The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D Review

Link as a Deku Scrub

In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, for Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS, Link sets out on a new journey while searching for a dear friend who left him after his previous adventure. While riding through the forests of Hyrule, the mysterious Skull Kid, wearing a fiendish mask, and his two fairy companions, Tael and Tatl waylay him and steal both his pony and the powerful Ocarina of Time. The player is quickly given control of the game for the first time as Link gives chase on foot through the forest, and the thieves lead him to the strange new land of Termina, before the Skull Kid uses a dark power to transform him into a Deku Scrub. Tatl is left behind when the Skull Kid and her brother Tael make their escape, and she is forced to use Link to reunite with them; in exchange, she acts as a guide for Link in this new world after giving a hasty apology.

Link with the Clock Tower and Moon

Before they arrive in Clock Town, a mysterious mask salesman stops them with a comment on Link's terrible fate. He informs Link that the Skull Kid has stolen something important from him as well: a mask containing the spirit of a powerful evil creature called Majora. The Happy Mask Salesman tells Link that he must leave in three days and asks Link to help recover the mask before something terrible happens. He also says he can restore Link to normal in exchange if he also recovers his stolen Ocarina. Link enters Clock Town from a tunnel beneath the clock tower at the center of the city. Tatl reminds him he has just three days before the mask salesman leaves, the timer is set, and the game proper begins. Welcome to the doomed land of Termina.

Link and Tatl emerge as the people of Clock Town are preparing for an annual festival to be held in three days. Tatl suggests that they visit the Great Fairy who lives in her grotto in the North District of Clock Town. When they arrive, they find the Great Fairy had been cursed by the Skull Kid already, and her body had been broken into little tiny fairies. The fairies ask Link to find the missing piece so they can be restored. After searching Clock Town, they return with the missing piece and the Great Fairy regains her true form. She gives Link some advice and the ability to use magic as a Deku Scrub, but all he can do is blow magic bubbles to stun enemies.

Outside her grotto, Link can get the attention of the little kid playing nearby by shooting his target with a bubble. He challenges Link to a game of hide and seek with his friends. When you find them all, they give him the secret code to use the tunnel which travels to the observatory outside of town. There, the astronomer allows you to see into the telescope and Link can use it to find the Skull Kid dancing mockingly on top of the Clock Tower. The enormous moon above drops a stone just outside called the Moon's Tear. Link collects it and heads back to Clock Town.

A Deku Flower

While Link moves from task to task, the timer counts down to the final day of the allotted three. Each day lasts roughly eighteen minutes of real time. The player is required to adhere to this schedule as they explore the world of Termina, as all the people have pre-set schedules of their own. With little available to Link at the time, it's very easy to explore the town and discover what to do. By the time a new player discovers the Moon's Tear and delivers it to the Business Scrub outside the Clock Tower, in exchange for use of his Deku Flower, which Deku Link may use to reach the upper levels of the Clock Tower, he or she may have an entire "day" to kill. Experienced players can expect to accomplish most, if not all of this, well within the first day. As Link explores the town, talking to all the people, they seem frightened of an impending threat on the day of the festival. It appears that the moon is slowly falling and will eventually crash into Termina, killing everything. Looking up at the moon, the player can see a menacing face leering down at them.

Link cannot enter the upper level of the Clock Tower until it opens on the eve of

the festival on the final day. The player may either wait, explore, or participate in whatever minigames may be available to pass the time. The Clock Tower opens when the night of the final day begins, and the player can enter to initiate the end of the first part of the game. At the top of the tower, Link and Tatl confront the Skull Kid, who boasts of his power and taunts Link, who remains in his weakened Deku Scrub form.

Link traveling to the first day

Before the Skull Kid can silence him, Tael quickly advises Link and Tatl to find the four who live in the swamp, mountain, ocean, and canyon areas of Termina and bring them there before the moon destroys them all. The Skull Kid uses his power to drop the moon, but Link quickly uses his magic bubble to stun the Skull Kid, who drops the Ocarina of Time. Link quickly grabs it up and is reminded of Princess Zelda teaching him the Song of Time before his departure from Hyrule. He remembers her telling him that the Goddess of Time will always aid him when he plays it. The ocarina appears as a set of pipe instruments when Link is a Deku Scrub, and he plays the Song of Time on them. The magic of the song, along with the instrument, sends Link and Tatl back in time, to the dawn of the first day, when they first emerged from beneath the clock tower.

The Happy Mask Salesman

Tatl, marveling at the power Link has over time, reminds him that the
Mask Salesman can fix him now that he has his ocarina back. When you return to him with the Ocarina of Time, he teaches you the Song of Healing, which transforms Link back into his human form, and seals the magic of the curse in the form of the Deku Mask, which Link can use to transform back into a Deku Scrub when he has need of its abilities. When the Mask Salesman learns that Link didn't obtain Majora's Mask as well, he panics at the threat of catastrophe if it is not retrieved soon. Link leaves the salesman and Tatl tells him to go to the Southern Swamp first, to find clues as to what to do about the Skull Kid.

