"The Scary Zelda"
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 พ.ค. 2024
- Majora's Mask is a game I think many people consider the "darkest" or "scariest" LoZ title, and while I get where they're coming from, I've got some thoughts about why that's not the case.
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Thanks to @Skyehoppers for making this video imminently more possible.
Please check out his channel for really thought out game analysis.
For "additional reading" I suggest two videos
Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda by @JacobGeller
• Every Zelda is the Dar...
and
The Only Zelda Game Without A Hero by @razbuten
• The Only Zelda Game Wi...
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This is where I was planning to put the MM3D comparison video before I went back and looked at it and uhh... found some issues with it. I might address them another day. Short version: I agreed with the conclusion, but half the evidence was... dubious on reflection.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:56 Majora’s Mask is about People
05:13 “Minor Characters”
09:16 The World of Termina
14:06 Link the Outsider
18:19 Schedules
22:18 Interaction
27:42 Scary zelda?
33:47 Conclusion - เกม
This video explains why majora is my favourite game, ever. Sightseeing and peoplewatching is 80% of any playthrough of mine.
I've been working on a game concept with my wife for awhile now, and I've heavily considered just making the core mechanic be game that's like the sidequests of Majora's mask. Helping or interacting with NPCs that feel alive and living out their day to day lives. Do you feel like that is a concept that stands well by itself or still needs something more to be engaging? I was thinking of trying to shoehorn in some combat, but I honestly just found that maybe I'd like to go all in on this concept and just make it more engaging. Characters don't necessarily need "problems solved", and interactions can have lasting effects, and those effects, maybe even left on the environment, could even affect others' schedules and lives. I thought that maybe this could make an interesting interactive story that has many branches based on what you do with NPCs, who you observe, and how they interact with each other.
sounds good man@@TayoEXE
nothing is more fun and cozy than a giant moon staring at me aggressively
But seriously, it is a well-crafted world
Same, sometimes I just put slow mode one and spend my hours chilling inside the observatory or inside the clock tower if I’m not people stalking
People watching?
As someone who always finishes an MM playthrough with a "Mr. Perfect" run (solving every character's problems in a single cycle before facing Majora), i always found it interesting that there is always at least one person you can't protect. If you want a good ending for Kafei and Anju, you have to stand by while an old lady gets mugged in the night. If you save the old lady you can't help Kafei get his mask back. I always thought it was a commentary on the struggles of heroism, how you can't always save everyone. If you try, you'll inevitably doom someone else by the simple fact that every person is connected and stopping every wrongdoing in the world means you _will_ eventually step on the toes of someone you meant to protect by nature of the big, tangled web of human interaction. You have to pick your battles and stay determined that while you cant fix everything, the things you _can_ fix are enough. Maybe you failed one or two people, but you saved countless others and that's what truly matters.
And yet, somehow, in the ending, everyone you helped in any pass through the time loop (at least those that rewarded you with a mask), is shown as having been helped, regardless of how many times you let them suffer instead.
I think in the end, the culmination of your efforts across all the timelines does achieve that perfect ending. It all fits together in the end due to time shenanigans.
So what does this "Mr. Perfect" run entail? Does it include restoring the Great Fairy of each dungeon, or simply to kill the bosses that you can jump straight to?
@@YamatoFukkatsu essentially: beating every boss, constantly warping around to assist the people whose problems aren't solved by completing the dungeon (for example, the goron who gives you the don gero mask will be fine as long as you clear snowhead, but the seahorse will be SOL unless you specifically do its quest to retrieve its brethren from the eels,) and collecting/restoring the great fairies. The list goes a lot deeper than that, but to keep it simple; the run has you solving any problems the temples are responsible for as well as any of the Bomber's Notebook issues that aren't covered by the main story resolutions. It's much easier in the 3DS version since youre able to skip forward exactly as much as you want to, but that fully-booked schedule is sure to keep you busy regardless
@dirrdevil I believe that is the case, as an interview somewhere with Aonuma does have him vaguely allude to all the masks that you obtain as containing the memories of the people you help. And it's why the Fierce Deity mask is so strong. It contains all the memories of those in Termina wrapped up in one. And the masks don't reset with time travel and some even illicit all kinds of interesting responses out of people if you talk to them while wearing them, so it's clear that having helped somebody during at least one of the cycles has a permanent like, residual effect that comes to once its all over
Honestly the scariest part of Majora's Mask is the existential dread and self-doubt those kids on the moon give you
Every turn is MM was a left, and I love it for that.
Fr, and their lines hit really hard knowing links story with oot.
Not really scary. But i like existentialism. It's not scary to me, it's interesting.
Majora's Mask is my all-time favorite game ever and to me it's because of the huge role that gratitude and love for strangers plays in the game. Showing love and kindness to people opens doors, rewards you, and allows you to save everyone and yourself, and recovering from trauma is the same situation. Link is isolated and traumatized, but by touching lives in a positive way he heals the world and himself.
Try Nino kuni and it will blow your mind, friend
I’ve always loved the connection between the 2 biggest side quests in the game. Anju and Kafei and the Milk Road Quest.
Now most would assume they aren’t connected but if you really payed attention there were actually rumors that Kafei ran away with Cremia (also Anju’s Best Friend).
I find this very touching because while yes Anju is going through a tough time Cremia has it way worse. She’s stuck in milk road, she gets attacked by bandits while trying to deliver milk. She’s trying to act like everything is fine for her sister knowing that they’ll probably die, while the people of Termina think she is a bad person who stole her best friends soon to be husband Kafei.
That’s why Cremia always stood out to me so much depth was put Into her character and how everything connects in this game is so amazing. Masterpiece!!
