You can tell it's the right dungeon
because it looks like a gnarled root.
When we last hung out with Link, he'd just gotten a key from the Maku Tree, who was much too busy doing stuff like sleeping and being a tree to save Din from the evil General Onox. It's our job to go through the eight dungeons in this game to grab the essences of nature in order to restore the seasons to their original cyclical format.
The first dungeon is called the Gnarled Root dungeon, and looks exactly the same as anything you might have found in Link's Awakening. Because there are so many of them, the dungeons in this game tend to be fairly short. This one's gimmick is the addition of a few rail tracks that Link can ride around on using a series of switches to get into new areas. The layouts of the dungeons in this game are simple and straightforward - the 2D nature of the game and the fact that it's on a Gameboy Color really limit the amount of complexity possible. That's not to say that they're boring as such, just a little bit less mentally demanding than some in other Zelda games.
Remember this asshole?
Like in Link's Awakening, each dungeon has a sub-boss and a boss - once the sub-boss is defeated, you're given a waypoint that you can use to teleport yourself between that room and the entrance, which comes in handy.
The dungeon's item is the Seed Satchel, which is actually one of the coolest key items in this game. There are five different types of seeds that you'll come across, each with their own unique ability. The first you run into is the Ember Seed, which replaces the Lantern in this game - it lets you light things on fire, such as torches. A lot of puzzles in this game depend on the various seeds in your satchel to complete.
Fertile soil! Yeah!
The boss of this first dungeon is Aquamentus, a dragon which is an obvious reference to the first boss of the original Zelda. Like most Zelda games, Oracle of Seasons is very self-referential, which is part of the reason why we love the series, so we can forgive it anything. (Right?)
Anyway, after you waste this guy, you get the first Essence of Nature - the Fertile Soil. Hooray! Just seven more to go. In typical style, Link gets spat out of the dungeon and the Maku Tree lets us know that there's some kind of special item we need to get from the Temple of Seasons.
Little sidenote here, Oracle of Seasons actually has a surprising amount of subquest-y things you can do, considering how limited it is by the fact that it's on a Gameboy Color. You can plant Gasha Seeds, which grow into nuts that allow you to collect magic rings (a huge part of this game - magic rings give you special abilities.) Like Link's Awakening, there's a trading subquest which eventually ends up in you receiving the Noble Sword, which is awesome. I'm not personally a huge subquest fan, at least not the kind of subquests that show up in a game this old, so I tend to ignore them for the most part. Am I a bad person?
THIS IS SO FUN,
THANKS NINTENDO.
The next part of the game features Link encountering some weird Jawa-looking things, one of whom has a stupid bow and is loudly and conveniently complaining about a temple falling into her homeland of Subrosia. You now have to follow her around a bunch of trees in the best kind of mini-game ever - the "don't let the NPC see you" game! You have to follow her back to a hole in the ground around some trees and if she spots you, you have to start all over. Amazing.
Subrosia is an unfortunately large part of the game, as you'll have to return here to complete several idiotic fetch quests and mini-games in order to progress and get some key items, such as the magic flute and boomerang. We're down here for the Temple of Seasons, though.
The Temple of Seasons has four corners, each inhabited by a spirit of a respective season. As you get more key items from various dungeons, you will be able to access different parts of the temple. This time, we go visit the Winter Spirit's tower and receive the Rod of Seasons, which is basically this game's Ocarina of Time. It is the key item.
In the overworld, you can now change the season from whatever it is normally into winter. This freezes certain paths or covers them with snow, which allows you to access areas you couldn't before, including dungeons and caves. Hurrah! As you might imagine, getting the ability to change the overworld into different seasons is the master gimmick of Oracle of Seasons.
Stay tuned for next time, where Link unexpectedly goes through a bunch of dungeons to get items in order to defeat evil and return peace to Holodrum!
I have neglected the stuffing out of this blog. I'M SORRY. The last couple of years have been a roller coaster of depression and therapy and pills and recovery, so in hindsight the idea of playing through all the games in one short year seems a bit ridiculous.
Still, I am stable now, so Oracle of Seasons Part 2 and 3 are in the works. They should be up this week, if anyone is still reading.
Like I said previously, the introduction is identical in both games - Link rides up to Hyrule castle with the intention of checking on the Triforce bits, and then they teleport him off to a mysterious kingdom where he has to complete some kind of quest.
Link is passed out in some bushes when the game opens, and much like Maron in Link's Awakening, he's found by a cute girl who decides for some reason to look after the freak of the week who happened to land in her back yard. What a nice person!
