Supereinfachschwierig

In 2011 I bought a Nintendo 3DS and Ocarina of Time 3D on release day for two reasons. Firstly, because although I knew Ocarina of Time inside out I had never completely finished it on my own. Secondly, because for me Zelda games still have something magical about them and I couldn’t wait to play one again. I absolutely loved Ocarina of Time 3D and I knew that if they ever made a remake of Majora’s Mask, I’d have to play it.

We also got Majora’s Mask when it came out for the Nintendo 64 and although the whole finish-the-game-in-three-days thing was frightening at first, I really liked it as a kid. The game is pretty hard and somehow I made it to the third temple of four, but after that I didn’t push forward and the game remained unfinished for me.

Until today.

Fortunately Nintendo also re-made Majora’s Mask and the magic happened all over again. Originally I thought to myself that I already had enough unfinished games on my stack and that I wouldn’t get Majora’s Mask 3D for at least some time. However the morning of the release day I looked on my calendar and the child inside me took over instantly. “Sorry, I gotta go. Majora’s Mask is out.” I told my (awesome) girlfriend who was still in bed, got in the car and came back 40 minutes later with the limited edition and a child’s happiness in my heart. It took me 15 years, but today I beat the game for the first time. YAY! Here are some of my thoughts about the game:

Majora’s Mask is way darker than Ocarina of Time or even Twilight Princess. Although the graphics in Twilight Princess are much gloomier, the general mood of Majora’s Mask, from the music via the pre-apocalyptic setting through to the characters is so depressing. Termina always seemed to me as some kind of hell.

Many people complain about the time-mechanic of the game, but although it is undoubtedly unconventional it works pretty well. While Ocarina of Time “merely” transferred the Zelda experience to the third dimension, Majora’s Mask experiments with the game world and creates something previously unknown to Zelda-players, which I greatly welcome.

In the 3DS-version developers made changes to the original game, but not by improving the technology and prettying up the graphics. Hardcore fans will probably disapprove of the simplifications of gameplay and relocation of some places e.g. the bank and I don’t agree with all of the changes either, but in general the game got more accessible while keeping a certain level of difficulty. Some boss fights were even harder here than on the N64.

Needless to say I enjoyed the game a lot, especially the areas that I hadn’t explored already as a kid. If you haven’t tried the game yet because you think it is too hard, now is the best time to give it another chance. It is prettier and more accessible than ever!