Link to original post: Majora's Mask Is My Favourite Game: Part 1
SPOILER AND MASSIVELY COOL STORY ALERT
I don’t think I’ve ever made a blog about a videogame before, and personally I don’t usually enjoy them. Not that I discourage it or anything, just to make that clear since I mod this place, but generally don’t find videogames a compelling blog topic. Of course, now I’m going to be a hypocrite and make one of my own, but I’d like to think this one is different, and funnily enough it somewhat ties into IGN’s recent competition for the greatest Zelda of all time, which the voting I think is still open for in the final, which funnily enough is between Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time. Now everyone knew Ocarina would get to the final, but I am actually very pleasantly shocked to see Majora’s Mask there too. I’m hoping it wins, I really am, and hopefully after its ascension this far, it can win at the final stretch. So thanks to Jam Stunna who you can blame for this massively long blog that you won’t read, I will talk about why I deem Majora’s Mask the greatest game I have ever played, and for me that’s saying something because there are quite a few games I rank very highly.
Majora’s Mask, where to begin? The direct sequel to Ocarina, it was already raising an eyebrow or two about its approach. First one being, oh **** it’s a direct sequel to Ocarina! This was somewhat odd for a Zelda game, but of course, since when was that a bad thing? Anyway, it raised more eyebrows because it recycled many character models, which people thought was taking a shortcut and pushing the thing out faster. Now let me tell anyone who believes this why they are wrong. Zelda games are probably the jewel of Nintendo’s crown, they have a lot of great franchises, but none really seem to captivate quite like Zelda. Yes, by using the OoT engine and recycling some character models they were fast tracking the game forward, but hey, a new full Zelda adventure in two years? Isn’t that good? Not only that, but Termina’s nature as a parallel world perfectly justifies some people looking the same. They’re the Terminian counterparts to their Hylian characters. Ultimately, the people who complained about this aspect were the ones who didn’t look past the identical models and realise that the character underneath was completely different and unique.
Still, I’m not going to be raving on about this game just because OMG WAS SO UNIQUE. Yeah, it was very unique and in a good way, but the things that made it unique were what made it a good game, not its uniqueness. A woman with a penis for a nose would be unique, but that’s not exactly something you’d be saying is great now would you? Shut up pervert. So anyway, the game itself starts with a perfect mood setter if you actually read between the lines. Link’s previous adventure was that of a typical save the world hero, he travelled through time and saved Hyrule. The funny thing about OoT is, even though Link became an adult physically, his consciousness was held dormant for 7 years, so in reality, Link was a child in an adults body. He doesn’t really “grow up” so to speak in OoT, which leads us onto MM. It starts by saying Link is on a secret and personal journey. Already without realising it yet if you’re playing it for the first time, the premise for the game is fully laid out in just one line. Then of course, he gets ambushed by Skull Kid, who steals his ocarina and rides off with Epona.
And as soon as you chase him down, things start to get compelling. From the little you see of him at this point, you can still tell Skull Kid is considerably more powerful than Link, and could probably kill him if he wanted. Of course, it’s not really Skull Kid but Majora’s Mask (Majora from now on), that’s in the driver’s seat, but anyway, here he is with Link standing there helpless and what does he do? He turns him into a Deku Scrub! Huh? Already it seems that the villain of this story isn’t really typical. Of course at this point you can’t really judge much, you might just think this is some silly precursor and it doesn’t really mean much, but actually, it’s the first step in establishing Majora’s unique psyche. Moments later you pilot some deku flowers and land on a platform with a withered tree. The tree looks like a deku, and it has a forlorn expression on its face. Tatl, your new fairy companion, mentions how it looks just like you, and this is a pretty strong implication which gets pretty much confirmed later in the game. The Deku Butler character later in the game comments on how much you look like his deceased son, and far later when you finish the game, the ending credits show the Deku Butler weeping at the same tree you see in the beginning. So to turn you into a deku for his own amusement, Majora kills the young deku and uses his spirit to transform you, depriving a father of his son. What’s most telling is even when you complete the entire game, and it’s meant to be happily ever after, you’re reminded very clearly it isn’t, when you see the broken hearted deku butler crying at the corpse of the son who’ll never come back. This is a continuing theme throughout the game, and it’s not about making everything depressing, it’s about how no matter what happens in terms of the ultimate good, the tragedies that lead up to it can’t just be erased, and that not everyone gets a happily ever after.
