Majora's Mask HD and the Oracles?

Last week two curious entries appeared on IMDB, for unannounced Zelda remakes:

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask HD
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracles

They are featuring different voice actors for Link: Mitsuki Saiga, who has voiced Link in the more recent top-down Zelda games and Hyrule Warriors, as well as Nobuyuki Hiyama, whose voice was used for adult Link in the Nintendo 64 era. It also lists Hidemaro Fujibayashi (the current director of the Zelda series) as doing mocap for Din, which is hilarious and teaches you all you need to know about the credibility of this information. I can only imagine him performing all those gracious dance moves.

Of course, anyone with the necessary rights can edit IMDB and add whatever they want, so this shouldn't classify as a meaningful leak in any book, unlike a certain Metroid game that has appeared in the news earlier this month... It's still weird how no one has bothered with removing this yet, or with checking any sources. Still, I appreciate the idea of this hoax, because Majora's Mask and the Oracle games are the exact remakes that I would love to see happen next, after Ocarina of Time.

"Majora's Mask HD" is a strange title, however, because the HD suffix implies that this is not a remake like Ocarina of Time, but an HD remaster of either the Nintendo 64 original, Majora's Mask 3D, or a mix of both. Maybe even still coming to the Nintendo Switch, because on the Nintendo Switch 2 this should be called "Majora's Mask 4K".

And that's not what I would want. I would want Nintendo to follow up on the Ocarina of Time remake and take their time with this. The Nintendo 64 Zelda games are siblings and always deserve to receive the same treatment in the same quality. Also, Majora's Mask has re-used a lot of the assets from Ocarina of Time and it makes all the sense in the world for a remake to do the same.

It's the same reason why I still want remakes of Oracle of Ages & Seasons to happen. It simply makes too much sense to recreate them in the same style as Link's Awakening, because they have borrowed so much from the original. Period.

At least, the IMDB entry got the right idea in this case. I like the simplicity of the title "Oracles", where this would be the first time for a Zelda game to receive a one-word subtitle. But it implies that this is going to unite the two Game Boy Color games into one experience, which is how it should be and refreshing to see.

Often you just find pure pessimism or rejection amongst the Nintendo and Zelda community when it comes to this particular remake. Some believe that this will never happen, because they were originally made by Capcom. And if they were to happen still, then Nintendo would never release them as one, because they are too greedy.

But Nintendo owns all the scenario rights for the four Zelda games developed by Flagship. Only the music rights could pose a problem. It's the main reason why you can find Stickers and Spirits based on these games in the Super Smash Bros. series, but no music. However, the music shouldn't be a major hurdle, because they can just compose new tracks...

And splitting Oracle of Seasons and Ages into two games again would defeat the entire purpose of such a remake. Sure, you wouldn't need to use passwords any longer, because they could just read each other's save files, but you would still need to connect these save files manually, making things needlessly complicated, whereas this could and should become a completely seamless experience. (See my Oracle of Worlds article for how this would work in greater detail.)

Plus, when they are effectively offering two Zelda adventures as one, then the full price that Nintendo is definitely going to charge won't feel as unreasonable. At least to some people.

In any case, I personally hope that the "Oracles" is GREZZO's current project, where this might even get released next year. A proper Majora's Mask remake on the other hand may take a couple of years to appear.

Tears of the Kingdom – What Will Return?

In an interview with GameInformer, which took place around the Game Awards last week, producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi talked about various aspects of Tears of the Kingdom. One of the key takeaways here was that they consider the Ultrahand ability to be the big gimmick of the game:

Fujibayashi: When we're creating a title, say, Tears of the Kingdom, as you mentioned, the crux of the experience in playing Tears of the Kingdom is Ultrahand and the freedom to create. As you mentioned, that is what Tears of the Kingdom is. So every time we're making a Zelda title, we want to create something new. If, for example, there was any continuation of Tears of the Kingdom and we were to bring in, say, Ultrahand, then I think to us, it would feel like, "Well, we're just bringing in Tears of the Kingdom as is." What we want to do from a game creator's perspective is create something new. From that perspective, I don't think we'll be seeing Ultrahand in every Zelda game or anything in the future.

Aonuma: When you're talking about Ultrahand, that is a really core idea for Tears of the Kingdom and I think it represents our approach of kind of putting everything we could into this game.

This stings a little and actually takes me back to Majora's Mask, which was also a direct sequel and brought something absolutely groundbreaking on the table with the transformation masks. The ability to turn into a Goron or a Zora at will was simply so good that I couldn't imagine Zelda without it, going forward. But it never returned, at least not in the same capacity. We had the wolf transformation in Twilight Princess, which was so bad that the game had to force you into it, and there were the costumes in Tri Force Heroes, but they weren't on the same level. If you want to play as a Goron or a Zora these days, you have to buy Hyrule Warriors.

And when you think about it, then Breath of the Wild doesn't really have a defining gimmick, the one big thing that sets this game apart from the entire rest of the series. The game has completely revolutionized Zelda from top to bottom, but what stood out was really the ability to freely climb everywhere, in combination with the Paraglider. But Tears of the Kingdom has adopted both of this and pretty much everything from its predecessor.

The Ultrahand ability really is just a natural evolution of Magnesis and going forward it's going to be dearly missed. Even if there will be another ability to move around objects, it will automatically feel inferior without the ability to attach them to each other. At the same time it's understandable that Nintendo doesn't want to bring back such a convoluted system, where you even need something like Autobuild on top to make it more convenient. Whatever they will do with the next 3D Zelda game, it has to be something where the players don't feel like they are missing something without the Ultrahand.

And it's probably not desirable to simply fall back into the gimmick pattern. Make Breath of the Wild with the power to build stuff. Make Breath of the Wild with the power to dig into the earth. We already had this after Ocarina of Time and they need to focus more on evolving the franchise, instead of creating ideas for a single game.

But this raises the question, what in Tears of the Kingdom could and should potentially make it into the next game? Is there something in the game as essential as the free climbing in Breath of the Wild? Or is it all just gimmicks that are never meant to return, like the Ultrahand?

The first thing that comes to mind is the sky diving. It's not a new thing, because it first was introduced in Skyward Sword and now has been refined for this game. But this mechanic became so good that its full potential never really gets explored in Tears of the Kingdom for some reason. For example, you can turn around in the air while aiming with your bow, which you may not even know, because at no point in the game this is even necessary. Nintendo has released entire patents for this, but in the game it's really just a thing you can do without any major reason to do it, because the aerial combat is very minimal.

The entire setting of the sky islands is quite frankly underutilized, again, and for the most part just feels like something that was thrown into the game to make you build flying vehicles. Maybe one day we will get a Zelda game that truly focuses on such a setting and brings you aerial mobility to the next level. Third time will be the charm.

