The Zelda Project Part 5: The Wind Waker

Zelda: I'm On A Boat Edition

So, over the course of this project, I have banged on about three things constantly; 3D Zelda games look like poop, the story in Zelda needs to get a darker edge, and I hate water levels in video games. So you would think that this cartoon-y, childish, bright, happy game about sailing the high seas in search of your sister would be my most hated thing ever.

You would be wrong.

I absolutely love this game. Every single thing about it fills me with joy and happiness. I look at this game the way that most Zelda fans look at Ocarina of Time. This is generally considered the black sheep of the 3D Zelda lineage, especially when it came out. It was a game taken in a different direction art-wise for the series. While the previous two games had gone for a..."realistic" look with their visuals, this one was on the total opposite spectrum. I would fashion a guess that at least one of the reasons this game ended up looking like an interactive cartoon is because at that point in the console generation, graphical capabilities had not come very far. Yes, the graphics of early 6th Gen consoles looked sharper, but even with the shift to the Nintendo GameCube, the tech just wasn't there yet. Towards the end of that console generations cycle, we finally pushed the power of the hardware to it's limits. But it took until late 2004 to get anything even closely resembling real life. Take a look at these caps of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem from 2002 compared to Resident Evil 4 from 2005

 

The increase in texture and detail is a huge leap for the technological side of games. And much like today, the early 2000's gaming medium was normally more concerned with something that looked good first and had good gameplay to back it up second. The gaming public wanted something that looked good, which is understandable. From the jumps in Intellivision games to what the N64 could do, each generation of consoles was supposed to bring its own revolution in the visual department. I don't have anything to back up this assumption of hardware limitation being the reason for the shift, but I did do a little research to figure out why they went with this art style. To most gamers, this is probably common knowledge, but this was all new to me. So here's what I found:

In 2000, Nintendo released a demo video hyping the GameCube that featured a clip of Link fighting Ganon. And it was in a "realistic" art style in the vein of  Ocarina of Time, but hugely improved in terms of texture and facial detail. It didn't show much, but it was enough to make viewers pee their pants. But somewhere along the way, the development team felt they had done all that they could with this style and needed something fresh. So they utilized a cel-shaded graphical engine that was initially protested by fans, but honestly has made it hold up so much better than it's contemporaries both in the Zelda franchise and among other titles released at the time. While games like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Halo, and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem now look incredibly dated, they still have solid gameplay that has stood the test of time. But Wind Waker is stylized and has aged like fine wine and has even tighter gameplay than any of it's predecessors.

At The Time/Background

This game came out in 2003. If we look back to the other entries in this project, you can see that by this point I was burnt out of games. A lot of stuff had happened in my young personal life that derailed a lot of my interests. But something caught my eyes around this time. A little game called Super Smash Bros. Melee. At this point, stores like GameStop had shown up around my tiny town that introduced me to a whole new world of gaming. I was no longer alone in my interests. In addition I started getting a magazine called Tips and Tricks, which had been running for nearly a decade before I got my hands on an issue and convinced my mom to get me a subscription. 

For those too young to remember, video games used to have cheat codes. It was a magical time filled with infinite ammo, invisibility, and big head modes. And it's a time I truly miss. Tips and Tricks not only had cheats for almost every game out at the time, but it also had full page spreads on what was coming out soon. AND tips on the games themselves. One particular issue had a 5 page spread on this new entry in the Smash Bros franchise; how to unlock all of the characters, the arenas in the game, and techniques to beat the adventure mode. This was my gateway into seeing who was in the sequel to the N64 game I played more than any other in my library. I was stoked for it.

So, for Christmas that year I asked my family for a GameCube, so I could have the new Smash Bros game. I dropped hints all over the place; asking and begging repeatedly. And finally Christmas 2002 happens and I get...a PlayStation 2. In hindsight, this was probably the best thing that could have happened because the PS2, in my personal opinion, is the greatest system ever released. It was the console that rejuvenated my interest and actually made me care about video games not only as mindless entertainment, but as an art form and a platform as viable as print or film. I was bummed at first about not getting the GameCube, but after I also opened WWF SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth, and later saved up money to buy Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (my absolute favorite game of all time), the thought of owning a GameCube went away. Sure, there were glimmers of lust still remaining; playing the demos for Metroid Prime and Viewtiful Joe at my local Wal-Mart, going to a friends house and being introduced to Animal Crossing, and occasionally getting to play Super Smash Bros. Melee at Sam's Club. They all enticed me, but for nearly a decade the little system that could alluded my grasp.

