I don't think it's the best Zelda but it is definitely my favorite. Also 3rd favorite game ever.
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The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask turns 20 years old
- Thread starter Uncle at Nintendo
- Start date
I was only 11 years old when I played through the Kafei/Anju quest, but even as a child I remember being so moved by it.The scale of it taking the course of the full 3 days to the last 5 minutes, all the events that occur just emphasize the love between the two and the resolve they have to be together. It's truly touching.
Also given that in getting to that endpoint, or any endpoint in the game, means that Link has forsaken another citizen and failed to solve their problems is harrowing. That in itself is what makes MM such a masterpiece in my eyes. The impact of decisions leading to irreversible outcomes for others.
I don't really love it, which makes me sad. As a big fan of LA and the Oracles, I thought the reported quirkiness would be up my street. It's literally the only game in the series I never finished.
What I do appreciate: it's different. It's weird. It's not a me-too copy of OoT. Innovation garners a lot of respect from me.
What I do appreciate: it's different. It's weird. It's not a me-too copy of OoT. Innovation garners a lot of respect from me.
Fond memories of this one, even though I did not play it extensively as Ocarina. I got all the masks and beat the game, and felt satisfied. Didn't go back to get everything. Maybe I'll go back to the 3DS version someday.
Such an oppressive atmosphere the game sets up. I felt doomed just playing it.
I did everything except the gold skulltula tokens in Ocarina, and felt like I could keep exploring that game for fun. I have to put down Majora's because it's exhausting managing time, everyone's schedules, and restocking on items.
Such an oppressive atmosphere the game sets up. I felt doomed just playing it.
I did everything except the gold skulltula tokens in Ocarina, and felt like I could keep exploring that game for fun. I have to put down Majora's because it's exhausting managing time, everyone's schedules, and restocking on items.
well,if you think about it, every major mask that transforms link is due to a sad death of a character. And the game reeks of eerie atmosphere,macabre themes and creepy characters,which I love of course
When Aonuma got in charge, the series already deviated from it's exploration template to a point where you cant blame it on him that he deviated from that path. It's also not like all the decisions made for OoT and onwards were made solely by him.
The story in OoT is more prominent than in the 2D titles, but not in a way that it would take away from gameplay.
Mario never was about puzzle solving, while titles that came before the 3D era of Zelda and before Aonuma clearly also were about puzzle solving, even if they were not the main focus. Your example is absolutely ridiculous.
Ah yes, ALTTP and the prior games were full of the same kinds of puzzles that OOT had. Including the combat which revolves around basic puzzle solving in the 3D games and isn't about positioning. Totally the same thing.
Dude stop. I get it you like the 3D games. I don't and i'm allowed to not like them. Anouma was the guy calling the shots and he was the producer and director for multiple future games. Yeah he was largely responsible and even if he wasn't, there is no reason why the series couldn't have shifted back to what it used to be way sooner than it did with BOTW. Maybe then we could have been spared the mediocrity that were WW and TP. As well as the complete garbage that were the DS entries and Skyward Sword.
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MM has received a sort of renaissance of favor these past few years for it's darkness, time travel, and unique bombers book (and for the attention seeking and contrarian take that it's better than Ocarina). It isn't better than OoT though. For at least 15 of the last 20 years people thought of it as a weird but good sequel to the GOAT OoT. It's a smaller game than OoT. Far fewer dungeons (a real sticking point on those days). The bomber book was interesting but tedious and ran out its welcome early on. There is a reason no game has ever tried that idea again. The time system too was just tedious more than fun. The masks made Links Item "key ring" a huge mess of keys, with only a few granting meaningful transformations. The transformations themselves are just 1-trick ponies that are necessary to get past current theme thing. Playing as Link himself was far superior and swapping masks was a constant chore. Graphically the game looked like OoT with a bit more detail and you're always Kid Link. It wasn't stunning like OoT was the first time you saw it. It was basically just more OoT.
