Game Design: In the Face of Destiny

"If you have the courage and determination to proceed in the face of destiny, then I shall teach you something useful." ~The Owl

Majora's Mask is not only designed to be frustrating, it is designed to intimidate players.  While this can be seen in the mechanics of the game, it is just as easily present in the directing. The way the story is presented and the visual design of the world and dungeons are all meant to evoke feelings of complete and utter helplessness. 

From the first moment you step out of the Clock Tower, the game does everything it can to make the task seem daunting. Link's first steps in Termina are almost directly below where the moon will hit.  He is tasked with recovering a mask of incredible power and stopping the moon itself from falling--all in only three days. What's more, when he starts out, he is incredibly helpless. He is stuck in an unfamiliar body, has only one method of attack, and cannot access his inventory. And if that was not enough, a dog in the very first area of Termina you encounter will attack Link's Deku form! This is perhaps the most helpless Link starts off in any Zelda game. 

When Link finally does face the Skull Kid, he finds himself impotent. He is minutes away from the moon's impact, and not only can he not stop the moon, he cannot even hurt the Skull Kid.  He manages to recover his ocarina, and a little help from the Goddess of Time is all that helps him survive. Not succeed, mind you--only survive. Link is sent back three days to his first steps in Termina, and he has not accomplished any of what he set out to do.  While the Happy Mask Salesman does cleanse his soul with the Song of Healing and regain human form, the message that this introduction presents is clear: Link is entirely helpless and must rely on others to succeed.

Everything about the world is designed to remind you of this helplessness.  The moon is visible in the sky at any point in the world, even during the day.  The location of the moon is no coincidence, either. Clock Town is in the direct center of Termina, and the clock tower (i.e., the point of the moon's impact) is in the direct center of Clock Town.  Three of the four dungeons in Majora's Mask are also designed around a central room, with that room designed to be the most intimidating one in the dungeon. Woodfall Temple has a giant, spinning flower.  Snowhead Temple has a tall, cylindrical room crossed with narrow pathways.  Great Bay Temple has a deep whirlpool with a current that tosses Link around. [AN: I'd like to include images for these all three rooms, but am unable to find good images for the latter two. I hope to fix this later.] Even if those rooms are not actually the direct center of the dungeon, they all have the feel of being the central chamber--the room that the rest of the dungeon is built around.  All three mentally lead the player back to the moon, sitting at the direct center of Termina.

Another thing worth noting is that Clock Town, as one might determine from its name, has a clockwork theme. As the game is built around a three-day cycle, time becomes very important. The player is reminded of the remaining time every twelve in-game hours, and there is a time indicator at the bottom of the screen. While the final moments (five minutes from the perspective of the player) do contain a numerical countdown that displays exactly how much time is left to the second, the time indicator for most of the three-day cycle takes the form of a half-circle--an analogue clock.  This choice ties these two themes together: the slipping away of time, and everything leading back to a center.  By choosing a recurring circular motif, a shape with radial symmetry, everything in the game leads back to the center: back to the moon. In addition, the circular shape evokes feelings of recursion: no matter how hard he tries, Link is always taken back to the start to do things over again. For him, time is circular, always leading back to the start and always pointing him to the center.

Termina is a mess.  Everything in the game seems a daunting, impossible task.  However, despite the apparent futility of everything, Majora's Mask makes it clear that Link is not alone.  The Great Fairy in Clock Town gives Link the skill he needs to reacquire the Ocarina of Time from the Skull Kid. The Goddess of Time gives him the time he needs to accomplish the task. The Happy Mask Salesman returns him to his human form and teaches him the Song of Healing. All these interactions are required in the first cycle to advance farther in the game.

Perhaps the most important characters who aid Link early on are the members of the Bombers Secret Society of Justice. After Link is recruited into their ranks, he is given a notebook with one purpose: to keep track of those he has helped.  They are such important characters because they present a shift in tone: one from receiving help to giving help. A key difference between Majora's Mask and other Zelda games is the emphasis on helping people. There are some games that offer a chain of deals, but those are presented as ways to get impressive prizes. Only Majora's Mask gives the impression that helping people is its own reward (see Forgiving Failure for more on this).

