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Fun Club Majora’s Mask used to be the best Zelda before BOTW dropped

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@bixente
 
Majoras Mask dropped considerably for me the last few years. It is not even in my Top 5 anymore. There was a time where I considered it to be my fave Zelda.
That time is long gone and I guess it was just first place because of my inexperience with other titles in the franchise.
 
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Majora Mask isn’t a better game then Ocarina of Time. But better then everything else 3D

Well, Probably 2D as well actually.

Both can’t compete with Link’s Cross Bow training anyways.
 
OoT is still clear of MM in my book. Simply because the time travel thing and using adult Link was so ahead of its time at the time
 
Majora's Mask is phenomenal in so many ways, but it kind of falls down a bit due to its dungeons; it has one amazing dungeon in Stone Tower Temple and one pretty good one in Snowhead, but that's not a lot. The rest of the game makes up for it easily, I think, but overall as a big dungeon fan I don't think I can call it the best Zelda.
 
Breath of the Wild feels like 3D Zelda finally learning from Majora's Mask again if anything. Think about it: four dungeons, need to free four giant beings, laying restless spirits to peace and getting abilities from it, greater focus on side content, scheduled NPCs; the DNA is all there.
 
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I started playing Majora on NSO earlier this year and I was enjoying it s lot. I just got sidetracked, but I'll definitely resume my playthrough...eventually.
 
Having played it for the first time this year, it's in my top 5 I think. I think if there were more dungeons and it was a bit more traditionally structured (keep Clock Town, but maybe make Termina itself a bit larger, explorable, and more structured), it would be. As is its peaks are amazing but by the end it feels like it's missing something next to OoT, especially the lack of a true final dungeon. Though I think the moment-to-moment gameplay is better than almost every Zelda game a lot of the time. Dungeons like Snowhead and Stone Temple Tower are incredible feats of level design, and the side quests ooze with personality.
 
I think OoT is the better one, simply because the pacing is incredible. OoT is this big adventure where every new place you discover or piece of content that the game throws at you is equal or better than what came before, just by that fact alone I found it so much easier to replay these days.

MM is a bit more complex on that front, however has so much stuff done right and it's covered in this amazing identity that no other Zelda game has imo. The sidequests are a delight to play, the story is deeper than in any other Zelda game, the transformation mechanics are insanely creative, fun to use and bring a lot more variety of gameplay for Link compared to the child/adult from OoT.

MM was the sequel to a perfect game and I'm glad Nintendo decided to do somehing very different and not "OoT 2.0" because the result was a game that stands on its own merits through the passage of time.
 
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SammyJ9 said:
Majora's Mask is phenomenal in so many ways, but it kind of falls down a bit due to its dungeons; it has one amazing dungeon in Stone Tower Temple and one pretty good one in Snowhead, but that's not a lot. The rest of the game makes up for it easily, I think, but overall as a big dungeon fan I don't think I can call it the best Zelda.
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Great Bay Temple is among the series best too imo, and my favorite from the game.

My only problem with the dungeons is the quantity. Woodfall isn't amazing but doesn't have the issues of most training wheel dungeons.
 
Jersh said:
Great Bay Temple is among the series best too imo, and my favorite from the game.

My only problem with the dungeons is the quantity. Woodfall isn't amazing but doesn't have the issues of most training wheel dungeons.
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Hey, I'm glad you like Great Bay Temple! It doesn't usually get much love; personally I'm not a big fan. I just don't really like the current changing mechanics. And yeah Woodfall isn't BAD, exactly, especially for a starting dungeon, there's a lot going for it.
 
In all honesty I can’t get into this game and I have beaten all zelda games released (minus cdi). I have tried again recently on Nintendo Switch Online and have not left the clock town when starting, maybe 1 hour into the game. Not sure what it is about this game…
 
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SammyJ9 said:
Hey, I'm glad you like Great Bay Temple! It doesn't usually get much love; personally I'm not a big fan. I just don't really like the current changing mechanics. And yeah Woodfall isn't BAD, exactly, especially for a starting dungeon, there's a lot going for it.
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My pre-BotW Zelda opinions are a little strange across the board. MM is right up there with Skyward Sword as my favorites lol.

Generally speaking, there's not a single dungeon I feel is too confusing. Not because I never get confused, but because I enjoy the challenge of getting lost. I adored my time with Eagle's Tower despite wasting a lot of time doing the same wrong things over and over.
 
Jersh said:
My pre-BotW Zelda opinions are a little strange across the board. MM is right up there with Skyward Sword as my favorites lol.

