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The Development of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Legendary Adventures

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Season 6 Episode 1

This season of Legendary Adventures Podcast is all about The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. In this first episode of Season Six, we'll trace the development starting with the Ura Zelda project, to the year-long development of Majora's Mask.

Thanks to Zeth for help with this episode! Check out his mod showcasing the original 64DD dungeons! Zelda Expansion Release trailer

Legendary Adventures is a Legend of Zelda playthrough podcast. I’m exploring the evolution of the Zelda game series by playing through each game in release order, excluding spin-offs and multi-player focused releases. Each season focuses on one game in the series. Legendary Adventures was conceived and launched as an audio podcast. I am making video versions of episodes as I am able. You can listen to all my episodes by subscribing to the podcast.

Episodes and audio podcast platform links can be found here: https://legendaryadventurespod.podbea...

Follow Legendary Adventures on Social Media for videos and photos related to each week's episode.
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0:00 Intro
1:42 Part One Ura Zelda
10:07 Part Two Zelda Gaiden
24:18 Part Three A Tale of Crunch
33:55 Dawn of a New Season

Sources: https://legendaryadventurespod.podbea...

#thelegendofzelda #zelda #majora'smask #lozmm #n64 #nintendo64 #nintendoswitch #botw #totk

20 Comments

@DucktorQuackers 1 year ago

Crazy to me how my most beloved and cherished game was a rushed agonizing project the poor developers had to endure. It is perfect in every way in my eyes. Their suffering was not in vain despite of the poor sales, it holds a very special place in my heart. Yes, it was hard for my stupid child brain at the time but when I got a little bit older I replayed the game so many times I've lost count. I've even played modded randomizers just to have another excuse to play it again. I was (still am) a very anxious and depressed person and something about this game really spoke to me. Despite of the doom and gloom, this world was a comfort for me. I don't know how to explain it but it was almost cathartic, like I felt such a deep connection to these NPCs I never felt the same way again.

@WARLOCK1669 1 year ago

Majora’s Mask is like playing a psychedelic drug that turns into a bad trip.

@PalaeoJoe 2 years ago

Majora's Mask is a labor rights violation.

....and yet I love it

@ultimapanzer 3 months ago

“Ura Zelda”

“no u”

@wattsnottaken1 2 years ago

“You’ve met with a Terrible Fate haven’t you?”
“Hehehehehe” 😈

@zeckma 2 years ago

That is why MM is my favorite Zelda game and one of my favorite games of all time. It is one of the most human games to exist. You can feel the pressure of time, suffering, and anguish felt by the developers when making that game, and you see that medium through their eyes, even if you haven't had that experience. MM is also very unique in its gameplay and thus I can't help but appreciate it. It is a product of stress and time crunch, not felt by quality but by its atmosphere. I'm really excited for this season!

@ataxiasalrighttonigh 2 years ago

I almost feel guilty for how much I love this game, knowing the conditions it was created under. Those working conditions were apalling, and I'm glad Nintendo seems to do a better job of scoping out projects now so that kind of crunch can be avoided.

@Dairunt1 2 years ago (edited)

Majora's Mask is one of those games that you expect to fail; you go a complete 180 from the game that sold millions, the team is overstressed, there's a lot of recycled assets from Ocarina, was released in one of the worst moments for the N64, and needed an add-on to even run.

Yet, it's one of the most unique Zelda games there are and it's many people's favorite game.

@ryan_ford522 2 years ago (edited)

32:20 - I helped a girl I liked back in elementary school to get through the game since she got stuck a lot and we'd talk about it at school, so I went to her place a couple times to basically backseat game lol. She still brings it up sometimes whenever we talk

I also had to do the same with one of my older brother's friends a few months later, then again with that friend's sister after that 😂

Pretty nice memories

@alanad5577 2 years ago

I remember playing majoras mask as a 12 year old on the n64 when it came out. Playing that and ocarina of time were some of my best memories of that time 😊

@OgSome556 10 months ago

I remember playing the 3ds version in the back of the car as a 5th grader. Good times, I remember this game being really hard

@twigg9057 2 months ago

Ironic how the two Zelda games Miyamoto didn’t want to make (MM and TP) are two of my all time favorite games.

@Seven-Seas-of-Baba-O-Riley 2 years ago

Miyamoto has a famous quote that's somewhere along the lines of a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad. The one year deadline really seems like a sabotage they succeeded in spite of to me.

@Luipaard005 2 years ago

my longest 'yeah boy' ever

@TheJoninMonkey 2 years ago

Wow, I thought I knew a lot about the development of this game, but you went above and beyond with your research here.

I find it fascinating how Miyamoto was so fixed on the idea of what we would call "DLC" and "Live-Services" today, to the point that he would demand a game to be made in such a short amount of time. With this context in mind, it may also explain why Aonuma decided to expand what was planned as BotW DLC in Tears of the Kingdom and gave the team several years of development time.

Even with the knowledge that this game was made with crunch (a practice that should never be encouraged), this is still my favourite Zelda due to the emotional weight it's story carries, and after this banger of an opening, I'm looking forward to seeing how you will cover the rest of the game.

Keep up the great work ^_^

@TyM-v8q 5 months ago

It really is incredible that they made it within one year.....I mean....it's just crazy for the game to be as good as it is for such a short time limit.....I don't think people can fully understand and appreciate just how amazing that is.

@TanookiOshawott64 2 years ago

I love all of the primary sources and quotes! It makes it feel so true idk how to explain it. Like these are real people who made the game which obvs is true but it’s easy to forget lol

@brutusmagnuson315 2 years ago

Man, between Clock Town’s civil and technological advancement, emotional depth of characters and intrigue of Ikana and its history, it will never not amaze me this game was made in a year.