By making Link helpless, having to receive aid from others, Majora's Mask encourages a giving spirit. Link and the player realize how important it is to have help. It is a double-edged sword, since it shows him that he is not alone, but also becomes a frustrating reminder of his impotency. No one wants to admit to needing help, after all. On the other hand, both of these give Link (and possibly, by extension, the player) what he needs to continue: determination. The knowledge that there are beings out there to aid him and that this impossible task does not fall on his shoulders alone gives him the peace of mind to continue, while the feelings of inadequacy drive him to become stronger so that he doesn't need to rely on anyone. In fact, from this point on, most of the help Link receives is a response to help he provided. Getting aid from Darmani and Mikau in the form of transformation masks requires soothing their souls.  Grog gives Link the Bunny Hood after Link allows him to see his chickens grow up.  The mysterious hand reaching out of the toilet only wants some paper (but whatever for?), and complying with its request nets Link a Heart Piece.  Link still receives aid, yes, but he receives it as thanks for what he has done.  His determination and desire to do good transforms him from a helpless child to a hero bold enough to save Termina not just from the approaching moon, but from itself.

Link is set up in Majora's Mask through the game design as a boy in way over his head.  But with help to get him on his feet, and the consequent courage and determination that gives him, he is able to overcome overwhelming odds to proceed in the face of destiny--for as the Owl mentions, Termina is destined to fade.  But Link refuses to give up, no matter how many times the ever-ticking clock resets, no matter how many times he is brought back to the center of everything just to fail once more, because he has been given the hope he needs to continue.

Gameplay: Forgiving Failure

"Believing in your friends and embracing that belief by forgiving failure. These feelings have vanished from our hearts."

~King Igos du Ikana

Perhaps the greatest criticism against Majora's Mask is that the gameplay is frustrating and unnecessarily difficult.  This is, admittedly, a valid criticism.  Majora's Mask can be frustrating at times.  The three-day cycle that frames the game and the limited save system forces gaming sessions that are less flexible.  You must complete whatever you wanted to do in a cycle, and if you fail, you must retry it.  And no matter whether you succeed or fail, you lose all bombs, arrows, and rupees you're currently holding.  However, on closer examination, the frustrating gameplay in Majora's Mask is quite probably an intentional choice that complements the themes of the game.

Majora's Mask is a game that seems to expect you to fail.  There are only four dungeons (which I will go into in greater detail later), but all four are expansive.  Jumping through all the necessary hoops to reach each dungeon usually takes the average player one cycle, and actually completing the dungeon (and any tasks available after the dungeon has been completed) will take another.  If a player gets caught up on any particular puzzle within the game, they run the risk of losing all the progress they have completed within that cycle.

On top of that, the save system is frequently frustrating.  There are two ways to save: by resetting time and saving at the beginning of a new cycle, or by using an owl statue for a temporary save.  However, these temporary saves can only be used once.  If players need to stop, they need to save again.  It is impossible to use the same temporary save twice.*  Once you start a cycle, you are locked into progressing through it once, and only once.  You cannot revert to your last save if you fail.

Why would Nintendo deviate from their usual formula so?  Why include this form of difficulty?  The answer is not because the company wanted an easy way to make the game more difficult.  No, the answer can be found in the fact that the game is a Groundhog Day Loop.  The point of such loops in nearly all the media they appear in is to figure out how to break the loop.  The character(s) attempting to do so must figure out what is the "right" way to do things, and what is the "wrong" way to do them.  Majora's Mask is no different.  The game is designed in such a way that players learn from their mistakes.  In reality, Majora's Mask is no more difficult than it's predecessor Ocarina of Time or any other game in the series.  In fact, many of the enemies in Majora's Mask are actually weaker than in Ocarina of Time.  The difficulty comes solely from the fact that the game is timed.  If a player takes a while to finish a puzzle and ultimately fails to complete their objective because of that, they have another chance: but this time, they know how to solve it immediately.

There is another reason, however, that Majora's Mask uses such a system.  Like I said earlier, the game expects you to fail, and fail often.  It becomes aggravating.  Frustrating.  If you were in the situation that Link is in, you would no doubt begin to despair.  Majora's Mask intentionally tests players and makes them fail so that when they succeed, the success has more of an impact.  Like the rest of the game, the gameplay portrays the odds as impossible, and when the player overcomes that, the satisfaction experienced is far greater.  