So I’ve already jumped balls deep into talking about one character, so let’s talk characters! Characters in MM weren’t just empty polygons, and this was what gripped me the most about this game. Before MM, no game had a whole group of characters that I felt really felt alive. Sure every game had its handful of characters that you felt that way about at the most, but there were always a large number of insignificant characters. This was not the case in MM. Almost none of the characters were just there to fill space. The brilliant Bombers’ Notebook showed to the player the way in which so many characters and their day to day lives were tied together, just like in real life. It’s something we don’t think about, but even in real life, everyone’s actions have far reaching consequences, and the way the whole world was tied together was something I had never seen in any game before, and even now have never got the same feeling. Sure we have the whole “your actions have consequences” thing in a lot of games, but it feels so tacked on, whereas in MM, it isn’t tacked on, it’s subtle in a lot of parts, and when significant it makes sense. A lot of people will probably think about the Romani’s Ranch sidequest when I’m talking about this, and certainly that is a very obvious example, but outside of aaaaall of the very big examples, let’s take a look at one of my favourites that almost nobody will think of. On the first day, you can go to the Stock Pot Inn, and due to the upcoming Carnival of Time, they’re fully booked. However, when Anju the receptionist asks you if you have a reservation, you can simply lie and say yes. Coincidentally, there happens to be a reservation under the name of Link already, so yay free room right? Well hold the yay. Later in the day, a Goron with a hefty backpack comes in and consults the receptionist, who tells them they’re all full. The goron replies that he’s made a reservation, and that his name is “Link-goro”.
“Huh?! We have a reservation with a very similar name to that”
“Oh... it’s okay, I can sleep outside, Gorons are accustomed to harsh conditions”
By bumming the free room, a Goron who’s travelled far to Clock Town is now forced to rough it in the streets. Well duh, if you steal someone’s hotel reservation, that would happen wouldn’t it? Or at least, they’d be kinda screwed. At night you’ll see the Goron sleeping outside, and while funnily enough I’m somewhat callous and cold when it comes to real life never mind videogames, I actually feel a twinge of guilt to this day every time I see the Goron having to sleep outside, which I was directly responsible for. This simple character got more of a reaction out of me than the main characters in most games, because not only is he a representation of the consequences of your actions, but the way he handles himself and is actually displayed in the game even after you find out you bummed his room gives him one thing which almost no game characters have, a soul. He’s more than just polygons, he actually evokes something, and this is a basically inconsequential character, and this my friends, is a window into the continued brilliance of MM. Honestly, I might even turn this into a series and talk about every damn character you interact with and what was so great about each one, but I’ll try to keep this from becoming a novella and use this as an example of MM’s great character cast, and how they felt like living people, ones that evoked emotion, plucked at your conscience. Some “sidequests” you didn’t do because you wanted to complete the game or get some sort of reward, you did the quest because you truly cared. And speaking of “sidequests”, a term I hate to use in MM, because everything you do in the game is meant to be significant, I’ll talk about my favourite quest in gaming history, the Couple’s Mask quest!
Man, see when I played this game, it was before the time of broadband and internet guides everywhere. I didn’t actually know what I’d get for this quest, didn’t know what it actually required. So basically, since all my friends weren’t that good at videogames either to ruin it for me, I went in with a completely blank mind about the whole thing. I am so glad about that, because this is one thing that spoiling could put you off doing if you haven’t initiated it. Why? Because describing the events really doesn’t do it justice, but I will anyway (since if you’re reading this you’ve probably played it), and I’ll make a point of mentioning why this quest did everything so right.
