Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask (The Five Stages of Zelda-Game)

Let's Plays
#1

And so we find ourselves here, at Majora’s Mask. This Zelda retrospective like thing I’m doing has lead us down one many a road so far. Most of it fairly bumpy, as the DS tries so hard to provide the proper base for a Zelda game. But here, we return to something a bit smoother; another remake of an old N64 game, enhanced and for the better in almost every way. Which, ironically, is kind of what Majora’s Mask has always been. Ocarina of Time+, Ocarina of Time Hard Mode DLC, so on and so forth. Majora’s Mask took the excellent Ocarina, took what it had, and remixed it into something brilliant. Today we’re going to begin out journey with Majora’s Mask, stepping into the land of Termina and seeing what sights we will see.

As ever and always, updates are on Monday and Friday (as often as I can I’ve allowed myself some slipping as of late due to my life getting complicated for the better) and I would appreciate no spoilers for those who do not know what is to come. Which is unlikely to be anyone really, but better safe than sorry. So, without further adieu… let us begin.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [1] Curses and Calamities

Video Length: 1:08:16

Extra long episode, because the texture of Majora’s Mask’s opening sort of necessitates completion, in my opinion. And as far as Zelda games go, it starts rather quickly, but also takes quite awhile to get going. The Skullkid curses us to be a Deku, and that locks us in Clocktown quite handily, as well as limits a lot of what we can do! It serves as a pretty good basic tutorial of How This Game Will Work, while not feeling quite so stifling as to be annoying.

The only real issue with it is that, even if you’re acting as though you don’t know exactly waht to do, it is quite easy to find yourself finished and ready to go to the first final confrontation with the Skullkid… and have maybe a day and a half left. Thankfully you do get shown the Scarecrow during all this so there are ways to skip ahead quickly, but it is entirely possible to not talk to the guy. It does mean there is a lot of waiting around in this first three days, and since it’s hard to get money and so many stores don’t serve Deku children, it means that your options are also fairly limited as it pertains to time passing. It tightens up this tutorial intro segment to make it harder to fail, but likewise makes sudden and powerful success all the more “… well what next?”.

But I think, ultimately, this is a good thing. It encourages those who wish to engage with the game to engage with it on a different way than typically expected. Namely, just kinda wandering around and seeing stuff happen as they happen. Majora’s Mask is a very schedule focused game and that can lead to some fun things happening depending on where you are. Happenstance can lead to unique gameplay experiences that I quite like (we got an example of that in this video, actually!). It also makes the looming threat of the Moon all the more palpable… after a certain point all you can do is wait and watch the big boy come down, closer and closer… with not a lot you can do about it but wait. It’s intimidating.

With that said, I hope you all enjoyed. Future videos will be shorter, by virtue of me not feeling it necessary for the flow of things to include it all, among other things. See you all next… time.

#2

Once more, mask time!

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [2] When We’re Hylian

Video Length: 35:09

In this episode, we finally get our face healed, and begin our winding path through the world. Short description since I suddenly have to go as I am writing this, will say more later.

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#3

Mask time! Onwards to swamp!

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [3] Swamp Adventures

Video Length: 37:26

In this episode, we some side quests firmly know about and some masks less firmly attached to our face, lets get going to the first actual area of the game; the Great Swamp! We’ve got Dekus, we’ve got swamp monkies, and we’ve got the existential dread of all these lives hanging over us. Fun times!

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#4

What if we finally got back to this, why don’t we?

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [4] Evanescence Presents; Sonata of Awakening

Video Length: 19:57

The reality of editing means our return to Majora’s Mask is a little short, but also the next two episodes are going to be Dungeon Time so it’s to be expected. We get our first new song, the Sonata of Awakening, and open up the temple in question. That may not seem like a lot, but given the nature of this game it is actually quite significant. Hope you all enjoyed, we’ll see you all next time.

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#5

Majora’s Mask time! Lets dive into the first dungeon!

Zodi Plays: Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [5] Woodfall Down

Video Length: 19:31

In this episode, we start Woodfall Temple, and get our first real impression of what people mean when they call Majora’s Mask an “Expert Zelda”. The time limit (even if you can extend it) and collecting all the fairy pieces, plus the fact that there are optional rooms means that, at least within the scope of me playing Zelda games for the internet, these are probably going to be the most complex dungeons. Adding to that is that there will be times where the game asks us to do things that I genuinely don’t know how you’d learn beyond just… experimenting and figuring it out, but once learned are now inbuilt and unforgettable. It’s fascinating!

As a slight update; I’m going back to working in the office basically full time. This means my schedule will be kinda slammed. I will try to keep up the uploads, but sorry if it slips again! Hope you all enjoyed, we’ll see you all next time for the rest of Woodfall Temple.

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#6

Mamamajora! Majora’s Mask!

