Majora's Mask is A Timeless Masterpiece

This video has been sponsored in part by Surfshark. There is only one fixed constant in life: “Time and tide wait for no one.” These words are as true today as they were when old Jeffy Chaucer first spoke them, almost seven centuries ago. Life is full of upheaval and uncertainty, and after the year 2020, this truth could not be more evident. But the inherent uncertainty of existence also contains within itself the one hard truth on which we can all agree, regardless of religion or creed: death will come to us all one day, as surely as the changing of the seasons. .

You, I and everyone we know will eventually pass away and there is no way for any of us to escape this fate. Human mortality is a solemn and heavy concept. We live our lives in an endless struggle to understand the nature of our limited time on earth... Until the coffin falls. So a bright, colorful adventure game series (reveling in coming-of-age tropes and swashbuckling exploits) might seem an unlikely place for a thoughtful exploration of these collective fears of mortality. But there is one legendary game that not only achieves this improbable synthesis of opposites, but also manages to smuggle some incredibly deep and spiritual themes into what is, at its core, a fairy tale story aimed primarily at younger audiences.

This is a story of melancholy and woe. It's also by far the darkest and most mature incarnation of Zelda to ever appear on a Nintendo console: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Both the story and gameplay of Majora's Mask work hand in hand to express an essential and unifying theme of the human experience: despite our terrible fate, can we find meaning in a doomed existence and muster the strength to persevere? And when everything seems hopeless and lost... Can we still keep hope alive? Alright, before we continue, I would like to express my gratitude to Surfshark for sponsoring the making of this video.

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But after the worldwide success of Ocarina of Time in 1998, series directors Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto decided to try something completely new for the next Zelda game. Originally, Majora's Mask wasn't even supposed to happen: the team had initially planned to create a "master level" remix of Ocarina of Time dungeons, but there was little internal enthusiasm for the project at Nintendo headquarters. So, while the rest of the Zelda team was involved in the early stages of development of the Wind Waker entry for Gamecube, Aonuma and Miyamoto resolved to create a spin-off of Ocarina of Time and gave themselves a year to finish the project. project. .

Inspired by the 1998 German thriller Run Lola Run, the team established some fundamental principles for a project called "Ura Zelda." * Rewinding time would play a key role, as the player would have to repeat a relatively short segment over and over again as part of the main game loop. * Under this more focused approach, the story, encounters, and dungeons would be designed around smaller, self-contained narratives, rather than the sprawling epic stories of previous titles. *And to meet the tight deadline, they would reuse as many resources as possible from Ocarina of Time. It is often said that limitations generate creativity much better than having unlimited time and resources.

That was certainly the case with Majora's Mask: over the course of development, this side project became a mainline Zelda title that could stand on its own merits while also breaking with nearly a decade and a half of Zelda conventions. series. All of Zelda's familiar tropes and touchstones are gone from Majora's Mask: you're far from the land of Hyrule, there's no evil lord Ganon to defeat, no Master Sword to reach, and Zelda herself only gets a mention in the title. opening. her minutes before she disappears for the rest of the game. But even more importantly, the role of Link, the protagonist, has fundamentally changed.

You are no longer a child of divinity, blessed by the gods with a special destiny. (And even if you're still the Legendary Link from Ocarina of Time, in many ways it's pretty irrelevant to this story.) You no longer occupy the role of the traditional savior of adventure game prophecy, the Center of the Universe around which everything (and everyone) revolves. No, in Majora's Mask you are simply a person, in many ways no more special or important than anyone else, and your main concern is simply trying to find a way to survive in a strange, unknown place. And just as the story abandons all of Zelda's usual narrative tropes, Majora's Mask similarly places much less emphasis on the core elements of Zelda gameplay.

In some ways, the experience of playing Majora's Mask feels more like a classic inventory-based adventure from LucasArts or Sierra than a simple 3D action game. But without a doubt, this is still a solid Zelda action-adventure title that controls as nimbly as Ocarina of Time, including Z-target backflips. There IS still plenty of combat and dungeon exploration in Majora's Mask, but it's also just a lower priority for this game than previous titles in the series. Which makes an interesting case for the long-term validity of video game reviews, right?: Majora's Mask was, at the time, much less well-received critically than the more traditional Hero's Journey-structured Ocarina of Time, but in retrospect , is the game that has stood the test of time much better because it built its foundation around more than just "for the moment" running, jumping, and dungeon crawling.