I’ve seen a lot of people describe the 3 day time limit as being stressful, but as a kid, it was actually really comfortable. If I didn’t want to do the main quest, I could just spend three days fucking around, exploring and seeing what happens in different locations at different times. I usually rewound some time on day 2 because day 3 did stress me out a little bit, but it wasn’t like that’s hard to do or anything.
There are a ton of dark aspects to Majora’s Mask, and I’ve seen some great video essays about why, but I didn’t fall in love with this game just because I’m an edgelord, I fell in love with this game because I’m a goofy edgelord
Same. The 3 days is comfortable because you never HAVE to do anything. You have infinite opportunities to do whatever you want and retry anything. Despite being a time limit it's incredibly freeing.
If you’re deep into a process of some sort of quest, or something you at least perceive as being a process, then the idea of losing all the steps you took to get there (potentially with a poor memory of the requisite parts leading to significant time spent just trying to recreate it) is easily a stressful situation for most people to be in.
Each of the dungeons is a prime example where this can come into play, especially if you enter one of them without resetting to a fresh cycle. When I was younger, I don’t think I realized that almost everything leading up to the dungeons can be safely reset, to begin the dungeon at the beginning of the next cycle. So whatever lead up to the dungeon would compound with everything within the dungeon which actually DOES all reset. (except for the dungeons map, compass, and ‘ability’ item)
Furthermore, it’s easy to take for granted the knowledge of what gets reset and what you take back with you after you’ve become familiar with the game. I now know that after beating a dungeon, you get a warp point straight to the boss on subsequent cycles, and the bosses aren’t really all that difficult. On a first-playthrough however, it’s easy to concern yourself with the idea of needing to redo an entire dungeon just to get another chance at racing the Deku butler, or other such tasks that are only accessible after clearing the dungeon.
Yeah, just taking a cycle off to relax is fine, but that’s irrelevant to the source of stress which you’ll have to engage with at some level in order to advance in the game, once you decide your break is over.
This is fair, although personally I still find it stressful purely because I'm bad with this specific kind of timers in general.
For example, I'll be completely fine with the main quest in Pikmin 4, because it doesn't have a set limit of days. I'm bad at the Olimar section because even with 15 days being a comfortable time frame and the ability to go back to whichever day I want, I get so stressed out I've never actually finished it. It's entirely a self made problem for me lol
But you could've just not had a clock? Lol. The source of stress isn't from people messing around. It's from them not fucking around trying to do a side quest and the clock runs out.
Honestly furthermore, I think that it’s totally the cozy elements of this game that accentuate the creepy stuff. Plenty of games come off as creepy and fill a game with disturbing implications or flavour texts, but it doesn’t ever stick quite the same as it does in Majora. In majora you get to become familiar and fall in love with this town and its people, making you all the more determined to save them, and it makes the moments of true terror from the NPCS, or the really disturbing places all the more unsettling
So it’s one thing to see that guard dying in the alley of castle town in OOT, but it’s a whole other thing to see the fate of characters you befriend
I always found the spiderhouses to be extremely cozy. I wish there were one of those for each area.
EarthBound also does this to great effect. 99% of the game has you traveling the world, seeing so many colourful (figurative and literal) locales. Meeting interesting people and experiencing funny things. But there are creepy moments scattered about, and the upbeat nature of the game only serves to place greater emphasis on these not-so-bright moments.
The finale, especially, is where things get downright terrifying. The colour is quite literally drained from the game in the final hour. Our heroes get sent to the distant past, where the main villain truly resides. Everything is grey, monotone, and there's no humor. The "music" of the location can hardly be considered music either. It's mostly just bleak, almost hopeless ambience. And then you reach the final boss...You're absorbed into an abyss, a void of complete darkness. In this blackness, only the protagonists and the incomprehensible eldritch horror of the main antagonist remain. Nothing you've experienced in the game could prepare you for that.
If you’re freaked out by body horror like me that initial deku scrub transformation is bone chilling
Today i learned that people actually get freaked out by body horror and that it wasn't just a mild discomfort
@@JackieJKENVtuberi have a wild fear of gore and specifially avoid gore in my media because of how sick it makes me feel. Isnt it lovely that we all have different fears and aspirations? 🙃
I never used to let my son watch those. I always made him skip it 😆
@@JackieJKENVtuberbody horror is fucking disgusting, I can tolerate it in games and books but I can't watch it in movies
While yes, the symbolism of Grief is there, all these small stories you help with are also the next best step: To Heal.
I think what sets Majora's apart is how personal it gets only to isolate you and leave you with deep burning questions at the end. In most of the other games the story is largely a nobody of no merit takes up the call and saves the day, there's spooky things and unsettling moments but its all in service to the hero story, few of the interactions in other games have you wondering about the fates of the characters afterward or how any of these experiences might relate to your real life. MM Mires itself in the odd and creepy but there's a soft but powerful undertone of hope and perseverance even in the face of certain doom. And no matter what an old lady gets mugged for the greater good.
Even when you help her, you never actually prevent the mugging. You might stop the thief and get her stuff back, but she still gets mugged regardless.