That said it's still a great game and deserves its 95 meta. But it doesn't topple the GOAT and this revisionist history meddling makes me sad. If some are hoping for a MM-esque BotW follow up then I hope it's just a dark tone story intro and thats it. Based on the trailer it seems thats what we're getting. I hope there is a rich and lively castle town too. But Dark the whole game and you end up with TP, not a high note. That game was the answer to fans calling for "darker" and "lots of hard dungeons".
Don't do masks, the bomber book, or time travel. Just do more BotW, dark story intro (which we have already seen), and some new physics based features. BotW needs proper sailing, underwater swimming, and possibly aircraft. Liquid physics would be a great fit in Zelda if Switch can handle it.
That said it's still a great game and deserves its 95 meta. But it doesn't topple the GOAT and this revisionist history meddling makes me sad. If some are hoping for a MM-esque BotW follow up then I hope it's just a dark tone story intro and thats it. Based on the trailer it seems thats what we're getting. I hope there is a rich and lively castle town too. But Dark the whole game and you end up with TP, not a high note. That game was the answer to fans calling for "darker" and "lots of hard dungeons".
Don't do masks, the bomber book, or time travel. Just do more BotW, dark story intro (which we have already seen), and some new physics based features. BotW needs proper sailing, underwater swimming, and possibly aircraft. Liquid physics would be a great fit in Zelda if Switch can handle it.
I still love MM. I think Majora/skull kid remains one of if not the best villain designs in gaming and it saddens me that he still hasn't gotten into smash bros.
Would like to see a major remake of this game but I'm still happy with the original.
Would like to see a major remake of this game but I'm still happy with the original.
You never specified the type of puzzles were what your problem was. Your problem was that it shifted to puzzles instead of action in general. And that#s something games before the 3D era already did.
Nobody ever said you aren't allowed not to like them, your reasoning just doesn't make much sense. "What it used to be" is such a vague description of what you want. Do you want it to go completely free form with barely any puzzles like the first Zelda? Do you want it to be more linear with a focus on story and dungeons like LTTP and OoT?
While WW had its problems, most of them, funny enough, go back to them trying to make a more open world combined with a linear story. Which resulted in most people ending up with a brick wall once they are prompted to search for the triforce pieces. It's still a bold game with its art direction though, and has a really, really unique atmoshpere to it. TP is absolutely mediocre though, agreed. Skyward Sword is far and away the worst 3D Zelda, agreed there too.
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One of my favorite games ever and easily my top Zelda. It's a better game than OOT than be but it's going for a very different thing and could not exist without OOT setting the blueprint for 3D Zelda.
A good game, but mid-tier Zelda. The time travel mechanic was neat and novel, however the lack of dungeons really hurts it in my opinion. Some of the side quests were too on the oblique side as well.
Man, even the commercial ads nailed the feeling of the game. There's no epic battles, no heroic soundtrack or joyful victory. It's all about dread, doom and the desperation of avoiding the inevitable:
I remember watching this Ad on a Walmart (only place where I could see videogame ads) and being transfixed with it
I remember watching this Ad on a Walmart (only place where I could see videogame ads) and being transfixed with it
Just a couple of moments from Majora's Mask that I find emotional as fuck.
EDIT: Feel free to comment and add yours, too. It's a game filled with them!
-As I mentioned in my previous post: the ending to Anju and Kafei's quest. Arguably the finest sidequest in a Zelda game. "Please take refuge. We are fine here. We shall greet the morning... together." Said when the moon is literally about to crash. They know there's not going to be a morning. They're facing death with the one they love. They've professed their eternal, undying love literally at the end of the world. Fuck it, if you don't get even a tiny bit emotional... what the hell's wrong with you? :P
-Cremia giving her young sister Romani the "Chateau Romani" special milk during the last night. "Sleep with me in my bed tonight, OK, Romani?" A last act of kindness knowing there won't be a tomorrow, there won't be a time for Romani to actually become an adult. It's harrowing.
