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jtl144's Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
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| [March 5, 2014 08:02:41 PM]
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The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is the direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The controls are roughly the same: B to swing your sword / A to roll & side jump or other action, the C buttons for assignable items (Bow, Magical items, Hookshot, deku seed, Masks, etc..), but there are major changes to certain aspects that govern gameplay.
The first notable difference is the addition of the transformation masks. During the first few minutes of the game, the main antagonist steals your horse and ocarina, and transforms you into a deku scrub and you follow him to Clock Town.
Once you’re there, you have 3 in game days (1 game hour = 45 real life seconds) where you play as a deku scrub to you compete a series of events. The successful completion of these events ends with Link retrieving the ocarina and playing the song of time to time-travel 3 days in the past. If you’re able to do that, then with your ocarina in hand you make your way back to the happy mask salesman who teaches you a song to turn yourself back to normal. After the song finishes, a deku scrub mask falls off your face.
In addition to this deku scrub mask, four other transformation masks are obtainable, though two of them (Fierce Deity’s Mask, and Giant’s Mask) are only use able in temple boss fights. These transformations (Deku Scrub, Goron, & Zora) allow Link to do new things and travel in new ways he was previously unable to do as normal Link. This allows for the player to progress through the puzzles with different tools sets. A large number of other masks are also obtainable by interacting with the clock town inhabitants. Many of the other non-transformation masks are not necessary to finish the game, but they help. For example, the bomb mask’s ability causes a bomb explosion that will not harm Link if you are using his shield.
During your time as the deku scrub you learn that the antagonist has started using magic to pull the moon towards clock town, which will collide with the clock tower on midnight of the 3rd day. Link makes it his mission to stop this from happening.
Progress is made by unlocking teleportation statues, learning songs, and obtaining masks & significant items. Before midnight on the third day, you must play the song of time and travel back to dawn of the first day. At this point, the status of the game world is reset, but the status of Link is not. You keep all of your status upgrades and items, except for all of your ammo, money, bombs, sticks, and other “replenish-able” items. There is a bank however, that is exempt from the reset of time; the money you deposit in the bank will stay there even after the time travel.
One of the things I found most interesting about Majora’s Mask is that any one part of the game can be completed within the 3 day time limit after playing the inverted song of time to slow down the flow of game time, and the most difficult of the mask missions require almost all of the 3 day time limit. To me, it feels as if the game was designed to be challenging in this aspect. However some parts do feel repetitive. Especially if you forget to do one little thing before playing the song of time and resetting the game world. Then you might need to go back, and maybe beat a temple boss to change the world’s status before you’re able to do what needed to be done.
The game world is split into 5 areas: Clock Town and the 4 cardinal directions. In each cardinal direction there is a different ecosystem / climate (Jungle, Mountains, Ocean, and Desert), that contains a player friendly zone (such as a smaller town), a temple, and non-temple dungeon-esque area. Once the dungeon is completed, the area undergoes a significant change. For example, when you finish the jungle temple, the water is no longer diluted with poison, and you’re able to swim in it without taking damage.
I have played this game more times than I can remember, but for the purpose of this assignment I recently played it two more times. During my first play session I made it through the jungle temple. During my second play session, I spent most of time doing side quests (upgrading ammo storage, obtaining the optional masks, etc..).
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Mar 5th, 2014 at 20:09:21.
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jtl144's Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 5 March, 2014
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