What do you REALLY think about The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask?

I love Majora's mask, but I get that there's a mixed opinion here on the forums. What do you think about the game? Do you agree with Jeff/Dr Tack Suit? Do you agree with Dan? Share you thoughts on why the game is good or bad. Personally I love the game for the personality it adds to the Zelda characters. Honestly, did you really think the girl handling the chickens was going to be such an integral part of the lore in future games? Married to cursed young man with no hope except the help of a young intervening Link? Not expectectected when I was young in year 2000.

Discuss!

Please move this to general discussion or the Majora's Mask forum. I've been drinking.

I think it's a fantastic game, though probably my least favourite 3D Zelda due to the 3 Day cycle, it just adds an element of stress that I don't appreciate. It's not enough to completely sour my opinion of what is otherwise an awesome, creative entry into the series, though.

I get why people don't like it, but I loved the time mechanic. The idea that there were hundreds of characters to watch live their last 3 days over and over again, and then try to influence and change their lives with not enough time to change them all.

Part of the reason I bought it on 3DS was to give it another chance to wow me, because I very much remember not liking it when it was on the N64.

Majora's Mask is genuinely my favorite video game. I think that it took the gameplay of Ocarina and put it into a much more interesting world. I could ramble about why I like it, but I'll also emphasize that I totally understand a lot of the criticism leveled against it. For someone just jumping in, I can understand getting frustrated when time runs out on you and you lose a bunch of progress. You have to get into the mindset of restarting time and then slowing it before you do something important. Is that fun? No, but I think it's a worthwhile price to pay for the way that the world evolves over that three-day span.

Majora's Mask was also my first Zelda game, and I'll acknowledge the potential Mario Kart effect there. And I will absolutely acknowledge that Ocarina is a much more influential, important game.

My biggest desire for the Zelda series is a game that has an entire world that feels as alive as Clock Town.

I this it's a good,different Zelda . But nowhere near the best in the series .

I played the game a few years ago, and despite wanting to like it, it just wasn't doing it for me. Specifically it was the dungeon design, and one part that required stealth and I only had one bottle, which was a problem.

I definitely liked a lot of the game's style, and the three day mechanic was very interesting. But it wasn't enough for me.

I'm enjoying it, I played it back in the day, but I was just a kid then so I don't really remember much about the later portions of the game. There's a lot more going on than I remember, and the bomber's notebook really helps out a lot. I can't imagine keeping track of all that without it.

What I'm not digging is the fact that I'll probably have to replay at least a couple of the dungeons over. Like, I finished the first dungeon but the next time I restarted the days over I found out I was supposed to talk to someone for a side quest after cleaning up the water. Then it looked like there was some treasure I could only get in the snowhead region with items obtained later in the game. Is there a way to complete dungeons and finish all activities in the changed zones in a single 3 day period?

@defe: The "aliveness" of Clock Town is really interesting, because the reason that works is that nearly every NPC (aside from shop owners) is heavily scripted to go around doing a bunch of shit at specific times. Much like Groundhog Day, you can notice a "routine" after you've been watching long enough. But it's hard to do in a game that doesn't have the time loop conceit, because in many Zeldas time is more or less static, or any scripted events only happen one time. The time loop allows them to get a lot of mileage out of all of these very carefully scripted NPC actions, because the game doesn't have to seem dynamic, nor does it have to make each day just seem like kind of a normal day.

It's easily my favorite 3D Zelda (though Wind Waker is a close second, losing mainly because of the Triforce Shard questline). It does so much that would be fresh and interesting for any game to do, let alone a game in such a long-running franchise known for being pretty self-similar. As a fan of game design there's so much to talk about and praise in the game it's not even funny.

Yeah, if you've beaten a dungeon before you can warp right to the boss from the start of the dungeon as soon as you enter it.

@hyuzen: As I remember, you can step into a dungeon and warp right to the dungeon boss room if you have the mask from beating them once.

@bisonhero: Absolutely! And that's why I mentioned that I think that the bad parts of the three-day mechanic are worth the good parts. And it's part of why I'm really not sure how that feeling can be accomplished in a new game. Part of the fun that I have when I go back to replay Majora is that routine of working to complete some dungeon or quest for the umpteenth time and then taking a minute to go off somewhere and help the Bomb Shop Lady or save the ranch or whatever. It helps prevent some of that issue where you finish the sidequests for some game's character and that character is then stuck with the one dialogue box of, "Hey, thanks for all that! Alright, later." And since some sidequests like the two I mentioned above are restricted to a particular time, I end up doing those way more often since the game is then dangling that carrot in front of me instead of saying, "eh, redo this sidequest whenever. I dunno."

