Zelda Retrospective: Part VI - Majora's Mask - Day 2

Okay, so this entry covers a play through of three of the three-day cycles. The first two devoted to early side quests Clock Town and the third to taking care of the main quest and some side quests in the Southern Swamp.
The first two cycles would have been all in one, except I accidentally played the Song of Double Time, which warped me ahead to the next morning, instead of playing the Inverted Song of Time, which would have halved time's speed. Oops.
So I missed out on trying to complete one of the things I wanted to do: stop the thief from stealing the old lady's bag full of bombs. I wanted to make sure I got the Exploding Mask from her and the big bomb bag from the shop, so I ended up starting a new cycle later on to nab that before I quit playing that night.
One thing that makes Majora's Mask stand out from Ocarina of Time is that the large bulk of this game is made up of sidequests like that. It almost seems appropriate, since this is a side story. I remember, back in 1999-2000, before they announced the official name of the game, Nintendo referred to it as Zelda Gaiden. "Gaiden" is the Japanese term for "side story."
Some might argue that the amount of side quests in this game borders on the ridiculous, since there are only four main dungeons in the entire game, as opposed to Ocarina of Time's eight dungeons.
I feel that the side quests, especially the stuff you do to complete the Bomber's Notebook, like helping Anju and Kafei or protecting the ranch from alien invasion and wannabe-ninja raids help to flesh out the story world more. These quests let you get to know the characters in more intimate detail. To me, the emotional connection you create with these characters creates a greater sense of urgency. As I get to know the characters, the more I want to stop the moon from falling, because these people are just trying to go about their lives. The situation in Termina is not like what it was in Hyrule in Ocarina of Time. There, people knew the score. Ganondorf had taken over and people managed to adapt their lives to work around that. In Termina, people don't know what to do or what to think. A force beyond their understanding is at work and they don't know how to react. Though, I almost wish that Nintendo would have gone as far as making things much more chaotic in that final day, and shown us more of people fleeing from Clock Town. But that might have been a direction too dark for what they wanted to do.
In any case, I filled out some of these side quests and proceeded on to the Southern Swamp.
There, we had our now-standard sneak-into-a-castle sequence. But this time it was turned on its heels. Now it was Link in the form of a Deku Scrub sneaking through the gardens of the Deku Palace to reach the accused kidnapper of a princess, rather than sneaking into Hyrule castle to rescue the princess herself from captivity. I always found that fact amusingly ironic.
Then it was on to the Windfall Temple. This is a short and sweet affair, meant more as a learning experience akin to the inside of the Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time. This dungeon definitely has a little more atmosphere to it than its predecessor. The place is riddled with poison water, floating flowers that try to eat you if you're not in the form of a Deku Scrub and one particular room that is both very dark and full of little monsters who are nothing more than black balls with glowing eyes. Also annoying are the vicious moths that follow any flame you create. Luckily, they will also follow the fuse of a bomb and are easily blown to little bits.
With the fifteen stray fairies collected (I hope whatever lead designer at Nintendo who allowed those things to get into the game looking and sounding like that should have his head examined), and the boss key and bow and arrows in hand, I went on to fight Odolwa.

To my recollection, this is the only Zelda boss to date who looked to be an extreme risk for a wardrobe malfunction. A loincloth and a mask aren't exactly high fashion. But then, I guess they were going for a kind of tribal motif with him. Between his costume, the constant chanting of his own name (what are you, a Pokemon?) and the dancing, they hit the mark.
Odolwa is actually pretty satisfying as a first boss of the game. He's not too hard, but he's not a pushover. I mean, sure, he employs large bugs and fleshing-eating moths to do his dirty work after you smack him around a bit, but look at that sword! Link's barely taller than its hilt. It's hard to avoid damage in this battle, too, because of how chaotic it becomes in the latter stages. By this point, Odolwa is constantly summoning his bugs and moths to come after him, so you're struggling to get rid of them (luckily there are an abundance of bomb flowers around) while also trying to get in some arrow and sword hits on him. It can get a little hairy, especially if you haven't collected any extra heart pieces.
With Odolwa's dancing days over (sorry Kevin Bacon, looks like John Lithgow won this round), we meet the giant whose spirit was possessed by the ill-dressed tribesman. Once again, Nintendo's designers got a little weird. The giants are nothing but jaw-less heads with really long arms and legs and no body. I think they could have come up with something better than that, but beggars can't be choosers. The giants and the stray fairies look really weird and I just have to deal with it.
I took a little time afterward to collect a few heart pieces, bringing my container count up to six and then called it a day by playing the Song of Time and quitting.
So the next round will involve going north to visit the Gorons and meet the most articulate baby rock-eater ever.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part VI - Majora's Mask - Day 1