Story

As a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask takes a much different approach to the story. Ocarina of Time places Link as the archetypal hero of prophecy who is destined to wield powerful magic and weapons against a supreme evil which seeks to conquer or destroy. Here, Link is a stranger in a land which never recognized him as a hero. His story starts as a personal quest to find his missing friend, and he is quickly embroiled in the tragedies of the people of Termina, who are unknowingly caught in a vicious three-day cycle in which they can only hopelessly await their destruction

Link as a Goron

The first three days introduces the themes and tone of the game rather nicely: hurt and healing, chaos and order, dark and mysterious. Link has come to Termina to heal the suffering which the Skull Kid with Majora's power has caused. The game picks up these themes and runs with them throughout the game. In most areas, Link will encounter someone who has suffered greatly, usually to the point if death, and he uses the Song of Healing to mend their spirits and trap their suffering into the form of masks which he can wear to transform into the various races of Zelda lore, each giving him unique abilities to tackle obstacles which his human form can't overcome.

While the main quest covers a relatively small portion of the game, compared to other Zelda titles, many complex side quests populate the world. These optional quests capture the themes of the main quest as well. Many of the people in Clock Town have been affected by the Skull Kid's tricks, and Link can use his abilities of time travel to learn their schedules, which they're forced to repeat every time Link plays the Song of Time, to help them. His decisions can affect the outcome of some quests. Many touching moments populate the story, many involving a theme of reunions between friends, relatives, and lovers. One such side quest involves the marriage between Anju, the girl who runs the Stock Pot Inn, and Kafei, who was cursed by the Skull Kid to look like a child. The quest runs the duration of the entire three days, requires you to meet people at specific times, and Anju and Kafei are reunited only moments before the moon will fall and Link is forced to reverse time again. All these quests serve for a poignant reminder to the player of what is at stake should the world end, as Link becomes deeply involved with the personal lives of these characters over many trips through time. Majora's Mask has a vision and never loses focus.

Presentation

This is a remake of a Nintendo 64 game, but the models and textures are pretty much remade from the ground up for the 3DS. It looks much better and still manages to capture all the charm of the original. The graphics may not be the absolute best for the 3DS, but they serve to blend the feeling of playing the original while still offering an enhanced experience. The 3D effect works well, especially on the New 3DS system released last February. Overall the graphics are definitely passable, but nothing spectacular.

Gameplay

The game feels almost exactly like the original, which is to say it works flawlessly. In fact, I would be surprised if someone didn't consider this version  even a little improved. The Legend of Zelda has stuck with this control scheme for years since Ocarina of Time, and it has held strong with age. This version contains some changes to take advantage of some of the capabilities of the 3DS. The gyroscope is utilized for aiming in first person, and it works quite well for quick aiming compared to the game pad. If you play on the New 3DS, or have the circle pad pro peripheral for the regular 3DS, the added c-stick or pad allows for complete camera control in third person.  The touch screen has a few buttons where you can assign two extra items for when you run out of physical buttons. All menus can be navigated using the touch screen or buttons as the player sees fit.

Other changes add mere convenience to the remake. For instance, in the original game, the player could only "hard save" (create a permanent save file) by playing the Song of Time and returning to the beginning of the three day cycle. The player could also "quick save" at designated Owl Statues, but these save files were temporary and deleted themselves when the file was loaded, reverting back to the last permanent save file. In this version, Owl Statues return (since they also serve as warp points later on), and other save statues are added. All saves are permanent, and the player is no longer required to return to the first day. The game also prompts the player each time the Bomber's Notebook is updated with new quest information.

Speaking of the three day cycle, the game operates more or less the same as the original: you have "72 hours" (about 54 minutes in real time) to complete an objective before Link is forced to return to the dawn of the first day and prevent the end of the world. Ammo for items, such as arrows and bombs, as well as Rupees are lost as Link returns, but he keeps major items such as his Hero's Bow and quiver or Bomb Bag. These serve as "checkpoints" of sorts, since these items generally make it easier to progress through an area on subsequent attempts, for when you run out of time. Pretty much every NPC has a schedule. They will repeat their routine every time you restart the days. By the final day, most who believe the moon will fall have all fled the town or sought out shelter. If you miss an opportunity to meet with someone, or mess things up,  then typically you must restart the days and try again. In a way, this ensures you can't screw up your game such that you can't complete every objective, since turning back time resets EVERYTHING in Termina, except for important items which Link brings with him. Some found this system cumbersome and an unnecessary addition to a Zelda game, but I find it adds an interesting and unique challenge in the series. The defining feature of the game: it may make or break your opinion of this game.

Zora Link

One minor annoyance with this version: for some reason either Nintendo or Grezzo decided that Zora Link moved too fast in the water. Now, Zora Link has a default swimming speed that's somewhere between Human Link and the original Zora speed. The original top speed is still available by pressing R, but this also activates his electric attack and drains magic power. I suppose this makes it easier to maneuver Link in the water, but swimming freely like a dolphin is too much fun to not be missed.

Bosses have been retooled to better reflect the Majora motif. They now have specific weak points, in the form of giant eyeballs which resemble the eyes on the mask itself. They also now require a combination of the use of specific items and Link's different forms. Some have decried these changes as pointless departures from the original game, but I find the new fights flow better and generally provide a more rewarding experience.

Overall, I feel Majora's Mask 3D does its job as a remake very well. It adds to the experience, but subtracts very little from it in the process. Fans of the original should find few faults with this game, purists notwithstanding.