The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Link in his Zora form

While the masks in Ocarina of Time are limited to an optional side-quest, they play a central role in Majora's Mask, which has twenty-four masks in total.[3]

Link can transform himself at will into different creatures: the Deku Mask transforms Link into a Deku Scrub, the Goron Mask into a Goron, and the Zora Mask into a Zora.[4] Each form features unique abilities: Deku Link can perform a spin attack, shoot bubbles, skip on water, and fly for a short time by launching from Deku Flowers; Goron Link can roll at high speeds (and grow spikes at higher speeds), punch with deadly force, pound the ground with his massive, rock-like body, walk in lava without taking damage, and weigh down heavy switches; Zora Link can swim faster than normal Link, throw boomerang-like fins from his arms, generate a force field, and walk on the bottoms of bodies of water. Many areas can be accessed only by use of these abilities.

Link and his three transformations receive different reactions from non-player characters (NPCs).[5] For instance, Goron and Zora Link can exit Clock Town at will, but Deku Link is not permitted to leave due to his childlike appearance. Animals also interact differently to Link's four forms. They are indifferent to Link's normal form, attack Deku Link, are frightened by Goron Link, and chase Zora Link.

The final obtainable mask is the Fierce Deity's Mask. Even though the use of this mask is strictly limited to boss battles, it is possible to wear it anywhere using a glitch. Upon donning this mask, Link grows to nearly two-and-a-half times his normal height and gains white clothes and war paint on his face. Fierce Deity Link's sword is helix-shaped and shoots beams at enemies.

Other masks provide situational benefits. For example, the Great Fairy's Mask helps retrieve stray fairies in the four temples, the Bunny Hood increases Link's movement speed, and the Stone Mask renders Link invisible to most NPCs and enemies. Less valuable masks are usually involved only in optional side-quests or specialized situations. Examples include the Postman's Hat, which grants Link access to items in mailboxes,[6] and Kafei's Mask, which initiates a long side-quest to receive the Couple's Mask.[7]

Deku Link playing his mask-specific instrument, the Deku Pipes.

Majora's Mask imposes a time limit of three days (72 hours) in-game time,[8] which is about 54 minutes in real time.[9] An on-screen clock tracks the day and time. Link can return to 6:00 am of the first day by playing the Song of Time on the Ocarina of Time. If he does not before the 72 hours expire, then the moon will destroy Termina and Link will lose everything he accomplished during these three days. A real-time countdown will begin when only 6 hours remain.[8] However, returning to the first day saves the player's progress and major accomplishments permanently, such as the collection of maps, masks, music, and weapons.[10] Cleared puzzles, keys, and minor items will be lost, as well as any rupees not in the bank, and almost all characters will have no recollection of meeting Link.[11] Link can slow down time or warp to the next morning or evening by playing the Inverted Song of Time and the Song of Double Time. Owl statues scattered across certain major areas of the world allow the player to temporarily save their progress after activation and also provide warp points to quickly navigate the world.

Other uses for music include manipulating the weather, teleporting between owl statues spread throughout Termina, and unlocking the four temples. Each transformation mask uses a different instrument: Deku Link plays a multi-horn instrument called the "Deku Pipes", Goron Link plays a set of bongo drums tied around his waist, and Zora Link plays a guitar made from a large fish skeleton. Jackson Guitars created a limited edition 7-string replica of this guitar that was the grand prize in a contest in Nintendo Power, known as the "Jackson Zoraxe".[12]

During the three-day cycle, many non-player characters follow fixed schedules that Link can track using the Bombers' Notebook.[13] The notebook tracks the twenty characters in need of help,[13] such as a soldier to whom Link delivers medicine and a couple whom Link reunites. Blue bars on the notebook's timeline indicate when characters are available for interaction, and icons indicate that Link has received items, such as masks, from the characters.[13]

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is set in Termina, a land parallel to Hyrule,[14][15] the main setting of most Zelda games. Termina is a world that is trapped within a perpetual three day limbo, between the time when Link first enters Termina at the beginning of Majora's Mask, and when a large falling moon crashes into the land causing its apocalyptic destruction and killing its inhabitants 72 hours later.[16] The Skull Kid, a former inhabitant of Hyrule, obtains Majora's Mask and wills Termina into existence, due to the evil power of the mask combined with Skull Kid's heavy heart. The residents of Termina, who are created from the Skull Kid's memories, resemble the residents of Hyrule featured in Ocarina of Time, and possess their own unique culture and myths.[17] One of these myths tells of how Termina was divided into four quadrants by four magic giants that live in each of the land's regions and how harmony was restored to the land. The giants were friends of an imp, who repeatedly wronged the people out of anger caused by feelings of neglect. The giants, who were worshipped like gods, urged the imp to return to the heavens and restore peace to the world. This myth emphasises that Hyrule is Termina's heaven and that the imp is the Skull Kid.[18] Termina is depicted as a darker, more unsettling version of Hyrule, in which landmarks are familiar and side characters who previously appeared in Ocarina of Time are presented with individual stories of misfortune.[19]

