Thank you for watching! After reading some of the comments it seems like there’s a few things I missed or got wrong. Luckily, these things don’t affect my view on the game too much. I appreciate everyone educating me, especially those who are kind about it, and I hope this doesn’t affect the viewing experience. Let’s bump that score up by 0.5 for good measure!
A good way to look at Majora's Mask is a standalone DLC for Ocarina of Time. It's made harder because it's supposed to be a step up from the original, a challenge to those who have already completed Ocarina. I get some of the gripes, but it's what they could do within their time limit and that limit arguably made a better game
I haven't finished the video yet but I'd just like to point out that bringing up crashing as an issue doesn't really make sense as on real hardware the game is pretty much impossible to crash. Any crashes you experienced were most likely due to the emulator
They also mention in the game that the Great Bay temple has a mystical effect on mother Zoras, specifically, and that if the temple is in disarray, that the mother will likewise be affected. Lulu is still distraught/depressed despite the eggs being returned and getting her voice back
@@aaronlindsey2219 I thought it was because the Zora descendant who is been protecting the temple will have trouble befall them. Not because they are a mother.
The primary themes and meaning behind Majora's Mask are actually pretty straightforward: it's about processing grief/trauma, and the value of acts of kindness for its own sake. The Romani Ranch sidequest actually has a reward whose only purpose is making replaying part of the sidequest easier, even though there's no further rewards for it.
I’m not even gonna lie, the seething bit was just to emphasize how much I didn’t like its design. I beat Goht fairly quickly, BUT I WILL admit defeat in saying that Gyorg took me an embarrassing amount of attempts :((
Love the video but sometimes the criticism/complaints feel less like ‘these are legitimate logistical errors and narrative flaws,’ and more like ‘I was bad at this part, so this part is bad,’ which to be honest is very entertaining, and the takes are interesting, and I’m almost positive it’s, at least, half satirical, however the whole pirates fortress low arrow low magic thing - that’s just not being prepared. The goht complaint also does not at all click with me. The racetrack after builds on your increasing ability to control the goron roll, and goht is a test of how fine tuned you’ve developed using the mask. You can also damage him in other ways, besides. Also the stone tower flip switch issue? You just missed. I’m sorry. That’s not a design thing, you just had an odd and inconvenient angle.
Used to be gamers would: 1: Make a mistake 2: Realize it was a mistake 3: Presume they were to blame 4: Try again Nowadays gamers will: 1: Make a mistake 2: Have no knowledge of the mistake 3: Wait for the game to tell them what to do 4: Do nothing (for a while) It's okay to go off and do something else entirely, especially nowadays. But back then, with the price of games and the limited scope inside them, the player wanted to and had to put a lot more into the game to get something out of it
@@SolDizZoGamers were bad back then too. Lot of them would just throw the controller and quit until it was time to take the game back to blockbuster. Or they'd wait until xmas for another game. Or they'd pay a ton for a strategy guide instead of trying to figure it out themselves. And so many gamers stopped playing Majora's Mask specifically because they didn't want to figure out the 3-day cycle.
@Sykroid This is exactly the case. Most of us back then were doing this. Nowadays, the information is just more readily available, and there's many ways to keep access to games. Not much has changed other than having more games lol
Goht is super anticlimactic but did you consider... Dodging the rocks and bombs instead of just holding slightly left until the game randomly let you win? It's a dissapointing boss because it's very easy not because it's frustrating. The fun comes from avoiding the obstacles so you can quickly and brutally take the boss down.
I'm confused as to why the "I'm going to complain a lot about how frustating the epona sidequest can be if you don't already know what you're supposed to do and where/when to get powderkegs" part came right before the "let's mock people who get frustrated when videogames are confusing, particularly from an era where answers to confusing games were monetized in strategy guides". They're beautiful books. Some games were even made intentionally confusing or with early difficulty spikes to encourage buying the game instead of renting it. Kids often played these games with strategy guides growing up, I had a Majora's Mask strategy guide and an Ocarina of Time strategy guide growing up.
30:37 You should be able to re-flip it by doing that, from the footage it looks like you just missed the hitbox for the crest. You actually need to do this to collect some stray fairy's that you spawned chests for while it is upside down. 31:21 You actually only need the Moon's Tear to get up the clock tower for the first cycle, when you are in your normal form you can simply climb up from the side, which you are too short to do in the Deku form.
PRO TIP: Next time you play hide and seek with the bombers to get the code, you dont have to play with them again as Link ...because you already have the code. Give it a try, and Jim will leave you with some hilarious dialog.
My interpretation of the theme: Healing from Trauma. I think this is why you were confused about the happy and elements presented in the game, to properly speak about healing it needs to address both, just like in real life. I won't speak on why this is the theme, that would take too long for me rn, but that's what I've decided on in the years of knowing and loving this game. I actually feel it in my heart that I want to make my own video essay on this topic, but I haven't found the courage to do so. Maybe I will one day :)
I dont belive crashing was a concern on the original game. The devs would probabaly have never forseen re-releases and emulation so crash prevention probably didnt come up back in the day Simply put, the game didnt crash on n64
Just looked into it! It appears that the game does have the capability of crashing on N64, but from reading others experience, it seems like it’s less of an issue on the original console. I guess moral of the story is that the best way to experience the game is purchasing the original hardware lol!
16:20 - c'mon man, goht is fun to play, he challenges your abilities, don't go dissing on it, rolling to hit the boss is fun. 20:30 - Dude, I beat this game when I was in the fourth grade... no offence man but all ya gotta do is take a look around and eventually you'll spot entrances you have yet to go through. Have fun man, nobody is asking you to speed run we want you to have fun with it, observe and examine with your eyes, that's how you beat games, nobody expects you to pull off pro moves at the start of the game :P
Maybe it's because I've played the game to death at this point, but I dont remember many areas where i got stuck figuring something out. Most puzzles will have good context clues or colored text to clue you in on what to do. Although now that im writing this o do remember taking an embarrassing amout of time to figure out i needed to play Goron's Lullaby to get into Snowhead, but i chalk that up to a brain fart.
WOW i just finished watching the OoT one, decided to check out the channel and to my surprise this is here! The timing, immaculate! May your crops thrive, your skin be forever glowing, and your love of video games remain undying!!
Is it fair to say that where ocarina of Time represents the hero's journey Majora's mask represents the consequences of having gone through it? The consequences that no one seems to take into consideration.
I’ve seen a few others have this interpretation of the game, even here in the comments, and I think it makes sense. There’s even subtleties that support it; you’re heavily encouraged to help others / be the hero, but no matter how hard you try you can’t stop the thief from robbing the bomb shop lady if you want to help Anju and Kafei. To me that’s the games way of saying “you can’t save everyone”.
Goht is my favorite boss because I really enjoyed chasing him around - but your criticisms are completely valid! I think it could be a lot more interesting if you had an actual "racetrack" to contend with; something that would be a lot more difficult to navigate. Maybe it opens up to the cliffside at points so there is a real risk of falling off into a ravine. I think it might also be fun if he actually changed direction and charged straight at you on occasion! (Technically you can also beat him as Link with arrows, but where's the fun in that?)
Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are my fav Zelda games. I grew up with the N64 Gen of Nintendo games during my teen years, so these games are the most nostalgic for me. I have played Zelda games from before N64 era and after N64 such as the GameCube and Wii Zelda games. Even going as far and still following the series into the Wii U and Switch eras. But looking back on the entire series including the handhelds, I often think looking at the 3DS remakes of both Ocarina and Majora, these N64 games hold up really well and perhaps was blessed to play Legend of Zelda during it's early 3D era.
I guess my personal interpretation of this game's themes is more of a spin on the hero aspect of the series. In most games in the series you are some kid on an adventure in a relatively safe world (That do have their dark aspects don't get me wrong.) But with Majora it's a world where everything has gone wrong. The world is ending, Kafei and Anju's lives have been ruined, there are plagues in the surrounding regions, the butler's kid died, and the Goron's hero fell into a ravine and died a horrific death. This is a world that is not only going to end, but is actively miserable. And you mentioned conflicting tones, but I actually think Majora is about "Hope in the midst of despair." YOU are the one thing that can change this, make everyone's lives better, and fix everything. The main tragic element is that eventually resetting time will undo it, but you maintain the knowledge of how to fix it if you want to. Now, while not intended, one of my favorite things I try and do when I replay this game is top everything off with a cycle where I try and do everything. It's stressful, a lot to do, but DANG it feels rewarding. But I guess it can be assumed defeating Majora probably fixes most of the problems in the credits so eh lol. Back to the kids though, I feel they were more to give a vague insight into either Majora or the Skull kid. Kind of a counter-mentallity to Link who probably never had to think of things that way. And I guess to reinforce the idea about "Hope in the midst of despair" is that it's likely what kept the devs going in what was the worst crunch they ever experienced making this game. Many of the carpenters were their thoughts exactly, projected onto the characters. Admittedly, they should never have been put into that crunch in the first place, but I feel it did lead the developers to bleed their souls into this project. (The moon was literally inspired by a North Korean missile that nearly hit Japan while they were making this, and they also attended a wedding around the time.) It's definitely one of the more artistic Zeldas. And last thing, I have NEVER seen a single person complain about the mask jingle in that scene LOL that seemed like a weird complaint imo, but I get what you mean. That never took me out of the moment tho.
