The Zelda series has by and large followed the same narrative formula for nearly every single game: find the Triforce, save Zelda, kill Ganon. It’s hasn’t really changed that much in the franchise’s three-decade history but hey, no need to tinker with what works.
Then Majora’s Mask came along and shook everything up by going an unexpectedly dark and creepy direction, one that was genuinely scary at times. It was jarring at first but the teething pains were worth it because not only is Majora’s Mask one of the best games of all time, it helped push the Zelda series towards a better direction for its future games.
Speaking of great games, the GOAT team talk about ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
All the familiar Zelda elements were nowhere to be seen in Majora’s Mask: Princess Zelda plays no part in it, the sprawling land of Hyrule was replaced by more intimate place called Termina, the Triforce is unimportant, the ultimate goal is literally recovering a creepy mask for someone and everything else is incidental, and you’re given actual real-world time limit to save everyone (which you can rewind at any time should you fail to do so).
But perhaps the biggest difference is the dark, emotional weight Majora’s Mask presses upon the player. Saving the land from a great evil – which in this case is the moon crash landing and crushing everyone – is incidental to the game’s surprising deep dives into un-Zelda-like themes like the meaning of heroism, pain, and finding hope in the face of doom.
You’re given three days to save everyone in Termina from the moon falling, but the existential threat of a falling celestial object is just the tip of all the problems faced by the land’s residents. Majora’s Mask wraps you around the lives of its inhabitants by making you learn about their problems and secrets, and it’s up to you to help them.
Do you help them the folk of Termina with their own problems and help them achieve a brief moment of happiness before the moon wipes everyone out? Or do you ignore their personal plights by saving everyone from certain death but subsequently dooming them to a fate where they’re forever wallowing in their own pain?
Should you help the people of Termina, you’re given a token of remembrance in the form of a mask. These aren’t just gifts, they’re a symbol of gratitude for the brief moment of peace before the moon crash lands onto everyone.
An as a final kicker, all this ultimately doesn’t matter in Majora’s Mask. The aforementioned time rewind mechanic is a great little gameplay mechanic, but it’s also a way of telling us that no matter what we do, the inhabitants of Termina are doomed to repeat their mistakes and suffering over and over again.
Failure usually isn’t an option in Zelda, yet Link fails time and time again in Majora’s Mask, sometimes in dark and scary ways. But he still keeps rewinding the clock and trudging forward, hoping to do it right the next time. Majora’s Mask is about continuing to be a good person in the face of adversity as much as it is about magical masks and swinging swords.
Majora’s Mask showed it was more than possible to escape the established conventions of Zelda in creepy and scary new ways, all while still telling a compelling story. This in turn has helped influence most of the post-Majora’s Mask games in varying degrees.
For example: Breath Of The Wild literally starts after Link and Zelda have lost to Ganon, and Twilight Princess literally has Link fight a manifestation of his ancestor (hinted to be none other than the Link in Majora’s Mask) who is wallowing in regret for the people he couldn’t save.
It’s been the dawn of the final day for over two decades, but the moon will never knock Majora’s Mask off its perch as Zelda‘s darkest yet arguably best game.
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