If you play Majora's Mask without Nostalgia glasses, the parts that have aged the least well are the ones based on contemporary Zelda gameplay, while the game's unique and unusually dark and disturbing story for a Zelda is what ultimately has made it a

timeless

cult classic. For example, there are fewer main dungeons: just four, compared to Ocarina of Time's nine. Instead, the player will adventure through a whole cornucopia of smaller, self-contained encounters and puzzles scattered throughout Termina, most of which are much more condensed than the usual "recover a biblical amount of artifacts" framing device. mystics and defeat the evil Uber-Antagonist™.” To progress in Majora's Mask, you'll need to do the opposite of what decades of action-adventure video games have taught you to expect: instead of mastering your combat skills, you'll need to master your... social skills to access all four. main temples that you will need to finish the game, you will first need to spend a good amount of time getting to know the inhabitants of Clock Town and the wider world of Termina.

You will learn people's schedules during their last three days through close observation. , you'll follow them on their daily errands and complete sometimes insignificant tasks for almost everyone you encounter. The small, seemingly unrelated acts of kindness you perform gain weight and context as the story progresses. game, the player learns that the only way to "progress" and become Earth's hero is to perform acts of charity and altruism. It is, on a meta-level, a fascinating commentary on our common narrative tropes when it comes to “stories.” save the world". The world is about to be destroyed: we are the hero who will save everyone.

How do we do it? Killing things; destroying things. This is how we tell stories, especially in video games. Majora's Mask goes a long way toward reducing this notion to absurdity. Each individual act of altruism becomes a piece of a larger mosaic: an overview that becomes increasingly clearer as you step back to observe it: what could save the world is not your skill with the sword, but your skill. with the sword. magical protective shield, or your enchanted bow and arrows. The thing that will save us all... is something far more intangible than acts of individual heroism... It is something truly... selfless...

In stark contrast to almost every other Zelda game, Link of Majora's Mask is An almost nameless nobody, the Link of Majora's Mask is an almost nameless nobody: a stranger in a strange land. --a stranger in a strange land. Following the events of Ocarina of Time, Link finds himself lost in a mysterious forest in a distant land. After an ambush by Skull Kid and his mischievous fairies Tatl and Tael, Link loses his magical ocarina and his frightened steed Epona runs into the undergrowth. And after a whirlwind trip through a psychedelic wormhole... Link awoke from a restless dream to find himself transformed into a pint-sized...

Deku Scrub. Shortly afterwards he surfaces in the city of Termina, where an extremely sinister happy

mask

seller makes him a deal: recover the mystical

mask

that Skull Kid stole from the seller, along with Link's ocarina, and he will return everything to the normal. . But even as he pursues Skull Kid and recovers the instrument from him, Link soon discovers that the search for him has only just begun. His enemy still has the mask the Seller needs: Majora's Mask, and is too strong for us to face him head-on; Link has no chance of winning in a head-to-head fight.

Now, suspended in the skies above Termina is the moon itself, sporting wild eyes and a grumpy smile. For 72 hours, this meteor moon will inexorably get closer and closer, until it finally crashes into Clock Town at the end of the third day—ironically, just in time for the town to celebrate the Carnival of Time, Zelda's equivalent of a pagan harvest festival meets New Year's Day. But Link discovers the fundamental twist that becomes Termina's only hope: your Ocarina has the ability to rewind the clock and start the 3-day cycle of doom again, allowing you to buy another 72-hour period to untangle the threads of this mystery. and, potentially...hopefully...avoid the apocalypse.

The entire game is played in these three-day periods, and any quests or dungeons you don't complete within the time limit will reset after the third day. The relentless passage of time is a constant companion throughout Majora's Mask. No matter where you are, in Termina Fields Overworld or on the streets of Clock Town, the Meteor-Moon will always be present, inching closer with each passing second. But taking refuge inside won't let you escape this existential dread: many interiors in the game also feature a large mechanical clock that ticks incessantly, each gear change marking another step in the constant procession towards oblivion.

