Majora's Mask truly embodies the spirit of the Zelda series

So much has been said about Majora's Mask that it's easy to overlook what makes this game so great when it comes down to bare bones. One of this game's claims to fame is the "Ben Drowned" Creepypasta that plays off of the macabre and dark environment of the game. This game has such a large cult following (it's become even more apparent with the recent collector's editions of the game being sold out in 15 minutes or less) that the premise of the game almost gets drowned out (no puns intended) by all the hype. So, what is it about Majora's Mask that that makes it so popular?

Like Majora's Mask, the Wind Waker wasn't a fan favorite at first

If you think about it, Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker have a lot in common. They both were games that resulted in an upgrade in hardware (MM with the ExpansionPak and WW with the GameCube), and they both weren't well received by the Zelda fanbase at first. You can really tell that the developers were attempting to try something new with these titles. In Majora's Mask, they were able to add more detail and complexity to the overworld that was absent from Ocarina of Time. With Ocarina, the developers introduced the concept of the 3D Zelda game, but with Majora's Mask they perfected it. With The Wind Waker, I think the developers wanted to play with the idea of a more expressive Link and more dynamic overworld, hence the cell-shaded graphics. Both titles were hailed as being too different, and therefore fans steered away from them at first. However, they both eventually became huge hits and received/are receiving remakes. In my eyes, these games (Majora's Mask more specifically) embody the spirit of the series that was introduced in the original game.

The least popular Zelda titles are often the most different (excluding the original of course)

In the original Legend of Zelda game, there was very little direction, leaving the player to explore the world as they pleased. Granted, the Zelda games of today are way more linear than the original Legend of Zelda, but I think Majora's Mask is a more modern version of the original game without being being a direct sequel.
There are so many secrets to be discovered in Majora's Mask. The game itself is like one big puzzle, and it's up to the player to figure out where all the pieces go. That's much like how the original Legend of Zelda game is. In both games, the player acts as a detective trying to solve a mystery with very few clues along the way. Granted, many other Zelda games feature these elements, but in Majora's Mask and The Legend of Zelda, I feel like the exploration element is the most prominent.

There are 24 masks to collect in Majora's Mask, and 20 unique quests to get them

The developers of the upcoming Zelda game for Wii U claim that they're going back to basics. However, I think they already have in the form of Majora's Mask. The game is such a good example of what makes Zelda times great, both new and old. The time where that game was seen as taboo and too different is now gone. I think it's arguably one of the most popular Zelda games to date. Hopefully the upcoming remake will do it justice, but only time will tell. I'll be playing that game as soon as it comes out, so expect a post about by thoughts of the game! With this post thus ends my series of Majora's Mask posts.

If you're intertested in other things I've written about Majora's Mask, be sure to check out my top 5 hopes for Majora's Mask 3D, my theory about the story of Majora's Mask and what it means, the Majora's Mask easter egg in A Link Between Worlds, the classic dungeon theme easter egg in Majora's Mask and the Star Fox easter egg in Majora's Mask.

3 Days of Majora's Mask Love: Day #1 Dawn of a New Year

Majora's Mask 3D is coming in 2015!

Hello everyone! I thought I'd start out the new year with a blog post about a game that's all about new beginnings, and that game is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. But first, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped make this blog grow; you know who you are! 2014 was a great year for me; I jumped back into the world of gaming by starting this blog, and I'm constantly overwhelmed and touched by the support and kindness I receive from the gaming community. It's because of you guys I decided to start this blog, and the reason I want to continue making content about games. I can't wait to see how this blog will grow in the coming years, and here's to a great 2014! Again, thank you so much; I can't say it enough.
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This post is the first of three posts I will be writing about the masterpiece that is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I'm overjoyed to say that we will indeed be getting a Majora's Mask remake in 2015. It's ironic to me that my first post of this year is about a game that was the topic of my very first post ever, which was speculating about whether to not we'd see a remake on the 3DS. I always knew in my heart that we'd eventually see a remake of the well loved, black sheep of the Zelda franchise; we just had to have faith it would happen...

Just have faith..

Of course, with every remake, there are changes to be made. We haven't gotten much word yet about how this remake will be different from the original game, so I thought I'd share my thoughts about what I hope to see in Majora's Mask 3D. Here are the 5 things I'd like to see implemented in the remake (beware of mild spoilers about the original game):

#1. Better controls/camera
Honestly, the things I struggled the most with in Majora's Mask were the controls and the camera—not the three day cycle or the toughness of the temples. Controlling the camera with the c-stick was a pain, especially with aiming. The camera would fall as soon as you moved an inch, and you would end up aiming wrongly or just miss entirely. The most frustrating experience I had in the game was in the first temple. Towards the end, you have to shoot an arrow through fire in order to light a beacon in a dark corner on the other side of the room, all while you're rotating on a moving pillar. It was hell. Pure hell. You have to be so precise, and I feel like the controls barely allow you to do that. Swimming in the game is so tough because to swim up, you have to move the stick down, and vice versa. I often found myself flopping and bouncing against the bottom of the ocean because the Zora form was a nightmare to control. There's one articular boss fight where the swimming controls and the camera are detrimental; I'm pretty sure veteran Majora's Mask players know what I'm talking about. Luckily, it seems as if we will indeed get better controls in the remake, seeing as Ocarina of Time 3D got improved controls and camera movement.