Ahhhhh!!! Two posts in two days?! Holy crap! What's wrong with the world? There's fire and brimstone! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
Anyway, yes, I managed to find some time in my somewhat delirious sleep-deprived state to start playing The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. It is, in my opinion, the most underrated of all the Zelda games. There are exceptions, but it seems like whenever the subject of Zelda games comes up amongst friends and acquaintances, I hear the phrase, "I loved the Zelda games, except for Majora's Mask."
When I ask why, it always seems to be an answer like, "It's just weird," or "I really hated that time gimmick, it annoyed me having to start over all the time."
Yes, it is definitely a departure from the standard narrative structure of the other games in the series, but the originality of its gameplay and tone is what makes Majora's Mask so endearing to me.
From the opening title cinematic and into the first three day cycle of the game, especially in Link's initial pursuit of Skull Kid, the game sets up a moody and atmospheric take on the world set up by Ocarina of Time. There is a much more surreal quality to things here. In some ways, it's almost reminiscent of Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam, where things are both dark and absurd simultaneously. The game mixes in a lot more character drama (like the infamously long Anju & Kafei side quest), more humor (like the absolute bizarreness of the Mask Salesman) to the slightly disturbing (the mask transformation sequences or just the fact that so many people are going about their lives idly when the world is literally about to end).
In the terms of gameplay, I find Majora's Mask to be vastly interesting. It takes the now tried-and-true formula of Ocarina of Time and adds extra mechanics like the mask transformations and the time cycle to give it a unique feel. While, yes, it can be a little tedious to have to worry about the passage of time so much, I think it gives the game a dramatic urgency that was unprecedented and has never been replicated quite the same way in the series.
But that's enough of my prattling on, let's get to tonight's play time.
I admit, I find the first three day cycle in the game to be very annoying. Essentially, it consists of a few small fetch quests and then a whole lot of waiting. Plus, you have to play through until you can get the Ocarina of Time and reset the clock to save, or you lose all of your progress. If you already have a decent familiarity with the game, you can complete every task you have to do before the dawn of the second day, leaving a lot of time to have nothing to do. So I went around filling the time with talking to people (which I quickly remembered actually freezes the clock) or trying to find ways of making the time pass faster (like having dance parties with the scarecrow or having the old lady in the inn tell you stories).
Very quickly, we get a sense of the tension this game tries to instill. The urgency of the sped-up Clock Town music on Day 3 and the fact that we can actually watch the moon get bigger really adds a lot to this sense. It is odd that Skull Kid is so easy to stun in the first confrontation with him. One bubble hit does the trick. It would have been nice if this had been a little more like a boss fight, since this is the first time there's anything resembling combat in the game. Oh well, I'm about nine years too late for suggestions.
Also, we learn early on that Link has gotten far more agile since the end of Ocarina of Time. Look at those back flips!
I will say, I'm a little annoyed with the lag issues on the Zelda Collector's Edition GameCube disc that I'm playing the game on (on my Wii), but I long ago gave my N64 and copy of Majora's Mask to my sister.
I suppose that will be it for tonight, my delirium is growing and I need some sleep. I'll hopefully get some more game time in sometime soon, but it definitely won't be tomorrow. The Righs have a gig in Tulsa with The Toasters.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part V - Ocarina of Time - Day 6

