We recently had the opportunity to speak to Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma following the release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D. We asked him questions about developing one of the most divisive games in the Zelda series, some absurd questions about the fiction of the Zelda universe, and even himself.
There are a lot of reused character models and assets from Ocarina of Time in Majora’s Mask. Was that just a time and money saving decision, or a stylistic choice?
Really, it was a little bit of both, whether it comes down to the decision of saving time in the schedule or it being more of a stylistic decision. I think a lot of it comes down to those character models having the ability to express something that they couldn’t in the setting of Ocarina because we had this very different image for the world where Majora’s Mask takes place. You know we described it as being a nearby land, but in feel, it’s almost like another dimension. Even though these characters have a similar appearance to the version of them that appeared in Ocarina, they express something different in a different world.
Were you surprised to learn Majora’s Mask is a divisive entry in the Zelda series? Or did you expect some fans might be confused by it?
I guess I should start by pointing out that when the Nintendo 64 version of Majora’s Mask came out this was the pre-internet era so we didn’t necessarily have as many opportunities as we do now for the voices of players to reach us directly, but I certainly did have a lot of opportunities to talk to friends and family who played the game and to hear their reactions, and of course I heard some pretty interesting things among those. In fact someone mentioned that they got pretty close to throwing the controller at one point, and that really stuck with me. But we also had the opportunity recently to solicit the memories of Japanese players who had experienced the Nintendo 64 version of Majora’s Mask on our website and it was really interesting to see the kind of things that people would talk about. They also look back with very fond memories on some of these experiences. For example, we saw some comments where people were saying that the game got so hard that they would have to call in their mom or dad to help, but the way they relate it now is with a sort of really fun nostalgic past to it.
At the time of release, if I had heard something like that, I probably would have spent a good bit of time in reflection and sort of thinking about it in a rather regretful ways, but what has come across to me now is that though the game as it was released on Nintendo 64 was very difficult, there was a lot of charm to it and that seems to be what stuck with people. What I’m really happy for now was the opportunity to address some of the things that made the game difficult in the wrong ways in this remake, and that’s been really nice for me.
There are hints in Majora’s Mask that Link’s whole experience in Termina could be a dream. One small example, the Indiegogo’s play The Ballad of the Wind Fish, which was featured in Link’s Awakening – which was revealed to be a dream at the end. Is Majora’s Mask all a dream?
The reason that this song from Link’s Awakening was used in this game really came down to a decision by the sound team. They were looking for inspiration, something that would fit the theme, and since the previous game was about collecting instruments it made sense that you would want to use this for a band in this case. For us, really, it was just a playful choice that referenced a previous game and nothing more than that.
However, I love that people think about stuff like this, and I think it shows how they feel about the franchise as a whole that they’re interested in these possibilities.
Head to page two to find out why bottles are so rare and why no one is concerned when Link transforms in front of them.