#2. More apparent objectives/straightforward temples
It's a well known fact that Majora's Mask is a lot like piecing together a complex puzzle. Pieces and parts of different storylines intertwine, and it is not made entirely apparent why or how—that's up to you to figure out. That's all well and good, being as that is probably my favorite aspect of the game, but there's an area of the game where it's barely apparent as to what you're supposed to do next. In the last area of the game, Ikana Valley, you're supposed to acquire the Mirror Shield (probably my favorite item in the game) in order to tackle the last temple. In order to do that, you must do an obligatory Bottom-Of-The-Well dungeon, but you need the following items:

* 5 Magic Beans
* 10 Deku Nuts
* 10 Bombs
* Fish
* Milk

In no way is it apparent that you need these things. If you go into the well without these items, you can't get the shield. So, you have to waste time (a precious commodity in Majora's Mask) to backtrack to get everything you need. I don't want a game to hold my hand, but when you have to be subjected to useless backtracking, I'd prefer a little warning to avoid it. Not to mention that those items are completely random quantities that make hardly any sense

Again, before you can complete the last temple, you need to learn a new song. In order to learn said song, you have to go through Ikana Castle, but you have to buy items in order to do so. You need a powder keg, which you have to do a side quest in order to buy, so you end up backtracking a lot. Also, the game doesn't let you know that you need to even go through the castle or even how to do so in the first place. There was hardly any direction during this last part of the game. Again, I don't need my hand held, but there needs to be direction in a game in order to move things forward. I don't usually use hints or walkthroughs when playing Zelda games because I prefer to figure things out myself. But with this particular area, I had to use a walkthrough. It was the only area in the game I couldn't figure out. So as a result, I'd like the remake to have more apparent (but not easier) objectives. 

On a slightly different note, I'd like it if the the temples were a bit more straightforward and forgiving. In almost every temple, if you make a small mistake, you lose progress. For example, in the cylindrical shaped Snowhead temple, if you fall, you have to backtrack and activate switches and pretty much jump though a bunch of hoops to get back to the top. In the Great Bay temple, the awful swimming controls can cause you to go in the wrong direction, which can cost you time since you have to turn around and go back. In the Ocarina of Time remake, Nintendo corrected a lot of the annoyances in the temples that were present in the original games, so I hope they'll do the same with Majora's Mask. I like how in Skyward Sword, once you reach a new part of an area or temple, you can open up a shortcut that can save you time if you need to leave and come back later. I think having shortcuts in the temples in Majora's Mask would make them a whole lot more enjoyable.  

Mirror shield, I love you, but you're such a major pain in the butt

#3. Good use of the touch screen

In both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, scrolling through menus to change and equip items can be a major pain, and can waste a lot of time. In Ocarina of Time 3D, they made the bottom screen of the 3DS the items menu, making it super easy to switch items. I hope they do the same for Majora's Mask 3D. I can see it now—being able to put on different masks with just a simple tap of the stylus...*sigh* I can't wait. 

#4. Loyalty to the original game while still improving upon it

Eiji Aonuma, the director of many of the Zelda games has said that they are making Majora's Mask 3D easier while still retaining its difficulty. While that is in a nutshell everything I want for this remake, I really hope they keep the complexity of the game intact. To me, asking for such a complex game to be simplified is like a double edged sword. Let me put it this way: there are points in the game where the complexity really helps the overall experience (like the storytelling), and there's places where it hinders it (no clear direction about what to do next in the last area of the game). I hope they improve upon the shortcomings while not harming what was good about the complexity in the original game. 

I also hope they improve upon a lot of the graphical parts of the game as well. For an N64 game, Majora's Mask looks pretty darn good, but there are parts where it's too dark, and the graphics can get grainy, making it hard to see and make things out. I'm sure they will improve upon this, but I hope they keep a lot of the original charm of the game too. Thanks to the ExpansionPak, Majora's Mask featured greater detail than its older brother, Ocarina of Time. I hope in the remake, they will keep all those little details, but still improve upon them. I'm also looking forward to a fleshed out soundtrack, which I'm sure won't disappoint.

The graphics on the 3DS look clearer and sharper—a welcome change!

#6. The collector's edition to be released in the U.S.

This is more of a personal preference, but it has been confirmed that Europe is getting a collector's edition of Majora's Mask 3D. Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game, if not my favorite game ever, so I'd like to have all of the goodies of the collectors edition. I'd also like to be able to purchase both Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time 3D together in some sort of pack. I've played and completed OOT 3D, but I don't actually own it, so it'd be nice to have both. Two birds with one stone, if you will.

Ugh, Nintendo, I want all the things!

So there you have it. There are all my hopes and dreams for the remake of one of my favorite games. Hopefully, 2015 will bring lots of gaming goodness besides Majora's Mask 3D, but I hope this remake will be as awesome as I think it'll be. I'd love to hear what you all think of the remake so far, so feel free to leave a comment. Also, be on the lookout for two more posts regarding this incredible game here in the coming weeks.

