s18-gamma's Full Review: The Legend Of Zelda: Majora'S Mask for Nintendo 64
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (MM) takes place after The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (TOOT). Link has left Hyrule searching for a friend, who i take to be Navi, your fairy friend from the first game, but that is never confirmed. While riding Epona, his horse, through the woods one day, two fairies come and startle his horse, knocking him off. A masked figure comes up to Link, searches his body, and steals his Ocarina. As Link gets up and notices the masked figure, who reveals himself to be the Skull Kid, the Skull Kid takes off on Epona. Link chases after the trio, only to fall down a deep pit. Though he finds the trio, the Skull Kid curses Link, forcing him to wear a mask making him a Deku Scrub. The Skull Kid and one fairy run off, accidentally leaving the other fairy (who is the sister of the first fairy) with Link. They decide to forge a temporary alliance, as it would fulfill their common interests to find the skull kid. While winding his way through the sewers of a town where he emerges, he meets a Mask Salesman. He worked in the Happy Mask Shop in TOOT, and he tells you that if you get the Ocarina back, he will be able to return you to your former self. He also asks for you to return a mask that was stolen from him by the Skull Kid. You emerge in an uneasy town. 3 days away is the towns annual carnival, but the townspeople are nervous about the moon which is seemingly getting bigger as time goes on.
I'll skip ahead a bit. After you get the ocarina back, you manipulate time, and return to the moment you stepped out of the sewers and into the town. You then learn about the mask that the Skull Kid stole, and its evil powers. This is the basis of the story, and, off a hint given by the brother fairy, you have to try to bring four 'beings' from the temples of Termina (the land where the game takes place) to stop the moon from falling. Simple enough. Stop the Skull Kid, get the mask back, stop the moon from falling. Old save the world ploy.
The part of this game that really defines it is the masks. In the game, you receive 3 dungeon masks, one is the deku scrub mask, the other two are a Goron's mask, and a Zora's mask. Each has its own special abilities (The deku scrub can use flowers to fly, the goron can roll at high speeds, the Zora can swim very well), and are fun to play as, allowing for great variety in the game. Apart from these masks, there are several which are not part of the storyline, but without them, the game would be quite lame and boring. Their essential subplots make the game much more interesting and fun. Some masks are essential for getting heart pieces, meaning that you need to get masks to stay alive. As you follow the needed side quests, you'll find yourself becoming entangled in other side quests. Using a notebook, you try to make a difference in many people's lives around Clock Town (the main town of Termina), only to have them not realize it, as after 3 days, you must return to the first day to avoid being crushed by the moon.
That is a new feature in any Zelda game, a time limit. Each hour of the day take about 1 minute, twice that if you play a song to slow it down. Furthermore, many events can only happen at certain times of the day, on certain days, (these are the times you note down in the in-game notebook). Though it may seem annoying at first, it's relatively easy to adapt to the time limit, and after a while, you won't even notice it. When you go back in time, many items are lost, such as bombs, arrows, rupees, and the like. However, there are some items that seem to transcend time, such as your weapons, and masks you've gotten. Don't ask me, it really just flawed, and there's not much you can do about it. I would like to mention the ingenious way the creators made to save money. You go to a bank, and the amount of money you have stored is stamped on your hand. When you go back in time, the stamp stays the same, so the bank thinks you have that much money. It's really quite clever when you think about it.
Music was perhaps the most disappointing part of the game. While there were some good songs, the songs played on the ocarina were not really songs, just 6 or so notes. In TOOT, each song was actually a song, as you could listen to several lines after playing just a few notes. It is a bit hard to explain, but those of you who have played TOOT know what i'm talking about. I also want to mention how clever it is that the acronym for The Ocarina of Time is Toot, a sound an instrument makes, and the ocarina is an instrument. Get it? Hilarious. Graphics are nothing special, pretty much the same as the first game. One thing that really disappointed me was the lack of weapons in the game. In TOOT, pretty much each temple had its own weapon or armor or both. In MM, you only get elemental arrows, and there is a lack of weapons. The only weapon i got was the Bow, everything else has disappeared, even my beloved megaton hammer! There are also only 4 temples, which are not as complex as the temples in TOOT. They steered more playing time toward side quests, rather than temples. While some people may like this, i personally did not.
MM is a good game, but TOOT is certainly better. If you're looking for a game that'll be fun, be great to play with friends (they can help with the puzzles), and take up hours upon hours of your life, buy Majora's Mask. It's not the greatest game, but it is certainly worth the money. (EXPANSION PACK REQUIRED)
Majora's Mask features vintage Legend of Zelda gameplay with a three-day twist, including all the swordplay, boomerang throwing and clever puzzles int...More at eBay
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