Another gameplay mechanic is the summoning, which is a new sort of partner system. This is also nothing that never was done before in Zelda, where for example you had some sages at your side in The Wind Waker as well. The difference is that you can't control them yourself this time, but they will fight autonomously. We also had this with Wolf Link in Breath of the Wild already, but here it lets you summon multiple allies at once. However, it's a bit of a mess, because it gets too crowded very quickly and the sage interactions can get in the way.

They meant well with this idea, but it's probably not something that will return in this form. Instead, this could turn into something that will be explored in other ways, like being able to actually play as other characters, maybe even going back to the transformations from Majora's Mask somehow.

This leaves us with the main items, the Zonai abilities. Well, we've already talked about the Ultrahand, which has the Zonai Devices and the Autobuild as its extensions, where it looks to be a one-time deal and brings a level of complexity with it, which might never be repeated in a Zelda title. At least not for a while.

Fuse is on a similar page, where we most likely won't see the ability in its entirety again, which lets you freely combine all your weaponry with each other and also with objects from the environment. That was just needlessly crazy, but being able to use materials to augment your arrows and/or weapons is really something that needs to stay with the series, in whatever for that may be. In the very least, the ability to craft different types of arrows from your materials should return somehow.

Well, they should limit the total amount of materials for future Zelda games and get rid of all the redundancy, while they should also make them much easier to organize and browse through, but Tears of the Kingdom comes with the best utilization of materials in the series so far. And it would be a shame to lose this, because It makes so much sense on so many levels, where it really feels like a natural evolution for Zelda.

Now, both Ascend an Recall feel a bit underutilized in comparison to what the Ultrahand and Fuse are offering. In case of Ascend this isn't much of a surprise, because it was really just a debug feature that made it into the game (source). The world of Breath of the Wild wasn't created with this ability in mind, where it becomes more useful in that world's extensions, mainly the caves and the sky islands. But it never reaches its full potential, where it would be nice to see this ability return in a future Zelda game that comes with a world more cleverly designed around it. Ascend could become the next Hookshot.

It's quite obvious with the dungeons, which either try to prevent the usage of Ascend entirely or make it pointless in any case, because you're tied to a sage descendant, who can't follow you through ceilings. Imagine dungeons where entire rooms are sealed off from all sides and the only way in is from below...

And Recall is such a smart ability that you could probably create an entire Zelda game with it as the main gimmick. That's not going to happen, now that this item already was a thing, but you never know. After all, the shrinking in The Minish Cap originally came from an item in Four Swords. But it would need to evolve. In Tears of the Kingdom it primarily acts as another great companion for the Ultrahand, where you can move things around and then reverse their movements with Recall. It's also very useful for retrieving things, like gliders that have crash-landed. But otherwise it mainly turns fallen objects into elevators.

Of course this isn't entirely fair towards Recall and there is lots of creative utilization for this ability in the game, but it's clear how Tears of the Kingdom was first and foremost developed around the Ultrahand ability and Recall had to take the backseat here. At the same time it might not be so bad that they didn't turn Recall into a main gimmick, because this could have gotten really tiresome...

Well, the idea of a playable Zelda is something that gets discussed time and time again. If it ever happens, giving her the Recall ability would look like a natural fit, since this was her new power in this game.

Summary

Tears of the Kingdom has experimented a lot with its gameplay mechanics, maybe more than any other Zelda game before it, where it will be painful to lose some of the innovations with the next game. And while the Ultrahand may not return, there is really some good stuff here that definitely should return in future titles of the series, first and foremost the excellent usage of materials and the improved sky diving mechanics. But there is also a lot of potential left with Ascend and Recall, where it would be interesting to see them evolve even further.

Reviving my Nintendo 64

While I have a collection of older Nintendo consoles and games, I'm not much of a retro gamer. I still have my Wii U hooked up to my TV, where this is as "retro" as it gets at the moment and I mostly stick to my Nintendo Switch and the PC for gaming. My older systems rest somewhere in boxes, but from time to time I feel the need to check everything out to see if it still works.

Now, there is the problem that I don't have a tube TV any longer, not even a TV with a SCART input. So, I did get an adapter from Kaico (from my own money, so I'm not sponsored or anything), which gets put into the Nintendo 64 directly, converts the signal to HDMI, and even upscales it to 1080p. I already had the same item for my old Xbox, where I was quite happy with it and now decided to get one for my remaining consoles without HDMI.

There are also a variety of SCART to HDMI adapters available, but such a native adapter felt more natural to me and it also doesn't need an extra power source, you just plug it into your console and then use any HDMI cable. It's very simple. Of course a SCART adapter can be used on pretty much all the old consoles, but this thing also works with your Super Nintendo and GameCube, since they have the same output port. So, this really covers the rest of my old consoles, which were the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube. But I've only tested my Nintendo 64 so far and the result was quite satisfying...

My first test was with Turok: Rage Wars, because that's my only Nintendo 64 game that didn't make make it on PC or a later Nintendo system. This was also my first Arena Shooter and is therefore still quite dear to me, where I was immediately happy to see that the 100% save game on my Controller Pack is still alive. It won't be that way forever, since everything for Nintendo 64 relied on batteries, where I probably should make a back-up soon, as long as it's still possible...

Both my save files for Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are also still there, which is quite incredible, given how it's been over 20 years. Most of my Game Boy cartridges have dead batteries by now, however, where it's only a matter of time for the Nintendo 64 stuff to meet the same terrible fate. But since I have all of these games on later systems it's not really critical... Only the above save from Turok: Rage Wars would be a bit of a loss.

The two Nintendo 64 Zelda games don't look as good, where the graphics appear a lot more pixelated and the picture is a bit too bright. The Temple of Time now really looks like it was supposed to be the Temple of Light:

Well, it looks much better on the photo, because this is making things darker as well, but in reality I can hardly read the "500" in the bottom left corner, because the backdrop is simply too bright. Of course it stops to be a problem once you leave the Temple of Time...

It probably helps that Turok: Rage Wars was quite dark by default and got also made for split-screen multiplayer, where they kept the graphics clean and simple to keep the performance up. But for whatever reason the image doesn't fill the screen, while it does for the two Zelda games. So, it's not perfect by any means and I can't 100% recommend it, but for my purposes this adapter turned out to be a good and simple choice.

Majora's Mask 3D: Song of Time Screen Icons?

Ikhana Kingdom has faced me with an interesting question, where I had to do some digging to find an answer. When you play the Song of Time in Majora's Mask 3D, it shows you on the touchscreen what you are going to lose, most of it anyway, as a warning. It's essentially a mix of your item selection screen and the right column on the gear screen. When you travel back in time any type of ammo will be set to 0 and you will also lose the content of your bottles, as well as all the trading quest items, like the Moon's Tear or the Room Key, where those go into the right column.

