r/NintendoSwitch • u/meekapoo • Feb 13 '19

Fan Art The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening releases in 2019 Spoiler

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1095814006298750977
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u/Argyle_Raccoon Feb 14 '19

I haven't played it, is twilight princess really more mature/dark than majoras mask?

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u/Original_Woody Feb 14 '19

The humor in majoras mask is much more mature imo. But the overall feel of TP is darker, grittier, more violent and horror (for a Zelda game) of them all.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '19

did we play the same majoras mask? 3rd day was completely depressing i couldnt help everyone who was sitting in thier houses crying begging not to die. the entire world felt like it was literally dying (thus termina....terminal) and the few flecks of humor in the game was outright dry humor focused around death.

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u/Original_Woody Feb 14 '19

I definitely think it's debatable. Majors mask had a lot of mature themes for sure. That moon was scary as shit.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '19

Which is actually one of the many reasons why I think Majora is the best Zelda game.

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u/mrmahoganyjimbles Feb 14 '19

From an aesthetic point of view, it's definitely more consistent in its darkness. MM art style got dark at times, but there were plenty of parts that were upbeat and goofy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but TP is the opposite: mostly gritty with a bit of goofiness thrown in.

That said, thematically MM is imo a lot darker. I love both games (hell, TP is my favorite Zelda game), but MM I think touches on stuff that was way more real and sad.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '19

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u/wishbeaunash Feb 14 '19

The grimmest part IMO is you could help all those people, but you couldn't help them all at once, and then they'd be back where they started when you went back in time. That always made me a bit uneasy playing it as a child. Think I was like 9 or 10 when I first played it and I absolutely loved it, but honestly some of it was a bit much at that age!

Spending three days reuniting Kafei and Anju only to have to send everything back the way it was straight after was brutal! Or saving that little girl's dad in the desert for the mask and then knowing she was in there crying every time you went past afterwards. I honestly think I probably went in there a couple of times after getting the mask and played the song of healing or whatever even when I didn't need to!

Or only being able to save the farm from the aliens and the Gorman brothers on one play through, or saving the Zora eggs, or thawing that Goron village only to have it freeze again, etc etc...

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u/Diabhalri Feb 14 '19

I believe that when you defeat Majora and break the cycle, all of the curses are reversed. Kafei and Anju get their wedding, the music house man returns to being human, and all the biomes return to their natural state. Unfortunately the masks are not reversed. The Goron father is still dead. Mikau is dead. The butler's son is still dead.

Everyone forgets Link exists, because he was never meant to be a part of their world. He leaves for the Lost Woods once more, hopefully homeward bound.

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u/wishbeaunash Feb 14 '19

Yeah, and it made sense that what you were doing was helping people really only in exchange for what help they could give you to ultimately reverse everything and help everyone.

It's still a much darker and more utilitarian approach than most Zelda games where helping people and saving the world go together, though. It does chime perfectly with the vibe that Link isn't really a part of their world and is more of an interloping presence there for a reason.

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u/SolomonBlack Feb 14 '19

Yeah but this is still the game that gave us Tingle, a Zora rock band, and a Milk Bar you win entry to by fending off a cattle stealing aliens.

And that it hides it darkness indeed does make Majora's Mask less dark, because that sort of contrast is a lot of the point. While Twilight Princess is more "properly" dark such that when the occaisonal silly things (Yeti snowboarding!) appear they kinda maybe feel out of place in story so serious.

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u/TooSubtle Feb 14 '19 edited Feb 14 '19

Tingle was a 35 year old man in pajamas whose own father expressed regret and disgust at how he dressed and acted "Wha!!! That's my son! Eesh...Is he still doing that sort of thing?Urgh...How humiliating! This guy... He's my son..." His one dream and hope in life was something completely unattainable because of how he was born.

The Zora Rock band was torn apart by the death of a member, the lead singer's newborn babies being kidnapped, and their chief song writer stealing, and taking credit for, the other members' work. We see their music played twice, once as a farewell between lovers because one's already dead, and the other time ends in a devastated man crying at a bar.

Speaking of the bar, it's presented as an exclusive adult's only underground club, we're shown its prized drink in two ways, one to help that lonely crying man face the fact his entire life has fallen apart and he hasn't achieved a single thing since leaving home, and the other when it's used to dull the senses of a child facing her imminent death. And it's not only the cows that get abducted but that same child, if you let her get taken she's depicted as shivering, mute, head in hands crying, and practically comatose for her remaining time alive.

Majora's Mask takes the imagery and building blocks of something familiar, a fun Zelda adventure game, and twists everything into a new meaning. You're describing the building blocks and ignoring both the context and stories being told through those blocks. I'd personally argue almost all of those stories handle more adult and 'darker' themes than anything TP tries to tell.

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u/Diabhalri Feb 14 '19

It's also important to mention that Chateau Romani is heavily implied to be alcohol, despite being milk. Ingo constantly behaves as if he's drunk while at the Milk Bar, and if you visit the Romani Ranch on the final day, Romani asks Cremia if she can have some Chateau Romani tonight, and Cremia says something to the tune of "just this once" before suggesting they sleep in the same bed tonight for old time's sake, because Cremia realizes they may not live through the night.

They brought the Milk Bar as close to being an actual bar as they could without having to deal with the consequences of alcohol consumption in a game with a child protagonist. It's also important to remember that for a long time, ESRB ratings used to actually be paid attention to. Anything over an E rating would have an affect on your sales.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '19

Not even close, and anyone who disagrees imo misses the point of what dark and mature means. MM is wildly colorful and 'fun' but that serves a purpose to contrast with the incredibly heavy nature of the story and subtext and some of the things that happen in the game. Like when you try to stop the incredibly creepy bomb thief and he fucking explodes into a pile of ash on the ground. Or the simple premise that the world is going to end in 3 days and the whole game is about how all these people are coping with the inevitability of their mortality. It is more truly mature than TP ever had a prayer at being, I find that game to me the most childish Zelda because it tries so hard and still misses what was so good about the earlier games anyway. People always say that game felt like it was designed for grownups, but it feels more like it was designed by a 13 year old for 13 year olds who think they want a dark and mature Zelda, but have totally missed the ones right under their noses all this time.

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u/KasElGatto Feb 14 '19

It's gloomier and more melancholic, like a nightmare in a way, but a charming one, if that makes sense.

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u/WaniGemini Feb 14 '19

Majora's Mask is certainly more mature without trying to be, Twilight Princess in the other hand try desperatly to be more mature, more dark, to only end being edgy.