Well, my wife and I are about to play through Majora’s Mask for the first time. We’ve only recently gotten into Zelda games and have enjoyed playing them together.
Anyway, I’ve been reading about Majora’s Mask and have discovered it’s a “timed” game.
It looks like you repeat the same 3 day cycle over and over. My question is this:
Isn’t having the 3-day cycle reset annoying? I mean, open exploration is part of what makes Zelda fun for my wife and me.
Is there anyway to slow time down and speed it up or some other way to avoid getting pissed off when you lose everything you’ve done?
No, I didn’t find it to be annoying. I thought it was rather innovative for a Zelda game, really.
Yes. There’s the Song of Double Time for the former and the Inverted Song of Time takes care of the latter. And, for further reading/information, I’d like to suggest you check out gameFAQs.com. You can find some useful stuff there, you can.
Also, once you complete some tasks, essentially they stay completed. For example, if you get a treasure from a dungeon you keep even after the time resets. Its’ not like you have complete every single thing within the “three days.” That would suck.
Majora’s Mask, IMHO, isn’t as good a game as Ocarina of Time, but very entertaining and replayable nontheless.
Yes, but, no games are as good as Ocarina of Time.
The only gripe I had with Majora’s Mask is that it’s too short.
But do complete the Sun/Moon mask side quest, without using a guide if possible, it’s easily the best side quest in any zelda game.
I think Majora’s Mask is the best game in the series.
Keep notes of where you pick up each heart piece and skulltula. That way if you miss one at the end of the game you can figure out which one you missed.
[spoiler]Oh, right. The creepy quest where you hook up the 9 year old* and the woman with about 30 minutes to go in the world. You did that without a guide? You’re effing hardcore.
Yes and no. As already mentioned, any dungeons you complete stay so, and you keep all the masks and quest items that you pick up. But you do lose the rest of your inventory, including any un-banked money, when you go back to the Dawn of the First Day.
There’s a theory in Zelda fandom that Majora’s Mask takes place in the seven years when Link is unconscious in the Temple of Time, as a recurring dream loop/training sequence of sorts. Now, this is somewhat invalidated by the opening animation of the game (where iirc it establishes Majora as a bona fide sequel to Ocarina), but this is one game where the dream explanation would actually make sense and not piss me off as much as it did for Link’s Awakening.
Well, if you are half-way through a dungeon and the days reset, do the doors you unlocked stay unlocked? Or do you have to replay all the steps to find the small keys again?
It’s really not that bad – you can usually whip through a temple if you can’t complete it the first time, but to minimize that, try to start the temples as close to the first day as possible, and make sure you play the song to slow time.
The game is tied with Link to the Past as my favorite Zelda btw.
This was the game I got frustrated with after the ocean temple, shelfed for a year, and then decided to come back to it.
I’m glad I did. The game actaully gets better in the second act. The later dungeons are better and the ending is really good.
I think I would have been sorry if I skipped this one.
(I never use guides but had to for this one to get me past the “what am I supposed to do next” parts.)
The three day limit was more than enough to beat each dungeon, IMO. If you’re running straight through the game without trying to do many sidequests, I think you’ll end up beating a dungeon and then resetting, beating a dungeon and then resetting, etc.
When doing sidequests, however, is when the time limit is really used. Some things can only happen on certain days and some things need to be set up on the first day to do on the third day and stuff like that.
The core game (without sidequests) is nothing out of this world. It gave me a chance to play another Zelda game.
But the sidequests are what took Majora’s Mask from being a so-so game and turned it into a great game in it’s own right. I understand that that may be a reason why so many people didn’t enjoy it as much as Ocarina. But as somewhat stated before, is it really fair to compare any game to Ocarina?
And also, if someone did the Sun/Moon sidequest without the guide. Damn. Now that is hardcore.