I think it is a fantastic game. It was radically different and wasn't afraid to commit to its more controversial mechanics such as forcing you to restart dungeons and quest lines if you didn't finish them before the end of the third day. It also introduced one of the most believable living worlds in a game. Those characters had routines and it really felt like they continued to exist even if the player wasn't directly observing them.

Beyond that the games tones and themes were wildly different from the Zelda series. In most games of the series I would say Link represents hope. He is the hero of legend that brings hope to the people of Hyrule. Majora's Mask is all about facing the inevitable. As @hodor said, you cannot help everyone in 3 days. Ultimately that means that when you finally stop reliving the loop and save Termina there will be several people who are still miserable because you didn't have the time to help them. In this world not only is Link not inspiring hope to everyone he meets by virtue of being himself, he cannot possibly hope to help everyone. Even when you succeed at saving the world you will have failed someone in that timeline.

I hope the streamlining that Nintendo did for the remake can help people get into the game because I find it to be a very rewarding experience.

I've always liked Majora's Mask but now I have a greater appreciation for the game now because of its weirdness. I should play through it again.

When I first played it, I remember being mildly let down by a Zelda title for the first time.

It just felt so derivative and recycled compared to what Zeldas released in the US were previously, down to the recycled assets. But I did really appreciate the groundhog day mechanic, that was easily the redeeming aspect to the game.

bottom line is it is a pretty good game, Definitely not an elite Zelda title , but that series is one of the very best there is so no shame in that.

I think it's pretty great... I'm playing it right now on 3DS to discuss further in my blog coming up this Monday. I feel like it got a strange reception from longtime fans when it released because it was such a departure for a core entry in the series.

I enjoyed it. Though I didn't care for the world or dungeon design. It felt exactly like a video game environment and not so much an organic world. That was my only real complaint.

It was the first 3d zelda i played. I was too young to control which games I had at the time, and we had Majora's Mask instead of ocarina of time. As a result, I love it. Looking at it objectively I can see where some of the complaints come from, but I think its amazing.

What I REALLY think is that everyone needs to just relax and move on with their lives. Some people like it. Some don't. That's OK.

Loved it then. Still love it now. Probably in my Top 10 favorite games.

I never understood the complaints about the time limit, it's incredibly generous. The best change they made was letting you pick what hour to advance to to avoid waiting around forever.

It's a great game. It's no Wind Waker, but it's fun. The atmosphere is great. There are a few things that do keep it from being my favorite (the snow dungeon boss being one of them) but it is definitely worth playing, even if it's just to see how strange and different from the other Zeldas it is.

I can see Jeff's point about the inventory control though. It was pretty cumbersome. On 3DS though, it's great. Way better.

OOOOoooohhhh what do I really think? Uh I really like it - it's the second or third best Zelda game. Why ask what someone really thinks? Should we be ashamed of liking a game that someone else doesn't? People get way too wrapped up in defending games.

Based purely on my childhood experiences with the game I have to go with "Poor" I'd be willing to give it another shot though and maybe with my adult brain/gaming abilities I would love it.

But also I think I like the "2D" Zelda games that I have played more than the 3D ones. This is all based mostly on my under 14 gaming experiences. I really didn't play Zelda much after that. I liked the Oracle games, Links Awakening DX and A Link to the Past more than I liked Ocarina or MM. I didn't play the other 3D games.

I'm having a hard time finding the 'I don't give a shit' option.

For me personally, I found it a poor game. I also had the experience where I played it for one sitting, said "nope," turned it off and never touched it again. Something about the beginning completely confused me and everything I heard about the time mechanics turned me off more.

I'm not necessarily saying it's a poor game because I think there's a shitton of bad games out there and this is probably miles ahead of them. But it was a poor experience for me last time I tried it, I went right back to playing Ocarina and ALttP again.

I don't care if they threw it together in a year and if it's actually a mess underneath, that game is fascinating, dark, and just great. The remake made it even better. I will fully admit, though, that part of its charm is probably coming from the fact that it was one of the first adventure games I ever played through when I was 7.