I hope you all have a very happy new year as well!

Lucina is the Greatest Nintendo Princess Ever

Recently, I did a guest post about why Gen 3 is my favorite generation of Pokémon for my cousin's blog, TheEmolgaEditorial. In return, he wrote a blog for me about why Lucina from Fire Emblem: Awakening is such a great character. I hope you guys enjoy his blog; he's a fantastic writer, and if you enjoyed this post, you should go check out his other stuff here.

If you're new to the Fire Emblem franchise (or perhaps never heard of it before Smash Bros), you probably were baffled when it was announced earlier in the year that Lucina, a major character in the newest installment to the series, Fire Emblem: Awakening, would be joining the chaos of the Nintendo battle royal on the 3DS and Wii U. Her overall reception by the community was reletively cold, and she hasn't been openly embraced as anything short of an outcast character to regulars. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that most players do not see her as much more than a clone of Marth and a cash in on a relative title Nintendo made. I've heard people say Lucina was too confusing of a character to understand and that she wasn't really appealing because of this. That view is rather ironic because all of the confusion around her complexity really make her one of the greatest crafted characters, if not the greatest, in gaming.


This article is filled with Fire Emblem: Awakening spoilers. If you haven't played this game yet, go do it right now. Don't let me ruin the amazement. You won't regret it.

One of the things that has to be stated early is that the extensive detail put into the characters in Awakening leaves a rather open forum for impressions to be made as every play through of the game will leave you with differently developed characters and people whom they value more than others. To decide on one tale would be missing the point of the game. What one may experience from the body of work might differ from another. The best way to describe it would be excitingly artistic in design.
When you play every time, however, there will be one character who remains relatively the same. Lucina is so complex that her actual description in game defines her as enigmatic. To bring the full strength of her to light, it has to be seen in order of how it is experienced for the character. The very experiences she has in the game's story makes the other fighters in Smash pale in comparison.



There is no hiding it; Lucina has been through a hellish life full of disaster, despair, and crushing odds. Long before her birth, her aunt and queen of the land she is raised, Emmeryn, was tragically assassinated. This resulted in creating the first domino to fall, birthing her into a world of war and eventual doom. Her parents are murdered and she is thrown into leading a crumbling humanity to defense from the horrors of Grima, a huge dragon of crippling strengths. The hand dealt is devastating to the young woman, and every moment she fights with the deaths of her family and people on her shoulders. The biggest shock of it all is this all happens to Lucina before the events of Fire Emblem: Awakening (or technically after. Or during?).
The player isn't really introduced to Lucina in a traditional matter. Lissa, another one of her aunts, is about to be killed by a monster as woods are light aflame. In an epic fashion, a figure emerges and rescues her, claiming the name “Marth” (rather hilarious seeing as everyone calls her that in Smash anyways). For the first two acts of the game, Lucina isn't even known as Lucina. She's a tortured future teller who distances herself from everyone else and painfully wishes to spend time with her parents she loves dearly and lost awfully with the most convincing maturity. She even duels with her father at one point, which when you take a moment at the end of the journey, you realize just how daunting that must have been on her.
Truth be told, everything that needs to be said with Lucina's character can be best described in the most emotional and powerful moments of the game. Accidentally slipping out the word “Father” while talking to Chrom, Lucina leads the king back in private to confess who she actually is. It is revealed that to increase morale of her people in the ruined future, she donned the identity of Marth and fought desperately. Attempting to open up to her father, she says she is his daughter, but it initially is fruitless as he denies it all. As he realizes she has the same indistinguishable brand on her eye, every bit of weight on her shoulders is released. It's so powerful you have to see it yourself:



When Lucina wins a match in Smash, one of the things she proclaims is “Father...I won.” in a heartbreaking fashion. All she wants in life is to fight in her family name and represent the love she was brought up with to the fullest ability. Her self-doubt is subtle, but the name she fights with before hints at her yearning to be strong enough to fight. A blurb from her talk with Chrom in this scene hits home incredibly hard (almost as hard as that cutscene did):

“I prayed to the Hero-King for a small part of the strength he used to save the world. But I need this subterfuge no longer. I choose to fight as Lucina now. The name that reminds me of the strength in the man and woman who chose it.”

You just don't see character speech like that in most video games, especially not from Nintendo. If you choose the Avatar (AKA Robin) as her mother, Lucina tasks herself with the burden of ending her mother's life to save Chrom and the world as the Avatar turns on him and brings the end of the world in her future. It might be a pre-determined outcome, but the emotion is still high and the reactions by Lucina are gripping.


Nintendo has a way of crafting very appealing characters in their games to deliver the worlds. For example, the appeal of playing as Link in the Zelda franchise is that he is a silent protagonist and it is easiest used as a surrogate for the player to place themselves in the world of Hyrule. It's a safe way to ensure the player enjoys the narrative. In complete contrast, Fire Emblem: Awakening gambles high with doing fully realized characters and minute details. It isn't better projected than with the “Warrior From a Doomed Future” (I'd go as far as calling her the Princess From a Doomed Future).