Henrik Carlsson's Blog

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I did it! (Majora’s Mask)

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Two days ago (on Monday) I did as planned, played Majora’s Mask and actually finished the game.

I tried to help Kafei retrieve the Sun’s Mask but I failed. I did not feel like retrying the whole thing so I headed straight for the Skull Kid and Majora.

The final boss battle was weird, like so many parts of the game has been weird. And I mean weird in a good way. I really like Majora’s Mask, and I think I’d place it among my favorite Zelda games.1 I do however think part of the reason I enjoyed is as much is because it’s different from previous Zelda games, and because I’ve played so many of those. I wouldn’t recommend Majora’s Mask to someone who’s looking to play his/her first Zelda game.

Incidentally, my brother bought a Nintendo 3DS for himself for christmas. He also bought Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora’s Mask 3D, The Spirit Tracks (a DS title) and A Link Between Worlds. My advice to him was to start with A Link Between Worlds. I think that it’s a great ”beginners Zelda game” while still being a really fun one for the experienced player.

As a side-note, I really couldn’t bring myself to just try the Anju/Kafei side quest and then do the final boss, I also had to help Romani and Cremia. I just love those character’s so much and the battle against the ”question marks”/”aliens” with Romani is so much quirky fun.

Also, I bought Tri Force Heroes for myself.

  1. My absolute favorite is probably Ocarina of Time and I think the second place would have to go to A Link To the Past. ↩
∞

Turning play into work

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I think that by blogging about every step of my progress on ”Majora’s Mask and even more so committing to the idea of creating the perfect day in the game, I accidentally turned play into work because I haven’t played the game since conceiving that idea.

That’s a shame since I was so into the game a while ago and I really felt connected to the game world. So this needs to end.

The idea of the perfect day is dead, at least for now. Next time I’ll have an hour for leisure time I’ll play the game again and focus on reuniting Anju and Kafei. After I attempt that, whether I succeed or not, I’ll go for The Skull Kid.

∞

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Progress on the ”Perfect Round” of Majora’s Mask

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Today I’ve extended my checklist for a ”Perfect Round” from an earlier post. The checkmarks mark the things I’ve done in this, my current play-through.

People to help

Things to do

I’ve also started working on a ”schedule” of sort to help me keep track of what to do and when. (The arrow marks where I’m currently at.)

Schedule

  1. Get the Moon Tear and trade it for a Town Title Deed.
  2. Soar to the Southern Swamp and trade the title deed for a Swamp Title Deed instead.
  3. Soar to Woodfall and beat the temple boss.
  4. Deliver the Deku Princess to her father. (I forgot to do this in this round.)
  5. 2:20 pm – Wear the Kafei-mask and speak to Anju after the mailman has given her Kafei’s mail.
  6. Soar to Snowhead and beat the temple boss.
  7. Soar to Zora Cape, find the Business Scrub and trade Land Title Deeds with him.
  8. Head for the Great Bay Temple and beat the boss. (Done around 10 pm.)
  9. 11:30 pm – Speak to Anju in the kitchen of the Stockpot Inn. ⃪
  10. Run toward the north part of Clocktown and mail Anju’s letter on the way.
  11. 00:00 – Help the old lady in north of Clocktown as she’s getting robbed.
  12. 02:00 am – Soar to Milk Road, call for Epona and ride to Romani Ranch to help Romani.

More to be added.

∞

Creating ”The Perfect Day(s)” in Majora’s Mask

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This post contains spoilers for the game Zelda: Majora’s Mask (3D) and the movie Groundhog Day. If you haven’t played the game or watched the movie, you really should.

In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays an a**hole tv weather man stuck in a time-loop, forced to repeat the same day over and over again. He eventually breaks free, basically by realizing that since he repeats the same day time and time again, and thus has the ability to know everything there is to know about anyone in the small town in which is he is forced to roam, he has the ability to learn all that’s needed for him to help everyone have an as good day as possible. In the end he tries to create ”the perfect day”.

In Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (and the old N64 version) Link is forced to relive the same three days over and over again. As I play the game I help a lot of people with different things and I am rewarded in various ways, mostly with ”pieces of hearts” or masks. (Most of the helping of these people is done in ”side quests”. Not essential to the completion of the game.) The people I help are happy but once time resets their perils are back. I don’t need to help them again since I’ve already got what I need, but as I immerse myself in the game I have a hard time not feeling sorry for them as their problems come back.