Then college came about and everyone in college plays Super Smash Bros. So I got the itch to play again. Eventually I bought myself a GameCube and at present I trying to build up my collection of the games I always wanted to play but missed out on. But even after I got the system, I never had the urge to buy Wind Waker. Instead, I decided to wait and get it once I bought my Wii U. At the time I purchased the system, Nintendo was running a deal where you could pick one of four games for free with the purchase of Mario Kart 8, a game I had intended to buy at launch. You could choose between Nintendo Land, Pikman 3, Wii U Party, or Wind Waker HD. So the choice was obvious. I added Wind Waker to my meager library of games for the new console. And instead of playing it, I played The Wonderful 101 (which is hugely underrated and should be played by everyone). It got put in my backlog with hundreds of others. I figured I'd get to it eventually, or at least try it after I played the copy of Super Metroid I bought on the virtual console 378 times.

At any rate, after the torture that was playing Zelda 2 and my original agony playing Ocarina of Time, I was ready to give up on the franchise for good. But against my jaded judgement, I fired up Wind Waker HD and I fell in love.

In The Beginning

For the first time since Link To The Past, this game starts out with a text scroll setting the stage for the state of Hyrule. Except, this time...Hyrule isn't really there. After the Hero of Time defeated Ganon, he disappeared. Unfortunately for the kingdom, Ganon came back to terrorize them once more. The people of Hyrule wait for the Hero to return, but he never does. Defeated, the people pray to their Gods to save them and the world. The Gods respond by flooding and drowning Hyrule. That'll show him! It will also kill everyone, but hey...no more Ganon, right? Well, the survivors now hand down this legend of the hero of time by dressing all boys on these islands in Link cosplay when they come to a certain age.

So we start on Outset Island, sleeping in your lobster pajamas on a crows nest overlooking the ocean. Your sister Aryll comes to wake you up and tell you that Grandma is looking for you. It's your birthday! Yay! You run home and Grandma makes you put on the Link cosplay. The game then goes on to joke about how they are impractical and hot for a summer-like island. Once you go back outside, you see a giant bird carrying some girl. The bird is being chased by pirates that shoot it, causing the girl to fall from it's large talons into a forbidden forest.

So you grab a sword and go to save her. You get to her just as the pirates arrive and announce her as their fearless captain Tetra. You all leave the forest only to see the bird fly back. With horror, you witness this huge bird swoop down and grab your sister. You chase after the bird and nearly fall to your death jumping after it. A Rito Postman blames the pirates for leading the bird to the island, kidnapping Aryll, and disrupting your quite village. This successfully guilt trips Tetra into letting Link come aboard her ship in an effort to rescue his sister. So you grab a shield, say goodbye to Grandma, and get on the boat.

You head for the Forsaken Fortress, the haven for the bird and the center for a dark presence. You get close to rescuing your sister but also see other girls with pointy ears, something alluded to earlier by the Postman. Then the bird finds you and takes you to the peak of the fortress. And you see him...Ganondorf. He has you dropped into the ocean to die.

The Quest

But then you awake on a talking boat. Yeah, that's right. A talking boat. He's the King of Red Lions, and I imagine him being voiced by Sean Connery. He leads you on your journey, which spans all across the vast uncharted ocean. He says that, despite not sharing the lineage of the Hero of Time, you would need courage that rivals the hero's to stand up to Ganondorf and save your sister. Your boat says that to defeat him, you would need to collect three pearls that open up access to a weapon capable of defeating evil. If you've followed thus far in this project, you can see where this is going. You collect the three pearls, open up the Tower of The Gods and find the weapon it houses: The Master Sword, the sword of evils bane (again again)!

With the Master Sword in tow, you return to the Forsaken Fortress to confront Ganondorf and rescue your sister! You climb to the top tower, defeat the bird that had thrown you to your death, rescue your sister, and confront your nemesis. Unfortunately, he informs you that when you pulled the sword from the stone, you unlocked the hold it had on his magical powers. Just as all seems lost, the Rito Postman, one of the pearl holders, and Tetra all come to your aid to rescue you from eminent death.

You are then taken back to the Tower of the Gods with Tetra. The King of Red Lions reveals himself to be The King of Hyrule and reveals that Tetra is Zelda. He then sends you to search out the sages of the land to restore the power to the Master Sword. In addition, you need to collect the remaining shards of the Tri-Force (a task you can start nearly immediately after rescuing Tingle). You are sent to two separate islands, where you are met with an obstacle to get into each. And after you get the items that grants you access, you need to then get the replacement sages because...well...the original ones are dead. Finally, you have to go and get the sage and bring them to these islands to open the dungeons.

After you've gone through the dungeons, restored the sages, restored the power to the Master Sword, and collected the Tri-Force shards, it's time for the big challenge; Ganon's Tower.

You return to the Tower of the Gods and you're greeted to Ganondorf mocking you. You break the seal separating the castle from Hyrule Field and trek to Ganon's Tower. You make your ways through the halls, defeating enemies and solving the final few puzzles. Then, it's time.

The fight with Ganondorf is awesome. It's for sure the hardest boss battle in the game and one of the most visually satisfying fights I've experienced in a while. It's fast and furious, and features what has to be his coolest design thus far in the series, this time wielding dual swords and pulling off flippy shit. The ending is one of the most sudden, intense moments I've seen in a game in a long time.