Hopefully they're not planning to trade Link's o
rgans for booze.
Anyway, once Link wakes up, you find that the girl who found you is named Din, and she's part of a travelling troupe of entertainers. The troupe's cook, named Impa (yeah) tells you that Din is apparently a popular dancer and she's been caring for you until now. Personally, anybody who drags in random strangers off the road seems a bit sketchy to me, but whatever. Link is trusting.
Link's dance moves are unsurpassed.
Once you talk to Din, she gets you to dance with her for a bit and you get a cute little cutscene image in full color, much like the ones in Link's Awakening. I wouldn't say that I'm over the moon about their quality or anything, but it's a nice touch and it enriches the atmosphere of the game a lot.
After Link impresses everyone with his solo jumpstyle moves, Din takes a second to notice the triforce mark on Link's left hand and comments that this means he's got a special fate and is a hero and whatever. They share a nice little moment, and then lightning starts shooting from the sky and destroys the troupe's wagons and makes the sky go black.
There's a scary disembodied voice called Onox which addresses Din as the "Oracle of Seasons" (must be some new age thing). It generally makes a dick of itself and then kidnaps Din in a big blue tornado, which Link is helpless to stop because he is so danced out.
We get a helpful cutscene which shows Din imprisoned at the top of some kind of tower, where Onox explains to her that since he's captured the Oracle of Seasons, the seasons will be disordered and everything will die. I guess he thinks that is basically a good thing. Maybe he has hayfever or something. There's another cutscene in which the Temple of Seasons sinks into the ground, and we see that all over the land of Holodrum (where this is set) the seasons are changing rapidly and at random.
Link passes out in a snowy bank (he should really cut back on the partying) and is awakened by Impa, who explains that she's not a cook and is in fact the nurse of Hyrule's Princess Zelda. Impa was sent to collect Din, the Oracle of Seasons, and bring her back to Hyrule Castle because Zelda's psychic powers informed her that Din was in danger. Good job, Impa.
Anyway, she foists the task of saving Din on to you and asks you to go talk to somebody called the Maku Tree in Horon Village, who is the guardian of all Holodrum.
The first thing you'll notice as you start to wander around is that the seasons change as you go from place to place, which is marked by a little season icon that flashes up in the upper left corner of the screen. Depending on the season, some of the features of the terrain will change - snow banks in winter, fruit in the summer, etc. These seasonal changes are the gimmick of this game, and block or allow access to various regions depending on the season. As you control more and more of the seasons, you can access more and more different areas.
You have to go on a little fetch quest before you can even see the Maku Tree, which involves getting a sword from a cave on the beach. The similarities between Link's Awakening and this game become really apparent at this point - you'll see what I mean if you get a chance to play it. The items work the same way as they did in Link's Awakening, in that you can assign one item to A and one item to B, allowing for a variety of combinations depending on your circumstances.
Anyways, once you find the Maku Tree (pretty much the Deku Tree, you've seen it all before) Link wakes him up from a nap. The Maku Tree is pretty irritated that Din was kidnapped and the Temple of Seasons disappeared while he was sleeping, but says that the seasons being all wacky has sapped him of his power so it's pretty much your problem. He tells you you'll need eight essences of nature to get into the Northern Peak, where Onox is, and then gives you the key to the first dungeon (several of the dungeons in this game need keys to get into, just like Link's Awakening.)
So there's the intro to the game. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!
Titles: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Fushigi no Ki no Mi: Daichi no Shou, officially translated as "Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of the Earth") and the Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Fushigi no Ki no Mi: Jikuu no Shou, officially translated as "Nut of the Mysterious Tree: Chapter of Time and Space") Original Release: February 27, 2001 (in Japan); May 14, 2001 (in North America) Game#: 7 and 8
Chronologically: Unknown, but theorized to take place simultaneously on each side of the timeline. (One happened in the Child Link timeline, one happened in the Adult Link timeline.)
At least the cutscenes look good.
In the spirit of getting out as many Zelda games as possible in as short a time as possible, Nintendo released two handheld Zelda games in 2001, hot on the heels of Majora's Mask. These games were Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Like the games in Nintendo's other powerhouse series, Pokemon, the games were designed as counterparts to one another - not as entirely unique entries. If a player was keen enough to pass both Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, he or she could "link" them together with the use of a password and see the "real" ending of the game.
The Gameboy Color hasn't
changed much since Link's Awakening.
