Majora's Mask: Why It's the Best Game I've Ever Played
Sept 14, 2013 12:53:49 GMT -5
JMMREVIEW and asoldierbear like this
Post by MMCC0203 on Sept 14, 2013 12:53:49 GMT -5
Majora's Mask: Why It's the Best Game I've Ever Played (a review/analysis)
(Be warned. This review is really long)
Ocarina of Time. Easily one of the best games ever created. Ever since it's release in November of 1998 It has received almost universal acclaim from both critics and fans alike, and this acclaim is absolutely warranted because of just how groundbreaking Ocarina was at the time. Z-targeting was brilliant, the overworld seemed immense, the temples were beautifully constructed, and Koji's Kondo's score in my opinion still hasn't been matched to this day. It was Link's first and arguably most well-received foray into the 3D adventure genre, and I think it's hard to label Ocarina as anything other than a milestone in game design. However, as much as I could praise Ocarina for all of the things it did to near perfection, I still don't consider it to be the best game of all time. In fact, I would argue that it isn't even the best Zelda. As you all could probably guess by the title, I believe that LoZ Majora's Mask is worthy of such an honor.
I still love OOT if you're wondering
Arguably one of the more obscure Zelda's in the franchise, Majora's Mask was the immediate successor to Ocarina of Time. It was originally planned as an expansion known simply as Ura Zelda and then eventually Zelda Gaiden, which at the time would have taken advantage of the failed 64DD or disc drive peripheral that Nintendo eventually scrapped. Thankfully, at some point in development they decided to turn the project into a fully fledged game. Although...I have to be honest. For all intents and purposes, Majora's Mask in my opinion seemed destined for obscurity and ultimately failure when I first heard about it. It had a small development team, the game was completed in about a year, the game came out near the end of the console's life span, and Ganon was no where to be seen on the antagonist side of things. In fact, I had never actually heard of the game until about 2001 and I didn't play it until about 2002 when I rented it for the first time.
Like a child wondering into a foggy, mysterious forest, I had no idea what to expect with this game
Luckily, despite not knowing what I was getting myself into the game managed to exceed any and all expectations and, at the time when I first completed the game, it seemed to match Ocarina of Time in just about every technical aspect. However, it took took me almost a decade of replaying and hindsight to realize the true genius of Majora's Mask. For me it truly is the best game in the Zelda franchise and simply the best game I have ever played.
Majora's Mask is sort of a dichotomy really. On the surface you have a strange and less subdued art style compared to Ocarina that at times just seems downright bizarre. The art style can best be described in an Alice in Wonderland meets acid trip sort of way. It's not uncommon to see various shades of red, green, purple, and blue all dancing around the environment in a vivid and almost surreal sort of way, which is made made even trippier by the use of motion blur, a cool yet disorientating post-processing effect. Combine this with the anomalous architectural style embodied in the cactus like appearance of the stone tower temple and the Medieval-like Ikana Castle (complete with breakdancing redeads), and you have Majora's Mask's art style.
Best fan art ever
However, underneath the bright and vivid shell of Majora's Mask's color pallet you have the darkest, most mature, and most thematically complex game in the franchise. These themes are driven home from the very beginning of the game, and it makes for an extremely different Zelda experience. It's established right away that Termina, the overworld, isn't the focus of the game. Rather, Link himself is. We see Link and Epona running away from Hyrule to get away from it all, and we get a sense of Link's angst and discontent. He'd just been through Hell and back in Ocarina, and he had almost nothing to show for it outside of the puny Kokiri Sword, Epona, and the Ocarina of Time.
Despite all of his heroic acts, we see that Link is left by himself without any real sense of identity or direction. He basically came out of Kokiri Village as a nobody and left Hyrule as a nobody when Zelda returned him to his childhood state. It's quite sad that Link ended up in such an isolated position. It seems like he never got the recognition he deserved. To make matters worse, his situation deteriorates even further when Skull Kid turns Link into a Deku Scrub, effectively stripping him of any remaining dignity.
After the events in the woods I think it's safe to say that Link had hit rock bottom; this moment serves as the starting point from which Link is to grow on a personal level and become the hero that Termina needs him to be, as well as the hero that he himself needs. In other words, Link's journey could be viewed as an endeavor to discover both himself and his purpose in life, but I'll get into more detail on this later when I talk about the end.
