The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Japanese: ゼルダの伝説: ムジュラの仮面, Zeruda no Densetsu: Mujura [Mujula] no Kamen) debuted in Japan on April 27 2000, in Canada and the United States on October 24 2000, and in Europe on November 17 2000.

Majora's Mask is the sixth release in The Legend of Zelda series and the second 3D release in the series. Although it failed to match the sales success of its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask features a broader storyline. The protagonist Link is placed in the land of Termina, rather than the usual Hyrule. A mysterious mask-wearing imp, known as the Skull Kid, has been persuading the moon to abandon its orbit and crash into Termina. The player repeatedly lives three days through time travel in order to prevent this catastrophe. Majora's Mask has been cited as the darkest game in the Zelda series to date, largely due to its plot leading up to an impending apocalypse.

Gameplay is centered around a repeatedly-played three-day cycle and the use of twenty-four masks, some of which are required to proceed and complete the game. A variety of songs control the flow of time and open passages to the four Temples that Link must complete.

Unlike Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask requires the use of the Expansion Pak, which allows for a larger number of on-screen characters and improved graphics. Majora's Mask was generally received well by critics, who cited the graphic improvements as well as a deeper storyline; however, it is ranked lower than Ocarina of Time on most critics' lists of the greatest video games of all time since its predecessor broke so much new ground.

Storyline


The story of Majora's Mask begins with Link riding his young horse Epona in an unknown wood, searching for someone with whom he had parted ways after the events of Ocarina of Time, likely his previous fairy, Navi (the game suggests this with a brief clip of the sound Navi made when flying in Ocarina of Time). He is ambushed by the Skull Kid, who is wearing a strange mask with spikes, later revealed to be Majora's Mask (Mujula's Mask in the Japanese version). The Skull Kid is accompanied by two friends, the fairies Tatl and Tael. Stealing the Ocarina of Time and Epona from Link, the three of them race off into a mysterious cave. Link follows behind, and eventually catches up with them, only to be changed into a Deku Scrub. The Skull Kid and Tael race off, but Tatl is left behind due to a door closing in front of her. Being a fairy, she is unable to open it. Tatl apologizes to Link for her actions, and chooses to join him to restore his natural form. Link proceeds past the obstacles of the cave with Tatl as he comes to terms with his new Deku Scrub body.

In somewhat of a predicament, Link eventually meets the Happy Mask Salesman, the central character in a sidequest from Ocarina of Time, who says that he can help Link if he retrieves Majora's Mask from the Skull Kid. Exiting from the bowels of Clock Tower, Link and Tatl find themselves in the middle of a city named Clock Town, which is preparing for its annual festival, the Carnival of Time. Link learns that a looming catastrophe is threatening Termina: the moon in the sky has abandoned its orbit and is travelling towards Termina; in three days from Link's appearance in Clock Town, it will crash into Clock Town and destroy Termina. Once Link discovers how to transform himself back into a young boy, the real adventure begins. Link has to fight, puzzle, and think his way through the four major lands of Termina: a swamp, an icy mountain, a beach and ocean, and a canyon. Each contains its own dungeon (a large, enclosed area with many puzzles) that Link must go through. After defeating the masked boss at the end of a dungeon, Link obtains the friendship of one of the four giants.

When the dungeons have all been completed and a sequence of events triggered, Link is able to call the giants, who stop the moon's passage towards Termina. Link must then go inside the moon and face Majora's Mask itself to determine the fate of Termina.

Gameplay
The gameplay of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is based on the 3D computer graphics engine used in its predecessor. Link retains a variety of basic actions, including walking, running, somersaulting, and limited jumping. Majora's Mask is the second game in the Zelda series to take place outside of the land of Hyrule, placing the protagonist Link (voiced by Fujiko Takimoto) in a land by the name of Termina. The Skull Kid has been causing several issues and is attempting to persuade the moon to abandon its orbit and crash into Termina. The player repeatedly returns to the point of his original appearance three days before the crash of the moon using a song called the Song of Time on the Ocarina of Time; he continuously relives these three days collecting the knowledge and abilities required to prevent the catastrophe.