And this is why I love the Fierce Diety Mask and, especially, that it trivializes the Majora fight. Termina is a world where everything was broken. Link can only fix it little by little, and cannot do everything in a single cycle, his progress eternally undone, what was fixed becoming broken again, because there is just not enough time. But one thing remains. The masks. Obtained at the end of the questlines, they represent the gratitude of the people towards Link ( I use gratitude in the way Skyward Sword used it, a fundamental force of good that opposes the malice of Demise and, more generally, all that is evil ). They may have been forgotten by everyone but Link, but the feelings of those moments, and the masks that represent them, are real. And the Fierce Deity Mask, only being obtainable once you saved everyone in Termina and beyond, is all this gratitude crystallised into one single mask. The hopes and dreams of an entire world, channeled through one lone boy who only ever did what was right, fighting against the root of all evil that it faced in recent times. How could they not win ? How could Majora be anything else than squashed like a bug, against this overwhelming power ? How could this being, a Hero fighting on the behalf of an entire world's future, powered by all that is good, be anything lesser than a deity ? This is why Fierce Deity Link is so far above Majora. For he is not alone, but has everyone behind him, pushing for his victory even if they don't know it.
This wasn't the first zelda i played but it was the first one i finished, and the npcs, sidequests and cutscenes really stuck with me so i'm a bit biased towards MM due to nostalgia but even after playing all the other ones i still hold MM as my favorite just because as you said, it's different. I played the other Zelda games so much that whenever i replay them i have a "fixed" path to follow, there's not much you can do until the "tutorial phase" ends, and while it's the same in MM, when you step in clocktown the first time, even as a Deku scrub there's so many things you can do. It's almost like if you take every important aspects of a zelda game, almost all zelda games feels like is "on rails" while MM is a bit more of a "sandbox" game, to me at least. not to mention that 99% of the npcs in MM has a little secret if you search around, like, did you know that the boatshop guy in the swamp is actually Tingle's dad. Or that the zora band plays little remixes of classic zelda songs in their rooms. Anju and Kafei sidequest goes beyod the two of them, Anju's mother hates Kafei, for thinking that he ran away, like her husband did to her, she even argues with Anju. And Kafei's mother, Madame Aroma, almost gave up hope by the end of the third day until you deliver the letter to her. You can even feel the fear and dread of the moon rising in the way some characters speak throughout the 3 days. There's just so much charm and detail put in the npcs in this game that just lacks in other titles. They just feel unique. Like there's the OOT Anju's that's just the "cucco lady" and then there's MM Anju that has a whole subplot around her, MM makes them so much more memorable and alive.
Great video! The point of the game is to separate out the act of helping someone and the result of helping someone. You don't actually help anyone in the game. Kafei is still walking around as a kid, the guy is still turning into a gibdo, etc etc. So do your actions still have meaning? The game says yes. It asks you to be a hero even after nihilism is the given truth.
19:39 i'm just gonna be real with you; this bit was honestly super unfunny and hard to watch and comes out of nowhere, not even mentioning the extremely poor "iTs jUsT a jOkE bRo" excuse that was said in a really arrogant and unlikable way sorry, man. that was an absolute disaster
im surprised you found the items being taken away from you every cycle is annoying cause you just roll into termina field with the goron's mask for few seconds and you'll find yourself stocked up again!
It's very refreshing to see a video about Majora's Mask that doesn't shower it with unconditional praise the entire time. It's a great, at times exceptional game that I have a lot of respect for but I have always felt that the hype it gets from some Zelda fans is over the top.
majora's mask shouldnt randomly crash like that unless its being emulated really badly. if you played via collector's edition on gamecube, random crashes will happen. same applies to emulators.
Seems like you’re just explaining the game while complaining about it in all the bad stuff or anything u as the player couldn’t do ….keep in mind most of us played it as a kid so it was hard as well but kept going and did not complain it made us shaper and actually understand how things work. In note everything u do in the game is for u to learn and observe and understand so therefore it makes it easier and more effective to do everything pretty much in one go.
I accept your apology and well no big deal here we all got frustrated and got our feelings towards any thing , legend of Zelda games are differently different and a new kind of way especially back then.☺️
If you were actually good at Goron rolling and paying attention to the movements Goht isnt annoying and is fun. Also see speedrunners shoot him with arrows as he stands still and only shoots lightning if far enough ahead.
I don’t think I’m particularly bad at Goron rolling, I won the race my first try. Even if I did suck, It’s the actual design of Gohts fight that I didn’t like and that wouldn’t change no matter how good I got. I had to fight him multiple times and I did use arrows during one of the attempts, but since you can literally just roll after him in a circle I don’t really see the point in doing it any other way (outside of a speedrun at least). Further more requiring a player to be really good at something in order to enjoy a part of the game is an awful idea, and it’s clear that this wasn’t what Nintendo was going for as Goht was unquestionably one of the easiest parts of the game for me. Bottom line, I just don’t enjoy the fight, and I think they could’ve made it way more interesting even by just changing the arena to a different shape. I respect the opinion of liking Goht, a lot of comments seemed to have that take, I just personally don’t understand or agree
When you describing reasons for why someone would put this game as their favorite, I definitely fall in line with the latter. My first Zelda was OoT and although I had made attempts at Majora's Mask, I ended up giving up on it around when I was 11 years old. By the time I tried it again as a 13 year-old, in large part due to the 3ds release (I had it on wii vc), I had already gone through pretty much every other zelda game out at the time. I had long cleared ocarina, which I had first played as a 8 year old, beat skyward sword, twilight princess, windwaker which I had gotten probably a year after majora's mask, the oracle series and link between worlds. I had the manga for majora's mask as well which helped me a lot with understanding certain story elements like the deceased deku, and helped me still like the game despite getting stuck on it. I did get around to beating it though, which is when I first decided I liked it more than Ocarina. Eventually I replayed the game through the 3ds version, and struggled with finding some things that had their locations changed, but this game just is special to me. The darker aspects are neat with how in your face they are, but the weirdness is what draws me in personally. Their is so much personality, and although several themes are at the fore front, I feel like that makes the world more human. We all have something we want to get out there, and this game highlights different struggles from different perspectives. I'm also just a big fan of the gameplay overhaul. Maybe the reason I like this game is similar to why I prefer ToTK to BoTW since I played the sequels after the original and viewed them as overall improvements, but it's hard to pinpoint why you fell in love with a game for the first time. As far as struggles with game goes, I used a lot of ZeldaDungeon as a kid, so I'm not sure how much of it I struggled with in my first play through, but I remember finding Romani fairly easily. Epona was one of my favorite characters in OoT, so being able to be with her again was exciting. I also prefer both Romani and Cremia to Malon, they are nice characters. Also the giants mask may seem kinda pointless since you only use it in that one fight, but I think it makes it more fun just being a giant.
This game has a lot of themes to offer which aren't all recognizable as a kid but, that's what makes it so great it wasn't about a simple story of being the hero of time. It was much more than that. Time is a huge theme that causes anxiety but, it can also be the power of relief, time in MM was used both as Good and Bad. Time allowed you to save those close to you when you needed to but, it also caused trauma and depression. You know every one but, no one know you. Its a theme like that, that makes this game special and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
For the powder keg area, where you said you had to pay 100 rupees, you could’ve went into the bomb shop right across from the bank and talk to the Goron inside and got a powder keg for only half the price
I said “if you’re like me” etc. I didn’t realize powder kegs were added to the bomb shop until later on, especially considering the Goron that spawns there is completely absent until you get the powder keg license. Still though, I should’ve mentioned that you aren’t stuck paying 100 rupees for powder kegs. Definitely an oversight
@@flaaphy The Goron that sells Powder Kegs in town is always there. If you talk to him as any form other than Goron he says he sells a huge bomb that the Bomb Shop doesn't carry, but apologizes for bringing it up after realizing that Link wouldn't be able to carry it. Side note, Medigoron's Powder Kegs being more expensive than the seller in town never made sense to me. I guess it must not have made sense to the devs either, because in the 3D remake they made Medigoron charge 20 rupees. A cheaper option you have to go a bit more out of your way for vs a more expensive option right at hand makes way more sense, and actually gives Medigoron a point to selling Powder Kegs.
