Lyrical Associations with The Legend of Zelda – ZI Edition

This article originally graced Zelda Dungeon back in June, and now comes to Zelda Informer with two new bonus song associations for none other than – you guessed it – the fan-favorite Majora’s Mask!

A childhood obsession with

The Legend of Zelda series is a difficult thing to put behind you as an adult. All it takes is the crow of a bird to send my mind into a spiral of nostalgia, reminiscing about the first time I gazed upon the sheer terror of Ganon’s Castle in Ocarina of Time.

The Legend of Zelda has never provided us with an ending song such as Xenoblade Chronicles’ ‘Beyond the Sky’ or The Last Story’s ‘Toberu Mono.’ Never has the series ended with a song that succinctly sums up the experience of the game through verse.

That’s why when I listen to the lyrics of some songs, I just can’t help but let my mind wonder back to those times spent with a controller in hand, Link on my screen and an adventure beckoning. The following is a look at some lyrics from songs that I have come to associate with

The Legend of Zelda.

‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ by Metallica

Taken from Metallica’s 1986 album

Master of Puppets, the opening verses of ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ have always taken me back to being trapped on Koholint Island in Link’s Awakening.

“Welcome to where time stands still, no one leaves and no one will. Moon is full, never seems to change, just labelled mentally deranged.

Dream the same thing every night, I see our freedom in my sight. No locked doors, no windows barred, no things to make my brain seem scarred.

Sleep my friend and you will see, the dream is my reality.”

Koholint is a tropical island where there is no passage of time. Everything remains in a constant state where the island’s inhabitants are unable to leave. The game comes to reveal that the island is a shared dream between Link and the Wind Fish.

It is a dreamworld where Link and the inhabitants are trapped. Although characters such as Marin wonder what lies across the sea, they are confined by the dream; trapped in a bizarre reality.

The island is tormented by the evil of the Nightmares. It is a prison of both dream and reality for Link’s mind. The mission of the game is to wake the Wind Fish and free Link from the dream. As Metallica’s James Hetfield sings, “No more can they keep us in. Listen, damn it, we will win.”

‘Time That Remains’ by Three Days Grace

Canadian rock band Three Days Grace released their fourth album

Transit of Venus in 2012. The track ‘Time That Remains’ is like a paraphrased version of King Daphnes’ departing speech in the final scenes of The Wind Waker.

“Don’t do as I have done. Win where I have lost, have where I have none . . . Because you can’t unlive the pain, you can’t rewind to yesterday. You might never find your place, in the time that remains. So if tomorrow never comes, from living fast and dying young, I hope the best is yet to come, in the time that remains for you.”

It echoes Daphnes’ message to the children Link and Tetra. He passes on his wisdom of having “lived regretting the past,” but instead of trying to “unlive the pain” he faces his regrets and passes on a message of hope for the future.

The line “

there may be nothing left for you” from Daphnes parallels the lyrics “you may never find your place.” Likewise, hoping that “the best is yet to come in the time that remains” reflects Daphnes wishes that the children “walk a path of hope” and “live for the future.”

‘Behind the Mask’ by Escape the Fate

‘Behind the Mask’ was a bonus track released on the deluxe version of Escape the Fate’s 2008 record, This War is Ours. The chorus is an encapsulation of what Link experiences in his separation from the Hyrule he once knew as he journeys in Majora’s Mask.

“Don’t you dare walk away, please don’t go away. Remnants left of a time once knew, we can never go back to that place. Masks we wear to disguise the truth, we can never go back to that place.”

It is Link pleading to Navi not to leave him as his search for her leads him into Termina, where he comes to realize that he can never go back to “that place.” He can never go back to the childhood he once knew in Kokiri Forest, or even the adulthood he was thrust into. Instead, Link is trapped in an alternate childhood without Navi as his connection to what he once went through.

Majora’s Mask is built around the gameplay mechanic of masks, many which Link utilizes to hide from reality. He becomes the adults Mikau and Darmani, trying to become the adult he once was, all the while hiding his childish vulnerability. The Deku Scrub mask takes him back to that innocent childhood he was robbed of, but nevertheless still hides his true face.

‘This I Love’ by Guns N’ Roses

From Guns N’ Roses’ 2008 album

Chinese Democracy comes the single ‘This I Love.’ Featuring the band’s modern lineup, the song has come, to me, to be the Hero of Time’s song to Navi after her departure at Ocarina of Time’s conclusion.

“I just can’t let it die, ‘cause her heart’s just like mine, and she holds her pain inside. So if you ask me why, she wouldn’t say goodbye, I know somewhere inside, there is a special light, still shining bright, and even on the darkest night, she can’t deny…

So if she’s somewhere near me, I hope to God she hears me. There’s no one else could ever make me feel I’m so alive. I hoped she’d never leave me, please God you must believe me, I’ve searched the universe and found myself within her eyes.”

‘Final Masquerade’ by Linkin Park

This one’s a newer song, from Linkin Park’s recent 2014 album The Hunting Party. ‘Final Masquerade’ sounds like the exact sort of name to I’d give to an ending song for Majora’s Mask, but beyond that, the song’s lyrics encapsulate, to me, what are the game’s three main themes: finiteness, friendship and masquerading.

“Tearing me apart with words you wouldn’t say,

And suddenly tomorrow’s a moment washed away.

‘Cause I don’t have a reason, and you don’t have the time,

But we both keep on waiting for something we won’t find.

The light on the horizon was brighter yesterday,

With shadows floating over, the scars begin to fade.

We said it was forever but then it slipped away,

Standing at the end of the final masquerade.”

Termina’s moniker is of a land “

destined to fade,” which the song evokes with its imagery of moments washing away and forever slipping out of reach. It also applies this theme to friendships, of Navi who tears Link apart by leaving without a word. Majora’s Mask is Link looking for Navi, searching for what he won’t find.

Another verse sings of “waiting for what we left behind,” as Link searches for Navi’s friendship, having left Zelda’s behind in Hyrule. The lyrics of a brighter horizon speak of the shadow cast by the moon as its doom falls. Come the final boss and the new dawn, so also comes the final masquerade, where Link and Skull Kid must take off their masks and just go home.

‘One Day Too Late’ by Skillet

Skillet’s ‘One Day Too Late’ comes from their 2009 album, Awake, and is a fairly self-explanatory summary of Majora’s Mask’s non-playable character based quests. Link travels around attempting to aid people and save the land as time is an ever-present limitation with the three-day cycle.

“Tick-tock hear the clock count down,

Wish the minute hand could be rewound,

So much to do and so much I need to say,

Will tomorrow be too late. . . .

Today I’m gonna try a little harder,

Gonna make every minute last longer,

Gonna learn to forgive and forget,

‘Cause we don’t have long, gonna make the most of it.

Today I’m gonna love my enemies,

Reach out to somebody who needs me,

Make a change, make the world a better place,

‘Cause tomorrow could be one day too late.”

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Are there any lyrics and songs that have come to encapsulate a moment or aspect of

The Legend of Zelda series for you? Please let us know in the comments below.