Didn't vote because I don't think my vote should count (oops, voted now) but I always figured it was a decent Zelda game. I barely played it though. As someone else said, I just remember not liking the time mechanic so I probably fired it up once or twice, ran out the time and was like "I don't understand how I am supposed to get anything done.." and then shut it off forever. I don't like games that involve rushing or time limits etc. Racing games with a "Checkpoint!" system is a good example. But I barely played it so I don't know anything about all the time altering songs Dan has mentioned. And it's too late for me to care to go back and try it. I think my friend really liked it. Oh and I thought that evil/super link whatever was one of the coolest looking things in the series ever. It's just not for me. In the same way I imagine the item system from "A Link Between Worlds" that everyone likes so much doesn't sound very good to me. I've always liked the traditional item acquisition system and have not tired of it. But I also really only play the main console entries in the series so I don't feel burnt out on the usual Zelda structure like other people do.

I actually still have Majora's Mask complete in box "collector's edition" in great shape on my shelf.

Loved it! The most experimental of the 3d Zelda games and one of the titles i had the most fun with.

That's my feeling on it too, though I'd put it above Ocarina of Time simply for creativity.

I really don't understand the argument that the time mechanics puts pressure on the game. You have so much time to do everything and reseting time is at most a minor inconvenience when you happen to run out.

I think Majoras Mask is pretty awesome. I like Ocarina more, but that is hardly surprising.

I thought it was alright! I don't think I want to play it over again but I enjoyed the time I spent with it.

It's my personal favourite Zelda game and perhaps my favourite video game altogether. I know that I feel that way because that game came out exactly at the right time for me and a lot of it is nostalgia but I replay that game a whole lot (once every 2 or 3 years) and each and every time, I feel like it holds up. I know a lot of people are put off by the three day cycle, especially around my area where not every 10 year old kid understood English and understood what was going on. It still boggles my mind when people say they were confused by it even thought they perfectly understood English. I got by just fine even thought my English wasn't perfect.

I love the Zelda franchise and I love how weird and different Majora's Mask was. Come to think of it, I like it when people do something different with an established franchise. I'm the kind of guy who prefers Star Trek : Deep Space Nine to Next Generation.

Majora's Mask has a special place in my heart because it represents the perfect Christmas break of my childhood and I feel like it still holds up great as a video game. I haven't played the 3DS remake a lot yet because I'm saving it for a plane trip I'm taking soon but from what I've played, it still holds up.

I've tried to play it many times and just find it to be a rushed mess. Reused assets, messy design for both Clocktown and the world around it especially the dungeons. The time mechanic isn't novel to me at all, it was put in place to drag out what would be a very short unsatisfying Zelda experience. Also the "Dark, Gritty" tone everyone talks about just completely baffles me as you can't call something gritty when you have Tingle on goddamn balloon in the middle of town, the NPCs are either assholes or just sad though you playing a song to trap poor random people into masks is pretty "dark".

I loved the mask stuff in OOT the mask stuff in MM should have made it one of my favorites but its just a chore to play it gives you no direction on where to go or WTF your supposed to be doing I don't mind not having my hand held but SHIT at least tell me where the fuck I need to go without asking 50 NPCs in the shitty maze that is Clocktown. Having to play the slow down song isn't that big of a deal but missing that scarecrow is very punishing, missing him made me think I only got 45 minutes to do stuff and even now knowing that song exist, the idea that I could fuck up and lose all progress on a dungeon is a pretty good way to make me not want to play

I never got to play it at the release because I never had the expansion pack for the Nintendo 64. I bought it on Wii for the virtual console but just never had the time to play it.

I loved the Ocarina of Time 3D remake. Nintendo seems to do a kickass job on their remakes and they seem very timely.

That being said, I've been playing maybe 2-3 hours so far. It's good but it 100% feels different. It's more the oddities of it I think just don't fit the Zelda feel. That mysticism just isn't there in Termina. I understand it's a side story and they were experimenting with a lot. Something about it feels off though. I am going to finish it but I would say where it sits so far on my Zelda ranking list is down near lower 1/3 of the titles.

my faovrite 3d zelda. I think only the first zelda has more of a place in my heart than majora

Greatest game ever made. 3DS remake is nice but it's not a replacement for the original to me.

It's my favourite Zelda of all time, it's great.