And of course, one of the things that makes the gameplay of Majora's Mask stand out so much is the emphasis on sidequests.  The way the game is set up allows for a very unique approach to sidequests.  Every single person Majora's Mask has a schedule.  While the schedule of many characters boils down to sitting around for long periods of time and going somewhere else, other characters have more complex schedules.  Most notably, Kafei, Anju and her family, Cremia and Romani, and the Postman have set schedules that can change drastically depending on how you interact with them.  In Majora's Mask, NPCs cease to be part of the scenery, spewing out a single line of dialogue.  Because the game takes place over three repeating days, Nintendo was able to give its characters the ability to react to certain events and to have actual lives.  As the moon draws closer to Termina, emotions intensify.  The macho and condescending sword teacher cowers alone in the corner.  The Postman is torn between his desire to flee and his sense of duty to his job.   

The NPCs in Majora's Mask consequently cease to be mere characters and become people.  While the system is crude in comparason to reality, it is a system that's difficult for even most modern video games to emulate.  It's hard to empathize with a character who says nothing other than "Welcome to our town!"  However, characters with hopes and dreams lamenting their immanent demise?  It's much easier to get emotionally invested in them: which is exactly why there is so much emphasis on sidequests.

By characterizing the citizens of Termina and bringing them to life, the game encourages you to place and emphasis on sidequests.  What's more, sidequests have to be done right, and they have to be done in a certain order.  For example, to help the owner of the Indigo-gos, you'll need to enter the Milk Bar after dark...which can only be done after you help keep some thieves from stealing the milk Cremia is transporting...which can only be done after you help Romani save the cows from Them...which can only be done after you can buy powder kegs so that you can get to the Ranch...which can only be done after you've beaten part of the main quest.  So from the main quest, one certain sidequest requires completing three other sidequests first, and helping Cremia requires helping Romani within the same three-day cycle.  Compare that to perhaps the most complex sidequest in Ocarina of Time, obtaining the Biggoron Sword.  It requires a chain of trading one object for another until Biggoron is able to repair a sword for you.  However, while a few of these trades are timed, most can be done at leisure and they're all just part of one sidequest.

The example from Majora's Mask that I mentioned isn't even the most difficult sidequest in the game.  That would be Anju and Kafei's sidequest, which has all sorts of requirement that need doing in a specific order.  If you fail to deliver a certain letter or show up for a certain appointment or even if you decide to help a certain other character, Kafei won't face Anju, Anju will leave, or both.  I'll go into the quest in more depth in a later chapter, but it's worth a mention here just because it is perhaps the best example in the game of perseverance paying off.  It is incredibly difficult to pull off, and players not using a guide are almost certain to fail at least once.  But it is one of the most heartwarming and rewarding sidequests in the game.

By utilizing the three-day cycle, Nintendo increased the chances of players becoming emotionally invested in the characters.  However, there is one slight problem with it at the same time: resetting time undoes all the good you've done.  This has the potential to be the cruelest aspect of the game were it not for one thing: the timeline.  After failing several times at quests, it's likely that a player will know exactly what to do, and even if they don't remember, the Bomber's Notebook keeps a log of who has which problems at which times of which days.  By examining the timeline laid out in the notebook, a detail presents itself: almost all of the people can be helped in a single three-day cycle.  With only one or two minor exceptions (for Anju and Kafei's quest, you have to let a woman get robbed, though the stolen goods can easily be replaced), you can help everyone.  With a lot of hard work, you can cleanse the four corners of Termina, save the monkey from being boiled alive, heal Pamela's father, reunite Anju and Kafei, release the postman from his duty, save Romani Ranch, and much more, then defeat the final boss so that all those achievements stay completed.  

Going back to the Groundhog Day example, Bill Murray's character eventually decides that he's going to help everyone he can, no matter how hard it may be and how many times he may have to do it.  While he knows he can't save everyone (like the old man who dies because it was simply his time), he is able to save a man from choking, catch a kid falling out of a tree, encourage a hesitant couple to go through with their wedding, help an old acquaintance out with his business, and much more.  He does this over and over again (as evidenced by his statement that the kid who fell from the tree "has never once thanked [him]" until he is able to get everything right and finally break free from his loop. 

