Majora's Mask

[david.dakota]

So you did, my bad for misreading your post. Still, I wouldn't get your hopes up for Mystical Ninja - Nintendo emulated the Expansion Pak with the Zelda collectors edition bonus disc years ago (even if there were problems) but we've yet to see one VC game that required the Controller Pak to save (which I think would be all none Nintendo published third party titles except CBFD).

 

Would it prove that difficult to rewrite the save code? ;

 

C'mon Disney, I want the N64 Turok series... Disney? Cerebral Bore? Are these actually related??????? My poor daughter!

[Hero-of-Time]

Another day, another MM post

 

As with all exemplary pieces of writing, Greg’s exploration of Majora’s Mask over at 4 Color Rebellion has rekindled some long-running questions about the N64 title and given rise to new ones. Across the wide expanse of the Internet, there is no shortage of brains in jars that can tell you why a grape is really an orange. But it takes a more thoughtful mind to realize that there are no definitive answers to be had. Yet there is much to be gained from having the discussion in the first place. While we can say that a game is simply a game, the rising influence of the gaming medium is challenging gamers as a community to create their own dialogue as consumers of other creative mediums of the past have done.

 

The release of a title like Resident Evil 5 has reminded us that as the industry continues to evolve, we will either nurture this dialogue together, or relinquish our right to the mass media through our silence and indifference. We can challenge the existence of maturity within games as long as we bring maturity to these titles as a community in return. This isn’t an attempt to drain the fun away, or change the experiences we’ve shared, but is instead a commitment to engage the medium we cherish with a level of engagement and respect we want those outside forces to view the industry with. And on another level, we must be willing to bring maturity to the medium if we indeed want to find it returned to us through future releases.

 

The framework Greg outlines about the fluke that is Majora’s Mask has broken a general lack of discussion about the game. For Nintendo, and the Zelda franchise, Majora’s Mask is every bit the anomaly that titles like The Black Hole, Black Cauldron, and Tron are to Disney. These titles seemingly break from a set tradition. And whether or not they forge new ground, they explore the possibilities open to the genres they stem from and the limitations of a more universal narrative.

 

As Greg describes, Link arrives upon the ground of Majora’s Mask, the victor of The Ocarina of Time, only to have everything that was gained in the previous title immediately taken away – leaving him powerless once again. This type of game-play is a legacy set down by Nintendo, and a template for the industry. With the exception of one beloved plumber, Nintendo’s other two most revisited franchises are built upon the concept of starting at ground zero, the player gaining more abilities and power as they progress throughout the game. And this concept did not emerge from a vacuum. What Miyamoto tapped into was the oldest narrative tradition of humanity, which he brought to the beginnings of the industry with skill and artistry, creating a series that is retold like the legends of old for each new generation of gamer.

 

It’s an idea already well explored by Eric-Jon Rossel Waugh in his dissection of Wind Waker:

 

“In this respect, he [Miyamoto] is essentially a bard. With a handful of details, a rough outline, and his whims, he spins tales for his audience. With every telling and every audience, his stories go down a slightly different path. No one performance is more accurate than any other; the truth is in the telling.

 

There is a reason why every Zelda game (save the odd direct sequel) is a new beginning, with a new (yet nearly identical) Link and a new Zelda. It’s the same reason why there are so many versions of Journey to the West or the legend of King Arthur, and even why there are such varied translations of an epic like Beowulf.

 

Our linear sense of time is only a recent innovation, as is our precise concept of history. Legends such as these are based in a world where existence is of a circular nature. The seasons come and go; like flourishes and wanes – and then it begins again, albeit in a slightly different form. For as long as this form persists, it is the only reality. Once it has been recycled, the same is true of its next incarnation.â€

 

The specific concept of regaining what was taken away is seen again with the release of Metroid Prime, but the Zelda series largely retains a more entrenched tradition of repetition. Like the oldest tales, the young and inexperienced is engaged by a quest to gain the wisdom and strength of maturity, becoming the person that can overcome a great obstacle. The brilliance of the application is the way by which this replicated the experience of engaging the new medium of gaming as the young and experienced children we were, matured to the process by the quest Miyamoto set before us.

 

And yet, Majora’s Mask feels like a departure. Link arrives already a hero, a man in his own right who is suddenly stripped of all he has earned. We are left to question whether Nintendo exposes a Peter Pan complex here, and whether they know what to do with an already proven hero. Repeatedly, Link follows the path from boyhood to manhood: the endless cycle of traditionalist narrative Nintendo brings to each new generation. But the aftermath of that journey, and what becomes of the man, seems to be a wall Nintendo retreats from.

