| The Legend of Zelda : Masked Curse | |
| Developer(s) | Nintendo EPD, Grezzo |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Release Date(s) | 11 December 2015 |
The Legend of Zelda : Masked Curse (ゼルダの伝説 仮面呪い Zeruda no Densetsu: Masukedu Kuraso') is the sequel of The Legend of Zelda : Majora's Mask, released in 2015 on the Wii U. This game was made in order to use the capacity of the Nintendo console, essentially the Wii U GamePad, to fit with the game first released on Nintendo 64. Shigeru Miyamoto first wanted to do a remake of The Legend of Zelda : Majora's Mask, but insisted to add new features, and finally, after a year of delay, Nintendo decided to make a whole new game, because of the many differences between the project and the result. According to the storyline, this episode is between The Legend of Zelda : Majora's Mask and The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess. However it's not explain that if the story happend few years after Majora's Mask, with the same Link of Ocarina of Time, or if this is in another generation, with a Link that is the son of the grand-son of OoT's one.
Story[]
After the events of Majora's Mask, Link defeated the Majora demon, and the Happy Mask Salesman took the mask to expand his masks collection. But the mask still had powers, and tried to take control of the mask salesman. However, he didn't succeed ; The Mask Salesman seems to be the only one that can escape from the Majora's control. To break free, the Majora's Mask cursed the Salesman and managed to take control of a child that wanted to buy a mask. Then Majora tried to awake the greatest lords of evil to control them and become the most powerful being of all time, and once this is done, destroy Termina with no one to stop him.
The Happy Mask Salesman, cursed, was transformed into a mask.
One day, Link, who went across the Termina field, found the mask in a little deserted mask shop. The Mask Salesman explained to Link the situation and asked him to stop Majora once again before he could summon some dangerous monsters. He also decided to follow Link, helping him with precious advices and lessons.
In order to stop Majora, Link had to reach the 6 Lights, associated with the 6 Ancient Sages, and protected by bosses in dungeons. With the help of the Sages, Link managed to find the Great Light Sword, which was created to destroy any evil being. Meanwhile, Majora tried to release Ganondorf from his prison. After finding the sword, and give it to the Ancient Sages to full it with Light power, Link had to stop Majora's attempt to save Ganondorf, that managed to have a small embodiment, Phantom Ganondorf, (which is similar to his form in the Forest Temple, in Ocarina of time) and then were transformed into Phantom Ganon, in his beast form. Unfortunately, the new sword of light that Link found was too large and heavy for him, and he didn't manage to wield it. He still killed Phantom Ganon with his other sword, and then gave the Great Light Sword to the sages to kill definitively Ganondorf in his prison : This explains the story of Ganondorf in Twilight Princess, the Execution sword is actually the sword that Link gave to the Sages.
After those events, Link had to chase Majora, finding him in all Termina. Majora managed to awake the Wind Sorcerer, Vaati. After he took his human form, the Vaati Reborn form, with Majora's Mask in his abdomen, instead of his eye on The Minish Cap form, he fought Link in a single battle. With his masks and the help of the Salesman Mask, Link survived the battle but didn't exaclty win, because Majora and Vaati were too strong. Majora fled away, in order to increase his power. For that, he searched the sword of the embodiment of true evil, the Dark Sword, which is actually Ghirahim in his sword form. Like Fi, he disapears but not his sword form.
To face the Wind Sorcerer, the Majora's Mask and the Dark Sword, Link had to search the most powerful mask, and the most powerful sword, to have a chance against him. So he decided to search the Fierce Deity mask and the Master Sword, his only hope to win this fight.
Finally, with the power of all the masks, the help of Salesman Mask, the Master Sword and his courage, Link faced Majora in his most powerful form of all time : a Vaati-shaped form, with his long and thin arms, wielding the Dark Sword and with the Majora's Mask on his chest. After a long battle, he finally destroyed the mask, and cut it into pieces. The Mask Salesman's curse took end, the world was saved.
Gameplay[]
Because this game was supposed to be a remake of Majora's Mask, there is a lot of similaritys between the two games : the Termina field, where the story happends, although there is another field discovered later in the game, that look like a part of the Hyrule field, with the Lost Woods. Also, there are the four same dungeons as in Majora's Mask, with two new others. Also there is all the masks presents in Majora's Mask, with new ones.
