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