-Cremia giving her young sister Romani the "Chateau Romani" special milk during the last night. "Sleep with me in my bed tonight, OK, Romani?" A last act of kindness knowing there won't be a tomorrow, there won't be a time for Romani to actually become an adult. It's harrowing.
EDIT: Feel free to comment and add yours, too. It's a game filled with them!
OoT will always be my favourite because of a range of different circumstances, but I'm replaying MM on Citra (emulator) at the moment and it's true there's nothing like it. The vibes, the dread, the creepiness is unmatched. Also the sorrowful characters are incredible for the time it released. Can't believe no other game has done anything with the time travel and NPC schedule mechanics.
What I remember the most, is that the first time I completed the Anju questline, was not the time I completed the game. After completing their sidequest, I went back in time and saved; I left the game, and come back to complete it other day. But as the credits were rolling I was suddenly reminded that for Anju and Kafei, it didn't matter; they didn't get reunited this time because I didn't completed their sidequest in the same playthrough I completed the game.
It hit me like a rock that you can only do so much in this game. There's always someone who you couldn't help, someone who's life you couldn't fix. As a kid, it was the first time facing that me - the hero - couldn't save everyone in a game, that this game it's all about failures. You can save the day, and yet, fail everyone else.
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Those other games usually had more substance in other areas like far better combat. So even if a game like Link's awakening wasn't exactly as free form, it still was great as an action game. The problem with OOT and the 3D Zelda games (BOTW excluded) is that everything is a mini puzzle of sorts, including the combat. So it never feels satisfying because all of the puzzles are extremely simple and barely evolve as the game progresses.
Many are just isolated into singular rooms in the dungeons and don't connect into a larger singular whole. Actually the one good puzzle in OOT was the water switching in the Water temple but that dungeon was ruined thanks to the Iron boots switching and the abysmally shallow combat system when underwater with the hookshot. The puzzles in these games are about noticing simple things in a room or something like the game using a mechanic a single time only for it to then get discarded for the rest of the game and the concept never evolves further. The puzzles in 3D Zelda games have never been all that good and often time they feel like they are a part of a tutorial. That is a huge problem when the games primary focus are the puzzles. Even the bosses are turned into generic "hit three times with the item you found" puzzle.
I want it to focus on one of these elements that you mentioned and executed it well. Ideally it would be the combat and exploration because those things add substantial depth to a game and replay value. I'm fine if the game has puzzles but they need to be done better than in most 3D Zelda games. BOTW did them well because there was more than one way to solve a handful of them and in case you didn't like them they could be skipped. Best of both worlds.
I think they had good intentions with WW and the style is gorgeous but the end result is so fundamentally flawed. The missing content is the least of that games issues. By the time we reach Skyward Sword the series basically turned into a parody of itself. Shocking how bad it was.
I don't understand why some people think that you're just being contrarian for thinking that MM is better than OOT.
Haven't finish the game sadly as it got taken away from me years back. But I have to say, Majora's Mask is a beautiful melancholic experience.
It's a shame there's no definitive version. The 3DS remake tried but just made things worse in key areas.
Man I feel like I have never disagreed with literally everything a person has said as much as you in this thread. I love the Zelda games BECAUSE of the more linear, lock-and-key style. I hate open world games. The original LoZ was groundbreaking and all, but now it is extremely dated and feels like a relic, much like the original Metroid. To me, LTTP was a good starting point to where Zelda would go, and OoT nailed it. It doesn't matter that only the first LoZ was the way it was, series are allowed to evolve, change, and move on. The only 2D Zelda I would put on a top 5 list of Zelda games are the Oracle games, I think they were the pinnacle of what 2D Zelda has to offer.
And Skyward Sword is not terrible by any means, it has the best dungeons in the whole series, and while I agree it has some pacing issues and padding it's by no means a bad game.
I did still like BOTW, but it was more in spite of it being an open world game than because of it. It was just so well done that it rose above. I REALLY hope they add a bit more linearity and traditional 3D Zelda dungeons to BOTW2, though.
I still don't fully understand what they were thinking with changing the Zora swimming controls.