You are then told that Hyrule will remain drowned under the ocean and that it is up to you to find a new land and start anew. So you sail off into the sunset, looking for your new kingdom to put trains on someday.

Choo-Choo! Hero of Trains coming through!

The Criticism

You know, I really hope that someday the Zelda franchise learns how to program targeting. Zero Punctuation likes to poke fun at this, but for real, even in a 2012 HD remake, the game's targeting is still as clunky and dysfunctional as it was for the N64.

The HD remaster also adds bloom effects EVERYWHERE. I've gone back and looked at the GameCube version and the graphics looked fine. The bloom is really unnecessary and really takes me out of some parts of the game; anything with a sky box is just drowned out with bloom.

It was also disappointing to only have two REAL dungeons in this game. There are maybe six total if you count ones that don't have the word "temple" or "dungeon" in it. If you include the ones that don't, that's still only six; perhaps standard fare for the past 3D games, but this is a next gen Zelda game. And for a game that feels as big as this one does, there should definitely be more. Maybe this is a personal complaint because to me it didn't derail the pace or anything, I just expected it to last longer. And to be honest, it might be the same length as the other games; it might just be because I trudged through Ocarina and Majora's but I actually really, REALLY enjoyed this one and wanted it to keep going. From start to finish, I was hooked and couldn't stop playing; as opposed to the last two, where I thought they were boring until the third act.

I will say that the Tri-Force shard collection feels a bit too much like filler for my tastes, but I do think it still adds to the whole "going on a treasure hunt" thing the game is going for. So in that regard, I guess it works. It also just feels like things were cut out of it. Some of the progression items in the game are literally just handed to you, like the third pearl to unlock the Tower of The Gods. I feel that if Nintendo actually included a couple more dungeons I would look at this section with a little more positivity. But having a shorted game isn't the end of the world; in fact at this point in my life, I welcome shorter games. But I still feel there could have been so much more done with the world they created with this title and it wouldn't have overstayed it's welcome

However, the annoying gimmick from the Earth and Wind temples certainly DID overstay it's welcome. The only two real dungeons have this mechanic where you have to use a song to take over a companion and use them to help solve puzzles. It's awful, mostly because it's time consuming to whip out your Wind Waker, play the song, then send the character to do his part, then do your part. It's tedious and it sucks that it's in back to back dungeons.

Beyond that, Wind Waker has by far the least challenging boss battles in the franchise thus far, with only Ganondorf and the boss from the Wind Temple being at all interesting or hard. It's a very easy game when all is said and done, and aside from literally one puzzle (involving a mechanic the game never bothers to teach you about), I didn't look anything up.

So, before some positives, lets talk about the differences in the HD version. Most of it is minor, but I'll still cover them. For one, the way you get the Tri-Force shards has been streamlined and is much, MUCH cheaper and faster. Before, you had to find eight charts, all of which you had to pay Tingle to decipher. Then you had to use the charts to find the eight shards. Now there are three charts, and five shards right off the bat. It's a little weird that they didn't just put only the shards, but I guess since Tingle was already in the game, they still wanted him to have a purpose. There's also a little icon under you when you use Deku Leaf that shows where you land, which would have been useful in Majora's Mask with the Deku Scrub's ability. And, probably the most important improvement, you can get the Swift Sail, an item that speeds up how fast you sail the ocean and changes the wind as you turn.

So, this game has a lot of pretty glaring flaws. It's easy, it's relatively short, it's a bit samey...why do I like it so much compared to (arguably) better games in the series? For starters, part of what I love about this game (that I guess a lot of people don't) is the sailing. The ocean is beautiful to look at, the music while you sail is inspiring, and it actually feels like an adventure. The ocean is alive, with enemies, storms running through the sea, and new islands to discover everywhere. Is everything as exciting as the main islands? No. But even if Nebraska isn't as exciting as New York, people still live there or pass though for a visit. Who are you to doubt Nebraska?

The point is, the ocean may be vast, but for me, it's anything but boring. Hyrule Field in Ocarina is boring. It's a bunch of empty nothing between main areas. The ocean has so much to offer. And once you get the Swift Sail in the HD version, everything gets even better! You get the excitement of sailing the ocean in half the time AND without having to stop to change the wind direction. For me, it's a perfect compromise; all the positives about sailing with none of the negatives. But, I waited until I was basically done with the game to get it because I just enjoyed the sailing. If I was stretched for time, I used the tornadoes to get close and go from there, which is also a nice compromise because it's an ability that you can get right as sailing would wear thin for the average player. I need to stress this again, the sailing feels epic to me. The feeling of being on a sprawling quest is something that none of the other Zelda games before this one had been able to achieve.