And when Judgment Day arrives, the soundtrack adds truly sinister string instrumentation to the mix, predicting the grim fate that awaits. If you're a new player, and especially if you're playing Majora's Mask without a tutorial, you'll fail... A lot. And againYou will go back in time or be forced to watch the moon destroy you and everything you hold dear. And all you can do is get up, dust yourself off, and start rolling the proverbial rock up the hill. Majora's Mask's time-loop gameplay literalizes and systematizes a profound and essential human experience: our lifelong struggle against entropy and death.

At every moment of the game, the player engages in a relentless fight against his or her own mortality. And it's all the more powerful for the way this grim battle is juxtaposed with the bright, cheerful cartoon tones of Zelda's world. Indeed, for all its aesthetic trappings of Western-inspired fantasy fiction, the philosophy underlying Majora's Mask is heavily informed by the religious traditions and mysticism of East Asia. For a series that began with some not-so-subtle invocations of Christian imagery, Majora's Mask stands out as a game firmly rooted in the Hindu-Buddhist concepts of Dukkha, reincarnation, and the Wheel of Time. (And a little Nietzsche... as a gift) Dukkha is a central tenet of both religions.

The closest English translation of the term is “suffering” or “pain,” especially as it relates to the broader mythopoetic belief structures of these two beliefs. But translating the term so literally does it a disservice, especially given the unmistakably negative tone of the word “suffering.” Both beliefs teach that all existence is linked to a cycle of struggle, suffering and reincarnation. But the nature of this “suffering” is both a curse… and also the key to overcoming it. Both Buddhism and Hinduism teach that we must first achieve a conscious understanding of how we construct our individual “self” as a reflection and response to earthly dissatisfactions, or Dukkha.

Only then can we achieve the necessary enlightenment to complete the cycle of reincarnation and ascend to the next stage of existence. In other words: suffering is intrinsically linked to the inability to perceive reality outside of oneself. The only way to overcome the suffering of existence is to get rid of the selfish attachment to your "I". Only after enduring many cycles of Dukkha and reincarnation can we finally transcend this mortal coil. Only by letting go of self-attachment... can you free the world from the cycles of suffering and destruction. The fundamental theme and message that Majora's Mask conveys to the player is the value of humanism.

Humanism can mean many different things to different people, but its essence can be boiled down to a simple statement of principles: Our highest calling in life is to care about the well-being of those around us, even and ESPECIALLY if there is no apparent need. benefit or reward that can be obtained from it. It's a simple but tremendously evocative message for Majora's Mask to take on, one that is reinforced by the game's expert unification of narrative and gameplay. You can't win the game with just acts of sword and sorcery. You must meet the inhabitants of Termina; follow them through the mundanities of their daily routine; and demonstrate kindness, small and large, to those in need.

Empathize. It helps that these characters and their associated quests are, almost without exception, extremely charming, with odd quirks and twists that masterfully compel the player to keep going, even without the usual "you're an epic hero on a quest to save the world" framing. . :* For example, you'll help farmhands Cremia and Romani as they uncover the mystery of the strange alien abductions plaguing their ranch and restore the bustling dairy trade on Termina's Milk Trail. * You will help Pamela, a surprisingly mature girl, break a mummification curse on her scientist father, with the help of an enchanted music box * You will solve cuckoo-loving Grog's only pain by parading his chicks in front of him , growing them so he can watch his babies mature into their prime. like big and robust roosters before the end of the world. *And in a truly heartwarming quest that's a fan favorite, you'll help reunite estranged lovers Anju and Kafei, culminating in an End Times-themed wedding for the ages.

It's this laser focus on people, and their deeply personal stories and struggles, that allows Majora's Mask to subvert one of the most confusing design dissonances in gaming, especially when it comes to big epic action adventures and role-playing games like The Legend of Zelda: How many times in a game? Have you taken up the mantle of Mister or Miz Hero and prepared to embark on an epic quest to save the world from an invading apocalypse... Only to find yourself immediately assaulted by the village witch, who *really* needs you to kill to the rats? in her pantry? Rather than treating these "side quests" as frivolity or a distraction to fill out the game's runtime, these encounters are by far the main attraction and core of Majora's Mask's narrative.