Instead of a fairy like Navi or Tatl, the compagnon of Link is Salesman Mask, a mask with the head of Mask Salesman, which is actually him turned into a mask after the curse of Majora. He will have the same role as Navi, or Midna, giving advices or ints during the game. He is much less annoying than Navi, and on the contrary, he often gets angry when Link call him too much. During the game, he will have a very important role because he will explain diffrents powers of some masks, and he will also teach some song at the Ocarina, such as the song of Healing, that allows Link to transform some monsters into masks like when Link enters into the Dark Dimension to beat his shadow transformed into a wolf. He will also teach some Time songs but he will not remember all the songs yet, and Link has to wait later in the game.
Like in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, Link will have an ocarina - but this time, it's not the Ocarina of Time and he already have his ocarina at the begining of the game. When he play songs, with the Wii U GamePad, the player have to press holes and blow in the mic, like a real ocarina. Each songs have specific effects, like the Song of Storms, the Song of Healing. New songs were added, such as the Song of Power, wich can refill energy to kind of generators in specific dungeons, or even heal some NPCs during side quests, or the Song of Travel, wich can help Link to go to far places with a flying leaf, wich replaces Epona in this game.
Again, like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, there is a concep of time. In this game, Link seems to be 13, so 3 years olden than he was in Majora's Mask. The world will not end in 3 days because Majora first tried to gain power before sending the Moon into Termina, and so the story will last 4 years. The second year Majora will send Phantom Ganondorf, and Link must have finished the 6 dungeons and found the Execution Sword, or else he have to go back to the past with the Song of Time reversed. The fourth year, Majora will have his final form and he will destroy Termina. To avoid this, the player have to finish the game - at least all the objectives like free the Lights, found the Master Sword, etc.- in a required time. Two years corresponds to 20 hours of game, and in each transition, he will grew up (so Link start young, then grew to an adolescent and then a young adult. Each 3 ages will give Link some power, speed, and even abilities really unique.). If the player didn't achieve the objectives in time, he has to go back to the past or else a cutscene will show the world destroyed, or Link killed, and then Game Over. If he go to the past, Link will loose all his progress in the side quests, and even lost some of his objects, treasures, etc. But in other hand, he will sometimes have to go back years in the past - or in the future- to finish some quests. The principle is the same as in Majora's Mask, but there is no 3 days but 3 periods, separated by 2 years each.
There is a lot of side quests in the game. The first half in the game is composed by dungeons, and after defeating Phantom Ganon, it will be moslty quests, searches, to have all the mask in order to unlock the utlimate mask, the Fierce Deity - wich is actually not absolutely necessary, but the last fight will be very difficult without it - and to find the Master Sword, wich is very well hidden, somewhere in the game. This part of the game offer a great freedom, the player can go where he wants, and do what he wants. He can even go to the past to have a remach against the bosses.
The game use the Wii U GamePad to control Link. The two joysticks are use to control Link and the camera angle, the L button is to lock ennemies or NPCs, and R to attack. The a b x y buttons are use for item use and standart uses (confirm, cancel, speak to someone...). The touch screen is used as an inventory. All the masks are placed in order and the player can touch a mask to wear it. He can also equip Link with the many swords and shields of the game, and if he touch a item and a button at the same time, it will set the item for the button (for example, a for the bow, x for the bottle...).
Trivia[]
- From a moment of the game and until the end, the Mask Salesman will be called the Salesman Mask, wich is quite ironic.
- This game is a link between Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess. We can even think that Twilight Princess takes place only few generations after Masked Curse.
- Miyamoto wanted to show that there is a lot of antagonists in the Zelda universe. This game show what all of them together would look like.
- There is a mask, the Aegis Mask, is actually a shield, and even the best shield of all the game. Absolutely nothing in the game tells the player that he can touch the mask, and slide it into Link equipment to equip it as a shield. Only the description of the mask can be a hint. As a shield, it will eat (litterally) all kind of magic and protect Link for every sort of damage. If carried as a mask, it can protect Link only if he is shot in the head.
- We know that Termina is not the same place as Hyrule, but it was never explained what whas the border between the two lands. In this game, we can go into the Lost Woods of the Hyrule land, but actually the map does not indicate how we did it.
- The Four Giants, that were really important in Majora's Mask, were not mentionned in this game. However we can see them in the highest places of the four dungeons presents in the first Majora game. Far away, they are standing up, idly.
- Sometimes the Salesman Mask will get angry. Miyamoto wanted him to be as scary as he is in Majora's Mask, and finally he is even scariest. But this time, he nevers appears at an ambivalent person and will always been seen as an ally.
- In the start of the game, Majora will take control of a kid, to have a body. Later, he will change his embodiment until Vaati. However, we never know what happend to the kid.