Okay, yeah. It's been a month and a half since the last update. This semester has been pretty busy for me, despite the fact I made this schedule convinced it would be an absolute breeze. I could have gotten to this sooner, but a lot of my down time has ended up being spent with friends, off doing things away from my apartment, watching Hulu or working on my next novel project, so I haven't really been playing much in the way of video games. There's even been plenty of movies and TV shows that I've seen that I could have blogged about but didn't for reasons unknown, like Zombieland (awesome), Surrogates (meh), Stargate Universe (it's trying to be both the next Stargate and the next Battlestar Galactica) and Flashforward (pretty interesting so far, though the writing is a little haphazard at times).
That being the case, I suppose this is really more of an "Ocarina of Time - Days 6-8" entry. Late one night following my last entry, I finished off the Shadow Temple. I got tired and decided to put off the entry until the next day, but things happened, as they often do, and it got back seated. I have since forgotten all the clever quips I had come up with about it.
Then, some time a few weeks ago, I sat down and went through the Spirit Temple. Again, I ended up putting off the entry. Sorry.
Today, however, I played through the entirety of Ganon's Castle.
I always found this section of the game relatively interesting. For one, we get a hodge-podge of the different dungeons from around the game, some of the rooms fitting the theme and some not so much. We get Shadow Temple elements in the Forest Barrier section, for example. Also, we get a glimpse at what the Light Temple, a dungeon originally planned for but ultimately scrapped in development, might have been like. It was very much like the Shadow Temple. Ironic.
I once again fell upon the muscle memory I've developed over the many times I've played Ocarina of Time and breezed through to Ganondorf. A few of the rupee collecting rooms, namely the ones in the Forest, Fire and Shadow sections gave me a few problems due to a few misplaced jumps that led to automatic restart of the room.
One touch that I've always loved about ascending the staircases toward Ganondorf is the way the ominous organ music builds in volume as you get closer to your destination. It's a very nice touch.
Maybe if Ganondorf had invested all his energy into music, he could have brought world peace like Bill and Ted were supposed to with Wyld Stallions? But no, the water pollution ruined that chance.
So, Ganondorf gives his obligatory villain monologue, we had our little tennis match and then he was down. Another detail Nintendo did a good job on is how you can see holes appear in Ganondorf's cape as you do more damage to it. I'm sure if it were an M-rated game, we'd be seeing holes in more than just his cape, but, then, who really wants to see an M-rated Zelda game? It'd be a bad business move for one. But I digress.
As I played the escape sequence, an idea which I bet the developers got from Metroid, I found myself getting typically annoyed with Zelda's incessant gasps as flaming rocks hit me. We passed that one annoyingly placed ReDead and then that part was over.
Then Ganondorf turns into Ganon, I shoot him in the face, hit him in the tail, rinse, and repeat until he's down. Really, after playing this game as many times as I have, fighting Ganondorf and Ganon is just a little boring. All the challenge is gone. Oh well, I still love the game.
One thing that particularly interests me is the ending of the game, wherein two separate time lines are created. There's the one in which Ganondorf succeeds in taking over and is defeated seven years later by Link and Zelda, and then the one created after Zelda sends Link back to his original time and then, presumably, goes to warn Zelda about what will happen. The sci-fi nerd in me loves this kind of stuff.
So from here, it's on to Majora's Mask, which I feel is the most underrated of the Zelda games. Not sure when I'll get a start on that, but I'll try to make it soon.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part V - Ocarina of Time - Day 5

