The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the sixth installment of The Legend of Zelda franchise and was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, as a direct follow-up to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This game has a very strong emphasis on sidequests not seen to the same extent in the series again until The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to the point of only having four major dungeons. The game has a markedly darker and more cynical tone than its predecessor.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is one of three games that requires the use of the Expansion Pak, with the other two being Donkey Kong 64 and Perfect Dark. Of the three, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the only one that was not developed by Rare. In 2015, the game received a remake for the Nintendo 3DS, titled The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D.

Story
The game starts with young Link atop Epona deep in the Lost Woods, as he searches for "a dear friend." Suddenly, two fairies named Tatl and Tael ambush him, causing him to be knocked off Epona and fall unconscious. Skull Kid then appears, wearing a sinister-looking mask, and finds the Ocarina of Time, which he plays with until Link wakes up, leading to a chase where Skull Kid poorly attempts to ride Epona and Link holds on to one of her legs, but eventually ends up kicked off near a large stump. Following further on foot, Link falls deep underground after going inside a large tree, before landing on a large flower. Skull Kid taunts him and tells him he got rid of Epona, but then his tone turns more sinister and he curses Link, turning him into a Deku Scrub (called "Deku Link"). He then laughs and leaves him like this, but accidentally leaves Tatl behind, forcing Link and Tatl into an uneasy alliance. After travelling underground and passing a withered tree closely resembling Deku Link, the two travel through a winding, warping tunnel and end up inside the bottom of a Clock Tower. As they leave the Clock Tower, they are met by the eccentric Happy Mask Salesman, who tells them that "a very important mask" was taken from him by the same imp that stole "a very important item" from Link, and that if Link recovers his "very important item," he will tell him how to restore his body, but he will be leaving town in three days.

Once they leave the Clock Tower, Link finds himself in a town called Clock Town in the land of Termina, where many of the inhabitants bear an uncanny resemblance to people he had met previously in Hyrule. Tatl suggests finding the nearby Great Fairy, but when they go to her, they find she has been split into Stray Fairies by Skull Kid. They also find that Skull Kid has caused trouble for many other people recently, compounded by the impending threat of an eerie-faced moon that seems to be growing closer each passing day. However, the things Link is able to do while as a Deku Scrub are highly limited, as many of the adults treat him as a small child, not even letting him leave town. After meeting a few people, such as the Bombers, Professor Shikashi, and a Business Scrub, Link is able to make it to the top of the Clock Tower where Skull Kid is, but only on midnight of the third day, when the Moon is dangerously close. Once he gets up to it, Skull Kid taunts them, while Tael tells them to find "the four" who are at the "swamp, mountain, ocean, canyon," for which Skull Kid insults and slaps him, to Tatl's shock. Skull Kid then screams, bringing the Moon down faster. Deku Link hits him with a bubble, causing him to drop the ocarina, and once Link picks it up, he remembers the Song of Time. While playing it as Deku Link, the ocarina changes into Deku Pipes, with the song itself reversing time for three days back to when they emerged from the Clock Tower, with only Link and Tatl remembering any of it. Realizing that the ocarina was the item the Mask Salesman spoke of, they return to him, and he teaches them the Song of Healing, turning the Deku curse into a removable mask, and thus restoring Link. However, once he realizes Link has not recovered the mask, he abruptly turns angry and frantic, telling them that the mask is of an evil power and will cause terrible things to happen, with an unwitting Skull Kid having stolen it while he was asleep.

Now restored, Link is able to leave town, and the game becomes vastly more open-ended regarding sidequest availability. He can find many masks by speaking to people around Termina, as it is an important tradition for their yearly carnival. Tatl urges him to go down to the Southern Swamp, like Tael said. Along the way, they find a drawing on a tree that Skull Kid, Tatl, and Tael made the day the two fairies met him, where he was crying over losing his best friends. Heading further south, they find the swamp's waters poisoned and filled with hostile Big Octos. Several monkeys direct Link to help an old hag, Koume, who takes Link via boat to the Deku Palace, where he learns the Deku King is holding a monkey prisoner on the false charge of killing his daughter, with only the Deku Butler believing him. In reality, the monkey was helping her to try and find the source of the poison. Link sneaks through the Palace Gardens and gets into the monkey's cage, where after realizing Link wants to help, he teaches him the Sonata of Awakening used to open Woodfall Temple. The Deku King overhears and is further enraged, as the song is only known to members of the royal family, and decides to start the monkey's punishment via repeatedly dipping him in a huge pot of boiling water. Link travels to Woodfall, first meeting a more cynical version of the owl Kaepora Gaebora, who teaches him the Song of Soaring to warp around. After getting to Woodfall Temple and playing the Sonata, Link travels through the dark temple full of poison and dangerous creatures, eventually finding the Fairy Bow and fighting the masked jungle warrior Odolwa. After defeating Odolwa and taking his mask, Link and Tatl are taken to a strange ethereal world where a large, mostly hidden being teaches them the Oath to Order song before transporting them back. In a nearby room, they find the Deku Princess, who they take back to the palace. Seeing what her father is doing, she angrily tackles him and demands the guards free the monkey, after which everything calms down and all is forgiven.

