Games I played in 2015: Majora's Mask

2015 was a really good year for me, for a lot of reasons, but chief among those reasons was all the video games I played for the first time that year. They were all really good, and each meant a lot to me, and I've been meaning to do a post about each one of them for a while. So, I'm turning it into a series.

Today we'll start with Majora's Mask, mainly because I've been thinking about what I wanted to say about it for months and, well, I'm finally getting around to actually doing it.

Intro

As I've talked about before, Twilight Princess is my first (and favorite) Zelda! But, Majora's Mask is easily second favorite, and honestly if I didn't feel like I was betraying Twilight Princess by saying Majora's Mask was my favorite, well...

There was something about Majora's Mask and its vibe that I really loved. I don't think I've had such a positive experience with a Zelda game in a long time. Playing it was honestly just so satisfying. I have a lot of things to say about Majora's Mask, but, hey! That's what this blog is for.

If you haven't played the game: I suggest you give it a try! If you have played it? Well, I hope you read this anyway. I'm not here to sell it to you, I'm just here to talk about my experiences and what the game means to me. Maybe you'll see the game in a different light, once you're done reading!

Prelude: I Hate Time Limits (Before I played the game)

I got Majora's Mask for the first time shortly after I'd finished Ocarina. I don't remember why, or how, or whether it was a birthday present or just something I talked my parents into. I remember very vividly booting it up, though, and playing it for maybe an hour. We were cleaning the house that day, moving things around, and being only 12 or 13, I wasn't much help hauling furniture. So I sat and I played Majora's Mask. The clock was ticking down. My family was jokingly piling things around me. I couldn't find the fairy piece to restore the Great Fairy. It was well into the second day. I was getting extremely anxious, had no idea what to do, wasn't going to look up a walkthrough...

So I quit. I turned off the console, declared I hated games with time limits, didn't touch it again.

All I knew about Majora's Mask was that it was a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, and to a lot of people, even better than it. (The fandom---or what little of it I participated in at age 13---seemed split on that idea, though.) I knew the Happy Mask Salesman was creepy. I read the Ben creepypasta.

I slowly built up an image of Majora's Mask in my head from what I had heard about it on the internet. It was supposedly the creepiest in the series. A lot of fans considered it the Best Zelda Game Ever, but most that did and who I interacted with came off as stuck-up and rude. A comment still burned in my mind is one where the author said, basically "any person who considers Ocarina better than Majora is dead wrong and a disgrace to the fandom". Then there was all the entitled clamoring for Majora's Mask 3D, and Operation Moonfall....

Let's just say my opinions on the game before playing it weren't very positive ones, and leave it at that.

And yet somehow, I was convinced

It was February 23rd of last year when I booted up Majora's Mask again to actually play it for real. Majora's Mask 3D had just released a week before. A lot of people were posting about it and the game in general. I was intrigued, though still a little skeptical. Two major things played a hand in changing my mind and giving Majora's Mask another chance.

First: A Zelda blogger on tumblr I followed at the time, guru--guru, got an ask about Majora's Mask. The ask consisted basically of "Hey, what are your thoughts on Majora's Mask? I own the game, but I've never really played it. Should I?" The answer was simple. "Drop everything you're doing and play it right now."

Second: I found a Majora's Mask fanmix that I fell in love with immediately after listening to it. It was the exact vibe of songs I love above all others, that blend of dark and haunting and entirely fantastical all at once. The mix has since been taken down (or, the site it was hosted on was, anyway) but you can still locate the tracklist here. 

I loved the mix to death. I spent an afternoon listening to it, it ended up reminding me a little bit of Twilight Princess's vibe and I went "I'm going to play Twilight Princess!!!" 

Instead I booted up Majora's Mask. I'd been warming up to it over the past week, I trusted guru's judgement, I figured it was time I tried the game again.

So I did.

Are these your expectations? cool. [dumps them in the trash]

All I expected from Majora's Mask was "Ocarina of Time but better, probably" and that didn't really set my expectations high. I can appreciate Ocarina of Time for what it is and what it did for the gaming industry but, man, it's definitely not my favorite Zelda. Maybe that's just because I hold Twilight Princess so close, but, who knows.

Anyway, all I expected from Majora's Mask was "Ocarina of Time 2", along with it to be the "creepiest" game in the Zelda series. It... It was neither of those things. It was so much more than I'd ever given it credit for, and it was so good.

My experience with it was so satisfying. Maybe it was because I'd been craving a fresh dose of Zelda for a while. Maybe it's just because Majora's Mask truly is an astonishingly good game.

I instantly fell in love with its atmosphere, the vibe it gave off, the way it made me feel. I don't think I could fully capture it in words, but anyone who plays the game knows what I'm talking about. It's not really creepy, it's not really dark. Haunting might describe the tone the best, or perhaps somber. Maybe it's a little of both? Whatever it is, I love it so much.

I think the mechanic in Majora's Mask is extremely interesting, the idea that the fruits of your efforts are erased, because you have to reset time, you have to constantly reset time. Yes, you keep the mask, you keep the item, but no one remembers you. You make it spring in the mountains, but then it's not spring anymore once you reset. Or, the road to Romani Ranch is blocked off again. Not to mention, for Link, to think about him being forgotten by the friends he's made and the people he helped, for it to be like he never helped those people to begin with. It's hard to think about, and it adds an interesting dynamic in the game.

Majora's Mask also has a different style of story to it than most other Zelda games. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the whole "ordinary boy becomes a hero" stories, but as a veteran to the Zelda series, it's kind of refreshing to have a Link who's been through all this before.

And, though the story is ultimately about Link, for the longest time it feels like it isn't. It always feels more like it's about the citizens of Termina, and the transformation masks play into that. Most of the citizens don't see Link as Link, they see him as someone else. The Dekus see him as another Deku, the Gorons see him as their lost hero, the Zoras see him as a famous Zora---who none of them know is dead. And, by the time it is a story about Link, it's an extremely personal story about Link. It's not about him saving Hyrule (or in this case, Termina) or otherwise achieve something he was fighting for.

In Majora's Mask, he sets out in his quest in order to find Navi. Of course, he never finds her. Majora's Mask is more about him moving on---someone's even pointed out that each of the areas of the game corresponds with one of the five stages of grief. And, if you play the game, or think about the game with that in mind, you see how much it fits. It's amazing, and, maybe that's what makes the game so good.

Closing

All in all, Majora's Mask took every expectation I had for it and flipped them on their sides. My experience with this game was extremely positive. It was refreshing and wonderful experience. A part of me wants to say I wish I'd played this game when I was younger, but in reality, I don't think I'd have appreciated it as much if I'd had.

Majora's Mask is a wonderful game, it's easily among my favorite Zeldas and favorite games in general. It deserves all the praise it gets.