Since you can’t even stop her from being mugged, she still goes through that trauma anyway, and I don’t get the impression that the bomb shop is struggling financially; so just letting it happen is the morally correct choice. (once you get the blast mask and expanded bomb bags, of course)
This has always been one of my favorite Zelda games for this exact reason. I'm very fond of games that give you a reason to spend time within a space and connect with it beyond just a fleeting run through it. And letting you get to know all the random characters you meet, and see them change a little as you go on your adventures, is a great way to do that. Like you say in the video, it's something "cozy". It made me sad that the newer Zelda games don't enable that to quite the same extent despite being much bigger in other ways. There are quite a few RPGs I've played that take pains to give every random NPC a little story that plays out over the course of the game as the player progresses and the world state changes, and it's remarkable how much it makes you feel like you're a part of the world. There's a sense of familiarity, like it's become your home for a short while. Majora's Mask, in Clock Town at least, does a good job in pacing the character interactions around the progress in the rest of the game so you don't just "complete" the town, talk to everyone, and leave with no reason to return. I wish more games gave you a reason to keep spending time in their environments like that.
I agree. The new Zeldas have lost something, in my opinion. Some kind of magic, and by "new" I mean BotW and TotK.
I love that you HAVE to spend time to wait for events to come up. It makes you just... walk around. Look at things. That's how people notice details and fall in love with their surroundings.
Or you play the song of Double Time and skip ahead lol
@@kaifreyleue5961sure but that's what I'm talking about. You still end up having to wait a minute or two for several events throughout the game offering an opportunity to check our the surroundings in detail
Or be like me and have a checklist to never have to wait I can do the first two dungeons the moment you get the ocarina and complete most of the side quests.Its fun replaying this game trying to minmax everything to cram as much into one cycle as possible.
The horror and "cozy" elements compliment eachother super well. The game's characters and their imminent doom makes your struggle against Majora and its manifestations more endearing, and the despair and isolation of the dungeons make you better appreciate the comfort that the characters bring.
After playing over a hundred hours of Tears of the Kingdom, I was beginning to think it was my new favorite game of all time. Then this new perspective on Majora's Mask reminded me that it truly still is my favorite game. Thanks. Now I want to play Majora's Mask 100 more times.
totk being anyone’s favorite zelda is insane
@@krashdevaughn5360 I wouldn't say it's insane. That's like me saying Twilight Princess being anyone's favorite is insane. It doesn't matter how mid I think Twilight Princess is. Their reason for it being their favorite are theirs alone, just like my reason for Majora's Mask being my favorite are mine. Nobody is required to have a favorite that others agree are the best or even good. There's probably someone somewhere who's favorite Zelda is The Wand of Gamelon or The Faces of Evil. And their reasons are not because it was bigger or grander but probably because it's funny and unique.
So please, don't say anything like that again. Your choices for favorites and least favorites or feelings on what you think is mid is perfectly valid, but it is never okay to try to invalidate others' choices because you don't agree with it.
@@KTSpeedruns dawg shut up i can say what i want
@@krashdevaughn5360no, it’s their opinion, nothing wrong with liking or disliking games.
For me personally, I absolutely love WWHD, MM, Botw & Totk they’re all tied for my favourite Zelda game and for different reasons.
@@krashdevaughn5360Anyone's choice of their favorite Zelda title is their choice alone with reasons that are unique to their own experience, please do not use broad terms to express your own biases.
8:31 BRO WHAT?! I DIDN’T EVEN THINK TO DO THIS, THAT RIGHT THERE’S DISTURBING.
I was never under the impression that this game was supposed to be scary.
I always thought it was quite serene in its tragic acceptance of the end.
It's a common theme in French literature. Never meant to scare, but to give a soothing feeling of emptiness
As someone who played this game as a kid (i was 9) and was terrified of it (I'm still scarred by that moon. I legit can't even look at it without looking away), and then played it again when my best friend passed away a few years after that, it hits the right spot of "I want to help these people. I want to learn more about them. I want to be their friends, their shoulder to cry on."
I never understood why people were always upset and say there were too many side quests. The land of Termina was always about the people, their lives, this short window you get to view at the end of the world. It just feels so raw. Like, you're a little kid who has seen some shit, and you still wanna do good. You wanna help these people in their final hours.
...maybe that's why it helped me so much when my friend passed away. Huh. I never thought of it.
I don't agree that the game feels cozy because of all the masks and time resets. Link familiarizes himself with the community but he never becomes part of it so the game feels voyeuristic more than anything. You get to know others but others never get to know you and the 1 character you do grow close with abandons you in the end (Tatl).
You mentioned how the masks make Link belong, but they don't really. How can Link belong if he has to trick people into thinking he's someone else? It's the personas that actually belong in Termina so after returning the masks to the salesman, Link ultimately rides off alone while everyone celebrates the carnival of time without him.
At least he draws a picture with Skull Kid in the end :3
It still is a cozy game.
@@Valstrax420 It's both creepy and cozy.
No she doesn't? Link willingly leaves
@@ShadowSkyX Tatl basically tells Link to gtfo because everyone's got a party to go to (without him). It's ice cold. And if we consider Twilight Princess's canon then this Link eventually becomes a regretful, forgotten zombie.
I agree with the fact that the horror and spooky vibes are basically equal in OOT and MM, but to me, the reason why MM gets categorized in the Horror-Spooky Genre is because of the fact that the game starts and you know that the moon is gonna crash and everyone will die. It's the dread. It's the despair. You help these people come to terms with the end of the world in their own way. Carrying out unfinished business so they can leave this world in peace.
8:30 I did not know that was possible, it's hilarious! It's even more funny that the old lady just goes, "Oh well, we're out of stock" as if she didn't just witness something horrendous.
I’ve watched a lot of videos on Majora’s Mask, and this immediately stands out as one of the best. You’re right, the coziness and humanity of the game is often overlooked. The beauty of MM is that existential dread combined with a certain cozy sweetness and focus on the little quirks of people. I think that’s why I love TOTK so much, there’s this lingering gloom, and that corrupted castle is always floating in the distance, but the world is full of quirky, kind people building a new world and going about their days.