Hello everyone, I'm very sorry for not posting in so long. I started getting really busy around the time of the last post with friends, birthday plans, band activities like recording and gigs and then school. I doubt I'll be posting as regularly and I might have to condense future posts in the series based on weeks and not days. I'm not quite sure yet. Anyway, on to the brief time I played Ocarina of Time today, before I set off to work on school work.
My hour-or-so jaunt through the land of Hyrule today was rather uneventful. I went through the somewhat arduous trading process that results in obtaining the Biggoron Sword. Now, in no way is the sword a necessary item for the game, it definitely comes in handy. If you equip it and Nayru's Love while fighting the Iron Knuckles that appear later in the game, you can definitely dispatch them much more quickly and easily. It's definitely more handy in Master Quest, where you encounter a lot more Iron Knuckles.
There's some definite weirdness going on with the trading process. I mean, the "punk guy" who you give the blue Cucco, Cojiro, to is odd enough looking as it is for a Hylian. And the relationship he has with his mother, the "old hag behind the potion shop," seems a little less than loving.
But it's the Kokiri girl who takes the punk guy's place that's the worst. She gives me the creeps, man.
She just looks up at you with that weird little grin and says, "That guy isn't here anymore. Anybody who comes into the forest will be lost. Everybody will become a Stalfos. Everybody, Stalfos. So, he's not here anymore. Only his saw is left. Hee hee."
Yeah, creepy.
Of course, if you talk to her again, she goes on to speculate whether or not you will become a Stalfos too. More creepy. Seriously, what's with that girl?
Then it's off to give a saw to the head carpenter, punk guy's father. From there, the prescription for eye drops, the eyeball frog (which the doctor at the lake wants to turn into fried eyeballs... okay...) and then the drops themselves. It's the last one that can be a pain. Getting the drops to Biggoron requires some pre-planning, because without the strategic placement of a magic bean plant at the mouth of Dodongo's Cavern, you might not make it in time before the eyedrops expire.
So, I got the Biggoron sword after playing the Sun's Song a bunch of times. I mean, really, do you expect me to sit around and wait for three days to pass naturally in-game? Hell no.
Then it was on to nab the Lens of Truth. This is where things are a little stupid. They set up the Well as sort of it's own little mini-dungeon, but the truth is, all you have to do is go in, play Zelda's Lullaby to drain the moat, crawl through the hole at the bottom of the pool up front, go through the door, fight the Dead Hand and get the Lens. There's absolutely no need to go into any other room besides nabbing any Gold Skulltulas that might be lurking about. Master Quest had it right in that you had to go through the whole thing to get to the Lens of Truth. Oh well, at least I've got it.Huzzah, I can see through bullshit now! If only I had one of those in real life...

- Nate

P.S. - I totally stole the fisherman's hat while I was getting the Gold Scale. Ha!

Zelda Retrospective: Part V - Ocarina of Time - Day 4

Sorry for not adding to this in a while. It's been kind of a busy week.

Okay, let's face it. Pretty much everybody hates the Water Temple, even after all these years. The layout makes it hard to remember where you've already been, especially if you made like me this time around and forgot to get the map until late in the dungeon. When you realize you're going to have to lower the water level to get that small key you need and then raise it back all the way to get where you need to go, it's just aggravating.Then, there's the boss, Morpha, another prime example of Hyrule's water pollution woes. I mean, if we're talking nutrient pollution, then all kinds of nasty critters can grow in the water. This guy's pretty much the king of them all. Seriously, people of Hyrule, you need to learn the ways of modern water treatment. Or sue the Zora's for polluting upriver. I bet the EPA would help out in that matter.
I don't know what it was about the fight with Morpha this time around, but it took forever. I think it took me ten minutes to beat him because I just could seem to reel him in with the Longshot and get any more than one sword slash in at a time. Normally this is quick and easy. I even fell in the water a couple of times and got picked up and thrown around by a water arm. I was just off my game.
Also, a bit of a dungeon plot-hole. Where did Ruto go after you run into her? Seriously, there should have been some sort of "Ahh! A creature created by the wanton pollution of water done by my people is grabbing me! Help Link!" or something. She just tells you that she'll lead the way, then she disappears.
In fact, after the way Link literally carries her most of the way through Jabu-Jabu's Belly, it would have been nice to have her tagging along and helping Link in some way. You know, marriage is a partnership and Ruto was pretty hung up about being engaged to Link. She should have shown that she could be a supportive wife. But, no, when Link's off doing the heroics, she probably just ran off to spend his ruppees at the Water Temple's gift shop. Looks like Link dodged a bullet when Ruto became a sage and the whole thing was called off. Aquatic women, hmph. Who needs them?