However, there is another row of items at the bottom, showing your Rupees, whether the Pictograph Box has photo or not, and four more slots for... something. And this led to the question: What are these four slots for?

Ikhana already had found out what the third and fourth slots are via a reddit thread, leaving the first two a mystery for the both of us. For me it has been many years since I've played the Nintendo 3DS remake, so I couldn't remember if I ever saw any of these. But I do remember that I was wondering about this myself while playing the game, where it now it was the time to finally satisfy that curiosity... Anyway, I couldn't find anything on the internet, so I had to boot up my good old Majora's Mask themed 3DS and find out myself.

Do you know what goes in there? Do you have any guesses? Well, click to find the answer:

It's Boss Key, Key, Stray Fairy, and Gold Skulltula. It doesn't show you any numbers, where I got multiple Gold Skulltulas from both Spider Houses for example. So, it's just an indicator that you have something left, which you haven't used up yet. The Stray Fairy will change its color, however, if you have collected some from multiple temples.

I don't think I ever saw any of these before, because I usually don't use the Song of Time when I have any of this in place. But it's good to finally know, where this has been a fun little mystery!

Majora's Mask @ Nintendo Switch Online

The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack has been a mixed bag, where the only exclusive thing so far are the Nintendo 64 games, but the emulation efforts were a new low for Nintendo. The input lag is quite high, the games look(ed) weird, there is no button remapping, and it all just doesn't feel like it's worth the extra 20€ per year.

Now, last Friday, on February 25th, Nintendo has added The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask to this list, but also updated the Nintendo 64 application to version 2.0.0. This video by ZFG provides a good overview of what was done, where Ocarina of Time now looks much closer to the original with certain effects, like the fog, restored, while the input lag was also reduced a bit.

This is great, in some aspects the games are now even better than on Wii (U), where certain textures have been improved, like for example the flames. But overall this still seems to be the worst option for replaying the Nintendo 64 classics. As of now, I would only recommend the Expansion Pack to people for whom the Nintendo Switch really is the only way of playing these games.

Still, with the release of Majora's Mask, porting over The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD feels all the more inviting, because then we would have a collection of all 3D Zelda games on the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Announced

If a Nintendo fan hears "Expansion Pack", he/she probably thinks of the Nintendo 64 and its RAM update. And finally the Nintendo Switch Online service really sees an expansion in the form of Nintendo 64 titles, as well as Sega Mega Drive. You will even be able to purchase the respective controllers via the My Nintendo Store, similar to NES and SNES before.

However, it's literally an "Expansion Pack", because you have to upgrade your membership. This is somewhat disappointing, considering that the service simply put a paywall in front of the peer-to-peer online gaming, something that used to be completely free on previous Nintendo systems. That still has a sour taste to it and while the service is quite cheap, it's mainly justified by the extras, like these classic game libraries, where there hasn't been all that much. Some free games, like Tetris 99, and the NES and SNES libraries. That's about it.

So, will we have to get yet another expanded membership, should they decide to add GameBoy titles? Or will any future classic game library be part of the Expansion Pack? Will they still add more to the basic membership from now on? Questions over questions about all of this...

Anyway, Ocarina of Time will be part of the Nintendo 64 launch titles and Majora's Mask will come to the service later on. This brings two more Zelda games to the Nintendo Switch, where now something like a "3D collection" feels much less likely. It would still make sense to put The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD together on Switch, but it will most likely come without the Nintendo 64 games now, because Nintendo wants you to pay for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. At the same time, this also makes a "Nintendo 64 Mini" feel less likely.

Ideally, they will also add Master Quest later on. This never found its way to the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles, but Nintendo likes to add some specialties to the Nintendo Switch Online libraries, like Star Fox 2. And we're actually getting Banjo & Kazooie back for the first time, so that's something and should certainly make some fans happy.

Got the F4F Majora's Mask

Got this today as a birthday present! Really nice surprise. It's the First 4 Figures PVC Majora's Mask, which you can also mount on a wall, much like Link did in A Link Between Worlds. This is the simpler version without any LED stuff, which I personally prefer, but the metal stand looks cheap, where it would have been nice, if F4F came up with something better here as well. But the mask itself looks really good and is very detailed, I like it a lot.

Anyway, this is my first First 4 Figures figure... from the Zelda collection at least, since I also own the one of Samus Aran (see here).

Another Game of the Decade

It feels like yesterday that The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has claimed the title "Game of the Decade" on GameFAQs.com (see here) and now another Zelda game has done it again, beating The Witcher 3 in the finale — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Of course GameFAQs isn't exactly the most representative site and it's all just in good fun, but it's still nice to see that Breath of the Wild is getting some more praise. I'd even say that it deserves the title "Game of the Decade" more than Majora's Mask did for what it has accomplished. The game truly has been a success to the Zelda franchise and has been the biggest milestone for the series ever since Ocarina of Time, as well as an important milestone for open world games overall.

However, I personally would not say it's the Game of Decade. That title should probably go something that has defined gaming even more in the last ten years...

Minecraft. Rarely ever there has been a game so successful and influential as this one. It sold ten times as much as Breath of the Wild and became the beautiful childhood memories for an entire generation of gamers. Exploration and a great joy of discovery, which have made Breath of the Wild so good, also are a huge part of its experience, on top of the high amount of creativity that this game supports. Minecraft is just pure gaming magic.

Breath of the Wild can keep you playing for hundreds of hours until you've done and explored everything. And it does so really well. Minecraft, however, can be played forever.

Majora's Mask 20th Anniversary

Every Nintendo lover out there seems to make a hot story out of this anniversary, since there doesn't seem to be anything else to talk about right now - other than turnip prices in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so I might as well as join in on the fun. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask just turned 20 years today, congratulations!

This actually caught me off guard, because for me the 20th Anniversary of the game would have been in November, which was a much more fitting time for this type of game. But it seems that Japan got it half a year before the rest of the world, which wasn't unusual back then...

Majora's Mask was actually the first Zelda game, where I got the game on launch day (November 17th in Europe) and where I closely followed any news about the game from magazines and TV, because of the lack of internet. This started with articles about "Zelda Gaiden" and later "The Mask of Mujula", depicting how very different the game will be and feel from Ocarina of Time.

Not counting Ancient Stone Tablets, this was actually the first Zelda game that re-used the engine, graphics, sounds, characters, enemies and items from a previous title to save some development time. To me it never felt like this was a bad thing, because Ocarina of Time was absolutely amazing and I was excited to get more like it. To get a game that expands many of the ideas, like the masks, the time system and the different tribes. The idea of transforming into a Deku, Goron or Zora was ingenious and still is.