I’m not gonna lie I read Mikau’s grave, tried it out once, returned to the game in a different session and completely forgot about it. You’re right though, absolute blunder on my part
@@flaaphy haha, I guess that's another notch in the replayability column. Great vid btw, watched the oot one as well. I do disagree with your conclusion at the end, but it was also your first playthrough and I feel like mm is a game that really grows on you. As someone who absolutely loved oot, I hated mm on my first playthrough, barely made it through the first dungeon. But upon revisiting it multiple times it now sits along oot as my favorite pieces of media ever. Now obviously you have your own opinions so its possible they may not change like this, but just thought I'd throw that out there. Keep up the good work (looking forward to wind waker)!
Hahahaha I think he overlooked a lot of the good things in this game. His OOT video has a lot more passion for the game and therefore a lot of research into how the game design helps the game. I do, however value his perspective as a newbie playing the game. First time play through experience really is a stat to be measured for sure
@@aaronlindsey2219 yeah I definitely overlooked some things. I was a little torn between playing the game multiple times to try and make it more like the OoT video or keeping it strictly the “new player experience”. I chose the new player mainly because a few people had complained that the OoT video didn’t focus on my opinion enough, and I feel like a lot of MM reviews look at it from a biased perspective. Thank you for your feedback, it actually means a lot! I’ll try to focus more on design elements in future episodes. I still want to keep the joking and opinion forward nature of this episode moving forward though
@@flaaphy i think the new player perspective definitely has merit. Like I said, I feel like MM is a game that grows on you, so maybe a few years down the line you'll revisit it with a different perspective/conclusion. If not, thats cool too. Just throwing that out there
I like the interpretation that the game represents the 5 stages of grief. 1 denial: the people of clock town are largely in denial of their impending doom, many ignore it or pretend nothing is wrong 2 anger: the deku king is furious at the loss of his daughter and lashes out at the monkey who did nothing wrong 3 bargaining: darmani pleads with you for help, asking you to bring him to life or soothe his pain 4 depression: the loss of her eggs drives lulu into a depression that literally robs her of her voice, unable to muster the energy to do anything besides stand on the pier and stare into the water 5 acceptance: the dead of ikana canyon brought back by majora wreak chaos until they're brought back to themselves and accept their death The acceptance one doesn't match as cleanly and I think there are some videos that explain it better, but to me that fits together well enough.
I don't disagree with any of the opinions you have, but the way you get fake-mad and start yelling around the Goat boss section just makes the video unwatchable. I have no doubt you have strong feelings about the design, and I agree with you, but the way you expressed it was much too over played. Tone it down a good bit and you're golden. 😎👍
Thanks for providing genuine feedback in a kind way, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. I watched back the section you're talking about with this in mind, and you're right I think it's little too harsh / played up and creates this weird tonal shift that doesn't carry out or fit with the rest of the video. I'll keep this in mind for next time. Thanks again!
To be fair, while MM is one of my favorites, it's only top 5 for me. #1 for me will always be Twilight Princess. While I disagree with some of your takes, I understand that opinions are that, mine included. Either way, good video!
I think this is the first time I hear someone say the Goht fight is anything other than fun af xD Edit: I think your game was bugged in Stone Tower, I don't recall don't being able to unflip the dungeon, you even HAVE to do it in order to get all stray fairies o.O
@38:00 mins I have to say thats the purpose of that mask. That's the reward for collecting all of the mask. All of the hard work to reset every cycle when you couldn't do it the first time. This game makes you reset so many times and for the effort you put into completing all the side quests and 100% Is def worth it for a mask that allows you shoot beams out of a double helix blade. IMO I disagree with some of your concerns with the game and its moral of the story, However, your format is as good as it was in OoT. Gerudo Fortress being one of my disagreements because it's not that hard, especially when you learn about the Stone Mask that makes you literally invisible to the enemies range of sight. I believe you missed the tutorial for the Zora Mask when Young Link makes Mikau's grave. It tells you how to use the boomerangs that are part of the Zoras Mask's kit which in part allows you to easily hit the switches. The Ramani Ranch Side Quest is def a fun one since you get to do some target practice before the whole invasion happens. The point of the clock mechanic is meant to make you panic, it gives the player instant Anxiety which is one of MM best narratives. Anyways I could go on n on but, just want to say that looking at it from your perspective can def make MM frustrating to play or not understand. Love the content please keep up the good work.
my fav zelda game of all time. ngl tho the “oath to order” song & cutscene creeped me out so bad as a child. whole game had weird anxious vibes but i love it
First playthrough or not, the wasting of time is still on your shoulders. If you dont have items cut grass and find some. If you arent sure what to do talk to people. Resetting time is not the end of the world, ironic. Lol but i totally get first time frustration though. There are parts of the game im not fond of too, the well quest is annoying and i hate it every time. I would tell you to try this game again and 100% it. I would also recommend the 3ds version to at least try because there ways to help you with passage of time. Some people say its not as good, i dont think that really matters regarding your point. I dont know if you are aware of it but the song of time can be played in reverse to slow down time or two notes in a row to advance time by 6 hours. In the 3ds version they let you choose what hour specifically. Its a godsend. I loved majoras mask my first time playing it and still do. Its atmosphere, tone, design and characters are incredibly fleshed out for their time. The bombers notebook and the way it tracks nearly every npc in the game is impressive. I love that every character in this game has a set path they stick to for their 3 day cycle should you do nothing to help them. It adds a lot to the idea of Link and his purpose in the game. Healing. Link himself is healing from the emotional turmoil of oot. And i think thats a brilliant story to tell with a hero who was a child that was forced to become an adult to save the world left with those harsh memories and not having a place in the world after the fact. This is a nearly flawless sequel to OoT. Link helps himself through helping others. Thats the point. Its why the story is smaller and intimate. He's having to adjust to his new life post saving the world. Its a traumatic heartbreaking experience yet he not only endures but makes the land he finds a better place for nearly everyone he comes across. Yet, he isnt able to do so for himself. Thats deep. I love it. The hero of time became a healer. Thats so powerful.
Surely I'm not the first person to point this out but I have to ask: did you ever figure out how to use magic with the Zora mask? Because it changes the Gyorg fight entirely
I just now finished your OOT review. Thank you for this amazing project. I’m excited to watch this review too! I acknowledge your sacrifice despite your living situation and all I can say is thank you for bringing a fresh perspective to the series and for allowing me to relive the experience. I learned a lot of significant things from the OOT video and I can’t wait to do so with the Majoras mask video thank you
this is the darkest game by far. after OOT, link's fairy flies away, because his job is done and she's no longer needed. where she went, no one knows. I would assume she faded out of existence. link didn't know she was going to leave and doesn't know what happened to her or why she left. he's upset and goes searching for her. he ends up in the lost woods for some reason (someone else had a theory about why he went here), gets lost without his fairy and runs into a mean skull kid who happened to take majora's mask from a merchant (who might literally be some kind of god, maybe loki). skull then then turns kink into a deku scrub and link ends up falling down a hole and dying, entering termina bay. now think about this: termina is close to terminal, which you know what that word means. terminal just has "an L dropped" to make termina. (L)ink dropped into a hole and entered termina. link is dead. termina is a sort of purgatory. all the characters there are characters that he has seen before. his memories put them there but it's more like a dream state where the characters are in different situations. because link is so sad, negative expressions affect the memories around him and influence his characters. poor link :(
I was a little startled at your (harsh, but fair) critique of many aspects of the game at first, since this is pretty rare to see in reviews of this game! Even though I am absolutely obsessed with Majora's Mask and its themes and story and lore (have been since I was a kid and I'm over 30 now), I think there is an unspoken taboo about acknowledging that its game mechanics, controls, and game design have aged poorly and make playing it actively painful at times. I'm currently replaying it on an original second-hand cartridge on my old N64 after many years, and even though it doesn't make me less obsessed with the game, it's again reminding me why in the past I've always put the game down without finishing it and instead went to watch videos of people playing it. I know fandom can be allergic to nuance, but I think "Majora's Mask is a timeless masterpiece" and "Majora's Mask is so painful to play that the content people make about it is the best way to enjoy it" are statements that aren't mutually exclusive and should be allowed to co-exist.
This actually was my first Zelda game and if I hadn't bought the official guide, I don't think I ever would have figured out certain things. Still, I had a lot of fun playing this game. Not perfect, but a fun ride for sure.
I’m sorry you had occasional crashes - I’m a little surprised, as I’ve been lucky up until this point, and that’s on N64, GC, Wii, Mupen64plus, or Project64. It would glitch and error out bad on the PSP N64 emulator, but that was never finished so understandable.
15:40 Thank you for pronouncing that right! I see SO many youtubers cover this game and pronounce this name as "gott" and it just drives me insane because it's a literal goat and there's there's literally the letters "oh" in there, that would make it pronounced like the animal, I don't even know how to get "Gott" from that!