 

(Now if I wanted to wander off, I could suggest that there is a parallel to the way in which Nintendo takes all of us gaming men and makes us boys once again with the wondrous charms of their products. But I’ll spare us all the trouble.)

 

What’s important here is that within Majora’s Mask, Link’s task is less about growing into a hero than of reclaiming that identity he loses at the start of the adventure. In doing so, there is far less focus on the growth and evolution we are accustomed to, though the act is similar. Instead of handling the presence of a matured Link, he is regressed back into a boyish state to begin the process once again. But what does it mean to be suddenly robbed of manhood?

 

Does this feed the desolation that saturates the world of Majora’s Mask? And can we explain the time mechanics that continually reset the world as a direct response to this state? Even the functions of the masks seem to feed into this idea. Rather than gaining natural abilities through growth, Link obtains masks that transform him. His new abilities aid his quest, but through an unnatural design that sees him taking on personas in the absence of his own identity. It’s as if Nintendo has no identity for a matured link, and can offer only the abstractions of alternative realities based on established concepts.

 

But we shouldn’t fall prey to a blind faith in designer intention. In fact, no other creative medium places as much emphasis on the intention of a creator quite so much as the gaming industry. In the literary tradition, the author isn’t necessarily a divine being who communicates secret wisdom directly to the reader – but instead uses a collection of experiences communicated through the work, which is dissected differently in turn by each person who reads it, themselves a collection of various and unique experiences. The entirety of this experiment is what creates meaning. And perhaps because game design is seen as a more intricate skill and artistry, we naturally lend more power to the intention of the creators.

 

But this does not mean that games are any less subject to the same freedom of interpretation. Again, there is no definitive answer. If there was one, it would change with the perceptions of each new society. We see things as part of what we are and where we come from, and are largely chained to that fact – much in the same way Link is chained to his world.

 

The element that Greg brings our attention to that left the most questions was the impending and repeating function of the apocalypse Majora’s Mask hangs over the player’s head with a heavy moon. Because of the ways in which Majora’s Mask breaks not only from its own traditions, but from that legacy of narrative that birthed it, it really seems to bring us as gamers to the end of the world. And when we ask why Nintendo doesn’t seek to achieve this anomaly again, I question whether Majora’s Mask can represent Nintendo’s apocalypse, and if there is any place for Link beyond the tradition he emerges from. It’s a question that goes beyond the game to reach the core of a greater human condition engrained within us. It questions what we know, and asks if there is anything new to be said, or if we are merely doomed to retell the same stories until a more natural end of time relieves us all of the burden.

 

It’s quite possible that within Majora’s Mask we are seeing the end of the world, arriving at the edge of a flat earth that represents the boundaries of where Nintendo’s design philosophies meet our shared narrative history. This isn’t merely Nintendo’s problem, but one the entire industry struggles with. The problem is that we can never see beyond the horizon of that end, because we are confined to the world that is ending. Instead, our world is continually reset, and as with the retelling of a story, we encounter the world once again, in slightly different ways that are none the less familiar. And yet, even if it seems impossible to see beyond the edge of that destruction, the sense that there is a new world beyond it persists. There is every chance that this apocalypse can create a new world. We can question whether Nintendo can take us there, but the larger challenge for the industry and ourselves is in finding the means to glimpse that other world by any means possible.

 

[darksnowman]

Another good read.

 

This part is funny: "The framework Greg outlines about the fluke that is Majora’s Mask has broken a general lack of discussion about the game." There's been no silence about MM in this little corner of the web!

[Grazza]

Are you sure you're not confusing the Controller Pak with the Expansion Pak?

 

Ah, that takes me back. It took me a while to remember what the Controller Pak was, but then I remembered I actually had one - for a game called Holy Magic Century (which wasn't all that great, but there you go!)

 

This part is funny: "The framework Greg outlines about the fluke that is Majora’s Mask has broken a general lack of discussion about the game." There's been no silence about MM in this little corner of the web!

 

LOL, that's what I've been thinking recently! Specifically, it's considered an underrated game, yet most gamers love it!

 

But yes, that was another good read. More philosophical than the last one, which doesn't resonate with me as much as analysing the gameplay mechanics, but I still agreed with it.

 

I particularly liked the comparison with the way King Arthur is retold (and Robin Hood, although it doesn't mention that). I always love to compare Zelda to Blackadder too.

[canand]

Who download this game on VC Last Night?

[Emasher]

Out of curiosity, does the Wii emulate the RAM pack fine?