The gameplay in Majora's Mask is arguably deeper than that of Ocarina of Time, which features bombs, arrows, and music as tools to solve several of its puzzles; Majora's Mask retains these elements and includes the use of masks, character transformations, and the limit of a three-day cycle to add further difficulty and variety to many quests in the game.

Masks and transformations
Masks, which had first appeared as a sidequest in Ocarina of Time, play a much more important role in Majora's Mask. Whereas Ocarina of Time has only a few masks, Majora's Mask has twenty-four masks, many of which are necessary to progress through the game. Some masks in Majora's Mask are invaluable, others are helpful, and a few are used only once.

When in human form, Link uses a variety of weapons. The sword is his standard weapon and is the most frequently used weapon in the game. Link can attack enemies with a vertical slash, a horizontal slash, and a jump slash, all of which contribute to damaging the enemy. The shield is used for defending. The bow and arrows are typically used to attack a distant enemy or to activate a switch. Link can use deku nuts to stun enemies, then inflict damage with another weapon. Bombs can be used to blow up enemies and other obstacles, while the hookshot is capable of latching onto an enemy and pulling it towards Link. Deku sticks can be used as a torch when lit with fire.

Unlike previous Zelda titles, Link is not limited to his human form; three special masks allow Link to transform into different species: the Deku mask transforms Link into a Deku Scrub, the Goron mask into a Goron, and the Zora mask into a Zora. Each transformation grants unique abilities: the Deku Scrub can perform a spin dash, shoot bubbles from its mouth, plant itself into and launch itself out of special Deku Flowers, drop Deku Nuts while flying in the air, and skip on water a limited number of times. The Goron transformation can roll up in a ball and spin around, extend spikes and use magic power once top speed is reached, and stomp the ground with his massive body. The Zora transformation is not very agile on the ground, but its sleek body allows Link to swim through the water rapidly, throw boomerang-like fins from his arms, and form a forcefield. Many areas of the game can only be accessed by Link's use of these abilities.

The three transformations and Link himself all receive different reactions from various non-player characters. For instance, the Deku Scrub, with his small height, looks like a child to the guards and is not allowed to exit Clock Town. Dogs will also interact differently with all four forms of Link. Human Link receives an indifferent response from dogs, which will go about their business as they would in Ocarina of Time. The Deku Scrub transformation, however, will be attacked if he goes near a dog, the Goron transformation will frighten the dog away, and the Zora transformation elicits an attraction from the dog.



A special mask called the Fierce Deity's Mask can be obtained at the end of the game if all of the other masks have been located. The Fierce Deity's Mask transforms Link into a larger, more powerful version of himself, with characteristic face markings, malicious-looking white eyes, a silver tunic, and mystical torso armor. He also uses a giant two-handed helix-shaped sword (wielded in the same way as Ocarina of Time's Biggoron Sword) which is capable of shooting bursts of magical energy when targeting an enemy. This mask may only be used during boss battles in normal gameplay, although a glitc] in some versions of Majora's Mask allows use elsewhere. Fierce Deity Link (also called Oni Link) features the same voice as Adult Link from Ocarina of Time (voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama).

Some other important masks are the Great Fairy's Mask, which helps retrieve the stray fairies scattered throughout the four temples; the Bunny Hood, which allows Link to run faster; the Stone Mask, which turns Link invisible to most non-player characters and enemies; and the Blast Mask, which emits unlimited bombs (at the expense of health). Less valuable masks are usually involved only in optional sidequests. Examples are the Postman's Hat, which allows Link access to an item hidden in a mailbox, and Kafei's Mask, which can initiate a long and complicated sidequest that offers several masks as prizes.

