_{[As Zelda Week winds down here at Destructoid, I wanted to dig back into the archives and resurface an oldie-but-goodie. This 2011 piece from Noir seems like a fitting companion to the weird shenanigans of Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s also a good blog. So we’re bumping it up the feed again today, in 2023, to celebrate that. Happy Zelda Week! – Eric]}

Many individuals’s first Legend of Zelda recreation was Ocarina of Time or A Hyperlink to the Previous, however me? Majora’s Masks stole my Zelda virginity. I keep in mind seeing a trailer with this child placing on masks that made brought on him to undergo a painful wanting transformation into one thing else. I keep in mind a boss that commanded a swarm of moths, an insane wanting man with masks, an much more insane wanting moon, and naturally the enigmatic Majora’s Masks itself. I don’t know the place I noticed this trailer, I nonetheless can’t discover it to at the present time. I do know I needed to have the sport after seeing it although, even when these eyes crammed me with terror.
As a toddler I used to be terrified of Majora’s Masks. I didn’t wish to have a look at it, doing so crammed me with anxiousness. I believed I’d die simply from these huge eyes that stare endlessly into the depths of my soul. I used to be additionally fascinated by them although, so I requested my dad and mom to hire it for me. I even received an Enlargement Pak only for it, which turned one other ineffective peripheral every week later. The purpose is that I wanted this recreation, the odd nature of it simply drawn me to it. It wasn’t like my different video games. It wasn’t vivid and light-weight hearted like Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards or Banjo-Tooie, no. This recreation was totally different and I may really feel it in my bones. Thoughts you, I used to be solely about 8 years previous presently. I solely had a number of N64 video games they usually had been principally pleased, little one pleasant video games rated E for Everybody by the younger ESRB system.

So I ultimately acquired this accursed recreation and my requirements had been met. The sport begins up once more and there it’s, the epitome of my nightmares – Majora’s Masks. This was earlier than I performed any precise horror video games, so I used to be simply scared by one thing so simple as a masks. Resident Evil 3‘s Nemesis and the psychological horror of Silent Hill wasn’t one thing I used to be conscious of at this level. Majora’s Masks was my definition of concern, however that didn’t cease me from taking part in the sport. This “factor” was everywhere in the recreation, seeing it was virtually unavoidable if you happen to wished to play the sport so I pressed on.

The start of Majora’s Masks is best than any Zelda recreation in terms of hooking the participant and forcing them to discover. Your horse is stolen by a masked child who curses you, turning you right into a Deku scrub. After that you simply encounter the disturbing Glad Masks Salesman who could seem a bit too pleased regardless of his predicament. No. He’s not pleased, not pleased in any respect. He’s downright pissed, pissed off to the purpose the place he snatches up Hyperlink and shakes him repeatedly. Then your quest to defeat Majora’s Masks begins in Termina. It’s like an acid journey that ends with “The place am I? Why do I seem like this?” and also you’re compelled to seek out out who’s fault it’s.
In each different Zelda recreation the primary ten minutes of the sport is pretty peaceable and light-weight hearted, terrible issues simply don’t occur one after one other. Majora’s Masks isn’t like that although, it starting pushes the state of affairs from dangerous to worse and doesn’t care how you’re feeling. Then you definitely’re lastly confronted with the truth that the moon goes to crash down on Termina and annihilate all the pieces in sight, together with you. This moon…it has the identical beating eyes that crammed me with the identical dread that Majora’s Masks did. It was an unstoppable power that frequently seemed down on you throughout all the recreation with these eyes as a result of it knew you couldn’t cease it.

You’re capable of reverse time pretty early within the recreation, however I used to be not a sensible little one so I by no means received that far once I had this recreation. Thus I used to be confronted with this sense of dread that all the pieces was going to be destroyed, all the pieces I used to be doing felt purposeless. I made my approach round Clock City, however was by no means capable of cease the destruction. This was earlier than I had entry to the huge web, so I grew mad on the recreation for forcing an unimaginable activity on me. It was not less than six years earlier than I performed the sport once more, however in that point I nonetheless considered it every so often. It was merely a rental (that I for some motive by no means purchased), however I’d say it affected me greater than any of the opposite video games on the N64.

Ultimately I did beat Majora’s Masks, with somewhat assist from the web, and all was proper with the world. As a teen I had journeyed via Majora’s Masks and found that it was a darkish recreation in methods I didn’t know. The residents of Clock City all had their very own tales, together with everybody else within the huge land of Termina. The apocalyptic state of affairs I had on my fingers appeared even worse after studying of the issues round Termina, lots of which had been brought on by the masks carrying Cranium Child. Cranium Child’s story is likely one of the grimmest on the market regardless of seeming to be the mastermind behind all the pieces. Cranium Child was initially a toddler who wished to have enjoyable, however that want was twisted right into a type of damaging habits after being managed by Majora’s Masks. At that time Cranium Child turns into a puppet, although he retains his mischievous character.

Cranium Child himself represents what the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Masks actually is. It’s a twisted reincarnation of a youngsters’s recreation that presents itself as a darkish and nightmarish expertise. Behind the masks Majora’s Masks will not be as dangerous as an M-rated horror recreation, however the masks it dons nonetheless manages to make itself seem menacing. As a toddler this masks is all that seems and that’s what I noticed. Whereas I wouldn’t say that Majora’s Masks as a recreation and an object has scarred me, however it’s performed one thing undoubtedly. It thrust me into the Zelda collection, imbued in me a love for the unusual, and made me want I had a duplicate of Majora’s Masks itself in my dwelling. So long as it stays out of sight more often than not!