This is ultimately the reason that Majora's Mask's gameplay is the way it is.  It cannot sacrifice its difficulty because for the game to have the emotional impact it does, the player needs to fail.  It must be an uphill battle filled with setbacks and pain from not being able to help the characters you care about to not being able to save Termina as a whole.  Majora's Mask needs to be a difficult game, because it is a game that forgives failure.  Without difficulty, there is no failure to forgive, and with no failure, nothing is learned.



*This is technically incorrect, as it is possible to copy the save into another file, but this is a loophole that not many people figure out and that goes against the spirit behind the game.

Plot Overview: Bring Them Here

"Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. Hurry...The four who are there... Bring them here..."
~Tael

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

Before I delve into Majora's Mask, I need to provide a bit of an explanation for those unfamiliar with the game.  Majora's Mask is the sixth game in the Zelda series, and was developed by Nintendo and released for the N64 in 2000.  While the game was met with mixed reception at its release (due to the N64 being near the end of its life because of the upcoming Nintendo GameCube, for deviation from the familiar Zelda formula, and for being a follow-up to the very critically acclaimed Ocarina of Time), but in recent years has gained a very strong cult following.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

The story follows a young boy approximately ten years old.  While the player is able to choose his name, for the sake of simplicity he will be referred to by his canonical name: Link.  At the beginning of the story, Link is wandering through the woods, searching for an old friend (believed to be Navi, his fairy companion from Ocarina of Time).  However, he is assailed by a masked forest imp nicknamed the Skull Kid, and two fairies, the yellow-colored Tatl and her purple-colored brother Tael.  They steal an ocarina from him--more specifically, the titular artifact from Ocarina of Time, and run off.  Link gives chase, but the Skull Kid retaliates by turning him into a Deku Scrub, a plant-like lifeform.  As Link (joined by Tatl after she accidentally gets separated from the other two) continues to chase the Skull Kid, he encounters the Happy Mask Salesman, who offers to return him to his original form on one condition: that Link recover the mask the imp stole.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

And so Link enters the land of Termina, which is in the middle of preparing for an annual festival, to embark on his quest.  However, he sees something that causes all his confidence to wane: in the sky, a giant, angry-looking moon looms, threatening to crush the world beneath.  In the final hours before the moon strikes, Link is able to make it to the top of the clock tower to confront the Skull Kid.  However, he is too weak to do anything to stop the Skull Kid, much less the moon in his present state.  Tael attempts to give Link and Tatl some advice before the Skull Kid strikes him to shut him up: "Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. Hurry...The four who are there... Bring them here..."

With that advice in mind, Link manages to recover his ocarina and uses its power to travel back in time....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

The Happy Mask Salesman plays the Song of Healing for Link, a song that heals and brings peace to his soul and restores him to his Hylian form.  A mask is created in the process, and Link finds that he can wear the mask to return to the form of the Deku Scrub.  The Happy Mask Salesman is not happy when he finds that Link has failed to obtain the mask, known as Majora's Mask, from the imp.  He reveals that it is a powerful mask filled with an ancient evil and that it is responsible for the moon's falling.  With this new information and Tael's cryptic plea in mind, Link and Tatl head for the Southern Swamp.

It is at this point that the story ceases to be linear.  There is still a primary storyline to follow, but it consists of several different stories being told simultaneously.  In addition, there are several secondary storylines (again, occurring at the same time) that can be explored.  You see, everyone in Termina has their own story and their own problems.  Termina is a broken land, and Link cannot truly "save" it simply by making the largest problem go away.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

One of these stories occurs in the Southern Swamp.  When Link arrives, the swamp is polluted to poisonous levels and has become a battleground between a tribe of Deku Scrubs and a pack of monkeys.  The Dekus believe that a monkey has kidnapped their princess, and if she is not returned in three days, the monkey is to be boiled alive in a pot of water as punishment.  However, the monkey is innocent.  He was simply exploring the nearby Woodfall Temple with the princess when she was captured.  Link must go to Woodfall Temple himself to free her.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

Within the depths of the temple, Link encounters the "Masked Jungle Warrior" Odolwa.  After defeating the masked being, a spirit is freed.  Link meets a giant guardian, who tells him to free three others like him, each one's location corresponding to one that Tael gave Tatl and him, as he is unable to assist Termina alone.  He teaches Link a song to call the four of them before departing.  Link then rescues the kidnapped princess and saves the monkey.  In gratitude, the Deku Butler prepares a gift for him (a certain mask), but first challenges him to a race.  You see, Link's Deku form reminds him of his son....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

