Majora's Mask is a fantastic game because it has one of the strongest ludonarrative tools in all of vidya: The 3-day...

Majora's Mask is a fantastic game because it has one of the strongest ludonarrative tools in all of vidya: The 3-day time limit system. Everything within the game is scheduled, and schedules "change" based on your interactions with NPC's and the world. You always start at the "beginning" of the game in each run, and you can view two seperate events that occur at the same time by being in seperate timelines. This is something that is only achievable through videogames and it is the primary reason why Majora's Mask is such an important game from an artistic standpoint.

The gameplay itself is nothing short but great, as the transformation masks allow you to travel the world in imaginative, efficient, and fun ways. The variety of items you have as young link allow for interesting fights and the combat with the transformation masks is fun as well. The Goron Mask is a great tool for getting around the world and the Zora mask is a great tool for swimming, for example.

The game has one of the best worlds in all of vidya, it's small, but compact with things to do, many side quests, several NPC's with well written and developed characters, and enough nuance and polish that it makes the world feel organic, which was normally only possible in RPG's at the time.

In addition to that, the game has some of the best dungeons and areas in the entire series. The Swamp Temple, Snow Temple, and Stone Tower Temple are all amazing levels with creative puzzles and original designs that leave them timeless and memorable. Not to mention the fact that after completing a dungeon, the entire area changes to reflect the benefit you have on the world, only for you to reset time to before the dungeon was complete--keeping progress, mind you.

In addition to that, it has fantastic art and sound direction, leading to one of the best atmospheres in all of vidya. It's story includes dark/depressing themes, and allows for thought provoking philosophical discussion.

It's one of the best games ever.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludonarrative
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

nice blogpost

Nice job but this is a post about videogames, so get reported and banned, loser.

Upvote for MM.

>It's one of the best games ever.

Pretty much. Welcome to the club brother.

>ludonarrative

how would you go in comparing it to Ocarina of Time and its success as one of the more defining Zelda titles.
What I'm asking is, why do you think Majora's Mask always lived int he shadow of Ocarina of Time

It's more challenging in just about every way. It's the KOTOR II to Ocarina of Times KOTOR. The time limit makes the game feel more tense, the dungeons are more challenging, the world is darker, the themes are depressing, and it's overall a more challenging game to get through, despite how rewarding it is. People like OoT more because it had better marketing and it's easier.

I really wish this thread would last longer because your post made me want to give Majora's Mask a second opportunity.
I went around the wrong way to approach this Zelda because I wanted an adventure that slowly paves its way towards a linear goal.
I disliked the sidequest system but I agree that the time limit, even when slowed down adds a layer of tension.

What made you stick with the sidequests? I found them boring and losing most of my progress in the sidequest after the time resets were disheartening even if I did keep it as completed in the log book.

The feeling of that quest having never happened it all kept me from enjoying the game.

How did you not see an issue in this, do you at least see how this might ruin the motivation for someone to finish the game and the reason why it was always a black sheep in the Zelda franchise?

It's like you were explaining the game to your grandmother

newsflash we've all played it

who's this "we"

that's not Windwaker, Twilight Princess, or OoT

>not progressing through the game figuring out how to fix everyone's shit so that your last run is ok be a gloriously busy run fixing everything before the final area

Step it up senpai

Well let me put it this way, if anyone on Sup Forums hasn't played it yet they should get off Sup Forums RIGHT NOW and do so, because you have no business talking anything videogames. It's short, has aged gracefully, and now I'm the one sounding like a pretentious faggot, it's an important piece of video game history which showcases some of the most creative design decisions that developers draw inspiration from to this day

In fact this thread pisses me off because it assumedly works under the assumption that it's okay to not have played it. If you can't be assed to play MM, and yet consider yourself a video game aficionado, shame on you, you're the reason we can't have meaningful dialogue about the evolution of our medium, and in that, still have everyone and their pets think video games are nothing but virtual toys for people stuck in the mindset of a child

The stupid time limit kept anoying me do I just stopped playing.
This may have been Nintendo's first gimic to ruin what could have been a fun game.

The time limit drives just about everything in Majora's Mask, you remove the time limit, you remove all the side quests, and you remove all the pre-dungeon-complete area sidequests, and etc.

Majora's Mask without the time limit is not Majora's Mask, and if you don't understand that, you've either never played the game, or you're a fucking retard.

meant for

MMis my favorite Zelda game but the time limit IS a very divisive mechanic. I can totally understand someone being turned off by it, even if it was instrumental in achieving what the game did

>Stupid gimic is the whole point of the game
So basically it sucks unless you want gimic. Just like the Wiimote, amibos, most gamepad features and requiring touchpad for gameplay.