In many ways both N64 Zelda games also complement each other. Majora's Mask had very different environments to offer and set its focus clearly on side quests and character interactions, while it only offered four main temples. And together both games create one big experience that shouldn't be missed by anyone.

Happy 20th Anniversary, Majora's Mask!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Six Reasons Hinting at Playable Skull Kid

For the last two months I've been quite active on the Smash Ultimate boards of GameFAQs, fighting the same battle over and over again: I'm an advocate of playable Skull Kid, mainly because there have been many signs pointing at his inclusion as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate since the Direct in August.

But there have been some fierce detractors, who are very outspoken against Skull Kid. Some of it has to do with the board's obsession of self-proclaimed "leakers", like LeakyPandy, who claims that Skull Kid will only appear as a boss. One other "leaker", who supported Skull Kid after the August Direct, lost all of his credibility later on, which took the wind out of Skull Kid's sails and even worse, gave the Skull Kid detractors the thought-terminating cliché that Skull Kid's support only came from said leaker.

But that's far from the truth, because there have been many reasons, why people might believe that Skull Kid is finally playable this time. I took the time to compile the six most convincing reasons as a reference:

• His Assist Trophy wasn't shown yet, while we got a new Assist Trophy from Majora's Mask, the Moon, completely without him, which is suspicious and puts him into a similar position to Isabelle (or Shadow).
• Young Link is the only Zelda character, where we haven't seen his Final Smash yet. It might be Fierce Deity Link, where they want to save it for Skull Kid's reveal, where his Final Smash might be a form of Majora (e.g. Incarnation or Wrath).
• Majora's Mask was a Mii costume item in Smash 4, much like Chrom, Isabelle or K. Rool, showing its popularity. It was even tagged as "bring Skull Kid into Smash", which shows that this wasn't just about the mask.
• Both Metroid and Donkey Kong got a new rep in form of a villain. Zelda is very popular and also long overdue of a new rep (nothing in Smash 4, only a clone in Brawl), where Skull Kid is arguably the most popular and recognizable choice for a new playable character and a villain. Skull Kid was also a recurring character in the Zelda series, appearing also in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, while Majora's Mask was included in both A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild as an item.
• Majora's Mask 3D was freshly released in 2015, when development of Ultimate began. Fans had been asking for this remake for years in the "Project Moonfall" campaign, showing its popularity to Nintendo.
• During E3 the room decoration with a barrel and a rope ladder eventually hinted at a Donkey Kong newcomer in the colors of King K. Rool (red, yellow and green). During the August Smash Direct, where King K. Rool finally got revealed at the end, we had another suspicious room decoration with a sofa and two chairs in the colors of Skull Kid's rags and his fairies. This is commonly known as "chair theory".

Especially the latter gets a lot of bashing - even the name "chair theory" is just an insult, because the people like to reduce it to the yellow and purple chairs, which could hint at a number of characters, like Waluigi, or at nothing at all... It's often dismissed that there's a suspicious sofa as well and that the same thing apparently happened for King K. Rool during E3. So, this theory gets ridiculed all the time and a lot of laughs.

Of course none of this confirms Skull Kid as a playable character, but all of this is strongly suggesting the possibility. And because of this I've been defending the idea since the last two months. I still might be completely wrong and really end up being disappointed, because Skull Kid was only a boss after all. But I would be disappointed in that case either way, because it would be the same situation as in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, where the most promising Zelda characters end up as non-playable.

Super Smash Bros. Zelda Stages: Great Bay

Great Bay is finally back. This is the only Zelda stage from the first three Smash Bros. games that didn't reappear in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. So, it's good to have it back and it's looking better than ever, with some details taken from Majora's Mask 3D. Apparently you can now even spot a Piece of Heart in the background, where you would find it in the original game...

Well, despite the attention to detail the stage isn't entirely faithful to the original location, of course, because some creative liberties had to be taken to turn the Marine Research Laboratory into an actual stage, like turning it by 90° or having the giant turtle appear right next to it. The whole act of the Moon crashing on Termina was also altered and of course fastened.

It will be interesting to see, how the Moon Assist Trophy is affected by this stage. Ideally they would use the Moon from the stage for this, since the Assist Trophy even starts appearing in the same corner:

So, there could be a seamless transition from what's already present. The same could even happen with Tingle, if he happens to return as an Assist Trophy - you could simply have the Tingle on the stage do weird things.

Most of the Zelda stages usually depict an area from the early game, but Great Bay is an exception to this, much like Gerudo Valley (though you can visit the Gerudo Valley first thing as a child after leaving Kokiri Forest, if you wanted to).

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Skull Kid?

Today's Direct for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate showed us a new Assist Trophy, which was the Moon from Majora's Mask crashing on the stage. What a spectacle! But it's really noticeable, how Skull Kid was missing in all of this. They could showed his Assist Trophy in addition to the moon or even make the Moon the final phase of his pranks. But he is nowhere to be found...

His chances of becoming playable basically sky-rocketed and he is slowly becoming my new most wanted, next to Princess Hilda and Minecraft. The Zelda series needs at least two newcomers, now that Fire Emblem has surpassed Zelda with its count of playable characters. And there's a good chance that Fire Emblem will have at least one more newcomer as well. So, Zelda needs to step it up!

With Echo Fighters Hilda and Impa seem like the likeliest candidates now. I was previously against adding Impa as an Echo for Sheik, but seeing how Chrom got added as a Roy Echo, the characters don't necessarily have to be counterparts in some form, like Samus and Dark Samus. Speaking of, Dark Link or Shadow Link could have been Echoes as well, but they are seemingly still just alternate costumes.

Anyway, back to Skull Kid... It seems like there is a bigger focus on villains this time with Ridley, Dark Samus and King K. Rool all being added to the roster. And the only villain left in the Zelda series, who is interesting enough, who isn't a one-off character, who isn't potentially stuck in some Capcom rights limbo and who isn't just another henchman of Ganon would be Skull Kid. He appeared in three major 3D Zelda games and was basically the villain of one of them. He's easily the most deserving candidate to finally become a playable unique character from the Zelda series in Smash, who isn't part of the Triforce Trio.

Majora's Mask itself is also an icon of the series. It has been in a lot of games lately, including A Link Between Worlds, as an item in Breath of the Wild and even a Mii costume in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. Plus, Majora's Mask 3D came out in the same year, where Super Smash Bros. Ultimate started development, so it was certainly in mind at the time.

I can already picture the reveal trailer, where Young Link fights against him and both their Final Smashes clash at the end: Fierce Deity vs. Majora's Wrath. Since the Moon is an Assist Trophy, it makes sense that Skull Kid's Final Smash is some form of Majora. The trailer could start in the Lost Woods with the Earthbound kids getting lost and being tricked.

