Majoras Mask- Do People Truly Love This Game?

[MrPowerBadger]

Recently, there has been a lot of hype around a somewhat abandoned Zelda game which is Majoras Mask. Chuggaaconroy posted on Youtube an LP of such game which was well recieved and is now seeming to be one of the more liked Zelda games in the franchise, is this all just a passing trend or the real deal?

This is not just me hating on Majoras Mask but the game had many flaws intertwind throught that game. For starters, the save system was horrendous. You couldn't save from where ever you wanted to you had to find a statue, hit it and then proceed to save. This is a pain in the butt to do, and with Ocarina of Times great save system that was a major let down to many fans of the series fans. Also, the three day process was tedious and could of been handled in a different manor. During some quests you would have to be at a certain place at a certain time and you had to wait for a while, you should have been able to skip t a certain time instead of speed up time. This is just scratching the surface of problems with the game.

Now, some high points of Majoras Mask such as the story. Many fans probably have felt emotions through out the game. As many people have pointed out no matter what you do all these people in Termina are
going to die, it is up to you if you want to save the lives of these innocent citizens. This made many playerrs fell like the challenge to save Termina rested on their shoulders. The next high point is the character developement which was phenominal. Characters such as the Deku Butler really made you have to think who his son was. In the end of the game you see the deformed deku tree in the first movment of the game was the Deku Butlers son, it was up to you if you figured this out or not. There are s many more characters with so much development but I will not be going over them today. This concludes my high points of Majoras Mask even though there are many more through out the game.

This is all up to you to decide is Majoras Mask all hype or the real deal? In my opinion there is a medium between hate and love for this game still but many people just want to be part of the band wagon. Thanks for reading and I will be posting more in the future!

 

[Dan]

I don't understand the save game hate, it wasn't that hard to find a save point. It's as if people never used the flight song...
Majoras mask has always been well liked the only problem is there has been no great ports for it. I'm not sure if it was ported to the virtual console but I recall lots of stories stating just how bad the Majora's mask port for Gamecube was. it may be why not many people talk about it as much.

I find the game fun and exciting. I can agree with your argument that some of the timed events can be pretty annoying. Like waiting for the 3rd day and missing your chance to achieve whatever you were intending on doing . It's why I like using the walk-through on this site for MM, so I can get every mask and heart piece. I imagine it would be quite time consuming without the walk-through for the extra items and masks.

I do have dislike for the whole band wagon with the Zelda franchise. Everyone has there own opinion but I find threads which state "Insert zelda game" was it overrated/underrated a letdown etc. Everyone should have a different opinion.
I think Majora's mask was a good step to show Nintnedo does have the balls to change the formula a bit so it isn't just a OOT V2.

 

[MrPowerBadger]

Totally agreed I really do not have an opinion on this I just formulated so stuff people have mentioned about this game. Also, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Ventus]

Majora's Mask is all hype...well, what I mean is, most people are just now starting to make mention of the game are hype because of people like Chuggaconroy. They don't really like the game, they just like the commentator (I personally don't but whatever). So yeah it's bandwagon hype.

The game itself is just great. Excellent characters which leads to excellent story, game world feels like a mini Earth in a way, since what you do (or fail to do) has an impact on everyone around you. Gameplay was top notch, I totally dig the 3 day system because it makes you really have to think...yes, waiting for the events was cumbersome at moments (Anju and Kafei sidequest anyone?), but skipping to a specific hour would seem too...I don't know, easy?

I have no complaints about the save system at all. Of course it would be easier to give us the traditional save system, but MM's system wasn't so hard to master that saving the game was an ordeal in and of itself.

In my opinion I love the game, I don't watch any Let's Players because LPs bore the stuff out of me (I watch a WALKTHROUGH for the gameplay, seriously, can't you just give me a vid with in game sound? How hard si that?) so I wouldn't accuse me of bandwagonning from Chuggaconroy or whatever is the newest fad LPer. MM is a great game, it's just the recent love it is getting is all because of LPers, not true appreciation of the game.

But why? Why is this game hyped up NOW? Because OoT3D released, which makes the core fans want MM3D. MM saw a limited release because it was released closer to the end of the N64's life line. LoZ Collector's Edition wasn't passed around a lot either. And of course many reviews like to point out the save system as a no no, so people are hesitant about playing the game anyway. I'm sure if MM3D released that the game would clear up, either love or hate, and no more hype.