The fact that this game is both scary and cozy is why it's the GOAT!!
Whenever I played as a kid, I spammed the start button to get past the "woosh" part as fast as possible because it scared me.
15:12 I think that perhaps the themes do cut that deep, or at least it would be a productive conversation to have. The idea of needing to wear a mask to be recognized as a part of community is a common feeling in my experience. Really enjoying this video, and I’m glad to see a different perspective on Majora outside of the “it’s the dark one” discussion. Great work! Just subbed and interested in seeing more
I acctually like the premise of the video and the video because the discord around majoras mask is "oh dude majoras mask is the spooky Zelda game" Sometimes I feel that like 50% of zelda fans havent played majoras mask and just talk out of their ass.
I only played it for like 10 hours and I really feel that you make a good point in this video.
(Haven't watched the video yet) For lack of a better way to put it, the atmosphere majora's mask set has affected me far more than any other zelda game has. It's the only zelda game where I was actually made to think a bit about the story and the events that occurred.
It's too bad it's so hard to actually _play_ it. The gamecube version has _horrendous_ fps issues, the switch has uncomfortable input delay, and the N64 is impractical to get access to.
I realize this might have been more fitting as a general comment than a reply but, alas, here I am lol
Or maybe they did in fact play it, did in fact find it as disturbing as the devs intended, and just don't share your opinion.
@@ElFreakinCid Every zelda is the darkest zelda game
MM's horror really hits a lot harder than most games trying to be scary because monsters and creepy sounds aren't really a realistic fear in these kinds of games. Seeing the undead in a Zelda game means almost nothing, you often have a holy sword specifically made to vanquish the forces of evil to swing at them. OoT's places can be unsettling, but they fit right in in a world where there is such thing as clear cut good and evil. MM on the other hand gives the player more realistic things to fear: schedules and deadlines, interpersonal drama, compromise, petty crime, and worst of all, the impact of the death of a person. Sure MM has a "good and evil" conflict, but that's something seemingly acknowledged only at the beginning and end of the game and practically only by the happy mask salesman - it's very out of focus in a game that put so much emphasis on side quests.
In other words, MM instills very mature and mundane fears, something that feels so out of place in a Zelda game of all things that it becomes genuine and encourages meaningful introspection and discussion. That's what makes it such a "scary" Zelda game to many people, especially when compared to attempts at horror themes in the other games.
Majoras Mask is the Sonic CD of the Zelda Franchise. Take things slow and enjoy the sights.
and i agree with this more so learning shinto and chinese philosphy (and metaphysics) for a zelda theory and yeah its so much more than "The Darkest Zelda" my entire time playin it back in the day was literally "Get the zora mask to get that guitar ASAP" didnt even get the first temple done. which honestly felt incredible.
Great video! Majora's Mask really emphasizes community and friendship, fleshing out the NPCs and even monsters to a degree no other Zelda game manages to pull off.
When I finally pushed through my fears of the 3 Day time limit some 13 years ago, and any time I go back through again now
I can't really say that Majora's Mask is "scary" anymore.
If anything, what I feel in this game... pain, sadness, and resolution.
Whoa I havent had a rival since high school tennis! But im with it haha, sounds fun
Love the way this all came together. Especially a fan of how you covered the way MM tells its story through mechanics and not just cutscenes. Definitely brought something new to the table with analysis of this game, which isnt easy, and I understand more now why I always felt Majora's Mask was ultimately an encouraging experience before anything else!
And hey that was a very kind endorsement at the end there, didnt expect anything like that, thank you :')
Excellent video. People forget or don't realize the reason why all the darkness hits so hard in Majora is precisely because it has these comforts to contrast against the darkness. Majora really puts its all into making you care and give a shit about these people you're trying to help and save, it makes you love them, cry for them, cheer for them. It gives you so many ways to view different perspectives of their lives, allows you to fail them in various ways and kick yourself so youll try harder next time. Majora is a game about heartbreak, but also about healing. People forget about that healing aspect too much.
Awesome video!! Community is often undervalued and it is awesome to see a spotlight on how it was built into this game in such a rare and lovely way!
Holy crap dude. This is one of the most in depth and "deep" videos I've ever watched, hats off to you.
Funnily enough Majora's Mask was both one of the scariest and most comforting games to me in my teens. I tried it when I was 12 or so, but the dark room in Woodfall Temple with the glowy-eyed creatures made me too scared to go on. I went back and beat it a few years later, and after that, it became my weekend chillout to go stand in the laundry pool and take in the peaceful atmosphere.
I also had a little 'routine' where I would farm rupees until the 1st night, enjoy a Chateau Romani, then clear out every boss as Fierce Deity before fighting Majora, sometimes repeating sidequests for fun or farming more things for the sake of it. It felt comforting always being able to go back and fix things up again.
I feel that describing MM only as dark or scary doesn't capture the way it made many players feel. The atmosphere isn't strictly morbid or frightening. But there is a pervading sombreness over the world that I think accentuates the warmth of the characters and the contentment of healing their troubles. It's the interplay of the light and dark that makes it what it is. The moments of peace that stand out and so on.
Bruh... "It became my weekend chillout to go stand in the laundry pool and take in the peaceful atmosphere" Dude, you totally get it. I used to marinate in this game myself. I personally love hanging out at Stock Pot a lot. I'd go in the room where the twins was playing cards and chill with them, real cozy like.