[Sheikah]

Fantastic, it's on the VC now. I hope that the random freezing is gone - you'd lose all your data since playing the Song of Time due to the way it saved on the cube port. I hope it isn't the same here.

[ShadowV7]

Fantastic, it's on the VC now. I hope that the random freezing is gone - you'd lose all your data since playing the Song of Time due to the way it saved on the cube port. I hope it isn't the same here.

 

I started playing this on the N64 when I went to bed snad thought what the hell, i'll restart my perfect save and get no deaths. Then once I had to wait for the final day to get up in the clock tower that damn thing froze and put me outside of the hyrule/termina portal.

 

I'm willing to put this down to dust in the N64 and game since it hasn't been played in a while and this never happened to me before.

[S.C.G]

Replaying this once again - for the good of VC Weekly of course - and I'm really enjoying it; it's a classic piece of Zelda history and one of - if not the - finest entries in the series.

 

It's good to have the proper save function reinstated for the VC version, also afaik the freezing thing should not be present in this version seeing as it seems to be a port of the N64 version and not the buggy GC conversion, the expansion pak is emulated fine as well for those wondering.

[Jonnas]

Woohoo! Now this is an excellent surprise!

Downloaded it immediately, and I already love it.

[Sheikah]

I have it, but I think I'm going to region free patch the US version when it comes. The temptation to have a nearly 20% faster framerate and no borders is too much!

[Nicktendo]

I have it, but I think I'm going to region free patch the US version when it comes. The temptation to have a nearly 20% faster framerate and no borders is too much!

 

I'm hoping it comes out on Monday in the US. I would rather get the NTSC version :p

[DuD]

 

I was asking about this not too long back, and i've been scouring ebay for the collectors edition ever since.

Soo glad i failed miserably at the bidding

 

I get a better version for less cost. win win

[Shorty]

OK I'm happy to be wrong about it being forever away for us just downloaded it, first new thing on my Wii for about a year and a half.

[Tellyn]

Downloaded it yesterday, not content with forking out for a new console and lots of other goodies literally hours before.

 

I've just yoinked the Ocarina of Time back from Skull Kid and returned Link to his proper form. I'm looking forward to delving further into this today.

[stev2604]

I'm soo happy this has been put up. Can't wait to get some Wii points and just play it.

[The Lillster]

I got this on VC yesterday, i've been waiting for it to come out for ages. I have only completed it once and that was five years ago. Anyway, i've just met the great fairy and am now looking for those broken fairy things. And I havn't got a clue wha to do, which should make things interesting.

[Emerald Emblem]

My little brother saved up his Wii points and he has downloaded the game (after being so indecisive I downloaded it for him. :P ) to be honest he isn't all that impressed and feels Ocarina of Time is a stronger entry.

[The Lillster]

My little brother saved up his Wii points and he has downloaded the game (after being so indecisive I downloaded it for him. :P ) to be honest he isn't all that impressed and feels Ocarina of Time is a stronger entry.

 

Different stokes for different folks.

 

When I was younger I prefered OOT, because of more dungeons and the story seemed more epic.

 

But now I prefer Majora's because it doesn't feel like another re-hash of ALTTP and I find Majora's more challenging.

 

Another reason is I have only ever completed Majora's once, but have completed ALTTP & OOT countless times.

[S.C.G]

Halfway through the game now after downloading it yesterday to play through again for VC Weekly #91...

 

Just as Link has 72 hours in the game I've set myself a 3-day time limit to complete the game once again, so with any luck the review should be written up by Monday. : peace:

 

I have to say that although I have completed it before about 3 times? - still not as many times as I've completed OOT - because it's been a while there are a good few moments that feel fresh again on this playthrough, also in many ways it is superior to Ocarina of Time Imo.

 

It may not have as many dungeons but it does have special moments in the game that remain untouched as anyone who has played it before will no doubt testify; it's simply brilliant.

[flameboy]

So has anyone had problems with freezing? If they are missing I would consider getting this...I had two major crashes on the cube version which just drove me mental...

[Kaxxx]

Never played the cube verion, might get round to it, but never had any freezing issues on the N64. Its a beautiful, dark title that compliments OOT so well.

[darksnowman]

Yeah I think the VC version is an emulation of the smooth N64 code rather than the buggy GameCube port.

[Ike]

I haven't noticed any glitches in the sound so it looks like it'll be bug free. I've only got as far as getting the the Ocarina back though.It feels strange playing it with the classic controller, might switch to the GC controller.

[S.C.G]

It feels strange playing it with the classic controller, might switch to the GC controller.

 

GC Pad >>> Classic controller, this goes for all N64 games.