Skull Kid wouldn't need his own stage, necessarily, but a Clock Tower stage on the Carnival of Time would be amazing to have. It could even transition to the Moon Meadow.

Update:
Apparently, the room deco in the Direct referenced the colors of Skull Kid, mainly the colors of the couch and a yellow and a purple chair for Tatl and Tael. Nintendo seemingly did something similar for K. Rool in the E3 Direct, where you had a barrel and rope ladder in Sakurai's office, hinting at a DK newcomer. The hype is on!

Zelda Encyclopedia: Errors, Oddities and Contradictions

What a book! I've spent the majority of this Saturday's afternoon with sitting on my balcony, skipping through the The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia, probably the most extensive work in Dark Horse's Goddess Collection. Much like Arts & Artifacts provided an amazing visual journey through the entire Zelda series prior to Breath of the Wild, it's nice to have this comprehensive collection of information about all the games in the old timelines with Encyclopedia.

I do enjoy having this clean cut created by the 30th Anniversary of Zelda, where everything was coming together once again in these books, before Breath of the Wild created a massive milestone afterwards, essentially starting a new era for Zelda. Well, Breath of the Wild is so expansive, it probably could fill its own book, where there's actually one with Master Works, which will be released in English later this year, also by Dark Horse.

That being said, with a book of this size (328 pages full of information), it is prone to errors. And while it bothers me to have small translation errors here and there, I'm more angered by the fact that the original writers "added their own interpretations and expanded upon the games' stories" seemingly without any supervision. This effectively makes this whole book "non-canon", as thorough as it might have been researched.

Some of these "own interpretations" feel like cheap fan theories, which shouldn't be part of such a book. With Hyrule Historia I was overall fine with what they had established as "facts", but the Encyclopedia went a little bit too far and might even contradict the games at times. I guess, I have to let to sink some of the information in, but here are some larger things of notice:

Oracle of Seasons & Ages in the Timeline

The changed / fixed the timeline placement of Oracles of Seasons & Ages to their own era after Link's Awakening. This is completely fine and it really can go either way. The ending of the Oracle games made it look like they were a prequel to Link's Awakening, where Link sets off in a boat that resembles the one from the intro, where he gets stranded on Koholint. And since Link's Awakening was always said to be a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, Hyrule Historia placed the Oracle games between the two classics.

But, this was always a controversy... Link and Zelda in the Oracle games looks much younger than in A Link to the Past, following the games' main artworks. And when Link and Zelda meet, the dialogues make it sound like they meet for the first time, with Zelda introducing herself. So, this never added up and it's probably a good thing that this was now changed in hindsight.

However, the English version states on page 19 that the hero in the Oracle games is the same one as from A Link to the Past... Which doesn't make any sense at all. Why would they put the games AFTER Link's Awakening, where Link's fate originally always was unknown, if not to make this a story of a new Link? But as far as I know, this is a translation mistake in the English version and the Japanese version states the opposite.

All the timeline diagrams also always put a gap between Link's Awakening and the Oracle games, which symbolizes a jump between different eras, which makes it quite clear that this is supposed to be a new Link and a new Zelda.

Termina Vanished

The Encyclopedia explains that Termina was created by Majora's Mask from the mind of the Skull Kid and that it ceased to exist, after the Hero left... Which doesn't seem to be the case in the game, because we saw the people celebrating, after Link had left. We also saw the Deku Butler mourning for his son in what should have been a part of the Lost Woods... But apparently it was all just another Koholint.

It feels like Nintendo just wanted to shut up the fans asking for another game taking place in Termina, but this kind of kills the mystery surrounding these lands... It does explain, how both Link and the Happy Mask Salesman disappear into thin air at the end of the game. But the thought that you can find your way to Termina through the Lost Woods was always exciting.

Geographical Guesses

Other than the fact that Termina apparently doesn't exist, the book also some controversies about Hyrule and the countries surrounding it.

It treats both Holodrum and Labrynna as some "parallel worlds", while we know that both Zelda and Impa travelled there from Hyrule. Characters from the Oracle games also travel between the two lands, so everything should be connected somehow, but not according to the Encyclopedia...

It doesn't get better with Hytopia, where the book downright states that it lies north of Hyrule, a fact that's coming out of nowhere and has no evidence whatsoever. To make things worse, it formulates the theory that the Northern Hyrule from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link might be, where Hytopia is located, because the people there are so "fashionable". What...?!

At least it acknowledges the fact that the southwest corner of the map from Zelda II is supposed to be the old Hyrule from the first game. But it then tries to make sense out of things by placing the first Hyrule at the foot of Death Mountain from A Link to the Past... I guess, you can see it that way and the Graveyard location does match, but it doesn't explain, how there's suddenly an ocean to the southeast.

So, the book tries to connect similar areas from different eras, where some of these connections are quite questionable. Another example would be Dragon Roost Island, where every fan would have guessed that this is actually Death Mountain from Ocarina of Time. But, no, apparently it's Zora's Fountain, simply because the Zora evolved into the Rito...

If they wanted to theorize about connections like that, they could have used the "Lost Woods" in Oracle of Seasons, where you can find the Master Sword in a Linked Game, as an indication that Holodrum is a neighboring country of Hyrule, instead of deeming it as some parallel world like Lorule.

The Noble Master Four Sword

Apropos Master Sword in the Oracle games... Now, this never made any sense and the Encyclopedia explains it with the Noble Sword receiving the Master Sword's powers. But this doesn't make any sense either, because you never upgrade the Noble Sword, you always get a new sword. And in one case you can even find the Noble or Master Sword on a pedestal in Holodrum's Lost Wood, which is very reminiscent of how you find the Master Sword in A Link to the Past...

At the same time the book states that you can "swap" the Four Sword in Four Swords with the Master Sword by unlocking it in A Link to the Past (page 131)... In reality the Four Sword gains a sword beam akin to the Master Sword, but it doesn't become the Master Sword. The unlockable ability is simply called "Master Sword", but you don't wield the Master Sword in the game. But apparently no one told this the the authors of this book...

Here it would have been correct to say that the Four Sword gained the powers of the Master Sword. The ingame icon for the ability even clearly shows the Four Sword shooting a sword beam, not the Master Sword.

The Dungeon List

The Encyclopedia comes with an extensive "Database" section, where they have a list of "all" the dungeons from all the games. But this one feels rather inconsistent. For starters, they've listed both the Pyramid of Power and the "Mountain Cave" as dungeons in A Link to the Past. Why?

You would think that they are simply being thorough, but it's really an exception. It doesn't list the Maku Path from Oracle of Ages, for example, which at least has a dungeon map screen and is certainly more of a dungeon than some normal caves. How's the "Mountain Cave" any different from other cave complexes in other Zelda games?