At the center of Termina lies Clock Town, which features a large clock tower that counts down the days before the Carnival of Time—a festival where the people of Termina pray for good luck and harvests. Termina Field surrounds Clock Town; beyond lie a swamp, mountain range, bay, and canyon in each of the four cardinal directions. Each of the areas contains a temple and is home to a unique race of creatures who have in some way been impacted by the misdeeds of the Skull Kid.

The Southern Swamp contains the Deku Palace and the Woodfall Temple, an ancient shrine that contains monsters and a giant masked jungle warrior, Odolwa, who has been poisoning the swamp. The Snowhead mountain range, north of Clock Town, is the site of the Goron village. Normally a lush pine forest region most of the year, the area has been experiencing an unusually long winter caused by the mechanical monster Goht in Snowhead Temple. The western area of Termina, the Great Bay, is home to the Zora and Gerudo civilizations. A giant masked fish, Gyorg, is generating storms and contaminating the water surrounding the Great Bay Temple. The desolate Ikana Canyon, to the east of Clock Town, is the site of a former kingdom. It is inhabited mainly by the undead, except for a ghost researcher and his daughter Pamela, as well as a thief named Sakon. Two giant masked insectoid serpents known as Twinmold are casting a dark aura from their nest in Stone Tower Temple, causing the corpses of former citizens and soldiers to be revived as undead monsters.

Romani Ranch, southwest of Clock Town, is the site of a ranch which houses Romani, her older sister, Cremia, Grog, and Mamamu Yan. In a sidequest, Link can help Romani protect the ranch's cows from being abducted by alien-like creatures of unknown origin colloquially dubbed "Ghosts", "Them", and "They".[20]

After the final confrontation with Skull Kid, Link is transported to the inside of the moon, which is portrayed as a green field with a single, large tree in the center with five children donning the masks of the game's four preceding bosses playing underneath it and a fifth donning Majora's mask, who triggers the game's final battle, sitting against it. The children are never named nor otherwise referenced in the game, though they resemble the Traveling Mask Salesman.

Majora's Mask takes place a few months after The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time[21] and begins with Link searching for his departed fairy, Navi. While riding through a forest in Hyrule on his horse Epona, Link is ambushed by Skull Kid wearing a mysterious mask and his fairy friends Tatl and Tael, who steal both Epona and the Ocarina of Time. Link follows them down a dark cave and confronts Skull Kid, who taunts him and casts a curse transforming him into a Deku Scrub. Tatl prevents Link from pursuing Skull Kid as he escapes with Tael, resulting in Tatl being separated from her brother. Having no other choice, Tatl asks Link to find Tael who flew to the Clock Tower of the land of Termina; there, he meets the Happy Mask Salesman, who offers to help Link heal his curse in exchange for retrieving the mysterious mask from Skull Kid, and tells Link he must also obtain the Ocarina of Time in three days.

Link and Tatl enter Clock Town, in the middle of the Carnival of Time, set in three days. From a fairy, they learn that Skull Kid is waiting at the top of the tower, which is only accessible during the eve of the carnival. As the two interact with the residents of Clock Town, they learn of the havoc that Skull Kid had wrought prior to their arrival. At midnight on the third day, the Clock Tower opens, which Link and Tatl ascend. At the top, they confront Skull Kid, and Tatl implores Skull Kid to return the mask. Skull Kid uses the mask's power to expedite the moon's collision with Termina while Tael hurriedly speaks a riddle to them: "Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon... hurry, the four who are there... bring them here!" Link manages to retrieve the Ocarina of Time and plays the Song of Time, a song Princess Zelda taught him before he left Hyrule. Link and Tatl are brought back to the first day. Meeting with the Happy Mask Salesman again, Link returns to his human form and seals his Deku curse into a mask which can turn him back into a Deku Scrub at will. The salesman then explains that the mask conceals an evil, apocalyptic power that was used by an ancient tribe in hexing rituals known as Majora. The troubles caused by the mask were so great, the ancient ones sealed the mask to prevent it from being misused. Link starts his quest by first going to Woodfall; on the way, Tatl explains that Skull Kid was lonely and they became friends, and he stole Majora's Mask from the sleeping salesman. At Woodfall, Link becomes embroiled in a planned execution following the Deku Princess' kidnapping after the lake became poisoned. Link manages to save the princess, lift the curse and prevent the execution after saving a Giant, a being capable of stopping the moon's fall and learns that Skull Kid laid a curse on all four regions of Termina.

