Majora’s Mask is often considered the weirdest Legend of Zelda game. Along with its strange and unsettling plot, its locations are pretty odd too. One that’s always stuck with me is the Astral Observatory.
The Astral Observatory is somewhere that you get to explore early on, and it sets the tone for the rest of the game. It’s pretty difficult to find, requiring you to fulfill the Bombers’ hide-and-seek game to learn the five-digit passcode, then pass through the subterranean tunnels to find the underground entrance.
Once you’ve popped the Skull Kid balloon and ascended the ladder, you find yourself at the base of a tower, stairs wrapping around the walls. There’s a Scarecrow there to pass the time with if you fancy, but head up the stairs and you’ll set off the chain of events required to start the game proper.
Once you’ve entered the observatory, music starts playing. Yes, that music, which will now be stuck in your head for the rest of the day from the mere mention of it. It’s both jolly and soothing at the same time, and if you’re like me, it triggers some real nostalgia.
The observatory itself is shaped like a planetarium. Viewed from the outside the tower is completely underground, with only the cobalt dome and a little patio visible around it. Inside, the walls form an octagonal shape with shiny black tiles while the floor and pillars are tiled in blues, greens, purples, and yellows. The floor tiles are arranged in a way that gives a kind of optical illusion, and with the raised platform in the middle being pentagonal, the whole effect is a little disorienting.
There’s not much to look at in this room once you’ve squinted past the garish colors. There’s a Moon’s Tear in a display case, a huge telescope, and the funny old Professor. He has kindly allowed the Bombers to use his observatory as their hideout, and he encourages you to look through the telescope and try to spot Skull Kid on the roof of the Clock Tower.
After your arrival at the Astral Observatory and a look through the telescope, you can now continue with the rest of the game. Collect the Moon’s Tear from outside, trade it with the Deku Scrub in Clocktown for the deed to his Deku Flower, and use that to access the Clock Tower roof at midnight on the Third Day.
But aside from giving you the tools to find Skull Kid, going to the Astral Observatory also demonstrates to you how Skull Kid has been affecting everyone across Termina, not just the Happy Mask Salesman. The rippling effects of his mischief affect the whole land, seeming to accelerate the Moon’s fall to earth.
This you can see from the dream-like room of the Astral Observatory, with the gentle old Professor Shikashi standing by. Does he know the significance of this encounter?
I like to think so.
This column is part of a series on the various labs across the Legend of Zelda series. You can read the others here:
