So this was actually a response to someone on mastodon, but I wanted to share it here as well. I have very strong feelings about Majora's Mask, and a lot of people tend to overlook the deeper messages of the game. So enjoy my soapbox explanation of Majora's Mask's themes!

I think you are missing a few details.

For starters Majora's Mask is not a sequel to OoT, it's a spin off. A "What if" scenario. Though if you follow the fan theory of Link dies the game an entirely different meaning.

But OoT was an adventure game with an extremely generic plot, Majoras Mask is a psychological game based entirely around it's plot. It's a story game, not an action game. I would argue they even made the "action/adventure" parts intentionally crappy because man... Majora's Mask has some REALLY bad boss fights, like... Actively irritatingly badly designed bosses.

The point of Majora's mask is pretty simple, unlike every other adventure game where you are the hero who saves everyone, who saves the princess, who saves the world... In Majora's mask you CAN'T save everything, and that's the point. You have to fail, someone HAS to suffer, you simply cannot save everyone. To make it worse YOU don't even get told they are suffering either. This isn't like modern games where you are told that by taking a side the other side gets angry at you, no... In Majora's mask only YOU ever know what you've done.

Here is a simple example: There are 3 completely optional quests that all take place at the same time, 1 minor quest and two major ones. You can complete just one of the major quests, and the minor one. Those quests are, stop an old lady from being mugged in the park, help a child save her farm, and/or talk to the fiance of a man who has gone missing.

If you choose to save the old lady you save her family from going bankrupt as well as get a discount on bombs and more importantly the biggest bomb bag.

If you choose to meet the fiance after you prevent the mugging you forsake a child to being kidnapped and lobotomized, as well as doom their family to their own bankruptcy.

If you choose to help the child you allow the fiance and the missing man's mother to spend the rest of their lives never knowing what happened to him.

You cannot complete all three quests, and failing to do any of them has no consequences on you whatsoever. But YOU, the player, will know the consequences to the people. YOU had the chance to save an old lady from being mugged and you LET IT HAPPEN. YOU could have saved a child's life, but YOU let her be kidnapped. YOU could have eased the pain of a grieving mother and scared fiance, but YOU let them suffer. The game never tells you this, you can ignore all of those quests, but YOU, the player, will always know what you did. This is far more powerful then a meter in a game telling you that a faction hates you 2 points more because you slapped their dog. Because the game doesn't care, the devs aren't actively telling you what you did, only you and you alone will known, you have to live with it. You made the choice, and you have to suffer the consequences.

This also applies to the four regions, each one takes about 2-3 days to fully save on the first round since you have to fully complete each dungeon at least once. This means that you spend three days trying to save a monkey from being killed by an angry mob by freeing the Deku tribe's princess from the temple, then... You go back in time and undo it, and then you go to the next region. you make an active, conscious choice to Let them die on the next loop. You could spend 3 days going back and saving them, but you don't. You move on. You let the gorons freeze and die on the next loop after that. Then you let the zora's suffer and allow children to be torn away from their mother. You made those choices. And now you alone have to live with them.

You can't save everyone. It doesn't matter how many times you reset. It doesn't matter how many times you try. It doesn't matter how many times you go back, or how perfectly timed you are, or even if you ultimately save Termina... You failed to save someone, you made a choice on who had to suffer for someone else to not.

But the game isn't just about trying to teach you that you can't save everyone... It's about teaching you to accept it. Everyone knows the game is laid out to replicate the five stages of grief.

The town represents denial. Almost everyone in the town is in denial about the situation, they can see the moon coming, they can feel the earth shaking, and yet... They all deny it. The people deny it because they want to hold their festival, the mayor denies it becuase he is being pressured, some of the people you try to save deny it because they want to stay with their friends and family... They can all see the end of the world coming, and they all deny reality itself.

The swamp is anger. The Deku tribe's princess has gone missing, and they lash out at the only person they can, the princesses friend the monkey. They kidnap him, imprison him, and get ready to kill him unless he returns the princess. They aren't being logical, or reasonable. They are blinded by anger and intend to take it out on the only person they can. They demand he return the princess, but how can he? He's in prison and about to be boiled alive. They ignore his explanations, all they can see is red.

The mountain is bargaining. The gorons are freezing to death, they are out of food, their water sources have all frozen over... They are dying, and yet... They do nothing. They all believe that their ancient hero will save them, the one who is already dead. They think that a miracle will happen, they don't need to save themselves... Someone else will do it. They think they can wait, someone else will come. It's fine, they can last a few more days... The dead and dying will be fine, all they need to do is wait, he will save them if they wait...