Four masks other than the transformation masks are required to complete the game: the Garo Mask, which allows Link to enter Ikana Valley; the Gibdo Mask, which allows Link to speak to Gibdos and navigate through the Well sub-dungeon; the Captain's Hat, which allows Link to converse with Stalchildren and open up an area that leads to the Song of Storms; and the Giant Mask, which enlarges Link in order to fight the boss of the Stone Temple.

Three-day cycle
Since its debut, the Legend of Zelda series has always placed a heavy emphasis on free, open-ended exploration. Shigeru Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda, released in 1986, is a vastly different game from his 1985 game, Super Mario Bros.: the timed, linear levels are replaced with an expansive world that the player may explore at will, provided he has the tools to reach his destination. He may revisit areas he has been to and proceeds with the game only when he is ready. The game has no score; just the satisfaction of finding hidden treasures and collecting every item. This concept is retained in Majora's Mask, but for the first time in the series, a time limit of sorts is imposed. Link is not free to wander around a Temple forever; by the end of the third day he must travel back in time, restarting from Clock Town. Players must plan what to accomplish in one cycle; attempting to complete too much could result in running out of time half-way through a task. That in turn could result in being forced to abandon it and start over in another cycle.

Link can easily keep track of time by a persistent timer at the bottom of the screen. One hour in the game is approximately one real-time minute. Before the end of the seventy-two game hours, Link must return to the beginning of the first day to repeat the cycle. By doing so, Link is stripped of minor items collected during that cycle, but major items such as masks, key events, and weapons remain.

Link is not the only character who plans his time. Link can observe the constant schedule of several non-player characters during the three-day cycle, many of which are in need of help in some way. Using a scheduler of sorts given to him in Clock Town, Link can keep track of the schedules of multiple persons and identify the crucial points at which he may intervene to assist. By timing his actions to arrive at the correct moment and resolve problems ranging from providing a soldier with medicine to reuniting an engaged couple, Link can earn masks or other beneficial items to aid him.

Songs
The Ocarina of Time plays an important role in Majora's Mask. Link must learn to play magical songs from those he meets in order to gain special abilities, ranging from controlling the weather to such powers as teleportation and time travel. Different transformations use different instruments: Deku Link plays the Deku pipes, Goron Link plays the drums, and Zora Link plays the guitar.

The most important song in the game is the Song of Time. It is used to return Link to the beginning of the first day; this is the only way to revisit the three-day cycle and permanently save one's progress. Other major songs in Majora's Mask are the Sonata of Awakening, which awakens some characters and opens Woodfall Temple, the Goron's Lullaby, which puts some characters to sleep and clears the path to Snowhead Temple, the New Wave Bossa Nova, which summons a giant sea turtle to carry Link to Great Bay Temple, the Elegy of Emptiness, which creates mannequins of Link's various forms used to reach Stone Tower Temple, the Song of Soaring, which allows instant transportation between a number of fixed points, the Song of Storms, a carry-over from Ocarina of Time that breaks various curses and the Oath to Order, which summons the Four Giants in order to stop the falling moon. Two secret songs that Link is capable of accessing include the Inverted Song of Time and the Song of Double Time, which manipulate the flow of time. Unlike all other songs in the game which use a preset melody, the player creates his own melody for the Scarecrow's Song, which is used to summon a scarecrow. The Scarecrow's Song, the Song of Soaring and the manipulated versions of the Song of Time are not strictly necessary for the completion of the game.

Termina
Termina appears to be an alternate version of Hyrule: the majority of the Ocarina characters were reused in Majora's Mask with slight differences. For example, the younger and older versions of Malon from Ocarina of Time appear as sisters named Romani and Cremia living on a farm on Milk Road. Anju, whose chickens could be retrieved for a reward in Ocarina of Time, is the main character of an intricate sidequest living in Clock Town. Several other characters were also reused in Majora's Mask, including the Ocarina vagrant, who administrates the Clock Town bank, and the Ocarina carpenters, whose occupations remain the same.