Originally, the games were planned as part of a trilogy (each game would have represented one part of the triforce,) but the concept was scrapped late in development and neither Japan or North America ever saw the release of the third game; this would have been known as "The Mystical Seed of Courage" and would have featured Farore in a leading role.
Farore, the (would-be) oracle of the third game.
Is it wrong of me to be grateful it never came out?
Both of the games start identically to one another. An unknown incarnation of Link rides towards a castle (presumably Hyrule castle) on horseback. He enters the castle and approaches an altar, on which the three pieces of the Triforce are resting. Suddenly, the Triforce pieces come together and resonate with Link, who begins to float, and is teleported by the pieces of the Triforce to what is either an alternate Hyrule, or simply another part of the kingdom. It's not blatantly specified.
Din, official damsel of Oracle of Seasons.
In both games, Link lands in never-never land (or wherever he is; in Seasons, the land is known as Holodrum and in Ages, the land is known as Labrynna) and meets either the Oracle of Seasons (Din) or the Oracle of Ages (Nayru). While these women are named after the goddesses in Ocarina of Time and share many of their characteristics, they are not the same people. In any case, both of them are kidnapped by the forces of evil very early on and it becomes Link's quest to save them and restore order to the land. Din's capture results in the seasons being disordered; Nayru's results in time being disordered. Pretty straightforward.
Nayru, official damsel of Oracle of Ages.
In many ways, both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages are to Link's Awakening what Majora's Mask was to Ocarina of Time. The engine, gameplay, and graphical styles of both games are nearly identical to Zelda's previous Gameboy entry. This is partially because of a lack of handheld console innovation - by 2001, the Gameboy (in one incarnation or another) had been around for over ten years. While (to their credit) Nintendo did manage to greatly improve the color and cutscene quality in the two Oracle games, they were basically dealing with obsolete technology.
Nonetheless, both games were both critically and commercially successful, selling to the tune of four million copies a piece. These games are some of the very few entries in the series that I've never played, so I'm really looking forward to enjoying them myself! I'll be playing through Seasons first, followed by Ages, so the first review will be slightly more in-depth than the second.
To be fair and honest, not a lot has changed in this game in terms of the bare-bones mechanics since Ocarina of Time. However, the addition of masks that can drastically change the way you interact with areas is brilliant, and while the three-day system can be a little bit of a pain in the ass, it's innovative and I have to give Nintendo credit for the idea. In terms of difficulty, the puzzles in dungeons are a decent challenge and you're never thrown up against anything too horrible. (It even errs a little on the easy side, I think.) I will say that sometimes it's not at all clear where you're supposed to be going and what you need to get to proceed.
Music/Sound: 16/20
Majora's Mask has some wonderful tunes in it, and some lazy tunes in it. Each area (except Clock Town) has one of two tunes attached to it - either the main Overworld theme (once you've cleared the area's dungeon) or the "troubled area" theme which is slightly remixed to suit each area. I feel that it would have helped the game to have each area with its own music, but whatever. Some of the music is a little cheesy, and a lot of it is taken right from Ocarina of Time. When it's good, though, it's really good - Skullkid's theme was designed to sound like something out of a Chinese opera, and is definitely creepier than anything in Ocarina of Time. You definitely end up being more afraid of Majora than of Ganondorf. Each dungeon has its own great tune that was nicely composed.
The sounds are great, even if they are largely ripped right from Ocarina of Time. Instead of Navi's "hey, listen!", Tatl has her own little ringing bell noise. There are new noises for new enemies, some groovy new sound effects to go with the new visual blur effect, and that's about it.
Design/Graphics: 18/20
The game looks good - it's an improvement from Ocarina of Time. The textures are much improved, the colors are much better, and each environment was really treated with time and concern. I think my particular favorite is the Astral Observatory, which you visit right at the beginning of the game, but I can't honestly think of anywhere in the game I might call "ugly" or "nondescript." There are a few graphical issues - swords and weapons still clip through walls and floors, it's possible to wedge yourself into some weird camera angles, etc. Still, for the machine they were working with, they did a pretty great job.
Charm/Nostalgia Factor: 18/20
This game is the greatest thing ever. Who doesn't want to play a game over and over again which has a falling scowling moon in it?
I dock it a couple points because it doesn't have your traditional Zelda/Ganondorf/Link trio and Hyrule, so it doesn't always really feel like a Zelda game. Still. The greatest thing ever.
