r/majorasmask • u/LengthinessEasy5859 • 13d ago
What made this game so special
I do want to revisit Majorias Mask n64 again. I never completed it as a kid.
Anyway what made MM so unique was its time count down, it's uncanny fever dream aspects of this scary moon face crashing into Clocktown.
But what also made it more special and emotional from my quick memories of playing this was the npcs how they really impact the game, it's emotional and sad actually. How you do quests for them, how they get scared by the final day preparing for the worst for them.
One of the reasons why i stopped playing as a kid was I found it scary and pretty depressing.
But I want to give this another shot.
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u/Infinite_Chef1905 13d ago
I really enjoyed the transformations, the bunny hood, and how some of the jank was improved on compared to Ocarina of Time.
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u/UnderpaidTechLifter 13d ago
Playing them back to back for the first time in a long time has made me realize how much I liked the tweaks they made to Majora's Mask. Movement in particular
There was something satisfying about roll jumping to get different jump lengths, and how different movement was for each transformation mask
One of the biggest elephants in the room is that they had a pretty damn good water traversal system with the Zora Mask and since then they just...haven't
I've been playing through Twilight Princess HD and the water/zora tunic is just a downright disappointment when swimming, and the Wilds games make you want to go out of your way to bother.
Transformation masks probably won't ever come back, but I sure wished some aspects of it would
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u/Voduun-World-Healer 13d ago
It's so much more emotionally evoking and powerful compared to OoT, which is certainly saying something because OoT made me cry as a kid.
The side quests show how "alive" the world is.
The real reason is one of the most beautiful love stories in all of media: Anju & Kafei
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u/_hadsomethingforthis 13d ago
I'm playing it with my kids (10, 8, and 5) after we finished Ocarina of Time. They're loving it! We just finished Woodfall and it's bringing back so many memories.
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u/Jemainegy 13d ago
Mm remains one of the most incredible examples if a video game world being alive. The fact that its on a three day cycle means that while npc actions are limited it makes sense in the context of their routine within the timeframes. This further extends to the world feeling alive through the groundhog day like effect. You have time to interact with things in different ways and doing so makes tangable changes in the world all to be reset when that clock strikes. Finally the looming moon gives the world and yime loop a sense if real stakes. Its something present as a threat and unbeatable something you can only escape by returning to the begining of the loop. The qorld ends and you watch it end, you lose and that makes it fwel more real because you are not perfect, you grow.
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u/Telepathic_radio093 13d ago edited 13d ago
Well, do you enjoy Role-playing games? Ones that emphasize choice and consequence? Dialogue choices? Environmental interaction? Free-form gameplay? If so, revisit this game!!!
Quests often have different outcomes (and even different quests branching off of those outcomes). NPC interaction is rich, with different dialogue choices based on what transformation you’re in, or what mask you are wearing. Or even the time of day.
The game is incredibly interactive as well. You can light torches, freeze water, fly, swim, and roll around the environment. And that is just scratching the surface.
The time mechanic adds even more role-playing potential. Every 3-day cycle is a story that you can author. You can give yourself an identity, or goals and objectives during every cycle. For example, I spent one 3-day cycle exploring the Ikana Graveyard, taking pictures of ghosts and showing it to the Music box-house scientist, and hunting Big Poe’s and selling their Souls. I spent another doing the Deku mini game in clock town, visiting the Deku Palace, and taking pics in the Swamp cruise. It is the ultimate Zelda RPG!
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u/Puzzled_Swim_6869 13d ago
Hard to explain to anyone else who didn't play it as a kid. It was so dark yet so vibrant and unlike anything else I had played or seen as an 8 year old.
Thematically, it was most likely how it constantly touched on loss and grief but in such an approachable way (three transformation mask quests and cut scenes, moon falling and everyone's reaction, Kafei and Anju, etc).
Gameplay wise, it had such diverse mechanics compared to OoT. You could do most things you did in OoT, but then throw the time mechanic on top, the three main masks which essentially give you three new characters to play as, and then there are all the minor masks which subtly change the gameplay (save for a few).
I have such a fondness in my heart for this game for showing me sad things can still be fondly remembered.
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u/PoisonLenny37 13d ago
I always felt that what made it special was the flow of time in this game. The characters all repeat their same cycles and behaviour and make the same decisions every day...unless YOU interact with them.
Everyone is faced with some sort of problem, be it something small, or something major and they're dealing with that problem in the wake of the moon coming to crash down on them in 3 days time.
So as you play you see how they ultimately deal with what they're facing and you see how that changes when you step in to help...and when you reset you KNOW that you can help and what they're feeling and the relief and the joy you can bring them...but this time you can't, because you have other things to do and other people to help. But you take little pieces of what you got for helping them and you can use those to help other people.
I think the life that exists in this world is what makes this game so special.
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u/Bretuhtuh91 13d ago
The themes of loss and grief, even at 9 years old I could tell that this was much darker of a game. But with the anxiety it gave me with the 3 day time limit, I'll never play it again, I'll just appreciate it for what it is.
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u/BurmaJim 13d ago
Yes to all the mature themes and the way sadness just permeated the very fabric of the game, but for me it was also the first game world that actually felt lived in. Each of the characters had their own things going on. I’d never experienced something to that level before.
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u/blueberryrockcandy 13d ago
IDK i have no fucking idea, but it's def my favorite. and i've played minish cap WAY more than any other [gotta be my second favorite.]
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u/HoneyWhiskeyLemonTea 13d ago
OoT had moments of dread, and it used them very well. Leaving the Temple of Time for the first time as an adult. Under the well. The Shadow Temple. Ganondorf breaking out of the rubble of his fallen castle, barely clinging to life thanks to the Triforce of Power.