Many quests offer rewards that, rather than improving your combat prowess, open up new areas of the map, unlock new quests, and generally make it easier for you to explore, thereby learning more about the land you are sure to save. For example, after rescuing the Romani Ranch bovines from their ghostly alien kidnappers on the first day, you'll trigger a follow-up event at the ranch on the night of the second day. Solve this puzzle and you will receive Romani's mask, which will allow you to enter the adults-only milk bar in Clock Town. And the milk bar regulars have their own problems to deal with, of course, which sets you off on another chain of side quests and digressions.

The characters that inhabit the world of Termina are more than lifeless NPCs who exist only as scenery or to dispense exposition and keep the plot moving. The people of Termina are as integral to this world as you are, and they all have their own stories, dreams, hopes and fears. The player must learn to see their value as individuals who have their own distinctive place in the world you are trying to save, because you cannot complete your mission without them. It's a difficult task, as there are dozens and dozens of NPCs to keep track of. Luckily, at the beginning of the adventure you get the handy Bomber's Notebook to keep track of the different people you meet and their various routines.

And while other Zelda games place more emphasis on the player's personal arsenal of magical weapons, Majora's Mask replaces most of your inventory with masks that transform the player into various forms, granting new abilities that expand your ability to traverse and explore. the world. from Termina. The gestalt of Majora's Mask (the sum total of the themes and ideas it expresses) is clear and direct: true victory does not come from wielding powerful weapons or slaying hordes of enemies. The true victory is in letting go, in putting yourself in the other's shoes and in appreciating that their existence has intrinsic value, like yours.

It seems to be a recurring theme on my channel lately: Majora's Mask is another beloved, cult-classic piece of video game history that is becoming increasingly difficult to find and play. To say that preservation and emulation are not priorities for Nintendo is... probably an understatement. Which is even more confusing and frustrating, since Nintendo owns and controls the rights to a considerable portion of retro gaming history, solely thanks to the NES-SNES-N64 trifecta of consoles. The original N64 version of Majora's Mask is currently only available on the Wii and WiiU Virtual Console store, which is being phased out in favor of the Switch eShop.

There's also a pretty solid enhanced port released for 3DS in 2015, much like Ocarina of Time released in 2011. However, no version of Majora's Mask is available on Switch. However, neither version of Majora's Mask is available on Switch. Change by the time this video is posted. There have long been rumors about an "N64 Classics" emulator for the Switch's online service, which could include Majora's Mask, but we haven't seen anything in the way of official confirmation. We can only hope that fan demand forces Nintendo to make more of an effort to preserve its own history, because the appeal of a title like Majora's Mask still shines brightly, even for gamers who have grown up with generations of shows.

High octane AAA titles. Because the calm, gentle humanism of Majora's Mask is the perfect antidote for anyone tired of the latest open-world shooter fest. Ocarina of Time was a tough act to follow, and Majora's Mask will probably always be overshadowed by its astonishingly successful and influential predecessor. But Majora's Mask to this day maintains a dedicated cult fanbase and is widely considered one of the best games ever made. This praise is well deserved, as it features truly masterful game design, the crown jewel of which is the eternally recurring three-day cycle whose palpable immediacy strengthens all other elements of the game.

This time limitation causes the world to take on an eerie, almost realistic quality, as if the player were experiencing a 72-hour snapshot of a city locked inside a snow globe, from the final days of a doomed lost civilization. Majora's Mask is a classic case of quality over quantity. There may be less traditional "action game stuff" to do compared to other titles in the series, but in retrospect, this omission makes the game much stronger, but in retrospect, this omission makes the game a much more solid and focused experience. It is a truly classic and

timeless

experience that every lover of fantasy adventures or emotional games owes it to themselves to experience at least once.

