So, when I first bought Majora’s Mask 3D in February of 2015, I played through it with a guide in hand for most of the temples. It was fun, and I used the walkthrough for all the masks so I could mess around with Fierce Deity mask glitches. So, after using a guide for it, I got the Fierce Deity mask with little to no problem. So, I didn’t play the game for a while. Until earlier this month. A few months ago, I completed Twilight Princess for the first time (on the Wii), and I didn’t use a guide at all. I found it more rewarding and fun to do that. So, at the beginning of October, I decided to re-play Majora’s Mask without a guide. So, what did I think?

Let’s take this piece by piece. I’ll start with major segments of the game then get to the side quests (because I did the majority of the mask quests after all the temples but not before the final battle with Majora). Let’s start with the beginning. Clock Town.

Ah, Clock Town. In the center of Termina, this town serves as the main place for side quests and items, with the towns scattered in the north, east, south and west having more to do with the specific dungeon in that area. Anyway, I’d pretty much memorized this place and all the hiding spots of the Bombers Gang members. It’s the start of the game, you memorize it after starting a few failed save files in it (similar to the Deku Forest in Ocarina of Time). So, I finished it and got my ocarina back pretty quickly. So, after that, it was time to move on.

After a quick time-skipping excursion to Milk Road and Romani Ranch to get the Bunny Hood (which took an entire 3 day cycle), I went to the Southern Swamp. The lead up the Woodfall was pretty simple to figure out (it’s the intro, it’s pretty easy). Woodfall temple was easier than I remember. In my first run through, I went through most of it without a guide. I even went through and got all the Stray Fairies with little to no problem.

Now, to the north! After 2 days of getting pieces of heart, I started the Snowhead quest late. I made it far enough in the dungeon to get the fire arrows, but then I restarted the 3 day cycle. This dungeon isn’t all that difficult, but it’s really long and drawn out. I found some parts of it frustrating (especially as I tried to get all the stray fairies but failed) but overall the element based puzzles were fun but challenging. The boss fight with Goht was a big highlight (the high octane speed was dazzling), but the aftermath was too long for the amount of time I had. I had to restart the 3 days just to have enough time to fight Goht, race and win against the other Gorons, upgrade my sword, then upgrade it again. But, as a whole, this area was fun, and the best parts were the puzzles, but it had some parts that took too long.

Aye, there be pirates here! After Snowhead temple, I did the Romani Ranch side quests. I got my horse back and shot some aliens then some ninjas, and got the cow mask for the Milk Bar in Clock Town. I restarted the days and did a few side quests but eventually rode up to Great Bay. I got the Zora mask and got a few of the eggs in the final hours before restarting 2 minutes before the moon was set to crash. I lost all the eggs I’d accumulated but had the Hookshot and the Stone Mask for when I went there after I’d reset the clock. I did the Pirate’s Fortress and Pinnacle Rock really quick and got to the temple at midnight of the first day. I was dreading this temple because of how much I hated the Water Temple in Ocarina even with a guide, and I even had trouble with this temple with my guide open for the entire time during my original run. But, I actually REALLY liked this temple. More than some of the dungeons in Ocarina. I had no problems with the puzzles and it actually made sense and didn’t require going back and forth changing water levels. (Also, just as some extra details, this game looks so much better than Ocarina. Even the N64 port had to have extra processing power to hold some of these textures. It made things look so much more interesting, polished and easy to follow than some of the bland visual design of some dungeons in Ocarina. For example, the Water Temple was just a sea of different blues, which works, like the rest of the games, as being atmospheric (same goes for the music), but this game spices things up with more green blues, reds and gold. As I said earlier, it made the dungeon design more interesting and easy to follow.). The amazing dungeon’s surprise streak of awesomeness was immediately ended by the boss fight, the giant masked fish (?), Gyorg (how do you pronounce it? George or gee-org?). The boss fight was long and boring. The after the dungeon quest was charming and rewarding, at least. So, this dungeon actually surprised me with how much I ended up liking it and its puzzles, even though the boss fight left me still unimpressed. Still, improvement!

Getting to Ikana Canyon takes a bit of doing, like racing the Gorman Brothers on Milk Road for the Garo Mask, actually figuring what to do (although the fight with Skull Keeta was fun) to going underground (I lost to that Iron Knuckle about 3 times. I didn’t have full health when I entered the first time, so even when I respawned, I had only 3 lousy hearts…) to the heartwarming scene where you heal the little girl’s father, to getting into Ikana Castle (that long and drawn out trading section. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong or it was meant to drag on and on…) and getting the Mirror Shield (what’s with the face?!). That took an entire 3 day cycle. So I reset the days and got the Elegy of Emptiness then went up Stone Tower and got the the Ikana Temple. The dungeon itself was challenging, but it took forever to do because of one thing on my part. I couldn’t find how to get to the boss room. I spent an entire 6 in-game hours looking for a way in, until I remember the chest I spawned in the main area (I thought it was only for the Stray Fairies…). Then, after realizing what an idiot I was, I got to the boss room and took on Twinmold. The boss fight was good, but was annoying (and I’m not just saying that because I died to it twice. The Giant’s Mask was a cool mask but utterly useless anywhere but here. It also makes you slower and my punches didn’t land most of the time, even though I was right beside it…). My final thought on this dungeon is that it’s a good final dungeon that has an OK boss fight, but not the best boss the game has to offer (the dungeon’s mini-boss was better…). Now, I could have gone straight to Majora from here, but decided to do some side quests to get all the masks necessary to get the Fierce Deity Mask.

Now, I did one of (if not the) longest side-quest in the game. The Anju and Kafei quest. I did the entire quest fine until the final moments where I failed. So I restarted. Then I messed up halfway through the quest by missing a step. So, I restart. I fail halfway through again. Then, I do it perfectly until I dropped my 3DS and the cartridge popped out, forcing me to restart yet again… So, with all my mistakes behind me, I did the quest and aced the final portion with flying colours, and saw the heartwarming conclusion (even though it was kind of depressing because they were going to die anyway…). I got the Couple’s Mask and continued on my quest for more masks.

I looked at my mask count and I noticed I had only 3 masks missing (and I knew which ones they were.). The All-Night Mask, the Postman’s hat and the Fierce Deity Mask (which I couldn’t get until I got the other 2.). So, I stumbled around trying to find out how to get the Postman’s Mask. After a while, I finally got it, and I went to Majora during that 3 day cycle. I gave the masks to the children wearing Boss Masks and got the Fierce Deity Mask. Then, it was onward to Majora.

With the Fierce Deity Mask, the fight with Majora was REALLY easy. I beat Majora within 2-3 minutes with the help of the Fierce Deity Mask. Then, I reached the end of the game. The ending credits were heartwarming, showing all the people you helped during your journey go along with their lives after a death sentence hung over all of their heads. So, final thought?

I definitely enjoyed Majora’s Mask 3D without a guide than with. With a guide, there was only gameplay, no puzzle solving, or the feeling of SHEER AWESOMENESS when you figure out a puzzle that’s been bugging you. So, for the future, I won’t use a guide unless I absolutely need to.