Story/Concept: 20/20
This game's story and concept are flawless - not because of what they tell you, but what they don't tell you. What is Termina? Where is Termina? What does the Happy Mask Man represent, and why is he there? What does it mean that Link ends up with a mask more evil than Majora's Mask? Who are those protective gods, and how do they relate to Din, Farore and Nayru? Who is Ikana's royal family, and how did they relate to Hyrule? Is Link dead, or alive? Does Kafei turn back into an adult at the end, or not? (They show his wedding, but only Anju!) Does Link ever find Navi? Where does he go after he leaves Termina?
I can't say enough good things about the story and concept of this game. Seriously.
Total: 89/100
I love this game. I really do. It's got some flaws and the age is starting to show a little bit, but as far as I'm concerned, no other Zelda has a story that is nearly so complex and ambiguous. I like that in a game.
In case any of you guys are planning a soiree to celebrate (I'm not, but I am getting together with a friend to play through it in an EPIC MARATHON on Sunday) here are a few drink suggestions for you, courtesy of The Drunken Moogle. Remember to drink responsibly.
The Triforce Ingredients:1 Part Link (dark Rum for courage)
1 Part Zelda (99 Bananas for wisdom)
1 Part Ganon (Goldschlager for power)
Would not recommend drinking before taking on the Water Temple.
Goddess of Power
Ingredients:
1 cl grenadine
1 cl licor 43
1 cl Cassis Bar Sirup (cassis syrup)
Directions: Mix all ingredients in a shot glass and let loose the fire.
Goddess of Wisdom
Ingredients:
1 cl Bénédictine
1 cl vodka
1 cl Bols Blue
Directions: Layer into a shot glass, with the Bénédictine on top.
Goddess of Courage
Ingredients:
1 cl vodka
1 cl Xante
1 splash of Bols Blue (blue curacao)
Top with orange juice
Directions: Pour ingredients into shot glass. Take care to only use a little blue curacao, or the color will turn out more blue than green.
Young Link (“Virgin” Cocktail)
Ingredients:
1 cl Monin Cucumber
1 cl Monin Pistachio
1 cl Monin Honey
1 cl Lime Juice
5 cl Apple Juice
Directions: Shake all ingredients with ice and pour over ice in a highball glass.
Adult Link
Ingredients:
1 Young Link Cocktail
1 Goddess of Courage Shot
Directions: Mix up a Young Link drink. Pour in a Goddess of Courage shot to grow up a bit.
Directions: Place shot glass and all ingredients in the freezer and chill thoroughly. Remove, pour in mentholmint schnapps, mix hpnotiq and vodka and layer on top of schnapps. Down quickly while it’s still cold.
Freezard
Ingredients:
1.5 parts UV Blue Vodka
1.5 parts Lemonade
1 part Mountain Dew “White Out” (limited edition, we don't have this in Canada so try 7-Up instead)
Directions: Fill glass with ice, crushed or otherwise. Pour UV Blue and lemonade into the glass, then top with Mountain Dew White Out (or 7-Up.)
Bombchu
Ingredients:
1 shot Blue Curacao
1 shot Blueberry Vodka
1 Red Bull
Directions: Pour the Red Bull into a tall glass. Mix in the Blueberry Vodka. Pour a shot of Blue Curacao in a separate shot glass. When ready to drink, drop the shot into the tall glass and drink quickly.
The Master Sword
Ingredients:
1 shot Gin
1/2 shot Blueberry Vodka
2 shots Blue Raspberry Martini Mix
Smallest Splash of Grenadine
Directions: Shake Gin, Vodka, and Martini Mix and pour into martini glass. Add Grenadine until the color is right.
Goron
Ingredients:
2 cl Amaretto
1 cl Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur
2 cl Monin Pistachio
2 cl Bols Creme de Cacao Brown
2 cl Caramel Liqueur
1 cl Monin Honey
Directions: Shake ingredients with ice and pour into a rocks glass.
Have a good time this weekend if you're going to spend it playing Skyward Sword, and remember - if you want somebody to blame for your hangover on Monday, blame the Drunken Moogle for this awesome collection of Zelda drinks.
So here we are in the Stone Tower Temple, the very last temple of the game and one of the most interesting. (At least, I think so.) We're presented with three temple gimmicks here.
One, you've got the Elegy of Emptiness now, so you can hold down several switches at a time with your various forms. Two, using the Mirror Shield and the Light Arrows (which you get in the dungeon,) you can reflect light around and/or destroy sun blocks with the mighty power of the sun. Three, this temple flips upside-down halfway through, which Nintendo manages more elegantly than you might think.
