Both the “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” and “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask” are true classics and will always live on forever and many gamers hearts. Nearly every Zelda fan who has played both of these Nintendo 64 classics will constantly ask himself which adventure is superior to the other, which game is a better playing quest, this question has lingered in my mind for years as well, and I’m finally here to put an end to that. This is my first of a multi-part series to find and reveal the greatest Zelda game ever. These versus style reviews will compare two games in the fields of Graphics, Audio, Story, Gameplay, and Gameplay Amount and will name the better of the two games at the end of the article. These articles will be informal and more disjointed than actual reviews. So here we go, which is better, Ocarina of Time (N64 version) or Majora’s Mask? Let’s dive in!
Our first of our many categories is graphics, both games were developed for the Nintendo 64 and have the same exact art style and plenty of identical character models. Many of the textures remain the same between titles, and the game’s scope appears the same. However I give a slight thumbs up to Majora’s Mask for including many more notable and creepy characters such as the Mask Salesman, Majora, and the moon that hangs over Termina, and I also appreciate the fact that Clock Town is a fully rendered 3-D area, not a picture that Link runs around in like in Castle Town from Ocarina of Time. Both games have excellent graphics for the time but I think Majora’s Mask is a little bit better in every last way.
Best Graphics: TLOZ: Majora’s Mask
Next up is Audio, both games have similar sound effects, voice acting, and similar sounding music tracks. I do like the sounds and voices more in Majora’s Mask, simply because they are creepy and especially the Mask Salesman and Woodfall Temple boss sound really cool. I love the music in both games but find that Ocarina of Time has much better music mainly because of nostalgia feelings. Gerudo Valley and the Lost Woods can never be replaced. However, I do love Clock Town theme, Deku Palace, and many, many more. Overall, the sound quality is better in Majora’s Mask, but the tunes are better in Ocarina of Time, I’ll be fair and call this one a tie.
Best Audio: TLOZ: Ocarina of Time AND TLOZ: Majora’s Mask
This is one category that required a bit more thinking, Ocarina of Time has an outstanding story that relates completely to the Triforce and Hyrule whereas Majora’s Mask is more like a sidequest, with a darker storyline than usual. Both stories are amazing, Ocarina’s is more epic and grand in scale and has more significance to the overall Zelda timeline, whereas Majora’s Mask is an absolute master piece to view. Between the imminent doom via moon crashing into the earth, the extremely sad story of poor Skull Kid, and the fantastic character driven moments, Majora’s Mask has a truly remarkable story, one that few games have ever come close to beating.
Best Story: TLOZ: Majora’s Mask
Now to the category that matters most and is worth two points; gameplay. Both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask contain the usual dungeon solving, enemy whacking gameplay that has come to represent the Zelda franchise, and both have their own unique hook to help spice things up. In OoT, Link travels through time to adventure around Hyrule as either a child or an adult, and in MM, Link takes the form of three other beings and must race against time itself to save the world before it is destroyed by the impending fall of the moon. The level designs in both games are about even in comparison, maybe better in MM because the water temple isn’t nearly as annoying (although it still is). The bosses in OoT are much more enjoyable in my opinion as nearly every boss fight in MM is extremely annoying, tedious, and difficult without the proper methods known to fight them. The time hopping gameplay of OoT works as you’d expect it to, whereas in MM it sometimes can be extremely annoying and will have you being sent back to the start many times which is a game killer. The mask-changing gameplay in MM throws a nice curveball into the game and is a nice change of scenery for Zelda games, and having four playable characters is quite something. Overall, I was annoyed by the Majora’s Mask exclusive features multiple times in my recent play through, so I’m going to say that Ocarina of Time is superior to Majora’s Mask in the gameplay department.
Best Gameplay: TLOZ: Ocarina of Time
Some games may be short, some may be long, but when you play a Zelda game, you want to be entertained for days before the game’s credits roll. The gameplay amount between OoT and MM can be compared easily. Collectibles and sidequests are scattered everywhere in both games, and can provide a nice and fun way to escape from the main quest. The dungeon count and size of the game itself, is about double as much in Ocarina of Time making it the better game for gameplay amount.
Best Gameplay Amount: TLOZ: Ocarina of Time
VERDICT:
Both of these fantastic Zelda games are an absolute blast to play, but I will admit that one is better than the other, it may be because of nostalgic reasons, or perhaps because it was more revolutionary than its N64 sister game, but one of these games is a bit better than the other. Overall Majora’s Mask is better in an artistic way, with superior graphics, story, and with audio right on par with its contender, but Ocarina of Time itself is a much more polished game with better gameplay, and a much longer main quest. I recommend both of these games to you as they are two of the best games in existence, and I had a blast playing through them again. Majora’s Mask is a bit more challenging, but Ocarina of Time has more of a classic Zelda feel to it. With all that said, I honestly had more fun playing Ocarina of Time than its successor, Majora’s Mask, and that’s why I’m calling it the greatest N64 Zelda game of all time. I hope you agree with my decision and make sure to check the chart below for the rundown by category of the results!
These are my final decisions for each category including overall:
Graphics | Majora’s Mask |
Audio | Ocarina of Time AND Majora’s Mask |
Story | Majora’s Mask |
Gameplay | Ocarina of Time |
Gameplay Amount | Ocarina of Time |
Overall | Ocarina of Time |
“The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”
Is our winner!!!
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