The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

N64, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000) game

Getting two 'Zelda' games out in the space of one system's lifespan was quite an achievement, even more so when you consider the N64 paid host to the first 3D instalment in the series which brought all the innovation and vast game-playing experience to the player that you'd expect from Nintendo, and one reason why this particular console will always be my favourite. The means they used to smash out a sequel to one of the best games ever made, 'Ocarina of Time,' was to repurpose its character models, environments and all those innovations that had made the first game so special. In the hands of another games company this would have meant a 'lazy' sequel featuring more of the same, but probably a little less intuitive and certainly less impressive (think 'Banjo-Tooie' compared to 'Banjo-Kazooie' - and Rare were masters themselves!), but while keeping the style of 'Ocarina,' Nintendo made sure to deliver a sizeable dose of invention, which every game in the series had achieved, from dinky Game Boy Adventure 'Link's Awakening' to a sprawling two-worlds concept of 'A Link To The Past.' Okay, so maybe 'Zelda II' didn't have that, being a side-scrolling platformer, but I've never played it so I can't comment. And the less said about the farmed-out 'Oracle' games they allowed Capcom to bang out, the better, being weaker ripoffs of 'Awakening.'

In 2000, when 'Majora's Mask' was released, Nintendo were still setting the bar high for the series, before 'Wind Waker' and 'Twilight Princess' succumbed to the 'more of the same' mentality. Those later examples still innovated, but it was more to do with graphics than gameplay. 'Majora' was possibly the last truly great 'Zelda' (though I have yet to play the Switch release, 'Breath of The Wild,' which by the sounds of it is a return to greatness), and I appreciate it for further pushing the limits of the N64. I've always been somewhat dismayed how fast and easy hardware manufacturers have been in ditching a technology which is only a few years old to take shortcuts to new games by developing a whole new system, because I feel a console should have plenty of time to be pushed to its extreme, to see how far it can go. It's also very true that though graphics bring in the customers, the connoisseurs of gaming are more impressed by the freedoms a game enables you to experience, the depth of gameplay, not how many pixels or polygons it displays, or whether it has 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. That's why 'Awakening' will always be my number one 'Zelda' game because nothing will ever supplant the fresh, new impressions I had for my debut in the genre.

'Majora' didn't try to outdo 'Ocarina' or set a new standard for graphical prowess (though it did utilise the extra power of the Expansion Pak which games were drawing on for their added size and complexity by this time - see 'Perfect Dark' and 'Donkey Kong' for other good examples), nor did it redefine the 'Zelda' mythos or confuse as later iterations did. Like 'Awakening' it was a clever insert into the Hyrulean world, by being a side quest off the beaten track. Indeed, Hyrule isn't in evidence as in both cases Link is whisked off to some other place of unknowns where there are no Princess Zeldas or Ganons. It feels like it's part of an ongoing saga, that this Link is the one and only Link whom you play as, rather than later games muddying the waters by saying that a boy is chosen to represent the Hero of Time and Zelda is just the latest in a line of royal Zeldas. I prefer things being connected, myself, and so I like that they found a way to give us a completely different world without it being unrelated. There are many familiar musical themes throughout, there are many familiar faces, too, but it doesn't matter so much because if you were attached to 'Ocarina' it's fun to see the same people in different roles (a bit like Marin and Tarin versus Malon and Talon in 'Awakening' and 'Ocarina'), and the same races used in new ways.

The big deal with 'Majora' was multifold: for a start, and for the main meal, we have this unique time system where days play out in 'real' time (not literally, but there's actual progression, and a beginning and end), then there are the lives of the characters, who, for the first time are no longer set to specific points that only change as you progress through the game, as in traditional adventures, they follow a pattern of life over the three day period. And for dessert we have the ability to transform Link into other races that can use specific abilities and create new puzzles to be solved. These were the key advances, and though you can see the origins in 'Ocarina,' they took things to a new level here: for example, 'Ocarina' gave us the ability to travel through time from young Link to older, but it was a set change, like the light and dark worlds of 'Link To The Past.' Here, it's a gradual change that creates all new depth to the town at the centre of it all. Changing into other characters (or otherwise using different characters to achieve goals), was something common to other genres - Mario was always changing into some new form for a specific ability, and Banjo and Kazooie were also known for their unique skill-sets, but Link's changes had been restricted to a jump in age.

The hunt for masks was another side to the game that had been seen in 'Ocarina' to some extent, but became an essential side quest that paid off through the game, but was also necessary to fully complete it at the end, too. This is where I should admit a note of negativity into proceedings, for as much as I enjoyed this game, and like 'Jet Force Gemini' last year, had some thoughts of awarding it the full five stars, I felt that it didn't quite make it. 'Awakening' and 'Ocarina' would unquestionably be given full marks, but as much as I enjoyed 'Majora' I didn't have the drive to get every mask and achieve full completion. Partly that's my age - back in the early 2000s when I first played it I got everything, but in the last ten years or more I've become much less intent on one hundred percent completions. Then there's my work hours - I like to play games at specific times of the week, and due to having shifts that kept coming into conflict with my gaming schedule I didn't play for periods, and that loses the thread of a game. I did occasionally get stuck and eventually solve the problem, but without a regular flow of play I did find I was even less motivated to track down all the bits and bobs, explore all the mysteries and completely crack the game. Another reason is that I'm not as attached to this particular 'Zelda,' whereas I played 'Awakening' a few times, and with 'Ocarina' I was exposed many times as I either played it, watched family members play it, or played parts of it for family members. Due to 'Majora' only having two save files this meant I never went back to it after the first time, hence my lack of connection.