The land of Termina contains a wide variety of terrain. Clock Town lies at the center of Termina and is the place Link starts from when he returns to the beginning of the three-day cycle. The centerpiece of Clock Town is the large clock on Clock Tower that counts down the three days before the crash of the moon. Termina Field surrounds Clock Town; beyond lies mountains, a swamp, a bay, and a valley, each of which houses a dungeon referred to as a Temple. The main portion of the game features Link traveling to these dungeons and defeating a boss within each. Once Link completes the temples, he gains access to traveling to the moon to defeat the final boss, Majora's Mask.

Temples
Located in the Southern Swamp, Woodfall Temple is the first dungeon visited in Majora's Mask. This shrine serves as a place of worship for the Deku; only members of the Deku Royal Family know the song that causes the temple to rise out of the swamp. Link enters this temple to rescue the Deku Princess. On his way, he picks up the Hero's Bow and purifies the toxic water that has been tormenting the inhabitants of Woodfall. The boss of the Temple, Odolwa, is a large warrior equipped with a shield, a sword, and a mask. Odolwa has the ability to summon insects with a ritual dance and is agile, despite his size. Link can defeat him by shooting him with arrows while he dances, and then strike him with the sword to inflict damage.

Snowhead Temple atop Snowhead Peak is the second temple. Link enters the temple to halt a blizzard that threatens to wipe out the Goron race. This dungeon is full of snow and ice. However, the Fire Arrows found in the dungeon melt many of the frozen obstacles. Goht is the guardian of the Snowfall Temple and resembles a large mechanical bull. Link transforms into a Goron to battle him, rolling on a circular track and attempting to attack him with protruding spikes. It is also possible for Link to stand in the safety of the doorway and shoot Goht with arrows as he passes by. After the boss of the temple is defeated, winter ends and spring returns to the mountains.

Great Bay Temple, located far offshore of Zora Cape, is the third temple of the game, and something within it has been polluting the waters of Great Bay. The Gerudo pirates believed that the temple contained a treasure and so stole Zora eggs in order to ransom them for the knowledge of how to enter the temple. Although their boat was blown away in a storm, Link manages to enter the temple on the back of a giant turtle. The waters of Great Bay Temple prove a great obstacle until Link obtains the Ice Arrows hidden within the dungeon. The arrows can freeze most of the obstacles. A gigantic fish known as Gyorg is the boss of Great Bay Temple. Link must stand on a small circular platform and shoot Gyorg in the face with arrows. When the fish collapses from exhaustion, Link transforms into a Zora to attack it from the water, then flees to the safety of the platform before Gyorg can retaliate. While pollution coming from Great Bay Temple ceases once the boss has been defeated, the waters of Great Bay are not clean by the end of the game.

Stone Tower Temple, housed in Stone Tower at the far end of Ikana Canyon, is the final dungeon. This confusing labyrinth is home to the Light Arrows and, according to the dead King of Ikana, it is the curse of the Stone Tower Temple that has left Ikana a wasteland. The King of Ikana requests that Link defeat the evil within the Stone Tower Temple and shut the Stone Tower, though it is never actually closed during the game. After completing the upright version of the temple, Link fires a light arrow into a mysterious spider sigil at the entrance to invert Stone Tower in order to proceed through the remainder of the temple. Twinmold, the guardian of Stone Tower Temple, is actually two giant sand worms. Link must wear the Giant Mask, allowing him to grow to an immense size, in order to fight Twinmold. The battle takes place in a large stretch of desert-like wilderness, scattered with ruins and giant rocks. After growing to the size of the worms, Link strikes each one in the head or the tail to slay both.

The four Temple bosses each leave "Boss Remains" (masks that the bosses were wearing) when defeated. These masks were used to restrain the Four Giants and prevent them from saving Termina; once Link has all four, he can confront the three forms of the final boss: Majora's Mask itself.