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [6] Odolwa

Video Length: 24:03

The back half of Woodfall Temple, wherein we actually see some of those “Zelda expert mode” puzzles I mentioned last time, face off against a rude frog, and then face one of the stranger bosses in the series; Odolwa! The original game’s version of this fight honestly feels like a mess, where it is never really clear what you’re supposed to do. This version makes it far clearer, as well as adds in some extras to make it work even better… at the potential consequence of making it TOO telegraphed? I know some people dislike it, but as the first boss of the game it should be a little reasonable.

Also, and this is just me, but one of the cool things about Majora’s Mask IS the fact that each boss has different ways to fight it. Each boss has a way for regular ole Hylian Link to take it down, and a way for his transformed state to take it down… and in the original, it was very unclear to just not being possible how you were supposed to do it with Deku Link! So making that clearer is GOOD, in my opinion, even if they may have made it took clear?

Regardless, Odolwa is destroyed, and we have obtained ourselves a sassy little princess as a result… and the masked remains of Odolwa, saving the Giant spirit beneath the mask! We’ll learn more about these big ole honky boys later, but for now we take our new song and move on with our lives. Hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you all next time!

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#7

Zeldaaaar

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [7] Butler Race

Video Length: 24:20

With Woodfall done and princess successfully bottled, it is time to do some of the stuff we unlock for doing that! The first, and what takes up most of this video to be frank, is the Butler Race with the Deku Butler, a rather tricky little timed obstacle course. If you remember the Dampe races in Ocarina of Time, this is on those levels… though not AS bad, since while it IS timed, you don’t have a time to beat. You just need to clear it at all. Please correct me if that’s wrong it has been awhile. Finishing the race gets you the Mask of Scents, a snorty little pig face that lets us find mushrooms, and also the shoe dropping of “you remind me of my son”, connecting the disfigured and crying deku-like tree in the intro of the game to our mask very concretely. That’s pretty sad!

At least we do save the monkey, which is nice. We did also save the swamp too. It really speaks to how much evil the Skull Kid is spreading around that our happy ending to this part of the story is “things are back to normal”. Things haven’t even improved, we just set things back to square one- arguably not even that since the Butler’s son is still dead. It’s a lot to think about, and the first real moment you should realize Majora’s Mask is not the sort of game Ocarina was, where the things you do are actively improving things.

That aside, we go save Koume again, and in doing so use our newfound piggy mask to sniff up some arcane truffles. Delicious!.. though not for eating. We’ll get into their purpose next time. Until then, take care! Hope you all enjoyed!

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#8

Insert bow and arrow pun here.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [8] Perfect Score

Video Length: 24:32

In this episode, we continue some post Woodfall clean up- mainly helping Koume and Kotake out once more so we can gain access to her swampland archery contest, which nets us a nice and shiny empty bottle! If I recall this is basically the only thing the Mask of Scents is used for. After that, we head to the Swamp Shooting Gallery, blasting through waves of Mad Scrubs, Wolfos, and those weird bird things I forget the name of to get a piece of heart AND a quiver upgrade. After that we return to Clock Town to do THEIR local shooting gallery, getting another piece of heart and our final quiver upgrade, which is quite vital.

You see, the bow and arrow is one of the most important tools in Majora’s Mask. We’ll get more into it later, but the bow is used constantly throughout the game, more so than even Ocarina did. Having the maximum amount of arrows straight away will help us out immensely, not least of which because a powerful ranged weapon is just good to have on hand.

After that, we blow up more of Honey and Darling’s stuff to get another fish ticket, then clean up two side quests I kinda let fall by the wayside initially; talking with the organ grinder Guru-guru to get the Bremen Mask, and using Kamoro’s strange mystic dance to teach the Gormen Troupe dancers how to really work it, for another heart piece!

With that all done, I hope you enjoyed! See you all next time for… well, I’m not entirely sure. We’ll see!

#9

Whassa… what’s this? It says… Zel…dor?

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask [9] Silent Running

Video Length: 36:37

We return to the Zelda! I accidentally borked the audio for the game so I had to make do with some beautiful remixes from the Zelda Reorchestrated project, which you can find a link to in the video description. Support’em!

In this episode, we get back into the swing of things, I show off a few money making schemes, get bullied by minigames, and see the price of failure. Mysteries abound in Termina, and we’re gonna do our best to solve them. Dododododo do do dododo!

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#10

How’s about a new Zeldo today?

Zodi Plays: Majora’s Mask [10] Lens Me A Hand

Video Length: 35:13

In this episode, we finally set off to prepare the second main area of the game! Snowhead, a mountainous region of ice and snow, inhabited by everyone’s favorite rock themed oni giants, the Goron! Unfortunately this place is frozen over and getting worse… lets hope we can save it before everyone turns into a popsicle! And also dies! With the help of our every watchful owl friend we get a new tool that’ll help us with hidden things, and with THAT we find a rather… unfortunate spirit.

One climb up a sheer cliff later, and we’ve got our second major mask; the Goron Mask! With this, we’ll be able to turn into a lovable Goron warrior of unparalleled power! But we’ll see just how strong he is next time; until then, take care!

