The Transformation of Majora’s Mask: How Deku Link Reveals a Change in Magic’s Conservation

Posted on February 09 2015 by Tyler Meehan

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve learned about numerous ways in which

Majora’s Mask 3D will differ from its original version on the Nintendo 64. Many of these changes have been applauded by the fanbase, and rightfully so – Nintendo is taking this opportunity to fix little issues that players have had with the game for years. While only a few of these changes could be called major, they are all being made with the belief such alterations will strengthen the experience.

Yet some of these changes do far more than that – a handful of them offer us some unique insight into the minds behind the

Zelda series, and how those minds have themselves changed in the past fifteen years. We can examine these changes to Majora’s Mask and infer the motivations behind them to learn how perspectives may have shifted and opinions varied amongst the developers as time has passed. Over the next few days, we will focus specifically on how the changes to certain magical abilities found in Majora’s Mask reveal a fundamental shift in mindset concerning the use and purpose of magic power in the Zelda universe.

Without further ado, let’s begin today’s analysis. And what better way to start a series on magical abilities than with the very first one you receive in the game?

Deku Link: The Deku Bubble Attack

Early on in Majora’s Mask, Deku Link revives Clock Town’s Great Fairy and, in exchange, is granted magic power. With it comes the ability to shoot bubbles at various targets and enemies, but in the original game it really wasn’t that useful after a while – it took a few seconds to get a good sized bubble ready, could only go so far before fading away, was tricky to aim, and had a somewhat erratic movement that could send it off course with ease.

These details all seem to have been changed for

Majora’s Mask 3D, however. Now the Deku Bubble has a built in targeting system and travels in a straight line, making it much more useful. Additionally, the charge time for a full-sized bubble appears to have been greatly reduced; it would not surprise me to learn that the travel distance has increased as well, though this is harder to determine using secondhand footage. Such changes seem like nothing but a boon at first. Easier aiming? That’s a plus. Improved accuracy? That’s another plus. Quicker charge time? Better distance? All of it sounds simply fantastic. This once weak and tough-to-use skill has now become a much improved tool for players to use often.

But let’s shift gears and try to look at the Deku Bubble from a different point of view. Rather than thinking about it as players, try to put yourselves in the shoes of the developers and figure out what these changes mean from the perspective of game design. What does this altered design do for players of

Majora’s Mask? What did the original version do, and how does this new version make gamers play differently and think differently about the Bubble mechanic and its uses?

For new players of the original Nintendo 64 version of the game, getting magic at first probably felt like a really cool new skill. The fact that it granted them a projectile attack certainly didn’t hurt things either. Try to put yourselves in their shoes and imagine what they experience:

You exit the Fairy Fountain, brimming with Magic power, and probably the first thing you do is spot that balloon of Jim’s and decide to shoot at it yourself. You press the button to fire a bubble and –

– oh. Hm. It’s just switched to first person view. No targeting reticle or anything. Oh well, it’s still pretty obvious that you just need to orient yourself to face the balloon; not hard for a target that’s so big and moves so little. You point the screen straight at it and hit the button again! Out comes –

– oh. Huh. Tiny bubble, only goes a few feet before vanishing into thin air. Well, no worries. The instructions you got in the Fairy Fountain said something about holding the button down, right? Let’s just do that. Hold, hold, hold… Okay, this bubble’s got a nice size, so let’s release the button and –

– uh-oh. It’s flying through the air, but it’s wobbling all over the place. If it keeps doing this there’s no telling where it’ll end up! Should you have gotten closer first? Was your aim off? Why is it bobbing and weaving like that instead of going straight!? Is it even going to –

POP!

Haha, got it! Take that, balloon!

This first experience with the Deku Bubble teaches the player a lot about this ability all at once; its many faults – charge time, difficult aiming, shrinking in flight, and wobbly course – are all discovered in that first use. It leaves a particular impression on the player, and, being that it’s directly tied to magic (you

just got magic right before this, magic specifically unlocked this ability, and this is the only “magical” thing you can do at this point in the game), players are going to associate that same impression with magic: the Deku Bubble, and therefore magic itself, is not reliable.

Majora’s Mask‘s first magical ability specifically and immediately teaches players to not rely on that Magic Meter, to use it sparingly and only when the situation necessitates they do so. Trying to use it in combat or other similarly tense situations is not a good idea, as there is no guarantee that it will see you through your trials.

That lesson won’t always ring true, of course – later abilities and powers are far more useful in such situations. Some are even required. But this sets an underlying standard of caution when dealing with magic that persists throughout the entire gaming experience.