>It's a gimmick
>So basically it sucks.

So you've never played Majora's Mask, gotcha.

Game was okay, but was it better than skyward sword? I think not.

You can't just call a game play mechanic you don't like a "gimic." Especially not a mechanic that adds as much depth and value to the game as the time limit in Majora's Mask.

Played it on n64 and 3ds port.
>He doesn't like what I like so I will say he didn't play it.

How is it not a gimic? It was a one game thing and wasn't needed. You could just make areas unlock based on what happens and make it change instead of having to constantly reset.

No, you just called a central game mechanic that drives the gameplay, story, world, game mechanics, art direction, and sound direction a "gimmick" and said the entire game "sucked" solely because of it, despite the fact there's nothing inherently wrong with the central game mechanic and the game is praised for said game mechanic.

Well, I think so.

oh wow this whole time ive been arguing about this in the other thread there has been other anons here saying the exact same thing as me, good to know im not the only one.

lol this bait

The same thing is said of wiisports by those who liked it.

How is it bait? Nintendo has a long history of comics, they almost never pay off and are abonded eventually.
But hey, just look at all the games that make you reset every three hours and start over.

>do you at least see how this might ruin the motivation for someone to finish the game

I can see that

>and the reason why it was always a black sheep in the Zelda franchise?

But that's not why it's a "black sheep" in the Zelda franchise. I can kind of see where you're coming from but that's a bit of an OCD problem to have. The "black sheep" status has a number of reasons. For one, it really is not a black sheep, in the grand scheme of things. People say that in retrospect because it has a darker tone of story telling than any Zelda succeding it. It would also be the last Zelda constituting a true sequel to another game.

But all it really is, is it's just not quite as popular as OoT, and they constantly are compared so that's why it kind of seems that way. The reasons for that are not hard to see, it came out just shortly afterwards and it's hard to live up to the hype the first game left behind, doesn't help that it's also one of like 2 games which needed the Expansion Pack to even only start up. So it just reached less players. That's the only reason people consider it the "outlier" nowadays.

Doesn't stop it from being the best Zelda or anything

Okay, let's remove the 3-day time limit from Majora's Mask.

>Characters no longer have their timed schedules, meaning that most if not all character building based sidequests are completely removed. All sidequests that take place at certain times on certain days are removed. You remove about 10 hours of gameplay, tons of polish and nuance.
>Areas now permanently change after defeating a dungeon. You can't go back to the pre-fuckup version of the dungeon to do pre-fuckup exclusive content. A large amount of content that's locked behind items required in later areas are now removed from the game, another couple hours.
>You remove the clocktown events like the day 2/day 3 clocktown music, you remove day 2 exclusive events like it always raining. Great, so less music and atmosphere.
>You remove all the subtle visual changes on day 2/day 3, so less music and atmosphere.
>You remove the fact that skull kid literally destroys the world in three days, every time, story gets knocked down.
>You remove the ability to replay any sidequest or mainquest or dungeon at any point no matter how far you progress.
And so the only things left are:
1) The four dungeons.
2) A far more static version of the game world.
3) The game map itself.
4) most of the music.

So you effectively chiseled a 30 hour game into a 5 hour game.

See how removing the time limit fucks up the entire game?

Sorry, I don't argue with cucks. Try writing withut someone's dick in your mouth.

> It would also be the last Zelda constituting a true sequel to another game.

wasnt spirit tracks a sequal to phantom hourglass which was a sequal to windwaker?

You could easily add the side quests the a linear gameplay. And you can make the ambiance random, or based on choices. Hell, you can make a bunch of diffrent endings giving your choices actual meaning and making multiple play through fun.

Wow free quality (you)s today huh

Time travel in OoT is a gimmick too debate me

Found the troll.

So your solution to making Majora's Mask better is to simply turn it into Undertale.

Phenomenal.

Or you could stop being a close-minded faggot with shit taste and appreciate what the game did was all different, innovative, creative, and well-executed.

>He didn't like something I liked.
>I'll call them a kid, that will show how grown up I am!

itt: every game mechanic ever is now a gimmick

It was a clever use of combining the Radiohead albums "OK COMPUTER" and "KID A" to make "OK KID," seeing as you don't know who radiohead are, you're obviously underage.

>Thinks knowing radiohead makes you and adult
How young are you?