It starts off indirectly with you receiving Kafei’s Mask from his mother, who made the mask as a tool for those aiding her in the search for her missing son to show they are looking for him, and thus extract information from anyone who has it. SO with that said, let’s go on to the official start of the quest. You wear Kafei’s mask and talk to Anju after you’ve bummed the room at the Inn, which is funny because to help out Anju, it involves screwing a Goron out of his room, again leading onto the “not everyone is a winner” theme but anyway, she is obviously surprised and ask you to meet her in the kitchen later in the evening to discuss Kafei. You’re slightly intrigued at this point, but you think it’s just going to be some quick reunite the lovers quest, but man, you’re so wrong. So she gives you a letter to Kafei which you then need to post for her. Now, if you’ve been paying any attention to the activity of Clock Town, you’ll have noticed a blue haired masked child will post a letter which the postman will pick up, and Anju’s letter to Kafei is a response to a letter she receives. Kafei’s mask has long blue hair, much like the masked child, ring a bell? Wait, Anju’s engaged to a child?! Hold your horses. So when you’ve posted the letter, ol’ postie will ring the bell outside where Kafei is hiding (in the back end of the Curiosity Shop), and he will run out distracted. This gives you time to sneak into where he’s hiding, which is usually locked. And then you talk to the child, who unmasks and reveals himself to be Kafei. Kafei was turned into a child by Majora, again, the arch villain playing cruel jokes to spread misery throughout the world of Termina. Not just that, the thief Sakon who one can have several encounters with stole his ceremonial wedding mask, which is imperative for him to partake in the ceremony. Of course that doesn’t even really matter because he’s so ashamed about being turned into a child. In any case, he gives you the Pendant of Memories, a very special item. This pendant has no real use in the game other than to give to Anju to continue the quest, however it is an item of very strong sentimental value, and giving this item to Anju is Kafei’s way of promising he’ll return to her, and by giving it to Anju, she in turn promises to wait in the Stock Pot Inn for him instead of fleeing Clock Town because of the impending crashing of the moon.
By this time, I cared, and sadly the first few times I attempted the quest I couldn’t access certain necessary areas, but let’s act as if we’re at the point where we can. If you give Anju the pendant, you can go into your room at night and hear her arguing with her mother through the crack in the wall in your room, where she’s adamant about staying out of her love for Kafei. That’s right, a completely optional event that has no bearing on the quest or the game, but adds so much more power to the whole story and the characters. I remember doing this just because I was always so curious in games, and just seeing how this character was continuing to interact with others without your direct involvement in a way that fleshed out the story really made me invest in those characters. Now I really wanted to help Anju, for no other reason than I just wanted to help her, again, I actually cared about her, she’d gone past the stage of polygons. Not all the fancy Crysis level graphics in the world could outdo teh humanity in Anju, and so the quest goes on.
Funnily enough, adding even more to not everyone is a winner, for the quest to continue, you must NOT help the old lady from the bomb shop on night 1, during which she gets mugged of her goods by Sakon the thief. Wow what an ***hole running everyone’s life ha. So on night 2, Sakon sells his stolen goods to the Curiosity Shop owner, basically think of this shop as Clock Town’s local no questions asked pawn shop. So you go to Kafei’s hideout and look, it’s the Curiosity Shop owner, who actually happens to be Kafei’s old friend. He explains how just a glance at the Keaton Mask the childlike Kafei was wearing was all it took to recognise him. Before this, you think of the guy as just some afterthought shady shop owner, but even he has a part to play and a heart of his own, and gives you the Keaton Mask and a special letter to mama, which is Kafei’s letter to his mother, Madame Aroma. You can take this letter and give it to Madame Aroma yourself if you have Romani’s mask, and by doing this, you set her soul at ease that her son is safe, and as part of her gratitude, she will give you a bottle of Chateau Romani (yay empty bottle). This is actually optional, but I did it, and will do it every time I do this quest, because putting her fears at rest actually meant something to me, as she sat there forlorn in the town thinking the world would end without knowing what had happened to her son. You can also deliver this letter in the mail and get the Postman’s Hat, but I like making a point of the personal interaction with Madame Aroma.
