Aonuma Explains the Decision to Use Masks as a Theme in Majora’s Mask
Posted on February 14 2015 by Rod Lloyd
It’s difficult to imagine that Majora’s Mask could exist without the use of masks. By its very name and nature, masks play a crucial role in the game’s story and gameplay. In today’s Iwata Asks, Zelda director Eiji Aonuma shared why his team chose to use masks as a central feature in the game. The choice to include masks seems like an obvious one to fans, and it would seem the choice was just as obvious for the development team.
Aonuma explains why the use of masks was expanded from Ocarina of Time to Majora’s Mask:
“Iwata: By the way, why masks?
Aonuma: The development of Ocarina of Time was so long, we were able to put in a whole lot of different elements into that game. Out of those, there were ideas that weren’t fully utilized, and ones that weren’t used to their full potential. One of those was the mask salesman.
Iwata: When Link wears the masks, sometimes the reactions of whoever he’s talking to change.
Aonuma: That’s right. So in Majora’s Mask we felt it would be fun if Link himself transforms whenever he puts on those masks.
Iwata: Before that Link was never able to transform.
Aonuma: Right. As a basis of Zelda games, you’re able to use items to do all sorts of different things, and we felt it would be a lot of fun if Link would acquire all these abilities by putting on these different masks. We felt that would expand the gameplay. So we made the game so Link could transform into Deku Link to fly in the air, Goron Link to roll across land, and Zora Link so that he could swim underwater. We also gave each of them a storyline.
Iwata: You covered land, sea and air! (laughs)
Aonuma: We did. Once we decided we were going with masks, everything just came into place.
Iwata: Like all the pieces coming together.
Aonuma: That’s exactly it.”
It’s hard to imagine Majora’s Mask being as special as it was without the use of masks. Mask transformations truly gave way to interesting gameplay features that future Zelda games have not explored again. I personally would love to see Aonuma make use of masks and transformations once more.
Would you want to see masks return in a future Zelda game? Share your thoughts with us!
Source: Nintendo
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