Link's next destination is the mountains of Snowhead, where the Goron tribe lives. When they get there, Link and Tatl discover it is in the midst of a lengthy winter, with many of the Gorons freezing due to the chilly air coming out of Snowhead Temple. Kaepora meets Link again and has him follow him across an abyss full of invisible platforms, with shed feathers acting as a guide. At a cave on the other side, Link discovers the Lens of Truth, allowing him to see both the platforms on the way back and the ghost of the Goron champion, Darmani III, who was blown off the mountain while trying to investigate the temple. He leads Link to his grave to be absolutely sure he can see him, and asks him to bring him back to life with his magic, and if that is too much to instead heal his sorrow. After using the Song of Healing, Darmani becomes the Goron Mask, which allows Link to take his form as Goron Link. When speaking with other Gorons, they will assume he is Darmani. After finding the Goron Elder and unfreezing him with Hot Springwater, he reveals he too is trying to go to the temple despite his feeble condition, but upon learning his son is crying because he misses him, he teaches him part of the Goron Lullaby to calm him down. When Goron Link plays it, the young Goron teaches him the rest, while every Goron in the room other than Link falls asleep. Making his way up to the temple and using the Lens of Truth, it is revealed that the wind is actually an apparently possessed Biggoron violently exhaling repeatedly. After playing the Goron's Lullaby, Biggoron falls asleep and falls off the mountain, allowing Link to access the temple, where he finds several ice and speed-related puzzles, the Fire Arrows, and a giant mechanical beast called Goht. After defeating Goht, Link is transported to another ethereal world and meets another Giant, who tells them they are "guardians," which Tatl interprets as meaning they are protective gods. Before they can get any further information, they are transported outside, where spring has returned. Before moving on to the next area, Link must first gain access to the Powder Keg item from Medigoron.

On another first day, Link must buy a Powder Keg and use it on the boulder blocking Milk Road, allowing access to Romani Ranch, where they find Epona under the care of Romani, who teaches them how to shoot arrows from horseback, re-teaches Link Epona's Song, and asks them to help deal with strange aliens that always show up before the carnival to steal their cows. Now having Epona, Link can travel to Great Bay, where the Zora tribe lives. Noticing a strange form in the water surrounded by seagulls, Link finds the wounded musician Mikau, lead guitarist of the popular Zora band, The Indigo-gos. He tells them through song that a Zora girl laid some eggs, which were then stolen by pirates, causing her to lose her voice, and he was wounded trying to get them back. He then asks someone to "heal his soul," prompting Link to play the Song of Healing and turn him into the Zora Mask. When he travels to Zora Hall, he sees that the Zora girl in the song referred to the lead singer of the band, Lulu, and that the water has recently fogged up from a storm at the Great Bay Temple, making it hard for the Zoras to navigate. Link must then go to the Pirate's Fortress and recover some of the eggs (as well as the Hookshot item), though he learns there are some more in Pinnacle Rock. After rescuing a seahorse from a fisherman, he is led to Pinnacle Rock where he can find the rest of the eggs being guarded by giant sea snakes. Taking all the eggs to the Lakeside Laboratory, where they hatch and form a musical staff, teaching him the New Wave Bossa Nova. Once he plays this to Lulu, her voice returns, and a nearby island is revealed to be a giant, ancient turtle. The turtle takes Link to the temple, where he must navigate many water-powered mechanisms and find the Ice Arrows, eventually leading him to fight a giant fish called Gyorg. Once it is beaten, Link is again trasported to another Giant's realm. The Giant urges them to "Help our friend," which Tatl takes to mean the remaining Giant.

The final region is the Ikana Canyon. Before they can reach the top, a hooded man tells them they cannot pass without a specific mask from two evil-hearted men near Milk Road, referring to the Gorman Brothers. After bating them in a horse race, they give him the Garo Mask. Once he obtains that, the man lets him pass, and warns him of the evil spirits lingering ahead. When he reaches the top of the canyon, he discovers many types of wandering spirits, and must deal with them in a variety of ways. Eventually, after collecting the Captain's Hat, re-learning the Song of Storms, collecting the Gibdo Mask, making it through the maze beneath the Well, and collecting the Mirror Shield, he makes it to the heart of Ikana Castle, where he does battle with the king, Igos du Ikana. After defeating him, Ikana realizes that fighting petty battles is what destroyed their civilization in the first place, and urges Link to travel to the top of Stone Tower Temple to stem the evil within. To assist him, he teaches Link the Elegy of Emptiness, which creates a statue of Link's current form in his place. Once he gets through the Stone Tower Temple, he is accosted by the Garo Master, and after defeating him, gains the Light Arrow. Link must them travel outside the temple and use the new arrow on a large red jewel, flipping the temple upside-down. Link must then navigate the flipped version of the temple, creating a vastly different experience, and eventually make it to the same room he obtained the arrows in, leading to a portal that leads to a fight against the gargantuan Twinmold, a task made easier if he obtained the Giant's Mask prior. Once that is done, they are taken to the final Giant, who tells them to call the Giants when they need them, and then sadly tells them to forgive their friend, confusing Tatl. Once that is done, a portal appears over Ikana Canyon and seemingly takes away the evil spirits, allowing them to rest peacefully.