But it's not just the environment that makes this game epic for me; I believe it's also because of the reason you start on your quest. In Ocarina, the Deku Tree is like "Link, go save the world because it's your destiny". In Majora's Mask you save the world because you're the only one with the ability to break curses and heal with the power of music. In Link to the Past, Zelda literally calls you VIA her telekinetic phone powers to tell you she needs YOU to save her. In Wind Waker your sister gets kidnapped, it makes your grandma sad, and you set out to save her. Despite gaining the Master Sword, the King of Red Lions makes it very clear that you do not share the same blood line with the hero of time. You are not the chosen one. So you literally are doing it to save your sister and stop Ganondorf from kidnapping anyone else. And sure, eventually it falls into the standard Zelda game with the dungeons and the princess and the Tri-force, but you EARN your hero status. It's not bestowed upon you because you're a weird fairy boy in a village of elves. You become the hero because you were put in a situation that required your courage. You earn the mantle of the Hero of Winds and that makes this a much more personal journey.

The music in this game is so damn good. Probably my favorite of the series so far. From the moment you fire up the game, hear the song in the opening cutscene, and see the hieroglyphs, the music hits you with gorgeous tones. The intro has pan flute and harpsichords throughout and feels more like suite than just one song, with movements and tonal changes as it goes on. It is mournful and triumphant in waves, detailing the start of your journey. The hub town songs are all a lot of fun, with all of them varying a lot from each other. Outset Island has a whimsical feel to it with light strings, Dragon Roost Island has a flamenco inspired back beat brought together with a pan flute melody over top. The sailing theme, Jesus...this song gets me pumped. It just sounds like what you would hear in your head as you adventure. And yes, it is just the main over world theme re-imagined as this jaunty sailors tune. But it works. The dungeon music is back to being mostly atmospheric and soft, brooding tones, but it works as well.

The combat in this game has been perfected. The options for sword combat are so much easier to pull off this time around, and the new parry system adds both ease and challenge to the game. Timing is difficult, and now that enemies don't just attack one at a time, you have to be on your toes to find who to dodge; if you even want to use that function for defense. Your side arms do more now; you can hookshot directly at an opponent and go to them instead of just stunning them like before. You can target up to five enemies or items with the boomerang, making quick work of enemies that had become tedious in 3D like the bats. And you can also freely move while you aim your bow this time, so you aren't a sitting duck anymore in a fight looking for an enemy all across the rooms. I hope going forward that the games to follow use this combat system as a base, and don't try to implement some weird motion control garbage.

Ths iz joek, plz typ waitris

This Link is by far my favorite Link of the series, and I've seen enough of Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild to know that my opinion is unlikely to change. Link has always been a vessel for the player to put themselves into, to play as they would play themselves. He's an avatar, and nothing more. But in this game, Link is brimming with personality; something I always felt a narrative heavy series like Legend of Zelda needed. He actually reacts to events around him; his facial and verbal expressions make the experience more personal and enjoyable. I identify with this Link more than I do plank of wood Link from Ocarina of Time. I love that he just falls into being a hero. He exemplifies what Link is supposed to represent within the lore of the series: Courage. Link pulls up his boots and goes out to save his sister, and later Hyrule itself. I mentioned it before, but I like that he's not a chosen hero; he just happened to be at the right place at the wrong time. The power of the Tri-Force is bestowed upon him because he earned it, not because he was told to earn it.

And that's how I feel about this whole game. It is more personal, at least for the first two thirds of the game. The typical Zelda tropes show up in the final act, but by that time I'm already invested in Link and Tetra as characters to care about them falling into a slight monotony. Link's arc of lazy slacker to Hero of Wind is standard storytelling, but the standard exists for a reason and is the first time Nintendo decided to give him a real arc besides being a born hero. It works, and it makes you root for him.

I trudged through the last two games because I started this series and told myself I needed to finish them. By the end, they were good, and in hindsight I'm glad I beat them. Wind Waker on the other hand never felt like a chore. There are some grind heavy sections, most notably the Tri-Force hunt, but it never wore on me. I wanted to keep going and find what awaited me at each island. I filled the sea chart, finished most of the side quests, and at some point I want to revisit and try to do ALL of the side-quests and complete it 100%

Wind Waker hits a sweet spot for me, where it is the perfect length with the right amount of challenge to not be a cake walk, but also not make me stress too much. While I have to admit I don't think it is the best Zelda game, I still think it's my favorite. Unbiased score of an 8 out of 10, but deep down it's perfect for me. I understand why it's a black sheep of the series, but it's the one that so far I've enjoyed the most. It's bright and colourful. It's a joy to look at, to play, and to hear. And the swashbuckling tone makes me wish there were more games like it, not just in the Zelda franchise, but in Triple A gaming as a whole. Indie titles produce games like this all the time, but a big publisher rarely puts out something like this. Something that has a different, non-realistic fantasy look with bright, expressive colours and plenty of wit and charm. It is just a warm, soothing game. And I love it.

Oh, and one more thing. The game about water managed to not have a Water Temple. Take note other Zelda games. That's why this one is better than the rest of you.