>mobile shit
Right, Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon are sequels too I guess.

this is the sort of thread i like to read

nice op

so what? they dont count because they were on a handheld?

nice pasta OP, you did a good job luring out the redditors that love to post here for some reason.

well not knowing the reference certainly makes you a pleb

the puzzle to get into the mountain area makes no sense though

>ice blocking your path
logical conclusion: hmm I should get a big old ice pick or hammer or get some fire or explosive
actual conclusion: lol look up and shoot your bow at a giant piece of ice, which falls on it

what am I playing a sierra game??

What are you talking about?

Undoing progress and putting that trigger in the player's hands is the best part. It puts you right in Link's shoes when you have to through the effort of helping everyone and have to reset all of your work. Then you have the knowledge that whenever you don't help out, the monkey's getting boiled alive and Romani's getting lobotomized on that cycle. That level of engagement and making people take the game's world seriously is atmosphere.

I agree.

>(you)

Exactly

>anyone who thinks that games can be more than just fun is pretentious!

wew

2spoopy4me

>ludonarrative

Porn?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludonarrative

You're right, good post.

>lewd-o-narrative
>not porn

Good job English.

So... who was this guy playing guitar in the concert?

Is there any other games besides life and dating sims where the game is built around a time limit? Like being given a certain amount of days, and meeting people at certain hours and such, to solve a mystery before your time is up.

The only games I can think off the top of my head, are Shenmue and that one PS2 game I can't remember the name of.

I'd prefer if you'd not be able to effect the time limit too much, going back in time was fine in Majora's Mask, but having a feature to pass x amount of hours whenever you want would ruin it.

been playing this at work on my 3DS, everything is great except the changes to Zora form.

Pathologic x 1000000000

Majora's Mask is one of those games that would have simply worked better as its own series. Zelda is famous for having worlds where the players actually want to explore, both to collect hidden treasures as well as just see the sights. The whole thing was based off of Miyamoto's adventures in the wilderness. MM completely destroys this by forcing an arbitrary time limit, which dissuades you from dicking around because if you have to turn back time then any progress you've made in a quest gets lost.

It's essentially the same shit as Zelda II. I can appreciate the things it added to the series (characters, songs, etc.), but if I want to play a ZELDA game I'll play a Zelda game and not a shitty Castlevania knockoff.

There's lots of games like Hitman and the SOCOM games where environments work on a timer which I like and lots of games with timed missions.

I dunno if there's others where you're plopped in a timed and scheduled environment though.

>Zelda is famous for having worlds where the players actually want to explore

Which is why I've spent the most time exploring and poking around in and discovering Termina out of all Zelda games. Maybe OoT comes close because I'd spend all my time trying to find the Sky Temple.

But Majora's Mask actually has in game gameplay incentives to explore the world and talk to literally everybody and find everything in the form of the masks you unlock for doing so in addition to heart pieces you got for exploring around in OoT.

It also encourages 4D exploration by making you check certain places at certain hours.

Majora's Mask has the most organic world, you fucking retard. It's the most fun to explore because it's filled with the most content, no one cycle is similar to another, and chances are you won't ever find everything in the game even after getting 100% heartpieces and items.

MM is the most fun to explore, not even in spite of the time limit, but because of the way they incorporated it.

You're just a scared casual

real life

Reminder that if you didn't do a perfect three-day cycle before defeating Majora it doesn't count:

>both spider houses
>15 stray fairies in all 4 temples
>play the frog orchestra
>Anju/Kafei
>All of the Ranch
>do every single thing in the Bomber's notebook (minus helping the old lady in the bomb shop), spend at least 500 rupees in her shop to make up for it
>re-do all the stuff to get into the temples (save Koume and get into the monkey's cage, get the Goron Elder's child to stop crying, get all the zora eggs, play the Song of Storms to Sharp, save Pamela's dad, beat Captain Keeta and Igos du Ikana)
>all 4 bosses

The only mystery worth solving is why I keep going.

Is this actually possible?

>I'd spend all my time trying to find the Sky Temple

wut

it's ok
it's my number 5 in my Zelda Top.

na also he didn't mention a bunch of other shit you would have to do

>not reading 1998 websites on your dial-up that had pictures of Link getting the triforce and the wings for Epona to go to the Sky Temple

underage pls go

I've done it. It took me two tries because I couldn't remember where the stray fairies were.

The biggest problem is that the Anju/Kafei side-quest takes away like 6 hours when you do Sakon's hideout.

What did I miss?

...