 

[Majora's Shadow]

I love Majora's Mask, it is my favorite zelda game for several reasons.

First and foremost it is safe to say that it is the most unique game in the series besides the original. In no other game do you have the ability use masks to transform into another species and use their abilities to your advantage. Also it has the most unique story as there is no triforce and no Ganondorf, who are the mainstays of the series and the whole point of the game is to save the world. It also has several exclusive characters that are not seen anywhere else in the series.

Next is the game design. I very much liked the idea of having a sort of home base where you had to frequently visit, and that had so much life to it and so much to do. As well as there being a sort of secondary base before each dungeon. I also liked how there were things that you had to do before you could proceed to the next dungeon which helped with pacing.

There are some things that I like about the game that others don't. Such as the time system. I thought it made the game feel more realistic and added a tremendous amount of replay value. Another is the length of the game. I personally don't mind games with short main quests so long as there are lots of side quests, which of course Majora's Mask does.

Ultimately the reason why Mahjora's Mask wasn't so well recieved when it first came out was because it was overshadowed by Ocarina of Time. I personally think Ocarina of Time is a tad bit overrated, but I won't get into that.

 

[A Link In Time]

Personally, I believe that the recent hype surrounding Majora's Mask is not unwarranted. It's a gem that was buried under the seas of time but haters who found it inaccessible. If you dig closer, however, you find it to be the deepest and certainly the darkest Zelda game in existence.

While the save system may be tedious and a departure from the free saving of the five installments before it, it is not broken in any way which is grossly overstated. In fact, the save system needed to be in place not only for story elements but gameplay ones too. With 72 hours until the destruction of the world, the pressure was on. And with such high losses at stake, this made the player care more for the characters who all also had an extremely fleshed out backstory. The Skull Kid was essentially an allegory for the corrupting influence of society on youth.

And all this is even without mentioning the amazing dungeon and boss design. There may have been few in Majora's Mask but they were all extremely well designed. Stone Tower Temple was one of the most mind boggling in franchise history and Great Bay Temple was leagues harder in challenge compared to Ocarina of Time's Water Temple. In short, yes, Majora's Mask is the real deal.

 

[MW7]

For starters, the save system was horrendous. You couldn't save from where ever you wanted to you had to find a statue, hit it and then proceed to save.

I'm biased but that's not entirely true. You could save any time using the song of time.

This is a pain in the butt to do, and with Ocarina of Times great save system that was a major let down to many fans of the series fans.

You could warp very quickly to statues outside of dungeons. The only inconvenient place to save was in dungeons, but every Zelda game except Skyward Sword has that problem (for instance Ocarina of Time starts you at the beginning of a dungeon regardless of where you saved- Majora's Mask is worse in this respect but no Zelda game is good except maybe Skyward Sword). Ocarina of Time's save system would be preferred though, but IMO it wasn't major. Plus basically it's an immediate gratification preference. In Ocarina of Time you could save whenever, but then when you came back to the game you'd have to find your way back to where you were unless you saved in exactly one of the few places the game would start you. Majora's Mask made you use time up front in exchange for knowing where you'd be when you'd come back to the game. Neither is perfect.

Also, the three day process was tedious and could of been handled in a different manor. During some quests you would have to be at a certain place at a certain time and you had to wait for a while, you should have been able to skip t a certain time instead of speed up time. This is just scratching the surface of problems with the game.

There were at least 3 ways to skip through time- song of double time, scarecrow, and anju's grandmother- and there are events at pretty much every time of day so you probably could have found something to do rather than sit there and wait.

I do love Majora's Mask though and am biased. Still I don't think those criticisms are completely true based on how you presented them. There could have been save statues in dungeons and just more save statues everywhere which would have been really helpful, and your idea to skip through time with more precision (like in Elder Scrolls games- at least in Oblivion since that's the one I played) would have been a really good idea for this game.

 

[Ventus]

In Ocarina of Time you could save whenever, but then when you came back to the game you'd have to find your way back to where you were unless you saved in exactly one of the few places the game would start you.

