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Hey Cranium Child, do you want my face???Picture: NintendoThe very first thing that involves thoughts once I consider The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Masks is that horrifying moon. It’s ominous, all the time smiling, a reminder that demise is an inevitability for everybody. It lingers within the background, like a shadow towards a wall, ready to strike. If, after three days, you fail to avoid wasting the world, maybe squandering an excessive amount of of your time wanting round when each second counts, that horrid moon plummets towards Termina. And on influence, every thing is blown to smithereens, with Hyperlink screaming into oblivion. It’s some actual spooky shit.It’s a picture that’s been seared into my mind, one which haunts me to today, and a part of why I imagine Majora’s Masks is a horror sport. Launched in 2000 on Nintendo 64 (and 2003 on GameCube and 2015 on 3DS and someday sooner or later on Nintendo Swap On-line), The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Masks takes place two months after the occasions of Ocarina of Time. In a quest to seek out his fairy good friend, the chatterbox Navi, Hyperlink encounters an imp named Cranium Child who’s possessed by a vengeful spirit that dwells inside the masks he’s carrying. Like a bully stealing Halloween sweet, Cranium Child jacks Hyperlink’s trusty steed Epona. After giving chase, Hyperlink plunges into an abyss, falling via a psychedelic darkness earlier than touchdown in a mysterious but acquainted land known as Termina. This kickstarts Hyperlink’s haunting journey to cease Cranium Child from enacting extra irreparable hurt.Proper off the bat, issues are terrifying. Not solely does he get his shit stolen from him, however Hyperlink can also be quickly reworked totally towards his will. He screams in utter perplexity on the revelation that he’s turn out to be some Deku Scrub. The face he now makes may very well be one in every of fixed ache or disappointment, however one factor’s for sure: Hyperlink seems to be like he might “begin crying any second now,” as his new fairy companion Tatl places it early within the sport if you come throughout a sad-looking Deku tree. That tree has fairly a motive to be unhappy. In actual fact, its story of woe led to its soul being trapped contained in the very masks Hyperlink has been compelled to put on.And the screams don’t cease with the primary time Hyperlink is turned, slightly violently by Cranium Child, right into a Deku Scrub on the sport’s starting. All all through Majora’s Masks are…masks. Every time outfitted, Hyperlink writhes in agony as his physique transforms to match the masks’s visage, whether or not the result’s near his precise physique (Deku) or removed from it (Goron). And it occurs each single time he places a masks on, simply one in every of many motifs that situate Majora’s Masks within the realm of horror: The sport toys with physique horror as Hyperlink repeatedly undergoes disagreeable transformations to turn out to be somebody new, screaming each time. And it’s not misplaced on me that the masks he wears come from lifeless individuals.G/O Media might get a commissionI see—No wait, I AM lifeless individuals!Screenshot: MajorasMask9 / KotakuThe sport is all about placing on some sort of face, particularly within the midst of demise. The townsfolk, in denial of the upcoming doom bearing down upon them till it’s far too late, proceed about their each day lives. These sure by obligation keep on the job, whereas everybody else plans a freaking carnival—as if that’s not unusual. They’re all going to die in three days, dammit! And but, irrespective of the face we placed on, demise is the fixed we share. Nowhere is that this extra emblematic than in Majora’s Masks’s ultimate moments, when the moon comes crashing down.Learn Extra: Majora’s Masks Is A Recreation About DeathAnd what a second it’s! Must you overlook in regards to the three-day cycle or simply let time run out, an unskippable cutscene performs within the final 5 seconds. It depicts the moon hurtling towards Termina with its unnerving smile and pointed nostril, crushing Clock City and obliterating every thing in seconds. After a second of darkness, Hyperlink emerges, solely to be blown away by the explosion. The final issues we hear and see are Hyperlink’s screams and Majora’s Masks in crackling hearth. It’s a hanging scene, all exacerbating my fears of worldwide calamity both via local weather change (which is worsening) or a collision with an asteroid (which could occur). It additionally speaks to time’s impermanence, which is frightening, too. Time marches on in the identical method the sport’s moon steadily descends, an unavoidable actuality for everybody.However maybe essentially the most terrifying factor, apart from that creepy moon and the eerie soundtrack that accompanies the complete sport, is what all of it might imply. It’s lengthy been mentioned that Hyperlink is perhaps lifeless in Majora’s Masks, with Termina serving as a form of purgatory for his soul to just accept his demise. I imply, the Hero of Time falls down a long-ass “rabbit gap” inside a tree to get to Termina, a supposed parallel world to Hyrule. He falls for what may very well be miles, and that psychedelic sequence that performs through the fall signifies some form of passage. This place can also be known as “Termina,” which sounds method too near “terminal.” We needs to be intimately aware of that phrase’s implications, particularly given the sport’s conclusion if you happen to do nothing. This all suggests to me that it’s both a dream, or that Hyperlink is definitely lifeless right here. Each notions are troubling.Additional solidifying Termina as a purgatory is the truth that most of its denizens are copies of characters seen in Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule. Whether or not these are wandering ghosts or simply reflections of what Hyperlink is aware of is anybody’s guess.After which there’s the Elegy of Vacancy, a late-game music you play to spawn heartless and heavy clones of Hyperlink. It was all the time curious to me that you might solely create copies of 4 characters, three of that are lifeless: Deku Butler’s Son (Deku), Darmani III (Goron), and Mikau (Zora). The fourth is Hyperlink, which says one factor to me: He’s completely lifeless. Simply take a look at this freaky, off-putting Hyperlink clone. It’s perturbing, with its weird smile, static eyes, and its uncanny not-quite-resemblance to a dwelling particular person.Am…Am I an actual boy now?Screenshot: Cresun / KotakuI was a literal youngster once I first performed this sport. I didn’t fairly perceive every thing that was occurring, and I definitely didn’t decide up on the subtext on the time, however I knew I used to be scared every time I picked up my Majora’s Masks save. The soundtrack, the environment, the enemies—all of it despatched chills down my backbone. I by no means completed the sport—couldn’t deal with the nightmares it was giving me—however its evocative temper and macabre vibes have caught with me ever since. Even going again to the sport, I can’t assist however tremble at most of its imagery. Hyperlink’s screams specifically reverberate in my thoughts.The factor that scared me essentially the most, although? Cranium Child. That mischievous little bastard is greater than a menace, as Majora’s Masks slowly erodes his sanity, inflicting his “pranks” to turn out to be more and more violent all through the sport. It’s Cranium Child who turns Hyperlink right into a Deku Scrub. It’s Cranium Child who “bought rid” of Epona, regardless of the hell meaning. It’s Cranium Child who summons the moon and units it on a collision course with Termina. The whole lot was Cranium Child’s fault, and that sort of energy paralyzed me.I’m older and a little bit braver now, however I’m unsure I might courageous Majora’s Masks once more. It’s scary, full of terrors that belong in a horror film, making it an uncharacteristic and interesting launch by the often family-friendly Nintendo. For me, this horror is what defines it. It’s why I keep in mind the sport so vividly: as a result of it scared the shit out of me. However greater than that, it speaks plainly to our deepest fears, of demise and loss and impermanence. We’re, in any case, all the time working out of time.
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