As I think I’m getting closer to the end of the game I’ve gotten the idea to try and create a ”Perfect Day”, or more like three perfect days, for the inhabitants of Thermina. It will likely not change anything about the ending of the game but I will feel accomplished and happy if I managed to do it. The idea is to help as many people as possible with whatever I’ve helped them with in past run-throughs, before I finally head into the Clock Tower and whack Skull Kid.1 I know I will not be able to help every single person in the game in need of help, in a single run-through of the three days. I’ll have to make some prioritization.2

I’m currently in the middle of a trial run for this. In previous rounds I have finished all four temples so technically I could head for Skull Kid right now and finish the game. Still, I’d like to help some more people first and hopefully add them to my list of participants in the ”Perfect Round”. This round I’m trying to help the star-crossed lovers Anju and Kafei by retrieving the Sun Mask that the thief stole from Kafei. This is a quest that I have not completed before.

For this round I’ve made the following list of things to do and people to help. (Checkmarks indicate what’s already done this far in this round, around midday of the first day.)

People to help

Things to do

  1. I think facing Skull Kid is the way I’ll take the game to an end, but I don’t know for sure. ↩
  2. Perhaps a more skilled player than me could actually help every single person in need of help in one run-through. Perhaps not. ↩
∞

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Playing through *Majora’s Mask 3D*, third three-day cycle

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This is not to be considered a walkthrough of Majora’s Mask 3D. There are plenty of other great resources for that online. Instead it’s a ”journal” of sort for me while I play through the game. I wanted to document it for myself and figured, ”why not put it on the blog? It helps keep the lights on here”.

This was a pure ”collection run”. I didn’t make any attempt at anything that furthered my main objective in the game. Instead I started by going to the Swamp Shooting Gallery and winning first price; a Big Quiver.

I then spent my time searching for some pieces of hearts. I found one on top of a tree just outside the Swamp Shooting Gallery area. I then headed north of Clocktown and found a hole in the ground. Inside it I faced two Dodongos and after beating them I was rewarded with another (my seventh) heart-piece.

Once night fell I found Kamaro, the ghost dancer north of Clocktown and had him teach me his dance and giving me his mask. I then used the mask to teach the Rosa Sisters from the Gorman Troupe his dance and was rewarded with yet another piece of heart.

During the first night I also headed to North Clocktown and helped the old lady who sells bombs to fend off a thief. This resulted in me acquiring the Blast Mask.

Later I once again went to the Astral Observatory and found a Moon Tear that I traded with the Deku Scrub infront of the clocktower for a Land title deed which I then used during the second night inside the Stock Pot Inn. I mysterious hand reaches out of the bottom of the bathroom asking for paper. I handed it the Title deed and was given yet another piece of heart in return.

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During the second night I also listened to Guru-Guru’s confession at the Laundry Pool and was rewarded with the Bremen Mask. During the last day of this run I then headed to Romani Ranch and used the Bremen Mask to help Grog’s cuccoos grow. For this he gave me the Bunny Hood Mask which I’ve used a lot since then as it enables me to run faster.

Lastly I headed back to Woodfall Temple and killed the boss again so so I could retry following the butler in the Deku Shrine. With the help of the Bunny Hood Mask, this was no problem at all. Once I came to the finish line he gave me the Mask of Scent.

Finally I went to the Tourist Center to enter my pictograph of the Deku King in the contest but was told the competition was over, once again. The boat hag offered me another competition instead; target-shooting. I won that competition and was given a Bottle as a reward.

∞

Playing through Majora’s Mask 3D, second three-day cycle

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This is not to be considered a walkthrough of Majora’s Mask 3D. There are plenty of other great resources for that online. Instead it’s a ”journal” of sort for me while I play through the game. I wanted to document it for myself and figured, ”why not put it on the blog? It helps keep the lights on here”.

I almost completely dedicated this three-day cycle to the Southern Swamp/Deku Palace/Woodfall Temple. I started by once again acquiring the Moon Tear and trading it with the Deku Scrub infront of the Clocktower. I also used the telescope in the Astral Observatory to find which hole in Termina fields is the Scrubs secret stash. Once I got down the hole the Scrub sold me a piece of heart (my second) in exchange for not telling people his secret.

Then I headed to the Southern Swamp. Once there I traded the Land title deed for Clocktown with the Scrub next to the Tourist Center. Using his Deku Flower i launched myself to the rooftop of the Center and collected my thirds piece of heart. I also activated the Owl Statue in the Swamp and got the Pictograph. Koume, the magic hag that runs the boating tours of the swamp is missing so I headed toward the Woods of Mystery where she was supposed to be heading. There a monkey helped me find her. She was injured out because the Skull Kid had assaulted her. So I headed back out to her sister Kotake’s potion shop and got a red potion that gave her back her strength.

With Koume back at her place in the Tourist Center I took the boat ride to Deku Palace. There I spoke to the monkey outside and learned about the fate of his friend. Then I entered the palace, found my fourth piece of heart in the palace garden and made my was into the captured monkeys cage. He taught me the Sonata of Awakening and urged me to head to the Woodfall Temple and help the Deku Princess.