Officially, this is where the project ends. This was the final goal, as Skyward Sword and the handheld games just had no appeal to me, at least not at the moment (or ever is Skyward Sword's case). But, there is another...One that I missed that was easier to obtain than I expected, and one that a close friend calls their favorite. As a favor to them for reading though these, and because I had been asked about it one time by a guy on Reddit, there will be one more part to this series. Next time, we have a Brucie Bonus review. By request, I'm going to play something a lot darker in terms of colour, a lot longer, and a lot more Ocarina of Time-y.

The Zelda Project Part 4: Majora's Mask

What a terrible 3 Day Cycle for a curse

From my experience, there are two types of Zelda players. Those who think Ocarina of Time is the best, or those who think Majora's Mask is the best. But, my scope of people I know personally who even play these games is relatively small. If anything, Majora's Mask is that one Zelda game that people who are fans of the series point to whenever someone criticizes the games for being samey.

"UGH! All these games are about saving some spoiled princess. I want something different!" - Some asshole, probably

"Well, why don't you play Majora's Mask?" - A Zelda Fan responds, out of the darkness.

And then maybe the asshole plays it and has a change of heart? I don't know, What I DO know is that Majora's Mask is definitely different, which is something I said I wanted when I first started playing Zelda games. Yes, I was that Some Asshole. I'm a Super Mario kind of guy, and lets be honest; that plumber has been places. He's been to space for Christ sake! Link, on the other hand has been to Hyrule and...Lowrule...and wherever Link's Awakening takes place. I just think that games should expand with it's sequels. A change of scenery and a change of pace.

And that is exactly what this game gave me. A different scenery. There is definitely no boring overworld here. Or a wood level. Or an ice level. Or a water level. Surely there is not.

Oh, there is? Well is there at least a Big World like in Super Mario Bros 3? No?

Welp...

At The Time/Background

Majora's Mask came out in 2000, so I guess my statement in the last review saying that by the time I had gotten my N64 all of the "famous" games were out was wrong. A quick Google search shows that that was absolute bullshit. Banjo-Tooie, Kirby 64, Paper Mario, Perfect Dark, and Conker's Bad Fur Day were all on the way. So, all these great games were coming out and I was playing WCW Backstage Assault, Hey You! Pikachu! and Croc 2. All of those games suck, by the way. I also got Pokemon Silver at some point, so not everything was bad, but the bad definitely outweighed the good.

I guess if I have to point out the moment I realized Zelda games existed, it would have been around this time. I used to see the box at my local video rental place. The mask on the cover looked really cool and tribal, and it definitely caught my eye more often then not. And like most interesting games at the time, it was always rented out. So, that small urge I could have had to play it was quickly dashed away. Plus, it was 2000, the year of Xtreme. So I was busy playing Tony Hawk games, flipping off of ladders onto trampolines like the Hardy Boyz, and wearing Chuck Taylor's.

This time in my life is really weird to try and pinpoint, because it was sort of a transition period. In my personal life, I had moved to a new town. And that came with a loss of some interests. I stopped caring about Power Rangers, tried to get into sports, and started focusing on school. Video games stopped appealing to me. Everything that was coming out at the time that catered to my interests was bad, and I complained about it. Can you guess what happens when a kid complains to their parents that their games suck? That's right, no more games.

This is also around the time that the local video stores stopped carrying older games, as in games for the SNES and Genesis games, which had more things I recognized and wanted to play. I tried to adapt to the changes, but the games just were not doing it for me. I distinctly remember renting the Digimon World game for PS1. I loved the show, so I thought "Duh! It's gonna be awesome!" I don't know what kind of game it was, but I do know that it wasn't for me. I don't think I ever figured out how to leave the first room.

My mom paid $5 for me to look at this screen for a week. Sorry Mom.

These kinds of experiences made me realize a couple of things. The first, which I'm sure is going to be an unpopular opinion, is that all of the controls for the PS1 and N64 games are terrible. There's not one that is good. Even games I love from the era, like Spyro The Dragon, Metal Gear Solid, and WWF No Mercy control like you're using a hot dog. And sure, there are some that control better than others, but just as a blanket, even the best suck. That's why I played this and Ocarina on the Zelda Collector's Edition that came out on the Gamecube.

The second is that my "types" of games were going away. The age of 2D action-platformers was over. Mega Man wasn't flashy enough for the new wooshy 3D graphics. At least not the Mega Man I know and love. None of the series I actually love survived the jump to 3D well aside from Mario. And to be honest, until Super Mario Galaxy came out, I thought the 3D Mario games sucked too.

So yeah, before this section goes on forever, I had just become disenchanted with where games were going. More on how I got back into games in Part 5.

