YMMV / The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

• Accidental Innuendo: Part of the infamy of Cremia's hug is that it is accompanied by a very unfortunate typo in the Nintendo 64 version.
  You feel all warm and fuzzy! inside!
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Quite a bit of the fanbase believes that the Happy Mask Salesman's up to something, or is more than he seems. His claim that he was looking for Majora's Mask prior to the events of the game seems kind of suspicious, and he gets quite angry when you fail to return it to him. Granted, he could genuinely want to obtain it to stop it from causing mass destruction, but there's always going to be something fishy about someone so eagerly wanting to get his hands on the local Artifact of Doom. The manga based on the game shows a more sinister side to him◊.
  • While most agree that Majora is without a doubt one of Link's most despicable and evil opponents, a large amount of the fanbase sees Majora in a sympathetic light, due to evidence presented in-game that it sees itself as a bullied child. It could also be that the personality of the wearer imprints itself on the Mask; after all, for most of the game it is being worn by the lonely Skull Kid.
  • Some have theorized that the Moon is just as much of a victim as everyone else in the scheme, as seen by its tear and pained expression. Brawl in the Family sums it up pretty well.
  • Some people theorize that Link is suffering through some kind of mental issues in this game, likely Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
  • Because neither she nor Romani ever specify the name or gender of her crush, some fans believe that Cremia is actually in love with Anju rather than Kafei.
  • Should you speak with Romani on the second night after successfully scaring "Them" off, Romani asks Link if he can help her again next year, only to cut herself off and instead suggest that he live at the ranch with her. Some of the fanbase takes this as her coming it up with something that is such a good idea to her that she quickly switches the topic in the middle of her sentence, but others take it to mean that she knows more about the coming apocalypse than Cremia thinks.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Though the Milk Bar found in this game may sound like it's just a child-friendly version of a real bar, milk bars do exist in real life. Unlike the milk bars found in Zelda games, real milk bars serve other drinks besides milk based ones and they don't serve alcoholic milk (which is what the Chateau Romani implies), though the latter also exists.
• Americans Hate Tingle: The Trope Namer Tingle first appears in this game, though the hate for him hadn't quite reached the level it did with The Wind Waker. At least his map prices were actually reasonable here, compared to The Wind Waker's astronomically high amounts, and he fits in better with this game's more surreal atmosphere.
• Anti-Climax Boss: The final boss, if the Fierce Deity's Mask is used. Even without the Fierce Deity's Mask, the final boss still isn't that difficult. This also holds true in the official manga adaptation of the game. Fierce Deity Link tears apart the boss masks with one powerful blow, knocks Majora's Mask down with one hit, tanks Majora's Incarnation's Electric Torture before ripping the parts of its body holding him off, and then finally unceremoniously killing Majora's Wrath in one hit when he declares he's done playing.
• Awesome Video Game Levels: Practically every level in the main quest qualifies.
  • Woodfall Temple is unique among beginner dungeons, as it expects the player to be familiar with Ocarina of Time's mechanics. What results is a dungeon that, right off the bat, challenges players' spatial awareness and puzzle-solving without pulling any punches. Add on the tribal music and ancient architecture, and you've got yourself one hell of an introduction.
  • Snowhead Temple takes cues from Eagle's Tower, making you smash a giant pillar to reach the top of the dungeon. Goron Link's awesome controls and the ramped-up difficulty help further elevate the puzzles within the dungeon.
  • The mission where you have to stop the aliens from stealing cows is a fan favourite, due to its overall bizarre nature and the surprisingly dark consequences if you fail.
  • The Great Bay Temple, for those who enjoy difficult puzzle-box dungeons, is an immensely satisfying and eerie trip through an underwater labyrinth that sees you manipulating water currents to access new areas.
  • The Stone Tower Temple is a magnificent piece of game design, with its unique dungeon flipping gimmick and its amazing theme. The level is incredibly difficult, especially if you are trying to find all the Stray Fairies, but it's also considered the best dungeon in the game, if not one of the best dungeons in the series as a whole.
• Awesome Video Game Bosses:
  • Odolwa is considered one of the best and most memorable "first boss" fights in the franchise due to his Dance Battler routine, a strategy that doesn't require you to use the item in his dungeon as became notorious for many post-Ocarina games, his physical design, and his vocals.
  • Goht for being fought by Goron Link in a fast-paced chase around a circular racetrack.
  • The remake’s version of Twinmold is often regarded as an improvement. In the original game, it was liked for being the largest boss ever to grace a Zelda game, being fought by turning into a giant, and capping off one of the most bizarre and Mind Screw-ey yet awesome dungeons ever. But the remake adds to it by removing the original fight's tedium and made a polished two-phase battle where you confront each centipede separately; using Light Arrows to shoot the former down, and then the latter involving an epic one-on-one fight that utilizes an even better Giant’s Mask to beat the living daylights out of it with just your bare hands.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The Beaver Brothers that live on top of the waterfall near Zora's Cape. If you go see them, you can play a swimming mini-game for a bottle and a piece of heart. They have no actual bearing on the plot whatsoever, and outside of the completely optional mini-game (which you have to search out yourself), they never show up elsewhere in the game. Keep in mind, this is what they look like (and the little brother's eyes and circle on his belly also spin and light up like a Christmas tree).
  • The Aliens. Though they do get foreshadowed before their actual appearance, the fact that there are aliens in a Zelda game who steal cows and apparently lobotomize a young girl is pretty jarring.
• Bizarro Episode: The game’s setting and atmosphere are far more surreal and out of place compared to other games in the franchise and almost nothing in the game is ever brought up again in the series despite it being the Hero of Time's second adventure.
• Broken Base:
  • The original N64 version doesn't let you hard save unless you play the Song of Time and only lets you suspend save at Owl Statues. Many people see this as adding to the suspenseful atmosphere of the game while others slam it as a Scrappy Mechanic that makes the game unnecessarily stressful, since a game crash or a power outage could cause you to lose significant amounts of progress through no fault of your own. The 3DS version changes this to being able to save as much as you want at various save points. Perspectives on this range from being a horrible decision that dumbs down the game and ruins the tension to being an enormous Anti-Frustration Feature that makes the 3DS version superior to original on its own.
