STACK Feb Issue 124

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GAMES
FEBRUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
FEATURE
034
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It was the follow-up to the acclaimed Ocarina of Time that divided the Zelda fanbase.
Released right at the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifecycle, the darkest and least accessible entry
in the Zelda franchise kicks off where Ocarina finished. A new world that featured real time
night/day sequences, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask had a story that at first sounded utterly
perplexing. It didn’t do the numbers of its predecessor, but Majora’s Mask became a cult classic and
retains this status to this day.
When Shigeru Miyamoto announced at E3 2012 that a remake was in ‘consideration’, the crowd at the Nokia
Theatre erupted. Two years later, director Eiji Aonuma confirmed that development had commenced immediately
after the completion of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. This month, the highly anticipated title is making
its way to your local JB Hi-Fi. To celebrate the remake, we take a look back at the original and dig up some
entirely useless, but ultimately interesting, facts about the game. You have three days to get through them.
Despite being total hands-
on during the production of The
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,
Shigeru Miyamoto only acted in an
advisory capacity on Majora’s Mask
Eiji Aonuma, director on Majora’s
Mask, has worked on 16 Zelda titles to date
(including the forthcoming Zelda on Wii U).
Majora’s Mask was only his second.
Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi, a games
designer who had cut his teeth with Nintendo
writing the manual for The Legend of Zelda: A
Link to the Past, wrote the background story
to Majora’s Mask.
The time between the release of Ocarina
of Time and Majora’s Mask was just under
two years. That’s unusually short for a
Nintendo title.
Majora’s Mask was developed
using an upgraded version of the
Ocarina of Time engine.
Aside from the flashback sequences in
the game, Princess Zelda does not appear in
Majora’s Mask.
Ganon doesn’t appear either.
The music in Zora Hall is taken from
previous games in the Zelda series.
There are many suggestions to
the origin of the title Majora’s Mask.
These include ‘Majou’, the Japanese
word for witch, hinting at the
mask’s evil powers; the Western
Roman emperor Majorian;
and an ancient Brazilian tribe
named Marajoara that used masks
resembling the Majora’s Mask design.
Players originally had seven days to
complete the game and not three.
Temporary titles for the game included
Zelda Gaiden and Zelda: Mask of Majora.
With only four, Majora’s Mask has the
least amount of dungeons in any Zelda title.
Majora’s Mask sold 314,000 copies in
its first week of release in Japan. Globally,
it eventually sold 3.36 million with 602,000
attributed to sales in Japan.
Miyamoto has revealed that the Happy
Mask Salesman was based on him.
Miyamoto was concerned that the
difficulty level in the game would deter
western audiences from buying it. His
answer? The save system was adapted to
make the game a little easier.