There are places where the fact that the temple flips around can be a little bit frustrating, particularly if you're collecting the Great Fairy fragments in this temple. When switches are pressed, often chests will appear on the ceiling where they can't be accessed unless you go back to the beginning of the temple and flip it over again using the Light Arrows. These chests also allow you to reach new areas with your hookshot, though, so the feeling is fairly organic. The design of the dungeon is such that it works really well both ways, and the upside-down layout is so unnerving in places that it really gives an interesting feel to the second half of the temple. (For example, as you can see in the upside-down room above, loads of the rooms suddenly have huge areas where you can fall into the sky. It's a cool effect, particularly at night, I think.)
Garo Master
One of the things I don't love about this temple is the number of mini-bosses that you have to get through to complete it. Don't get me wrong, I like my Zelda combat and everything, but there's three in this dungeon (maybe four, if you count the Eyegore, which is like a walking Beamos with attitude) and one of them is a Wizrobe. Trust me, by this point in the game, you are sick of Wizrobes. On the bright side, the other two are original and make for an interesting break from the puzzles - one of them is the Garo Master, who is actually kind of a pain in the ass because he counterattacks whenever you slash him. The other is Gomess, who is another one of those enemies-surrounded-by-smaller-enemies-who-can't-be-hurt-unless-you-get-rid-of-them-type bosses. There are a lot of these types of mini-bosses in this game.
Anyway, once you get to the end of the temple, you face the boss as usual. This time, though, you've got the Giant's Mask that you pick up for beating Eyegore. The Giant's Mask can only be used in one place in the entire game, and it just so happens to be in the boss arena of this temple.
Fighting Twinmold with the Giant's Mask.
The bosses of this temple are Twinmold. They're a pretty standard kind of boss for Zelda - there are similar bosses in A Link to the Past. Basically, it's two floating worm-type bug-things that you can only damage by slashing their heads or tails, and you have to kill them both to win. They dive into the sand and burst out again every now and again. Besides running into you a hell of a lot, they don't actively attack you. The catch is, these guys are huge, and it is insanely difficult to hit them with anything while you're at regular size. So, that's where the Giant's Mask comes in - you put that baby on, and you grow big enough to face them properly. The only problem is that it saps your magic meter quick-like, and once you run out, you shrink again. There are columns around the arena that can be smashed when you're giant that drop magic bottles, but you have to shrink down to normal size to pick them up. It's a pain in the ass.
Maybe he just meant that he wants
us to give him a call sometime to meet for coffee.
That would be embarrassing later.
Once you kill these guys, you're warped back to bubble land for the last time. Tatl helpfully points out that both her and Link have helped all four giants, and that's pretty much it from your side. The giant says "call us" and Tatl decides to interpret that as them agreeing to help out with fighting Skullkid. The last thing this giant says is "forgive your friend," but Tatl is a bit slow and doesn't get what he means. As usual, after this riveting conversation, you're spit back out into Ikana Canyon where pretty much nothing changes and it still sucks. Beating that temple was so worth it! Yay!
Now it's showdown time with Skullkid. All you have to do is head back to Clock Town and wait out the three days, just like the first time, and climb up the Clock Tower once it opens up at midnight on the Third Day. A lot of people like to obsessively prepare for this battle, but as long as you've got a few fairies kicking around and a lot of arrows, you should be absolutely fine.
Yay weird naked giants!
Once you're up there, the same scene we saw at the beginning of the game plays out again, but this time with a few key differences - for example, you're not about to get your ass kicked this time. Tael helpfully reminds us to bring the four giants to the arena, Tatl is all sassy to Skullkid, and Skullkid tells you (again) that you should try to stop it. That's your cue!
Once you play the Oath to Order (that song Link learned from the first giant) Skullkid has a massive freak out. The giants appear from all four corners of Termina and manage to just stop the moon from falling with their massive, Roald Dahl bodies. Hooray!
That works out super well and Skullkid falls to the floor, which is awesome. Tatl sasses him some more, because she's like that, and Tael is a big loser and tells her to forgive him and stuff. Obviously he didn't see the disturbing crap we've been put through over the last umpty-billion three day cycles.
For all her annoying phrases, I can see why Link
wants Navi back. Apparently most fairies are total sissies.
Then, Majora's Mask starts talking. It turns out that it's sentient and has just been using Skullkid as a vessel this whole time. It discards Skullkid's body and starts the moon moving again, which is too much even for the giants to handle, apparently. They strain under the weight, and Majora's Mask warps itself into the centre of the moon. Obviously, you're meant to follow.
