Sword Upgrades I: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK

I GIVE!
There's an evolution from purpose, to scheduling, to downfall, back to purpose. Is evolution the right term? Maybe not evolution, more like metamorphosis, not necessarily consistently to a benefit. But I want to be at that final step of the metamorphosis, and that's where I just write when I want to, and when I have something I want to write about, which was sort of like the original reason I started blogging, right?

Well, on that note, I've been playing a lot of a certain game recently, I'm sure you're aware, and it's time to jump into another post regarding that game!

TITLE: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask


So, what's the topic of the day? Swords of course! Ironically a key feature of the Zelda series, and I haven't even glazed over the use of swords in this game! The last several days I've been playing Majora's Mask every day, with some goal in mind. I picked up the Goron's Mask:
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2014/11/08/majoras-mask-3ds-screenshots-artwork-gallery.htm
Grabbed the spin attack upgrade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb7YrEwzTbA
The Magic Meter Upgrade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkxfgLUb7jg
And of course, the Gilded Sword Upgrade:
http://es.wikihow.com/conseguir-la-Espada-de-Esmeril-en-Zelda-Majora's-Mask
Wait...that's not right...I went out of my way to get gold dust!:
http://www.wikihow.com/Category:The-Legend-of-Zelda:-Majora's-Mask
Okay, awesome, that's what I was looking for!

So yeah, picked up the...third strongest?...sword in the game, the second being the Great Fairy Sword, and the best being the Fierce Deity's Sword. Is that right? I'm pretty sure that's right. Considering I have every intention of grabbing the other upgrade to the standard sword, it may be a bit of a waste of time to grab the Gilded Sword, especially considering I had to restart twice because I kept screwing this up -_-. But, I have it, and that's what counts, I guess.

The Gilded Sword increases the range and damage of the Kokiri Sword, even greater than its predecessor, the Razor Sword. This sword pairing essentially replaces the Giant's Knife and Biggoron Sword from Ocarina of Time, but while filling a lower strength level, with greater durability. While the Giant's Knife breaks much quicker than the Razor Sword, the Razor Sword lasts longer (unless you immediately play the Song of Time...whoops). Unfortunately, the Biggoron Sword has every advantage over the Gilded Sword as far as pure attack value, being longer and hitting harder than it's successor, the catch? The Gilded Sword is a one-handed weapon, it will still let you guard between attacks. Yay! Also, this is an early-mid game upgrade, compared to the Biggoron Sword being a mid-late game upgrade, meanwhile the Great Fairy Sword will replace the Gilded Sword, still allow you to block, and deal just as much damage as the Biggoron Sword, so yeah, overall your swords in Majora's Mask surpass those in Ocarina of Time, at least, as far as I can tell.

Since picking this up, I've actually found myself spending less time rolling around as Goron Link, and more time running around with my bunny hood and hacking away at monsters, I don't care for the lack of power of the Kokiri Sword, but this weapon makes it all worth it.

I'll have another post later this week probably about something else I've accomplished in the game, but not yet, so 'til then, ttyl!

Can I Just Hide My Face: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK

WHOOPS!
I wonder if anyone else who reads the blogpost prior to this one will realize what a huge mistake I made, I left out a key remake that I actually wanted to have remade longer, and desperately want to play, and may well do so in the near future: Majora's Mask! Come on now Caleb, isn't that rather obvious?

TITLE: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D
Old...New!

Okay, here we go, that game that I already have two posts about, why not tackle a third? Mechanics of the game, covered. Possible secret lore of the game...covered. So let's just tackle the sheer impact it had...wait...that's covered...sort of.

Anyway, this is one of THOSE games. Those games that I feel like were essential to growing up, like Kingdom Hearts and frickin' Banjo-Kazooie...wait...Kingdom Hearts didn't make my list? What's wrong with me?! It's like...I could do a whole second list on these games or something-hint hint. Onward, Majora's Mask is the quintessential Zelda title for me, sure, Ocarina of Time had more dungeons, a more complex set of items, and possibly a deeper story, but I just spent more time in Majora's Mask and frankly I feel like it actually challenged me less, while still being semi-difficult. I mean, not Dark Souls, don't misunderstand that, this is a pretty straight-forward game, easy enough to beat in four or five sittings if you don't want to complete the entire game, or even a single sitting according to speed-runners.



I actually just looked up a play-through of the new 3D game, and it seems to maintain the same wondrous feel of the original, and the graphics are delightfully well-updated. Not cell-shaded either, I can't explain my hatred for Wind Waker, but I do, and it's art style sticks with me as a sign of a bad Zelda game. So, it should be noted that I don't have a particular love of 3D, in fact I generally hate it, and I despise it on the 3DS. But, the graphic update itself appears to be worth it.