  • The reuse of assets from Ocarina of Time. Fans either think it was lazy of the developers to not make unique assets or they think it's a vital part of the game's surreal atmosphere.
  • The changed boss fights in the 3D remake. Some dislike the changes to the fights for their reliance on obvious weak points and changing the flow of the fights, as well as rendering the Fierce Deity mask less fun to use since it's impossible to beat two of the bosses with it. Others approve of the changed strategy keeping the fights fresh, making them more challenging, fixing the sometimes-questionable hitboxes of the original fights, and for better establishing them as Eldritch Abominations inhabiting other vessels, leaving only their eyes sticking out of abnormal places.
  • Although Hyrule Encyclopedia was written by the staff of a fan magazine, admits to taking liberties with Zelda lore, and contains several errors (such as claiming Ganon's reincarnation was all his own doing as opposed to being part of Demise's curse) it posits that Termina is just a creation of Majora's Mask that vanishes shortly after it is defeated. For some fans, this idea is a clever tie-in with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening; others reject this idea as a cruel stab at those who worked so hard to make the land a better place, is baseless nonsense that isn't hinted at all in the game and is outright contradicted with Link still having the Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield after leaving Termina at the end of the game and the Hero's Bow appearing in the next title in the timeline, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• Cant Unhear It: If you’re a fan of SMG4, you’ll probably mentally hear the Garos using Bob's text to speech voice.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • You can kill Sakon on the first night by shooting the bag of bombs that he's carrying. Doing so will screw up a side-quest, but given just how much of a scumbag Sakon is, many players consider it Worth It.
  • Using the Fierce Diety Mask during the Final Boss to give Majora a cosmic shanking with a BFS is beyond satisfying after everything it put Link, the Skull Kid, and all of Termina through.
  • The first words that appear on screen after the Final Boss:
    Dawn of A New Day
• Common Knowledge:
  • Biggoron is not the cause of the blizzard plaguing Snowhead's mountain village, that's Goht. He's just the one creating the fierce wind guarding the entrance to the temple itself. It's generally accepted that he accidentally killed Darmani this way, but even that is never made explicit.
  • In the event that she's abducted by "Them", Romani is actually not returned to the ranch on the Final Day, as is often presumed. That's when she's most easily spotted, sitting near the barn in a daze, but you can find her in an even more catatonic state if you ride out to the southern edge of the ranch on the Second Day.
• Contested Sequel: Though there are fans of both games, fans of Ocarina of Time and fans of Majora's Mask are sharply divided on which is the better game. Fans of Majora's Mask love the game's emphasis on sidequests, the time limit, and the twists on the series' formula. Fans of Ocarina of Time prefer its more traditional approach in terms of story and gameplay, as well as its bigger influence and impact on the gaming industry (thus making it a very divisive question if Majora's Mask really can be considered a better game than Ocarina of Time). It doesn't help that the game uses many of the same assets as its predecessor, which has one side feeling it is derivative and unoriginal, and has another side feeling the game simply does its job as a sequel well.
• Crazy Is Cool: The Eldritch Abomination Majora is a Psychopathic Manchild of epic proportions who is nonetheless memorable for precisely that reason. The battle against its second form demonstrates this trait perfectly: it moves and acts like an over-the-top toddler.
• Creepy Awesome: The other reason Majora is remembered by the fans is because of how terrifying it is.
• Critical Backlash: The game was given a lot of guff by many fans for reusing several assets from Ocarina of Time and for being so different from previous games, but as its Cult Classic status shows, numerous fans latched on to its darker world and unique gameplay to the point that it is now considered overrated more than underrated.
• Disappointing Last Level: Players expecting a large-scale final dungeon will be disappointed, first because the dungeon segments in the Moon are brief and only require some basic skills from the mask transformations (except for the Goron one), and second because they're not even required to reach the Final Boss. In fact, completing them by trading all masks will lead to getting the Fierce Deity's Mask, which will turn the final boss into an Anti-Climax Boss.
• Discredited Meme: Theories about the Happy Mask Salesman being evil. While there's still quite a few fans who believe such, there's an equal number of people who are sick of others making him evil just because he creeped them out when they were kids.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Happy Mask Salesman. He only has a notable role at the start of the game, but his memorable design and quotable lines have made him one of the series' most recognizable characters.
  • Romani and Cremia have become incredibly popular with fans of the game, the former for being based off the younger version of Malon from Ocarina of Time and for having an adorable personality, and the latter for her genuine love for her sister as well as a rather infamous moment where she "hugs" Link. The dark implications of what happens if you fail the Aliens side quest and the main quest of saving Termina has also earned them a lot of sympathy.
  • Anju and Kafei. Their sidequest is the most elaborate, long-running, and complex in the entire game, all capped off with a heartwarming resolution. It's practically tradition among players to finish their sidequest immediately before heading off to the Final Boss.
  • Compared to other helper characters in the franchise, who usually end up as Annoying Video Game Helper Scrappies, Tatl is one of the more popular ones for not being particularly intrusive, her story arc of becoming a Defrosting Ice Queen, and having a bittersweet backstory with Skull Kid.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • This game has been a goldmine of kooky fan theories, mainly because it takes place in a parallel dimension without much history or backstory. Fodder for theorists include the origins of Majora's Mask (a possible explanation is given in the manga adaptation), the origin of the Fierce Deity's Mask, and the history of the Stone Tower and the Ikana kingdom.
  • A special case can be argued about the famous line "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?". Those eight words have to be the most overanalyzed line in the entire series, with people arguing from whether that line is really directed to Link or to the player, what that "terrible fate" truly means, what does it say about the Happy Mask Salesman's sense of morality, or a combination of all of it. Although there are people who think the whole thing is blown out of proportion, particularly because the line is mostly embellished in the localized version^note In Japanese it roughly just says "You're having a rough time, huh?" (大変な目にあいましたねえ), the fandom at large still goes nuts over it.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: There's so much worldbuilding and artistry that people consider this to be one of the most symbolic games in the entire series. What exactly it symbolizes, on the other hand, is a matter of some debate.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link in Wonderland for the game.
  • Mr. Smiles for the Mask Salesman.