When you witness Sakon selling the bombs, Kafei tells you how he finds out his hideout is in Ikana Canyon, and so you gothere with him on the final night, where he’ll be waiting. So you hide while Sakon opens the door to his hideout and you make a dash with Kafei to get in. And so begins the trial of getting through all the traps and obstacles in the hideout, with Link and Kafei working as a team to get to the end, and get the Sun Mask (Kafei’s Ceremonial Mask) back. With this Kafei rushes back to town with only hours left before the world ends, to see his fiancée again. Of course, we want to see this through to the end, so let’s go back too!
You go back to the inn and go into Anju’s own quarters, and she will be there. With just one hour left, Kafei comes in, and thus this long quest reaches gets to its final moment, the greatest bittersweet moment I’ve seen in any form of media, forget just games. The whole atmosphere of just the short moment where Kafei and Anju make eye contact for the first time in so long is amazingly powerful, and the lack of wordiness just feels so real. It’s just such an intense moment, and then they begin their merging of masks, Anju’s Moon Mask and Kafei’s Sun Mask, to create the Couple’s Mask, and the music hits as they gift you the mask. It’s the music that plays when you get a really major item, basically not the music that plays for heart pieces, rupees, heart containers, or even most chest items. I would put it up but I can’t find it on YT. I don’t know what it is about that few second long piece that just sums up the mood perfectly. The feeling of amazing accomplishment that you’ve reunited two lovers. You know what you get out of the Couple’s Mask? A heart piece, that’s it, yet it is by far my most treasure mask, and probably the same for a lot of people who’ve played the game. It is an example of what a truly amazing game can accomplish. Completing this quest offers no real obvious reward when you look at it from a gameplay only standpoint. Sure an empty bottle and a heart piece is nice, but you can go on and complete the game no problem without ever doing this quest, and yet to me it was the most satisfying moment in the game. The level of emotion that hung in the air for the whole duration, with it climaxing at the final sequence, this quest gave me so much satisfaction to complete because I really really cared. To think that I was so instrumental in alleviating the pain of a mother, and reversing the heartbreak of these two cruelly separated lovers, I can’t really describe it, but I completed this quest because I wanted to, not for any other incentive, and the reward that was most prominent was personal satisfaction, a satisfaction that I’ve never felt replicated ever again. Sure can get personal satisfaction from 100%ing a game, but that’s just an ego boost, but this was a different type altogether, a sentimental satisfaction, one which still resonates every time I think about MM. And hey, I haven’t even got to the next little bit. Anju and Kafei then thank you from the bottom of their hearts, and with their promises and marriage completed before the end of the world, stand together as a couple to await their fate with no regrets, now that they are married and reunited, all is well for them, and even though the world is about to end, they’re happy to await it. At the time, the whole last sequence totally had tears streaming down my face, and still jerks them to this day if I ever play again, **** if I even think about it enough.
Personal satisfaction, doing things because you care, a whole world of connected characters, a world which you can affect. I’ve barely even been able to get into it, and now I’ve made the decision to split this into a series, because quite frankly I cannot do this game justice with a rush job. I cannot condense it, but I guess what you can take from this part is that MM among so many other great aspects, had a world of incredibly real characters that you felt connected to on an emotional level. I may sound redundant by now, but can you really remember ever doing non essential quests in games for anything other than cool items or the completion factor? Did you ever really do a non essential quest because you truly cared? Did you ever complete any other such quest and feel overwhelmingly happy/emotional/satisfied that you’d completed it? I’m not sure there’d be many if any, but MM had so many of these, and while this quest was probably the most powerful in that regard, there are so many others where you get the same feeling, and a game that makes you want to play the quests and just play the game in general because you truly just WANT to personally rather than just doing it for the sake of added items, advancement, or completion rating, is a game that is truly hitting that special part of a person which I don’t even think film or literature can. When it’s not just emotional attachment and relation to characters, but a direct interaction which strengthens that bond beyond what a film or book can, media where you don’t truly feel a part of what’s going on, but in MM you do, and to me this just goes to show how powerful a form of media a videogame can really be if written and designed well.
And so that wraps up this part, which I guess was about character interaction and the emotional investment making this game satisfying to continue. Where a piece of heart and an empty bottle are just mere bonuses to a truly amazing experience, not the other way around, where a sidequest is conveniently fun but all you cared about was racking up those extras.
This alone makes it better than Ocarina, but I’ll add more weight in later entries, peace!