Further adding to the aforementioned sense of darkness and emotional weight are the omnipresence of the moon, the pressure of time, the side quests and the persistent theme of death. After meeting the mysterious mask salesman at the beginning of the game and being given the quest of recovering Majora's Mask from Skull Kid, you open the doors of the Clock Tower and are greeted by two sharply contrasting sights. First, you immediately notice the seemingly carefree citizens of Clock Town. Every where you look you see NPC's come to life as they scurry about the town carrying on with their daily lives preparing for the Festival of Time. However, this all changes when you..well.. look up. You're greeted by the horrifying face of the moon mere miles above the town. It's glowing red eyes and piercing scowl, a sight that you become use to over the course of the game, serve as a constant reminder of the danger both you and clock town face.
You have only three days to accomplish this seemingly impossible task of halting the moon's advancement toward Clocktown. It's overwhelming at first, and the fact that you have a time limit adds so much weight to the events that occur within the three day time frame. You realize that the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of Clock Town's citizens all fall on your shoulders; this realization is what pushes and motivates the player to stop the Skull Kid/Majora's Mask.
Thanks for the nightmares Miyamoto
The interesting thing about MM that sets it apart from other Zelda's, outside of the time mechanic, is its emphasis on sidequests. The game actually has only 4 temples: Woodfall, Snowhead, Great Bay, and Stone Tower. While all four of them continue the Ocarina tradition of beautiful and expertly crafted temples, it's obvious that this number is a little on the short side. However, it would rather silly of us to not recognize the fact that the temples, and Termina, simply aren't the focus of the game. The emotional meat of Majora's Mask is packed into the huge number of side quests the game contains. The masks are arguably the most unique and game-changing feature of MM, and the vast majority can only be obtained via exploration or side quests. This simply isn't a game where you can breeze through the main quest right away; if you do decide to rush, be warned: you will miss out on most of the games nuances.
One quest in particular involving two otherwise minor characters serves as a primary example of why you do not want to skip out on these side stories. It involves Kafei, a rather androgynous looking and mysterious male child as well as Anju, a caretaker at the Inn in Clocktown called the Stockpot Inn. To make a long story short, you spend the majority of your time acting as the middle man between these two odd lovers as they exchange letters and notes and ultimately agree to a rendezvous moments before Clocktown's destruction. It's an amazing story really, and their final meeting is easily the most emotional moment I've ever experienced in a video game.
It's hard to describe the suspense I felt as I waited for Kafei to return to the Stock Pot Inn seconds before zero hour. These people truly didn't care about the impending apocalypse. They just wanted to be together in their last waking moments after being separated for the entire game. Really, if you haven't played this quest, please do it right now, and if you don't have an N64 or emulator just watch it on Youtube. Overall, this quest should remind us that Link and the characters of Clock Town are really the focus of the game; it's the type of thing that motivates you to care about these people and preserve their way of life.
Finally, we come to the theme of death. No Zelda prior to or succeeding Majora's Mask has dealt with death in such a direct manner. Right from the beginning we're confronted with this theme after being turned into a Deku Scrub. Prior to entering the Clock Tower, we encounter the dead Deku Scrub that Skull Kid presumably sacrificed in order to transform you into a Deku Scrub. While the emotional impact of this event isn't immediately apparent, later on, and in an emotional twist, you encounter the father of this dead Deku Scrub. The father isn't even aware that his son is dead, so the player is left in the difficult circumstance of knowing the son's fate while the father is still under the impression that he is alive.
In Snowhead, we encounter the ghost of the once great Goron Darmani who died as a result of Skullkid's/Majora's actions and we must help him come to terms with his fate. In Great Bay, we encounter the dying Mikau sprawled out on the beach as he compels Link to aid Lulu. Hell, the whole of Ikana Canyon that you encounter near the end of the game is pretty much a representation of death. It's literally a ghost town complete with creepy music (MM has a fantastic soundtrack by the way) that's referred to as the land of the dead, and for good reason. You defeat the likes of Captain Keeta and King Ikana, and upon defeat they are forced to come to terms with their own mortality. Even the moon itself is the manifestation of death. It serves as a constant reminder throughout the game that you and every character in Termina will die if Skull Kid isn't stopped, and this once again was why I as the player was so motivated to see this through to the end.
More nightmares courtesy of Mr. Kondo
So, now that I've covered what I believe to be several major themes of Majora's Mask, I'd like to end on a few thoughts that are a bit more subjective...
