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Weirder Zelda game: Link's Awakening or Majora's Mask?
- Thread starter out_of_touch
- Start date
LA was just about a weird fever dream
MM was some weird shit. I've still yet to see anything as bizarre as an angry faced moon in another game. And its treated completely normal
MM was some weird shit. I've still yet to see anything as bizarre as an angry faced moon in another game. And its treated completely normal
MM had a very special development cycle. With the N64 flopping Nintendo forced Aunoma to do a Zelda game in only a year, this pressure reflected on the game, its so odd I really dont think we´ll see anything like it, from Nintendo or any other developer. Maybe an indie and it would still not have the scope of MM, its a mainline entry in a huge franchise.
That is not to say LA isn´t pretty freaking weird.
That is not to say LA isn´t pretty freaking weird.
I think Zelda II and maybe TriForce Heroes are the weirdest Zelda games on account of how far outside of the series' norms they step.
Of these two, I'll say Majora's Mask because of its structure. Link's Awakening is sorta dreamlike and the cameos are a little out of the ordinary, but in terms of its structure and how it plays it's about as conventionally Zelda as they come.
Of these two, I'll say Majora's Mask because of its structure. Link's Awakening is sorta dreamlike and the cameos are a little out of the ordinary, but in terms of its structure and how it plays it's about as conventionally Zelda as they come.
I think Majora's Mask is weirder. You can rationalize Link's Awakening because it's a dream. Shout out to Skyward Sword because it's the first prequel before Hyrule was occupied and it's pretty weird with cute little robots in the desert and the non traditional creature designs.
This. Every zelda game has its weirness and quirks, but the biggest feelings of weird are in these 2.
Link's Awakening is only kind of weird in the context of the Zelda franchise.
Majora's Mask is one of the weirdest games in all of gaming.
Majora's Mask is one of the weirdest games in all of gaming.
Majora's Mask is unlike the rest of the series, but I feel like it's just its own world. I wonder what the Fierce Deity is but I imagine that they could revisit it and explain it.
Link's Awakening is just like "okay here's Wart from Mario" and I know that there isn't going to be a lore explanation for that. It's Wart. He's here now. Deal with it motherfucker.
Then again, maybe the way that I comprehend "weird" is weird in itself.
Link's Awakening is just like "okay here's Wart from Mario" and I know that there isn't going to be a lore explanation for that. It's Wart. He's here now. Deal with it motherfucker.
Then again, maybe the way that I comprehend "weird" is weird in itself.
Yeah this is how I feel. In terms of gameplay and structure LA is a fairly straightforward game, just with some quirky characters and a strange setting. Everything about MM from the gameplay to the atmosphere to the world is just straight up surreal.
The premise of LA is weird but the game itself is pretty standard 2d Zelda fare. Whereas everything about MM is dark and weird.
Link's Awakening.
Like, Majora's Mask is more overtly wacky -- there are aliens and talking beavers and shit -- but to me, it feels like there's a deeper vein of strangeness to Link's Awakening. I find Link's Awakening fascinating to pick apart, whereas Majora's mask, the feeling I get from playing it is "Yeah, this is a side story made with new folks in charge who were getting their jollies out."
Like, Majora's Mask is more overtly wacky -- there are aliens and talking beavers and shit -- but to me, it feels like there's a deeper vein of strangeness to Link's Awakening. I find Link's Awakening fascinating to pick apart, whereas Majora's mask, the feeling I get from playing it is "Yeah, this is a side story made with new folks in charge who were getting their jollies out."
This is how I feel. LA's narrative relies on dream logic like "there's a phone in the Zelda universe", "the Sim City guy has a crush on Princess Peach", but the actual mechanics themselves are pretty easy to understand.
Majora's Mask is not just weird from a narrative level, but its mechanics as well. Link literally turns into other people and this effects the gameplay. Link transforms into a Zora or a Goron or a Deku. And then there is the unique three day cycle. It's an odd game, not just for Zelda, but for video games as a whole.
I don't really see what people would consider weird about LA. The game taking place in a dream, but otherwise being a standard Zelda experience, both visually and otherwise, has never struck me as particularly weird. There's a few threads for fans to pick at, but otherwise it's pretty normal. Super Mario Bros 2 takes the "dream" game direction much further tbh.
Conversely everything about MM is very strange, uncomfortable, creepy, etc. and is very in your face about it both in it's visuals and design. It's a game that likely reflects the mood of a team being crunched to death to get a sequel out as quickly as possible. It being what is, as a big budget release, is already rare enough, but the fact that it's also a direct sequel and entry in a long running franchise, makes it pretty much one of a kind.
