Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo

Released: October 26th, 2000 Rated: E 10/10

Majora’s Mask is like the game Eiji Aonuma sold his soul to make. I play it and I just think of him and the other project leaders standing out at the crossroads, wracked with anxiety on how to follow up possibly the greatest game of all time, especially up to that point in history, and drawing up the contract that could allow lightning to strike on the N64 just one more time. And it does, oh lord, you had better believe that The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is every bit the masterpiece of true adventure, of storytelling, of world-building, of innovation that its predecessor was. But in its brilliance, you can’t help but think that this twisted tale of grief, dread, loneliness, mortality; of existential anxiety and forgotten gods and ancient monsters and the persistent mockery of death behind thin façades of magical wood and paint; that this is not the handiwork of the divine. Majora’s Mask and its land of Termina is a perverse mockery of everything we ever found in the land of Hyrule, and the perfect complement to Ocarina of Time in the Nintendo 64’s Zelda duology.

It’s unusual to do so, I know, but I think we can actually start exploring this by looking at the music. Unlike the rest of the game, it probably wasn’t necessary to reuse a lot of the pieces from Ocarina of Time’s iconic soundtrack. Recontextualizing integral parts of the score like Song of Storms and Song of Time maintains threads from the game that immediately precedes it, which is especially important as Majora’s Mask is a direct sequel, and we are dealing with the same adolescent Link from before. Other classic pieces like Zora’s Domain, the shop theme, and Epona’s Song also return in their appropriate contexts, but where Majora’s Mask really diverts in its approach is that many of its compositions are much more ambient in nature. 

Opting for a more sparse, often atonal style that’s rarely driven by melody, the through line of Termina as this practically alien, uncanny other world is on full display and works effectively to keep players on edge the moment they step outside of Clock Town. And yet, this is not even to say that Majora’s Mask doesn’t also come through with fully orchestrated pieces that rival those of Ocarina when implemented. The transcendent, swelling tones of the Astral Observatory, the delightful melody of Clock Town that speeds up with each passing day to highlight the sense of urgency, the mournful yet intimidating Song of Healing that plays before you step out of the Clock Tower, the only place in the world where your remaining time is not evaporating in front of you. These compositions may not provide the reference material-level instant recognition of Ocarina of Time, but their ability to evoke the same emotional response is every bit as potent. 

It’s with this knowledge of the approach to the sound design that we can move on to other aspects of the game, such as the use of assets and characters we may have seen in Hyrule two years prior. While this may be an area where the reuse and redressing of established concepts would contribute more to the quicker development cycle, seeing how they’ve been used to make up the land of Termina is almost faultless in its cleverness. Even Termina itself, this odd, quadrant-divided world with only 72 hours left in its existence mirrors Hyrule with its large central field and the realms of its individual races along its outskirts. The mountain-dwelling Gorons, forest-lurking Deku, and aquatic Zora return not only as ambassadors of their respective lands and quests, but as mechanics integral to the adventure via the games namesake masks. Link himself harnesses these characters’ energy and abilities to explore the seas, float through the air, and roll rapidly along the ground like Sonic the Hedgehog in an inventory stuffed with over 20 other various masks, as well as many of the typical items from the Zelda toolbox. 

Using more than just the iconic races, specific characters we knew from our last tale have been recast in new roles, driving home more than ever the uncanny feeling inherent to these same but different surroundings, while our all new characters often have their own bids for the most unsettling. Of course we have our key players like the Happy Mask Salesman and the Skull Kid — the two possessors of the titular Majora’s Mask — but it’s jarring to enter the Southern Swamp for the first time and see Koume and Kotake, the bosses of the Spirit Temple and surrogate mothers to the great evil that is and was Ganondorf, running the counter for the boat cruise and brewing up restorative potions at reasonable prices. We meet characters like Romani and Cremia — who run their own ranch and even take care of Epona when she runs off on you, but who are not Malon of Lon Lon Ranch, but they do have a problem with some mustachioed fellows looking to steal their product. And aliens. They have an alien problem. Of course, there are original characters, too, and they’re perhaps the most oddball of the whole troupe — including Tingle, the 35-year old cartographer who thinks he’s a fairy, and a full Zora lounge band with you as the guitarist.  