By the end of the game, two important questions need to be answered: In the end, where does Link stand and where do I, the player, stand? In other words, how exactly has Link progressed since the beginning of the game, and what can we as human beings take away from the experience as a whole? Well, as I alluded to in the beginning, Link had encountered a sort of existential crisis. He was a loner wondering with seemingly no purpose. He had gone through Hell and back in Hyrule, and despite his efforts had received almost no recognition for it.
His adventure in Termina serves as a turning point in his thought process. Link gets to know and befriend the people of Clock Town. He helps reunite Kafei and Anju despite sacrificing most of his limited time. He aids Darmani and Mikau in coming to terms with death. Finally, he forgives Skull Kid in the end because he realizes that they really aren't that different. Through all of these troubles, Link was able to discover his true, authentic self. He came to recognize that these people were worth fighting for and defending at all costs. He came to value the relationships he had established with these people, and he realized that his purpose in life was to fight for their existence.
I ask you to consider the following question posed by one of the moonchildren:
“Your true face...What kind of... face is it? I wonder... The face under the mask... Is that.... your true face?”
I interpret this to be a question regarding Links motivations. In other words, "why are you doing what you're doing? What is your true purpose?" At the beginning, Link wouldn't have been able to sufficiently answer this question. The entirely of Majora's Mask I would argue has been Link's attempt to answer this question, and by the end of the game his answer is as clear as daylight.
So, in conclusion, what can we as human beings take away from the experience? Well, aside from any other interpretations you may have, I would say that the answer is primarily two-fold. First, authenticity is important but not always easy. Look at Link, it took him an entire game to figure out something we pretty much already knew. For some of us it may take a few years. For some of us a life time. The fact is, it isn't always easy to ascribe our own purpose and meaning to our lives, but it's important to keep trying so that, in the end, we can be happy.
Second, friendship and relationships are an important part of existence. This is pretty self-explanatory, and it's a motif I've alluded to several times already; Link's relationships are what drove him to defeat Majora's Mask. In real life relationships are one of the most common motivations we have for anything that we do. People do countless things in the name of friendship, love, family, and any other association, and it's no wonder why. Cooperation is absolutely essential to the success of any living organism, and humans are no exception.
In the end these are just some of thoughts on the game. By no means are they complete or objective, but rather just my personal interpretation of an incredible experience. I can safely say this is the best game I have ever played. Sorry OOT fanboys, but for me it's no contest.
Thanks for reading (if you made it this far)
(Be warned. This review is really long)
Ocarina of Time. Easily one of the best games ever created. Ever since it's release in November of 1998 It has received almost universal acclaim from both critics and fans alike, and this acclaim is absolutely warranted because of just how groundbreaking Ocarina was at the time. Z-targeting was brilliant, the overworld seemed immense, the temples were beautifully constructed, and Koji's Kondo's score in my opinion still hasn't been matched to this day. It was Link's first and arguably most well-received foray into the 3D adventure genre, and I think it's hard to label Ocarina as anything other than a milestone in game design. However, as much as I could praise Ocarina for all of the things it did to near perfection, I still don't consider it to be the best game of all time. In fact, I would argue that it isn't even the best Zelda. As you all could probably guess by the title, I believe that LoZ Majora's Mask is worthy of such an honor.
I still love OOT if you're wondering
Arguably one of the more obscure Zelda's in the franchise, Majora's Mask was the immediate successor to Ocarina of Time. It was originally planned as an expansion known simply as Ura Zelda and then eventually Zelda Gaiden, which at the time would have taken advantage of the failed 64DD or disc drive peripheral that Nintendo eventually scrapped. Thankfully, at some point in development they decided to turn the project into a fully fledged game. Although...I have to be honest. For all intents and purposes, Majora's Mask in my opinion seemed destined for obscurity and ultimately failure when I first heard about it. It had a small development team, the game was completed in about a year, the game came out near the end of the console's life span, and Ganon was no where to be seen on the antagonist side of things. In fact, I had never actually heard of the game until about 2001 and I didn't play it until about 2002 when I rented it for the first time.
Like a child wondering into a foggy, mysterious forest, I had no idea what to expect with this game
Luckily, despite not knowing what I was getting myself into the game managed to exceed any and all expectations and, at the time when I first completed the game, it seemed to match Ocarina of Time in just about every technical aspect. However, it took took me almost a decade of replaying and hindsight to realize the true genius of Majora's Mask. For me it truly is the best game in the Zelda franchise and simply the best game I have ever played.