  • Oni-Link for Fierce Deity Link. He is almost only known by that name in some countries. ^note  This is because of a Lucky "Blind Idiot" Translation of 鬼神 (Kishin), as the first Kanji on its own (鬼) means Oni.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: The Word of Dante in Hyrule Encyclopedia about Termina being a construct of the Skull Kid's mind, brought to life by Majora's Mask and disappearing after the Mask was slain, was not well-received by much of the fanbase. While not the first time the Zelda series has dealt with a Dream Apocalypse, not only does nothing in Majora's Mask hint at this being the case, the game itself contradicts it: Tatl's flashback shows Termina existing before Skull kid got the Mask, and many of the people of Termina are based on Ocarina of Time characters who Skull Kid never met and therefore could not have memories of. Coupled with even more blatant falsehoods (saying Kafei was transformed into a Skull Kid rather than by the Skull Kid), even people who like most of the Encyclopedia's theories tend to shun the Majora's Mask section.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Very few fans put any stock in the Hyrule Encyclopedia's assertion that Termina was a construct of Majora's Mask that ceased to exist once Link left. It doesn't help the Encyclopedia's case that the book is absolutely loaded with other error and mistakes.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Several of this game's 3D successors get heavily criticized for having long, drawn-out intros that involve fetch quests, various tutorials, and an overly simplistic tutorial mini-dungeon at best, but many of these problems can be traced back here. The game starts out in a very simplistic mini-dungeon introducing Deku Link's mechanics, but once you leave said mini-dungeon, the game doesn't exactly start there. You are required to do many fetch quests in order to retrieve the Ocarina of Time, including rescuing a Stray Fairy, joining the Bombers, and retrieving the Moon Tear. Unlike later 3D Zelda games, this sequence of events is generally not considered a Slow-Paced Beginning since the three intro quests are done quite briskly, the player isn't handheld through the intro, and the game's tutorialization is limited to the introductory mini-dungeon.
  • While Tingle received enormous hatred (at least in America) for his role in Wind Waker, he was actually fairly well-liked here despite serving the same function and having many of the same qualities that would later get him hostility. This is for two reasons: the game is full of Surreal Horror, so him being weird and creepy makes sense (especially considering how many other characters are also unusual and/or unsettling, sometimes to the point of being straight-up bizarre and/or scary), and the maps he sells are both reasonably priced and optional for completing the game. The problem was that his Wind Waker incarnation keeps the strange and off-putting qualities despite them not fitting with the brighter and more conventional tone of that game, and he charges exorbitant prices for maps that Link needs to finish the game, making him not only out of place but unavoidable.
  • Twilight Princess saw a lot of criticism for how Zant was handled in the endgame, with him apparently blowing a gasket and spending his boss fight moving and acting in very erratic ways that many players found laughable. Majora acts in a very similar way in this game's final boss fight: in particular, the second phase (Majora's Incarnation) has it dancing around insanely while making what sound like chicken noises. The difference is that Majora was already shown through its spontaneous behavior and childish dialogue to be immature and psychotic, so this wasn't exactly jarring; moreover, it fit with the game's themes of maturity and helped underscore the way Majora contrasted with the previous game's far more dignified and less impulsive main villain, Ganondorf. Zant, on the other hand, was consistently shown beforehand to be more composed in demeanor and subtle in his behavior, with his defining flaws of ambition and pride not being intuitive as to why he acts the way he does during his boss battle, making it seem like little more than a case of Villain Decay.
• Friendly Fandoms: In the franchise's Broken Base, fans of each individual Zelda game tend to be at odds with one another, and for the most part, Majora's Mask is no exception. However, there is one Zelda game whose fans and Majora's Mask fans are near-universally amicable: Breath of the Wild. This is due to many factors: similar structures involving a single set of four dungeons and a final dungeon (as opposed to the franchise's longtime standard of having two arcs of dungeons divided by a plot twist), relatively fast-paced introductory sections consisting of little tutorialization and exposition in a boxed-in area, the idea of rescuing four gigantic figures from the Big Bad's corruption to save the local region, gaining new abilities by easing the regrets of restless ghosts, and a general emphasis on optional side content while downplaying the main quest as shorter. Overall, fans of Majora's Mask and Breath of the Wild connect very well over the perception that the rest of the franchise, particularly the 3D games, overuse much of the same tropes while those two games buck those trends.
• Game-Breaker: Has its own entry in the series page.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • In Sakon's Hideout, when you're switching places with Kafei in order to grab the Sun Mask, by wearing a mask as Link, switching to Kafei, then swapping the mask Link is wearing with another mask (normally not allowed), Link will automatically put on that mask when you switch back, even if it's a mask that you shouldn't be able to use. The Giant's Mask just freezes the game, but the Fierce Deity's Mask...
  • In a bizarre, yet totally legitimate (i.e. not requiring cheat devices) glitch, it is possible to enter Sakon's Hideout earlier than you're supposed to, by running at the precise angle toward the crack between the right side of his hidden door and the wall, and rolling the moment before you hit it (or just running into it for several seconds). You have to get the angle and the timing perfectly. Unfortunately, an attempt to use this in conjunction with the aforementioned Fierce Deity glitch will not work on Day 1 or 2, because Kafei will not be there to activate that portion of the side quest. He will be there as soon as Day 3 begins, however, meaning that you can use it to extend your time as Fierce Deity Link in the overworld to almost an entire in-game day.
  • The Blast Mask trick. When using the Blast Mask, the explosion is treated as though it were in front of Link, meaning that he won't take damage like he should if he's guarding with the shield. This became so widely used by players that it actually became an Ascended Glitch in Majora's Mask 3D.
  • Despite a "Saving" message appearing when you press start on the title screen after saving at an owl statue, the game doesn't automatically start up your save file, so there's nothing to stop you from saving at the owl statue and copying your save file onto the second slot. This is very helpful if you're playing the Collector's Edition Porting Disaster on the GameCube.
  • If you save in one slot at the Clock Town owl statue, then load the next slot and save while on Epona at the Milk Road owl statue and reload the first slot, you'll reload riding on Epona while in Clock Town.