Did I mention I actually still own the original version of this game? Well not still own, I recently picked it up from Replays, and have started a 100% play-through, which you cannot view on youtube because my capture card won't capture it! I may have to get a new capture card and retry -_- at which point of course it'll hit the youtubez. Love it, just love it.

Can I rate this? Please? Cool:

RATING:
Nine out of Ten distressed souls trapped in masks would give this Six masks of enormous power, out of Five.

There, I rated it! This game is amazing and I simply cannot wait to pick up the 3DS remake, but even without that, I'm still going to enjoy the heck out of the original game.

Who is that Masked Man?: MAJORA'S MASK

Continuing a Trend
Onward and upward as they say. "Who's they?" you ask. Well, that's for you to find out. I say it enough for they to be me though, so "Onward and upward," as I say.

Last week on My Cinema I had a sort of horror movie theme going on, this week I have a science fiction theme going. Naturally, I follow all of that up with My Arcade having some kind of theme this week, and we're making it masks. No not just Majora's Mask, although that is what today will focus on, primarily.

TITLE: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask


NO TIME TO WASTE:
I won't regale you with information like the premise of this game, I posted on it just yesterday! And I can't really break this down into the same sections as that one, because I don't have another theory to theorize about. No, I just kind of felt like talking about the Mask some more. Call it laziness, call in unoriginality, call it an obsession if you must.

I just really like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Don't get me wrong, I loved Ocarina of Time too, but this installment in the Zelda series calls out to me, like the darkness in Majora's Mask calls out to this guy:

But maybe it's an infatuation with masks, and not the game itself. I mean, Code Geass is probably my favorite anime series, and it focuses on a masked protagonist. Gundam is potentially my favorite anime franchise, and it stars masked antagonists all the time. My favorite recent movies have all been superhero movies, but my least favorite superhero is Superman, a.k.a. the maskless one.

All of that can be explained away in other manners though, except for one of those, the first one, the one before Code Geass, Zelda. Because this game is basically reviled as the unwanted offspring of Ocarina of Time, why shouldn't it be? The game is built using almost entirely rehashed characters from Ocarina of Time, it's entitled the Legend of Zelda, but the titular character appears during one, maybe two, flashbacks. It doesn't even take place in Hyrule, it takes place in some distant land called Termina. In reality, I spent more time playing Ocarina of Time as a child than I ever did Majora's Mask. So why?

Well, I like to blame it on the masks, the game focuses on a mechanic all its own, the main character gaining special abilities from his headgear. Now, this isn't new, even in the franchise, because it's based on the same complaint many people have, the characters are just rehashed from the previous game. Right down to the happy mask salesman, from whom Link receives several of the same masks that appear in Majora's Mask. But, that's a side quest, there's no necessity to obtain those masks, although they are necessary for 100% completion, of course. Majora's Mask centers on you needing to collect masks to progress, particularly the three transformation masks: Deku, Goron and Zora.

Each of these transformation masks changes Link's shape, giving him new abilities and varying limitations. Most notably the Deku form and Goron form are unable to swim, drowning if they enter deep water. Through the three primary transformation masks Link inhabits the body of a deceased member of the race, taking on their spirits' burdens or some such.

But besides those three transformation masks, there is the issue of the game being themed around masks. There are 24 masks that Link can wear in the game, 20 of them not being transformative, and an additional six that are collected through the duration of the game, four of them being the remains of bosses and two acting as side quest items. Collecting all 20 non-transformative masks will allow you to obtain the 24th mask at the end of the game, the Fierce Deity mask, which is the most powerful transformation in the game, but can only be used in the final boss fight. But never mind that.

20 masks that do not transform you, but add other abilities to the character, some of them completely useless outside of obtaining more masks, like the Bremen Mask, which just lets you lead animals around while playing the ocarina, or Kamaro's Mask, which is just used to dance so you can obtain a piece of heart. This sounds like a drawback to the game, but I love it! Maybe that's because I love side-questing in video games though. (Seriously, I played the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [also has a magical mask in it, which I love] for months on end and only completed the main storyline after completing every major side-quest line in the game, and a lot of the not so major ones.) Then there are more practical masks like the Bunny Hood (obtained using the Bremen Mask),  which lets you run twice as fast, not only does this let you get around more easily, but it is the key to some side-quests, or the Blast Mask, which serves as a bomb in case you run out, or just don't want to buy any!