Meanwhile, the northern mountains in Snowhead have been hit by an unnaturally long and harsh winter.  Link travels there to find the next giant and encounters the ghost of Darmini III, a Goron hero who died on a journey to Snowhead Mountain to find the cause for the long winter.  He is full of regret, but after Link plays the Song of Healing for him, he passes on, leaving behind a mask that Link can, once again, use to take his form.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

To avoid the same fate, Link must learn a lullaby to bypass a giant Goron spewing a blizzard across the mountain.  This requires both saving an elderly Goron patriarch from an icy grave and consoling his crying infant son.  Link must bring comfort to both of them in order to proceed.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

After Link enters the temple and defeats Goht, the "Masked Mechanical Monster," the winter in Snowhead ends and gives way to spring.  With the ice gone, the patriarch can be reunited with his crying son, and the Gorons celebrate.  The patriarch mistakes Link for Darmini and offers to step down so that the Goron hero can take his place as leader of the tribe.  However, Link has other things to do....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

The once-pristine waters of the Great Bay in the west are clouded and murky, and the water temperature is rising to dangerous levels.  When Link arrives, he finds seagulls circling around a Zora in the water.  He pushes the Zora, named Mikau to shore.  Mikau then tells Link of his plight: some Gerudo pirates have stolen the eggs of Lulu, a female Zora who has fallen mute. Mikau is in a band called the Indigo-Go's with her and the two seem to have a close relationship.  He attempted to infiltrate the Gerudo fortress, but ultimately failed and was heavily injured.  Link soothes the dying Zora's soul, once more leaving a mask that Link can use to take his form.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

The Indigo-Go's are stressed over the whole situation.  Apart from their usual drama, Lulu has lost her voice and Mikau has gone missing.  What's worse, they are scheduled to play in the festival in Clock Town.  Link consequently attempts to get Lulu's eggs back, braving the pirates' fortress and the undersea depths.  It is not a simple task to save all seven eggs, but he eventually manages to rescue them and find a place to hatch them.  When they do, they teach him a song that Link plays for Lulu, restoring her voice.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

The song awakens a guardian of the sea, a giant turtle who ferries Link to the Great Bay Temple.  There Link defeats Gyorg, the "Gargantuan Masked Fish," cleansing the ocean and freeing a third Giant, who implores Link to save the final one.  And so Link sets off to one final area....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

  

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

While the majority of Termina is in varying degrees of denial or panic, the eastern Ikana Canyon remains unperturbed.  This is because Ikana Canyon is dead, and has been for years.  Past the river, almost nothing grows, and there are only two living inhabitants: a little girl and her father--who is, for some reason, becoming a mummy-like Gibdo.  Link, reacting instinctively upon seeing him, attempts to attack--but the little girl leaps in front of him, protecting her father despite his appearance.  Link is able, however, to heal the man's soul, restoring him to his human form.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

However, even the undead inhabitants are not at piece.  The Gibdos in the dried well seek items.  Two Poe brothers are feuding.  The giant skeletal captain, Skull Keeta, is plagued by his failure during his life.  Igos du Ikana, the undead king, must deal with the evil sleeping through the spirits from one of the Skull Kid's curses.  Link sets out on a quest to the Stone Tower Temple to free the fourth Giant and free Ikana from its curse.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

The journey to Stone Tower Temple is not an easy one.  It is a difficult ascent up a series of cliffs.  A single mistake means a deadly plunge.  But Link perseveres.  He reaches Stone Tower Temple and maintains the courage necessary to pass through--even when the temple's mysterious properties reverse gravity and he has to avoid falling into the sky itself.  After one final grueling race against the clock, he defeats the "Giant Masked Insect," a pair of enormous wormlike creatures known as Twinmold.  He frees the last of the Four Giants.  But his quest is not yet over....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

  

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

Healing Termina is not as simple as merely stopping the moon.  There are many people who need help in their own little ways.  For example, a young girl by the name of Romani, named after the ranch her older sister Cremia runs.  Cremia is ignoring her warnings about the otherworldly "Them" that Romani is expecting to show up and steal their cattle, waving them off as a child's fantasies.  She asks for Link's help defending their cows from Them, to which he agrees.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