Conversely everything about MM is very strange, uncomfortable, creepy, etc. and is very in your face about it both in it's visuals and design. It's a game that likely reflects the mood of a team being crunched to death to get a sequel out as quickly as possible. It being what is, as a big budget release, is already rare enough, but the fact that it's also a direct sequel and entry in a long running franchise, makes it pretty much one of a kind.
It's MM for sure. LA is weird in the sense that the setting and some characters are obviously very odd, but it's also a dream. Termina and everything that is going on there is fucking wackadoo crazy shit.
Nonsense. We've all played it. It's a bit cute with its cameos, and the whole Wind Fish dream thing is obviously weird. But, aside from the dream setting, it's pretty straightforward.
That doesn't compare, at all, to Majora's Mask. A giant face moon, slowly crashing to earth because a disgruntled kid put on a wooden mask? Groundhog Day time-looping? Morphing into other races? Aliens stealing cows? Creepy mask vendor? Weird giants coming to hold up the moon? Oni Link?
Majora's Mask isn't just cutesy weird. It's full-on weird with a vengeance. Maybe the people voting Link's Awakening haven't seen all the weirdness Majora has to offer.
Majora isn't just the most weird and unique Zelda, it's one of the weirdest and unique games ever made.
Majora hands down. The narrative, the mechanics, the OST.
The only thing LA has going for it over MM in weirdness are all the crossover characters. And you still get some of that in MM.
Not only that but MM helped give birth to the "videogame horror creepypasta" genre.
en.m.wikipedia.org
The only thing LA has going for it over MM in weirdness are all the crossover characters. And you still get some of that in MM.
Not only that but MM helped give birth to the "videogame horror creepypasta" genre.
Ben Drowned - Wikipedia
He was also in Oracle of Ages I think, I might be remembering wrong though.
The whole point of LA is that it's a fever dream, but honestly the ending sequence of MM from the stone tower temple to the children of the moon is even more trippy (and all kinds of creepy for a zelda game). Majora's a special game.
They are the two best Zelda games and the weirdness has a lot to do with that. I think its LA for me though. I played them both at a young age and for all the unsettling stuff in MM, in never struck me as super weird or off-putting as a kid. Might be because the OoT assets gave it a slight sense of familiarity (even though that familiarity got twisted by the new scenarios.) LA was completely new to me and genuinely confounded me with some of the weirdness. The talking buzz blob after you use magic powder on it, Papahl telling you straight up he'll get lost later, it all felt so surreal. Learning that it was inspired by Twin Peaks later in my life was not at all surprising.
Majora's mask is far, far weirder to me.
LA is just a standard 2D Zelda in a slightly weird setting.
LA's ending is kinda trippy I guess.
LA is just a standard 2D Zelda in a slightly weird setting.
LA's ending is kinda trippy I guess.
From memory it looks like it could be both since LA had a more recent take, it's fresher for me I guess.
LA started the weird NPCs trend that other Zelda game used and ran with.
Majora though?
Shit isn't even weird, it's downright bizarre.
Like you have a guard in the middle of nowhere that you can't see because he's so unremarkable, there's monsters close and all and they don't give a shit about him because he's so fucking plain.
He gives you a mask that makes Link basically invisible to everyone.
That's rando mask #12
You have UFOs stealing cows, and it's just a rando sidequest.
Game is so weird it feels like something that never could be translated for how weird it is.
LA started the weird NPCs trend that other Zelda game used and ran with.
Majora though?
Shit isn't even weird, it's downright bizarre.
Like you have a guard in the middle of nowhere that you can't see because he's so unremarkable, there's monsters close and all and they don't give a shit about him because he's so fucking plain.
He gives you a mask that makes Link basically invisible to everyone.
That's rando mask #12
You have UFOs stealing cows, and it's just a rando sidequest.
Game is so weird it feels like something that never could be translated for how weird it is.
They're witches and witches sell potions.
What more explanations do you want exactly?
I'm more weirded out by the fact that both adult and kid versions of the girl who trained Epona are in a ranch as siblings with the younger one trying to stave off an alien invasion.
Link's Awakening is a pretty by the numbers Zelda game from a gameplay perspective. It's the characters and bosses that are unique.
Majora's Mask is weird all around. It barely resembles a Zelda game and is only really recognizable as such when you think about its dungeons and how much stuff it lifted from Ocarina of Time.
Majora's Mask is weird all around. It barely resembles a Zelda game and is only really recognizable as such when you think about its dungeons and how much stuff it lifted from Ocarina of Time.
Even the dungeons are weird!
They're made with the thinking that the player will probably not be done with it in only 1 go and will revisit them later on.
If only for the optional bonuses...optional bonuses that act like a speedrun mechanic that challenges the player to find everything in 1 cycle.
In the original game, only the last dungeon boss requires you to use the item you found in the dungeon to defeat it!
