Shameful video game confessions thread — Page 3

Johnny Ringo said:

C'mon guys. Everyone remembers Sluggo and TheBoost.

Majora's Mask is a weird and very divisive game in the Zelda franchise; some people love it, some people hate it, but it's one of my favourites. It's creepy and melancholy and surreal. It's like David Lynch does Zelda, almost. The entire game can be taken in many different ways: as some sort of bad dream Link has after the events of Ocarina, as some sort of purgatory a dead Link encounters on his way to the afterlife, et cetera. The return of so many Ocarina characters in altered roles that sometimes parody the original role of the character in Ocarina makes the whole game feel uneasy and weird, especially if you've replayed Ocarina several times and know the characters well.

I don't really know how to describe it. Ocarina has the traditional heroic journey story and feel to it with a triumphant if bittersweet ending (as the Japanese love to do), but Majora's Mask is a totally different animal with a totally different feel. A lot of it has to do with the story, obviously (with Ocarina's being more traditional, and Majora's Mask being more concerned with death, depression, impending mortality, and the legacy one leaves behind), but I think one of the major factors is the music used.

Ocarina's score is largely sweeping and orchestral and exciting, adventurous, and triumphant. The music design in Majora's Mask on the other hand is disjointed and creepy, melancholy, tense... they compliment the story motifs well, and I really think that they are responsible for much of the feel of the game.

A lot of people draw comparisons between Majora's Mask and The Empire Strikes Back in terms of the story being darker than the one before, but I'm not sure that gives the correct sense of how Majora's Mask feels, because the themes it deals with make Empire look a bit like a nursery rhyme.

It's worth playing, though, even if it takes time to get used to. Definitely try to 100% Ocarina first to refresh your memory of the characters involved and their roles, so you can see how different and strange (almost mockeries?) they become in Majora's Mask. Then play Majora's Mask again after a bit to really let it sink in. I would definitely suggest that you try to 100% it, or at least complete the Bomber's Notebook sidequests. It's a heavy game.