The year is 1998 and to say that I was excited beyond measure is an understatement. I walked into my local Babbage’s, interacted with a lady who obviously hated children, and walked out with my collector’s edition of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I took that golden cartridge home, put it into the first game console I could truly call my own, and I played that game. I don’t usually say this but, oh my god, I played that game.
For weeks after, if I wasn’t playing Ocarina of Time, I was talking about it, reading about it, drawing the characters, everything. For me, playing Nintendo games in my house was a true privilege. Suffice it to say, the previous “schedule” that I had been put on for gaming was thrown out the window when this game came out. Not to mention that by this time I was a senior in high school and already 18 years old.
Anyway, I digress. Hit me up for the egregious details if you ever want to hear the dark times of my gaming history.
Moving on! As Zelda fans, we have learned to be a patient lot, waiting on the saline drip that is official Nintendo news on our favored franchise. In the past, it was the Nintendo Fun Club which became Nintendo Power (may God rest its weary soul), and now we have Nintendo Direct which, much like every extended cinematic universe movie, saves its most juicy information in the “But wait, there’s more!” end teaser.
The gap between A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time had been interminable and yes, I know, Link’s Awakening released between them, but come on. So, color me surprised when information started to leak out of Japan the very next year, that there would be a playable demo for the next Zelda game at Nintendo Space World in August of 1999.
I was very giddy. But alas, responsibility called me away to a very rustic college in upstate New York where technology was basically not a thing. This was to be short-lived, though, and after coming back to Michigan I acquired a wondrous poster — that I no longer have, for some reason. I even remember getting it laminated to keep it from getting ruined. You have to understand, it wasn’t easy getting good Zelda merch back in the early 2000s.
Ah! Thank you, internet (and believe me, it took some diving). Behold!
Considering the five-year wait between (fine!) Link’s Awakening and Ocarina of Time, I was thrilled that they were coming out with a full Zelda game within two years. Yet, as a man of maturing taste, I could definitely see how it was possible when I saw the screenshots and demo reel of what was now being called Majora’s Mask. Granted, I didn’t care that they were reusing assets from Ocarina of Time. I mean, why not? At the very least, they’d increased the draw distance, texture maps, and frame rate, which would make it the only other game that required the N64 Expansion Pak besides Donkey Kong 64.
Fortunately, I had already acquired the Expansion Pak two years before when I received Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. So, I preordered my next golden cart and (im)patiently waited.
The realm of memory is a tricky place because I’m not even quite sure where I preordered Majora’s Mask from. Yet, I can remember with a movie-like clarity exactly what it was like to pick up Ocarina of Time and the following afternoons with it.
So began my fairly lackluster trip to Termina. I remember finally being able to leave Clock Town and entering Termina Field hearing the familiar intro chirp to Hyrule Field only to be followed up with a song that I had felt was sorely missing from Ocarina of Time. I tried to let it roll over me, tried to let the main theme of The Legend of Zelda hit me with the nostalgia bat. Something was off, though, and the tune never worked its magic on me.
Also, it appeared. This is the first appearance of Tingle and I just, I just can’t.
From there, I acclimated to the three-day cycle, cleared the four main dungeons, finished a few entries in the Bombers’ Notebook, accumulated some masks, and that was it. It fizzled out. We broke up. Maybe I wasn’t quite over the honeymoon phase with Ocarina of Time. Maybe it was because of the dark tone of the game (which I call shenanigans on since I love dark twists on stories).
Honestly, it was probably because of the rekindling of a relationship with a girl that would later become my wife. Which was soon followed by the machinations of trying to acquire the then-hot commodity, the PlayStation 2.
It’s funny, writing this story has dredged these memories back up and helped me discover the real reasons for the hiccup in my relationship with Majora’s Mask. I can even now recall a University classmate where we bonded over our shared love of the Zelda series. I remember how astounded he was at my ability to recall details from all of my play sessions from the series and then how floored he was that I never actually finished Majora’s Mask. He told me, jokingly, that I couldn’t call myself a true fan unless I finished the game. I laughed, too. His threat didn’t stick, though.
Everybody ready for a Fire Emblem: Three Houses-style time skip? ‘Cause here it comes.