Majora's Mask is sort of a dichotomy really. On the surface you have a strange and less subdued art style compared to Ocarina that at times just seems downright bizarre. The art style can best be described in an Alice in Wonderland meets acid trip sort of way. It's not uncommon to see various shades of red, green, purple, and blue all dancing around the environment in a vivid and almost surreal sort of way, which is made made even trippier by the use of motion blur, a cool yet disorientating post-processing effect. Combine this with the anomalous architectural style embodied in the cactus like appearance of the stone tower temple and the Medieval-like Ikana Castle (complete with breakdancing redeads), and you have Majora's Mask's art style.
Best fan art ever
However, underneath the bright and vivid shell of Majora's Mask's color pallet you have the darkest, most mature, and most thematically complex game in the franchise. These themes are driven home from the very beginning of the game, and it makes for an extremely different Zelda experience. It's established right away that Termina, the overworld, isn't the focus of the game. Rather, Link himself is. We see Link and Epona running away from Hyrule to get away from it all, and we get a sense of Link's angst and discontent. He'd just been through Hell and back in Ocarina, and he had almost nothing to show for it outside of the puny Kokiri Sword, Epona, and the Ocarina of Time.
Despite all of his heroic acts, we see that Link is left by himself without any real sense of identity or direction. He basically came out of Kokiri Village as a nobody and left Hyrule as a nobody when Zelda returned him to his childhood state. It's quite sad that Link ended up in such an isolated position. It seems like he never got the recognition he deserved. To make matters worse, his situation deteriorates even further when Skull Kid turns Link into a Deku Scrub, effectively stripping him of any remaining dignity.
After the events in the woods I think it's safe to say that Link had hit rock bottom; this moment serves as the starting point from which Link is to grow on a personal level and become the hero that Termina needs him to be, as well as the hero that he himself needs. In other words, Link's journey could be viewed as an endeavor to discover both himself and his purpose in life, but I'll get into more detail on this later when I talk about the end.
Further adding to the aforementioned sense of darkness and emotional weight are the omnipresence of the moon, the pressure of time, the side quests and the persistent theme of death. After meeting the mysterious mask salesman at the beginning of the game and being given the quest of recovering Majora's Mask from Skull Kid, you open the doors of the Clock Tower and are greeted by two sharply contrasting sights. First, you immediately notice the seemingly carefree citizens of Clock Town. Every where you look you see NPC's come to life as they scurry about the town carrying on with their daily lives preparing for the Festival of Time. However, this all changes when you..well.. look up. You're greeted by the horrifying face of the moon mere miles above the town. It's glowing red eyes and piercing scowl, a sight that you become use to over the course of the game, serve as a constant reminder of the danger both you and clock town face.
You have only three days to accomplish this seemingly impossible task of halting the moon's advancement toward Clocktown. It's overwhelming at first, and the fact that you have a time limit adds so much weight to the events that occur within the three day time frame. You realize that the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of Clock Town's citizens all fall on your shoulders; this realization is what pushes and motivates the player to stop the Skull Kid/Majora's Mask.
Thanks for the nightmares Miyamoto
The interesting thing about MM that sets it apart from other Zelda's, outside of the time mechanic, is its emphasis on sidequests. The game actually has only 4 temples: Woodfall, Snowhead, Great Bay, and Stone Tower. While all four of them continue the Ocarina tradition of beautiful and expertly crafted temples, it's obvious that this number is a little on the short side. However, it would rather silly of us to not recognize the fact that the temples, and Termina, simply aren't the focus of the game. The emotional meat of Majora's Mask is packed into the huge number of side quests the game contains. The masks are arguably the most unique and game-changing feature of MM, and the vast majority can only be obtained via exploration or side quests. This simply isn't a game where you can breeze through the main quest right away; if you do decide to rush, be warned: you will miss out on most of the games nuances.
One quest in particular involving two otherwise minor characters serves as a primary example of why you do not want to skip out on these side stories. It involves Kafei, a rather androgynous looking and mysterious male child as well as Anju, a caretaker at the Inn in Clocktown called the Stockpot Inn. To make a long story short, you spend the majority of your time acting as the middle man between these two odd lovers as they exchange letters and notes and ultimately agree to a rendezvous moments before Clocktown's destruction. It's an amazing story really, and their final meeting is easily the most emotional moment I've ever experienced in a video game.