 * Majora's Mask, the first form, is the mask itself floating around using projectile attacks. After taking a certain amount of damage, it summons the four boss masks to help it in the battle.
 * Majora's Incarnation, the second form, is a tall, humanoid creature with a single eyeball for a head and the mask for its body. Surreal music plays during this battle. The boss rarely attacks; it mostly runs around the room, occasionally pausing to perform a random dance move of which include a ballerina pose, a moonwalk, and the can-can.  While dancing it is vulnerable to attack.
 * Majora's Wrath, the final form, is a much more menacing version of Majora's Incarnation. It grows an actual head for the battle, its appendages are adorned with muscles, and its fingers grow into large, tentacle-like weapons.  This form possesses astounding agility: it is able to jump across the room in one leap and can dash around the perimeter in a matter of seconds.  The tentacles make it capable of attacking from a great distance; it also has an unlimited supply of spinning blades in its arsenal.  After it attacks, it is briefly vulnerable to being shot and stunned.  While any arrow works, a Light Arrow increases the duration of the paralysis. It is susceptible to being attacked while unable to move.

Development


Following the release of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening in 1993, fans waited over four years for Ocarina of Time, the active development of which took two years. By re-using the game engine and graphics from Ocarina of Time, a smaller team required only one year to finish Majora's Mask. According to director Eiji Aonuma, the team was "faced with the very difficult question of just what kind of game could follow Ocarina of Time and its worldwide sales of seven million units", and as a solution, came up with the three-day system to "make the game data more compact while still providing deep gameplay." Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto had a less active role in the production than usual.

The first reports of Majora's Mask started in May 1999, when Famitsu stated that a long-planned Zelda expansion for the 64DD was underway in Japan with no release date set. This project was tentatively titled "Ura Zelda", which translates to "Another Zelda". This expansion would take Ocarina of Time and make changes to the level designs, much like the "second quest" of The Legend of Zelda expanded upon the original game. In June, Nintendo announced that "Zelda: Gaiden", which roughly translates to "Zelda: Side Story" would appear as a playable demo at Nintendo's SpaceWorld exhibition on August 27 1999. It is assumed by the media that Zelda: Gaiden is the new working title for Ura Zelda.

Screenshots of Zelda: Gaiden released in August show unmistakable elements of the final version of Majora's Mask, such as the large clock that dominates the center of Clock Town, the persistent timer at the bottom of the screen, and the Goron mask. Story and gameplay details revealed later that month show that the opening story of Link's travel to a parallel world where the moon is threatening to crash as well as the use of masks to transform in a Goron, a Zora, and a Deku Scrub are already in place.

That same month, Miyamoto confirmed in a Famitsu article that Ura Zelda and Zelda: Gaiden are separate projects. It is unclear if Zelda: Gaiden is an offshoot of Ura Zelda or if the two were always separate. Ura Zelda would become the Master Quest in North America, eventually released on a bonus disc for the GameCube given to those that preordered The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker; a North American Nintendo 64 release was cancelled due to the failure of the 64DD.

In November, Nintendo announced a "holiday 2000" release date for Zelda: Gaiden. By March 2000, new tentative titles were announced that would become the finalized titles: The Legend of Zelda: Mask of Mujula in Japan and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask elsewhere.

Improvements from Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask runs on an upgraded version of the game engine used in Ocarina of Time and requires the use of the 4MB Expansion Pak. The requirement is thought to be due to Majora's Mask's possible origin as a 64DD title, which would necessitate an extra 4MB of RAM. The use of the Expansion Pak allows for greater draw distances, more accurate dynamic lighting, more detailed textures, more detailed animation, complex framebuffer effects such as motion blur, and more characters displayed on the screen. The expanded draw distance permits the player to see extremely far in Termina, and eliminates the use of fog to obscure distant areas that had appeared in Ocarina of Time. The texture design is also one of the best created for the Nintendo 64. Although some textures have a low resolution, they are colorful and diverse, which gives each area its own unique look. Finally, all building interiors are rendered in real-time, unlike the fixed 3D featured in Ocarina of Time.