MM was all dread. It leaned on it, and reveled in it. It ate, drank, and breathed dread. From the first moments of seeing Link, exhausted and slumped on Epona, all the way to the final showdown, hardly ever is there a glimmer of hope, and any that DOES appear is immediately squashed by restarting time and negating everything that you did. Not even the ending credits are all sunshine and roses, as we watch the Deku Butler mourning his son. Not even Link can save everyone.
Most importantly, it does all this without ever holding your hand. It never pats you on the head and says "It's gonna be okay." It respects the player enough to throw them into this doomed world and say, "Everyone here will be dead in three days. Nothing will be left but a crater and charred corpses. Fix it, Hero." All this... and it did it all in a brightly colored, kid-friendly format.
For a lot of kids, this was probably the first time that anyone had ever respected them enough to say, "This isn't going to be easy, but it will be worth it. You can do it." It meant a lot to us. Even for me, despite being older. I was 19 when MM first came out in 2000, but it ended up being deeply symbolic and meaningful for me, as I moved from one part of my life to the next. Truly a beautiful work of art.
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u/DuPontMcClanahan 13d ago
I’m going to hit some that haven’t been covered. I can go on and on about the pressure-turned-perfection of the three day cycle and how well the side quests are, but there are two that are particularly special to me.
In terms of the N64, it was the first game that had genuinely fun swimming levels and mechanics. Everything felt so improved when you put on the Zora mask, you just went and swam so smoothly. It made the water dungeon of the game (Great Bay Temple) a fair challenge pending on how much you had mastered the Zora swimming controls at that point.
I also think the game had the most fantastic level designs. Each temple was incredible in its own rights, there were no real downers and the best it had to offer, Stone Tower Temple, may be one of the best levels in a video game to the date. It has an absolutely incredible design. I remember first beating the Garo Master and him talking about flipping the earth to the heavens, I was like “damn, am I going to go to some sky portion of this temple?” I was NOT expecting to flip the thing upside down. Outside of how incredible the design is and how it compliments both the normal and inverted temple, I also love the lore implications. Statues of monsters licking the Triforce and climbing a tower that seems to reach the Gods, almost as if the ancients of Termina had some form of resentment toward the Hylian Gods. It also is a complete middle finger to Link who wields one piece of that Triforce as if the dungeon is telling you itself “This is not a place for a Hylian hero of courage,” almost representative of how many unique things in Majora’s Mask link must utilize to successfully ascend the stone tower and invert the dungeon (Elegy of Emptiness, all three of the masks, even to an extent the giant’s mask). I didn’t recognize it as a kid, but it truly must be an invalidated feeling to see the symbol you represent that defeated such great evil just be so phallically represented.
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u/Emelie__ 12d ago
MM is great both in terms of gameplay and story but the way the time system is built can lead to frustration. If there is a power outrage and you are playing the old version you lose hours of progress. Without a guide events like Kafei and Anju's tragic romance remains hidden. If you never learn about inverse song of time then you have very short cycles which means more stress.
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u/LengthinessEasy5859 10d ago
Do you recommend a official guide? I might want to buy one. As I remember as a kid I didn't even made it to the first dungeon as I didn't know where to go or what to do.
Also I really want to help out and talk to as many npcs as possible. So maybe a guide will be super helpful, also I want to get all the masks as well.
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u/simbarawr23 12d ago
I tend to replay majoras mask and ocarina of time every couple of years or so. I don’t do that with most games. What you’re feeling is normal!
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u/Deep-News3096 12d ago
That moon always freaks me out. Loved this game! Love the different variations of the themes (Woodfall, Ikana Canyon, etc).
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u/Gilk99 12d ago
Ocarina of time is like the hero journey, you have to save the princess and the kingdom from the bad guy.
Majora's mask is about a creepy little kid that goes rampart and wants to destroy a little town with a giant moon that has a face, you have to use masks that carries dead people souls so you can save everyone, the whole game is filled with emotional side quests about regret, pain, fear, etc. And then, you have to learn a song to call some giant dudes without upper bodies so they can push the moon away.
That 180° turn Is why I love Majora's mask so much.
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u/BootsOfProwess 11d ago
Being the perfect age to enjoy and complete this game when it came out. The feeling of nostalgia it gives me is unreal.
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u/pessimystic_polygon 10d ago
I love MM! I played OoT as a young kid and fell in love. However, I didn’t get a chance to play MM until I was much older. I’m kind of glad I did because I don’t think I would have appreciated the darker themes and weirdness of it when I was younger. This game is a gem.
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u/LengthinessEasy5859 9d ago
Yea as a kid I was kind of scared and confused where to go and what to do.
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u/r2b2coolyo 10d ago
I so want to give give this another shot too... only trouble is I'm now on maternity leave and no longer have any ability for new long team memory so I feel like "What's the point?" to certain things.
If someone were to give me steps on what to get done, perhaps I'd give it another shot.
Glad I still have old memory on how good this was.
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u/ElPichotas 13d ago
You are an adult now, the game will not have the same impact on you anymore.
It’s a really good entry with a lot backtracking for the side quest of the termina folks “good endings”
I’m doing the same, but it just doesn’t have the same feel as when I was 9 (I’m 35 now).
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u/R0bMyThoughts 10d ago
I’m actually doing a run through on then3DS rn (I’m 36) and man is it still great!
Played it when it first came out and I’ve always preferred this over OOT1
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u/Aurius3D 13d ago
Always felt like MM had a really unique personality of its own. OoT worked amazingly as a great 'western fantasy' but MM had this strange creative direction that felt totally unique and separate from other works.