At Snowhead, Link saves the Gorons from being frozen by a cursed winter with the power of the late legendary Darmani the Third. At the Great Bay, Link buries Mikau, a Zora whom is the guitarist of "the Indigo-Go's", a local music group intending to play at the Carnival. Link fulfills Mikau's last wish to save the Great Bay ocean, and help Lulu the singer to recover her voice she lost after giving birth to seven babies. Successful, they go to Ikana Canyon, where Link saves a family father and an army being cursed to live after being killed in an old war.

With all four curses lifted, Link confronts Skull Kid again at the top of the Clock Tower and summons the Four Giants, who halt the moon's descent. Majora's Mask reveals he manipulated the Skull Kid and flies up to possess the moon instead. With Tatl at his side, Link follows Majora's Mask to the inside of the moon; deeper into the moon, Link encounters Majora in its bestial form, and defeats it once and for all, returning the moon to its proper place in the sky.[22] The Four Giants return to their sleep, and it is revealed that they were former friends of Skull Kid; they were sealed to prevent him from using Majora's power. The fairy siblings reunite with the newly liberated Skull Kid while the Happy Mask Salesman takes Majora's Mask, now purified of its evil power. Link then leaves Termina on Epona after saying goodbye to Tatl, now close friends, while the Carnival of Time begins. In the post-credits scene, Link leaves the forest, and a drawing on a tree stump of Link, Tatl, Tael, the Skull Kid, and the Four Giants is shown.[23]

The 4MB Expansion Pak is required to run Majora's Mask.

Majora's Mask runs on an upgraded version of the engine used in Ocarina of Time and requires the use of the Nintendo 64's 4 MB Expansion Pak, making it one of the two games that require said peripheral; the other being Donkey Kong 64.[9] IGN theorized this requirement is due to Majora's Mask's possible origin as a Nintendo 64DD game, which would necessitate an extra 4 MB of RAM.[9] The use of the Expansion Pak allows for greater draw distances, more accurate dynamic lighting, more detailed texture mapping and animation, complex framebuffer effects such as motion blur, and more characters displayed on-screen.[9] This expanded draw distance allows the player to see much farther and eliminates the need for the fog effect and "cardboard panorama" seen in Ocarina of Time, which were used to obscure distant areas.[9] IGN considered the texture design to be one of the best created for the Nintendo 64, saying that although some textures have a low resolution, they are "colorful and diverse", which gives each area "its own unique look".[9]

The music was written by longtime series composer Koji Kondo, and Toru Minegishi.[44] The soundtrack largely consists of reworked music from Ocarina of Time, complemented with other traditional Zelda music such as the "Overworld Theme" and new material.[9][45] Kondo describes the music as having "an exotic Chinese-opera sound".[46] As the three-day cycle progresses, the theme song of Clock Town changes between three variations, one for each day.[47] IGN relates the shift in music to a shift in the game's atmosphere, saying that the quickened tempo of the Clock Town music on the second day conveys a sense of time passing quickly.[9] The two-disc soundtrack was released in Japan on June 23, 2000, and features 112 tracks from the game.[48][44]

After the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, a remake of Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 3DS, director Eiji Aonuma suggested that a Majora's Mask remake was dependent on interest and demand.[104] Following this news, a fan campaign called "Operation Moonfall" was launched to promote a remake of Majora's Mask for the 3DS.[105] The campaign name is a reference to a similar fan-based movement, Operation Rainfall, set up to persuade Nintendo of America to localize a trio of role-playing games for the Wii.[105] The petition reached 10,000 signatures within five days.[106] In response to an email sent by a customer, a representative of Nintendo of America revealed that they had no official announcements of Majora's Mask remake, but they were interested to hear about what fans wanted, acknowledging their campaign.[107] Both Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma[108] and Miyamoto expressed interest in developing the remake in the future.[109][110]

A remake of Majora's Mask, titled The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, was released worldwide in February 2015. Like Ocarina of Time 3D before it, the remake features improved character models and stereoscopic 3D graphics, along with altered boss battles, an additional fishing minigame, and support for New Nintendo 3DS systems.[111] To update the game for modern audiences, Aonuma and the team at Grezzo compiled a list of gameplay moments that stuck out to them as unreasonable for players, colloquially dubbed the "what in the world" list.[112] The game's release coincided with the launch of the New Nintendo 3DS system in North America and Europe.[113] A special edition New Nintendo 3DS XL model was launched alongside the game,[114] with the European release featuring a pin badge, double-sided poster, and steelbook case.[115] The UK retailer Game offered a Majora's Mask-themed paperweight as a pre-order bonus for the standard edition of the game.[116]