I actually find the Fierce Deity Mask trivializing Majora something that fits nicely into the game's themes. What are masks ? I believe they are the physical expression of a person's gratitude, in the sense that Skyward Sword gave it, that of a fundamental force of good that is diametrically opposed to the malice used by Demise and the Ganon(dorf)s ( and also Majora, obviously ) To obtain the Fierce Deity Mask, Link must gather all the masks of Termina. In a world where everything was broken and where Link can only fix a few things at a time, things will quickly come undone, the only things he keeps are the memories of the feelings those he saved expressed, and the masks, physical proofs of these feelings. And so, the Fierce Deity Mask is what you obtain after you save everyone. It is the gratitude of an entire world, their hopes and dreams all funneled into this one object. I believe this is the only transformation mask that doesn't cause sorrow, but instead more positive feelings, when Link wears it, because it is the only transformation mask made out of purely good emotions, instead of regrets. And so you fight Majora, the root of most evil you had to face, and most problems you had to solve. But you don't do it as the lone boy, the forgotten Hero of two lands. You do it as the vessel for an entire world's will to survive, fighting for a better tomorrow. How could a being fighting with the strength of a world be anything lesser than a deity ? How could the Mask of Majora, a single entity, offer any amount of resistance against an entire world ? It is only natural that it gets crushed like the bug it is.
While the 3DS version of Gyorg is, imo, superior. People like to bash on the eyes, but by splitting it into the first phase that is more focused on the human form and the surface, and a second one taking place entirely underwater.
Loved this review. And I'm ever so grateful you apologized for your rude comments on the OOT video :P I'd love to see you cover Wind waker and Twilight Princess (the best one). And as for non-zelda games: I think Dark souls, Metal gear solid, and Dragon age would all be awesome picks for this series! Looking forward to what you do next!
Thank you so much! WW and TP are already planned! As for Dark Souls and Metal Gear I would love to do both series especially since I feel like those episodes would be interesting to work on (little intimidated by MGS lore though lol). I’ve never played dragon age and don’t know much about it but it’s always a possibility!
saw the ocarina video and was gonna comment “do majoras mask” bc it’s my favorite game of all time and thought to check and see if you posted it yet… then i saw you only had 900 subs?? wtf?? video too well made for that sub count
I love this game to the max! Nice retrospective, makes me wanna play the game for the 100th time. @33:16 Ehm extually... It's Michael Jackson's Moonwalk.
This is a great analysis. Majora’s Mask is definitely rough to newcomers but I rank it highly because it has real problems that people can connect with. Unfortunately because it is a game for everybody, they have to mask many problems so you need to simplify the problems a bit to find relatable stories.
Glad you enjoyed! Wind Waker episode is 100% coming, I just want to give it a little time so I’m not pigeonholing myself as “Zelda review guy”. More importantly I have some special plans for the episode that require nicer weather ;)
@@flaaphy yeah,that makes sense.random thought.i always thought it was funny how hipsters can't SEE that there're hipsters....hipsters dismorphia lmao.anywho,keep up the good work .
9:45 you are quite litterally the first person i ever heard call that boss hard. Most people beat him easily, in fact depending on how far into the game you are when you first face him you have to try hard to not one cycle him.
This is personally my favorite game of all time, and it's not because of Internet hype. I'm someone who has played every single Zelda, so this game's 3 day cycle, quest focus, and intricate dungeons keep this game fun to revisit over and over. This is a series that is aggressively easy a lot of the time, so having a game where time management is a factor makes up for it immensely. The bosses being nothing like normal Zelda is also something I loved. Goht is a lot of fun for me. And while YES, woodfall is a sharp jump in dungeon difficulty from the Deku Tree, I think it is still very well designed. To a degree that yes, it would be HARDER for a newcomer, half of it's concepts were introduced in the build up to the dungeon. (Flowers, hopping, etc). The Deku Tree was literally one of the first things you do. But anyway my nit-picks aside lmao this was a good video. Majora is difficult, especially going COMPLETELY blind. It's one I often used a guide for. But I do think it is well designed, just as worst might take a lot of notes and paying attention. (I believe the manual had a notes section.) Good vid.
I'm sure my opinions on it will change as time goes on and I revisit the game, definitely a ton of replay value! It's always been funny to me because I feel like a ton of the internet hype is centered around theories and stuff like that, and you can't really say anything bad about the game to those individuals. Meanwhile actual fans of the game, like you (and even personal friends) seem to be extremely level headed and kind. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Yeah, hey I'm glad you enjoyed yourself at least haha. Left a different comment about my story thoughts but everyone is different ofc. Glad you didn't take my counterpoints too personally lol. You did a good job. :)
Huh ive got an og copy of majoras mask for the n64 and have NEVER had it crash on me😭I've played it a buttload, too. Sorry that kept happening to you! Never heard of it being an issue before. (My n64 ITSELF is kinda conking out tho. It doesn't wanna start up a game half the time but I'm 21 and that's only been an issue this year. And once a game is loaded it's fine🤷♂️who knows)
Its honestly my favorite game, I started with Majora's Mask and I love it with my entire being. My favorite part which is speculated by many people is that Link is dead in this game .
Hey, when I was a kid I never knew that you could run fast in Super Mario Bros by holding B button down and run all through World 1 - 1. Didn't find that out until I was around 10 or so and that was after I started playing Donkey Kong Country 2 and then all of a sudden it all came to me how easy I could have made that classic Mario game feel to me.
You got very interesting i do agree that the original is kinda a bit dated but the 3d version is way better a lot of the complaints you had about the game were fixed in that version but you also got a lot of things wrong because this game is more a story focused on link he just had a life time of trauma thrown at gim saved the kingdom in the present and future and at the end he was left alone with no one to remember what he did then he goes to find his 1 friend who remembers what happend and gets to be the hero again in a world where every 3 days his efforts become void and when its said and done link kinda learns to cope with this and move on but not fully thats why he becomes a soldier to protect hyrule and dies in batle and eventually ends up becoming the heros shade yes this game has its funny and interesting moments with the characters in it but its les of a story about friendship but more of a story about grief and sorrow and how to move on in my opinion this game is a 10 out of 10 because its the first zelda game i played and the reason i play games to this day but even without that bias this game has a lot of hidden details that to this day the full picture of the story is stil debated about and its a masterpiece in its writing because of the smal details but for most if not 90% of people who dont care about that it is prety flawed but stil to me a masterpiece that i want my kids when i have them to experience
Thank you for watching!
After reading some of the comments it seems like there’s a few things I missed or got wrong. Luckily, these things don’t affect my view on the game too much. I appreciate everyone educating me, especially those who are kind about it, and I hope this doesn’t affect the viewing experience. Let’s bump that score up by 0.5 for good measure!
A good way to look at Majora's Mask is a standalone DLC for Ocarina of Time. It's made harder because it's supposed to be a step up from the original, a challenge to those who have already completed Ocarina. I get some of the gripes, but it's what they could do within their time limit and that limit arguably made a better game
I haven't finished the video yet but I'd just like to point out that bringing up crashing as an issue doesn't really make sense as on real hardware the game is pretty much impossible to crash. Any crashes you experienced were most likely due to the emulator
Lulu lost her voice from the trauma of having the eggs stolen. Not because she laid them. That's what I gathered.
They also mention in the game that the Great Bay temple has a mystical effect on mother Zoras, specifically, and that if the temple is in disarray, that the mother will likewise be affected. Lulu is still distraught/depressed despite the eggs being returned and getting her voice back
@@aaronlindsey2219 Yep
@@aaronlindsey2219 I thought it was because the Zora descendant who is been protecting the temple will have trouble befall them. Not because they are a mother.
@@zachtwilightwindwaker596 you're correct, it is because she's the descendant of the protector
The primary themes and meaning behind Majora's Mask are actually pretty straightforward: it's about processing grief/trauma, and the value of acts of kindness for its own sake. The Romani Ranch sidequest actually has a reward whose only purpose is making replaying part of the sidequest easier, even though there's no further rewards for it.
I have never heard from anyone who disliked Goht, he’s generally a fan favorite.
Goht and fish are pooppoop
Goht is objectively good, Snowpeak is fantastic. Great Bay Temple is phenomenal but Gyorg does actually suck
I also never heard anyone find odwalla hard. Nor have i heard of anyone hating snowhead and loving great bay temple.
Really? A fan favorite?
Goht is goat.
12:04
"even on emulator"?
This happened BECAUSE you played on emulator.
Majora's Mask has never crashed for me.
I’m sorry but majoras mask is a 10/10
Why are you apologizing for the truth?
