Angry Video Game Nerd Majora's Mask

[jukeboxhero2396]

yeah, no.
can't get behind his opinion at all.
played majora's mask as a friggin kid (and multiple times after that) and had no problem whatsoever with the time limit, no anxiety, just get to the entrance of the dungeon, save going back to the first day, play the song to slow time and enter the dungeon.
Done. no anxiety , you have plenty of time to finish any of the dungeons that way, and if you can't even realize such a simple method, then sorry, but it's your fault, not the game.

also, what's wrong with tight challenges where you need to polish your skills to complete them? what's the point of some obstacle if you are going to win either if you are playing like shit or getting into the mechanics?
shit like this is what ruined portal 2 and all those other games that get focus tested to shit .

is the game perfect? not at all, some parts could have been better designed (like the part with the bridges and the goron mask, not because it needed precision, but because every time you fail it takes a bit too much time to go back for a new try, but some parts he complained about, like the whirpool room where you are just suppose to go with the current and you will be able to eneter any tunnel with precision, and even if you miss it, that same current is gonna bring you back for a new try in no time.

it's really strange for someone that delved in some of the hardest nes games to be so concerned by a bit of challenge.

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james is always outta time

 

[dlauv]

I like MM but that was well done and I agree with his complaints although they didn't upset me nearly as much. The intro dialogue when he's putting the masks on the games is gold.

 

[Asbsand]

This episode was so good.

James Rolfe doesn't always write the episodes anymore does he? I definitely felt this was written in the same way as all the good old episodes. Most of his new content is just overreactions and him yelling stuff constantly which isn't funny.

 

[AtomicShroom]

This was by far his best episode in a loooong while. It felt like a true old-school AVGN episode with all the heart and passion he used to put into them.

And while I'm not as critical of MM as he is, and that I found levels of enjoyment in the added pressures of the time limit, I must say most of his criticism is very valid. I remember running out of time while doing the water dungeon and having to do it all over again. Excessively frustrating.

 

[batfax]

Always love the time mechanic myself. Once I've got all the equipment, it's great fun to challenge myself to work out the schedule to get as many sidequests and dungeons as possible completed in a single loop. Same deal with Dead Rising, though there a lot of the fun is starting from nothing and still managing it.

 

[A Regular Bear]

I played MM with a GameCube controller on Wii VC so I absolutely agree with him about the shitty directional stuff (mostly Goron-related).

 

[OldGamer]

One thing that bugged me in this video is that James apparently shows footage of the wrong boss in the Great Bay temple. Should be that giant fish not that eyeball thing. I think he accidentally reused the eyeball boss footage there.

Also, I kinda laughed at to "to all you who think I suck ass at this game....suck it" because that is roughly what I was thinking since he was really struggling at stuff that really wasn't that hard or worth complaining about. Though the Goron form and the horse racing were memorably difficult, I remember.

The one part of genuine BS was the powder keg disappearing. That was hilarious.

 

[Gifmaker]

The one part of genuine BS was the powder keg disappearing. That was hilarious.

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It doesn't even disappear. It's just that during the Dawn of the Xth Day cutscene, the keg's timer is continueing to run and it explodes, but the rock cannot be destroyed during the same cutscene. While the cutscene is played, you can even see the black smoke from the keg's explosion in James' footage.

It's a rather small and pretty obscure oversight, but it seems that a lot of people, myself included, have somehow run into this exact scenario at least once, lol.

 

[Spine Crawler]

One thing that bugged me in this video is that James apparently shows footage of the wrong boss in the Great Bay temple. Should be that giant fish not that eyeball thing. I think he accidentally reused the eyeball boss footage there.

Also, I kinda laughed at to "to all you who think I suck ass at this game....suck it" because that is roughly what I was thinking since he was really struggling at stuff that really wasn't that hard or worth complaining about. Though the Goron form and the horse racing were memorably difficult, I remember.

The one part of genuine BS was the powder keg disappearing. That was hilarious.

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yeah.. i was like... gyorg?

 

[MeteoraVII]

Majora's Mask is irrefutably the best Zelda game.

People seem to have no grasp on what ludonarrative consistency is. Every gameplay 'issue' people have with it is what led to the 3DS version being the bastardised version it turned out to be.

Majora's Mask was made during a time when Nintendo didn't have the braindead "if it's not fun, why bother?" mentality. Games absolutely should be tedious or stressful sometimes. You don't have to have fun at every moment. You can get anxious. You can get nervous. It's more so about the feelings that the story is trying to evoke.

This was back when Zelda games actually gave a damn about storytelling...

 

[NotLiquid]

I really enjoyed this episode, one of his better ones in recent history to be honest; and actually gave me old Nerd throwbacks where he wasn't afraid to go in on some games that were considered "good". I really like Majora's Mask but his criticisms are warranted.