If Link fails to save the ranch, Romani is abducted along with the cows.  She is returned later, though her memories of Them are missing and her personality seems slightly changed.  If, however, Link is able to succeed, Romani gives him an gift and her gratitude.  But Romani Ranch's troubles still aren't over.  Cremia must transport their wares to the Milk Bar in Clock Town, but a pair of bandits have been attacking her and keeping her from doing any business.  Link must help protect her as well.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

Cremia also rewards and thanks Link for his help.  With the stressful events removed from their life, Cremia and Romani are able to spend more time together and grow to understand each other.  Though Cremia originally believed Romani too young to go to the festival in Clock Town, in the final hours before the moon falls, she offers to let her drink their ranch's specialty milk, a drink reserved for adults.  Romani is confused, unaware that her sister now sees her as one.  Though Romani's adult life will almost certainly be short-lived....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

  

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

One of the first things that Link sees on his first day in Clock Town is a young boy in a mask, who drops a letter in a mailbox and runs off, locking himself away from the rest of the world.  The letter, it turns out, is for Anju, innkeeper at the Stock Pot Inn.  If Link inquires, Anju will invite him into the inn later that night to tell him in confidence that she believes the letter is from her fiance Kafei, the mayor's son who has recently gone missing.  She asks him to find Kafei for her and deliver a letter.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

By following the postman, Link learns that the masked boy Link saw was none other than Kafei, cursed by the Skull Kid to appear as a child.  His wedding mask has also been stolen by a thief named Sakon, and with it missing, he finds himself unable to face Anju.  He resolves to get his mask back, and asks Link to give Anju a pendant to convince her to stay.  Though Anju is worried, she resolves to wait for him, despite her mother's suggestions that Kafei has already run off with Cremia.

Dawn of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

Kafei manages to track down Sakon, and enlists Link's help in recovering his mask from the thief.  Working together, the two of them manage to get the mask back, and Kafei runs back to Clock Town to meet up with Anju, who is one of the only inhabitants left in the town.  The two exchange masks and vow to stay with each other to greet the dawn together.  However, it is a dawn that may not come....

→ A ↓  → A ↓

  

Dawn of the First Day

-72 hours remain-

Though I chose to spotlight only these six stories, they are not the only ones who need help.  Everyone in Termina has their own story, and many of these people need some sort of help.  Not everyone needs to save the family ranch or find their unhatched eggs or keep a monkey from being boiled alive.  Many people in Termina have little regrets.

Dawn of the Second Day

-48 hours remain-

There's the mayor, who is caught in a debate on whether to hold the festival or whether to evacuate and is unable to make a decision.  There is Grog, who accepts his looming demise but regrets that he never got to see his cuccos grow up.  There is the mayor's wife, who is looking for her lost son, Kafei.  There is the injured soldier who no one seems to be able to see.  And, most bizarrely of all, there is the hand known only as "???," which is reaching out of the toilet and desires nothing but a scrap of paper.

Dawm of the Final Day

-24 hours remain-

But time draws short, and there is not time to help everyone, is there?  No, the moon must be stopped.  Link is able to ascend once more to the clock tower mere hours before the moon hits to confront the Skull Kid.  He calls the Four Giants to stop the moon and save Termina.  The victory, however, is short-lived, for the mask the Skull Kid is wearing is sentient.  It discards its host, forcing the moon downward itself.  Link, with no other options left, must travel to the moon as it attempts to consume everything....

 The dark, angry sky gives way to a bright, open meadow.  A grassy plain extends in every direction as far as the eye can see.  The timer at the bottom of the screen has disappeared.  There is only one feature: a giant grassy tree sitting atop a hill, beneath which five children play.  Four of the children, each dressed in plain white clothes and wearing the masks of the defeated temple bosses, ask to play a game of hide-and-seek.  The fifth, wearing Majora's Mask, asks to play a different game: "good guys against bad guys."  

Link is transported to a technicolored room, where Majora's Mask attacks him.  It is not a simple battle, but he eventually emerges victorious.  As the whole of Termina stops to watch, the moon dissolves into a beautiful rainbow orb, which shoots across the sky.