SPOILER AND MASSIVELY COOL STORY ALERT
I don’t think I’ve ever made a blog about a videogame before, and personally I don’t usually enjoy them. Not that I discourage it or anything, just to make that clear since I mod this place, but generally don’t find videogames a compelling blog topic. Of course, now I’m going to be a hypocrite and make one of my own, but I’d like to think this one is different, and funnily enough it somewhat ties into IGN’s recent competition for the greatest Zelda of all time, which the voting I think is still open for in the final, which funnily enough is between Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time. Now everyone knew Ocarina would get to the final, but I am actually very pleasantly shocked to see Majora’s Mask there too. I’m hoping it wins, I really am, and hopefully after its ascension this far, it can win at the final stretch. So thanks to Jam Stunna who you can blame for this massively long blog that you won’t read, I will talk about why I deem Majora’s Mask the greatest game I have ever played, and for me that’s saying something because there are quite a few games I rank very highly.
Majora’s Mask, where to begin? The direct sequel to Ocarina, it was already raising an eyebrow or two about its approach. First one being, oh **** it’s a direct sequel to Ocarina! This was somewhat odd for a Zelda game, but of course, since when was that a bad thing? Anyway, it raised more eyebrows because it recycled many character models, which people thought was taking a shortcut and pushing the thing out faster. Now let me tell anyone who believes this why they are wrong. Zelda games are probably the jewel of Nintendo’s crown, they have a lot of great franchises, but none really seem to captivate quite like Zelda. Yes, by using the OoT engine and recycling some character models they were fast tracking the game forward, but hey, a new full Zelda adventure in two years? Isn’t that good? Not only that, but Termina’s nature as a parallel world perfectly justifies some people looking the same. They’re the Terminian counterparts to their Hylian characters. Ultimately, the people who complained about this aspect were the ones who didn’t look past the identical models and realise that the character underneath was completely different and unique.
Still, I’m not going to be raving on about this game just because OMG WAS SO UNIQUE. Yeah, it was very unique and in a good way, but the things that made it unique were what made it a good game, not its uniqueness. A woman with a penis for a nose would be unique, but that’s not exactly something you’d be saying is great now would you? Shut up pervert. So anyway, the game itself starts with a perfect mood setter if you actually read between the lines. Link’s previous adventure was that of a typical save the world hero, he travelled through time and saved Hyrule. The funny thing about OoT is, even though Link became an adult physically, his consciousness was held dormant for 7 years, so in reality, Link was a child in an adults body. He doesn’t really “grow up” so to speak in OoT, which leads us onto MM. It starts by saying Link is on a secret and personal journey. Already without realising it yet if you’re playing it for the first time, the premise for the game is fully laid out in just one line. Then of course, he gets ambushed by Skull Kid, who steals his ocarina and rides off with Epona.
And as soon as you chase him down, things start to get compelling. From the little you see of him at this point, you can still tell Skull Kid is considerably more powerful than Link, and could probably kill him if he wanted. Of course, it’s not really Skull Kid but Majora’s Mask (Majora from now on), that’s in the driver’s seat, but anyway, here he is with Link standing there helpless and what does he do? He turns him into a Deku Scrub! Huh? Already it seems that the villain of this story isn’t really typical. Of course at this point you can’t really judge much, you might just think this is some silly precursor and it doesn’t really mean much, but actually, it’s the first step in establishing Majora’s unique psyche. Moments later you pilot some deku flowers and land on a platform with a withered tree. The tree looks like a deku, and it has a forlorn expression on its face. Tatl, your new fairy companion, mentions how it looks just like you, and this is a pretty strong implication which gets pretty much confirmed later in the game. The Deku Butler character later in the game comments on how much you look like his deceased son, and far later when you finish the game, the ending credits show the Deku Butler weeping at the same tree you see in the beginning. So to turn you into a deku for his own amusement, Majora kills the young deku and uses his spirit to transform you, depriving a father of his son. What’s most telling is even when you complete the entire game, and it’s meant to be happily ever after, you’re reminded very clearly it isn’t, when you see the broken hearted deku butler crying at the corpse of the son who’ll never come back. This is a continuing theme throughout the game, and it’s not about making everything depressing, it’s about how no matter what happens in terms of the ultimate good, the tragedies that lead up to it can’t just be erased, and that not everyone gets a happily ever after.