In Woodfall I activated a new Owl Statue, found my fifth piece of heart on a platform, talked to the remains of a fairy that asked me to find the Stray Fairies inside the temple and then I used my Deku Pipes and the Sonata of Awakening to gain access to the temple. I made my way through the temple, found the fairies and beat two mini-bosses and finally the boss Odolwa. When I fought boss I realized one thing that I think is different in the 3DS-version of the game, compared to the N64 original. In the 3DS version, when I fly in my Deku Scrub guise I can press a button and change camera-perspective to see what’s going on beneath me and also see a kind of ”bomb sight” that helps me land or drop Deku Seeds with better precision. It makes certain aspects of the game easier in a very positive way-

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When I encountered the mini-boss Gekko I remembered how hard I had found it to be the first time I faced it on N64. Now I know that I can just throw bombs at it when it rides the turtle. Back then I had no idea what to do and I also didn’t have any bombs left once I entered that room.

After defeating Odolwa I met with the princess, put her in my bottle and returned to the Deku Palace. After reuniting her with her father I got sent to the Deku Shrine to receive a gift for helping her. I was unable to keep up with the Deku Butler and was running out of time so I warped back to the Tourist Center and tried to submit my pictograph of the Deku King to the contents but was informed that it had ended. I thought that was because I was at the very end of the final day, so I’ll have to come back to that in another cycle.

Finally I warped back to Clocktown, stashed my rupees in the bank and played Song of Time to return to the dawn of the first day.

∞

Playing through Majora’s Mask 3D, first three-day cycle

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This is not to be considered a walkthrough of Majora’s Mask 3D. There are plenty of other great resources for that online. Instead it’s a ”journal” of sort for me while I play through the game. I wanted to document it for myself and figured, ”why not put it on the blog? It helps keep the lights on here”.

In the first three-day cycle of Majora’s Mask there’s really not that much you can do. I’m stuck as a Deku Scrub, so therefore I’m stuck inside Clock Town. I found the one Stray Fairy that was missing from the fairy in Clock Town. It was located down by the water in southeast of Town. She gave me magic powers.

I also collected some rupees, bought a map for Clock Town and completed the search for the ”Bomber boys” so I could join the ”Bomber’s Secret Society”.

Finally I went to the Observatory, found a Moon tear that I traded with the Deku Scrub infront of the Clocktower in order to get his Deku Flower. Then, once I where in possession of the flower I just waited for the final night when the door in the Clocktower would open.

When the door opened I used the flower to fly up to it. There I collected a piece of heart and entered the roof where I faced Skull Kid. I took back the Ocarina of Time from him, player Song of Time and returned to the dawn of the first day.

∞

First impressions of ”Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D”

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IMG_4988

Last week Nintendo released ”The Legend of Zelda – Majora’s Mask 3D”, a remake of the Nintendo 64-game ”Majora’s Mask” for the Nintendo 3DS. Some time ago1 I bought the N64-version and I still haven’t played it through to the end. It seems my current lifestyle just doesn’t allow me to occupy the tv for hours on end. It does however allow me to play short bursts of handheld games here and there. So when I heard about the 3DS-remake I went giddy with anticipation.

I’ve now played Majora’s Mask 3D for a couple of hours and I’ve got some early opinions about it. If you’ve never played it, neither for the N64 nor the 3DS, you can still read most of this post without having anything important spoiled.

The look and feel

The story and gameplay of these old N64 Zelda games remain very engaging to this day, but the look of them does not transcend time as well as one would want. The 3DS version fixes most of this. Where a lot of details in the original (rocks, patches of grass etc.) looks like a single boxy polygon, the 3DS version really gives you a whole lot more depth to the experience. Details are sharp and the world seems a whole lot more realistic and believable, without losing any of its wonderful fantasy setting.

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Playing the game

Majora’s Mask is a great game! Wether you play it on an N64 or the 3DS it is a really fun experience. The story is compelling, the puzzles just hard enough to make you slightly frustrated at times, the characters are well known to you if you, like me, has spent way too much time playing The Ocarina of Time.

Everything about the controls that was good about the original is equally good on the 3DS and some things feel better.

Important changes

The concept of time is very important in Majora’s Mask. This is just as true in the 3DS version. The way time is used in the game led to a very odd and confusing saving mechanism in the original version. This has been smoothed out a lot in the 3DS remake. This does not make the 3DS-version ”dumbed down”, it just makes it less confusing.

Want to know more? See the following footnotes for details that might contain spoilers.2

Do I think you should by it?