In The Beginning

The game opens with a little blurb about finding your..."friend", Navi. She ran away, I guess, when you got sent back in time after the events of Ocarina. On the way you run into a bunch of assholes, namely a guy named Skull Kid, which is a shitty name considering there's a whole race of these guys. I don't know if any of the other skull kids have names or if they're all just called Skull Kid. Regardless, this one has a mask on. He uses the powers of this mask to knock you off of your horse and turn you into a Deku Scrub. Skull Kid then runs away with his two faries, Tatl and Tael. Tatl get's left behind and tries to help you, calling Skull Kid a jerk. You run into the Happy Mask Salesman from the last game, who tells you about the mask Skull Kid is wearing. Basically, it's an ancient evil mask that this creep shouldn't have had in the first place and was stolen from him by Skull Kid. He says Skull Kid is gong to be overcome by the power, and that you, Link, need to get it back for him.

Then the bullshit begins.

You see, Majora's Mask has this really amazing, super cool, totally awesome mechanic where the world works under Groundhog Day rules. You repeat a three-day cycle, jumping through numerous hoops, in order to be prepared to fight Skull Kid and stop him from crashing the moon into the earth.

Swiggity Swooty

So you live out the initial three day cycle, meet Skull Kid at the top of the main clock tower in town, get your ocarina back, have a flashback where you relearn the Song of Time from Princess Zelda and turn back time. You meet with the Happy Mask Salesman again, and he breaks your curse and reminds you that you need to get that mask back. And so you begin.

The Quest

So you're in Clock Town, in a three day cycle, and you have four temples to beat in order to release some spirits who will...hold Skull Kid? It's not really clear what they'll do until the end. I think it might be mentioned once or twice, but I missed the reasoning past Tael telling you to go to place. You just do it. And from here it becomes pretty standard fare for a Zelda game, just with a time limit, which makes everything better. The catch this time is that, instead of just using your collected arsenal, you collect masks of fallen heroes and basically assume their identities. Each of the three main masks has it's own powers. And you use them in their respective dungeons and to solve puzzles in the over world.

And so now we defeat dungeons in a predetermined order to get the masks. And they go in the order you'd expect, Wooded/Grass temple, Ice/Earth temple, Water temple, and then the outlier Stone Temple. That's right, only four dungeons this time.

Woodfall Temple is neat enough. There's some fun platforming sections (something that's hard to pull off with the primitive 3D controls) involving the flower cannons with the Deku Mask. The puzzles are well done, and some of the sections are pretty memorable. 

Snowfall Temple is...less memorable. It has some pillar puzzles, and rolling sections where you have to get to the top of this big pillar and get a rolling start to make it to the boss room, but it's more frustrating than it is enjoyable.

Great Bay Temple is actually not that bad, which could just be me coming to terms with water levels in Zelda games. Either that or I have some sort of twisted Stockholm Syndrome where I've read how terrible this is and it just didn't live up to that hype. It's thankfully much shorter than the original Water Temple, but the swimming physics and controls make it more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be. I will give it an edge over Ocarina's water temple, if only because it's a lot more straight forward. There's no switching boots and switching levels to get a thing to go to a place. You just get a thing, turn the water wheel, and go the other way. Easy peasy. Honestly, if it wasn't for the awkward swimming controls, I'd really like this one. Not great, but acceptable.

The Stone Temple is a very different dungeon, and the kind of thing that is right up my alley. Very puzzle heavy, lots of mini bosses and fun enemies to face, and a really, REALLY satisfying boss battle to finish it all off. The trip to get to the temple is pretty cool as well, which helped bring my mood up about this game. In fact, the whole section from Ikana Canyon to the finish of the Stone Temple is almost everything I would want from a Zelda game and truly is another great example of how the series builds up the games and saves the best Dungeons and sections for last.

Other than that last section though, there isn't a whole lot in the main quest to talk about. Honestly, it just breaks down to get a mask, go to the dungeon, beat the boss, reset time, and go to the next. That's not to say that this is ALL the game has to offer in the main quest, because there are sections linking the dungeons that are fun to play, such as the Canyon leading to the Stone Temple or the Pirate Cove leading to the Water Temple. But these sections are few and the dungeons aren't really long enough to supplement. But even if they were, nobody wants to play a dungeon for two hours because it feels like there is no progress made. It's really hard to find a happy medium with such little content.

With that said, the main quest of Majora's Mask is not what should get the most attention here; as anyone who enjoys the game will tell you. This game's biggest charm is in it's side quests, which I was reluctant to do at first. But if you don't, the game is harder and much more bare bones. The people of Clock Town are interesting and lead interesting lives. People disappear and you have to find them. People run out of toilet paper and you need to help them. Deku salesmen want a better place to operate businesses, so you find them deeds to different locations. It feels like a living world. It's one of the strongest aspects of the game, and makes it worth playing. The characters all have fun personalities, some have some witty lines, and a lot of them are off the wall. My favorite is probably the mailman, who you can find practicing counting to 10 in the post office. He says it's not as easy as it looks and challenges you to do it. And he's right, it's not easy. But it's ridiculous in a really charming way and is going to make me remember him long after I've forgotten the guy that takes over the ranch in Ocarina of Time (Melon or whoever he is, who cares).

