[ENG/ESP] Retro Review - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

 **Greetings, Hive!** The next game in the list of The Legend of Zelda saga to review after A [Link to the Past](https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@alejandroaldana/espeng-retro-review-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past) and [Ocarina of Time](https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@alejandroaldana/espeng-retro-review-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time) is the darkest game narratively of the whole saga: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Talking about this game is something that excites me a lot because having played it in two different stages of my life gave me a very different perception of it, I had always wanted to do a review about this game and this amazing platform, Hive, gives me the opportunity to do it. So without any further ado, let's start!  Like its predecessors, Majora's Mask is a game produced and published by Nintendo, released worldwide for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, just two years after Ocarina of Time. It had several re-releases, it appeared in the compilation The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the Nintendo Game Cube, in Nintendo Wii’s virtual console, and a remake for the Nintendo 3DS that had its release in 2015 with the name "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D", which like Ocarina of Time’s remake, is a version with updated graphics and some changes and additions to the gameplay. > A fun fact is that, as a kid, this game used to scare me a lot, nowadays I even have a Majora's mask tattoo. This is the first Zelda game to be a direct sequel, this game takes place after the events of Ocarina of Time: Link defeats Ganon and is returned to his childhood, with Ganon defeated and the kingdom of Hyrule safe, the Master Sword is put to rest again, our companion the fairy Navi having fulfilled her mission entrusted by the Great Deku Tree, is separated from Link, thus culminating our silent protagonist journey. However, as it is revealed that Link is not a Kokiri, but a Hylian, he no longer has a place to return to. This leads him to take the decision to enter the Lost Woods in search of his faithful companion, Navi, leading him to fall into the strange lands of Termina, which are being plagued by the evil of the Skull Kid, bearer of a strange mask known as the Majora's Mask, accompanied by a moon that will hit crash in 72 hours, destroying everything in its path. Obviously, our mission is to stop the Skull Kid and the moon from falling.   Visually, Majora's Mask is very similar to Ocarina of Time, in fact, they use the same graphic engine, but the Nintendo 64 version needed a peripheral called Expansion Pak that increased the memory to improve graphics, have more elements on screen, and in general, give a better performance. As for the gameplay we have the same elements that were presented in the previous installment: third-person view, management in a 3D world of our protagonist, buttons dedicated to actions such as talk, attack, roll, cover; three spaces to equip items (which are practically the same as in Oot). Almost everything we knew is back in this installment.  The first major change in gameplay comes with items that were previously only a secondary part of the game: masks. This time the masks are not just something aesthetic, but these will grant us skills needed to solve or complete specific things when we use them.  Out of the large repertoire of masks we have to use/get, there are 4 of them that stand out: The Deku mask, the Goron mask, the Zora mask, and the Fierce Deity mask. These masks are special because they are imbued with the soul of someone of the race they represent, meaning this that, when Links uses them, it transforms into someone of that race, and this brings a GIANT change gameplay as each race has different abilities; as a Deku we are smaller but we can enter the Deku Flowers to glide through the air; the Goron is strong, heavy and has the ability to roll at high speeds; with the Zora we can swim the sea with dexterity and speed; the Fierce Deity is a special mask that we can only use in boss fights, with it we embody a fierce warrior whose power is the only one that can face Majora.  Finally, the world where we are is perfectly organized with the cardinal points, Clock Town being in the middle and being our base.  The swamp inhabited by the Deku is to the south; the mountains, home of the Goron to the north. The great bay where we find the Zora, lies to the west; and to the east the land of the dead: Ikana Canyon. In each place we will find a dungeon that we must complete in order to advance the plot, as well as help each of the inhabitant races in their places. The dungeons and the world are adapted to the new mask mechanics, and depending on where we are we will have to use more of a specific mask, for example: in the dungeon of the mountains, our predominant mask will be the Goron mask.  Second and most important change in this installment is time. Interestingly, this game handles the concept of time much better than its predecessor, Ocarina of Time. The mechanics are as follows: we have 72 hours to prevent the moon from falling on Termina destroying everything in its path, during these three days whenever we look up, we will see the moon, closer and closer, falling little by little and heading to the inevitable end. But 72 hours is too little, and this is where our precious ocarina of time comes in: if we play the song of time we will travel to the past, to the dawn of the first day. This resets the 72 hours counter. However, everything we have done so far will be reset as well (except for important items we get in the game), so we can prevent the world from being destroyed while we prepare to fight Majora. There are also other ways to manipulate time with the ocarina: we can make it run slower or skip it, time in this installment feels like another character.   NPCs (non-playable characters) are also strongly affected by this mechanic; each NPC has its own life and schedule according to the progress of the days, you will not find the same NPC in the same place twice (with few exceptions) and to complete certain side events you will have to be very specific with the schedules and routines of the characters.