Such a cautious standard sets the stage for teaching a different but perhaps even more important lesson for this game:

magic power should be conserved. Majora’s Mask has a number of magically-based items and abilities, and you realize early on that you don’t know when you’ll need to use one of them to defeat an enemy or solve a puzzle. Think about it – when you got the Fire Arrows for the first time in this game, did you immediately start using them to blast away all of Snowhead Temple’s enemies? Even though you intuitively recognized that most of the snow- and ice-based enemies would die to Fire, I bet you didn’t.

The standard was already set. You conserved your magic even though it was

far more useful now than the Deku Bubble had ever been – because that’s what the Deku Bubble taught you to do.

And that’s good, because although the game had only a few puzzles and enemies that absolutely

required magic to overcome them, such obstacles often arose at points when regaining magic would have been a tricky task. Most dungeons and boss battles need it, for example, and it is a terrible feeling to have to leave those to go refill your magic – especially when the game’s time mechanic might force you to undo all of your progress before you manage to return. By establishing this standard of magic conservation early on, the game actually helped players to avoid such frustrating incidents in the future.

It’s a genius little bit of instruction-through-gameplay…and Nintendo has decided to change it.

The Meaning Behind the Changes

Although this teaching may still survive somewhat, the changes to the Deku Bubble mechanic are likely to blunt the lesson it once taught and could render it far less effective.

The new implementation of a targeting system, straight line of flight, and faster charge time make the bubble a far more reliable weapon; distance may still be a factor, but players will find it much more useful. In turn, they will find magic itself to be far more useful; as such, will they not be tempted to use it more? Will it not become harder for them to learn to conserve magic? Is a small bit of practicality worth losing that early teaching?

Well…maybe.

These changes are not necessarily bad –

it all depends on what else Nintendo has altered in this game. Is it now easier for players to refill their Magic Meter on the fly? That is, are there more Magic Jars scattered about to make such a task easier? If so, then the lesson of the old game will not apply as strongly in this remake. If you can restore your magic power more easily in those key situations, then the need to teach the player to not rely on magic is mitigated, so it makes perfect sense for the Deku Bubble to match this new standard.

If such changes have

not been made, however…then Nintendo is setting up new players to fail in frustrating ways. Anyone who does not learn to conserve their magic early on could find themselves unable to cross gaps in Snowhead Temple that require the Goron Spike Roll; they might lack the magic needed to create an icy path across the water in Great Bay Temple; they may have to flee the battle with Gomess because they can no longer fire Light Arrows to expose its weak point. If you’ve played Majora’s Mask before, you can no doubt think of plenty of other situations where running out of magic would prove frustrating or even detrimental to your enjoyment of the game.

We cannot say for certain whether or not the changes to the Deku Bubble will be good or bad until we’ve played the remake for ourselves and seen firsthand whether or not Nintendo has compensated for the altered standard in other ways. But bad or good, this change is a prime illustration for how the developers’ thinking towards magic has shifted in the past fifteen years, as it specifically shows us one such transformation:

In Majora’s Mask, magic was something to be conserved; in Majora’s Mask 3D, it is something to be used frequently.

Such a reversal of expectations is especially surprising when viewed in light of the

Zelda games that followed this one’s original release in 2000. Magic entered a severe decline in the years that followed; of the eleven games of the core franchise which followed Majora’s Mask, only one – The Wind Waker – contains a meter specifically devoted to the use and empowerment of magical items. Any items or abilities that could have used such a meter – the Cane of Pacci, for example, or Wolf Link’s Sense ability – were of a small number in their game, and thus they had restrictions other than a Magic Meter placed on them to prevent over- or misuse by the player. The Cane of Pacci can only affect a limited number or type of targets and enemies; the Sense ability sharply decreases Wolf Link’s range of vision, providing a subconscious push for gamers to turn it off as soon as possible so that they may once again see their surroundings clearly.

Nintendo’s track record as of late has been to ignore magic and the potential that it holds; yet the changes to the Deku Bubble (along with other abilities that we will discuss in the coming days) indicate that they see such powers as items which should be exploited and utilized often in a variety of situations and against a number of enemies. Every aspect of the Deku Bubble has moved to reflect this, to empower this ability and increase its use and functionality so that gamers can employ it far more often.

These seemingly-contradictory stances can and will be reconciled by the time we reach the end of this short series, but to do so we must examine other magical powers in

Majora’s Mask 3D and determine what they say as a whole. With the number of magic-related changes to this remake, there is a fair amount to discuss and consider as we try to make sense of this and discern the underlying attitude that Nintendo, and the Zelda team in particular, has taken towards the power of magic over the years.

For today, however, we have said enough on this matter. Tomorrow we shall reconvene to look through another magic-empowered ability from the game that has seen some changes for the 3DS remake. I hope to see you all there.

Until then, this is Alpha, signing off to go do…stuff.