What's your favorite Zelda game if you've played any?

My favorite Zelda game has to be Majora's Mask. It has this weirdness about it that made it unforgettable. The game has a dark setting that weaved itself  subtlety into the narrative that it managed to avoid becoming a selling point.
You're given 72 game hours before the Moon crashes, thus ending the world, to go through each dungeon and solve each sub-plot with the various villagers living in Clock Town. At the end of the timer the Song of Time has to be played to reset the world to the beginning of the timer. All the quests and dungeons are reset, but items are kept. This game is often overlooked in favor of the more popular Ocarina of Time, but for me Majora's Mask's beauty lies in its details.
The villagers go about their daily routine (which after playing for a little while you'll soon memorize) as if nothing was wrong. The moon looms directly overhead and most everyone decides to pretend as if nothing is wrong.



Clocktown has this false sense of security; ironically it acts as the game world's main hub area. The music and bustle of the townsfolk practically begs you to forget that anything is wrong. But underneath it you can see the turmoil beginning to brew. The chief of the guards argues with the leader of the carnival worker's about evacuating. The Carnival worker argues against leaving. This is after all the long awaited Festival, the Carnival of Time.
As time goes on the music played in the background in Clock Town steadily speeds up. On Day three it sounds like this.



The effort to remain oblivious to the impending threat of the falling Moon remains but it's becoming far more difficult. The music is sped to show this struggle, but the dark undertones remain.

What I love about this game is that these little details are in the background; they aren't main quests and can easily be missed. There's a neat little quest involving saving this farm's cows from aliens that come every few years, or so the younger sister of the Farmer claims. There's a fun side-quest where Link shoots the aliens with his bow to drive them off. Yet they aren't killed, they simply reappear slightly further away only to drift closer again. This continues until 6 AM when the Sun rises. The player learns about the Chateau Romani that gives the player unlimited magic until the timer is reset again. What I thought was interesting is that if the player returns to the farm after completing all the side-quests associated with it when the three day timer is almost complete (as in everyone believes the world will soon end) He'll find Cremia, the older sister, trying to comfort the younger sister, Romani by giving her some of the Chateau Romani.
It's a very easy thing to miss. In fact most people don't know it even takes place. Majora's Mask rewards inquisitive players with small details like this. It does this without these neat little facets and when taken in context somewhat darker story elements from becoming a selling point.

There was a detail about it I didn't realize was present until I replayed it not too long ago. Near the beginning of the game when Link is transformed by the Skull kid into the Deku Scrub (my avatar), the player will find this odd dead shriveled-up tree. The fairy will remark that it looks sad. Nothing further is said about this. Fast forward much later to the end of the first dungeon, this other deku scrub will remark that you remind him of his lost son. I can't believe it took me until that recent play-through to realize, the dead tree was his son. When the skull kid transformed Link into a Deku, he had to take the life from somewhere. Whenever Link gets transformed into something with a mask, that's generally how it works.

Despite these darker elements tucked away, it still has humor. The lighter elements in town where a significant portion of the player's time would be spent has great juxtaposition with the kinda creepy stuff.



It also has some of the most fun puzzles in the dungeons. My favorite has to be the Stone Tower where Link must use all the different forms he's gathered from the masks to advance. A great theme to listen to also while growing frustrated trying to solve it.



If you haven't gathered yet I really like the music in this game  

So I was wondering if any of you guys have any favorite Zelda games, whether they be new, from the N64 or even the Gameboy ones

Occarina of time was my first love. My cousins had the game and we were so enthralled!
I got n64 for this reason only.

Majora's mask is magic though. It's everything Oot is, but darker and even more magical. I found I missed the characters I "knew" from Oot, I was so familiar with them. But it was also interesting to see who they were this time around. (And the fairy names were fun. Tatl and Tael. Very accurate. )

The masks made me feel uneasy, I would skip the transformation videos (well also to save time). Particularly Deku Link's screams comes to mind. *shudder*

But diving like a dolphin through the waves as a Zora... pure bliss.

My bro-in-law has most, probably all, Zelda games under his belt. He swears that A Link to the Past is the best. He also has a Triforce tattoo.

I wish I had time to play, I haven't even tried Windwalker or Twilight Princess...

Windwaker is now my favourite Zelda with Link to the Past a close second.

Amarië wrote:Occarina of time was my first love. My cousins had the game and we were so enthralled!
I got n64 for this reason only.

Majora's mask is magic though. It's everything Oot is, but darker and even more magical. I found I missed the characters I "knew" from Oot, I was so familiar with them. But it was also interesting to see who they were this time around. (And the fairy names were fun. Tatl and Tael. Very accurate. )

The masks made me feel uneasy, I would skip the transformation videos (well also to save time). Particularly Deku Link's screams comes to mind. *shudder*  

But diving like a dolphin through the waves as a Zora... pure bliss.

Ocarina of Time is great and it still holds up today, but like you said Majora's Mask is magical   

I'm so glad my N64 is still intact and that I kept my copy of Majora's Mask all these years. There's a certain un-describable value in the actual physical cartridge that the game runs on. Mine has the special holographic cover. Playing it again after a few years gets me so nostalgic.  

Ally wrote:Windwaker is now my favourite Zelda with Link to the Past a close second.

Wind Waker is a close second to Majora's Mask for me. I still have my Gamecube, but unfortunately not Wind Waker. It must have been lost when I cleaned my game room. Such a shame too, on my file I had completed a few play throughs and was unlocking the figurines of the various npcs. There is the remake on the Wii U, but I'm not too fond of the over saturation of the lighting.
Sailing the boat around was the only thing that was better than swimming as a Zora in Majora's Mask. I bought Link to the Past again on the virtual console for the Wii. It was the first Zelda game to do open world like that I think. I played Oracle of Seasons first though, so I always compared them.
If only Nintendo would release a remake of Majora's Mask on the 3DS like they did Ocarina.

The original Zelda was open world.

Oh yeah, I meant the two worlds thing  .
Link to the Past did it. Ocarina did it. Twilight princess did it. Oracle of Seasons did it. Ages sort of did it, but with three different time periods.

I was kidding about my fave Zelda btw

May have been slightly too subtle there...

Welcome back, Ally!

Ally wrote:I was kidding about my fave Zelda btw

I was so naive...  

I was just listening to the desert theme from Twilight Princess and it's really atmospheric. Only bested by the Great Sea theme in Wind Waker because it has an open world to go along with it.

It's great. That is all.  

This video was really interesting. Especially since it deals with Majora's Mask directly.



It makes me wonder about the themes of the story and how it lined up with my original interpretation concerning Denial. Could Link really be dead and the game is his journey to accepting it? Makes me think. A lot of the signs are there I guess.

My favourite Zelda has to be Ocarina of Time, purely because it's the only one I still own/have come close to finishing.

AMAZING Game.

Ocarina is really good too. None of the Zelda games are bad by the standards of other games, only by the standards of other Zelda games.

Majora's Mask 3DS remake confirmed!!!

Link to the Past I think it was called. The one for gameboy. I remember it was stellar. Couldn't put it down.

Amarië wrote:My bro-in-law has most, probably all, Zelda games under his belt. He swears that A Link to the Past is the best. He also has a Triforce tattoo.

I wish I had time to play, I haven't even tried Windwalker or Twilight Princess...

He is correct.

So the new Majora's Mask game is out. It looks really nice. Nintendo changed some stuff around, but it's still good.