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The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that is characterized by light stories and narratives, the classic fight of good against evil, this is the exception. Majora's Mask is a game that tells us about the fear of death, sadness and the loss of a loved one and the mourning that we live as a result of it. The inhabitants of Termina are going through very serious problems; a Deku father mourns the disappearance of his son, with no hope of seeing him again; a Zora is in agony, and his greatest regret is that he will not see his children born, and his wife is plunged into a paralyzing depression due to his disappearance; a Goron leader is plunged into despair at not being able to help his people because he’s dead; during our journey Link meets each of these characters and, through the masks, manages to give them eternal rest, however, this is not a story of how Link is the one chosen to save the world. Link is in this world by purely chance, there is no destiny that has planned this for him, and he simply cannot save them all. Each character has a tragic story that unfolds over the three days, and if we help someone we will leave another person unsaved, no matter how fast we are, time keeps passing and we learn to accept that there are things we can't prevent, we learn that there are things we can't change. As the days go by we can see how the inhabitants of Clock Town become more and more scared by the moon, they try to go on with their normal lives but they simply can’t, they know the end is near, their dialogues change and you can feel their fear of dying, their regrets for the things they didn’t do, until finally, on the last day, almost all the inhabitants of Clock Town have evacuated the city in search of shelter.  Playing Majora's Mask when I was a kid was always an experience that generated a certain degree of discomfort (discomfort apart from the horrendous moon looking at you all the time) and it wasn't something I understood until I grew up and could begin to understand the issues it addresses, maybe that's why I felt discomfort, I was a kid who didn't understand why those characters were suffering so much. I think that, unfairly, this game has been compared to Ocarina of Time for a long time and people always say things like: "Yes, it's good, but it's not Ocarina of Time", when even though they look and play similar, they have very different themes. Despair, sadness and death are elements that will accompany us throughout this adventure, which perhaps due to administrative decisions was given a happy ending and not the one that was planned or the one that would have been consistent with the theme of the game. 

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 **¡Saludos, Hive!** El siguiente juego en la lista de la saga de The Legend of Zelda a reseñar después de [A Link to the Past](https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@alejandroaldana/espeng-retro-review-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past) y [Ocarina of Time](https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@alejandroaldana/espeng-retro-review-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time) es el juego más oscuro narrativamente de toda la saga: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Hablar de este juego es algo que me emociona mucho porque el haberlo jugado en dos etapas distintas de mi vida me dio una percepción muy distinta del mismo, siempre había querido hacer una reseña acerca de este juego y esta increíble plataforma, Hive, me brinda la oportunidad de hacerlo. Así que sin más preámbulos, ¡comencemos!  Al igual que sus predecesores, Majora’s Mask es un juego producido y publicado por Nintendo, salió al mercado mundial para la Nintendo 64 en el año 2000, tan solo dos años después de Ocarina of Time. Tuvo varios relanzamientos, apareció en el recopilatorio The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition para el Nintendo Game Cube, en la consola virtual del Nintendo Wii, y un remake para la Nintendo 3DS que tuvo su lanzamiento en el 2015 con el nombre de “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D”, que al igual que el remake de Ocarina of Time para esta consola, es una versión con gráficos actualizados y algunos cambios y añadidos en la jugabilidad. > Un dato curioso es que de niño me daba mucho miedo jugar este juego, hoy en día hasta tengo un tatuaje de la Máscara de Majora. Este es el primer juego de Zelda en ser una secuela directa, este juego toma lugar después de los acontecimientos de Ocarina of Time: Link derrota a Ganon y es devuelto a su niñez, con Ganon derrotado y el reino de Hyrule a salvo, la Espada Maestra es puesta a descansar nuevamente, nuestra compañera el hada Navi habiendo cumplido su misión encomendada por el Gran Árbol Deku, se separa de Link, culminando así el viaje de nuestro silencioso protagonista. Sin embargo, al revelarse que Link no es un Kokiri, sino un Hyliano, ya no tiene un lugar al que volver. Esto lo lleva a tomar la decisión de adentrarse a los Bosques Perdidos en búsqueda de su fiel compañera, Navi, cayendo así en las extrañas tierras de Termina, que están siendo azotadas por la maldad del Skull Kid, portador de una extraña mascara conocida como la Máscara de Majora, acompañados de una luna que impactará en este lugar dentro de 72 horas, destruyéndolo todo a su paso. Obviamente, nuestra misión es detener al Skull Kid y a la luna de caer.   Visualmente, Majora’s Mask es muy parecido a Ocarina of Time, de hecho usan el mismo motor gráfico, pero la versión de Nintendo 64 necesitaba de un periférico llamado Expansion Pak que incrementaba la memoria para mejorar los gráficos, tener más elementos en pantalla, y en general, dar un mejor rendimiento. En cuánto a la jugabilidad tenemos los mismos elementos que se nos presentaron en la entrega anterior: vista en tercera persona, manejo en un mundo en 3D de nuestro protagonista, botones dedicados a acciones como hablar, atacar, rodar, cubrirse; tres espacios para equipar objetos (los cuáles son prácticamente los mismos de Oot). Casi todo lo que conocíamos vuelve a hacer presencia en esta entrega.  El primer cambio más importante en la temática y la jugabilidad viene con unos objetos que antes no eran más que una parte secundaria: las máscaras. En esta ocasión las máscaras no son solo algo estético, sino que estas nos otorgaran habilidades necesarias para resolver o completar cosas específicas cuándo las usamos.  Del gran repertorio de máscaras que tenemos para usar/conseguir hay 4 de ellas que destacan: La máscara Deku, la máscara Goron, la máscara Zora, y la máscara de la Fiera Deidad. Estas máscaras son especiales porque están imbuidas con