Marinating is totally what it is. Soaking up the vibes like you're actually visiting the world. Stock Pot Inn is a real nice ambience too. I love the bubbling pot and shuffling of the cards, and the routine comings and goings of the troupe. There's a channel named Cirquet that has a lot of that audio in a long format.@@gainzday2838
The scariest part about it is the time limit.
Great video. Majoras mask is my favorite game and ive always described it as my comfort game. I love videos like this that just deepen my appreciation and knowledge of the game. Ps I noticed how when reading out a quote from interviews it started with you talking and then faded into a different voice, it reminded me of Jacob Geller and when you mentioned his video towards the end I just found it funny how I may have been right on where you picked that up from.
I love that you brought up routine and people watching. I ran around in this game daily as a child without even participating in the storyline because I was enamored with clock Town and its residents. I got to know everyone's routine and all of their problems. It was so comforting and in a strange way these NPC's felt like they were friends. I knew them and everything they did and everywhere they went. Majoras mask was never a scary game for me as a child. Sure, there was a generalized anxiety about the moon falling in game, but there was the comfort of being able to go back in time whenever it got to be too real. This game is still a comfort to me in adulthood, and I'll find myself playing it in some of the most difficult times in my life to return to that childlike comfort and wonder. My love for this game can never be understated. Yes, it can be dark and have scary imagery, but overall it's soothing and familiar. It's unchanging.
Subscribed! I like the audio work on this video a lot. And I like the questions being asked here about one of my favorite games.
This is brilliant! Thank you, I enjoyed this
28:25, okay you got a good laugh out of me there, Rosencreutz
Thanks it came to me in a dream.
Yet, you’ve never been the ruler of your own dreams.
Sakon getting absolutely sniped and variations of will never not amuse me
Currently playing Majora's Mask for the first time so I won't watch in case of spoilers.
But I'm commenting and liking anyway. You're making a great job so far in your analysis.
Thanks for posting this.
N64 or 3DS? Also, how’s it going so far?
@@gabe5918 I'm emulating N64 on PC. Really enjoying the game and themes, but I find some mechanics kinda clunky (I still have to figure out the notebook thing). Currently I am on the Zoras' region, but I think I will do some side quests...
I wish i was you
Glad that I finally got the chance to sit down and give this a full watch. Thoroughly enjoy it a lot and it explains a lot of why I also enjoy MM so much.
Good job again. +1 Sub!
The eerie feel of the game keeps you on your toe but that's the fuzzy feeling of helping those people that really keeps you coming back. There are a lot of nice moments created by the cycle thing like knowing the result of the abduction from early cycles or seeing Mutoh raging against the moon alone as the fatal hour is coming that really make you feel for these npcs. I never 100% games but with the masks being such a nice and refreshing reward and the town being so fleshed out getting to do the perfect three final days seeing the good ending of all the plotlines I can solve before going to the moon and beating the boss was one of my most rewarding video game experience.
This is my favorite game of all time (I have a majora tattoo) and you did a great job outlining the horror and joy of this game ❤️
This is one of my favorite Zelda games, and you put mad respect on it. You've got a new subscriber, buddy
It's awesome to see that other people get why this has been my favorite zelda game since childhood, thanks for this one.
Brooo been sayin for years that comparison between FNV n Majora's two my fav gamea of all time too, love the content keep it up n happy new year 🎉
I played the narrel Hd texture pack, and when i saw the sun go down on yhe first day at romani ranch , seeing the colors of the sky shift to dark blues, watching the sun settle behind the surrounding trees, and the birds and sounds of nature all around.. probably one of the most I’ve ever been immersed in a video game. I just stared at the sky for maybe an hour.
Did I just get Uriel flashed? A video about my number two favorite game and I get memed on with my favorite game? Subbed
How tf does this only have 24k views. It's a well structured, well written, and thought-provoking video
It had 1-4k for the first month it was out and just "exploded" in the last week before quieting down again and has genuinely tested my sense of how youtube works lol.
@@Rosencreutzzz I honestly thought it was going to be well over 100k before I saw the view count
Interesting video! I've never actually played Majora's Mask (i skipped straight from Link to the Past all the way to Tears of the Kingdom) but it is interesting to see how they took great care to create investment in NPCs that definitely wasn't present in the older games
As somoene who has a video in my head already, poised to make the argument that Botw and TotK are more inspired by 2D than 3D zelda forebears when it comes to a lot of things, I may have to antagonize you into exploring the perspective going from LttP to the contemporary games brought.
I'm just in the comments to say how soothing your voice was watching this. Thanks for the cozy video!
I love this video so much- it explains why I've always had people referring to this entry as the "darkest", or even hearing that from Eiji Anouma when he proposed remaking the "darkest" entry of the zelda series. I always had fond memories of a kid playing this game because of how in-tune I became with everyone's schedules. I can't tell you how many times I would see Anju walking around during the rainy day, walk next to her, and try to cheer her up when she sat by the bench. To me, it always has been the most "human" zelda. Nothing else comes close to the sense of how connected you feel with... everyone. People talking about how dark and scary it was always made me feel like they had missed the point- like they hadn't understood the game like I did. By the time I had gotten through those events, I was able to remove myself from those feelings because of the depth to the storytelling. That's why Ikana Canyon was always my favorite area. They took the things I was most afraid of as a kid and made them sympathetic. It's beautifully done, and I'm so happy to hear someone else appreciating the game from that level to.
youre too underrated. this is so well done
great video, loved the gag about blowing up sakon I hate that guy.
btw from what I've seen, at least on the n64 version you can press the b button to faster skip through the repeated parts of the owl's text making it slightly more bearable
I would just hang around the stockpot inn for hours because the atmosphere is warm and welcoming
tbh, most of my "fear" for majora's mask as a kid really only came from the stress of time management and i think that's true for a lot of people
oh and ben drowned ofc
And the surreal atmosphere of the game. I don't appreciate the downplaying of the creepiness of MM
@@dragonwarriorz1 the game is creepy in places, but my stress from time management was a much bigger factor.