In Link's Awakening they list the Southern Face Shrine as a dungeon (that's three rooms), but not the Dream Shrine (that's four rooms). It also doesn't feature the Royal Crypt from The Minish Cap, even though that's an excellent mini-dungeon.

With mini-dungeons it seems to be quite a picky list overall, not featuring the optional ones from the N64 games. It does have the Cave of Ordeals and Cave of Shadows from Twilight Princess, but not the Savage Labyrinth from the Wind Waker, even though those are effectively the same dungeon concepts in the same size.

It lists the "Dark Realm" as a dungeon from Spirit Tracks (it's really not a dungeon, it's just Pac-Man rail tracks), but not the Lost at Sea Station dungeon, which was a huge homage to the Ocean King Temple.

It lists all 32 levels from Tri Force Heroes, plus the Den of Trials, but it doesn't have the Realm of Memories, nor the Hero's Trial from the Four Swords Anniversary Edition. Which leads us to the following point...

Four Swords Anniversary Edition as a Side Note

While the book goes thoroughly through all retail releases of the Zelda series, the enhanced digital-only release of Four Swords for the 25th Anniversary apparently isn't even "canon". It got put on the same page as the BS-X Zelda games, Link's Crossbow Training and the Twilight Princess Picross...

The book is mentioning that this new release has levels based on three past Zelda games, but it doesn't give a name and doesn't mention the Hero's Trial in any form, as if this never existed. It feels like the writers never got to play this version of the game and decided not to bother with it at all. Very disappointing. It would have been nice to read some explanations for both these areas or to at least have their existence acknowledged somehow.

"Minor" Mistakes

While I haven't read everything yet, I've noticed some obvious errors here and there (this list will be updated):

• The timeline page (11) claims that Ganon was part of the story from Four Swords, probably confusing things with Four Swords Adventures. Again, did the authors even play these games? Probably not.
• The Lorule pages (32 and 33) have a caption "Life in Hyrule", despite showing villagers wearing monster masks in Lorule.
• The Item Database lists the "Piece of Power" from Link's Awakening as a "Critical" (= main quest reward) item, while it's just a "Consumable" power-up. Someone probably confused it for the Triforce of Power here.
• ...

Postbox: Early Mountain Village in Majora's Mask 3D

Hey there,

I'm a long time reader of your wonderful blog. Recently I stumbled upon a sequence break that let's your visit the Snowhead area early, before you get the bow, and I was wondering whether you were aware of that, since I haven't read anything about it on your blog.

There's a short video explaining how to do it on Youtube here:

MM3D: Mountain Village Early Tutorial

I think it's arguable whether this constitues as a glitch or not. I'm pretty sure it isn't intentional, but on the other hand it doesn't involve anything like glitching through walls or wrong warping, and it doesn't seem to break the game either.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this, in case you're interested. :)

I wasn't aware of this and it's certainly interesting. So, thanks for the find!

Usually I'm not one for glitches, which is why you won't find much about it on this blog, but if it's light oversights like this I do like to explore them. I guess, you could compare this to how you could enter Ikana Village with just the Hookshot in the Nintendo 64 version by aiming at the one tree. It probably wasn't intentional and didn't work for me anymore in the Nintendo 3DS version, but it's still fun to use this for some sequence breaking. (Another comparison would be using single wall jumps in Super Metroid to get certain items like the Wave Beam earlier.)

In general I think that Majora's Mask could have been more open and leave the order of the four regions to the player, instead of sticking to a certain sequence. The game can be open at times, but it should allow more.

That being said, with this "glitch" you should be able to get as far as Snowhead Temple, but not any further, because you will need the Bow there in order to finish the dungeon. Apparently you can't even get or use the Fire Arrows, if you go as far. But at least you will be able to use the Goron early in the game, which is neat. I might even try this, when I replay Majora's Mask 3D some time in the future.

More Link amiibo Announced

You may not have noticed, because - like me - you are too busy with playing Breath of the Wild, but there was a Nintendo Direct yesterday. The only real Zelda news were some more amiibo, which seems like a continuation of the 30th Anniversary line and only really adds more Links...

• Link from Majora's Mask
• Link from Twilight Princess
• Link from Skyward Sword

What? No Link from A Link Between Worlds? Well, these amiibo already are supported by Breath of the Wild, where you can get a full Fierce Deity set from the first one, so this wasn't a huge surprise.

Source: Twitter

Replaying Majora's Mask on the Wii U

If I ever rank all the Zelda games, I will have to put Majora's Mask above Ocarina of Time for sure. As with the Nintendo 3DS remasterakes last year, I felt that Majora's Mask gave me the better replay value, because there is just so much to do all at once in the world of Termina with it's many sidequests. The world is also quite dense when compared to other 3D Zelda games and there's something to discover / to find / to do in every nook. It's just really well designed and there are no dull moments in this game, unlike in Ocarina of Time, where you keep going through the Field of Nothingness.

Similar to last time on the Nintendo 3DS I tried to do as much in one cycle as possible for my 100% run on the Wii U. Since the Song of Inverted Time essentially triples the available time, I was effortlessly able to clear one entire area per cycle:

• Cycle 1: Deku Minigame, Lottery
• Cycle 2: Clocktown sidequests, Southern Swamp, Swamp Spider House, Woodfall Temple, Romani Ranch (3rd Day)
• Cycle 3: Anju & Kafei Quest (partly), Snowhead, Snowhead Temple, Gilded Sword
• Cycle 4: Romani Ranch, Ikana Graveyard
• Cycle 5: Great Bay, Oceanside Spider House, Great Bay Temple, Frog Choir, Deku Tile Trade
• Cycle 6: Anju & Kafei Quest (complete), Anju's Grandmother's stories
• Cycle 6: Ikana, Stone Tower, Moon

On the third cycle I was mostly playing without a sword, where I had to realize (again) that you can actually activate Owl Statues with a Deku Stick. It doesn't work with any other weapons around the time, you can't use the Goron First or the Deku and it tells you to use your sword, but a Deku Stick does the trick as well.

Again, this run was nothing impressive, but beating the game in this way felt pretty good. What didn't feel good was the analog stick aiming, however. Gyro aiming was pretty much one of the best additions to the 3D series, where we can only hope that this will stay from now on, because going back to aiming with analog sticks is just frustrating. In Majora's Mask 3D I could easily score a "Perfect" in both Shooting Galleries on my first try. Back to Majora's Mask on Virtual Console I have to keep trying, trying and trying to get it done eventually...

Curiously enough, I found the Town Shooting Gallery somewhat easier than the one in Swamp, mostly because you only have to aim horizontally, while in the Swamp Shooting Gallery you have to shoot things all over the place. The Swamp Shooting Gallery is still the easier one, however, because the one in Clock Town just doesn't leave any room for error. You can't hit any blue Octoroks and the Octoroks will be gone quickly, where there's no second chances. A "Perfect" really is perfect play here.