The ocean is depression. It's cold, lonely, the inhabitants are all distant and there isn't much to do. even the things that you can do don't feel satisfying. You are presented with simple tasks that feel tedious and you don't really want to do. The world feels small, yet massive all at once. You have to find the missing Zora eggs for a mother who has lost her voice, the zora's are all trying to maintain some semblance of normality, but you can feel they aren't really into what they are doing. You can find the journal of the zora you are pretending to be and attempt to use that information to 'jam out' with a fellow zora, but they just turn you down... they think no one will want to hear the song you wrote with them. And when you do present it the band leader turns you down... It's just sad, to work so hard on something only to be turned down. You should enjoy it, you got to hang out with a friend and write a song! But it's just... blah...

Finally, the canyon is acceptance. You are alone, completely and utterly alone. There are very few NPC's here, even fewer quests. You traverse a land with nothing to offer, even after you beat the undead king who won't accept his own death and he gives you the tools you need to get to the temple... There nothing there. You climb the stone tower completely alone. There aren't even any real threats as you traverse it. You are... Alone with your thoughts, you have time to reflect on everything. You learn to accept the emptiness. You begin to realize... It's not your fault. You tried your best, but it isn't your fault that people had to suffer. You chose what you thought were the best outcomes, you accept that failure is a part of life... You... Cannot save everyone.

Finally you reset and return to the town with a new perspective. You use your newfound knowledge to complete each of the four temples to save the peoples of that region (or you don't, you monster), then you help as many people as you can in the town. And on the third day... You face the Majora's mask... You prepare yourself to fight the great evil that has been plagueing you since day 1. But then... Something unexpected happens. You find yourself in a peaceful, serine field, with a small hill with a single tree in the distance. You approach it and find four children playing together, and one child left out. There are two paths now. If you chose not to help everyone you could at least once you fight Majora's mask in a somewhat intense multiiphase fight, and the ending plays. You did it, you saved the world, and helped some of the inhabitants. But something is still wrong... You didn't really make the full effort did you? You didn't even try to help everyone at least once...

So you reset again, you reset as many time as it takes to help everyone at least once, you have to know... Can you save everyone? You reach Majora again, and you approach the tree... You talk to the children and offer them all the masks you collected through the game, symbols of all the people you helped. And one by one the children leave... Leaving you, and Majora alone... He comments about the others being gone, and offers you a brand new mask. The fierce deity mask. A mask so powerful it rivals the power of the Majora's mask itself. It is a symbol of acceptance. You took the time to save as many people as you possibly could. You took the time to help the man trapped in the canyon. You helped save a father who was dying and becoming a monster. You helped the old lady, you helped the child protect her family ranch, you helped lay a spirit to rest, you saved the fiance, you saved them... At least once. You even helped the four moon children and their tokens of thank you has culminated in this one final mask... A symbol of Majora's acceptance. The Majora's mask knows you will reset again, and again, and again, you will spend an eternity trying to stop him. You've learned you can't save everyone, you are giving up all the tokens of your hard work... And you beat Majora. Not by fighting him, but by showing that you have finally accepted that you cannot save everyone but as many as you can, and you giving up all the masks is that final symbol of acceptance.

So he gives you the Fierce deity mask, and you easily defeat him in battle. It isn't even close to a challenge, each of his phases takes 1-2 hits while using the Deity mask. Majora knew he couldn't win, and gave you the final mask, a mask to rival him... To show he was accepting his fate. The final fight isn't to save the world, it's to save him. You have to put an end to his suffering, his rage... And you do. You save him.

Then the credits roll, you get to see various people you've helped through the various resets, everyone seems happy, everyone is celebrating. Even the Skull kid gets to have closure as he reconciles with his friends the giants...

But then the game proves one final time that you can't save everyone. At the very start of the game, after the skull kid curses you, you navigate an almost dreamlike area of warp geometry, and bottomless pits. It's surreal, off putting... And right before you finally leave you encounter a strange shrub. It's also warped, it looks as it melted partially, it also looks sad... But it's jsut a stump, you don't give it any thought. Maybe you vaguely recall a character mentioned their own son leaving home one day in the Deku kingdom, but you don't really give that any thought either... And as the credit roll... You see him. You see him crying over the stump. From the very first moments of the game it was teaching you... You just didn't know it. You failed to save even the first person you encountered. The game made you jump through every hoop it could, you reset dozens of times, maybe hundreds. You helped give closure to dozens of people, you saved the world, you even helped a god put down their rage... But... There was one person you were never, ever going to be able to save... The very first person you encountered.

You failed before you even began. You couldn't save everybody. You were never supposed to. You were taught from the start that you can't, and you learned to accept it along the way. Your final moments in game are the final acceptance that you... Cannot save everyone.

gets off soapbox and leaves