So I’ve already jumped balls deep into talking about one character, so let’s talk characters! Characters in MM weren’t just empty polygons, and this was what gripped me the most about this game. Before MM, no game had a whole group of characters that I felt really felt alive. Sure every game had its handful of characters that you felt that way about at the most, but there were always a large number of insignificant characters. This was not the case in MM. Almost none of the characters were just there to fill space. The brilliant Bombers’ Notebook showed to the player the way in which so many characters and their day to day lives were tied together, just like in real life. It’s something we don’t think about, but even in real life, everyone’s actions have far reaching consequences, and the way the whole world was tied together was something I had never seen in any game before, and even now have never got the same feeling. Sure we have the whole “your actions have consequences” thing in a lot of games, but it feels so tacked on, whereas in MM, it isn’t tacked on, it’s subtle in a lot of parts, and when significant it makes sense. A lot of people will probably think about the Romani’s Ranch sidequest when I’m talking about this, and certainly that is a very obvious example, but outside of aaaaall of the very big examples, let’s take a look at one of my favourites that almost nobody will think of. On the first day, you can go to the Stock Pot Inn, and due to the upcoming Carnival of Time, they’re fully booked. However, when Anju the receptionist asks you if you have a reservation, you can simply lie and say yes. Coincidentally, there happens to be a reservation under the name of Link already, so yay free room right? Well hold the yay. Later in the day, a Goron with a hefty backpack comes in and consults the receptionist, who tells them they’re all full. The goron replies that he’s made a reservation, and that his name is “Link-goro”.
“Huh?! We have a reservation with a very similar name to that”
“Oh... it’s okay, I can sleep outside, Gorons are accustomed to harsh conditions”
By bumming the free room, a Goron who’s travelled far to Clock Town is now forced to rough it in the streets. Well duh, if you steal someone’s hotel reservation, that would happen wouldn’t it? Or at least, they’d be kinda screwed. At night you’ll see the Goron sleeping outside, and while funnily enough I’m somewhat callous and cold when it comes to real life never mind videogames, I actually feel a twinge of guilt to this day every time I see the Goron having to sleep outside, which I was directly responsible for. This simple character got more of a reaction out of me than the main characters in most games, because not only is he a representation of the consequences of your actions, but the way he handles himself and is actually displayed in the game even after you find out you bummed his room gives him one thing which almost no game characters have, a soul. He’s more than just polygons, he actually evokes something, and this is a basically inconsequential character, and this my friends, is a window into the continued brilliance of MM. Honestly, I might even turn this into a series and talk about every damn character you interact with and what was so great about each one, but I’ll try to keep this from becoming a novella and use this as an example of MM’s great character cast, and how they felt like living people, ones that evoked emotion, plucked at your conscience. Some “sidequests” you didn’t do because you wanted to complete the game or get some sort of reward, you did the quest because you truly cared. And speaking of “sidequests”, a term I hate to use in MM, because everything you do in the game is meant to be significant, I’ll talk about my favourite quest in gaming history, the Couple’s Mask quest!
Man, see when I played this game, it was before the time of broadband and internet guides everywhere. I didn’t actually know what I’d get for this quest, didn’t know what it actually required. So basically, since all my friends weren’t that good at videogames either to ruin it for me, I went in with a completely blank mind about the whole thing. I am so glad about that, because this is one thing that spoiling could put you off doing if you haven’t initiated it. Why? Because describing the events really doesn’t do it justice, but I will anyway (since if you’re reading this you’ve probably played it), and I’ll make a point of mentioning why this quest did everything so right.
