to be the greatest ever made. It holds the world record for been 'the most critically acclaimed video game of all time'. So When Nintendo announced Majora's Mask, a direct sequel to the smash hit, everyone wandered just how Nintendo could possibly top it.
The game's story picks up a few months after the events of Ocarina of Time and follows a new adventure of child Link. While on a personal journey in search of a dear friend Link gets attacked in the Lost Woods by Skull Kid who steals his Ocarina and horse, and these events lead Link to the new world of Termina. The story with Termina though is that in three days the moon is going to crash in to it, destroying all life in the land, and Link gets grafted in to stop it.
Majora's Mask plays on a revolving 'three day cycle'. While Majora's Mask gameplay and basic look is identical to Ocarina of Time the three day cycle is one of the aspects that makes the game stand out from its predecessor. If the three days run out, the moon will crash in to Termina. But the three days aren't very long, not long enough for you to awaken the four guardians of Termina to stop the moons decent, so how do you stop the moon crashing and bringing your adventure to a premature end? Well the Song of Time, that's how. Remember the Song of Time from Ocarina of Time? The song you needed to open the door or time so you could get the Master Sword? Well it plays a bigger role in this game. What the Song of Time does this time around is let you restart the three day cycle. Now, when you restart the three day cycle, (which you'll need to do multiple times in your quest) everything in the game resets. Everyone you previously met goes back to not knowing who you are and all your progress through dungeons resets. So now you're probably thinking there isn't much point to Majora's Mask, well you'll be wrong. While everything resets, all major accomplishments, like the completion of a dungeon or weapons you've found don't. If you go back in time you'll reset the dungeons, but if you've already beat a dungeon you'll still keep the remains you received for beating that dungeon's boss so you don't have to do it again.
One of the most important items in the whole game is the Bombers Notebook. What this handy item does it let you record the twenty main NPC's you encounter. Again progression with NPC's is also reset when you go back to the first day, but the Bomber's Notebook lets you remember how you helped them out so if you need to help them again you know how you did it previously. It also tells you when a said person no longer requires any help. So the book is very important in keeping track of things.
NPC interaction is a huge aspect of Majora's Mask. Because the game only has four dungeons (a measly amount compared to the twelve of A Link to the Past or the eleven of Ocarina of Time) the game relies on you completing a lot of side quests in order to get the items you need to reach the next dungeon. So say you need milk, you can't openly buy milk until you've done one of the games side quests. Because there's a lot of side quests you interact with many NPC's and you actually get a feel of what those characters are actually like. Ocarina of Time had a few NPC playing a big role in your adventure, but they were few and far between and only important ones felt like proper characters, but because Majora's Mask relies heavily on NPC's it gave Nintendo incentive to give them a bit of character.
Apart from NPC's playing a huge role in your quest so do masks (as the title of the game might already have implied). Skull Kid (the games primary antagonist) gains huge power from the Majora's Mask he's wearing, but Link also uses masks to aid him in his adventure. There are twenty four masks in the game in total. You don't have to collect them all, but if you do get some of the more interesting ones you'll see that wearing them completely changes how NPC's interact with you. For instance, in the games best side quest (now famously known as the Kafei and Anju side quest), you have to find a missing person, and to get people to give you information you simply run around Clock Town (the Hyrule Market equivalent of a capital city, only much bigger than Hyrule Market) wearing a mask which resembles the person you're trying to find. And you'll always get a different reaction from people if you talk to them in this mask then you would if you talked to them normally.
But three of the games twenty four masks are more important than any of the others. These masks actually physically transform Link in to different creatures. You get the Deku Mask, Goron Mask and Zora Mask, each transforming Link in to the creature they resemble. While in different forms you can actually mingle better with their set race. So if you wear the Zora mask Link takes the body of a famous Zora guitarist called Mikau, so when you talk to other Zora's they all think you're some talented fish-bone guitarist. Or when you wear the Goron Mask you resemble a Goron warrior called Darmani, and all other Gorons look up to you as a role model because of your fame and fearlessness. But apart from giving Link a different body experience the transformations actually change the way you battle. Each transformation of Link has their own set of moves. Goron Link possesses super physical strength and can roll like a Goron, Zora Link is a perfect swimmer and Deku Link can fly using Deku flowers. Each of these forms plays a big role in solving many of the games deadly puzzles. While these forms increase the playability of the game, it also let Nintendo buff up the games difficulty. While Ocarina of Time had some hard moments, Majora's Mask is one full hard moment, it makes Ocarina of Time looks like a game a toddler could complete.
Now upon release Majora's Mask required an N64 Expansion Pak in order for you to record you're save data. It was probably the Expansion Pak which ultimately made Majora's Mask the lowest selling Zelda game in the series up until that point in time because not everyone owned one, but there's a reason why the game needed one. Majora's Mask basically started life and development as a title for Nintendo's ill-fated Nintendo 64 Disc Drive, and the 64 DD allowed for bigger and better looking games, but when the game was brought to cartridge it needed the additional power of the Expansion Pak so they didn't have to take that much of the game they already started making out. So yeah, while many people thought the requirement for the Expansion Pak was a putting off factor, it actually made the game 'technically' far more powerful than previous N64 titles because it allowed for crisper sounding music and a sharper graphical presentation.
Now no game is without criticism, not even Majora's Mask. Truth be told the game itself doesn't really have that many major problems, but the little problems it has made the game that little bit less accessible. For instance the save feature of the game was limited to saving only when you used the Song of Time to travel back to the first day or when you talked to a statue of Kaepora Gaebora (the owl), which made the game feel more claustrophobic than previous Zelda titles. Also the three day cycle can be seen by some as a problem. While many Zelda fans welcomed the three day cycle as it made the game unique, many fans Ocarina of Time brought to the series complained that it never stayed true to the formula of its predecessor.
To sum up Majora's Mask, it is a game that you'll either love or hate and nothing in between. It is like marmite. The game is vastly different to the Zelda titles before it, and some people thought that to be a bad thing. But the most important thing is that the Zelda faithful, in their millions, should adore every last minute of it.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9.7/10