I also had an issue with the 10-seconds-minigame at the Post Office, because there is some slight input lag, where I wasn't able to hit the 10 second mark accurately. The Wii U version also has the same downside as the Nintendo 3DS version with the Goron Labyrinth, where going straight is not so easy thanks to the completely rounded analog stick.

Otherwise the Virtual Console version was pretty good. I didn't mind the lower framerate as much as with Ocarina of Time, though this could be because I finally got used to it again, but the graphics are also somewhat nicer thanks to the Expansion Pack dependency of the original game. And of course it's nice to use Zora Link more freely again or use Ice Arrows wherever you want, though I didn't really play with the latter. But overall the Nintendo 3DS version made same changes to the worse, where the original version of the game still has some ground, unlike with Ocarina of Time, where there's no real reason to go back.

But there are also some changes and features from the Nintendo 3DS remasterake, that I missed. A smaller example would be planting the Deku Bean at the wall near Deku Palace. You can really get used to the shortcut and I forgot to bring some fresh Spring Water with me, where there's no pond around in the Nintendo 64 version. I would have had to go back, if it wasn't for the rain, which came with the start of the 2nd Day.

And the fishing in Majora's Mask 3D really grew on me, so that I kind of was missing it somewhat here, but since I don't have too much time left for the 3D Zelda games, before Breath of the Wild gets released, it's a good thing that I don't spent the additional hours with the game. I kind of have to rush things, while still going for the 100%.

Anyway, here are some fun RNG facts of my latest playthrough:

• Bomber Code: 45321
• Lottery Numbers: 251, 201 and 443

Another big advantage of the Wii U Virtual Console version are certainly Restore Points, which I mostly used for some of the minigames. In the already mentioned Clock Town Shooting for example, I could skip the early parts after mastering them. Or with the Zora Swimming you can set a Restore Point after the first race, so you don't have to do it again.

There isn't much else to do with Restore Points, though. Of course you can now leave the game at any time without the need of saving ingame thanks to Return Points, but this already worked on the Wii. There is Sakon's Hideout as an ideal point for saving and I also used it for the Heart Piece at Ikana Castle, where I really struggled to get this one on the Nintendo 3DS last time. Turns out that this isn't a problem at all in the Nintendo 64 / Virtual Console version.

Restore Points also now allow you to finally create a "perfect" savegame at the end, where you even might want to max out all items:

Why do we need to carry a total of 20 Magic Beans? 10 would have been enough (and make sense, since there were only 10 in Ocarina of Time).

But otherwise I was in a rush and despite the ongoing "time limit" in the game, Majora's Mask isn't a game that ought to be rushed. I didn't have many Nintendo 64 days as a kid, but this game alone could keep me entertained for a very long time, because it offers the "Adventure Sand Box" feel that Zelda should have. There's so much to discover and to try in every corner and thanks to the three-day-cycle you can do it all all over again and try different things at any time. With the masks alone there are so many hidden secrets, for example you can use the Captain's Hat and the Bremen Mask for some hilarious reactions during the Igos du Ikana Battle. It's these kind of details that drive the overall replay value of the game.

Time's End II & Terrible Fate

Theophany is back with a follow-up to his Time's End album from four years ago! To top things this time, he cooperated with EmberLab creating a massively amazing Majora's Mask fan animation about the Happy Mask Salesman and Skull Kid receiving Majora's Mask. Really good stuff, so check it all out:

TerribleFate.com
Theophany on Bandcamp
Terrible Fate on Youtube

It seems like Theophany focused on the Woodfall / Swamp region with this album, while the first album was about Clocktown, so we might get more releases for the remaining regions in the future...? I certainly wouldn't mind at all!

Let's Update Majora's Mask 3D

If Majora's Mask 3D ever received a 2.0 update, what would it offer? What would it contain? In the "Let's Update" series on Hyrule Blog we talk about hypothetical updates to existing Zelda games that would provide meaningful improvements and possible content additions.

Majora's Mask 3D already did receive an update to the version 1.1, however, it only fixed some smaller bugs and errors. Let's do a little more with the game.


Visuals, Controls and Interface

The 3D effect should go deeper and the camera should be adjusted more to the back to avoid any 3D clipping errors. Overall it should feel more like Ocarina of Time 3D. And like in the prequel, you should be able to assign items to the I and II touchscreen buttons by selecting the item and tapping the button.

The Select button should open the item inventory, instead of the Bomber's Notebook. Notifications for the latter also should be deactivatable in the options menu. Everything still gets recorded, but the notebook won't show up every time you do or find something.

Many fans also probably would want the Zora Swimming to work like in the original game, without the barrier. This could be realized by making it so that tapping A twice and holding the button makes you swim faster. Naturally the Magic Pots in the Beaver Race wouldn't be needed anymore.


Warp and Save Points

Majora's Mask 3D did add Quill Statues for saving the game in several places, where some of them should be turned into actual Owl Statues for warping. These new warp locations should be:

• Deku Palace
• Goron Village
• Pirate Fortress
• Ikana Graveyard

Additionally the update should add new Quill Statues in front of both the Fishing Holes, so it's easier to save your progress during the fishing minigames.


New Skulltula House

There needs to be some new content and the easiest way to add something would be another Skulltula House, hiding 30 new Gold Skulltulas (or even 40 to make it a full 100 gold spiders in Termina). The Skulltula Houses both offer a lot of fun and a unique atmosphere, so adding one certainly would be appealing.

The best location would be in the Mountain Village, which never really has been an actual village with just one house:

The minidungeon itself would focus the usage of Goron Link and Hot Spring Water, so lots of ice and boulders. You should be able to enter and beat it right after acquiring the Goron Mask. Having the Fire Arrows makes the "Mountain Skulltula House" easier, but it shouldn't be required.

The reward would be another wallet upgrade, where in the end you can get the Colossal Wallet holding 999 Rupees. It's not the most original new reward, especially since the Ocean Skulltula House gives you the same thing, but there isn't any space for new masks or items. And that way it would be on par with our Ocarina of Time 3D Update.


Master Quest Mode

Another addition would be a Master Quest mode for veteran players. It's a 2nd Quest with the following changes:

• Double damage
• Hearts only appear when using the Couple's Mask
• (Mirrored game world)
• Stray Fairies hidden in different places
• More and tougher enemies inside dungeons
• Original boss fights
• Original Zora Dungeon on the Moon

The Zora Moon Dungeon and the original Twinmold fight would make the game easier in these parts, but overall it should be a mode that attracts the fans of the original Nintendo 64 game in different ways.