The rupee process may be seen as a nitpick but I sympathize with how that actually adds up a lot over time. This is a similar problem I had with Super Mario Galaxy 2's Green Stars.

 

[Transistor]

Best episode since Pepsiman. Hopefully this is a return to form for him. I agree with many of his complaints.

 

[Gold Arsene]

Great episode. Unusual to hear such negativity about MM but he was at least respectful about it I felt. Rather refreshing in a way.

While a lot of the stuff he complained about wouldn't bother me it's hard for me to say he's "wrong." I can easily see other people have similar frustrations.

Sorry to purists but I'm team remake when it comes to this one.

 

[Lupercal]

Great video and true with many points. I traded this in when I was young for Perfect Dark and when I rewatch this I know I made the right choice.

 

[RPGam3r]

Great video and spot on with why I dump Majora's Mark at the bottom of the Zelda list next to Zelda II (both decent games, but no where near the remainder of the series).

 

[Astral]

Great video. Can't say I had that much trouble with it myself though. I actually really loved the Great Bay Temple. Maybe I did get super frustrated with the game but I don't remember. I also played it on an emulator and didn't have to deal with the N64's terrible controller.

 

[Eppcetera]

I definitely think it was one of his best videos in a while, although I cringed when he chickened out of the boss fight in the Great Bay Temple (with the song slowing down time, he had around 16-17 minutes left, which should have been very doable). I don't really agree with most of his critiques (some of his problems could have been solved by playing better or smarter), but it was nice to see James back in form.

 

[Angst]

Majora's Mask is irrefutably the best Zelda game.

People seem to have no grasp on what ludonarrative consistency is. Every gameplay 'issue' people have with it is what led to the 3DS version being the bastardised version it turned out to be.

Majora's Mask was made during a time when Nintendo didn't have the braindead "if it's not fun, why bother?" mentality. Games absolutely should be tedious or stressful sometimes. You don't have to have fun at every moment. You can get anxious. You can get nervous. It's more so about the feelings that the story is trying to evoke.

This was back when Zelda games actually gave a damn about storytelling...

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There is a mod to change the 3ds gameplay back to the original. Just thought I'd pass that along so you can get the best of both worlds.

 

[MeteoraVII]

There is a mod to change the 3ds gameplay back to the original. Just thought I'd pass that along so you can get the best of both worlds.

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I appreciate that. There's also Nerrel's MM64HD Project which is basically what the remake should have been (in terms of a visual enhancement) that I'm really looking forward to and would recommend any other MM fan to check out.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

The jokes aside, I actually completely agree with him in this episode. As a massive Zelda fan, I always found Majora's Mask to be subpar. It's one of the only games in the franchise I haven't finished. I've tried multiple times to play through it on both Nintendo 64 and 3DS and just can't get into it. The timer is a big deal to me. I hate games that force me to rush.

 

[Angst]

I appreciate that. There's also Nerrel's MM64HD Project which is basically what the remake should have been (in terms of a visual enhancement) that I'm really looking forward to and would recommend any other MM fan to check out.

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I also follow his channel! Loved his video on why the remake sucked and agreed with everything he said.

If you're interested in the patch, you can find it here!

GitHub - leoetlino/project-restoration: A Majora's Mask 3D patch that restores some mechanics from the original game to get the best of both worlds

A Majora's Mask 3D patch that restores some mechanics from the original game to get the best of both worlds - leoetlino/project-restoration

github.com

it fixes
Zora swimming problem
Deku Hopping speed
Puts the transformation masks assigned to the dpad
fixes bombers notebook
song of time can save the game
fixes inverted song of time speed
fixes the terrible bosses with eyes
fixes the ice arrows
you can press ZL to switch arrow types.


And some other minor fixes

• Adjusted the speed of Stone Tower blocks for a more pleasant climbing experience.
• The moving platforms in Deku Palace and Woodfall Temple now actually always move.
• The Bombers will no longer distract the player from a particular cutscene.
• The new Sheikah hint stone will also no longer distract the player during an important cutscene in the Clock Tower.
• Captain Keeta now walks as fast as in the original game, which restores the challenge of the chasing mini-game.
• Link no longer plays the Elegy of Emptiness a second time after it's been played once. This makes Stone Tower a lot less tedious, considering it needs to be played 10+ times to beat Stone Tower Temple normally.
• For similar reasons, the Song of Soaring is only repeated once during a play session.
• Owl statues can now be activated by striking them with a sword.
• It is possible to control Goron Link rolling just like in the Nintendo 64 version: hold A and move to roll, release A to stop. The classic control scheme co-exists with the new one.
• Free camera mode can now be used more often, notably when targeting, talking or playing the ocarina.
• Link can now leave the Swordman's School during training if necessary to avoid wasting time.
• Fixed a game bug that caused the "heart container get" sound not to play after getting four heart pieces.
• Fixed a game bug that prevented the player from leaving free camera mode by targeting when Zora swimming or Goron rolling.
• Fixed a possible softlock during the Twinmold boss intro.

