It was initially conceived as a remixed "Ura" (裏, meaning "behind" or "the other side" in Japanese) edition of Ocarina of Time for the disc-based 64DD peripheral for Nintendo 64... -Wikipedia
According to YouTubers, this game is a metaphor for literally everything.
I played the 3ds remake of Majora's Mask here, not the N64 game. I know I know, I don't want to hear it. I'm too old for creative save mechanics, and the emulators I tried were plagued with crashes. I've heard it's a good way to experience the game, and it was definitely a good excuse to bring the ol' 3ds back out for a spin.
I never had Majora's Mask when I was younger. It's weird, because Ocarina of Time was my all-time favorite game back then (It still kinda is). That game is almost always talked about in conjunction with it's sequel/sister-game, Majora's Mask. Both were released during the era of the N64, a.k.a my formative years in gaming.
I can already hear you not asking me: "Why, why did you miss out on such a beloved and unique entry in the franchise?" Well, because it scared the shit out of me, that's why.
It starts right with the main cover design, with Majora's mask gazing at you from behind the title text. It's got the eyes you'd see on someone being possessed or something. Big round ones, forced open and eternally locked in a stare. Sharp green retinas impossibly contracted, set on sickly yellow bloodshot eyes. Oh yeah, and it's got spikes.
I did technically play it a couple times, my elementary-school buddy Scott (Shout-out to Scott) had it and would boot it up whenever we hung out a his place. It's just hella' creepy, you know? I mean of course it was to me, I was a wee little kiddo at the time. But even Ocarina of Time scared me back then, and that game is relatively lighthearted compared to Majora's Mask.
On top of the creepy and off-putting graphics both in-game and in it's marketing, it's just a depressing game. In Ocarina of Time, you'd only see before the catastrophe, and after. In this game, you see the during. What you get with that is mountains of tragedy, despair, and a general feeling of doom that oozes from every aspect of the game. The people you talk to are depressed, ignorant, or full on panicked. Everything is going wrong all the time here. Not the kind of thing that resonated with me in my childhood years.
It's also the way the game operates. The ever-present ticking time bomb that is the moon, complete with a doomsday clock displayed on the bottom of the screen. Hello anxiety! Oh, and when you reset time to avoid being exploded by said moon, the dungeons reset. All the quest lines reset. Like, what the heck! It was hard enough for 7-year old me to even slog through one dungeon in Ocarina, so you can imagine how mortified I was at the idea of having to return to a big scary dungeon multiple times.
It sounds like I'm shitting on this game. I'm not. It really freaked me out as a kid, but that made it soooo much better to return to as a big ol' adult.
I love Majora's creepy eyes now. I love the slightly off-putting characters all freaking out in their own ways. I love the grim metaphors doled out under an impending doom. Clearly the post-9/11 world has turned me into an emotional wreck, addicted to melancholy and generally unsettling things. But hey, here we are!
It wasn't all emo-gamer feels though. I'm glad I waited to play this, because some of the backtracking got pretty tedious. I won't lie, I made A LOT of trips to the Zelda Dungeon walkthrough (which really didn't feel great after my earlier playthrough of the first game). The dungeons and puzzles weren't impossible, but doing them on the final day because I forgot to reset time before entering made for a really stressful situation. I didn't want to reset half way through Great Bay Temple just to have to start it all over again.
On the other hand, ocasionally this made for some really awesome moments. Twinmold was a tough fight for me... Two gross-looking snake/bug things that were way too coordinated. I had finally taken down one of them and was trying to finish the job, but I couldn't nail down the second one's movement. I was low on hearts and the Giant's Mask was sucking my magic bar dry. I just couldn't manage to get a good hit in on that last son of a bitch. All of the sudden I hear the clocktower bells signal the night of the final day, and I realized I had to get mean and wrap this fight up before it's too late. It felt freakin' epic.
It's gross, is that his head stitched to the top? But hey it's also sexy, apparently. The Rosa Sisters are literally on their knees for the moves it bestows. I mean, just see for yourself.
Thanks for reading!