It's hard to describe the suspense I felt as I waited for Kafei to return to the Stock Pot Inn seconds before zero hour. These people truly didn't care about the impending apocalypse. They just wanted to be together in their last waking moments after being separated for the entire game. Really, if you haven't played this quest, please do it right now, and if you don't have an N64 or emulator just watch it on Youtube. Overall, this quest should remind us that Link and the characters of Clock Town are really the focus of the game; it's the type of thing that motivates you to care about these people and preserve their way of life.
Finally, we come to the theme of death. No Zelda prior to or succeeding Majora's Mask has dealt with death in such a direct manner. Right from the beginning we're confronted with this theme after being turned into a Deku Scrub. Prior to entering the Clock Tower, we encounter the dead Deku Scrub that Skull Kid presumably sacrificed in order to transform you into a Deku Scrub. While the emotional impact of this event isn't immediately apparent, later on, and in an emotional twist, you encounter the father of this dead Deku Scrub. The father isn't even aware that his son is dead, so the player is left in the difficult circumstance of knowing the son's fate while the father is still under the impression that he is alive.
In Snowhead, we encounter the ghost of the once great Goron Darmani who died as a result of Skullkid's/Majora's actions and we must help him come to terms with his fate. In Great Bay, we encounter the dying Mikau sprawled out on the beach as he compels Link to aid Lulu. Hell, the whole of Ikana Canyon that you encounter near the end of the game is pretty much a representation of death. It's literally a ghost town complete with creepy music (MM has a fantastic soundtrack by the way) that's referred to as the land of the dead, and for good reason. You defeat the likes of Captain Keeta and King Ikana, and upon defeat they are forced to come to terms with their own mortality. Even the moon itself is the manifestation of death. It serves as a constant reminder throughout the game that you and every character in Termina will die if Skull Kid isn't stopped, and this once again was why I as the player was so motivated to see this through to the end.
More nightmares courtesy of Mr. Kondo
So, now that I've covered what I believe to be several major themes of Majora's Mask, I'd like to end on a few thoughts that are a bit more subjective...
By the end of the game, two important questions need to be answered: In the end, where does Link stand and where do I, the player, stand? In other words, how exactly has Link progressed since the beginning of the game, and what can we as human beings take away from the experience as a whole? Well, as I alluded to in the beginning, Link had encountered a sort of existential crisis. He was a loner wondering with seemingly no purpose. He had gone through Hell and back in Hyrule, and despite his efforts had received almost no recognition for it.
His adventure in Termina serves as a turning point in his thought process. Link gets to know and befriend the people of Clock Town. He helps reunite Kafei and Anju despite sacrificing most of his limited time. He aids Darmani and Mikau in coming to terms with death. Finally, he forgives Skull Kid in the end because he realizes that they really aren't that different. Through all of these troubles, Link was able to discover his true, authentic self. He came to recognize that these people were worth fighting for and defending at all costs. He came to value the relationships he had established with these people, and he realized that his purpose in life was to fight for their existence.
I ask you to consider the following question posed by one of the moonchildren:
“Your true face...What kind of... face is it? I wonder... The face under the mask... Is that.... your true face?”
I interpret this to be a question regarding Links motivations. In other words, "why are you doing what you're doing? What is your true purpose?" At the beginning, Link wouldn't have been able to sufficiently answer this question. The entirely of Majora's Mask I would argue has been Link's attempt to answer this question, and by the end of the game his answer is as clear as daylight.
So, in conclusion, what can we as human beings take away from the experience? Well, aside from any other interpretations you may have, I would say that the answer is primarily two-fold. First, authenticity is important but not always easy. Look at Link, it took him an entire game to figure out something we pretty much already knew. For some of us it may take a few years. For some of us a life time. The fact is, it isn't always easy to ascribe our own purpose and meaning to our lives, but it's important to keep trying so that, in the end, we can be happy.
Second, friendship and relationships are an important part of existence. This is pretty self-explanatory, and it's a motif I've alluded to several times already; Link's relationships are what drove him to defeat Majora's Mask. In real life relationships are one of the most common motivations we have for anything that we do. People do countless things in the name of friendship, love, family, and any other association, and it's no wonder why. Cooperation is absolutely essential to the success of any living organism, and humans are no exception.
In the end these are just some of thoughts on the game. By no means are they complete or objective, but rather just my personal interpretation of an incredible experience. I can safely say this is the best game I have ever played. Sorry OOT fanboys, but for me it's no contest.
Thanks for reading (if you made it this far)