Making their way to the top of the Clock Tower on the third night again, Link uses the Oath to Order to call the giants, and they successfully stop the Moon from falling while Skull Kid faints. Tatl scolds Skull Kid for everything he had done, but Tael tells her it was the mask's doing, to which another voice agrees, calling Skull Kid weak. The two realize now that the mask itself is speaking, as it drops Skull Kid and says he is no longer useful, before going into the Moon to possess it instead. The Moon starts being brought down even harder, straining the Giants, while Link resolves to go into the Moon himself to destroy the mask. When he gets there, he discovers a large clearing with a single tree. Around the tree are four children wearing the bosses' masks playing, while another, wearing Majora's Mask, sits lonely under the tree. If Link has collected every mask he can, he can trade them to the playing children and play a game of hide-and-seek with each, taking him to a challenge themed after one of the dungeons. Once all except the main three transformation masks are traded away, Link can obtain the Fierce Deity Mask. Regardless, talking with the child under the tree leads to a fight against Majora's Mask, who throughout the battle transforms into Majora's Incarnation and then Majora's Wrath. Once Majora's Wrath is destroyed, the Moon vanishes in a beam of rainbow light, while Link, Epona, Tatl, Tael, Skull Kid, and the four Giants appear in Termina Field. It is shown that the friends Skull Kid thought had abandoned him were the Giants, and they tell him they still always thought of him as a friend in spite of all he had done before walking off again while Skull Kid cries in shame. Skull Kid then asks Link if he wants to be his friend and indirectly reveals he is the same one who Link played Saria's Song to in the previous game. The Happy Mask Salesman then appears with Majora's Mask and reveals that the evil has now left it, before disappearing. Skull Kid and his friends travel to the carnival as the credits roll, and everyone who Link helped in his adventure is shown celebrating. At the end of it, it is shown that the gnarled, Deku-like tree from the opening is actually the Deku Butler's missing son, and Link is shown traveling further in his search for Navi, with the stump now having a drawing of Link, Skull Kid, Tatl, Tael, and the Giants on it.

Gameplay
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask reuses many of the gameplay mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, while introducing two major mechanics: masks and the three-day cycle. Masks allow Link to access different areas and quests, and some masks transform Link, allowing him to perform unique actions. The transformation masks include the Deku Mask, Goron Mask, Zora Mask, and Fierce Deity's Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask operates on a three-day cycle, where Link has 72 in-game hours before the moon crashes into Termina, requiring him to play the Song of Time to reset the cycle. Several quests are time-sensitive, taking place at specific times on specific days. Each time the cycle is reset, Link loses all disposable items, such as Rupees and arrows, as well as any quest progress, as everyone except Link, Tatl, and the Happy Mask Salesman are reset to how they were at the beginning of the cycle, with no knowledge of anything Link did previously. Additionally, progress in dungeons is reset alongside the cycle.

Heroes

 * Link
 * Tatl

Supporting characters
The following characters directly assist Link during his adventure.
 * Happy Mask Salesman
 * Tael
 * Darmani III
 * Mikau
 * Romani

Bosses
In fitting with the game's theme, each of the temple bosses wears a mask, which the player obtains upon defeating them.

Main locations

 * Clock Town
 * Termina Field
 * Southern Swamp
 * Romani Ranch
 * Snowhead
 * Great Bay
 * Ikana Canyon

Dungeons
Each dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask effects its surrounding area when completed, opening up optional sidequests. Progress in dungeons and the changes to its surrounding area when completed are lost when resetting the three-day cycle. Once a dungeon's boss is defeated, a platform lights up in the dungeon's entrance that allows Link to quickly return to the boss room.

Items
Many of the items from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time return in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, while some new ones, such as the Powder Keg and Pictograph Box. Additionally, masks appear as major items that allow certain quests to be completed and certain areas to be reached. The player can assign items to either, , and from the Select Item or Masks Subscreen.

Quest items and disposable items are lost when the three-day cycle is reset.

Masks
There are a total of 24 masks in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The total number of masks Link has collected is shown on the File Select screen. Masks range from being used in a single optional sidequest to being required to complete the game.