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part V - Ocarina of Time - Day 3

Questions for Link:
Question: Who changed your clothes and pierced your ear while he slept for seven years? Did Rauru just get really bored? Or does he like to play dress up? Oh jeez, I don't want to think about what else he might have done to you, you poor man.
Question: Just how awful was the seven-year-old half-a-bottle of Lon Lon Milk that you just drank?
Question: Have the fairies not wised up and pushed for some kind of Geneva Convention-esque deal where they write an agreement that it's against inalienable fairy rights to be imprisoned inside a glass container for an indefinite amount of time without a fair and proper trial?
Question: Where do you keep all that stuff? Seriously? Deep pockets? Or other, less pleasant places?

Link's Answer: "..."
I went through the Forest Temple and the Fire Temple today, rather productive. The version of Ocarina of Time on the GameCube disc is the last version that was released. When I played the game on my old N64, I had one of the early cartridges that still had the Muslim chant with the Fire Temple music. That was way cooler than the pretty much non-existant music that's on this version of the game. I was totally humming the chant as I was playing the Fire Temple. Sometimes political correctness can be kind of lame. Oh well.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part V - Ocarina of Time - Day 2

[NOTE: This blog is totally tongue-in-cheek, don't think I'm actually serious about this.]

I have a hypothesis to put forth.
All the troubles in Hyrule, were not caused by the evils of Ganondorf. The races of Hyrule have not suffered from generation to generation, game to game, due to the lust for power of one man.

The true culprit here is water pollution.

I came to this conclusion as I was exploring the Zora's Domain and talking with the locals, as I habitually do even though it's nothing I haven't heard before.
FACT: A Zora in the game claims that all water in Hyrule flows from the Zora's Fountain, where Lord Jabu-Jabu resides.
Now, let me get this straight - a giant whale-thing lives right on the mouth of the water source for an entire country, where all it does is apparently eat large amounts of food that are given to it by the Zoras? Well, what happens when any creature ingests food? It comes out the other side. So we've got Jabu-Jabu fouling up the water with his excrements right at the start. Then the water flows into Zora's Domain. And what happens in the Zora's Domain, the Zora's have to relieve themselves somewhere. There's more water pollution right there.
So all the water in Hyrule is filled with Jabu-Jabu and Zora crap.
We know that nutrient pollution in water can cause abundances of parasites like hookworms, bacteria and toxic algal blooms. These don't cause deformities in Humans, but we're talking Hyrule here, land of the Hylians, Zoras and Gerudos. Gorons are apparently not effected by these problems, because they apparently don't need water, just rocks. And let's face it, they're weird enough as it is for that fact alone.
Could Jabu-Jabu-Poo have been the reason why Gerudos can only produce one male every 100 years? Perhaps. Is an abundance of toxins making Hylians (and perhaps Zoras) a little less than bright? Quite possibly.
Case in point: Dampe. Look at him and tell me some part of your brain doesn't play "Dueling Banjos." [Yes, I realize the screenshot's from Majora's Mask.]Another example, somebody would have to be a little less than bright than to start a business where people have to swim through a lake to get there and then pay to fish. I mean, forcing your customer to swim just to get to your location is a little absurd as is, but when a customer has to pay to fish when there's a freaking lake right outside, that's just bad business. No wonder you were so surprised to see a customer in there, dude. It might also explain the baldness.

Another example is the poor business decision of the Zora who runs the diving game. I mean, okay, first you make someone pay twenty ruppees to dive what has to be sixty or seventy feet into three meters of water and then dive for twenty-five ruppees which they get to keep and then you give them a prize. So on top of risking lawsuits for endangering your customers, the ones that actually survive their swan dives would have a fairly easy time of making a little extra cash from you and then get a prize from you. Zora dude, I don't see how you can possibly make money this way.
Yet another example are the poor senses of sight and hearing of Hylian guards. I mean, seriously, you can make so much noise around them and they still just don't notice you. You can even blow up a bomb and they just stand there twiddling their thumbs.
There you have it. Water pollution. That is the greatest evil of all the Zelda games. I applaud Nintendo for making such an environmentally conscience game.


Anyway, I collected a few more pieces of heart and beat Jabu-Jabu tonight and nabbed the Master Sword before I quit. I'm sitting at nine hearts and ready to go get the Hookshot tomorrow before tackling the Forest Temple and maybe the Fire Temple as well.

- Nate