  • In the original game, there's the infinite sword glitch and Bombchu hover. The infinite sword glitch is a holdover from OoT where if you interrupt a stab in the middle of it so the sword keeps its hitbox, which allows Link to run into enemies and deal massive amounts of damage. This also has the side effect making it impossible for Link to fall off of ledges, which leads into the next glitch, Bombchu hover. By backflipping off an edge and quickly pulling out a Bombchu and shielding it, the Bombchu will immediately explode and push Link higher into the air while the infinite sword glitch keeps him from falling back onto the ground. With this, Link can massively Sequence Break to areas he shouldn't be at yet. The best part is, they're both relatively simple to pull off. See it in action here.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In this game, Link meets several spirits unable to move to the afterlife, mainly due to Unfinished Business. With his help, they are able to move on and leave behind some of their power in masks. Twilight Princess later reveals that this same Link became a restless spirit following his death, and had to be put to rest by teaching his sword techniques to his descendant.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • "No way! No Scrubs!"^ExplanationWhat the Bombers say in response to the possibility of a Deku Scrub joining their gang. In today's lingo, it can be taken out of context as the Bombers being textbook "Stop Having Fun" Guys.
  • A soldier in armor who's so lacking in presence you need the Lens of Truth to see him? Sounds a lot like Kellam from Fire Emblem: Awakening, but this game predated it by years.
  • Zora Link is able to produce a protective electrical barrier when swimming underwater. Then comes Breath of the Wild, which portrays the Zora as being universally weak against electricity, to the point that they seek out help from Hylians because the latter lack this weakness. In fact, touching water in Breath of the Wild (whether by swimming in it or walking in rain) makes electrical attacks deadlier for both Link and his enemies; if Zora Link were to use his barrier in that game, he'd lose all his hearts very quickly as a result. This has led to jokes about Zora and/or water being different in Termina and Hyrule.
  • Dogs being afraid of Goron Link is pretty funny as they can be seen whining in fear and running away. Breath of the Wild inverts this with Daruk, who is so afraid of dogs that when he sees one that he inadvertently saved, he cowers in fear and activates his magic barrier.
  • The teacher at the Swordsman's school claims during the third day that he's going to slash the moon into pieces. Come Hyrule Warriors and Young Link's Focus Spirit attack has him, in his Fierce Deity form, cutting the moon (summoned by Skull Kid) in half.
• Hype Backlash: A delayed version of sorts, since the game wasn't as praised on release, but then became a huge example of Vindicated by History. While the game has received since then much critical praise and has devoted fans that champion it as the best game in the franchise, a number of players dislike the game for various reasons, including the time loop mechanic, which some players say makes the game significantly more stressful and annoying than other entries in the series to the point of making it less accessible, and the ever-present Guide Dang It! to the point where even fans admit the game is more enjoyable with a guide. Not to mention that many of the criticisms that Ocarina of Time receives also apply to Majora's Mask, and yet they are rarely even mentioned. Furthermore, the game has the worst case of bloated item count since each mask is an item, and further criticism has been given for some masks being nothing more than Plot Tokens for the next sidequest. This has resulted in some frustration over its current perceived Sacred Cow status by a portion of the Zelda fan base. The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of Majora's Mask illustrates this, in which the Nerd says it's a strong entry from an artistic standpoint, but argues that the actual gameplay is clunky and tedious to the point of detracting from his experience.
• I Am Not Shazam: Many are under the impression that the Skull Kid's name is Majora. He's simply the guy who stole the mask from the Happy Mask Salesman.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • The whole franchise started to have this problem with this game, but even after so many entries, the case of Majora's Mask is particularly jarring. The "It's the same" problem comes from how the game recycled many graphic assets from Ocarina of Time, which makes it look very similar quite often, and thus alienating some people to overlook the differences in everything else, which in turn make a lot of people who don't overlook them to fall straight into They Changed It, Now It Sucks! territory.
  • The 3DS remake is also hit hard with this, but in a different way. You have one camp of fans who decry the remake for merely having "better textures" and otherwise not improving the game's graphics at all, which may stem from a beautifully rendered, fan-made Wii U trailer raising fan expectations too high. Of course, the notion that it's merely "better textures" is completely false. Like Ocarina of Time 3D, the 3DS models are much smoother and more detailed than the N64 original; it's just that some models, such as Young Link and Gyorg, are much more obviously improved than other less-obviously improved models (such as the people of Clock Town or the environment). On the other hand, you have another camp of fans who denounce the remake for "losing the dark and creepy atmosphere" by brightening the colors and improving the lighting, as well as making the Owl Statue save feature, Bomber's Notebook, and Song of Double Time more convenient for players, which some claim encourage impatience and speeding through the game as opposed to waiting for things to happen on their own. Additionally, there are frequent complaints over the reworked Zora swimming mechanics, which the original had earned much praise for.
• It Was His Sled: The big reveal that Majora's Mask is not just a mask but has a mind of its own isn't that big of a reveal anymore. Heck, Hyrule Warriors outright uses "Majora's Puppet" as the Skull Kid's Boss Subtitles.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Most players, even those who can't stand the three-day-cycle, tend to look into this game for giving Link the ability to play as other races besides Hylian. A practice that hasn't been replicated in the series in this form, despite proving itself to be quite popular within the fanbase. The vast and freely explorable overworld is also commonly cited as a reason to check the game out.
• Memetic Badass: Two that are Physical God characters that are considered literal deities by much of the fandom:
  • First, the Fierce Deity. Compare his in-game portrayal where he, while still badass, is essentially a Super Mode for Link, with no new abilities he hasn't displayed in past games, to the near or literal Physical God portrayal the fans play him up as. This seems to be a fact that Hyrule Warriors caught onto, as his portrayal in that game more than matches the portrayal fans give him.
  • Secondly, Majora itself. Its sheer Physical God level Reality Warper abilities and lovecraftian nature have made many fans believe there is a literal Mad God sealed in the mask. Several Fan Works and Epileptic Trees make Majora even more badass than it already was in canon. Hyrule Conquest and Hyrule Warriors for example more than matches the portrayal fans give it. Though only the latter is official.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Dawn of the xth Day — y Hours Remain ^ExplanationOften used as a countdown to highly anticipated events. (The fact that the original game uses these screens as a countdown to imminent doom never seems to occur to anyone.)
