Suduiko, A. (2014, November 10). Dawn of the First Day: Why “Majora’s Mask” is unique. With A Terrible Fate. https://withaterriblefate.com/2014/11/10/dawn-of-the-first-day-why-majoras-mask-is-unique/

Summary

The first entry in Suduiko's "A Comprehensive Theory of Majora's Mask" ([[Comprehensive Theory Majora's Mask]]).

Notes

In this first post, he quickly compares Majora's Mask ([[Majora's Mask]]) to Final Fantasy: Lightning Returns ([[Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII]]). Though the two games are similar in plot theme, the presentation is very different.

Lightning is told like a traditional RPG, the main difference being that each chapter is restricted to a time limit. The story follows the player.

The moon in Majora, in contrast, acts irrespective to the actions of the player. It doesn't care what the player does, with the global timer counting down, perpetually being reset by the player until they are able to talk the Skull Kid down. There is a strong sense of fate that the player has no control over. Their actions mean very little in the grand scheme of things.

This highlights two main themes throughout the remainder of the analysis:

1. The birth and rebirth of the world itself creates a metaphysical parallel to how players view their avatars - who commonly die and die again in games
2. The mechanical structure ([[Nintendo puts their efforts into the design of the game mechanics]]) of Majora conveys a strong sense of nihilism

Citations