@@dragonwarriorz1 Yeah, I feel like a lot of people in this comment section are just saying "Oh yeah, dude, you're so right, it was never remotely scary in any form, it's cozy af!" because they think this video is deep and they want to seem deep too, and it's speedrunning nullification of a word's meaning for me.
I didn't have an n64 growing up so when I got a 3ds as a teenager, I picked up MM3D. I absolutely loved it. It was such a fun experience, I did all of the masks not knowing about fierce deity and kafei and anju's quest made me cry. I watched them get married and be with each other as the world ended.
for real when i come back to majora's mask, it's not for the "main quest". it's fun but the part that always stands out in my mind and the reason i come back to it is because of all the side quests that bring you around the world to see what everyone's up to and be a part of their lives
If anyone who sees this wants to play the game. There is a mod for the 3ds version that fixes a lot of the very weird changes the they made while keeping the good ones, and adding even a few more really good extras like binding the masks to the dpad. its called "project restoration" and it's the best way to play this great game imo. The 3Ds emulator also has come a long way, and it works with the mod.
I think something that definitely helped my first time experience with Majora’s Mask (and yes specifically an experience not an actual playthrough because to this day I still do not own a single console that would allow me to play and finish the entirety of Majora’s Mask) was my tendency to just stumble upon random instalments in a series, like how before knowing what the Percy Jackson or the Harry Potter series were, I stumbled upon the fifth book in both series and got really confused but really invested because they honestly just kinda seemed well made at the time. In the same way, discovering Majora’s Mask while having no clue about the EPIC JOURNEY you go on in OoT really helped make Majora’s Mask feel a lot less like something that was trying to outdo what came before. And because of that, moments like going into the moon just became the most inspiring moments for me creatively.
Ah this game gave me shivers as a kid. I remember how I followed Anju on the 2nd day and you know cut animations be... she suddenly whipped out kafei's mask on me and that gave me sudden chills lol I always used to run up to kafei, get in his path and go in first person so as he's walking towards me, I could clip through his mask to see what he looked like when I first was curious as to who he was. Hell, I thought it was a girl at first!
Majoras mask video essays are my favorite category of youtube videos
This is something I have been trying to put into words about MM for a while now, and what makes it unique in the series. I do wish more Zelda games would explore this kind of character development in storytelling again.
“Well, that one took a while to make”
That line had me actually saying, “NOO” out loud. What an investing video! I wasn’t ready for it to end.
This video expresses why this is my favorite game better than any other I've seen (even Matthewmatosis'). It's not that Majora's Mask is the darkest Zelda; it's the most adult Zelda. The most mature and deeply written, the most sentimental and emotional, and the most willing to not only depict horror but also humanity. There isn't a character in this game who is purely and simply evil, except maybe Majora's Mask itself. It's about love, friendship, time, death, forgiveness, growth, redemption, and supporting the people you love at their lowest lows. Its world and characters are so well realized and such a joy to experience not only for Zelda games, and not only for the time, but for video games in general. To this day I still think it's way ahead of its time.
Majora was my very first Zelda. I got the gamecube collection disk for a birthday and as I scrolled through the selection of games I could play on it, I was almost immediately enamored by the logo of Majora, and upon booting it up I was forever in love with it. It's still my favourite despite having completed almost every other zelda and even being able to play oot around the same time. Majora was also the first zelda I ever completed, sadly I couldn't get the romani mask so I ended up having to do it the hard way as a kid haha
Editing in this is godly
The moon on the thumbnail is so adorable!
i would say three of the six masks you marked as "one use" hardly even qualify. the mailman mask actually has a couple of things it enables, since it allows you to get the letter from kafei's mother, as well as look inside mailboxes. the keaton mask has a couple of different interactions, but the quiz you receive when you summon keaton can pull from many different questions, so there's an element of reusability there (if you really want to test your majora's mask knowledge, i suppose). the don gero mask is almost comparable to kafei's mask in that it involves a complicated quest that requires you to visit two of the game's dungeons to complete, in addition to tracking down the other two frogs that aren't minibosses. while there might be singular discrete rewards for these masks, they require a lot of experimentation to actually get that reward (plus, who doesn't like to dance while waiting for boss animations?)
Looking inside mailboxes gets you a heart one time and then after that 1 green rupee per checking. It doesn't do anything with Kafei's mother to my memory. You're giving a letter *to* her, not getting one from her, and that can be done without the hat.
And yeah, the Keaton one is "content" but it is one reward and one conversation if done "right"
My main point in circling them was that they give a single reward and don't have an "adventure function" like the bomb mask or bunny hood.
The Don Gero one is one I was more hesitant to add, but most of what you do with it is revisiting things you'll expressly do otherwise, like fighting the dungeon frog minibosses. If anything, it incentivizes a particular path through one of the cycles, and I suppose that is more content. I probably lean toward your argument for that one.
Majora's Mask has probably the most humor out of any Zelda game. So much of it is just funny, from the Gorons being bad baby sitters, the Zoras all being fanboys for a band, the two kingdoms that have been at war for so long they're now all skeletons, or just really silly stuff like the Gorman brothers or the annoyingly cheerful sound the postman makes whenever you talk to him. I agree with you, people have really mischaracterized this game.