  • Bottle the Princess / HOW DOES SHE FIT IN THERE? ^ExplanationThe most absurd bottled item in any Zelda game happens to be the Deku Princess, who tells Link to put her in some container to get her out of Woodfall. Even though the bottles are way too small for her to fit, she still manages to fit in the bottle, complete with Link swinging the bottle at her. Became an ascended meme in the spin-off Cadence of Hyrule where the protagonists can ask the Deku Princess if she can fit into a bottle, much to her ire.
  • You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you? ^ExplanationThe Happy Mask Salesman's speech once you run out of time and the Moon crashes on Termina, but he brings you back to day one. It's infamously associated with the Ben Drowned creepypasta listed below.
    • BEN.DROWNED ^ExplanationA popular creepypasta involving a copy of Majora's Mask that's haunted by the spirit of a boy named Ben who drowned.
  • You shouldn't have done that... ^Explanation Another line that's commonly associated with Ben Drowned.
    • Try thinking about the Garos without also thinking about them talking in the same voice as Bob.
  • Cremia's hug^ExplanationAfter successfully completing a sidequest where Link has to use his bow to defend a shipment of milk from the Gorman Brothers, the following cutscene depicts her rewarding him by hugging him. Because Link is a small child and Cremia is an adult woman, the height disparity results in her appearing to shove his face into her breasts, accompanied by text about how Link feels "warm and fuzzy inside." The suggestive appearance in the scene resulted in a number of jokes and fanart playing it up.
  • The Moon has been subject to many photoshops on the Internet, usually swapping out other moons with it.
• Moe:
  • Romani, mostly because of her cheerful personality despite her concerns regarding the ghosts that attempt to take away the cows. Her model being based on that of young-age Malon in Ocarina of Time helps as well.
  • Cremia, Romani’s sister, is extremely moe. To complement Romani’s design, Cremia gets Malon’s adult design. She’s also a complete sweetheart to Link, welcoming him to the ranch and into their home with open arms, inviting him to join her on her milk delivery for company, and even playfully flirting with him a little bit. It also helps that she’s a really Cool Big Sis in how supportive and caring she is to Romani. And then of course there’s the famous hug that led to many players developing a crush on her.
• More Popular Replacement: Tatl is often regarded as being a marked improvement over Navi, thanks to her having a much more pleasant dinging sound when she tries to get the players attention, having actual relevance in the plot beyond being Link's guide and being a Little Miss Snarker who gradually comes to appreciate Link and, by extension, the player the more the game goes on. It should come as no surprise that much of these traits would also be demonstrated by Midna, herself the most popular of the franchise's companions.
• Narm:
  • Any mask you're currently wearing most likely will carry over into the cutscenes. This can make certain serious scenes unintentionally hilarious because Link is wearing something like the Bunny Hood during it. Which he most likely will, due to it being very, very useful.
  • If you use the Inverted Song of Time to slow down time, Sakon moves hilariously slowly while stealing the old woman's bomb bag, and she apparently still doesn't see him coming.
  • The moon crashing to the ground and destroying not only Termina, but life as we know it? Terrifying. Link wearing the Goron mask during this scene, and emitting a scream that sounds like Mr. Bean trying to imitate a Tarzan yell, which goes on for several seconds after he is swept away? Unintentionally hilarious.
  • The 3DS version allows you to switch straight to your other forms as the Fierce Deity. This is cool, but the other transformation masks are ridiculously oversized on Fierce Deity Link's model during the sequence, making him look like he's wearing a giant mascot head.
  • The 3DS version adds some text after the Moon falls when you run out of time, describing the consequences of your failure. It also mentions that you've lost your items. Because that last part is written after the description of the world being destroyed and everyone dying, in the same text box, it accidentally sounds like an Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking gag.
    And so the angry moon fell from the sky, annihilating this world and its many inhabitants.
    All items and such gained these last three days are lost.
  • When you first chance upon the Skull Kid’s drawing, the music will cut out as Tatl reminisces about her past with the kid. It’s meant to be a dramatic scene, but you can still hear the mooing of a nearby cow, which sucks a lot of the pathos out of the scene.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • The Eels at Pinnacle Rock stop being scary when you have plenty of magic to use for your electric shield—they literally go down in two hits, which is hilariously pathetic for something that looks so imposing.
  • When Majora's Mask was remade for the 3DS, the Moon's facial features were redesigned to be more shapely, with a bigger nose and wide grimace. Some felt the end result looked like Mr. Bean. The same redesign was praised in Hyrule Warriors, but in that game the angles and speed that it's shown at are much more effective than the way it just looms in the sky looking slightly vacant. That is, until the Third Day, when its ever approaching glare turns sinister.
• Older Than They Think: This isn't the first game to be located outside of Hyrule and have both Zelda and Ganon not have major roles in the main story. That would be The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. But with how often Majora's Mask is talked about, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was.
• Padding: Beneath the Well, a pace-breaking Fetch Quest that requires the player to go back and forth collecting various items for a bunch of depressed Gibdos. It can take a stupidly long time, especially if you go in without any of the materials required, and is generally considered to be the worst part of a game with an otherwise excellent set of quests. Fortunately, it's immediately followed by Ikana Castle and the Stone Tower Temple.
• Player Punch:
  • Take your pick. Nothing like seeing your favorite Ocarina of Time characters crying into their hands as their life is in tatters with the end of the world nigh to make you realize how deeply attached you are to them.
  • The deaths of those who grant you the Deku, Goron, and Zora masks hit hard, especially considering the first one was just a child, while the latter two died while performing heroic deeds. What makes it worse is that no one is aware of their demise, at least until the credits, when the Deku Butler is seen mourning for his son.
• Polished Port: Though the 3DS remake did make some controversial changes, most fans still feel its several quality of life improvements make it a worthy remake.