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#11

rolls around in a ball

Zodi Plays: Majora’s Mask [11] Slow Your Roll

Video Length: 27:11

In this episode, we make use of the fact that we have another dead soul turned into a magical disguise. Tricking people into thinking their loved one and hero is alive and helping soothe a child’s sadness at the inevitability of his dad dying.

You know, for kids!

Jokes aside, a short but sweet episode as we roll our way to Snowhead Temple and prepare for the actual full on dungeon run. Hope you all enjoyed!

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#12

Zeld!

Zodi Plays: Majora’s Mask [12] Snowhead

Video Length: 21:01

And so we begin Showhead Temple in earnest! Snowhead Temple takes the “hub puzzle” approach to Zelda dungeons, where there is a main feature in a centralized dungeon center which is the main centerpiece for the entire thing, with rooms being spokes off of it. It is also, unfortuntaely, one of the more annoying ones. Not in any bad way, but if you happen to be a little slippery on the controls because it is late at night, or the controls decide to disagree a little bit on just what exactly you wanted to do… falling can be a capital P Problem.

That said, the puzzles are a good deal more basic than Woodfall’s, which is honestly fascinating. Woodfall primes you for Majora’s Mask’s more advanced styles of puzzle, but Snowhead reins it back a bit to let the centerpiece puzzle shine. Woodfall focused on the bow and arrow in aggregate, while the dungeon item for Snowhead is a lot more focused… though we don’t get it this video. Leads to an interesting contrast! A simpler layout with harder puzzles to ease you in, then a more complicated layout with easier puzzles to re-calibrate expectations.

With that said, I hope you enjoyed! We’ll see you all next time for the conclusion of snow.

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#13

Okay, lets finish this dungeon.

Zodi Plays: Majora’s Mask [13] Goht

Video Length: 31:06

The back half of Snowhead Temple! First order of business; the Wizrobes! Not a funny adorable mage like they usually are though, instead some creepy old wizard man who refuses to be locked onto half the time. Not that tricky to deal with though. Beating the first Wizrobe gets us our dungeon item, the Fire Arrows! In a shocking shift from typical Zelda games, the dungeon items are not maneuvering tools or fancy weapons, but pure magical puzzle solving elements! They have combat applications too of course, but for the most part they’re for fancy puzzles. I actually think this is pretty cool; aside from the Light Arrows, these were entirely optional in Ocarina, and now they’re here to do some actual work. It, like everything else, fully sells the idea that this is a hard mode DLC expansion to Ocarina.

The boss itself, meanwhile, is Goht! In the original game you just pursued him, knocked him down, and then beat on him… or just shot fire arrows at’em. In this one, it’s pretty much the same except after knocking Goht down, you have to specifically hit an eyeball growth as opposed to just punching him wherever. Some could argue that just slightly overcomplicates what is really just a very basic “chase and smash” boss fight, but I like it. I also like the addition of how, if you hit it from above due to a ramp, it falls down in away that requires you hit it with the bow. It’s part of the desire to make each boss synergistic with both regular Link and his mask form, and it is not unappreciated. At least in this one.

With Goht thoroughly destroyed, another Giant has been saved! Hooray for us! Spring returns to Snowhead proper, clearing up the snow and saving the lives of all the goron! Hooray! Next time, lets see if we can do everything this unlocks in the one day left I have! Oh boy!

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#14

Three… two… one… go!

Zodi Plays: Majora’s Mask [14] Race To The Finish

Video Length: 40:09

In this episode, we try to clear up every little task that’s available to us post Snowhead Temple! Thankfully there isn’t really a lot of those; mainly I need to get the last two fairies, getting the enhanced spin attack for our human guise. After that we need to get to the Goron Race Track and do some racing to get Gold Dust! With Gold Dust, we can temper our Razor Sword into something a lot more powerful, and a lot more permanent! I can’t wait to get it, on this cycle, here on the last day, which is a thing you can do. But first we need to get the Powder Keg license; not all that tricky, and this’ll be useful to us later too! Once that’s done, it’s just a bit of cleaning up. Easy peasy!

Hope you all enjoyed this… lets say “chaotic” episode. Take care everyone, hope you all enjoyed!

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#15

In today’s Majora’s Mask; t h e m.

Zodi Plays: Majora’s Mask [15] T H E M

Video Length: 36:47

Starting us off, we do all the stuff necessary to get ourselves the Razor Sword on day three. Just nipping that in the bud straight away; I’d rather not have to refight the bosses multiple times if I can afford to, but in this instance it’s kind of needed.

With that out of the way… we’ve got access to Powder Kegs. Time to begin one of the game’s loop-long sidequests! The Romani Ranch plotline! One quick Powder Keg to that boulder and we can actually access the dang place before whatever nasty business happens… and what a nasty business it is. According to Romani herself, aliens (specifically the Flatswood Monster type Japan loves so much) are attacking and threatening to kidnap the cows. It’s up to us to stop them, because otherwise the cows’ll get kidnapped… and Romani will get cownapped. We’ve seen the end result of that, so lets do our best to prevent it!