 

[Menome]

I can accept the criticisms, but Majora's Mask still remains the only 3D Zelda game I have any love for. There's enough great stuff there to outweigh the negatives for me personally.

 

[thefro]

James Rolfe doesn't always write the episodes anymore does he? I definitely felt this was written in the same way as all the good old episodes. Most of his new content is just overreactions and him yelling stuff constantly which isn't funny.

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I think it's more of a collaboration between James/Mike/the Rental Reviews guys anymore. IIRC he's mentioned that they try to have a bunch of scripts done at once now so they can film several back to back to be more efficient. But you can tell James actually played the whole game and wrote most of this episode.

 

[MeteoraVII]

I also follow his channel! Loved his video on why the remake sucked and agreed with everything he said.

Click to shrink...

Same. He basically nailed everything that makes the original Majora's Mask so great and made me have a new-found appreciation for it.

Sometimes you need a bad remake to remind you of that, I guess lol.

If you're interested in the patch, you can find it here!

GitHub - leoetlino/project-restoration: A Majora's Mask 3D patch that restores some mechanics from the original game to get the best of both worlds

A Majora's Mask 3D patch that restores some mechanics from the original game to get the best of both worlds - leoetlino/project-restoration

github.com

it fixes
Zora swimming problem
Deku Hopping speed
Puts the transformation masks assigned to the dpad
fixes bombers notebook
song of time can save the game
fixes inverted song of time speed
fixes the terrible bosses with eyes
fixes the ice arrows
you can press ZL to switch arrow types.


And some other minor fixes

• Adjusted the speed of Stone Tower blocks for a more pleasant climbing experience.
• The moving platforms in Deku Palace and Woodfall Temple now actually always move.
• The Bombers will no longer distract the player from a particular cutscene.
• The new Sheikah hint stone will also no longer distract the player during an important cutscene in the Clock Tower.
• Captain Keeta now walks as fast as in the original game, which restores the challenge of the chasing mini-game.
• For similar reasons, the Song of Soaring is only repeated once during a play session.
• Owl statues can now be activated by striking them with a sword.
• It is possible to control Goron Link rolling just like in the Nintendo 64 version: hold A and move to roll, release A to stop. The classic control scheme co-exists with the new one.
• Free camera mode can now be used more often, notably when targeting, talking or playing the ocarina.
• Link can now leave the Swordman's School during training if necessary to avoid wasting time.
• Fixed a game bug that caused the "heart container get" sound not to play after getting four heart pieces.
• Fixed a game bug that prevented the player from leaving free camera mode by targeting when Zora swimming or Goron rolling.
• Fixed a possible softlock during the Twinmold boss intro.

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This is fucking awesome!

Link no longer plays the Elegy of Emptiness a second time after it's been played once. This makes Stone Tower a lot less tedious, considering it needs to be played 10+ times to beat Stone Tower Temple normally.

Click to shrink...

Okay, I know I harped on about how tediousness is sometimes necessary for games, but this is one example where it absolutely wasn't and I'm glad it's changed here.

Tediousness such as going to the bank every time you time travel to get all your money back makes sense because it's meant to evoke the feeling of going back in time. That's very much how it would naturally feel to go back in time; a lot of general actions need to be repeated and it would be a chore, but it thematically enhances the experience and makes it feel more real.

Playing the elegy of emptiness over and over again makes no thematic sense, really. It's just an inconvenience to the player for the sake of nothing.

 

[Efejota]

I can accept the criticisms, but Majora's Mask still remains the only 3D Zelda game I have any love for. There's enough great stuff there to outweigh the negatives for me personally.

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Did you need to do any modding? I got the remaster but I haven't played it yet, but this seems like the perfect way to do it.

 

[Angst]

Did you need to do any modding? I got the remaster but I haven't played it yet, but this seems like the perfect way to do it.

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Definitely encourage you to either do the modding patch or play it through Citra with the patch applied. It's a significant improvement.

 

[Vctor182]

Seeing the video brought me back some "fond memories" of when I was a kid and played the game. But yeah, I don't think I could enjoy the game now. Majoras Mask side stories and lore is what makes it good, the gameplay have some really bad choices.

 

[Petruccis Biceps]

Great episode and I agree with most of his complaints.

I couldnt stand the time limit back in the day and I cant stand it now. OOT is still the best 64 Zelda.

 

[Camoxide]

Had the powder keg thing happen to me as well. Pretty sure I had it happen in the 3DS version as well.

 

[Raiden]

That took me back years ago and i remember that bullshit ranch ghost game, that dumb exploding barrel.

Love the game but man, fuck some of those things.

 

[Hieroph]

Finally watched this. Great video. What better day to watch a Majora's Mask video than the day which doesn't really exist?