That result was good for this playing experience as I remembered so little of it, so it was great fun revisiting all these places that I'd not seen since 2003 when I completed it the first time. But as much as it was nice to hear so many of the tunes from 'Ocarina' I did feel I could have done with more new music in the game, one area that would have helped to make it even more distinctive. I'm not saying it was lazy to reuse so much, but that would have been one reason they managed to release it only two years after 'Ocarina' when 'Zelda' games tend to take a good four years or so. As I write I have finished the final boss, defeating the mask itself, but because I didn't search out all the masks I won't completely 'finish' the game, and I'm okay with that. But the final confrontation was pretty easy, something I remembered from my original completion, especially compared with the tough sequence of events you have to go through to beat Gannondorf at the end of 'Ocarina'! While I'm pointing out flaws or personal dislikes, I also feel that perhaps the simplistic nature of the four points of the compass giving you one of each location with Clock Town at the centre wasn't as 'realistic,' if that's the appropriate term, as a more free world map. It works, it fits, but in my personal taste I was just never as enamoured with that design as I was blown away by the sprawling layout of 'Ocarina.' Again, these are probably points that made it easier to release during the N64's lifetime, so I'm not complaining.

Something I did like was the connections to previous 'Zeldas' - obviously the major and obvious ones are linking to 'Ocarina,' but there were some nice touches that recalled 'Awakening,' too. Most clearly was the Zora band whose hit was 'The Ballad of The Wind Fish,' but I also felt there was some evocation of that Game Boy game's musical style in the dungeons. And talking of dungeons, they were as good as ever, with the usual innovation oozing from every pore. My favourite was the watery world of the Zora level with all its gears and complexity. It wasn't nearly as brain-frying as the Water Temple in 'Ocarina' (thankfully!), but there was a lot of intelligence in the design. Stone Tower was probably my least favourite for its sandy-coloured bare walls and confusion over flipping the entire level, but I grant that it was very innovative. None of them were so huge and complex that you'd get lost for hours, one reason being that you didn't have hours to complete them. This element of time ticking down (you could only play through three days in the game world), added both frustration and tension to proceedings that wasn't found in previous 'Zelda' games. Until you realise you can slow the speed of time you do feel under a lot of pressure, and the first time I completed the swamp level I was desperately trying to beat the boss before time ran out, and then it did, annoying me that I had to replay the whole level again!

Replaying was something that was a big part of the game as to achieve certain things in certain areas you had to beat the boss, and once time was reset and you returned to the First Day you would lose any of that that had been accomplished and have to fight the boss again if need be. It was certainly a different experience fighting the big bosses again in a 'Zelda' game. In some ways it makes the encounter less special because in other instalments once you'd beaten them that was it, never to be seen again unless you played the whole game from the start. One redeeming aspect of the game was that though there were only four dungeons there were other quests and areas that were almost as involved (and replaying comes into it again as you search out the fairies in each dungeon - the only one I was foiled on was the snow temple), so it never felt like a much smaller game, and in fact it felt much bigger than, say, 'Wind Waker' because there was so much packed in. The environments remained pretty large and the graphical splendour was still very much in evidence (in spite of me having to play through a VGA adaptor, which I've mentioned in other reviews - I'm surprised the game wasn't of a higher resolution considering it required the Expansion Pak, and so few N64 games are high enough for me to play without the deadening effect of the adaptor, more's the pity).

There were still the magical elements of storytelling, the beautiful and otherworldliness that 'Zelda' has done so well - I think specifically of whenever you interacted with the giants, or learned a new song, always the ever-present spirit of 'Zelda' lives on. Yet it was a game that required time and patience to learn the dynamics, it was different, but the same. I really like that games of this era, the latter part of the N64's generation, showed some development as if they were assuming the player had played the previous games. I think of the 'Banjo-Kazooie' games in particular, but these two 'Zelda' games had progression where you were already familiar with Z-targeting or auto-jumping and now you had further layers of nuance to learn. I can't imagine what it must have been like to have to learn everything in one go without the benefit of previous games to school you, but I still appreciate the greater complexity shown in games like this. And though there wasn't a lot of uniqueness beyond the vastly innovative game mechanics, there were some little touches that showed they'd put the effort in - the fact that Link cartwheels off of platforms more dramatically than previous more straightforward jumps is something that sticks in the mind, much like the development of smoother transition movements in 'WWF No Mercy' as opposed to 'WWF Wrestlemania.'

To sum up, this is one of the best games on the system, and one of the best in its series, but I will reiterate that I don't feel quite as fondly towards it as I do my previous 'Zelda' experiences. I don't feel the pull to return to this land and seek out every hole in the ground, and I never quite got a handle on what I was supposed to do for certain people, even when I knew when something was supposed to happen. In all, I only retrieved sixteen out of the twenty-four collectable masks, and so I don't feel I got all I should have out of the game, but neither do I want to go back and make it right. I would also say that there was a slightly nastier edge than most 'Zeldas,' with the mask changes into Deku Scrub, Goron or Zora a painful and nasty change - the malevolent yellow eyes staring down from the moon as it crashes towards the world is another example of grim horror. Obviously there's going to be creepiness and horrible creatures, but I felt there was an attempt to push things in a more unpleasant direction with this game. It's only an impression, I wouldn't mark it down for that, but nor do I feel as 'close' to the story or as connected to the world. It was a terrific game and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to play it again in my year of celebrating the twentieth anniversary of owning my N64, but it does bring home the fact that some games need to be given the space and regular time to keep in touch with the game world, and though all in the series can send a gloom your way when you do get stuck, this being no exception, the good outweighs the bad and this was a great follow-up to a game that couldn't be outclassed, and for being almost equal shows how amazing it was.

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