Love this game, love your editing skills, love your take on this game!! Subbed ❤
Great video, and I completely agree. Two things you said here reminded me a lot of Yume Nikki too: (1) that game also, I feel, gets described in "horror" terms a lot even while I think a lot of it is sweet and cosy or at least non-threatening, and (2) the effects in that game are similarly not all very functional, and are mostly just because they're neat and fun, rather than being necessary for progression. Both games encourage you to deeply learn and play around with their worlds, with their darkness being one important part of them but by no means all that's there.
I just wanted to say that I really appreciated this kind of fresh look at this game. I think I was also really caught in the "Scary/Eeriness" of MM as well. I used to really enjoy playing MM, but one thing now that bugs me that didn't is that it's timed. It didn't used to bother me, it just made it feel more insistent that you get things done. Now, as an adult I really struggle with the timed aspect, it honestly just makes me feel extremely overwhelmed because there's so much to do in the game and literally so little time to do it. Couple that with the parts where you need other items to get farther and it would just ruin the experience of it for me. I do still love the music though, and it still gives me a sense of nostalgia because this game was on N64 and I played on that console when I was little. it's like remembering a piece of my childhood. I don't think I ever have fully 100% the game. I've beaten it, but not with the Fierce Diety Mask, and haven't gotten all the skutulas.
I remember staying at Ikanas castle for the music alone. I loved the epicness creepy chanting
Good job my dude. Very intelligent analysis.
The main thing I always think about when I think about Majora's Mask (as opposed to the conversations around MM) has always been the Bombers Notebook.
I spent to much time as a kid trying to do Notebook stuff that I hadn't advanced far enough to finish because I didn't really want to do the main quest I just wanted to do that stuff..
I don't even know how many 3-day cycles I spent as a kid just mooching around Clock Town like I lived there lol. I think it was that 'downtime' element that brought me back to the game- Clock Town was always like this haven in the middle of all the chaos that felt like home, and no other location in any other game had given me that same feeling before. After every dungeon I always looked forward to coming back home to Clock Town and just existing there for a bit. The cozy side is suck a good juxtaposition to such a melancholy game because it really drives home just how much is at stake. You can't help but build up a connection with this world and feel a need to protect it, not just because you're the hero on a quest but because you grow to love this place and these people and that Game Over screen of the moon crashing into Clock Town is SO much more harrowing when you know every person in that town by name and face and have followed them and learned their troubles and solved them.
I agree with basically everything in this video, I just wanted to add, this game really did scare the crap out of me when I was kid. That was part of why I loved it so much, I was always fascinated by games (or any kind of storytelling medium, really) that could creep me out like that. It wasn't just -scary-, Majora's Mask could really get under your skin.
Art is meant to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed -i forgot where this quote came from
I enjoyed this video a lot thanks !
Glad Im not the only one who avoided the forest temple when I was a kid as long as humanly possible because of the music and atmosphere
voicing so many of my thoughts here. I also played the Temples of OoT out of sequence back in the day
Your point atound 27:00 in reminds me an episode of xena where she relived the same day over and over but couldnt solve everyones problems. So she spends a full day checking angles and flight paths, then throws her chakram and its flight path solves everyones problems on way or another.
I think what you're trying to say is, "The game is creepy, yes. But it's also cozy, heartwarming, interesting, and inspiring. It's a lot of things."
As a child, I was extremely scared of the horror elements in this game, but unlike other games they never deterred me from carrying on with the game because the interpersonal interactions, characters themselves and their communities were in the end truly the things that made the game so special for me. Not to say the horror is bad, quite the opposite, but as a kid who hated horror I think it really is something that the game made me jump over my own shadow and fight through the horror just to see these characters finally prosper
Majora's Mask is one of the scariest Zelda games, but it wouldn't be scary without the chance to get to know and love the characters that fill the world of Termina. Because Termina is a world full of life we can actually see and understand, it's all the more scary when you see the dread the people of Termina feel when the final hours begin. You understand them, and so you're scared of what will happen to them should the moon fall. Every theme in the game would fall flat without the sense of community its world gives you. Essentially, the coziness of Majora's Mask _is_ the thing that makes its events so scary.
Also, I love how Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask both use time to convey a narrative, a thread that connects the two games perfectly.
In Ocarina of Time, time is used to highlight the differences between the past and the present, to show how just a few years can change everything you know. A video essayist by the name of Quimbles describes the feeling this change gives you perfectly: longing for a home that doesn't exist anymore.
This idea is a little difficult to explain, so bear with me for a bit as I take you on a journey.
Ocarina of Time gives you the chance to explore and experience the world with the eyes of a child- Link's eyes- which plants a firm idea in your head of what home looks like for Link. You see the people he meets, the adventures he goes on, the connection he has with characters like Saria and Navi. Then, you go back to Castle Town, only to see Ganondorf chase Impa and Zelda out of the city. Now Link is forced to take the ocarina and open the Door of Time, as per Zelda's backup plan.
Then, everything changes.
Seven years pass in the blink of an eye. Link is suddenly an adult, with the Master Sword in gand and the responsibility of a hero on his shoulders. Then he ventures out into Castle Town, which to him had been full of people and life just moments before... only for it to be jarringly empty. The buildings have fallen into ruin, the streets no longer bustle with the townsfolk, even the lively music of Castle Town is gone.
This continues with Kokiri Forest. Link picks up the hookshot and goes to his childhood home, probably hoping just as much as we are that something there is familiar, only to find out that Saria is gone and monsters have overtaken the previously peaceful safe haven of Kokiri Forest. Everything has changed, no one recognizes Link, and the one person Link was hoping to see is probably gone forever, bound to the same duty to protect Hyrule that he is.