It probably would be tough or too much work for GREZZO / Nintendo to alter the four temples in similar ways to the dungeons from the original Master Quest for Ocarina of Time, but in the very least they could make the selection of enemies more challenging, e.g. fighting multiple Dinolfos in Woodfall Temple or even Iron Knuckles inside the Stone Tower Temple. The Stray Fairies also should be hidden in more difficult places, where in case of the Woodfall Temple they could use some of the hiding spots that had been changed from the N64 version.

Whether the game world should be mirrored like in Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest or the Hero Mode of Twilight Princess HD is questionable. But it probably would be interesting to see Termina in a flipped state and also not too confusing, since Clocktown and the dungeons have been built around symmetry. It's actually quite easy to imagine a mirrored Termina. The clocks would go in the wrong direction, though.

Majora's Mask 3D Fishing Journal 2, Final Day

With all the freebies on Thursday it felt like Nintendo honestly didn't want me to find time to return to my fishing sessions and catch that final piece for my collection, but I did it anyway and thus finally completed Majora's Mask 3D again.

The strategy to catch the Great Fairy Fish was pretty much the same as last time. Go do a lot fishing at the Ocean Fishing Hole during the first two days and then save your game at the Dawn of the Final Day, so you can reset, if you didn't have any luck. Now, keep using the door at the Ocean Fishing Hole with the Great Fairy's Mask on, until the hair glimmers. Then check for the Great Fairy Fish (you really have to go close to the crystal cave as Zora Link) and repeat, if it's not there.

Any small Fairy Fish then will do, it doesn't matter much, where they are. You don't have to push your luck and try to find a combination, where the small one spawns right in front of the big one. You can just lure him there and use your Fishing Rod to move him in the right spot.

Finally, reeling the Great Fairy Fish in takes a long time with the incredibly weak Young Link, for me it took 5 ingame hours with the Inverted Song of Time in tact. So, you probably don't want to try this after the final midnight, or else the moon might crash on your during the process. Play it safe.

Luckily with such a big fish the pillars in the water don't seem to be a problem. With smaller fish like the Ambrosial Amberjack the borders can really get in the way and make it hard to reel them in at the end. Landing fish on the shore is much easier. But this doesn't seem to be a problem with the really large fish, which just pop on the ground easily.

Here are my records of my second fishing playthrough (the values in parenthesis are from the German translation):

• Termina Bass: 13cm (60cm)
• Termina Loach: 22cm (79cm)
• Groovy Carp: 5cm (38cm)
• Sweet Ranchfish: 5cm (39cm)
• Fragrant Reekfish: 10cm (52cm)
• Mooranha: 5cm (38cm)
• Postal Salmon: 34cm (97cm)
• Cuccofish: 6cm (40cm)
• Ancient Fish: 107cm (172cm)
• Ferocious Pirarucu: 174cm (220cm)
• Colossal Catfish: 117cm (180cm)
• Lord Chapu-Chapu: 357cm (315cm)

• Termina Seabass: 32cm (95cm)
• Goodta Goby: 6cm (42cm)
• Ambrosial Amberjack: 39cm (104cm)
• Bashful Angler: 47cm (114cm)
• Dancing Sea Bream: 21cm (76cm)
• Fairy Fish: 11cm (56cm)
• Ninja Flounder: 20cm (75cm)
• Skullfish: 34cm (97cm)
• Nuptuna: 97cm (164cm)
• Grand Swordfish: 184cm (226cm)
• Savage Shark: 223cm (249cm)
• Great Fairy Fish: 342cm (308cm)

It took me a total of three cycles (about 6 real hours) to replay the fishing minigame and it overall was quite enjoyable. I probably wouldn't do it again anytime soon and rather try to improve the size records for each fish, but if you're only aiming at catching one fish per type to get the entries, it can be done pretty quickly.

Majora's Mask 3D Fishing Journal 2, Day 2

Another day has passed and another 3-day-cycle of fishing is over. I have to say that playing this sidequest after everything else in Majora's Mask 3D does feel good. Link saved Termina from its demise already and now it's time to relax somewhat and do some fishing after all these troubles.

Yesterday the Sweet Ranchfish gave me trouble, but I could cut things short with this little fellow by just quickly exiting and re-entering the Swamp Fishing Hole and checking the side pond. Around 9AM on the first day I already got the Sweet Ranchfish and that's when the fisherman asked me the following...

This pond's all
fished out. Why
not try your
luck in the sea?

I said "Okay" and here we are. I spent the rest of the cycle fishing at the ocean and it's looking as good as yesterday. I'm now only one fish short and it's the big boss, the Great Fairy Fish. So, there's a fitting finale awaiting for tomorrow or whenever I'm lucky enough to meet the Great Fairy of Fish. Now, here's the list of what I caught today...

• Termina Seabass: 32cm
• Goodta Goby: 6cm
• Ambrosial Amberjack: 38cm
• Bashful Angler: 37cm
• Dancing Sea Bream: 21cm
• Fairy Fish: 9cm
• Ninja Flounder: 20cm
• Skullfish: 34cm
• Nuptuna: 97cm
• Grand Swordfish: 184cm
• Savage Shark: 221cm

I caught two of the Savage Sharks, where it felt like the game wanted to troll me a little. The first Savage Shark was all over the place. Before I even could cast the lure and think about catching some smaller fish, the shark would already be on the other corner of the pond. It took several tries to lure him in. But one door later I saw one right at the shore surrounded by lots of these small Goodta Goby, which he also eats. And catching that Savage Shark never has been easier than this.

For both the Great Swordfish and the Savage Shark I used Fierce Deity Link, which made things really easy and epic at the same time. He's so strong that even catching a Nuptuna with Young Link gave me more trouble...

And I'm not looking forward to the loooong struggle against that Great Fairy Fish again, where you're also forced to use Young Link with the Great Fairy's Mask. But at least in this game the fish tend to give up after a while. If you pull them long enough, they get exhausted and you can just pull them in easily. It's when they start to show you their faces all the time. It's one of the things that makes the fishing in Majora's Mask 3D much more enjoyable than in Ocarina of Time. This and the fact that your line doesn't break as easily.

What's different in the Ocean Fishing Hole is that it takes a lot more time to scout for the fish you wants. You have to dive around as Zora Link for a while, where the border can be annoying, because the Fishing Hole Guy just keeps telling you not to swim out further. As much as invisible walls are terrible game design, they are certainly better than getting text boxes over and over again just because you're getting a little bit too close to the border...

You also have to try the corresponding masks in multiple places, which was another problem with fish like the Nuptuna. The Nuptuna looks like an Ambrosial Amberjack, which might make you insecure and keep trying with the Couple's Mask, but it's a lot larger and brighter and therefore somewhat easier to spot. It also seems to favor the third night around the carneval celebrations.

That's it for today and I will finish this post with some epic fishing screenshots... Behold!