Majora's Mask How Many Cycles Did It Take You to Beat the Game?

[Guest_1]

Title says it all: how many times did you reverse time to beat the game? Yes, the initial cycle where you start out as Deku Scrub Link counts in this case. :3

On a typical playthrough of the game, it usually takes me at least six three-day cycles to beat the game (one for the initial, four for each region/dungeon, and one for sidequests). Depending on the game, I might need a seventh if I am going for a completionist run of the game. If I'm skipping sidequests altogether, I've done it in a minimum of five. How about you guys?

 

[SpiritGerudo]

Pfft way too many. A LOT.

 

[Guest_1]

Pfft way too many. A LOT.

Do you at least have a ballpark figure or rough guess? ;3

 

[PhantomTriforce]

I do one for the beginning sequence (obviously), one for each region and dungeon and one for the final fight/sequence. After the initial Deku Scrub sequence, slowed down time with the Inverted Song of Time. So about 6.

 

[Wolf Sage]

In terms of "intentional" cycles, I'd say several hundreds, and I am not even kidding. (lol) However, I reversed and/or speed up time for stupid reasons; for example, I'd go back in time to fight the Takkuri again. Although, there have not been many instances where I've completed a full cycle - Termina destroyed; started over in Clock Town - but it happened a handful of times before I acquired the ability to slow down time. The amount of full cycles were maybe five times, give or take...

 

[Vaati101]

In one playthrough in Majora's Mask, I'd say I play the song of time 2-3 times. If I include sidequests, it will bring it to 5-6 times.

 

[Ventus]

For speedrunning, it only took me one cycle (phew). Unfortunately I'm nowhere near the WR time, so I won't try that again even for preparatory reasons

For regular runs, it takes me around 4-5 cycles for dungeons, not including the first required cycle, and anywhere from one to five cycles for sidequests (I often intertwine sidequests into the dungeon cycles -- time efficiency and somethings are "on the way" to the dungeons anyway).

 

[Pancake Wizard]

I screw around in Termina Field a lot. So Like 70 times

 

[SpiritGerudo]

Do you at least have a ballpark figure or rough guess? ;3

I never play through the game all at once, I always just have a playthrough running and I pick it up whenever, and I usually try to get all of the masks each time. So I'd say aroundish 30-50 times.

 

[TCoZ]

I didn't keep track. Every time I did something important, like enter a dungeon, beat a dungeon, get an important item, and so on, I'd go back to the first day, because I was worried that I'd be stuck in the middle of something important and run out of time.

I'd love to do a two-cycle run at some point though. Might need to familiarise myself with the game an awful lot more though.

 

[Ninja YoungLink]

Hundreds......and I'm still at Snowpeak.

 

[Awesome]

It took me over 9000 cycles. Honestly I have no clue. My first playthrough was probably a **** ton, but on later runs probably only around 7 max if I'm getting everything.

 

[MW7]

Probably around twenty times. That's a total guess though, and it could be higher. I probably spent at least three cycles for each area and dungeon- the first I'd reach the dungeon, the second I beat the dungeon, and the third I'd get the stray fairies. The sidequests are a wild card though, and I have no idea how many times I had to reset to get them all. Now on a typical runthrough I probably need about 8 cycles to 100% the game.

 

[Egregious]

For a general playthrough I think I do a lot more than is really necessary... maybe 12 to 15? I don't like to play on day two because of the rain, and I don't like to play on day three when the ground is shaking, so I usually just do everything on Day 1 + Night 1 and then reset during Day 2. The only things I end up doing on Days 2 and 3 are time-specific tasks (like the Anju and Kafei Quest), or tasks that take an inordinately long time (collecting zora eggs).

There isn't really a rational reason why I can't play on Day 2 and 3, I just don't like to be reminded of my impending doom. The music in Clocktown on Day 3 is extremely unsettling, and I always feel like I am going to run out of time. If you play with slow time and only stay on day one, there really is no way for you to ever run out of time. I'm sure I could get a lot of stuff done going right up to the moon crash, but I just don't like to feel so much pressure.

 

[ShepherdofShark]

I'm currently obsessed with MM speed runs so I always do it in 2 cycles these days. But I've decided the next stage of the challenge to be to see how much of the side quests I can get done in those first two cycles. I have a base template from the first cycle which I always play on from in which I managed to get 4 heart pieces and saved up 351 rupees.

So I'm currently at 0920 on the final day and have just got to Stone Tower temple. Odolwa, Goht and Gyorg are all defeated, I have the gilded sword, 4 bottles and the only items I'm missing are light arrows, the fairy sword and bombchus (just haven't got round to buying them yet). Masks I have so far (not including transformation masks) are: Romani, Stone, Captain's, Garo, Gibdo and Kamaro's. I've got 9 hearts and one piece over (which means I must have collect 13 pieces so far). What I want to do now is get all fairies from each of the temples and maybe 3 more heart containers so I get onto the second line by the end of the cycle.

However, I know for a fact that the absolute minimum for 100% of masks and items is 4 cycles, the reason for this is that you cannot save the old lady and meet Anju in the same cycle and that the Anju/Kafei quest has two possible endings (one for the Postman's Hat and one for a bottle). You can do 100% of masks in 3 cycles though (something I did many many years ago before getting obsessed with the 2 cycle finish).

Edit: But first time through? God knows! 2,437? Give or take?