NINTENDO-64
10
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Nintendo's most psychologically dark Zelda game dropped Link into the doomed world of Termina, where a moon falls every three days, time loops endlessly, and the inhabitant cast need his help before everything ends. Majora's Mask is a meditation on grief, identity, and impermanence unlike anything else in the franchise.
💡 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask — Key Facts
- → The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo
- → Released in 2000 on NINTENDO-64
- → Genre: Action, Adventure
- → We rate it 9.7/10 — an absolute classic
- → Part of the zelda franchise
- → Nintendo's most psychologically dark Zelda game dropped Link into the doomed world of Termina, where a moon falls every three days, time loops endlessly, and the inhabitant cast need his help before everything ends. Majora's Mask is a meditation on grief, identity, and impermanence unlike anything else in the franchise.
Overview
When Shigeru Miyamoto tasked director Eiji Aonuma and producer Yoshiaki Koizumi with creating a new Zelda game using the Ocarina of Time engine, he gave them approximately one year and a small team. The constraint forced radical creative decisions — reusing assets, limiting dungeon count, and concentrating content around a single mechanic.
The result was Majora’s Mask: a game about time, loss, and the weight of helping people you cannot save. Where Ocarina of Time was triumphant and epic, Majora’s Mask was intimate and melancholy. It became one of the franchise’s most beloved entries.
Gameplay
Link arrives in Termina, a world parallel to Hyrule, to find its moon falling toward the earth. He has 72 hours — three in-game days — before catastrophe. The Song of Time on his ocarina resets the clock, sending Link back to the dawn of the first day with items retained but the world reset.
This structure creates a distinctive gameplay loop: attending to side quests that can only be triggered at specific times of specific days, using the Song of Time to return and try different approaches, and slowly building mastery of Termina’s schedule to help as many of its inhabitants as possible before the cycle repeats.
Four transformation masks allow Link to become a Deku Scrub (flight via flower pads, water walking), Goron (rolling combat, lava immunity), Zora (swimming, electric shield), or the ultimate Fierce Deity (in boss rooms only). Each form has unique abilities required for specific challenges.
Why It’s a Classic
Majora’s Mask achieves something rare in games: genuine emotional depth arising from systemic design rather than scripted story moments. Every NPC has a schedule, a life, a problem. Some cannot be helped; some require sacrificing time that could help others. The game forces players to make choices about how to spend their limited time — and this creates genuine moral weight and, for many players, genuine distress.
Legacy
Majora’s Mask developed a devoted following that has grown with time, and it is now considered by many fans to equal or surpass Ocarina of Time in ambition. Academic game studies frequently cite it as evidence of games’ capacity for artistic expression. The 3DS remake in 2015 confirmed its place as a franchise cornerstone.
Our Review
9.7
Masterpiece / 10
🎮
Gameplay
★★★★★
🎨
Graphics
★★★★★
🎵
Audio
★★★★★
🔄
Replay
★★★★★
Gameplay
The three-day cycle mechanics — time loops, notebook-tracked side quests, Bomber's Notebook scheduling — create the deepest systemic gameplay in the Zelda series. Four dungeon temples support a vast web of interconnected side quests, and the transformation masks (Deku Scrub, Goron, Zora, and Fierce Deity) provide distinct movement abilities for different scenarios. The density of meaningful interaction per acre of game space is extraordinary.
Graphics
Reuses the Ocarina of Time engine but deploys it with greater artistic confidence — Termina's locations are more visually distinctive, and the emotional expressiveness of the Majora's Mask visuals (the moon's terrifying face, the haunted environments) is striking. The mask transformations are technically impressive character model swaps.
Audio
Koji Kondo and Toru Minegishi's score is more experimental and unsettling than Ocarina's, matching the game's darker tone. The Song of Healing is one of Nintendo's most emotionally affecting compositions, associated with the sorrowful backstories of the transformation mask characters.
Replayability
Very high. The Bomber's Notebook tracks dozens of side quests that require multiple time cycles to complete, and achieving 100% completion (all masks, including the Fierce Deity's Mask) requires extensive knowledge of the cycle system. New discoveries are possible even on fifth and sixth playthroughs.
Historical Significance
Majora's Mask developed from a modest development budget and timeline into one of the most critically celebrated Zelda games, noted for its psychological depth and thematic ambition. It is regularly cited in analyses of video games as art due to its exploration of mortality, grief, and the weight of time. The 3DS remake (2015) introduced it to a new generation.
✅ Pros
- + Three-day cycle system creates the most complex, deeply systemic Zelda in the franchise
- + Every NPC has a distinct schedule and story across the cycle — unprecedented character depth
- + Four transformation masks provide genuinely distinct gameplay modes
- + Song of Healing and the Mask of Truth side quest deliver extraordinary emotional resonance
- + Termina's world is darker and more emotionally complex than Hyrule
- + 100% completion with all 24 masks is one of gaming's great achievements
❌ Cons
- - Three-day system is stressful for players who cannot stand time pressure
- - Only four main dungeons — significantly fewer than Ocarina's nine
- - The game's darkness and existential themes are genuinely upsetting for young players
- - Bank, Bomber's Notebook, and cycle management systems have a steep learning curve
- - Some time-sensitive side quests are extremely easy to miss and impossible to retry without cycling
Also Known As
Zelda MMゼルダの伝説 ムジュラの仮面
In the Series
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask FAQ
What is the three-day cycle system?
Termina faces destruction in 72 hours when the moon crashes. Link relives these 72 hours repeatedly using the Song of Time on his ocarina. Each cycle resets most of the world (enemies return, events repeat, money vanishes) but Link retains key items and learned songs. Some side quests require multiple cycles — beginning one cycle, progressing it partway, cycling back, and continuing in a new loop. The Bomber's Notebook tracks which NPCs need help and their schedules.
Who is the Happy Mask Salesman?
The Happy Mask Salesman is the mysterious figure who provides Link with the Ocarina of Time (which was stolen by Skull Kid) and commissions him to recover Majora's Mask. His motives are ambiguous — he is warm and helpful but clearly concealing knowledge about Majora's Mask's power. He is one of the game's most discussed characters due to his unexplained nature and the theories his mysterious demeanor generates.
What is the Fierce Deity's Mask?
The Fierce Deity's Mask is obtained by trading all other 23 masks to the children in the moon. When worn, Link transforms into an adult form resembling a dark, powerful deity, with a helix sword capable of firing energy discs. It is the most powerful form in the game and is intentionally overpowered for the boss fights — though it can only be worn during boss encounters in the standard game.
Is the Anju and Kafei side quest worth completing?
The Anju and Kafei quest is the most elaborate side quest in any Zelda game — a multi-cycle investigation into the disappearance of the young man Kafei before his wedding to Anju on the Final Day. It requires specific actions in specific time windows across all three days and multiple cycles. Completing it rewards the Couple's Mask and one of the game's most emotionally moving cutscenes. It is absolutely worth doing.
Is there a remake of Majora's Mask?
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (2015, Nintendo 3DS) is a full graphical remake with improved character models, reworked boss fights (particularly Gyorg and Twinmold, which were significantly redesigned), a revised fishing minigame, and the Bomber's Notebook interface improvements. It is the recommended modern way to play the game.