Majora's Mask is a powerful reminder that the greatest and most significant stories often have very little to do with conquest and domination in the name of power. The greatest hero stories, the ones that contain the most important and lasting lessons for us, are those that remind us how our destiny is tied to those around us... Even the people we may not like or dislike. a little strange and unpleasant. It's a theme and message that couldn't be more relevant or inspiring, especially as the highly Kafkaesque year of 2020 comes to a close. In a year that has seen untold suffering and death around the world, now more than ever, we need a reminder that we are all in this together.

Our only hope for the future is to keep this flame of goodness burning in the darkness: So what will this affirming light be? You know, while I have your attention, I'd like to make this... a challenge. If you are watching this video at the end of the year, or if you are watching it later, I would like you to take it as an incentive to engage in kindness big or small, to find something that helps and supports others without expecting a reward. or benefit in exchange. And no, I will not preach to reach those who did nothing but damage and burn bridges all year long and more, but there are many who really need it right now.

How you do that, for now, I'll leave entirely up to you: whether you find a charity you believe in and support, whether you give or help someone who is struggling right now, or whether you just pick up the phone and call to someone close to your heart and tell them something that makes them smile for a moment; you got it. I would love to encourage you to put your passion into... a little humanism with which to end the year. So how am I going to put my money where my mouth is? I decided to end the year with something I had wanted to do for a long time, but I always pushed it because there were always several things that took "priority" and were "more important right now." goes.

But no more excuses! On December 28 (i.e. 2020), I will host a charity broadcast to raise funds for the preservation and protection of red pandas. The IUCN classifies red pandas as an endangered species due to poaching and drastic loss of habitable areas due to deforestation and degradation of their habits. Together, we will raise donations for The Red Panda Network, a nonprofit organization that I myself have actively supported for years, which extends community conservation programs, creates sustainable living centers, plants suitable forest areas, and monitors and maintains designated, dense areas. . and various forest areas for the protection of those cute little ones.

And I would love for all of you to join me in this! The transmission is done in my tick. Here is the link.. And you can find the start time in different time zones on the screen or in the description of this video. The game we're going to play is Control, and it's a title I've known I wanted to play since it was announced, so I've shielded myself from all information and spoilers, which means I'm going into it knowing virtually none of it.to pass! Just like the last time we did a charity stream earlier this year, I'll use a portion of the sponsorship revenue from this video to drive donations at the start of the stream and then hopefully we can multiply that amount together. the course of the current!

I hope you stop by and we can have a fun and relaxing time together! And...if you should watch this video after the stream was made, you'll find the results posted in a comment pinned to this video! Now, before I let you go, a little add-on for my own livelihood: the work on my channel is, in large part, funded and dependent on the generous donations of my patrons on Patreon! If you would also like to help and support my work, that could be another way of showing me a little kindness, which goes a long way, as long as it's an amount that doesn't hurt you or suffocate you financially.

Thank you for considering it, thank you to everyone who already supports me there, and my special thanks this month to: LAIRD WACKYLA CORDELIA CRESCENDO TIGHE MCCANDLESS MALYM KENNAN WARD CHUCK TAYLOR NORBERT GERARD MATYNKA MATT GRETTON RONINKROM AKA DANIEL242172 DR HAYLEY-ISABELLA CAWLEY NEKOT THE BRAVE HOANG VU WABBLES AND BEAN THE WONDER DUCKS LORENZ E. BUBEN MARI DAVID ZELENAK SWALLOWTAILNIGHTS ALEX PAPOW CASPAR RAHM MURA CASARDIS IAN RHODES RAUL BLANCO GISELLE ALMONTE LEX AWESOME ANDREW HINES PABLO ARCELUS HUNTER CRAWFORD & MARGARETE STRAWN QUENTIN PROD'HOMME EAR D ANA ROSA CHRIS-CHAN BILLY LOTT BORIS BÜGLING CHRISTINE THWAGUM KEVIN H. YANG CHRISZY MAURICIO REYNA DAVID SOUTHPAW TERRI COLLINS SHANNON BLUE JIN HANSSON FEDERICO ROCHA CATHERINE ESCOBAR MAX MACULA REFKINS AGUSTIN ORTEGA POOKAPRINCESS ISABELLA STONER SOPHIE POULSEN NINEBALL9606 and STARINA ABRAHAMSEN Hasta next year... ta ta!