• Porting Disaster: The emulated version included on the Nintendo GameCube pack-in disc The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition suffers from several glitches not present in the N64 version, a few of which can crash the game. In a game with such strict Save-Game Limits, this can be a huge problem. Disabling the rumble function somehow reduces the odds of such bugs activating, though.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Gyorg's boss fight in the 3DS remake is made a little harder but a lot more dynamic, adding an extra phase where you fight it completely underwater.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Resetting time causes you to lose certain items, which means you have get them all over again. This notably includes items for sidequests. Rupees are less of a problem due to the bank... as long as you knew about the bank before wasting too many rupees. Resetting time also means that any progress you made in any sidequests or the main quest can be erased and must be completed all over again if you run out of time, or if your console accidentally powers off. The Guide Dang It! only makes this mechanic even more frustrating. Fortunately, this trait is a bit less prominent in the 3DS version due to the Suspend Save feature being replaced with the ability to make a permanent save.
  • All over the place in the 3DS remake:
    • Swimming as Zora Link is easier to maneuver in tight spaces but also slightly slower. If you want to move at the same speed as in the original, you have to use the electric barrier attack to move faster, which constantly drains your magic. In an area like Great Bay, which has no magic refills, this can mean it takes longer to reach places you want to go if you don't want to use up all your magic, especially if you didn't obtain the magic bar upgrade. You can sort of dash by tapping the shield button, but you only move in short spurts before slowing down. The Zora segment of the Moon dungeon is made more annoying because of this due to it being on a strict time limit, although the Chateau Romani makes all of this a non-issue.
    • The Bomber's Notebook, while significantly improved, constantly interrupts the game with a slow cut-scene (as opposed to the quick pop-ups of the original) for everything you do. Talk to an NPC for the first time and the book will register them. Complete a side-quest and the book will open up to slowly add that. Fail to fulfill an NPCs request and it'll open up to place a red X saying you failed to keep a promise. This gets more annoying because in the original game the notebook only listed Clock Town residents. In the remake, virtually every NPC you can perform a task for will be added from anywhere in Termina.
    • Deku Link's new properties have not been well-received. In the Nintendo 64 game, he immediately charges forward at full speed with a tilt of the joystick, and his spin attack can be used to accelerate even further. In the remake, he takes a moment to start running, and the spin attack has no effect on his movement speed. Not only do these changes hinder the form's effectiveness during speedruns, but also makes exploring the Deku Swamp more challenging, as the placement of the lilypads has not been altered to accommodate the new physics. In particular, the lilypad outside the Deku Butler's maze front door is unreachable once the player has landed on that area, making backtracking impossible.
    • The new controls for Giant Link. He moves at an extremely slow pace and has no access to his sword, limiting his moveset to short-ranged punches. This, coupled with Twinmold's new regenerating ability, turned a rather underwhelming boss fight into one of the most infuriating.
  • Fence Jumping while riding Epona requires you to approach a fence at a near-perfect perpendicular angle at high speed. Failing to meet these strict conditions causes Epona to stop on her tracks just before the fence. While only a minor annoyance most of the time, if this occurs near the end of the race on the Gorman Track, it's very much an automatic loss, as you'll never be able to catch up to the Gorman Bros.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • The three-day-only challenge, where you can only play the Song of Time once, and that's when you get the Ocarina of Time from the Skull Kid from the first time loop—that leaves you less than 54 minutes to complete the game (though copious use of the Inverted Song of Time can extend this to a marginally more manageable three hours). For a game that's made of sidequests, it leaves you with barely much to face the final boss with. You'll be rolling and spinning everywhere. And don't even get started on the Zora eggs. Some people have done it with the entire 2nd Night and Final Day to spare, or gathering SEVENTEEN non-transformation masks.
  • A significantly less insane one is, once all the masks and Heart Containers have been collected, to try and help as many people as possible in one cycle. It helps that, once Link completes a dungeon, he can go straight to the boss on subsequent visits.
  • Beating the giant Twinmold boss using only the sword, and not the Giant's Mask that the player is expected to use.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: This game is noticeably more difficult than its predecessor, mostly due to the omnipresent time limit and being packed into the space of only four dungeons (and the accompanying sidequests) rather than Ocarina of Time's nine. Unlike most other Zelda games (due to being a true sequel), it's expected here that the player has fully completed the previous game beforehand, as this game doesn't pull its punches even very early on.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Due to the open and easily resettable nature of the game, players can have more fun messing around than actually trying to save Termina, and there are a lot of ways to mess around in this game:
  • Completing the Loads and Loads of Sidequests and minigames.
  • Following all the characters around just to observe their interactions with others and their lives over the three days.
  • Beating the bosses as many times as wanted, trying to do so in all sorts of interesting ways.
  • The Fishing Hole in the 3DS remake. It's not unheard of for people to spend all three days doing nothing but trying to find that one elusive fish and/or catch all the fish.
• Signature Scene:
  • The first meeting with the Happy Mask Salesman, particularly the Signature Line "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?", which created a whole lot of Epileptic Trees just on its own.
  • The ending of the Anju and Kafei sidequest. By far, one of the most heartwarming moments in the entire series and the perfect ending to what's widely considered not only the best sidequest in the game, but one of the best sidequests in gaming history.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In the N64 original, Gyorg's introductory cinematic has an attempt at a "freeze frame" effect as the creature dramatically leaps out of the water, during which its name appears onscreen. However, the fact that the splashing water keeps moving well after Gyorg has stopped makes it very obvious that the effect is accomplished by just locking Gyorg's model in place for a few seconds during its jump animation and not actually freezing the image. This was fixed in the 3DS remake, which forgoes the freeze frame in favor of a slow-motion shot wherein Gyorg's model remains animated while its name is onscreen.
  • In the scene where Termina is destroyed by the moon in the original version, the shockwave it releases after destroying Clock Town is very see-through. As a result, as it passes things like trees, you can see that everything it touches is completely unaffected when they should be getting absolutely destroyed. This was fixed in the 3DS remake, as the shockwave is opaque and the camera is placed at an angle where you can't see much of whatever isn't directly in front of you.
  • In the 3DS version, the moon is not visible from the Laundry Pool, for some reason. You can see it if you go to the bottom of the water as Zora Link and you look up, however. On the final day, it glitches out wildly if viewed from the land, with parts of it phasing in and out of existance. They probably rendered the skybox too low.
• Stress-Relieving Gameplay:
  • Every time you accomplish something in the cycle; be it successfully completing a side-quest or dungeon, then travelling back to the 1st Day via the Song of Time to avert the cataclysm and watch your quest item/mask screen permanently expand as your reward.
