Here we have a retro review, or as I like to call it, a burning bismark! Also known as, "I don't get paid to review games, so I'm usually about five years late".
So here's the big question, is Majora's Mask just the copycat sequel to the most famous Zelda of all, The Ocarina of Time? Or is it the secret Cinderella beauty to Ocarina's ugly step-sister?
The basic gameplay was recycled from Ocarina of Time but two major ideas make Majora's Mask stand out. The first change is that the player has only three days to save the world of Termina from certain doom - more on that later. The second is that the player can collect various masks which grant special abilities. Some masks even allow Link to transform into Legend of Zelda critters, such as a Goron or a Deku Scrub. At first I found the transformations hard to control, but they actually feel really good and natural with some practice. After a nice little learning curve, they add a lot of variety and flexibility to the game design.
Now, as for the the three day cycle. It's really neat in theory: once Link successfully retrieves the Ocarina of Time, he can use it to go back to the beginning of the three days and play them over again until he eventually solves all the problems plaguing Termina. In practice it was often annoying: fighting through a 72-144 minute cycle just to have most or all of my progress stripped away was very irritating, especially since the game relies heavily on puzzles, even outside of the dungeons. It took me two or three cycles just to get into each dungeon. This made the nicely-built dungeons that much sweeter, but it was pretty frustrating.
On the positive side the cycles give the game a good dose of challenge. The enemies tend to be weaklings but the three day cycle makes up for it by forcing players to fight the clock rather than the monsters. The three day cycle also gives the game's characters more personality - they go about their daily lives as you play, and you can spy on them or try to help them out as you please. This results in some very memorable sidequests and I actually wish this feature had been explored further.
The sound is quite good - some songs are recycled from The Ocarina of Time but there are some new songs that are all quite wonderful. I especially like the haunting theme played after midnight of the final day. Graphically, this was one of the better games on the N64. Maybe not quite as polished as The Ocarina of Time, but still very solid. It's obviously not up to par with current games but it has stood the test of time very well thanks to Nintendo's talented art staff.
The game tends to reuse a lot of graphical and audio assets from The Ocarina of Time, but it does a wonderful job of incorporating them to make Termina feel like a trippy alternate dimension version of Hyrule rather than a knock-off. I met people I recognized, but their names and jobs had changed. The whole game has a somewhat twisted feel to it and the game's opening and conclusion are among the best in the entire series.
So which game is better, Majora's Mask, or Ocarina of Time? Of course the answer is that it doesn't matter - both games are must-play titles. But so as not to cop-out, I'll say that I'd personally lean towards The Ocarina of Time because the heavy emphasis on puzzle-solving combined with the three day cycles got on my nerves in Majora's Mask. On the other hand, Majora's Mask is still a wonderfully-designed game and it really captured my imagination like few others. Definitely worth playing!
5 / 5 masks
Side-note: The GameCube Zelda Collector's Edition version of the game seems to crash an awful lot. Maybe it's just my GameCube, but if you don't already own a copy of the game, I think the N64 version would be preferable.
Topic: LOZ: Majora's Mask Retro Review (Read 2307 times)
