Majora's Mask: In which our hero saves the world from a giant, scowling moon.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Original Release: April 27, 2000 (in Japan); October 26, 2000 (in North America)

Game #: 6

Chronologically: #2, Young Link timeline (it's a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time)

After the massive success of Ocarina of Time, Nintendo was keen to get another N64 Zelda out on the market as fast as possible. In order to reduce the turnaround as much as possible, the folks at Nintendo decided to re-use the graphics engine and the vast majority of the sprites from Ocarina of Time - after just over a year of production, Majora's Mask was the result. 

It's Skullkid. He's not giving off a really friendly vibe.

The graphics of Majora's Mask were far from a direct copy, however. Using the N64's shiny new "Expansion Pak" (which allowed the developers four extra megabytes of RAM,) Majora's Mask had much better draw distances, impressive new lighting effects, more characters possible on-screen at one time, improved textures, motion effects, and eliminated the distance "fog" seen in Ocarina of Time - in Majora's Mask, it was possible to see farther, better, and brighter. The increased memory allowed for more complex sidequests, the storage of individual NPC schedules (based on a daily clock) and far more unique and diverse landscapes than had been possible for its predecessor. 

Thematically, Majora's Mask is kind of a black sheep - the story is dark, full of death, and has elements of the bizarre which had never been seen before in the series. The "gimmick" of Majora's Mask is the introduction of a three-day clock - as Link, you repeatedly play through the same three days over and over again. 

The only way to save the game is to play the Song of Time (from the previous game.) This resets the three-day clock completely, including your progress thus far, any quests you have completed, rupees, and consumable items. The only things which are retained are your key items, songs, masks, and dungeon completion items. If you fail to reset time before your three days are up, the world ends. 

Heavy.

Majora's Mask is one of the less-played titles in the series, so for your benefit, here's a brief summary of the first little bit of the game:

The game opens on Link, explained to be the Hero of Time from the previous game, riding through an unknown forest on Epona. It is suggested that he has left Hyrule in search of Navi, his loyal fairy companion from Ocarina of Time, who disappeared after Ganon's defeat. 

That is one deep hole.

Suddenly, two fairies (looking very much like Navi) come into view. They startle Epona, who throws Link off her back onto the forest floor, where he is knocked unconscious. Another strange being - we later learn his name is Skullkid - comes into view, wearing an odd mask. He searches Link's unconscious body, where he finds the Ocarina of Time; he steals it and plays a few notes, failing to notice Link waking up behind him. 

Link lunges for Skullkid, but he dodges and jumps on Epona's back. Link is dragged through the forest as he tries to hold on to his horse, who Skullkid has startled. Eventually, Link loses his grip and watches Skullkid ride away with his horse and the two fairies. 

I feel like maybe Link should stop drinking cough syrup.

Link follows Skullkid into a dark cave, where he falls down a long passage - "down the rabbit hole," just like Alice in Wonderland. As he falls, he sees psychedelic shapes and symbols rush up towards him, and then he suddenly lands safely in a room at the bottom.

Well, kind of safely. Skullkid is there with his two fairy lackeys, and it's really clear now that he's a total dick. After telling Link that he "got rid of" Epona since she wouldn't listen to his commands, he turns Link into a Deku Scrub and informs him that he's going to trap him in the bottom of the hole and let him die down there. 

In Japanese, Tatl is called "Chat."
I assume this is because she won't shut up.

As he floats away, laughing, one of his fairy companions sticks around to give Link one last jibe. Unfortunately for her, she sticks around a little too long and is sealed inside the room with Link as the door closes. This is Tatl (like "tattle",) your new fairy companion. She informs Link that the other fairy is her brother, Tael (like "tale" - "tattletale", harr harr) and that it's now Link's responsibility to get them out of the situation so she can go find her brother and let Skullkid know he's gone too far. (Funny how she didn't seem to think Skullkid was going too far before she got locked in the cave, but whatever.)

Yeah, that Happy Mask Salesman. If you don't think he's
nightmare fuel now, you will later.

Anyway, Link and Tatl manage to get out of the scary cave and emerge in a weird room filled with gears and clockwork. Suddenly, the Happy Mask Salesman appears. He tells Link that he can be changed back into a human if Link and Tatl can get the Ocarina of Time back, under two conditions - they recover a mask which Skullkid stole from the Salesman at the same time, and they do it within three days. The Mask Salesman doesn't go into detail about this now, but it becomes apparent soon enough.

That doesn't look right...

Once you go out into Clock Town, the main hub city of the game, you realize that you were standing in the Clock Tower. After doing a few tasks for people around town during the three day cycle (including playing tag with some kids and rescuing a Great Fairy,) it becomes apparent that something isn't quite right in Termina, the country in which Link's landed. For one thing, the moon is scowling, evil, and headed right for Termina. It gets closer and closer over the course of the three days, adding an extra special touch of horror to the game's events. 

Link finally figures out that Skullkid has been hiding out on top of the Clock Tower the whole time. The Clock Tower only opens once a year - at midnight on the eve of the Carnival of Time (which is scheduled to take place on the fourth day) - so Link and Tatl climb the tower just as the moon is about to crash on Clock Town, destroying Termina. 

Link gets his ocarina back from Skullkid but is unable to get the mask back - Skullkid is just too powerful. Tael, who is with Skullkid, begs them to bring back "the four" who live in the swamp, mountains, ocean and canyon to stop Skullkid. In order to save his and Tatl's lives, Link plays the Song of Time, which returns them to the first day.

Link goes to see the Mask Salesman, who seems to be unaffected by the flow of time, and he turns Link back into his original form. When the Salesman realizes that Link hasn't retrieved the mask, he is not happy. He explains that the mask is called Majora's Mask, and was created by an ancient tribe to use in hexing rituals. Nobody really knows what the mask does anymore, but as the mask was eventually sealed away by the tribe, he's pretty sure it's not good. (That explains the giant scary moon.) 

Told you he was nightmare fuel.

He charges Link to get his mask back before something terrible happens, and the game starts in truth. 

Stick around for more fun and games!