Generally speaking, there's not a single dungeon I feel is too confusing. Not because I never get confused, but because I enjoy the challenge of getting lost. I adored my time with Eagle's Tower despite wasting a lot of time doing the same wrong things over and over.
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It's not confusing, exactly, just kinda... annoying and repetitive, I guess? But that could just be me! And in general I agree, the more complicated the dungeon the better. I'm one of those sickos who likes Jabu Jabu's Belly in Oracle of Ages, or the Ancient Tomb :p
 
SammyJ9 said:
It's not confusing, exactly, just kinda... annoying and repetitive, I guess? But that could just be me! And in general I agree, the more complicated the dungeon the better. I'm one of those sickos who likes Jabu Jabu's Belly in Oracle of Ages, or the Ancient Tomb :p
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Yeah, I'll admit my recent playthrough of it on NSO was more straightforward than I remembered it being, though I did get lost at a part I'm pretty sure I never did before and isn't even supposed to be confusing. I don't think it was that repetitive, and I felt the overall execution with that central room was neat. If anything, I think it suffers from using the pipe outlets too much and under-exploring the actual currents.
 
Three-day cycle? Genius. Centering the story around a sinister, greater evil cemented in a mask? Genius. The Anju and Kafei sidequest? Genius.

The only thing holding MM back for me a bit is that it has great dungeons, but all the pre-dungeon stuff is fairly dull. Going through Deku Palace? Not fun. Going back and forth between baby goron and dad goron? Not fun. Collecting eggs? Not fun. Doing the well thing? Very not fun.
 
for me personally the worst i bought 3DS again just to play this game.. i just don't understand what am I supposed to do in this game
 
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They should've made it New 3DS exclusive as a throwback to the Expansion Pak requirement.

😈
 
I like it but it’s not my favorite. It’s just the opposite of what I like about Zelda games. The time limit just makes me too stressed and honestly made me want to just use a guide.
 
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There's a lot of OoTs and open world games out there, but there's only one Majora's Mask. It's a game with a lot of artistic integrity, and that's something I've come to respect more and more as I've grown older, especially as games have become bigger and more expensive to make and thus more risk-averse in their design in order to compensate for that cost. MM is not a game for everyone, and it doesn't have to be; some people will find that the pressure of having a time limit makes it impossible to enjoy the game, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with those people or the way they enjoy games, but neither is there anything wrong with MM.

Majora's Mask isn't afraid of being thoroughly unappealing and even downright unplayable to people who just don't happen to click with the kind of experience that it's trying to offer, and that is something that I deeply respect. I know this is all but impossible in the capitalist society we've built, but I'm tired of games that try to appeal to everyone. I want developers to make something they believe in, and I want them to trust me to be able to find the experiences that resonate with me.
 
For me MM is one of the worst ones. I found the jumping back and forth between time periods fun in OOT, but the time loop with a strict time limit removed one of the most aspects of Zelda to me- adventuring without having to keep an eye on the clock. I get why it has its fans- it’s a creative, bold concept- but it just isn’t for me. I bounced off it hard on N64 then tried again on 3DS, to the same result. I’d rather replay Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks back to back.
 
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Retried MM recently on Switch. The opening hour is super interesting for sure, but also kinda bloated with all the things it tries to introduce. After that opening it feels both overstuffed and very restricting - it's a proto-WW/TP in that sense, maybe due to Aonuma's directing. It's dungeons and environments mostly feel like going through the motions (although the Great Bay Temple and Goron boss are fantastic).

As a piece of art it's a really cool reflection on growing up, having one foot still in childhood while the responsibilities and anxiety of adulthood start creeping in, and in that sense it's a milestone of ludo-narrative cohesion, but as a game it's a stressful chore.

I'd pick SS, BotW, OoT, LA and ALBW before it anytime.
 
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I love the clockwork nature of the world. Everything and everyone does a specific thing at a specific time, and you are there to observe, learn and change it. The design of the world with its clock-like shape and a huge clock tower in the center plays into the theme nicely too.

The side quests are the best in the series and the dungeons are okay, but a big problem is that a lot of its main quest is just a bit boring to me. The final stage on the Moon is also quite underwhelming and almost reminds me of Corona Mountain in its crudeness. I wish there was a proper dungeon that required you to use all the masks instead of those small challenges.
 
The pacing is rough because it's hard to wrap your head around the 3-day mechanic. I think there's a ton of repetition upfront with that sort of jarring learning curve. This is the one area I think you can really tell the game was rushed, a Zelda with a normal dev cycle would have ironed that out better.

Story, NPCs, dungeons, mechanics and really just the overall aesthetic and mood are top tier though. Easily among the best in the series.
 
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