Dawn of A New Day

Link awakens to find the Skull Kid speaking to the Four Giants--who, as it turns out, are old playmates of his that he thought had forgotten about him.  However, despite all he did, they still thought of him as a friend.  The Skull Kid then turns to Link, who forgives him for his misguided anger under the mask's influence and befriends him as well.  The Happy Mask Salesman recovers the mask and finds that the evil has left it.  He offers Link a few kind words of advice before disappearing.  Tatl suggests that Link go about his business as the rest of Termina celebrates and, though her wording is harsh, thanks him as he leaves.  The credits begin, showing the effects of all the good Link has managed to do in Termina before closing on an image of a tree trunk with a scene carved into it: an imp, a boy in a tunic, and two fairies happily waving along with four giant figure in the background.

The End

Introduction: A Terrible Fate

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

~The Happy Mask Salesman

A boy pauses mere feet from the door at the question.  He turns, seeking the source of the voice, and sees a purple-clad man with a cheerful but slightly unnerving grin, doubled over under the weight of his pack, which is covered in masks.  His companion, a small, yellow fairy, instinctively darts behind him to hide.

"I own the Happy Mask Shop.  I travel far and wide in search of masks... During my travels, a very important mask was stolen from me by an imp in the woods."

The boy is intrigued.  He is, in fact, chasing an imp wearing a mask--an imp who cast a spell on him, turning him from a Hylian into a Deku.  Could it be the same one?

"So here I am at a loss... And now I've found you.  Now don't think me rude, but I have been following you..."

The boy freezes at the man's next words.

"...For I know a way to return you to your former self."

How does this man know of his predicament?  How long has he been following you, and why?  But before he has time to think about it, the man continues.  "If you can get back the precious item that was stolen from you, I will return you to normal.  In exchange...all I ask is that you get back my precious mask that the imp stole from me."

The above scene from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask introduces a man known only as the Happy Mask Salesman, who in turn introduces the plot.  He is an enigmatic figure who seems to know far too much for a mere wandering mask salesman.  He knows of the protagonist Link's transformation from boy to Deku (a humanoid plant-like lifeform).  He knows of the theft of Link's ocarina, and he seems to sense the intentions of his quest.  And unnervingly, he states that he must leave town for an undefined reason in three days--the exact time, one soon finds, that a moon is slated to collide with the land Link finds himself in.  It soon becomes clear that it is not mere circumstance that connects Link, the Happy Mask Salesman, the imp, and the mask.  There is some deeper, hidden, string of fate binding them together, woven into a web of mystery, despair, destruction...and ultimately hope.

It is this mystery that drew me to Majora's Mask.  While I had played other games in the series, this one stuck with me in a way that none of the others did.  Though my opinion is often met with backlash, I firmly believe Majora's Mask to be a better Zelda game than its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (which is often cited by gamers to be one of the best games of all time).  Not due to influence or gameplay, mind you.  I will willingly admit that Ocarina of Time was far more influential and that Majora's Mask's gameplay (more specifically, the time limit in conjunction with the save system) was frustrating, but in terms of storytelling and themes, Majora's Mask enchanted me, and it currently remains my favorite game of all time.

A large part of this love stems from the fact that Majora's Mask is able to tell a story in a way that no other medium can.  The entire game is about a "Groundhog Day" loop, i.e. a story about someone stuck in a cycle of time (named for the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, in which the protagonist relives Groundhog Day over and over).  The implementation of a three-day cycle in a video game allowed the developers to do more with the characters and world.  The player does trigger game events solely by performing certain actions.  While the player's actions do, in fact, have impact on the story, there are certain things that only happen at certain times.  When you play Majora's Mask, you are not in full control of the story.  You are an outside observer, following people through their daily lives in Termina, helping with their little problems.  They become people instead of the mere item dispensers most video game NPCs (non-playable characters) become.  Majora's Mask is consequently very personal.

Ocarina of Time may have been exceptionally innovative and revolutionary from a technical standpoint, but Majora's Mask convinced me that video games could be art.

And it is in honor of that that I've decided to write in-depth articles about Majora's Mask, delving into the mysteries of Termina and its inhabitants as the moon descends, threatening them all with a terrible fate.  For it is this inevitable doom that provides the game with its atmosphere of dread and, consequently, the ultimate message of hope.

"But yes... You'll be fine.  I see you are young and have tremendous courage.  I'm sure you'll find it right away.  Well then, I am counting on you...."