Perhaps the most amazing and unique thing about this mysterious land, at least for the time, is the way it becomes such a living, breathing world. You absolutely feel it would exist and, ultimately, perish in a massive crater from a demonic, red-eyed moon, if you weren’t there to do something about it. The final, most jarring thing about the tone of Majora’s Mask, and the reason it will impact you so much, is that it makes you feel like you’re fighting to save a world that may not even notice, or worse, a world that you can’t actually save. Having to reset the world back to the beginning isn’t just devastating because of the unique mechanic or because you lose consumable items like rupees and arrows. It’s difficult to play that last note and whisk yourself back three days because the people you just saved up in their own section of the world will go back to the way things were. The Gorons up at Snowpoint freeze again under unseasonable cold. The Southern Swamp is polluted by poisonous sludge once more as you realize you haven’t actually fixed anything. The only thing to keep you going is the ultimate goal — saving the entire world from Armageddon — and the knowledge of everything that happens, whether you intervene or not like an even more twisted Groundhog Day, is part of your cross to bear. 

It hasn’t felt as necessary to discuss the gameplay side of Majora’s Mask up to this point like it has the presentation and story — usually the opposite of how I view most N64 games, really. But when it comes to The Legend of Zelda, there’s already a formula and there’s very little about that formula that needed to change following Ocarina of Time and its successful transition to 3D. Swordplay, item usage, bombs, bows, and the like required no refinement, they simply needed new places to be implemented, and the dungeons and other areas on hand in Majora’s Mask all earn their place in the pantheon. The only real flaws or lack of polish in the gameplay come from new concepts tied to the masks of the races. The Goron rolling mechanic in particular proves extremely unwieldy, but looking back on Snowhead Temple, where it’s used the most, I remember the creativity of the design and puzzles as much as the multiple tries it took to keep Link lined up to complete them right. And as long as they’re somewhat forgiving, there’s really no franchise that earns this type of forgiveness like The Legend of Zelda, the same series that gave us the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, and few would take that game’s countless accolades away over that. 

When you finally reach the end of Majora’s Mask, whether you’ve scraped by to arrive at your final confrontation with the Skull Kid, or boasting your full complement of masks and a completionist playthrough to rip through the final fight with the Fierce Deity Mask, you will almost certainly be moved in some way. Left to reflect on the near-lifetime our young protagonist has lived over the span of two games, it can make you question if it’s all worth it. A hero without a country, without a legacy, without a dime to show for it. Onto his next adventure. Like The Man With No Name, he has wandered into town and back out of the lives of the people of Termina with only a traveling salesman, a rambunctious forest imp, and some fairies to know he was ever there. 

And you, the player. There with him at every step of the way. Every light-footed dancer, every creepy old beach hermit, every departed soldier looking for his way home was your story to tell. Your task to pity their naïveté, your choice to remove the Sword of Damocles pointed above their heads. And with your legacy and all the emotions attached to it, you can do with it what you please. If the debate over video games as works of art is to truly be discriminatory — that is, that only some games can be called that and not others — there are only so many on the N64 that unequivocally deserve this designation for whatever reason. But I would argue that none truly stand out as a work of art, an emotion and thought provoking story of such beautiful and horrid creatures as the residents of Termina, wrapped around a fully and completely realized set of intuitive mechanics and presentation, as The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. 

Continuing Legacy

Though most Zelda hacks on the N64 opt to play around with Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask has recently enjoyed a comprehensive mod in the form of Masked Quest. An impressively complete undertaking, even if reviews on it appear mixed. Majora’s Mask itself has, of course, enjoyed a remarkable legacy, often considered the cult favorite of many Zelda fans in contrast to Ocarina of Time and other, less experimental entries. It has naturally been included in the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, and was remade for the 3DS in 2015. Like Ocarina of Time, many videos and projects on the topic of Majora’s Mask or the franchise as a whole opt for this version and its updated graphics.

Additional Information

Saves: Cartridge

Players: 1

Compatible with: Rumble Pak, Expansion Pak (Required)

Print Guides: BradyGames, Prima, Nintendo Power, Versus Books

Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 92.14%, based on 33 reviews

Other releases: JP, April 27, 2000

EU, November 17, 2000

My Streams

Commercials and Print Ads