In dungeons, you could Farore's Wind in any room then save, once you continue that file just use Farore's again to get back to progress. Saving in the overworld could've been a pain had the warp songs not existed in the game, and even when you do not have access to the song (say, you're at Forest Temple and you're collecting Skulltulas for some odd reason in the...Gerudo Desert perhaps), it is often better to just continue story progress to obtain better items and of course the songs for easier warp. *le shrug*

 

[Garo]

Honestly, I haven't ever seen an argument against Majora's Mask that I find holds water, and the "poor save system" argument is one that actually frustrates me. The save system was deliberately designed to force you to prioritize your actions in any given cycle - sure, you can save at an Owl Statue and come back later if you must, but it's not necessarily convenient, because Nintendo wants you to stick to a schedule. They want you to follow through on promises made to people in the cycle - hence the Bomber's Notebook's system of promise stickers and what not. You aren't supposed to be able to save, duck out, and come back later - Nintendo wants you to feel that sense of urgency. It's a stylistic decision. You may not like it, but to call the system a flaw in the game is perhaps too strong (since I find the save system ingenious and a great mechanic).

The three-day system is the game's strong point - seeing the way your actions will alter the daily schedules of the many characters in the game is phenomenal, and it gives your actions a lasting impact (until you play the Song of Time). It's a brilliant mechanic that once again forces you to think your actions through rather than just stumbling your way through the game.

Majora's Mask was the game I ever played on a console, and to this day it has my vote for the best game of all time. I replay it several times a year and enjoy every minute of it.

 

[Terminus]

@GaroXicon: I agree with ost of your statements her, but the problem I always had was never having enough time (in real life) to get much done.

 

[Charmanda66]

Im playing through it right now, and I'm having a lot of fun.

 

[MW7]

In dungeons, you could Farore's Wind in any room then save, once you continue that file just use Farore's again to get back to progress. Saving in the overworld could've been a pain had the warp songs not existed in the game, and even when you do not have access to the song (say, you're at Forest Temple and you're collecting Skulltulas for some odd reason in the...Gerudo Desert perhaps), it is often better to just continue story progress to obtain better items and of course the songs for easier warp. *le shrug*

I always forget about Farore's Wind- that's a great trick. Also about saving in the overworld that means that saving is a pain for about a third of the game because you don't get any warp songs until you're adult link. Plus the warp locations are limited to dungeon locations so areas like Gerudo Fortress, Lon Lon Ranch, and Zora's Domain are in no-man's land. Still it's not a big deal because it doesn't take that long to get places, and there are natural warps in the Lost Woods that save lots of time. I guess my argument is just that Ocarina of Time's save and warp system isn't profoundly better than Majora's Mask as many people seem to accept as fact. I wouldn't argue that Majora's Mask is better in these respects, but Ocarina of Time wasn't perfect in these respects either.

 

[ShepherdofShark]

I was playing MM the other day and as I tend to, I was doing the speed run to get to Epona on the first cycle. It takes about 2 hours to do it and I was riding off to Icana Canyon to meet the soldier with the stone mask when.... the fuses blew in the bottom electrics. Console switches off. 2 hours wasted. Was not a happy Hylian.

Obviously this would never happen in OoT, as long as you were a fastidious saver. But one bad experience does not make me dislike the save system. A few more owls would have been good (none warpy ones - I think the game has more than enough warp points), but it would have been an awful game to have the OoT system and what's more impossible since the game relies on knowing exactly where and WHEN you saved.

The whole reset back to the start of day 1 if you reset the console always seemed a bit harsh to me. But I suppose there are certain points that you can only do once per cycle and it would have been very easy to 'cheat' and go back to an old save if you screwed up. But with the save copy option it's still trivial to 'cheat' in this way as long as you're not sharing a cartridge with someone else.

 

[cloudy skies]

Majoras mask is a really good game because of how unique it is and how much must have gone into the programming to make the game as special as it is. There is just something about the feeling that your being timed that makes you feel like to hurry. This is my favorite zelda game not only for the dungeons which I think are some of the best i've played but all the cool side quests and how amazing the use of masks are. Plus I think this is one of the hardest zelda games i've played and I feel it might be the hardest 3d zelda game ( don't count master quest please).