It's in my top 3 Zelda games. Along with Link's Awakening and BoTW.
Still remember my first time playing it and how magical it was. Truly a special game. What they accomplished at the time was immense. I'm sorry, but for my tastes it is better than OoT. That's not to take away from OoT. They are both amazing 3D Zeldas. Majora's Mask just manages to capture such an atmosphere.
Still remember my first time playing it and how magical it was. Truly a special game. What they accomplished at the time was immense. I'm sorry, but for my tastes it is better than OoT. That's not to take away from OoT. They are both amazing 3D Zeldas. Majora's Mask just manages to capture such an atmosphere.
Even if we disagree at least you did the minimum of not just calling me a troll because you disagree with me like another poster in this thread. I appreciate it.
It was probably for accessibility's sake and making Zora Link easier to control.
That's one of the reasons I don't like the remake as much, the other being the giant eyeballs they added onto all the bosses for some reason. And the fact that I'm biased towards playing on the tv with a controller.
Basically it's much slower, if you want to go faster it uses up magic and there's a huge magic shield that appears around you.
Swim speed is massively nerfed and you have to use the electric magic attack to go full speed.
Truth. Still my favorite game.
3DS remake was a disappointment for me.
Project Restoration fixes many issues people had with the 3DS version.
https://restoration.zora.re/
I actually had no idea about the button bindings to the touch screen... I might just go ahead and start a playthrough on Citra. The game deserves to be played on a big screen. Lost all my Wii VC progress :(
https://restoration.zora.re/
I actually had no idea about the button bindings to the touch screen... I might just go ahead and start a playthrough on Citra. The game deserves to be played on a big screen. Lost all my Wii VC progress :(
Same. Even if it was mechanically superior in a lot of ways (Song of Double Time is a godsend) the changed artstyle was enough to put me off.
It's still a stunning achievement 20 years later. They had a masterpiece on their hands with Ocarina, and only about a year and change to make a followup, and they somehow made an even better game. And perhaps most surprisingly of all, they did so by taking - at least for Nintendo - an incredibly dark swerve, into a brilliant world that felt both very alien and weirdly familiar.
indeed. You literally can't help everybody - even if you save Termina, defeat Majora, liberate the Skull Kid from its influence and make him realize his friends hadn't forgotten him, even if you reunite Anju and Kafei, save the mummified guy at Ikana, and so on, even then you can't undo the death of the Deku Butler's son, or Darmani's, or Mikau's. Hell, it's even implied that Mikau was the father of Lulu's kids - so they'll never know their father. And, uh, if you do reunite Anju and Kafei it means the old lady gets robbed in Clock Town.
So there's always someone who will carry some measure of hurt even in your victory - the Deku Butler being the prime example. It's bittersweet and it teaches a valuable lesson.
Man...what a time that was. I had soaked up everything I could about the game ever since I saw the "Zelda Gaiden" screenshot of the clock tower in the "Upcoming Games" section of Nintendo Power (probably still have that one tbh) There's me, chubby 7th grade video gamer saving a dollar or two from my lunch money every day in order to save up from the SECOND I saw the full page add in a different Nintendo Power (which I also probably still have.)
Gold cart, lenticular label, expansion pak, rumble pak, absolutely incredible. I don't think I ever used a Game Shark with it either even though I spent hours screwing around in OoT with that thing.
Gold cart, lenticular label, expansion pak, rumble pak, absolutely incredible. I don't think I ever used a Game Shark with it either even though I spent hours screwing around in OoT with that thing.
Used to be my favorite Zelda and my favorite game of all time, but that place has been taken by BOTW.
Still, it's a game that oozes charisma like few of its time and even current games and I can't help but feel incredibly flabbergasted when taking into account the development time it went through.
Still, it's a game that oozes charisma like few of its time and even current games and I can't help but feel incredibly flabbergasted when taking into account the development time it went through.
Possibly still my favorite 3D Zelda. Such a brilliant and unique game that stands apart to this day