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| Majora's Mask | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 31 2005, 10:09 PM (500 Views) | |
| Sirius Black | Jul 31 2005, 10:09 PM Post #1 |
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Goomba
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I made this review at another site, so I'm posting it here. Introduction Let's take a trip back in time to the year 2000. What was happening then? The Y2K scare was over, George W Bush was elected President of the United States, and the Nintendo 64 was at the end of it's life. At this period of time, gamers had already been introduced to a game called "The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time." This game is loved by many, and it set the standard for all future Zelda games. It also left some fans dying for a sequal. What was Nintendo's answer? A sequal of sorts to Ocarina of Time, which we now know as Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask. Is this game worthy of it's predecessor? Read the review to find out. Story - 10/10 At the end of Ocarina of Time, Link, Zelda, and the Sages had sealed up the evil Ganondorf. Ganon had vowed revenge against their decendants, and Zelda brought Link back to his origional time by means of the Orcarina of Time. In his previous quest, Link had gained a fairy named Navi, after going on his whole life without one. At the end of Ocarina of Time, Navi had left Link. In the beginning of Majora's Mask, Link is said to be searching for a friend. One can assume that friend in none other than Navi the fairy. (Why Link would want to search for an annoying fairy is beyond my comprenshion.) Anyway, Link is travelling through a dense forest on Epona. After a while, he is ambushed by a Skull Kid and his two henchfaries, Tatl and Tael. One should note that the Skull Kid is wearing a particular mask, which becomes very important later in the game. After Link is knocked out, the Skull Kid steals his orcarina and starts playing around with it. Link overhears this, and demands his orcarina, which the Skull Kid hides behind his back. All of a sudden, the Skull Kid jumps on Epona, and rides away with her. Link manages to grab on, but lets go shortly after. Once Link catches up with the Skull Kid, not to mention falling through a mysterious chasm, the Skull Kid tells him he did Link a favour by getting rid of Epona. Still holding the orcarina, he uses the power of the mask to transform Link into a Deku Scrub. He then flies off with his faires, but one of them stays behind to tease Deku Link. However, the door closes before that fairy, Tatl, catches up with the other. After some travel, Link meets up with a strange man, who is also the owner of the Happy Mask Shop. He explains that he can transform Link back, if he can get the precious item, the orcarina, back from the Skull Kid. He also wants Link to get an important mask the Skull Kid stole. If Link does not, there will be terrible consequenses. Link goes out on his mission into the world of Termina, and he notices odd things happening. For starters, the huge scary-looking moon will somehow crash on the planet in three days! The Skull Kid has also messed around with people's personal lives thoughout the town, and the planet. It is up to Link to set things straight, fix up the Skull Kid's actions, and stop the moon. First of all, I would like to pass my compliments to Nintendo for this execellent story. I personally enjoyed every part of it, and also the story gets more deeper as the game progresses. You learn new things, meet new people, and fix more problems. Also, there are four main areas in the game. One could say, that each area has its own story. In Woodfall, the swamp his been poisoned, one of the resident hags has been attacked, the Dekus are enraged by the kidnapping of their princess (in which an innocent monkey is being blamed for it), and their shrine has been aken over by monsters. In Snowhead, there has been a huge cold chill in the mountains, covering everything in snow, the Goron hero has died, the elder is missing, and the elder's son is annoying the living heck out of the Gorons. In the Great Bay, the prized Zora eggs have been stolen, the famous Zora gutarist is near death, the lead signer has lost her voice, the Guerdos are messing around with the Zoras, and this dragon cloud is somehow causing futher problems. Lastly, In Inkana, the spirits are restless and the family there is having serious problems. There are other areas with problems with their own. Again, this is an execellent story which no other game has been able to copy. But it won't take just three days to solve these problems, which brings me to the gameplay. Gameplay - 9.5/10 As one can suspect, this game plays very similar to Ocarina of Time. It utlizes the same weapons system and Z-targetting system. For the weapons, the player can put up to three weapons, masks, or items in three C buttons. That button will control that particular weapon, mask, or item for however long it's assigned to that button. Also, the B and A buttons also work the same as the do in Ocarina of Time. The A buttons controls all of the action buttons, such as read, speak, open door etc, while the B button is simply used for sword attacks. The R button is used for defensive purposes. The start button brings the player to the pause screen, which has four menus - quest status, weapons, map, and masks, all of which are self explainitory. The weapons Link uses are vital to his sucess. Most of them are returnees from Ocarina of Time, with a few exceptions. Unlike in other Zelda games, Link finds most of his weapons out in the open, or at least not in major dungeons. The arrow is found in the first dungeon, and the different forms of arrows, fire, ice, and light, are found in the three later dungeons respectively. Also, the items, weapons, and transformation masks found in one area are vital in getting to the next. Again, three days is not enough, which brings me to my next