@@mcdoublejumbo why do you care to ask
It’s a fact and you know it
lol @ the actual seething over Goht-this might be the first time I can use the phrase 'skill issue' without the slightest bit of irony
I’m not even gonna lie, the seething bit was just to emphasize how much I didn’t like its design. I beat Goht fairly quickly, BUT I WILL admit defeat in saying that Gyorg took me an embarrassing amount of attempts :((
Love the video but sometimes the criticism/complaints feel less like ‘these are legitimate logistical errors and narrative flaws,’ and more like ‘I was bad at this part, so this part is bad,’ which to be honest is very entertaining, and the takes are interesting, and I’m almost positive it’s, at least, half satirical, however the whole pirates fortress low arrow low magic thing - that’s just not being prepared. The goht complaint also does not at all click with me. The racetrack after builds on your increasing ability to control the goron roll, and goht is a test of how fine tuned you’ve developed using the mask. You can also damage him in other ways, besides. Also the stone tower flip switch issue? You just missed. I’m sorry. That’s not a design thing, you just had an odd and inconvenient angle.
Used to be gamers would:
1: Make a mistake
2: Realize it was a mistake
3: Presume they were to blame
4: Try again
Nowadays gamers will:
1: Make a mistake
2: Have no knowledge of the mistake
3: Wait for the game to tell them what to do
4: Do nothing (for a while)
It's okay to go off and do something else entirely, especially nowadays.
But back then, with the price of games and the limited scope inside them, the player wanted to and had to put a lot more into the game to get something out of it
@@SolDizZoGamers were bad back then too. Lot of them would just throw the controller and quit until it was time to take the game back to blockbuster. Or they'd wait until xmas for another game. Or they'd pay a ton for a strategy guide instead of trying to figure it out themselves.
And so many gamers stopped playing Majora's Mask specifically because they didn't want to figure out the 3-day cycle.
@Sykroid
This is exactly the case. Most of us back then were doing this. Nowadays, the information is just more readily available, and there's many ways to keep access to games. Not much has changed other than having more games lol
I mean he only decided to play 40% of the game lol if you only decide to do the main quest you miss the point of majoras mask
Goht is super anticlimactic but did you consider... Dodging the rocks and bombs instead of just holding slightly left until the game randomly let you win? It's a dissapointing boss because it's very easy not because it's frustrating. The fun comes from avoiding the obstacles so you can quickly and brutally take the boss down.
It indeed seems he completely missed that one as well. Goht is considered one the most fun bosses to battle.
I'm confused as to why the "I'm going to complain a lot about how frustating the epona sidequest can be if you don't already know what you're supposed to do and where/when to get powderkegs" part came right before the "let's mock people who get frustrated when videogames are confusing, particularly from an era where answers to confusing games were monetized in strategy guides".
They're beautiful books. Some games were even made intentionally confusing or with early difficulty spikes to encourage buying the game instead of renting it. Kids often played these games with strategy guides growing up, I had a Majora's Mask strategy guide and an Ocarina of Time strategy guide growing up.
30:37 You should be able to re-flip it by doing that, from the footage it looks like you just missed the hitbox for the crest. You actually need to do this to collect some stray fairy's that you spawned chests for while it is upside down.
31:21 You actually only need the Moon's Tear to get up the clock tower for the first cycle, when you are in your normal form you can simply climb up from the side, which you are too short to do in the Deku form.
PRO TIP: Next time you play hide and seek with the bombers to get the code, you dont have to play with them again as Link ...because you already have the code. Give it a try, and Jim will leave you with some hilarious dialog.
bro isnt thinking in 4 dimensions
does he still give you the notebook?
@@darthgamer9861 yes he does
Jim becomes impressed that you know the code
I didn't know you could get the notebook this way.
My interpretation of the theme: Healing from Trauma. I think this is why you were confused about the happy and elements presented in the game, to properly speak about healing it needs to address both, just like in real life. I won't speak on why this is the theme, that would take too long for me rn, but that's what I've decided on in the years of knowing and loving this game. I actually feel it in my heart that I want to make my own video essay on this topic, but I haven't found the courage to do so. Maybe I will one day :)
Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask are the greatest Zelda games in the entire series.
Fun fact: If you visit the Deku Palace on the 3rd day WITHOUT saving the princess you get a front row seat to the monkey being boiled alive and dying.
It's not a 3rd day thing, it's triggered by learning the Sonata of Awakening in the current cycle.
As someone who's never played dark souls: don't be a baby
I dont belive crashing was a concern on the original game. The devs would probabaly have never forseen re-releases and emulation so crash prevention probably didnt come up back in the day
Simply put, the game didnt crash on n64
Just looked into it! It appears that the game does have the capability of crashing on N64, but from reading others experience, it seems like it’s less of an issue on the original console. I guess moral of the story is that the best way to experience the game is purchasing the original hardware lol!
@@flaaphy It crashed in the GameCube version. I think disabling the rumble feature can help reduce it.
Fun fact, Ganon was supposed to be the fisherman in MM, it got scrapped for whatever reason.
16:20 - c'mon man, goht is fun to play, he challenges your abilities, don't go dissing on it, rolling to hit the boss is fun.
20:30 - Dude, I beat this game when I was in the fourth grade... no offence man but all ya gotta do is take a look around and eventually you'll spot entrances you have yet to go through. Have fun man, nobody is asking you to speed run we want you to have fun with it, observe and examine with your eyes, that's how you beat games, nobody expects you to pull off pro moves at the start of the game :P
exactly
@@wishingstar8701 agree, he was just ranting about random things that make the game look bad for someone who hasn't played it yet.
Maybe it's because I've played the game to death at this point, but I dont remember many areas where i got stuck figuring something out. Most puzzles will have good context clues or colored text to clue you in on what to do. Although now that im writing this o do remember taking an embarrassing amout of time to figure out i needed to play Goron's Lullaby to get into Snowhead, but i chalk that up to a brain fart.
WOW i just finished watching the OoT one, decided to check out the channel and to my surprise this is here! The timing, immaculate! May your crops thrive, your skin be forever glowing, and your love of video games remain undying!!
Same bro
Is it fair to say that where ocarina of Time represents the hero's journey Majora's mask represents the consequences of having gone through it? The consequences that no one seems to take into consideration.
I’ve seen a few others have this interpretation of the game, even here in the comments, and I think it makes sense. There’s even subtleties that support it; you’re heavily encouraged to help others / be the hero, but no matter how hard you try you can’t stop the thief from robbing the bomb shop lady if you want to help Anju and Kafei. To me that’s the games way of saying “you can’t save everyone”.
Goht is my favorite boss because I really enjoyed chasing him around - but your criticisms are completely valid! I think it could be a lot more interesting if you had an actual "racetrack" to contend with; something that would be a lot more difficult to navigate. Maybe it opens up to the cliffside at points so there is a real risk of falling off into a ravine. I think it might also be fun if he actually changed direction and charged straight at you on occasion!
(Technically you can also beat him as Link with arrows, but where's the fun in that?)
Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are my fav Zelda games.
I grew up with the N64 Gen of Nintendo games during my teen years, so these games are the most nostalgic for me.
I have played Zelda games from before N64 era and after N64 such as the GameCube and Wii Zelda games.
Even going as far and still following the series into the Wii U and Switch eras.
But looking back on the entire series including the handhelds, I often think looking at the 3DS remakes of both Ocarina and Majora, these N64 games hold up really well and perhaps was blessed to play Legend of Zelda during it's early 3D era.
Everytime i find yet another nearly hour long video about Majoras mask, i just end up devoering it imediately lol
I guess my personal interpretation of this game's themes is more of a spin on the hero aspect of the series. In most games in the series you are some kid on an adventure in a relatively safe world (That do have their dark aspects don't get me wrong.)
But with Majora it's a world where everything has gone wrong. The world is ending, Kafei and Anju's lives have been ruined, there are plagues in the surrounding regions, the butler's kid died, and the Goron's hero fell into a ravine and died a horrific death.
This is a world that is not only going to end, but is actively miserable. And you mentioned conflicting tones, but I actually think Majora is about "Hope in the midst of despair."
YOU are the one thing that can change this, make everyone's lives better, and fix everything. The main tragic element is that eventually resetting time will undo it, but you maintain the knowledge of how to fix it if you want to.
Now, while not intended, one of my favorite things I try and do when I replay this game is top everything off with a cycle where I try and do everything. It's stressful, a lot to do, but DANG it feels rewarding. But I guess it can be assumed defeating Majora probably fixes most of the problems in the credits so eh lol.
Back to the kids though, I feel they were more to give a vague insight into either Majora or the Skull kid. Kind of a counter-mentallity to Link who probably never had to think of things that way.
And I guess to reinforce the idea about "Hope in the midst of despair" is that it's likely what kept the devs going in what was the worst crunch they ever experienced making this game. Many of the carpenters were their thoughts exactly, projected onto the characters.
Admittedly, they should never have been put into that crunch in the first place, but I feel it did lead the developers to bleed their souls into this project. (The moon was literally inspired by a North Korean missile that nearly hit Japan while they were making this, and they also attended a wedding around the time.) It's definitely one of the more artistic Zeldas.
And last thing, I have NEVER seen a single person complain about the mask jingle in that scene LOL that seemed like a weird complaint imo, but I get what you mean. That never took me out of the moment tho.
And this is why I love the Fierce Diety Mask and, especially, that it trivializes the Majora fight.
Termina is a world where everything was broken. Link can only fix it little by little, and cannot do everything in a single cycle, his progress eternally undone, what was fixed becoming broken again, because there is just not enough time.
But one thing remains. The masks. Obtained at the end of the questlines, they represent the gratitude of the people towards Link ( I use gratitude in the way Skyward Sword used it, a fundamental force of good that opposes the malice of Demise and, more generally, all that is evil ). They may have been forgotten by everyone but Link, but the feelings of those moments, and the masks that represent them, are real.
And the Fierce Deity Mask, only being obtainable once you saved everyone in Termina and beyond, is all this gratitude crystallised into one single mask.
The hopes and dreams of an entire world, channeled through one lone boy who only ever did what was right, fighting against the root of all evil that it faced in recent times.
How could they not win ? How could Majora be anything else than squashed like a bug, against this overwhelming power ? How could this being, a Hero fighting on the behalf of an entire world's future, powered by all that is good, be anything lesser than a deity ?
This is why Fierce Deity Link is so far above Majora. For he is not alone, but has everyone behind him, pushing for his victory even if they don't know it.
This wasn't the first zelda i played but it was the first one i finished, and the npcs, sidequests and cutscenes really stuck with me so i'm a bit biased towards MM due to nostalgia but even after playing all the other ones i still hold MM as my favorite just because as you said, it's different.
I played the other Zelda games so much that whenever i replay them i have a "fixed" path to follow, there's not much you can do until the "tutorial phase" ends, and while it's the same in MM, when you step in clocktown the first time, even as a Deku scrub there's so many things you can do.
It's almost like if you take every important aspects of a zelda game, almost all zelda games feels like is "on rails" while MM is a bit more of a "sandbox" game, to me at least. not to mention that 99% of the npcs in MM has a little secret if you search around, like, did you know that the boatshop guy in the swamp is actually Tingle's dad. Or that the zora band plays little remixes of classic zelda songs in their rooms. Anju and Kafei sidequest goes beyod the two of them, Anju's mother hates Kafei, for thinking that he ran away, like her husband did to her, she even argues with Anju. And Kafei's mother, Madame Aroma, almost gave up hope by the end of the third day until you deliver the letter to her. You can even feel the fear and dread of the moon rising in the way some characters speak throughout the 3 days.
There's just so much charm and detail put in the npcs in this game that just lacks in other titles. They just feel unique. Like there's the OOT Anju's that's just the "cucco lady" and then there's MM Anju that has a whole subplot around her, MM makes them so much more memorable and alive.
Great video! The point of the game is to separate out the act of helping someone and the result of helping someone. You don't actually help anyone in the game. Kafei is still walking around as a kid, the guy is still turning into a gibdo, etc etc. So do your actions still have meaning? The game says yes. It asks you to be a hero even after nihilism is the given truth.
19:39
i'm just gonna be real with you; this bit was honestly super unfunny and hard to watch and comes out of nowhere, not even mentioning the extremely poor "iTs jUsT a jOkE bRo" excuse that was said in a really arrogant and unlikable way
sorry, man. that was an absolute disaster
im surprised you found the items being taken away from you every cycle is annoying
cause you just roll into termina field with the goron's mask for few seconds and you'll find yourself stocked up again!
It's very refreshing to see a video about Majora's Mask that doesn't shower it with unconditional praise the entire time. It's a great, at times exceptional game that I have a lot of respect for but I have always felt that the hype it gets from some Zelda fans is over the top.
majora's mask shouldnt randomly crash like that unless its being emulated really badly. if you played via collector's edition on gamecube, random crashes will happen. same applies to emulators.
Loved your input, gotta agree on almost everything. Except Goht!! I don't know why, this boss was so much fun
This game has such a good vibe to it
Seems like you’re just explaining the game while complaining about it in all the bad stuff or anything u as the player couldn’t do ….keep in mind most of us played it as a kid so it was hard as well but kept going and did not complain it made us shaper and actually understand how things work.
In note everything u do in the game is for u to learn and observe and understand so therefore it makes it easier and more effective to do everything pretty much in one go.
I accept your apology and well no big deal here we all got frustrated and got our feelings towards any thing , legend of Zelda games are differently different and a new kind of way especially back then.☺️
If you were actually good at Goron rolling and paying attention to the movements Goht isnt annoying and is fun. Also see speedrunners shoot him with arrows as he stands still and only shoots lightning if far enough ahead.
I don’t think I’m particularly bad at Goron rolling, I won the race my first try. Even if I did suck, It’s the actual design of Gohts fight that I didn’t like and that wouldn’t change no matter how good I got. I had to fight him multiple times and I did use arrows during one of the attempts, but since you can literally just roll after him in a circle I don’t really see the point in doing it any other way (outside of a speedrun at least). Further more requiring a player to be really good at something in order to enjoy a part of the game is an awful idea, and it’s clear that this wasn’t what Nintendo was going for as Goht was unquestionably one of the easiest parts of the game for me. Bottom line, I just don’t enjoy the fight, and I think they could’ve made it way more interesting even by just changing the arena to a different shape. I respect the opinion of liking Goht, a lot of comments seemed to have that take, I just personally don’t understand or agree
When you describing reasons for why someone would put this game as their favorite, I definitely fall in line with the latter. My first Zelda was OoT and although I had made attempts at Majora's Mask, I ended up giving up on it around when I was 11 years old. By the time I tried it again as a 13 year-old, in large part due to the 3ds release (I had it on wii vc), I had already gone through pretty much every other zelda game out at the time. I had long cleared ocarina, which I had first played as a 8 year old, beat skyward sword, twilight princess, windwaker which I had gotten probably a year after majora's mask, the oracle series and link between worlds. I had the manga for majora's mask as well which helped me a lot with understanding certain story elements like the deceased deku, and helped me still like the game despite getting stuck on it. I did get around to beating it though, which is when I first decided I liked it more than Ocarina. Eventually I replayed the game through the 3ds version, and struggled with finding some things that had their locations changed, but this game just is special to me. The darker aspects are neat with how in your face they are, but the weirdness is what draws me in personally. Their is so much personality, and although several themes are at the fore front, I feel like that makes the world more human. We all have something we want to get out there, and this game highlights different struggles from different perspectives. I'm also just a big fan of the gameplay overhaul. Maybe the reason I like this game is similar to why I prefer ToTK to BoTW since I played the sequels after the original and viewed them as overall improvements, but it's hard to pinpoint why you fell in love with a game for the first time.
As far as struggles with game goes, I used a lot of ZeldaDungeon as a kid, so I'm not sure how much of it I struggled with in my first play through, but I remember finding Romani fairly easily. Epona was one of my favorite characters in OoT, so being able to be with her again was exciting. I also prefer both Romani and Cremia to Malon, they are nice characters.
Also the giants mask may seem kinda pointless since you only use it in that one fight, but I think it makes it more fun just being a giant.
This game has a lot of themes to offer which aren't all recognizable as a kid but, that's what makes it so great it wasn't about a simple story of being the hero of time. It was much more than that. Time is a huge theme that causes anxiety but, it can also be the power of relief, time in MM was used both as Good and Bad. Time allowed you to save those close to you when you needed to but, it also caused trauma and depression. You know every one but, no one know you. Its a theme like that, that makes this game special and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
For the powder keg area, where you said you had to pay 100 rupees, you could’ve went into the bomb shop right across from the bank and talk to the Goron inside and got a powder keg for only half the price
I said “if you’re like me” etc. I didn’t realize powder kegs were added to the bomb shop until later on, especially considering the Goron that spawns there is completely absent until you get the powder keg license. Still though, I should’ve mentioned that you aren’t stuck paying 100 rupees for powder kegs. Definitely an oversight
@@flaaphy The Goron that sells Powder Kegs in town is always there. If you talk to him as any form other than Goron he says he sells a huge bomb that the Bomb Shop doesn't carry, but apologizes for bringing it up after realizing that Link wouldn't be able to carry it.
Side note, Medigoron's Powder Kegs being more expensive than the seller in town never made sense to me. I guess it must not have made sense to the devs either, because in the 3D remake they made Medigoron charge 20 rupees. A cheaper option you have to go a bit more out of your way for vs a more expensive option right at hand makes way more sense, and actually gives Medigoron a point to selling Powder Kegs.
23:08 but the zora mask has boomerangs...
I’m not gonna lie I read Mikau’s grave, tried it out once, returned to the game in a different session and completely forgot about it. You’re right though, absolute blunder on my part
@@flaaphy haha, I guess that's another notch in the replayability column. Great vid btw, watched the oot one as well. I do disagree with your conclusion at the end, but it was also your first playthrough and I feel like mm is a game that really grows on you. As someone who absolutely loved oot, I hated mm on my first playthrough, barely made it through the first dungeon. But upon revisiting it multiple times it now sits along oot as my favorite pieces of media ever. Now obviously you have your own opinions so its possible they may not change like this, but just thought I'd throw that out there. Keep up the good work (looking forward to wind waker)!