Meanwhile: Things happened in Derek’s life. Things happened in the Zelda timeline.
It is now the year 2006 and Derek is a new father. Derek has a lot of sleepless nights, but Derek has also had plenty of time to finish what would become one of, if not his favorite Zelda game of all time, Twilight Princess.
I was riding high on my love of an epic story, Link becoming a werewolf (!), and by far the best series companion, Midna (fight me). What was I going to do now in the middle of the night when my baby daughter couldn’t sleep, at which point I was also not asleep?
My mind then turned to the titles lining my gaming shelf and the back catalog that I had not finished from three different systems: GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. I list them here now in alphabetical order with no preference given to any system, which is also the only time in my life where I have had all flagship systems of the “big three” at the same time. Needless to say, my eyes found it there on the shelf.
What? You didn’t think I was going to pull the N64 back out, did you?
Well, I actually did. Eventually.
I mean, come on. I had a sweet flat screen Toshiba CRT TV. Component video cables hooked up to my GameCube. What more could you ask for? How about polygons so sharp that it makes adult Link’s nose able to cut glass? Yeah, that. The “new” technology had not been kind to the first generation of 3D polygon gaming tech. There’s something to be said about how old TV tech was able to blur the jagged lines of pixels and make the sprites of our old gaming icons warmer and more inviting. Even the NES and SNES Classic have the ability to emulate a CRT TV to give you that ’80s/’90s nostalgia of yesteryear.
Also, I didn’t have any saves for the GameCube version, and I did remember that I was at the endgame on my N64 save.
So, it was with great pomp and circumstance (there was none), that I pulled this golden nugget back out.
And oh my giddy-od, the horror. When was the last time you played an N64 game? Nope, not on the Virtual Console. Emulator? Doesn’t count. You need to go find your N64, hook it up to whatever TV that it can still connect to, and fire it up.
No, it’s cool. I’ll wait. Are you back? OK, let’s go.
I remember this, I really do. I leaned forward. I squinted my eyes. I rubbed my eyes. It was like someone smeared Vaseline all over some glasses and put them on my face. I couldn’t believe it. Just a few years before I had been playing Goldeneye and was able to get headshots on soldiers. Headshots. Now I felt lucky if I could even read the save file name. Am I exaggerating? Probably, but it’s my story. Feel free to go overboard when you tell yours. I won’t tell anyone.
Maybe.
I hit start on the save file and there I was: in Clock Town with the four Remains in my inventory and ready to challenge Skull Kid. Scanning through my inventory screens, I found a problem. An incomplete mask page. An incomplete Bombers’ Notebook. Incomplete Heart Container rows. You can’t see me right now, but I’m hanging my head in shame.
Yet, at the same time, this was an unexpected boon. I had time to kill. I had sleepless nights ahead. I also knew, by this time, about the Fierce Deity Mask and there was no way that I wasn’t going to collect that sucker. So, I buckled in and got to work.
Sure enough, I had some fun. The stories that you collect filling the Bombers’ Notebook also give some unexpected laughs and even some heartwarming moments. Was getting the Fierce Deity Mask worth it, though? I don’t know. The jury’s still out on that one. Fighting Majora’s Mask with it was severely anticlimactic, given how ridiculously powerful it makes Link.
Watching Link ride away and seeing the conclusion to Kafei and Anju’s wedding in the credits gave a sense of finality to the story of Termina. It did not, however, give any closure to Link and his original quest at the beginning of Majora’s Mask. What was interesting for me, though, was I had just finished my playthrough of Twilight Princess and had been given an ending to this Link’s story in the form of the Hero’s Shade. There is such a sense of sadness to this incarnation of Link, that it almost begs for a story to be told about how he came to embody the perspective of the Shade.
Well, here’s hoping that Akira Himekawa explores some of that in the Twilight Princess manga if Nintendo ever gets around to it.
So, what do you think, Zelda Universe? Should I give Majora’s Mask another complete playthrough? On what system? Pull the N64, Gamecube, or Wii back out? Or maybe I give this guy a chance? I did just pick it up from a local store on clearance for ten dollars.
Be sure to check out the rest of our articles from Majora’s Month, our month-long celebration of Majora’s Mask’s 20th anniversary!
