Majora’s Mask is a game that constantly twists your expectations. From the moment Link falls down the proverbial rabbit hole and makes his way to Termina, the player’s view is constantly tested. The leisurely pace of Ocarina of Time is replaced by the stress-inducing countdown of the approaching moon, characters who seem so familiar go by different names and have radically different personalities, and in the Stone Tower Temple the player’s perspective of up and down are literally flipped.
In-keeping with this theme, The Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra puts their own twist on a Terminian favorite through their orchestral cover of the “Milk Bar” song — and in doing so, cheers our souls even as the tears hit our Chateau Romani.
No sooner have you hit play when this cover hits you with a feeling of pure happiness. And it never lets up. From beginning to end, this song is extremely cheery, warming your soul like a pint of Chateau Romani. It reminds me of elevator music in its soothing effect. It almost dares you to be sad, but the irony of it all is that once you step inside the venue, you’re hit with the traditional Termina twist.
To enter the Milk Bar, you must slip on your silly and slightly childish Romani’s Mask, which gives you the bovine appearance common to all members of this exclusive establishment. Sitting at the bar, you can partake of a regular Milk (the favorite of all those who prefer their PB&Js sans crusts) or you can order the intoxicating Chateau Romani — an oddly alcoholic milk that’s decidedly for the older crowd. The menu has taken a drink that many associate with childhood and flipped it into a dizzying, alcoholic beverage.
The twists don’t end there though.
Despite its joyful, elevator-music styled theme, the Milk Bar has just as many haunting stories as any seedy speakeasy. And they’re quite closely connected when you think about it. Madame Aroma goes there to drown her sorrows as her search for her missing son fruitlessly continues. The hottest band in the land, the Indigo-Gos, were all set to play, but had to cancel due to a tragic tale of lost eggs and voices. Gorman — the leader of the carnival entertainers known as the Gorman Troupe — experiences youth-related regret as a result of the cancelled event, wondering if he should have ever left his two brothers and the farm way back when. Even Link’s own continuing story is one of a childhood lost. Sure, Princess Zelda sent him back in time, but he remembered all the horrors of his adventure to stop the Demon King, Ganondorf.
When you’re head isn’t swimming in Chateau Romani and you look around the bar, the connecting thread of these tales becomes clear: they’re all tragedies involving children. Ah, there’s the Termina twist! The irony of the “Milk Bar” song is that as cheery as it sounds, the tales of grief it accompanies are among the most sorrowful in Termina.
As The Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra explains it, “I feel like this one is actually quite haunting if you think about it. Probably even more so than Astral Observatory. The world is quite literally about to end and you pop into this super happy place for a good ol’ pint of milk.”
As we sidle up to the bar, we can rest easy knowing that The Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra has produced a cover that perfectly accompanies a chilled Chateau Romani or other beverage of our liking. Like the celebrated drink, the tune will go down smooth, but will also leave our emotions just the way things usually are in Termina: twisted.