Hahahaha I think he overlooked a lot of the good things in this game. His OOT video has a lot more passion for the game and therefore a lot of research into how the game design helps the game. I do, however value his perspective as a newbie playing the game. First time play through experience really is a stat to be measured for sure
@@aaronlindsey2219 yeah I definitely overlooked some things. I was a little torn between playing the game multiple times to try and make it more like the OoT video or keeping it strictly the “new player experience”. I chose the new player mainly because a few people had complained that the OoT video didn’t focus on my opinion enough, and I feel like a lot of MM reviews look at it from a biased perspective. Thank you for your feedback, it actually means a lot! I’ll try to focus more on design elements in future episodes. I still want to keep the joking and opinion forward nature of this episode moving forward though
@@flaaphy i think the new player perspective definitely has merit. Like I said, I feel like MM is a game that grows on you, so maybe a few years down the line you'll revisit it with a different perspective/conclusion. If not, thats cool too. Just throwing that out there
I like the interpretation that the game represents the 5 stages of grief.
1 denial: the people of clock town are largely in denial of their impending doom, many ignore it or pretend nothing is wrong
2 anger: the deku king is furious at the loss of his daughter and lashes out at the monkey who did nothing wrong
3 bargaining: darmani pleads with you for help, asking you to bring him to life or soothe his pain
4 depression: the loss of her eggs drives lulu into a depression that literally robs her of her voice, unable to muster the energy to do anything besides stand on the pier and stare into the water
5 acceptance: the dead of ikana canyon brought back by majora wreak chaos until they're brought back to themselves and accept their death
The acceptance one doesn't match as cleanly and I think there are some videos that explain it better, but to me that fits together well enough.
I don't disagree with any of the opinions you have, but the way you get fake-mad and start yelling around the Goat boss section just makes the video unwatchable. I have no doubt you have strong feelings about the design, and I agree with you, but the way you expressed it was much too over played. Tone it down a good bit and you're golden. 😎👍
Thanks for providing genuine feedback in a kind way, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. I watched back the section you're talking about with this in mind, and you're right I think it's little too harsh / played up and creates this weird tonal shift that doesn't carry out or fit with the rest of the video. I'll keep this in mind for next time. Thanks again!
To be fair, while MM is one of my favorites, it's only top 5 for me. #1 for me will always be Twilight Princess.
While I disagree with some of your takes, I understand that opinions are that, mine included. Either way, good video!
I have been playing Majora's Mask for 24 years. Ever since its release I'm even currently playing it now and it has never once crashed on me
I think this is the first time I hear someone say the Goht fight is anything other than fun af xD
Edit: I think your game was bugged in Stone Tower, I don't recall don't being able to unflip the dungeon, you even HAVE to do it in order to get all stray fairies o.O
Whaaat Goht is amazing. Has to be one of the funnest boss fights of the series. Odolwa is also great.
@38:00 mins I have to say thats the purpose of that mask. That's the reward for collecting all of the mask. All of the hard work to reset every cycle when you couldn't do it the first time. This game makes you reset so many times and for the effort you put into completing all the side quests and 100% Is def worth it for a mask that allows you shoot beams out of a double helix blade. IMO I disagree with some of your concerns with the game and its moral of the story, However, your format is as good as it was in OoT. Gerudo Fortress being one of my disagreements because it's not that hard, especially when you learn about the Stone Mask that makes you literally invisible to the enemies range of sight. I believe you missed the tutorial for the Zora Mask when Young Link makes Mikau's grave. It tells you how to use the boomerangs that are part of the Zoras Mask's kit which in part allows you to easily hit the switches. The Ramani Ranch Side Quest is def a fun one since you get to do some target practice before the whole invasion happens. The point of the clock mechanic is meant to make you panic, it gives the player instant Anxiety which is one of MM best narratives. Anyways I could go on n on but, just want to say that looking at it from your perspective can def make MM frustrating to play or not understand. Love the content please keep up the good work.
my fav zelda game of all time. ngl tho the “oath to order” song & cutscene creeped me out so bad as a child. whole game had weird anxious vibes but i love it
First playthrough or not, the wasting of time is still on your shoulders. If you dont have items cut grass and find some. If you arent sure what to do talk to people. Resetting time is not the end of the world, ironic.
Lol but i totally get first time frustration though. There are parts of the game im not fond of too, the well quest is annoying and i hate it every time. I would tell you to try this game again and 100% it. I would also recommend the 3ds version to at least try because there ways to help you with passage of time. Some people say its not as good, i dont think that really matters regarding your point. I dont know if you are aware of it but the song of time can be played in reverse to slow down time or two notes in a row to advance time by 6 hours. In the 3ds version they let you choose what hour specifically. Its a godsend.
I loved majoras mask my first time playing it and still do. Its atmosphere, tone, design and characters are incredibly fleshed out for their time. The bombers notebook and the way it tracks nearly every npc in the game is impressive. I love that every character in this game has a set path they stick to for their 3 day cycle should you do nothing to help them. It adds a lot to the idea of Link and his purpose in the game. Healing. Link himself is healing from the emotional turmoil of oot. And i think thats a brilliant story to tell with a hero who was a child that was forced to become an adult to save the world left with those harsh memories and not having a place in the world after the fact. This is a nearly flawless sequel to OoT. Link helps himself through helping others. Thats the point. Its why the story is smaller and intimate. He's having to adjust to his new life post saving the world. Its a traumatic heartbreaking experience yet he not only endures but makes the land he finds a better place for nearly everyone he comes across. Yet, he isnt able to do so for himself. Thats deep. I love it. The hero of time became a healer. Thats so powerful.
Surely I'm not the first person to point this out but I have to ask: did you ever figure out how to use magic with the Zora mask? Because it changes the Gyorg fight entirely
I just now finished your OOT review. Thank you for this amazing project. I’m excited to watch this review too! I acknowledge your sacrifice despite your living situation and all I can say is thank you for bringing a fresh perspective to the series and for allowing me to relive the experience. I learned a lot of significant things from the OOT video and I can’t wait to do so with the Majoras mask video thank you
They have a stone in the first room of the stone tower that lets you flip the tower back to normal. I guess you just didn’t find it
this is the darkest game by far. after OOT, link's fairy flies away, because his job is done and she's no longer needed. where she went, no one knows. I would assume she faded out of existence. link didn't know she was going to leave and doesn't know what happened to her or why she left. he's upset and goes searching for her. he ends up in the lost woods for some reason (someone else had a theory about why he went here), gets lost without his fairy and runs into a mean skull kid who happened to take majora's mask from a merchant (who might literally be some kind of god, maybe loki). skull then then turns kink into a deku scrub and link ends up falling down a hole and dying, entering termina bay. now think about this: termina is close to terminal, which you know what that word means. terminal just has "an L dropped" to make termina. (L)ink dropped into a hole and entered termina. link is dead. termina is a sort of purgatory. all the characters there are characters that he has seen before. his memories put them there but it's more like a dream state where the characters are in different situations. because link is so sad, negative expressions affect the memories around him and influence his characters. poor link :(
13:49 false there is also a hot spring closer to him, its beneath that hole with a glacier over it.
I was a little startled at your (harsh, but fair) critique of many aspects of the game at first, since this is pretty rare to see in reviews of this game! Even though I am absolutely obsessed with Majora's Mask and its themes and story and lore (have been since I was a kid and I'm over 30 now), I think there is an unspoken taboo about acknowledging that its game mechanics, controls, and game design have aged poorly and make playing it actively painful at times. I'm currently replaying it on an original second-hand cartridge on my old N64 after many years, and even though it doesn't make me less obsessed with the game, it's again reminding me why in the past I've always put the game down without finishing it and instead went to watch videos of people playing it. I know fandom can be allergic to nuance, but I think "Majora's Mask is a timeless masterpiece" and "Majora's Mask is so painful to play that the content people make about it is the best way to enjoy it" are statements that aren't mutually exclusive and should be allowed to co-exist.
This actually was my first Zelda game and if I hadn't bought the official guide, I don't think I ever would have figured out certain things. Still, I had a lot of fun playing this game. Not perfect, but a fun ride for sure.
I’m sorry you had occasional crashes - I’m a little surprised, as I’ve been lucky up until this point, and that’s on N64, GC, Wii, Mupen64plus, or Project64. It would glitch and error out bad on the PSP N64 emulator, but that was never finished so understandable.
15:40 Thank you for pronouncing that right! I see SO many youtubers cover this game and pronounce this name as "gott" and it just drives me insane because it's a literal goat and there's there's literally the letters "oh" in there, that would make it pronounced like the animal, I don't even know how to get "Gott" from that!
I actually find the Fierce Deity Mask trivializing Majora something that fits nicely into the game's themes.