It doesn't stop there; Lon Lon Ranch, Kakariko Village, Zora's Domain, Death Mountain, and Hyrule Castle have all changed almost beyond recognition. The friends Link made before the seven year skip occurred have all changed or disappeared completely. Hell, even before the skip, Link's home was already changed forever with the death of the Deku Tree.
Ocarina of Time has many themes, most prominent of which being that of growing up, the constant nature of change, and taking on responsibility that you may not be ready for but still have to do. Time plays an important role in this, as the seven year time skip is what highlights the changes between young Link and older Link, between home and what it became, between past and present. Ocarina of Time uses the passage of years to showcase the difficult nature of growing up and losing what you're familiar with. It closes off with Navi, the one constant in Link's adventure up until this point, leaving as well. The last shred of Link's childhood leaves with her.
But while Ocarina of Time focused on showing how it feels to grow up and experience so much change all at once, it never explored how to deal with it. It never showed us how to prepare for change, nor did it present us with a way to cope with change we weren't ready for in the aftermath of it happening.
That's what Majora's Mask is for.
In Majora's Mask, the focus is on fleeting moments rather than long periods of time. Through the three day cycle, the game shows the day-to-day changes a person experiences in the face of a bigger change on the horizon. It shows how the people of Termina handle this change, encourages you to help them process it, and inevitably encourages you to do the same for yourself. Link has lost a lot- his home doesn't really exist anymore because he doesn't belong there, and he understands how much can change in just a few years' time, but I don't think he's learned how to deal with the complicated emotions that arise from big changes. But in Termina, he sees how others are dealing with the same thing, how they know change is coming and handle it in various ways. Link learns to help them cope, trying to find a way to prevent this incoming change at the same time. And through helping Termina, Link learns how to help himself move on. He lost everything that was familiar and safe to him within about a year, but with Majora's Mask, he not only sees that healing is possible, he also figures out how to get the ball rolling on his recovery. That being, finding community and connecting with other people.
I'd say that's the reason why both games are so beloved. They both showcase an incredible amount of emotional maturity and understanding for the big changes life brings, even actively encouraging you to learn how to heal afterwards.
Change is scary, but home can always be found again.
I had OoT or my brother did. My friend had MM. It was confusing that time passed quickly but the mask feature was a stand out! It was fun to play as the other characters you could only visit their village in the first game and complete their dungeon. It is a nice connection seeing how you can time travel but that was probably less urgent than time passing. The only other game structuring time that I know of is Dead Rising, and it also has a love hate relationship because it’s hard/impossible to do everything in one play through because of the time element. For casual players this can make things more frustrating I can tell.
24:37 Omg I never noticed that reference! :O
They're even in order! That's got to be intentional.
I really hope this speedrun category exists (or gets made).
Each time you randomly shoot Sakon in the video i burst out laughing way harder than I should
Finished this game only last year for the second time. Considering I've been playing it since my brother gave it to me in 2002 I was sorry I never gave It a proper go. To someone thinking of giving it a go, make it your mission to find all the masks. That's where half the story is.
Sad game. Emotional game, but one of the best in the series. That's coming from an OOT fan. ❤
The Gibdo mask scene was the equivalent of fighting deadhands for me as a child, considering I was only eight at the time of the game coming out. I was able to fully appreciate the complexity of this game by the age of 10 and my love for it just grew as the years went on. It's truly sad that many people see it as a Zelda game not worth playing simply because of the complexity, but I can see where they're coming from. Compared to almost every other Zelda game before and after it, it really does make you remember key locations and events, leading to a confusing mess if you don't use the bomber notebook.
Regardless, it's still one of my favorite Zelda games to date, only slightly outshined by Twilight Princess and Ocarina Of Time. I've been playing OOT randomizers since the first build was released and I'm slowly starting to play more MM randomizers to get myself reacquainted with the game itself. It really does give the games more life and replayability.
I like oot more because of no time limit and (in my opinion) better atmosphere. Good video
i beat this game again recently and man i cried at the end. Even good things must come to an end
Honestly, you can make a pseudo perfect 3 day circle by saving everyone who will not be saved by beating Majora, or at least the majority pun intended.
The video makes a perfect connection with the real meaning of the Fierce Deity mask shared around 2.014
You are so right about this MM Speedrun Starfox % lmaooo
Hope you can make it happen cuz that would be sick to watch
Tingle inflation
Also, I think the juxtaposition of a real world with real people and the creepiness of the game is a good insight on what makes things truly unsettling and scary to begin with.
Majora's Mask feels a lot creepier mostly because the world is alive. There are themes of loss and grief in both games, but like you said, in MM you actually get to know and care about the characters. Even the dead. You want to save them all, something that's hard to feel about, say, the Cucco Lady. The soundtrack in MM plays a lot heavier into the serious themes than in OoT, the timer and moon are always visible and remind you that time is always running out, and resetting everything and having the characters you're intimately familiar greet you for the first time, again and again, makes you feel isolated. The world is alive, everything is on your shoulders, and the people you know don't know you exist. All in all, that makes MM much more unsettling to me.
"Metroidvania-esque" that's adventure games in general.
Zelda is an action adventure and have this kind of progress since the first game.
This video sums up why Majora is fascinating, nowadays a lot of games have NPCs with schedules, but most of them fail at making me care about them, while Majora makes me love almost all of them, even the ones with small problems are charismatic enough for you to really want to help them.
I disagree, only in that there are plenty of adventure games that have no backtracking or items/abilities that concretely alter one's ability to reach areas, but I will concede there's probably a better term out there, or at least one that isn't as malleable.