It starts off indirectly with you receiving Kafei’s Mask from his mother, who made the mask as a tool for those aiding her in the search for her missing son to show they are looking for him, and thus extract information from anyone who has it. SO with that said, let’s go on to the official start of the quest. You wear Kafei’s mask and talk to Anju after you’ve bummed the room at the Inn, which is funny because to help out Anju, it involves screwing a Goron out of his room, again leading onto the “not everyone is a winner” theme but anyway, she is obviously surprised and ask you to meet her in the kitchen later in the evening to discuss Kafei. You’re slightly intrigued at this point, but you think it’s just going to be some quick reunite the lovers quest, but man, you’re so wrong. So she gives you a letter to Kafei which you then need to post for her. Now, if you’ve been paying any attention to the activity of Clock Town, you’ll have noticed a blue haired masked child will post a letter which the postman will pick up, and Anju’s letter to Kafei is a response to a letter she receives. Kafei’s mask has long blue hair, much like the masked child, ring a bell? Wait, Anju’s engaged to a child?! Hold your horses. So when you’ve posted the letter, ol’ postie will ring the bell outside where Kafei is hiding (in the back end of the Curiosity Shop), and he will run out distracted. This gives you time to sneak into where he’s hiding, which is usually locked. And then you talk to the child, who unmasks and reveals himself to be Kafei. Kafei was turned into a child by Majora, again, the arch villain playing cruel jokes to spread misery throughout the world of Termina. Not just that, the thief Sakon who one can have several encounters with stole his ceremonial wedding mask, which is imperative for him to partake in the ceremony. Of course that doesn’t even really matter because he’s so ashamed about being turned into a child. In any case, he gives you the Pendant of Memories, a very special item. This pendant has no real use in the game other than to give to Anju to continue the quest, however it is an item of very strong sentimental value, and giving this item to Anju is Kafei’s way of promising he’ll return to her, and by giving it to Anju, she in turn promises to wait in the Stock Pot Inn for him instead of fleeing Clock Town because of the impending crashing of the moon.
By this time, I cared, and sadly the first few times I attempted the quest I couldn’t access certain necessary areas, but let’s act as if we’re at the point where we can. If you give Anju the pendant, you can go into your room at night and hear her arguing with her mother through the crack in the wall in your room, where she’s adamant about staying out of her love for Kafei. That’s right, a completely optional event that has no bearing on the quest or the game, but adds so much more power to the whole story and the characters. I remember doing this just because I was always so curious in games, and just seeing how this character was continuing to interact with others without your direct involvement in a way that fleshed out the story really made me invest in those characters. Now I really wanted to help Anju, for no other reason than I just wanted to help her, again, I actually cared about her, she’d gone past the stage of polygons. Not all the fancy Crysis level graphics in the world could outdo teh humanity in Anju, and so the quest goes on.
Funnily enough, adding even more to not everyone is a winner, for the quest to continue, you must NOT help the old lady from the bomb shop on night 1, during which she gets mugged of her goods by Sakon the thief. Wow what an ***hole running everyone’s life ha. So on night 2, Sakon sells his stolen goods to the Curiosity Shop owner, basically think of this shop as Clock Town’s local no questions asked pawn shop. So you go to Kafei’s hideout and look, it’s the Curiosity Shop owner, who actually happens to be Kafei’s old friend. He explains how just a glance at the Keaton Mask the childlike Kafei was wearing was all it took to recognise him. Before this, you think of the guy as just some afterthought shady shop owner, but even he has a part to play and a heart of his own, and gives you the Keaton Mask and a special letter to mama, which is Kafei’s letter to his mother, Madame Aroma. You can take this letter and give it to Madame Aroma yourself if you have Romani’s mask, and by doing this, you set her soul at ease that her son is safe, and as part of her gratitude, she will give you a bottle of Chateau Romani (yay empty bottle). This is actually optional, but I did it, and will do it every time I do this quest, because putting her fears at rest actually meant something to me, as she sat there forlorn in the town thinking the world would end without knowing what had happened to her son. You can also deliver this letter in the mail and get the Postman’s Hat, but I like making a point of the personal interaction with Madame Aroma.
When you witness Sakon selling the bombs, Kafei tells you how he finds out his hideout is in Ikana Canyon, and so you gothere with him on the final night, where he’ll be waiting. So you hide while Sakon opens the door to his hideout and you make a dash with Kafei to get in. And so begins the trial of getting through all the traps and obstacles in the hideout, with Link and Kafei working as a team to get to the end, and get the Sun Mask (Kafei’s Ceremonial Mask) back. With this Kafei rushes back to town with only hours left before the world ends, to see his fiancée again. Of course, we want to see this through to the end, so let’s go back too!