Doing the side quests will bank you extra collectible masks that will eventually earn you the FIERCE DEITY MASK, one of the coolest designs in a video game ever. This mask was the incentive for me to try to complete as much of this game as possible. And believe me, as a person who hates jumping through hoops, this should paint how awesome this is. I'm not going to lie to you though, I did look up a guide to find all the masks. I know, sue me. But I wanted to move on. I still played the dungeons straight up, so I have no shame "cheating" to figure out where  to find the invisible dancing ghost is that teaches the twins a dance.

HE LOOKS SO AWESOME!!!

The Bosses

They range from bland to pretty good, but there's not much middle ground. The first two suck and the second two are a lot of fun. None of them stick out like Bongo Bongo, that's for sure, and because of that I never took the time to learn their names. There's Tribal Stereotype, who uses a sword. There's Lightning Rhino-Thing, that you just sort of run into a lot with the Goron Roll attack. There's GYORG, the armored fish, who is actually the best boss in the game. He hits hard, is an actual challenge, and was just pretty fun to fight. Then there are the Giant Twin Worms. And they were cool, but not as cool as GYORG. The battle reminds me of what Shadow of The Colossus tried to go for, except (and here's a spoiler for a 17 year old game) you get a mask that lets you become gigantic for the fight yourself! Even if it really is just a cosmetic thing, it makes the fight feel way more awesome.

The final boss is in a league of it's own within the confines of this game. It's an awesome three-part fight that I stupidly went into unprepared. But, thanks to my collecting and the FIERCE DEITY MASK, I defeated it in my first go. I don't want to give anything away, just in case someone reading is like me and hasn't had it spoiled for them, but the reveal of what Majora's Mask is and how the backstory to the carnival of time plays into the final fight is cool. It is admittedly not as good as the Ganon fight in Link to The Past or Ocarina, but it is the best of the game by far (go figure).

Despite them being 50/50 for entertainment value, at the end of the day the main fights leading up to the end don't have any weight to them. And that could just be because there's less of them. It could also be because the game took a different focus that left their defeat leaving less of an impact. Which is fine, it IS a game going in a different direction after all. In a game, you get gratification from defeating something. But that gratification diminishes when that enemy just comes back or respawns. It gets annoying and becomes a chore, but it's a design choice that in a game like Ninja Gaiden would add challenge. But when it's a boss that comes back to life after you beat it? Then it makes it feel cheap.

It is, however, cheap by design; the boss battles being undone with the reset of time is supposed to drive home how little impact you have if you don't stop the real danger. And because of that, I don't expect them to all have bosses as good as Link To The Past's. But just because the game is designed this way it doesn't stop me from feeling like I wasted my time when the bosses just come back. Not a total waste of time, mind you, but a waste none the less. It really starts feeling meaningless if you have to backtrack because you missed an item. Because if that item requires certain conditions be met that only happen AFTER you beat the bosses, then you get to fight them again! Yay! (This is sarcasm).

But hey, at least the game will just warp you to the boss if you have already beaten the dungeon, so that's a plus. And I only had to backtrack twice. Once for the sword upgrade and once because I didn't grab a mask after the first dungeon.

Don't get me wrong, the bosses are not bad by any means. It's just that they're barely a blip on the radar. And they just serve as an obstacle you have to get past to keep collecting. Because this game is not an action adventure RPG. It feels much more like a collectathon, at least that's how it feels to me.

And guess what?

The Criticism

I. DON'T. LIKE. COLLECTATHONS.

There's a lot about this game that I don't like. Charm can only get you so far. It just has very little to offer ME. I don't like side quests. I'm not a completionist. And that makes collecting everything a chore. And the boss battles, my favorite part of video games, just don't do it for me in this one. I will admit that as I went on, I enjoyed the game a lot more. But I had too many issues to say that I truly enjoyed it. The total package just is not as good as the previous games in the series I've played.

So why do people like this game so much? It has to be the charm of the characters, because there isn't much else here to offer aside from the REAL threat of the world ending, which is only a threat in theory; or unless you actively let the time run out.

And speaking of time, the time mechanic is so revolutionary and popular that the Zelda series, known for carrying over the best parts of previous games, NEVER BROUGHT IT BACK AGAIN. I'm not sure if people praise it because it adds imaginary challenge, or if the thought of a ticking clock makes people anxious and that adds interest, or what. But I do know that it makes the game into time management simulator. Which is fine and dandy; I mean, I love games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. But in a Zelda game it only serves to be tedious. Because, dear reader, if you miss an event on day two at 2 AM, you can't just rewind time a bit. You have to play the Song of Time to rewind to the first day. But, hey, you can just play the Song of Double Time to skip right to the second day, right? Yeah, unless the quest your on requires you to do shit on the other days. And even if you DON'T have any extra stuff and you just have to go to 2 AM on day two, you have to play the Song of Double Time THREE TIMES and STILL wait for the time to hit 2 AM.

