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Legend of Zelda, The - Majora's Mask

Game Mechanics

Concept and resumption of gameplay ofOcarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is an action-adventure game taking place in a medieval-fantastic universe that mixes puzzle resolution, object research and action as real-time sword fights. He takes over the game system of his predecessor, develops certain aspects and introduces others unpublished. The game sequences are made in three dimensions and displayed in an objective view leaving the avatar appear in the foreground in the central position on the screen (the game passes in subjective view when the character uses the arc). The player has great freedom of action in this three-dimensional universe. As in the previous opus, Link can perform basic operations such as walking, running and making small jumps when using his weapon, or conversing and interacting with other characters. He must use weapons to fight enemies and objects to solve puzzles. His main weapon is the sword, but he acquires others during the game. It can block or return attacks with its shield, knock out enemies by launching Mojo nuts, attack remotely with an arc and arrows and use bombs to destroy obstacles and damage enemies. He can also cling to objects or paralyse his enemies with the claw. Link has magical powers through various objects, such as magic arrows, a charge attack, or special items. It also has its classic arsenal of secondary weapons such as bow and arrows, bombs or grapple. It can get empty bottles that allow to keep liquids like water, or the monocle of truth, which reveals certain elements invisible to it naked.

The game takes on the same controls and abilities as the previous opus, Ocarina of Time. Link can attack with a loaded attack, jump back in a salto to get shots. The control system is identical to that ofOcarina of Time. In battles, the player benefits from the same system as the first opus, which allows to lock the target with a button and attack. The player character therefore always stays and automatically faces his enemy and can turn around him, as long as the player does not release the button. The object assignment system with the yellow arrow buttons of the previous opus is renewed. Link is accompanied by the fairy Taya, who helps her in her quest.

Health Link is materialized by a series of curs, representing points of life, which empty in whole or in part according to the damage received. The player can increase his number of curs by finding 52-quarter crane spread or hidden through Termina, or getting them in the dungeons. When the player collected four-quarters, a new one comes to increase his life bar. As in most games of the franchise, the enemies once defeated leave behind rubies, the fictional currency of the game, which allow the player to buy weapons or objects in the various stores. The player can recover from the players, or pick up those who are randomly hidden, for example in the grass. In the same way, the player can recover life heads, left by enemies, hidden or given, regenerating the health of Link. It can also recover small green fibers to fill its magic bar.

Accuracy on gameplay

Majora's Mask alternates play phases in hostile areas requiring combat and manned areas favoring interactions with non-player characters. The player must therefore perform phases of dialogue with non-player characters and object search phases, by performing secondary quests. He must cross dungeons containing riddles and eliminate enemies, avoid traps, find objects and safes, and defeat boss. All these elements allow the protagonist to advance in the main plot. Link must explore the four cardinal regions, in order to visit each temple where it must defeat each boss and free each Giant, in order to return to Bourg-Clocher and face Skull Kid and prevent the moon from crashing. For this, he uses his Ocarina time to go back regularly three days earlier and avoid the catastrophe, until he has achieved his goal, helped by various masks enabling him to progress in his quest.

The game also incorporates many different secondary quests. The player must therefore interact with non-player characters who for the most part have a precise schedule, while some quests take place over several days. These allow to obtain rubies, quarters of aur, but most give masks. The gameplay is therefore much more focused on the life of Termina than in other franchise games that favor the dungeons. The latter also include ancillary quests, which consist of retrieving fifteen small fairies by dungeon, which ultimately provide improvements and magic. Link must play many mini games. These can take different forms, such as Goron races, Zoras, dogs or horses. The game of treasure chests, already present in the previous opus are also present. Some of them are paying.

Specificities Majora's Mask and new developments

From the previous opus, Majora's Mask takes over the system of songs played at the ocarina producing some magical effects and the transformation of the player character through masks, concepts on which the foundations of the game rest. The concept of travel in time is also discussed, this time differently, by introducing a new concept of the three-day cycle, allowing the character to go back regularly in the past at a precise moment. The game includes many other innovations such as the concept of time use and the agenda system. Some enemies then attack several at the same time. The player can get the cards from each area to the character called Tingle, to display them at the bottom right of the screen. Player can get a new object, a camera called « Image box », allowing to take a shot.

The Nintendo 64 version of the game requires the use of theExpansion Pak, an accessory increasing the memory capabilities of the console, which allows to produce more fine graphics and display more characters on the screen. The distance fog is very small and has almost disappeared. The slowdowns when several characters are displayed at the same time on the screen also disappeared. The western version of the game incorporates a feature that saves progress during the quest, at the entrance of all dungeons. In addition, any new weapon, new mask, or ocarina melody is automatically saved in the inventory. And in addition to this version, the statues of owl scattered in the different regions allow the player when activated, to save his progress temporarily (until the console is terminated, a definitive backup is only made when Link returns to the first day). The songs learned, the entries in the newspaper Bombers, plans, dungeon cards and compasses are also preserved. The entire end credit is unlocked by ending the game 100%.