On my current play through, which I started about four nights ago (I don't play much, but when I do I try to accomplish something) I have really only acquired the masks above and one or two more. Because that's kind of what I love about the game, collecting masks, side-questing. If there was a game where the main quest centered around completing side-quests, that would probably be my favorite game. Don't worry, I realize that's an oxymoron, and I don't care. It's not that Ocarina of Time doesn't have side-quests either, it's just that I prefer the mechanics of Majora's Masks rewards.

I realize of course that this was basically a huge mess of rambling, and it didn't serve to reinforce all of the good things about Majora's Mask, in fact I really only talked about the masks, not the atmosphere or quality controls or whatever. Just masks. But that was kind of my point wasn't it? Anyway, be looking out for my posts later this week, they'll probably deal with Dofus and the Masqueraider, Oblivion and the Grey Fox, and more than likely some classic masks in games!

Day 4, Everybody Disappeared: MAJORA'S MASK

FIRST REAL POST HERE!
Okay, so, if you read my first post, the introductory post, you will have seen that I enjoy Action-Adventure games, and right out beside that, you'll notice I found it worthwhile to present boxart for a game that was neither the first, nor most iconic in its series (to most). Well that's because I have a bit of an obsession with that game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The reason? I'm not quite sure, I just really enjoyed a lot about the game, even compared to Ocarina of Time, and to this day I enjoy it (as I recently acquired a copy of it at the local Replays).

But there's a little glitch basically everyone who has looked the game up knows about: the fourth day glitch.

TITLE: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask


PREMISE: 
After the events of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link (Young Link from the First Timeline) sets out on a quest to find a friend (presumably Navi?). On his journey he is intercepted by the troublesome Skull Kid who steals his magic ocarina. Now Link has three days to obtain the Ocarina to restore his natural form in a strange world. Oh, did I mention he's been turned into a Deku Scrub? Also, Skull Kid has this mask made of Phlebotinum used by ancient aliens on the moon or something that he's using to destroy the world in three days.

The game functions on a resetting world, wherein Link can retain any magical items (mainly masks) when he travels back in time, the time travel feature serves both as a core mechanic to making the game world feasible, and the only way to save your game!

THEORY:
The fourth day is the true ending to Majora's Mask, the "good ending" or whatever.

For clarity, the game follows a three day cycle: go to clock town, adventure for three days, before the end of the third day reset time with the Song of Time. It is possible to access a New Day (introduced as Dawn of a New Day) in which most of Clocktown's citizens have left, the moon that was going to crash into Termina is now gone (or rather, very far away like it should be), and time is no longer limited (every dusk is unmarked and every dawn is the Dawn of a New Day). This is done by going to the observatory (a necessary feature in your first three days), peering through the telescope, and remaining in telescope view until just before the moon crashes into Termina, at which point you back out and the new day begins.

BASIS:
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is about Link coping with the grief of death, potentially his own death, go ahead, google it, I'll give you a moment...

Back? Cool, maybe that's not the official story, but there's so much information to support it, why not assume that's right?

The final phase of the grieving process is acceptance. Now, don't get me wrong, there's already some degree of acceptance that goes on during the process of the game, but maybe Link is supposed to accept something, maybe there's a reason Navi (if that is who he is seeking) is gone. What's the reason? He's already the hero. He's done his job and restored peace to the land. There's nothing else he, as the Hero of Time, is supposed to do. Yet he insists on seeking out his dispersed aid (Navi), denying that he's fulfilled his purpose. Is...that the first phase? Awesome. Now, here's how the rest of the idea plays out:

Link Denies his role as hero is complete.
Link Angrily seeks out a new adventure (never mind that he seems so sad at first, he gets angry).
Link Bargains with the Mask Salesman so he can go on one more adventure.
Link becomes Depressed, and this is where we start the 'glitch,' in the process of looking up at the Skull Kid on that clock tower, he realizes he may never see Navi again, he may never start another grand adventure.
Link Accepts that his role is played out...and at the last second, right before the moon crashes down into Clocktown, he looks away.

That's when the 'glitch' happens, Link accepts that he's not responsible for those people in Clocktown. He's not responsible for saving yet another world from fate. He accepts that you can't constantly fight, and some things have to happen. Granted, it's not the most heroic story, but maybe it is his story. Link lives out the rest of his life in the abandoned Clocktown, not as a hero, performing quests and vanquishing monsters, but as the boy who had been the Hero of Time. This may even potentially be Link's afterlife, and the 'bad ending' is when he completes the quest and finds himself unable to rest, but the 'good ending' is when he remains in Clocktown, eternally young, enjoying himself.

Is that, too far-fetched? Maybe so, none the less, it's a possibility, and I rather like the idea! It's not more fun than actually playing through the game, but it does create a reason for such a strange glitch to exist.