You go back to the inn and go into Anju’s own quarters, and she will be there. With just one hour left, Kafei comes in, and thus this long quest reaches gets to its final moment, the greatest bittersweet moment I’ve seen in any form of media, forget just games. The whole atmosphere of just the short moment where Kafei and Anju make eye contact for the first time in so long is amazingly powerful, and the lack of wordiness just feels so real. It’s just such an intense moment, and then they begin their merging of masks, Anju’s Moon Mask and Kafei’s Sun Mask, to create the Couple’s Mask, and the music hits as they gift you the mask. It’s the music that plays when you get a really major item, basically not the music that plays for heart pieces, rupees, heart containers, or even most chest items. I would put it up but I can’t find it on YT. I don’t know what it is about that few second long piece that just sums up the mood perfectly. The feeling of amazing accomplishment that you’ve reunited two lovers. You know what you get out of the Couple’s Mask? A heart piece, that’s it, yet it is by far my most treasure mask, and probably the same for a lot of people who’ve played the game. It is an example of what a truly amazing game can accomplish. Completing this quest offers no real obvious reward when you look at it from a gameplay only standpoint. Sure an empty bottle and a heart piece is nice, but you can go on and complete the game no problem without ever doing this quest, and yet to me it was the most satisfying moment in the game. The level of emotion that hung in the air for the whole duration, with it climaxing at the final sequence, this quest gave me so much satisfaction to complete because I really really cared. To think that I was so instrumental in alleviating the pain of a mother, and reversing the heartbreak of these two cruelly separated lovers, I can’t really describe it, but I completed this quest because I wanted to, not for any other incentive, and the reward that was most prominent was personal satisfaction, a satisfaction that I’ve never felt replicated ever again. Sure can get personal satisfaction from 100%ing a game, but that’s just an ego boost, but this was a different type altogether, a sentimental satisfaction, one which still resonates every time I think about MM. And hey, I haven’t even got to the next little bit. Anju and Kafei then thank you from the bottom of their hearts, and with their promises and marriage completed before the end of the world, stand together as a couple to await their fate with no regrets, now that they are married and reunited, all is well for them, and even though the world is about to end, they’re happy to await it. At the time, the whole last sequence totally had tears streaming down my face, and still jerks them to this day if I ever play again, **** if I even think about it enough.
Personal satisfaction, doing things because you care, a whole world of connected characters, a world which you can affect. I’ve barely even been able to get into it, and now I’ve made the decision to split this into a series, because quite frankly I cannot do this game justice with a rush job. I cannot condense it, but I guess what you can take from this part is that MM among so many other great aspects, had a world of incredibly real characters that you felt connected to on an emotional level. I may sound redundant by now, but can you really remember ever doing non essential quests in games for anything other than cool items or the completion factor? Did you ever really do a non essential quest because you truly cared? Did you ever complete any other such quest and feel overwhelmingly happy/emotional/satisfied that you’d completed it? I’m not sure there’d be many if any, but MM had so many of these, and while this quest was probably the most powerful in that regard, there are so many others where you get the same feeling, and a game that makes you want to play the quests and just play the game in general because you truly just WANT to personally rather than just doing it for the sake of added items, advancement, or completion rating, is a game that is truly hitting that special part of a person which I don’t even think film or literature can. When it’s not just emotional attachment and relation to characters, but a direct interaction which strengthens that bond beyond what a film or book can, media where you don’t truly feel a part of what’s going on, but in MM you do, and to me this just goes to show how powerful a form of media a videogame can really be if written and designed well.
And so that wraps up this part, which I guess was about character interaction and the emotional investment making this game satisfying to continue. Where a piece of heart and an empty bottle are just mere bonuses to a truly amazing experience, not the other way around, where a sidequest is conveniently fun but all you cared about was racking up those extras.
This alone makes it better than Ocarina, but I’ll add more weight in later entries, peace!