The concept of masks is already sketched in Ocarina of Time, but only represents an optional secondary quest. Now the masks appear in the foreground in Majora's Mask. When Link puts a mask on its face, it takes advantage of magical and temporary effects, such as transformation into different creatures, or obtaining specific abilities, which only allows it by way of access to certain areas, to succeed certain tasks or actions, or to advance in the plot. Depending on the situation, the player must choose the best suitable mask or the one that is necessary to achieve its goals. In total, Link can collect twenty-four masks. It must achieve certain objectives or certain secondary quests. Each area of Termina is associated with a dungeon that lights up and requires one of the three transformations obtained through masks. The last dungeon requires all the skills related to the main masks.

Each transformation, possible at will, provides specific abilities to the player character. From the beginning of the game, Link is metamorphosed into Mojo, and thereafter it can quickly transfer this curse into a mask that allows it to retransformer into Peste Mojo at will. In this form, it can perform a rotating attack, throw bubbles, jump on the water and fly for a short period of time by jumping in a Mojo flower. However, in this form, its small size prevents it from jumping very high and it cannot swim. Then, Link acquires the Goron mask, which allows it to roll very quickly on the ground like a stone, which can be equipped with peaks, then roll with a deadly force in enemies or blocks to destroy. In this form, it also has the possibility of trapping the ground with its massive and caillious body, walking in the wash without damage and hitting to the ground all its weight to trigger switches. However, its weight imposes a certain slowness, and by nature it cannot go into the water. A mask allows to transform Link in Zora and swim faster and walk to the bottom of the water, launch two fins in the shape of a boomerang, and generate a force field similar to an electric shock. Nevertheless, it is very vulnerable to ice and fire. These three transformations receive different reactions from non-player characters. For example, in Goron and Zora, Link may leave Bourg-Clocher as he pleases, while in Peste Mojo, he cannot. Animals also react to different forms of Link. For example, they are indifferent to the normal form of Link, attack him in Mojo, are frightened when he is in Goron, and pursue him in Zora.

The last mask to be obtained is that of the Power of Fairies, only usable during fighting against the boss, transforming Link great and powerful warrior called Oni Link resembling Link adult (or Kishin Link), and which brandished a sword with interlaced double blades, throwing rays on enemies. Other masks offer situational benefits and more specific abilities. For example, the rabbit mask allows to run faster and to gain minutes in the three-day time cycle, the Grande Fée mask facilitates the search for the fifteen mini-fées in each dungeon. Momie's mask prevents Link to be darkened by goules by crossing their gaze, or the mask of Nuit Blanche avoids the bearer from falling asleep.

25mask is Majora's mask, Link cannot get.

Majora's Mask presents a cycle of time that lasts three days, repeating continuously until the end of the game. It's one of the franchise games The Legend of Zelda in which the concept of limited time cycle is the most important. The game thus takes place for three consecutive days, and in their end, if the player has not finished the game, it must go back to time each time, using his ocarina and various melodies. To manage the time in this repeating cycle, the interface displays at the bottom of the screen a clock shaped like a half circle and a needle represented by a small sun and a moon. Ongoing day (1, 2, last) is also displayed. The 72 hours of the three-day cycle are actually 54 minutes. Time runs through all areas, halls and dungeons. It is only frozen when the player checks his inventory and during conversations. A day starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. A real-time payout account starts when it is only 6 hours on the last day. Link can come back at 6 a.m. on the first day playing the Song of Time with the Ocarina of Time. If the player does not do it before the 72 hours end, the moon crashes against Termina. It destroys this universe, the game ends, and the player loses part of what he has accumulated since his last backup. The return to the dawn of the first day saves the progress and major achievements of the player, such as collecting cards, masks, music and weapons. Enigmas, keys and minor objects are lost, as well as rubies. However, the player can deposit at any time his rubies at the Bourg-Clocher bank and thus save them. On the other hand, most characters do not keep any memory of their encounter with Link.

Music is of great importance in gameplay de Majora's Mask. The Ocarina of Time, already present in Ocarina of Time, allows to play a whole range of new melodies, including the Song of Time that allows Link to go back in time and repeat the three-day cycle several times and avoid the destruction of Termina. Other melodies played with ocarina offer different magical effects. Link can slow down the time or move in the next morning or in the evening playing the Reverse Time Sing and the Accelerated Time Sing. The instrument allows for example to manipulate the weather, or unlock the four temples. Hidden statues scattered in some major regions of the world allow the player when they are activated, to save his progress and also provide teleporting points to quickly navigate the world, thanks to the ocarina.

On the other hand, Link benefits from several masks allowing it to turn into Peste Mojo, Goron or Zora. Each of these races has a specific instrument, respectively a trumpet with several horns, a drum bearing to size and a guitar built from a large fish skeleton. Some melodies are effective only with a particular instrument, so in the proper transformation.

During the three-day cycle, many non-player characters have a precise schedule and fixed schedule that Link can follow using the Journal des Bombers. This one follows the twenty characters who need help, like a soldier to whom Link must deliver drugs or a couple he has to bring together. The blue bars on the newspaper's time line indicate when interactions are possible with the characters and icons indicate that Link received elements, such as masks, from them.