The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a unique title in the Zelda franchise.
A follow up to the fan favorite Ocarina of Time, unlike other Zelda games, Majora's
Mask is set up around a three day cycle which forces the player to repeat the three days
over and over again to figure out the secrets of the game.
Majora's Mask was originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000; however in 2015 Nintendo
released a remake for the 3DS called Majora's Mask 3D, featuring improved graphics and a
few other changes.
The game contains several alterations from its predecessor, such as stereoscopic 3D graphics,
better save features; some altered boss fights and surprisingly a higher ESRB rating.
Majora's Mask 3D was rated E10+ by the ESRB, with tags for animated blood, fantasy violence,
and suggestive themes.
This video will take a look at the game and some examples of the types of content that
led to this rating.
Majora's Mask features a good deal of violent encounters with various monsters and, as the
ESRB describes, enemies can at times bleed, but the blood is never red in colour.
There are also a few human enemies in the game as well.
In the Cremia side quest you fend of the Garmon brothers, by shooting them with your bow.
These arrows though only drive the brothers back, and never manage to injure them.
In another mission Link infiltrates the fortress of the all-female Gerudo pirates.
In this mission Link has to sneak past guards and defeat several Gerudo swordswomen.
However Link's attacks only disable or drive off the Gerudo and never deliver a fatal blow
or permanent injury.
There is one exception to this however.
On the first night you can stop Sakon the thief from stealing a bomb bag shipment by
striking him with your sword.
However if you simply shoot him, the shipment explodes, apparently killing the thief.
Aside from cartoon violence, Majora's Mask is known for its dark tone, featuring multiple
references to death, ghosts and regret, along with the looming threat of annihilation.
The game therefore features many unusual depictions of death and violence for a game with an E10
rating.
One of these is the end of the world.
If Link waits till the end of the 3rd night the moon will crash into the land of Termina
and killing its inhabitance, including Link who is swept up in the explosion.
Alien abduction is not a subject one would expect to encounter in a Zelda game, but if
Link fails to save Romani on the 1st night, she is abducted by aliens.
They return her but she has apparently been brainwashed, or is at least suffering from
some sort of post-traumatic stress.
Majora's Mask also depicts torture.
When Link visits the Eastern Swamp he finds that the Deku kingdom has accused a monkey
of kidnapping their princess.
If Link visits the Deku palace on the third day he can find the monkey in the throne room,
being continuously plunged into a boiling cauldron despite his protests of innocence.
Link also picks up some torture gear during his journey.
The All night mask which he can buy from the curiosity shop on the third night was originally
a torture device used to deprive victims of sleep.
Perhaps even more unusual than torture is an apparent suicide.
Ikana Valley is occupied by Garo: the ghosts of spies left over from an ancient war.
When beaten they reveal their secrets and repeat a cryptic phrase: "To die without
leaving a corpse that is the way of us Garo".
The meaning of this phrase is revealed when Link defeats the Garo Master.
After revealing the secret of stone tower he says: "Die I shall, leaving no corpse".
He then pulls out a bomb and blows himself up!
While you have to fight him at least once he can be fought multiple times, and while
he does not always speak, his death animation remains the same.
Moving on from violence, one might be surprised to find that there is intoxication in Majora's
Mask.
In clock town there is a milk bar that serves chateau Romani: special milk hinted to have
intoxicating properties which is only served to adults.
In the milk bar link can find Gorman: the leader of the Gorman troupe red faced and
behaving like a drunk.
When Link talks to him he argues that its milk and you can't get drunk from it, despite
clearly being so.
The next day Gorman can be found with a stomach ache, but whose symptoms resemble a hangover.
Majora's Mask is also famous for a few instances of sexually suggestive content.
Another member of the Gorman troupe include the Rosa sisters, two dancers who wear very
short dresses; so short that Link has little problem seeing what's underneath them.
This is a little different in the N64 version though, as here, they don't wear shorts.
Instead they are kept carefully covered up with just their dresses.
Another resident of Clock Town, the lady who runs the Treasure Chest Shop has a thing for
Gorons.
When Link transforms with the goron mask she flirts with him, complementing his looks and
saying he is her type.
Moving on, the great bay seems to have a large population of voyeurs.
In Zora Hall Link can find a Zora who is trying to peep into the singer Lulu's room.
When Link uses the Zora mask the peeper mistakes him for the Zora Mikau, and after offering
a halfhearted defense of himself runs away.
Another Zora will ask Link in his Zora form to get him a picture of Lulu, and will pay
him for every picture.
The fisherman living in the great bay is also interested in pictures of women.
He will trade you a valuable horse fish in exchange for a picture of a Gerudo pirate.
As for the Gerudo pirates, they wear loose fitting Arabian themed clothing like their
Ocarina of Time counter parts, which show a lot of skin.
The same is true for the great fairies who are famous in Majora's Mask and Ocarina
of Time for being clothed only in vines and boots.
While the effect in the N64 games is crude by today's standards Majora's Mask 3D
cleaned up the art work considerably.
Finally perhaps the most well-known and provocative scene in Majora's mask takes place during
the Cremia side quest.
After driving off the gormon brothers Cremia will reward Link with a mask.
However if Link does the quest a second time, there is a random chance that after acknowledging
Link as an adult she will hug him, pushing his face into her cleavage.
Link seems to enjoy this quite a bit and the game says "you could get used to this."
This scene has promoted lots of art and other community content from fans.
Examples include this piece of fan art from a Japanese fan called Mafen and there will
be a link in the description if you want to check out more of his work.
It's also worth pointing how the original Majora's Mask is not too significantly different
from the 3DS version in terms of rating-related content and, again, the Nintendo 64 version
was only given an E rating by the ESRB.
This is most likely because the E 10+ rating was only established in 2005, five years after
Majora's Mask was first released.
Do you agree Majora's Mask's rating?
And what game would you like to see us cover next?
Let us know in the comments below and, until next time, thank you for watching.
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