  • After going through the whole game and being forced to see how many lives Majora has ruined, can you honestly say it wasn't extremely satisfying to finally get to use the Fierce Deity's Mask to completely annihilate the wretched thing? Especially if you just drank a bottle of Chateau Romani to give you infinite magic.
• That One Attack:
  • King Ikana's head separation attack. It gives him a period of complete invincibility until it's over, and Link will only be able to target his head, leaving him exposed to the body's sword attacks. The head will then latch onto Link in an unavoidable bite and hold him in place while the body slashes at him. Ikana will use this attack more often as he takes damage, drawing out the fight.
  • Majora's Incarnation's Energy Ball attack in the 3DS remake. The only warning for this attack comes when Majora performs a pose, at which point you have only a split second to react before it pelts you with a barrage of energy bolts which not only shaves off a chunk of Link's health, but holds him in place. If you're not careful, this attack will kill you quite quickly.
• That One Boss:
  • Given that the Great Bay Temple is That One Level, all three of its bosses are considered That One Boss:
    • The first mini boss, Wart, is a huge eyeball completely enveloped by smaller eyes that must be disposed of before you can damage it. You can use your Bow and hope that you get a lucky shot while it's barreling towards you at high speed, but you'd better hope you hit it because it's too big to outrun if you miss.
    • The second mini boss, the Gekko, requires the player to have good reflexes. Otherwise, the player will likely be captured by the massive falling bubble (which is formed every time the Gekko is hurt), which will be very frequent. Whenever that happens, the Gekko will beat Link down like a punching bag, giving no chance for Link to defend himself.
    • Finally, you have the boss itself, Gyorg. It's big, tough, and it has attacks that absolutely murder poor Link. The quickest way to fight it involves getting in the water with it and buzzing it with Zora Link's electro-shields, which consume a finite and difficult-to-replenish resource in the magic meter and relies on the somewhat-finicky underwater controls.
      The remake shifts things up by making Gyorg easier to hit but also adding a second phase where you're forced to fight it underwater, which can be very challenging. The easiest method to defeat Gyorg is to cut loose one of the chained mines in the ground as it's inhaling, so the fish will swallow it and be stunned. However, Gyorg will only perform the inhale attack if you're right in front of it, meaning each attempt at stunning it comes with the risk of getting damaged yourself. To make matters worse, the intended way to sever the chains is with Zora Link's magic, but since the target is so small, you may miss and collide with the mine itself, which causes Link to get swallowed by Gyorg in a one-two punch. There's also the fact that Gyorg's movement is completely random, meaning it can place itself in a part of the arena with no bombs nearby to feed it, or even swim through mines and destroy them.
  • Twinmold in the 3DS remake is much harder than in the original version for a variety of reasons:
    • Whereas, in the original, one could kill both centipedes simply by hacking and slashing away at them with the Giant's Mask, here said item is unavailable until the blue one is defeated.
    • Once you've donned the Giant's Mask, you have to first stun the red crawly by pummeling it with your bare hands at very close range, and when you bring it down, you can perform a wrestling move to damage it. However, the game never tells you that stunning it requires a good 15 or so hits, and the hit counter to stun the red insect resets if it goes underground at the end of its flying cycle. The task is made even harder by the fact that just about every one of its attacks knocks you down and forces you to wait for Link to stand back up after a few seconds.
    • The arena has two boulders that you can pick up and throw to instantly stun the boss, but Twinmold requires four stun-and-damage cycles to kill. You can cut the battle down a cycle if you spin the Circle Pad while Link performs his wrestling move, but this is a hidden feature that few would realize.
    • On subsequent loops, the Fierce Deity's Mask doesn't work on the red monster, denying you the satisfaction of cheesing an unfair fight.
• That One Level:
  • The Great Bay Temple is comparable to Ocarina of Time's Water Temple in difficulty. It might not have as many confusing puzzles and keys, but the water currents can be frustrating to navigate and its three bosses are considered the toughest in the game.
  • The Stone Tower Temple. You have to shoot a target outside to reverse the gravity in-level, and you will have to do this a few times if you want to get all of the Stray Fairies. Couple that with some tricky puzzles and a lot of bosses, and you have one tough dungeon.
  • The Goron trial on the Moon. It's a Goron-roll track section involving tight, narrow bends, and half of which revolves around a mechanic where you have to ricochet off chests in precise ways in order to make 90-degree straight turns. You need an extremely steady hand to get it right. It becomes infinitely easier if you don't actually touch the control stick and just let the chests ricochet you around, but even then it can be supremely disorienting and requires precise initial aim and timing of when to stop.
  • The Zora trial on the Moon in the 3DS remake. Instead of being a simple underwater maze, the mini-level has been altered so you have to hit a switch, rush through the pipes, find the barely visible fish that mark the correct path, and manage to make a perfect dolphin-jump out of the water to reach the next room before the gate closes. Miss the hard-to-make jump? It's all the way back to the beginning for you. One of the Heart Pieces specifically requires going through a wrong path which is marked only by a single pot, so in essence the trial must be completed twice.
  • Beneath the Well is a mini-dungeon in Ikana used to access Ikana Castle and is widely considered one of, if not the weakest area in the entire game. The well is mazelike and visually uninteresting, with few unique features, and many branching path, all of which combine to make it tremendously easy to get lost in. The gimmick of the level is that it's filled with Gibdos that guard locked doors; talking to each one while wearing the Gibdo mask causes them to demand an item from Link - usually something in a bottle, but occasionally other items like beans, bombs, or deku nuts. While a lot of the items the Gibdo ask for can be found in various parts of the Well, others cannot - the blue potion and beans, in particular, require Link to exit the dungeon and head back to an entirely different area of the game to obtain them before returning. Even those items that can be found in the well are often in areas far removed from the Gibdo that demand them. This basically forces Link into a tedious cycle of "talk to Gibdo, backtrack to find item Gibdo wants, go back to Gibdo and turn item in, repeat". What few enemies and obstacles exist in the dungeon aside from the Gibdos aren't particularly challenging, but can be annoying to have to navigate through, especially when doing it multiple times. All said and done, the Beneath the Well is an exercise in frustration, backtracking, and tedium, and few Majora's Mask players have anything good to say about it.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Anju and Kafei. Not only does the quest involve a lot of waiting around and running back and forth to get to specific locations at very narrow periods of time, you have to do most of it twice to get all the rewards. And it's very easy to mess up a step and have to start over.