The music was composed by Koji Kondo, whose score featured new interpretations of familiar melodies from Ocarina of Time and other previous titles in the Zelda series along with new material. The main overworld theme from the original Legend of Zelda returned, after being conspicuously absent from Ocarina of Time. Fujiko Takimoto, who contributed to the voice of Link in Ocarina of Time, also voiced Link in Majora's Mask. Nobuyuki Hiyama contributed to the voice of Fierce Deity Link.

Critical response
Despite superficial similarities to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask is often described as very different and much darker than the rest of the series. Edge magazine referred to Majora's Mask as "...the oddest, darkest and saddest of all Zelda games".("Time Extend - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask". "In the first of our second sittings with important titles of recent years, we look at the oddest, darkest and saddest of all Zelda games.") Edge issue 143 (December 2004), pp. 121. Retrieved December 10, 2005.) Reviews have generally been favorable, although opinions are mixed regarding whether the game is as good as its predecessor.

One common criticism is that Majora's Mask is not as accessible as Ocarina of Time. GameSpot wrote that some might "find the focus on minigames and side quests tedious and slightly out of place".(GameSpot.com. Majora's Mask is a great game, but it isn't for everybody. October 25, 2000. Retrieved December 3, 2005.) Game Revolution wrote that it "takes a little longer to get into this Zelda", but also that "there are moments when the game really hits you with all its intricacies and mysteries, and that makes it all worthwhile".(Liu, Johnny. gamerevolution.com. Majora's Mask review. November 2000. Retrieved December 8, 2004.)

Some feel that Majora's Mask is significantly better than Ocarina of Time in certain areas. According to Famitsu, "The difficulty level of the game is drastically improved [from Ocarina of Time], the limited saves, and the time limit to finish the game all help to make the game more enjoyable to play".(Famitsu. Majora's Mask. Retrieved December 3, 2005.) IGN.com described Majora's Mask as "The Empire Strikes Back of Nintendo 64. It's the same franchise, but it's more intelligent, darker, and tells a much better storyline".( Mirabella III, Fran. IGN.com. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask review. October 25, 2000. Retrieved December 3, 2005.) GamePro characterized the story as "surreal and spooky, deep, and intriguing".(GamePro.com. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask review. October 30, 2000. Retrieved December 16, 2005.)

Majora's Mask was one of the last major titles for the Nintendo 64, and may have suffered in terms of popular interest due to the familiarity of the technology. Nevertheless, GamePro described the game as "living proof that the N64 still has its magic". The game sold 314,000 copies in its first week of sales in Japan, and has sold approximately three million copies worldwide. It has been ranked the seventh-greatest game of all time by EGM, one position ahead of Ocarina of Time;(Electronic Gaming Monthly. Top 100 Video Games of All Time. As available online in December 2001, from the Internet Archive.) however, Ocarina of Time ranks higher than Majora's Mask in the majority of such lists.

GameCube re-release
In 2003, Nintendo re-released The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask on the Nintendo GameCube as part of the Collector's Edition, a special promotional disc which also contained Ocarina of Time as well as the original two 8-bit NES Legend of Zelda games. This disc could be purchased with a GameCube console, as part of a subscription offer to Nintendo Power magazine, or through Nintendo's official website by purchasing and registering a certain number of first-party Nintendo games. The offer expired in early 2004.

Similar to some other GameCube re-releases, the game is not a port in the traditional sense, but rather the ROM of the original game running on a software emulator; this has been proven by the ROM-dumping community, who have been able to extract N64-format ROMs from the disc that can even be booted on a Nintendo 64. The only differences are the colors of the action buttons due to the Gamecube's green A button and red B button and the pause screen's use and depiction of the L button as the left page scroller, as opposed to Z. Aside from these, because it is only emulated (rather than altered for the new console), there are some timing discrepancies between the two consoles, and some of the music sounds inaccurate on the GameCube. Another issue that has been raised is that the game unexpectedly crashes on the GameCube occasionally; this is once again caused by the inaccuracies of the emulator.