What are masks ? I believe they are the physical expression of a person's gratitude, in the sense that Skyward Sword gave it, that of a fundamental force of good that is diametrically opposed to the malice used by Demise and the Ganon(dorf)s ( and also Majora, obviously )
To obtain the Fierce Deity Mask, Link must gather all the masks of Termina. In a world where everything was broken and where Link can only fix a few things at a time, things will quickly come undone, the only things he keeps are the memories of the feelings those he saved expressed, and the masks, physical proofs of these feelings.
And so, the Fierce Deity Mask is what you obtain after you save everyone. It is the gratitude of an entire world, their hopes and dreams all funneled into this one object.
I believe this is the only transformation mask that doesn't cause sorrow, but instead more positive feelings, when Link wears it, because it is the only transformation mask made out of purely good emotions, instead of regrets.
And so you fight Majora, the root of most evil you had to face, and most problems you had to solve. But you don't do it as the lone boy, the forgotten Hero of two lands.
You do it as the vessel for an entire world's will to survive, fighting for a better tomorrow.
How could a being fighting with the strength of a world be anything lesser than a deity ? How could the Mask of Majora, a single entity, offer any amount of resistance against an entire world ? It is only natural that it gets crushed like the bug it is.
While the 3DS version of Gyorg is, imo, superior.
People like to bash on the eyes, but by splitting it into the first phase that is more focused on the human form and the surface, and a second one taking place entirely underwater.
In the 64 version you can cheese the GOHTA battle by waiting at the door and timing arrow shots. Now this is extremely boring but it also works
Subbed. We need to support more retro gaming channels, especially Zelda-centric content!
Loved this review. And I'm ever so grateful you apologized for your rude comments on the OOT video :P
I'd love to see you cover Wind waker and Twilight Princess (the best one). And as for non-zelda games: I think Dark souls, Metal gear solid, and Dragon age would all be awesome picks for this series!
Looking forward to what you do next!
Thank you so much! WW and TP are already planned! As for Dark Souls and Metal Gear I would love to do both series especially since I feel like those episodes would be interesting to work on (little intimidated by MGS lore though lol). I’ve never played dragon age and don’t know much about it but it’s always a possibility!
In my opinion, MM needs some guides and a plan of what you want to accomplish in that cycle to really enjoy.
saw the ocarina video and was gonna comment “do majoras mask” bc it’s my favorite game of all time and thought to check and see if you posted it yet… then i saw you only had 900 subs?? wtf?? video too well made for that sub count
Here before this blows up! Great video keep it up man
Thanks so much, I appreciate it!
hey dude great video! really enjoyed wtching this b2b w the oot video. excited to see whats next!
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed!
really good intro excited to watch the rest absolutely locked in for the 40 minutes
22:59 how did you react when you learned getting the stone mask made it infinitely easier?
I would LOVE to see your take on a comparison between MM64 and MM3D.
Will put this one down
I love this game to the max!
Nice retrospective, makes me wanna play the game for the 100th time.
@33:16 Ehm extually... It's Michael Jackson's Moonwalk.
Another banger of a video man! Can’t wait for a Twilight Princess video 😍
now, i'm a simple man, i see youtuber make majoras mask content, i subscribe :)
I didn’t see you mention this but…did you ever use/ hear of the inverted song of time?
Yes of course! I love my boy Pierre
@@flaaphy Okay! Lol. If you didn’t know that song to slow down time it would’ve made your game so much more frustrating
after watching this vid now i know OoT crawled so MM could rocket to the stars
This is a great analysis. Majora’s Mask is definitely rough to newcomers but I rank it highly because it has real problems that people can connect with. Unfortunately because it is a game for everybody, they have to mask many problems so you need to simplify the problems a bit to find relatable stories.
Majors mask is the scariest game I’ve ever played
16:41
I
Love
Snowhead In The
The Springtime.
Great video man.i like the way you express things.could you review wind waker??😊 thank you.
Glad you enjoyed! Wind Waker episode is 100% coming, I just want to give it a little time so I’m not pigeonholing myself as “Zelda review guy”. More importantly I have some special plans for the episode that require nicer weather ;)
@@flaaphy yeah,that makes sense.random thought.i always thought it was funny how hipsters can't SEE that there're hipsters....hipsters dismorphia lmao.anywho,keep up the good work .
uh, new video! loved the ocarina of time one
Hope you enjoyed it!
Cool stuff brotha!
9:45 you are quite litterally the first person i ever heard call that boss hard. Most people beat him easily, in fact depending on how far into the game you are when you first face him you have to try hard to not one cycle him.
This is personally my favorite game of all time, and it's not because of Internet hype. I'm someone who has played every single Zelda, so this game's 3 day cycle, quest focus, and intricate dungeons keep this game fun to revisit over and over.
This is a series that is aggressively easy a lot of the time, so having a game where time management is a factor makes up for it immensely.
The bosses being nothing like normal Zelda is also something I loved. Goht is a lot of fun for me. And while YES, woodfall is a sharp jump in dungeon difficulty from the Deku Tree, I think it is still very well designed. To a degree that yes, it would be HARDER for a newcomer, half of it's concepts were introduced in the build up to the dungeon. (Flowers, hopping, etc). The Deku Tree was literally one of the first things you do.
But anyway my nit-picks aside lmao this was a good video. Majora is difficult, especially going COMPLETELY blind. It's one I often used a guide for. But I do think it is well designed, just as worst might take a lot of notes and paying attention. (I believe the manual had a notes section.)
Good vid.
I'm sure my opinions on it will change as time goes on and I revisit the game, definitely a ton of replay value! It's always been funny to me because I feel like a ton of the internet hype is centered around theories and stuff like that, and you can't really say anything bad about the game to those individuals. Meanwhile actual fans of the game, like you (and even personal friends) seem to be extremely level headed and kind. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Yeah, hey I'm glad you enjoyed yourself at least haha. Left a different comment about my story thoughts but everyone is different ofc. Glad you didn't take my counterpoints too personally lol. You did a good job. :)
@@flaaphy Again great format.
I think you got distracted way to easily with certain elements. Sometime you just got to live in the moment.
exceptional work!!! wondering how this doesn't have more views
Thanks, appreciate it!
this whole video sounds like skill issue
wait dont play dark souls dont do it, you compain about these game i beat when is was 10, on a N64 XD
My fav Zelda fr
Huh ive got an og copy of majoras mask for the n64 and have NEVER had it crash on me😭I've played it a buttload, too. Sorry that kept happening to you! Never heard of it being an issue before. (My n64 ITSELF is kinda conking out tho. It doesn't wanna start up a game half the time but I'm 21 and that's only been an issue this year. And once a game is loaded it's fine🤷♂️who knows)
Ok dude the Smash'N'Splash 5 reference has me sold. Top 5 Favorite TH-camrs. Actual W reference, & amazing video
OMG YES SOMEONE GOT IT LETS GOOOOOOOO
@@flaaphy I'm a smash bros TO born and raised from WI S'N'S 5 was my first major/tournament that got me into smashy bros
Majora's Mask to me was the better game. I love OoT but I can talk for hours and hours about my love of Majora's Mask lol
So, he took the straight and narrow, hard road?
Its honestly my favorite game, I started with Majora's Mask and I love it with my entire being. My favorite part which is speculated by many people is that Link is dead in this game .
He is not.
If everybody isn't happy you didn't do the right thing. Absolutist take.
25:02 LMAO I HATE THAT FISH
Hey, when I was a kid I never knew that you could run fast in Super Mario Bros by holding B button down and run all through World 1 - 1.
Didn't find that out until I was around 10 or so and that was after I started playing Donkey Kong Country 2 and then all of a sudden it all came to me how easy I could have made that classic Mario game feel to me.
You got very interesting i do agree that the original is kinda a bit dated but the 3d version is way better a lot of the complaints you had about the game were fixed in that version but you also got a lot of things wrong because this game is more a story focused on link he just had a life time of trauma thrown at gim saved the kingdom in the present and future and at the end he was left alone with no one to remember what he did then he goes to find his 1 friend who remembers what happend and gets to be the hero again in a world where every 3 days his efforts become void and when its said and done link kinda learns to cope with this and move on but not fully thats why he becomes a soldier to protect hyrule and dies in batle and eventually ends up becoming the heros shade yes this game has its funny and interesting moments with the characters in it but its les of a story about friendship but more of a story about grief and sorrow and how to move on in my opinion this game is a 10 out of 10 because its the first zelda game i played and the reason i play games to this day but even without that bias this game has a lot of hidden details that to this day the full picture of the story is stil debated about and its a masterpiece in its writing because of the smal details but for most if not 90% of people who dont care about that it is prety flawed but stil to me a masterpiece that i want my kids when i have them to experience
Love this game so much better than twilight princess
Yeah, mostly I thin- wait a minute, this has less than 400 views?
comment for the algorithm
Bigger mic next time for sure.