point. Time. Time is an essential part in this game. As soon as you set foot in Clock Town, you will notice a timer at the bottom centre of the screen. This timer tells you how much time you have left before the moon crashes. The moon crashes in three days. Note that one minute of our time equals one hour of Termina's time. That means you have seventy-two minutes to complete the game! Luckily, after the introduction, you will have already got your orcarina back. Whenever you play the Song of Time, no matter where and when, you always go back to the dawn of the first day, starting the seventy-two minutes over again. Also note that when you go back in time everything has reset. The people you've helped, events you've changed, everything goes back to the way it was on the first day. However, you still keep whatever items, masks, etc you have collected on you way. You just lose whatever numeber of bombs, arrows, rupees, deku nuts and sticks you have. This is the concept you will use frequently thoughout the game. Finally, as one can suspect, masks have a great deal of importance in the game. Each mask varies in degrees of usefulness, but the transformation masks (Deku, Goron, and Zora) are required to beat the game. There are some masks, like the Couple's mask, which you will only use once. These type of masks are used to either complete side quests, or earn items like pieces of the heart, other masks, and some items. Besides the three main ones, there are two other masks that transform you. The Giant's mask, and Fierce Deity mask. Although you don't get them until the end, they add a degree of fun to bosses. Some masks are rather useful, like the Stone mask which lets you be invisible to most people and enemies. There are others which allow you to get special items, or access other areas, like the Garo mask. Also, there are three main transformation masks which are essential toyour quest. Each form has it's own adantages and disavantages. Deku Link can hover briefly with Deku flowers, but he can't swin at all. Instead, he simply bops around in the water five times before drowing. Goron Link uses the roll ability to go at incredible speeds, there is also the pound ability. However, Goron Link cannot swim, he will just simply drown. Lastly, Zora Link is an exceptional swimmer. He can use his electricity attack in water and land, but is very weak against fire and ice attacks. Sound/Music - 9/10 Like all Zelda games, Majora's Mask is no exception to great music. The music is rather darker than other Zelda games, and the music really suits the environment. After getting used to some of the music, it actually feels like you're fighting alongside Link at some points. My two particular favourites were the Deku Palace and Stone Tower Temple themes. Also, the one that mostly sets the mood of a darker game in Inkana Canyon. The sound is also spectacular. Link sounds older than in Ocarina of Time, and other character and boss grunts, yells, etc don't get annoying. The music sounded great on the Nintendo 64. Graphics - 8.5/10 The graphics for Majora's Mask were not as great as they could have been. Sure, they were better than previous Nintendo 64 games, seeing how Majora's Mask was made at the end of the Nintendo 64's life, but I noticed some glitches that really annoyed me. Sometimes, characters will go though walls and other things like that. It's not overly bad, but I'm sure Nintendo could have fixed these problems if more time was put into the game. Now for the good. Nintendo does pay attention to the smaller details. From the biggest boss, to the smallest grain of sand. One can notice the vast fields, ocean, beautiful mountains, and the canyon was very well done. I was also greatly impressed by the water effects in this one. Underwater, the enemies, bubble and wave effects, seaweed, and sand were all spectular. Also, the dungeons were alot darker, which gave an more evil feel to the game. Altough the characters in Majora's Mask are mostly duplicates from Ocarina of Time, they looked alot better and had more expression. Also note, that unlike in Ocarina of Time, the characters move around alot more. From the carpeters carring logs, to the postman running around town, and to the little dogs running around, they all were great. Replayability - 8.5/10 You will often find yourself replaying the game for several reasons. Whether it is to get all the masks, bottles, or heart pieces, there will be some things that will make you play it again. Zelda is one of those series where one could play for a week straight and claim you "beat the game", or more decicated fans will spend months or even years going back, trying to find the items they missed. Other than trying to get the missed items, there is no real reason to beat or play the game again. However, Majora's Mask is one of those games where you'll want to play again in a few months time. Overall - 9/10 When most gamers review this game, they often base it on previous Zelda games, mostly Ocarina of Time. Since some think that Ocarina of Time is the best Zelda game ever, they tend to put aside Majora's Mask. Majora's Mask is not meant to be as epic and important to the Zelda series, it is more of a side story. I personally think this game was created to help ease the passing of the Nintendo 64, and to cure Zelda fans' hunger for a sequal to Ocarina of Time. All in all, Majora's Mask is indeed worthy to the Zelda name, with a great story, gameplay, music, and decent re-play value. For those of you looking for errie Zelda experience, you can find it in Majora's Mask. |
Beam me up Scotty, there is no life on this planet.![]() [size=3]Do A Barrel Roll![/size] Read The Kingdom Wars. | |
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| LK | Aug 1 2005, 10:40 AM Post #2 |
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iminspace
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Wow, nice reveiw man. But I never really liked Majora's Mask. |
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