Of course that depends on so many things about you that I know nothing about. But if you are like me, a grown-up geek with a well-paying job and disposable income, a love of Zelda-games and some time to kill, the answer is YES GOD DAMNIT, YES!!!!!

But I don’t own a 3DS

I bought my 3DS for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Even if that had been the only game I played on it, it would totally have been worth its price. I’m sure the same is true for Majora’s Mask3.

So how far have I’ve come

I’ve just finished the first real dungeon. On my never-finished run on the N64 I made it through three out of four dungeons, so I have a pretty good idea about what to do next. I’ll likely blog a lot more about the game as I make my way forward.

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  1. Turns out it was quite a long time ago. I thought it was in the recent year but when I looked up the old blog post I realized it was in 2013. More than a year and a half ago! ↩

  2. In the original version there are two ways to save:
    1. You play the ”Song of Time” and return to the dawn of the first day. You’ll lose you’re inventory and the state of the land will return to the way it was at the beginning of the game. Collected masks and treasures will remain in your possession.
    2. You find an owl status and tell it to save and quit. When you start playing again you will be back at that very place, that very time. However if you quit the game now, everything since the last time you played ”Song of Time” will be discarded, unless you once again quit by talking to an owl statue.

    This is needlessly complicated for something that should just work. In the 3DS version you can still reset the time by playing ”Song of Time”. However when you encounter an owl statue you can save, but without being forced to quit the game. There are also more saving points placed here and there in the game. These are not owl statues so you can’t ”soar” to them, but they are fully functioning save points. ↩

  3. Again, if you have disposable income. Don’t buy things you can’t really afford! ↩
∞

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Zelda – Majora’s Mask

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I love video games, old video games. Specifically I love the games and games series I played when I was a kid. More to the point, I love Nintendo branded video games, especially from the Zelda Franchise.

A couple of days ago I finished playing Zelda – Ocarina of Time. It’s a game that I’ve owned for a long time, probably since it was first released in 1998. I’ve played it countless hours but I’ve never played it to the end before. I did however make it all the way to the final dungeon, Ganon’s Castle, back in the nineties. This, combined with the fact that Ocarina of Time has, until very recently, been the newest Zelda game I’ve owned, has meant that I haven’t really encountered anything new in the world of Zelda in the last ten to fifteen years. Sure, I’ve found new artifacts and hidden secrets in the games that I’ve played since then1, but nothing has been truly new. Until now.

Earlier this year I bought a used copy of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and on July third I started playing it.2 So far I love it! In many ways it really is a sequel to Ocarina of Time, more so than any Zelda game that I’ve played before. The game engine seems to be the same and a lot of characters appear or seems to appear in both games.3 Also the control schemes and a lot of the usable items are the same. In other ways it is a big departure from the previous games. (I’ll try not to spoil it for those of you who haven’t yet player it.)

The games in the Zelda franchise has a lot of things in common when it comes to game mechanics. (The game that stands out as the most different among the once I’ve played before is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.)4 New items and plot devices are introduced in each new game but the overall mechanics of the game are the same. In Ocarina of Time it was the Ocarina itself, the songs you played on it and the concept of Time that was the big new things introduced. The passing of time changed things in the game world and you as a player needed to do the correct things in the correct point in time. Without spoiling too much of Majora’s Mask, let’s just say that these two concepts gets magnified a lot in this game which makes for a different experience compared to the other games in the series. It also means I need to approach playing it in a new way. Especially the first six to eight hours of playing, before I knew what I was doing, felt very awkward but in a good way.

Now, after something like fifteen hours of game play, I’m far into the first real dungeon and I just love playing this game. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that it is the first time in a long time that I play a game that I don’t already know most things about, but it feels like this is the Zelda game so far that has the hardest puzzles to solve. The combat elements are similar to Ocarina of Time, which to me means they require my concentration but I will not fail at the game because of my lack of combat skills. (Well, Links combat skills surely affect the outcome but the fact that I’m not a very good gamer when it comes to combat will not.)5

If you like Zelda or Zelda-esque games and you haven’t yet played Majora’s Mask I highly recommend you do. Buy a used Nintendo 64 and a used copy of the game or get it as a download in your Wii or Wii U’s virtual console store6.

  1. I own:

    The once I’ve played a lot in recent years is A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. ↩

  2. The reason I didn’t start playing it earlier was that I really, really wanted to finish Ocarina of Time first. ↩
  3. Sometimes characters in the two games looks identical but are actually different people. ↩
  4. The Adventure of Link was actually the first Zelda game I owned and the first I played all the way to the end. ↩
  5. The hardest Zelda game in terms of combat is in my opinion The Adventure of Link. ↩
  6. I’m just guessing that they are available there. I don’t own either a Wii or a Wii U. ↩
∞

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