Tatl shows her incredible bravery by refusing to follow Majora's Mask into the moon, until Tael mans up and says he'll come along. You all warp into the moon together.
Moon! Moooooon!
The moon doesn't look at all like you might expect. It's a huge green field with a tree in the middle of it, and looks like somebody's interpretation of what limbo or heaven might look like. It's all very glowy and oversaturated. As you run closer to the tree, there are four kids, each wearing one of the masks you got from the four bosses of the temples - Odalwa's Remains, Goht's Remains, etc. If you managed to collect all the masks, you can trade them to these kids in exchange for the opportunity to play through one of their mini-dungeons. Each mini-dungeon is themed like their respective temple, and are actually fairly difficult. Unless you have a great desire to get the Fierce Diety's Mask (which I don't blame you for doing - it's pretty awesome) I wouldn't bother with these.
In Japan, this mask is
known as the 'Oni Mask,' which means
demon.
At the base of the tree is one more little kid wearing Majora's Mask. If you talk to him, he asks you if you'd like to play with him. If you say yes and have masks still in your inventory, he comments on how crap they are before you fight. If you have no masks in your inventory, he decides to be a good sport and gives you the Fierce Diety's Mask so you can play "good guys against bad guys."
The Fierce Diety's Mask is the final 'transformation' mask in the game, and can only be used in boss arenas. Basically, it turns you into a scary version of Adult Link from Ocarina of Time. If you have magic power, you can shoot sword beams, and you do a crapload of damage.
When Majora gives it to you, he tells you that you're the bad guy, and the bad guy's job is just to run away. The Fierce Diety's Mask's description reads: "Could this mask's dark powers be as bad as Majora?" (Translation note: in the Japanese version, the mask is called the Oni Mask, or Demon Mask. When you play tag in Japan, the person who is 'it' is called the 'Oni,' so that's what Majora is referring to.)
You're then warped to an arena where you face the three forms of Majora - Majora's Mask (a huge version of the mask with tentacles growing out of the back of it,) Majora's Incarnation (Majora's Mask with spindly legs and arms which runs around the room,) and Majora's Wrath (Majora's Mask with burly arms and legs and whips growing out of its arms.)
None of them are particularly difficult, especially if you have the Fierce Diety's Mask equipped. If you don't, all three forms are similar to enemies you've fought before - you can only hit the first form from the back, the second form is quick so you have to wait for it to slow down before you can hit it, and the third is okay as long as you stay away from it's tentacle whips.
I'm going to be honest here - this battle is really not what it should be. When you fought Ganondorf/Ganon in Ocarina of Time, it was a big deal. It was scary. Your palms got all sweaty and it was hard! There were time limits, there were collapsing towers, there was a giant form which could kick your ass if you weren't sure how to approach it properly, you got your sword kicked away...it was huge. This battle, not so much. It's easy without the Fierce Diety form, and it's a waste of time with it on.
But, in a way, I'm okay with that. This Zelda isn't really about the temples or the fighting or the bosses - it's about the people and the land. It's about figuring out people's secrets and fixing their problems. It's a game full of mysteries that are never solved, whether it takes place in Link's subconscious or it's sort of an Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz story after Link falls down the hole in the tree. I love that about this game.
Anyway, once you beat Majora's three forms, that's it. You're done. The ending sequence is absolutely phenomenal - I have to say that it's probably my favourite of any Zelda game. Depending on how many masks you got, you get a different ending - you only get the complete ending if you got all of them. If you missed one, you won't see the scene associated with that mask.
Here's the ending for your viewing pleasure.
The very end of the game is mysterious, like everything else. Link rides back off into the forest he came from, but to what? It looks otherworldly in some ways, not at all like the Lost Woods of Ocarina of Time. Some people are convinced that Majora's Mask entirely takes place while Link is at the edge of death, and that the forest represents the gap between death and life. Is Link riding back into the world of the living, or away from it? Is the forest just the Lost Woods? What happens to him after Majora's Mask? Does he ever find Navi?
I hope you enjoyed this really ridiculously long "summary" of Majora's Mask. It's my favourite in the series for a number of reasons, so I hope you'll forgive me for spending a lot of time on it. I'll be back later with a comprehensive review of the game, and then we're on to Oracle of Seasons!
The Temple of Seasons has four corners, each inhabited by a spirit of a respective season. As you get more key items from various dungeons, you will be able to access different parts of the temple. This time, we go visit the Winter Spirit's tower and receive the Rod of Seasons, which is basically this game's Ocarina of Time. It is the key item.