  • Some of the minigames can be exceptionally difficult if the player doesn't hone their skills. The Deku Playground game, the two Target Shooting galleries, and the various Deku, Goron, and Zora racing games are examples of this. Other minigames rely on Luck-Based Mission, regardless of the player's skill. Two that stand out are the Goron Races and Doggy Races. The other competitors in the Goron Race are extremely aggressive, and having too many of them ram you and slow you down or knock you into an obstacle at an inopportune moment can let at least one of them get far enough ahead that it's impossible for you to catch up. It's entirely possible for the player to make no mistakes at all and still lose. As for the Doggy Races, you have to win at least 150 Rupees to get the Heart Piece, which requires the dog you pick to place 2nd at minimum. And while the Mask of Truth can tell you which dogs are likely to win, it's far from guaranteed, and you can easily see a dog that proclaimed "There's no way I can lose!" come in 5th or worse.
  • Obtaining all the stray fairies, especially in Snowhead Temple and Stone Tower Temple, can be incredibly frustrating. Snowhead Temple has numerous invisible fairies and one that, depending on your route, may require you to use Deku Link and float sloooooowly down for about three minutes to reach, and Stone Tower Temple has some that require doing something deep in the temple, going outside to invert it, and then going all the way back through to reach the chest containing the fairy.
  • Dampé's grave sidequest, where you must guide Dampé through the dark to dig up mounds of dirt, three of which contain blue flames that spawn a mini-boss. Virtually every part of this sidequest seems purposefully designed to be as annoying as possible. The mechanic where you have to Z-target Dampé to get him to walk towards you is not clearly explained, leaving some new players frustrated as they try and figure out how to prevent Dampé from wandering off into the dark (compounded by the fact that if you're close by and Tatl is out, Dampé will follow you, but will wander away as soon as Tatl disappears due to idleness); the three dirt mounds you need to dig up are randomized, meaning you can waste a lot of time digging up empty plots; Dampé moves slowly and has a wide turning radius, making it difficult to guide him to where you need him and occasionally causing him to plummet off a ledge; and the whole thing can only be done on the night of Day 3, meaning the clock is very much ticking at that point.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While still overall well received, several fans consider the 3DS remake the inferior version for certain changes that impact key parts of the game.
  • Deku Link requires acceleration to reach his top speed instead of the snappy movement of the original. This introduces a significant element of Fake Difficulty regarding platforming sections in the Woodfall region, as Deku Link's current speed carries over into his water skipping.
  • Zora Link's regular swimming speed is now much slower, with the original version's swim speed only available as a magic-powered Nitro Boost. While this makes navigation of tight corridors much easier (indeed, a few players of the original version complained about constantly crashing into walls as Zora Link), the slower speed and limited boost makes more open swimming areas more tedious to navigate.
  • The bosses are a major point of contention as they are the most significantly changed part of the remake, mainly due to their "stun" phases common to 3D Zelda bosses and different attack patterns. While some like the new bosses, particularly the later ones, for making them more challenging to fight, several others dislike them for making the bosses much more linear in strategy, seeing as how the original bosses were some of the most open-ended bosses in the series prior to Breath of the Wild. Odolwa and Goht, two of the best-received bosses of the original, tend to get the most complaints as the changes make them much easier than their original incarnations.
  • A more minor one since it's only cosmetic, but a few people felt that the paragraph you get in the 3DS version after letting the moon fall is unnecessary and diminishes the exclusively visual storytelling of the original scene, as well as adds some Narm to it, since it informs you that all your items from that cycle are lost after going into detail about what has become of the world, as if having to recollect a few items is worse. Others feel it effectively hammers in that the player has messed things up, and removes any possible Deus ex Machina implications on how Link was able to survive the blast and try again by stating that he was too slow and everyone died.
  • As for the N64 original, there was some minor grumbling from fans prior to its release when it was revealed that Adult Link wouldn't figure into the plot and he would remain a child for the entire story, but this went away pretty quickly when it became clear that his younger form was purely cosmetic this time and all of Adult Link's gear and abilities were still available to the player.
• Ugly Cute:
  • The Skull Kid when he's not wearing Majora's Mask has glowing eyes and a wide beak that can be unnerving to look at, but he becomes more endearing when he acts like the child he is (and when the player learns about him being a Jerkass Woobie).
  • The Deku Scrubs from the Deku Palace, especially the guards and the Princess. Though they were originally designed as (admittedly usually reluctant) enemies in Ocarina of Time, in Majora's Mask they're instead depicted as an overly serious and somewhat bumbling royal court that Link helps and befriends, which makes them come off as cute rather than sinister.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The majority of the items you get are masks with unique effects, but they suffer from squandered potential. Most of them are only good for one very specific thing and nothing else, and otherwise just exist as part of a checklist for obtaining the Fierce Deity's Mask.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many players have mistaken the Banker for a woman due to his long hair and somewhat feminine-looking face.
• Vindicated by History: The game had some negative reception in its time, being a sequel to an incredibly beloved game, and it sold a lower number of copies than Ocarina of Time. The latter situation wasn't helped by it being a late N64 title and the fact that the North American version came out the same day as the North American release of the PlayStation 2. Years later, it's achieved a decent amount of popularity for its frightening and bleak atmosphere, having a dungeon that is considered one of the best in the series, the huge amount of sidequests, a wide variety of interesting items, and more. All in all, it's a lot more popular than it was originally, to the point GameFAQs even made it Number 1 on the 2000-2009 Game of the Decade list. However, the rapid explosion in popularity it received also led to a great deal of Hype Backlash, especially as time went on and the game's Sacred Cow status further solidified.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Majora's Mask 3D remaster is gorgeous. The vibrant colors, attractive textures, and polished animations manage to make it one of the best-looking games on the 3DS.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Druggy and nightmarish visuals and cinematography; death and hopelessness permeates every quest and every second of gameplay; has some of the most legitimately frightening moments in Zelda history; and that's just the first hour.

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