And you know what? That's fine, some people are into that sort of thing. As Yatzee Croshaw of "Zero Punctuation" puts it, the world doesn't revolve around you anymore. Nothing is waiting for you. That's great. But if the whole idea is just undercut because you can control time itself, then who cares? All of your items carry over if you reset time, so you lose nothing going back unless you forget to bank your rupees. So really, you can just plan your timelines around it and unless you ROYALLY screw something up, the mechanic is just in the background. The time mechanic only got in my way once, during the first temple, when I ran out of time shooting an arrow through fire to hit a torch from a spinning platform. So I was forced to reset time and do the whole temple over again. And you know what? That sucks. But hey, immediately after that, I found out about the Reverse Song of Time that slows down the time flow. Which made the timer even less relevant when not doing side quests. So, yeah...I just see it as pointless.

It just seems so tedious. It's like the whole game is the Water Temple from Ocarina, but it's timed. And even though you have a rewind feature, it just comes across as pointless to me. Again, I see the appeal of it. I like the idea even, because in theory it builds tension. But at the same time it's like watching a movie with your friends, but that one friend we all have is talking over an important scene in the third act. And you miss something that's crucial to understanding what's going on with the plot. So you have to rewind it. But when you rewind, it takes you back to the beginning of the movie. And you can fast forward, but only to six predetermined spots in the movie and then go from there. Wouldn't that be completely awful? Wouldn't you just think it's a gigantic waste of time? Side note here; apparently it WAS such a gigantic waste of time that Nintendo changed how the the Song of Double Time functions in the (relatively) recent 3DS remaster of Majora's Mask by letting you pick where you move time to. Which, itself, continues to undercut the challenge and ominous dread of the game because now time is literally in your hands. So yeah, the time mechanic is broken either way. Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess.

And that's how I feel about most of Majora's Mask. That's why it took me so long to finish this game and write this review. At first, I thought it was just because I had played three other Zelda games back to back prior to this one. Then I thought maybe it was because it was so different from Ocarina that I was just having trouble adjusting. But now, finishing up, it's because it felt like a chore for 3/4th of it's runtime.

All of that said, I did enjoy aspects of Majora's Mask. I was really fixing to hate this game completely, but there is enough variety and excitement to keep me on a somewhat positive spectum. The different game mechanics that come with the masks are all fun to use. I thought it was cool that the masks give you different instruments when you play your ocarina. The side quests are all interesting, the characters in them are all unique and memorable, and it does fill me with a bit of jolly feelings finishing their quest and getting that little ribbon by their name in your notebook. The menus look a lot better with the gold aesthetic compared to Ocarina's multicolored mess menus. I like the new animations for platforming, where Link jumps and does flippy shit instead of just leaping forward. And the ominous tone is definitely welcome to me after my criticism of the tone in the last game. The moon is legit creepy, as is the mirror shield, and the "Hollow Soldiers" that you get before the Stone Temple

He just gives me the heeby jeebys

The story of the game has just the right amount of darkness and humor to tickle my fancy. One of the characters sings you his backstory with his dying breath, which was an unexpected moment that made a friend and I laugh and smile. The music in this game, like in all Zelda games, is pretty good. Some of the music is a lot darker and ambient, while others are a lot more lively. My favorites are probably the Song of Healing and the Clock Town theme, which both show the contrast in musical tone the game has to offer. And it's also pretty neat to get the origin of my absolute favorite Zelda song, the Song of Storms.

The game really picks up after the water temple (a trend that I've seen in these last two games), as that's where the puzzles start to become harder and the game's interesting ideas start rearing their head. From the final confrontation with Skull Kid to the ending stretch before the final fight, I was completely engaged and engrossed by the story. It became philosophical in tone and added a really ominous feel to what was already an ominous game. And seeing everything unfold made me glad I did some of the side quests, because without one in particular I would have had no idea what the end of this game was supposed to mean.

In the end though, Majora's Mask just was not my cup of tea; at least not most of it. Mechanically, there is nothing wrong with the game. It plays the same as Ocarina of Time, it looks basically the same, save for some updated animations and better menus, and your opinion on the time mechanic is going to determine if you think it aged better or worse. To me, it just feels like a chore to make it through the main game.

Fondly enough, the side quests make it feel like an actual adventure and that combined with the final act is enough to keep me from completely hating this game. Despite it feeling like a chore to make it though the entire thing, there were glimmers of a great game in here. I know it sounds like I'm beating a dead horse with that statement, but it is the truth. It took me forever to beat, I had to take several breaks, but I'm still going to give it a 6 out of 10. It is an experimental game that just isn't for me. Much like with Ocarina, I do understand why people like this game, but unlike Ocarina, it's just not for me. I know people that consider this game the best Zelda game, but at the same time I know people who think Skyward Sword is the best one, so yeah. Opinions are tricky 

I, on the other hand, like the game that I'm going to be playing next MUCH better. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it's my favorite Zelda game. But I have never finished it! So the journey continues as we move on to the next quest. And surprisingly, after all the bitching I do about it, it's a game about sailing. And you know what that means.

Water,

Lots and lots of water.

Be ready