I remember, when I first heard of Majora’s Mask, thinking it was a surprise that Nintendo had come out with a new Zelda game so soon after the previous one. I know almost nothing about this game beyond what I’m going to cover in the intro here. The only things I think I might know are that after three days the moon will crash into the world for a game over, but Link can Groundhog Day himself back to the start to buy himself more time.
Story
There are two short videos introducing the game before the start. Neither one is particularly informative. In both, Link watches as familiar-looking people (there are a lot of character designs reused from Ocarina of Time) go about their business. The first loop has the inhabitants of a small town working; the second seems to focus on a farm/ranch, and then gets bizarre with stalfos dancing around a fire. Both videos end with a discordant theme taking over from the more relaxing one as the camera pans up a clock tower to a skull kid wearing an evil-looking mask and a very large moon with an evil-looking smile/grimace.
The skull kid’s mask is also seen being admired by a character who looks like (and might actually be) the mask shop salesman from Ocarina of Time, and it appears in the title screen, so I’m going to guess it’s Majora’s Mask. Now it’s time to start the game.
In the land of Hyrule, there echoes a legend. A legend held dearly by the Royal Family that tells of a boy…
A boy who, after battling evil and saving Hyrule, crept away from that land that had made him a legend…
Done with the battles he once waged across time, he embarked on a journey. A secret and personal journey…
A journey is search of a beloved and invaluable friend…
A friend with whom he parted ways when he finally fulfilled his heroic destiny and took his place among legends…
So this is the young Link from Ocarina of Time, having come up with and enacted a new plan with Zelda to stop Ganon, and now gone to locate a friend, who’s probably Navi. It could be Saria, but since this is before she had to become a sage, she’s probably hanging about at her spot in the Lost Woods.
As Link rides through a forest, a brother/sister pair of fairies – one light, one dark – spook his horse (Epona?), who throws Link. While Link’s still out, the Skull Kid comes up to him and takes his ocarina, playing a few notes on it while the fairies titter. Link comes to and tries to get the ocarina back, but the Skull Kid jumps up on the horse and rides off. Link grabs onto something and holds on for quite a while, but ultimately can’t anymore.
That doesn’t mean he’s giving up the chase, however. He eventually finds the Skull Kid again, who says he got rid of the horse, and when Link tries to fight again, goes all scary. After a brief vision sequence of Link’s, he finds that he’s been turned into a Deku scrub. The Skull Kid runs off, and Link tries to pursue, so one of the fairies blocks his pursuit, only to be separated from her brother and the Skull Kid by a closing door. The fairy blames Link for their separation, but reluctantly teams with him in the hopes of being reunited. Her name is Tatl, and the developers apparently realized how annoying people found Navi because she doesn’t say “Hey!” to get the player’s attention. Instead, when she gets Link’s attention, there’s a small bell ringing sound.
The game’s still in tutorial mode, both for people who aren’t familiar with the controls for Ocarina, and for everyone getting used to the Deku scrub form. Deku scrubs can’t use swords, but they have a nice spin attack that can destroy plants (if they don’t run away and hide first, wtp). Also, they can merge with Deku flowers, then pop out and glide for short distances. There’s an area where Link gets to test this out with the ability to fall to the floor but climb back up, and then a larger area where it’s just the platforms. One of those platforms has a chest with Deku nuts in them, which Link can use as bombs while flying.
Link makes it over the platforms and passes through a warped hallway like the ones in Ocarina’s Forest Temple into a building. As he comes to the door out near the top, someone speaks to him from behind, “You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” Link turns to see the man from the mask shop in Hyrule Castle Market, who’s traveling in search of new masks. He says the Skull Kid stole a mask from him, and he’d like it back, and is willing to help Link return to his original form if Link will help get the mask back. To that end, Link needs to get his ocarina back from the Skull Kid. And one more thing: the Mask Salesman is only going to be around for three days, after which he’ll have to move on.
Armed with a mission, Link steps out into Clock Town to begin his quest.
Next: Three days in Clock Town.
