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The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

Video Game Review

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The Legend Of Zelda Majoras Mask 3D Pack Shot

I vividly remember Christmas Day of 2000, where a younger 9 year old me was more than thrilled to open up a present containing a The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask cartridge for the Nintendo 64. Throughout the subsequent months I remember investing quite a lot of time into the game, ultimately collecting all four boss masks, twenty-four standard masks and fully completing the Bomber’s Notebook – and felt sorry for those who entered the market between the N64 and Wii era’s where it was almost impossible to purchase a copy of this game. Even if the core game content may be lacking in comparison to Ocarina of Time, with only four major dungeons which tended to be much smaller in scale and being generally easier to complete, it made up for these downfalls with genuinely engaging side-quests, a fascinating storyline which is still up for debate today and not suffering from the “sequel’s never quite as good” syndrome.

Ever since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D was released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2011, people have been wondering when a similar port would be made available for Majora’s Mask. Although it has taken Nintendo an almost unethically long time to meet consumer demand, they managed to release the port last weekend.

Storyline

Majora’s Mask takes place some time after the events of Ocarina of Time, where young Link leaves Hyrule in search of his “friend” (Presumed to be Navi). Travelling alongside his trusty steed Epona, he finds himself set upon by a mysterious kid wearing a mask (Majora’s Mask) and his fairy accomplices. Not only does Link find himself without Epona and the Ocarina of Time, but is also trapped in the body of a Deku Scrub. Coming across the mysterious Happy Mask Salesman, Link is offered a proposition: Track down what he had lost (The Ocarina of Time) and the Majora’s Mask, and it will be possible to reverse the curse. While able to break his curse and trap the Deku power into a mask, he is unable to recover the mask. With the evil power contained within Majora’s Mask being used to hurtle the moon towards the land of Termina, Link is forced to relive the same three days over and over again in a quest to recover the mask.

The storyline hasn’t changed since the Nintendo 64 release, and this isn’t of any concern to me. When you consider the greater emphasis on storyline and gameplay oriented side-quests rather than directly focusing on the main campaign, you manage to get a satisfying amount of game-time and different experiences each time you reset the clock back to Day 1. The decision to have time jumping also helps deliver the storyline, allowing you to both repeat almost any side-quest a second or third time and not forcing you to intermingle several quests in one playthrough or risk never getting to access them. That being said, the core storyline is well thought out and much darker than any other Zelda game to date. It isn’t a bad achievement for the writing team that the game has still been subject to discussion and intrigue from the community fifteen years since it launched either.

The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask SS2

Design

Similar to the Nintendo 3DS port of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask is a game which has visually benefited a lot from the past decade of technology improvements. While I don’t see it as an alternative from bringing the game to the big screen (and would not object to a Wii U port), when you compare it against a Nintendo 64 copy of the game on a HD television; the world and its characters look much more vibrant, well detailed and overall more aesthetically pleasing across the board. Although the development team have not held back in making minor design changes to either improve the visual appeal or add some small gameplay improvement, the world of Termina has been recreated faithfully from the source material.

But not everything is perfect with The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask however. I have previously praised the New Nintendo 3DS for being a console that finally delivers tolerable 3D gaming without requiring the player to constantly move their head or spend most of their time playing in 2D out of frustration. Unfortunately this is the only 3DS game on the new console in my experience which has delivered an inconsistent 3D effect during gameplay.

Gameplay

With several dozen hours required to collect every mask, heart piece and complete everything else to 100% completion; The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask makes good use of its 72-hour in-game time restraint. With the bar at the bottom of your screen serving as a constant reminder of how long you have until a literal moon-falls-on-earth Armageddon, part of the thrill in Majora’s Mask involves delegating your precious hours (With one hour equaling approximately one minute) effectively lest your jaunt in a dungeon or progression through a side-quest is wiped clean. This means that a player is required to maintain a good balance of exploration and direct action when it comes to navigating a dungeon.

That being said, with only four major dungeons in the game, you might be concerned that you don’t get as much of a challenge as in Ocarina of Time. This perception is only partly right. The dungeons are not only fewer in Majora’s Mask but also lack the complexity found in other Zelda games. Even the Great Bay Temple (The “Water Temple” equivalent) has nothing on its predecessor. However, the latter two dungeons do pose some reasonable challenges, with all four also making good use of the Deku Shrub, Goron and Zora transformations Link acquires along his journey. One way to make up for the lack of dungeons is the amount of effort required to access them. Each dungeon has a considerable quest line associated with them, requiring players to undertake a quest or sub-dungeon to learn a particular song which will grant Link access to the dungeon which holds a mask-owning boss. These tasks actually tend to be more enjoyable than the dungeons themselves, often delivering some decent storyline along the way as Link is led to acquire and use a particular mask.

The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask SS1

Ultimately, most of your in-game time will not be spent hunting down and progressing through the four dungeons, unless of course you seek to complete the game in the quickest time possible. After regaining his human form, Link obtains a Bomber’s Notebook which records interactions with the various people of Termina – many of whom have particular quests associated with them. This is another area where the Majora’s Mask time constraints are beneficial, as they’ve allowed Nintendo to script a world where certain events take part at certain times. For example, on one night you have an opportunity to stop an alien onslaught seeking to kidnap cows at Romani Ranch, with your success determining which subsequent events take place on later evenings. Alternatively, you can dedicate all three days to helping a young couple reunite after a series of events forced them apart – with a complex route of events which requires some trial and error to complete.  Discovering the means of unlocking these quests is half the fun, with these (occasionally) story-rich events requiring most or different chunks of your three day allocation if not several time loops to complete. Through collecting different masks, new routes can open up to players, making it a pleasure and not a chore to collect all 24 of them.

While the gameplay has not been completely overhauled in this new port, there have been a number of amendments ranging from the near insignificant (Eg. The banker moving locations) to the more significant. One of the more significant changes is that you can now form a permanent save via an Owl Statue, meaning that you are no longer required to use the Song of Time and send yourself back to Day 1 to form one. This is compared to the N64 release where Owl Statues only formed temporary saves, which prevented players from quitting the game mid-dungeon without losing all progress made since they last reset time. Another change is that the Double Song of Time now allows you to jump ahead to any time period of your choosing rather than the next Dawn or Night.

Other changes include a redesigned item HUD which takes advantage of the 3DS’ touch screen, slight alterations to the abilities of the Deku, Goron and Zora mask forms and other assorted changes throughout the world. While many of the changes were welcome, some were less so. The Bombers’ Notebook for example has been made overly complex even if it is slightly more detailed, and the Sheikah Stone / Visions system first introduced in Ocarina of Time 3D once again ruins the fun of exploration and trial & error  by giving players hints on solving particular in-game puzzles.

The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask Song of Time

Final Words on The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D

Nintendo have finally met the many years of fan demands with a fantastic port of a Nintendo 64 classic, with The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D proving to be just as enjoyable and memorable as it was a decade and a half ago. While it may still be lacking in dungeons compared to Ocarina of Time, it manages to provide a memorable experience through all the other elements such as mask collection and side-quests which increase its replayability considerably. Although the port does have a few nagging issues such as irksome 3D on the New Nintendo 3DS, it is a visually pleasing and downright nostalgic yet somewhat underappreciated game which should appeal to newcomers and returning players alike.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.
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