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‘Majora’s Mask’ Dungeon by Dungeon: Great Bay Temple

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Halfway through my analysis of Link’s Awakening, Nintendo unveiled an adorable chibi-clay “reimagining” of that game for the Switch. In celebration of its upcoming launch, I will turn my eye from the strangest, darkest, most surreal portable Zelda to the strangest, darkest, most surreal console Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Majora’s Mask is arguably the Zelda game most open to hermeneutic critique, as its narrative themes run deep but somewhat vague, and it’s wholly original structure feels like postmodern art compared to the conservative story and character arcs of nearly every other Zelda. In this series, I will be looking specifically at the dungeon design of the 3DS version of the game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D. While this version makes several changes to the Nintendo 64 version, some of which are rather consequential and controversial, I am choosing to scrutinize this version because it is probably how most players currently play the game (plus, it’s the version I own that isn’t hundreds of miles away at my mom’s house). In this entry, I will be looking at the game’s third dungeon, Great Bay Temple.

After hookshotting onto a tree on the back of an adorable giant turtle (which is still too cool twenty years later), Link is chauffeured to the entrance of Great Bay Temple. Upon arriving at Great Bay Temple, things quickly go from surreal to industrial. Indeed, Great Bay Temple is less a temple than a massive flooded apparatus with functioning elevators, waterwheels, and pumps that together represent the most advanced technology in all of Termina. While this setting would seem to encourage drab steampunky greys and browns, Great Bay Temple’s art is actually the most vibrant so far, with shrewd use of color that livens up the environment, creates a distinct sense of place, and clarifies which architecture is most relevant to the player. The heavy use of golds and yellows in giant mechanical architecture might also remind contemporary players of the Divine Beasts from Breath of the Wild, which Great Bay Temple seems to have influenced in myriad ways.

The layout of Great Bay Temple is difficult to describe in traditional terms, as many of its rooms and floors seamlessly flow into each other without a door to differentiate between them, almost like an elaborate mouse house. Given such caveats, the dungeon is comprised of roughly thirteen rooms across three floors, with many of those rooms spanning multiple floors. While the general layout can be tough to completely memorize because of its free-flowing nature and rooms of various heights, the flow of the water current (which the player dictates) helps break the dungeon into two main paths — the red and the yellow — which streamline navigation. Unfortunately, since certain rooms can only be accessed when the water is flowing a certain direction, the player might need to walk through the same series of steps multiple times to get where they want to go. Another potential downside is that the dungeon is not as open as it initially appears to be because the the red stream rooms must tackled before the yellow stream rooms. This makes the dungeon a little more faux-pen than open, which might actually be a positive given how cumbersome open underwater navigation might be. On the flipside, it can be aggravating to have to change the current when searching for a final fairy or two.

However Great Bay largely avoids this potential problem because its fairies are so perfectly placed. Compared to the excessively hidden fairies of Snowhead Temple and the stumble-upon fairies of Woodfall Temple, Great Bay’s fairies are essentially mini-puzzles that demand some degree of strategizing to attain. In this regard, they are like the optional treasure chests in Breath of the Wild’s shrines and Divine Beasts — yet another cue BotW takes from this dungeon’s design. It’s also worth noting that Great Bay Temple’s design makes exceptional use of both the Hookshot and the various forms of Arrows, with obstacles such as seesaws asking the player to puzzle-solve using combinations of multiple items. Unfortunately, the 3DS version slightly changes Link’s jump so that certain jumps in throughout the dungeon are frustratingly distanced, making it easy to overshoot so that the player ultimately has to restart the room. For a game that isn’t a platformer, and in which the platforming is arguably crude, it feels like disproportionately harsh punishment.

Unfortunately, Majora’s Mask 3D also makes other changes to basic gameplay that dramatically impact the player’s experience of this dungeon, namely the Zora Mask. While Zora Link could indefinitely dash through water in the N64 version of the game, dashing in the 3DS version requires the use of magic. This means the game introduces a deterrent from practicing the single move that makes Zora Link most enjoyable and unique, which in turn means that by the time the average 3DS player reaches Great Bay Temple, they will likely be far less practiced than the N64 player and the underwater portions of the dungeon will be that much more difficult. Furthermore, the dungeon never calls for Zora Link’s boomerang attack and almost never for his dash, so many players likely have very little practice with Zora Link’s moveset when they fight the dungeon’s final boss, designed around that moveset. Close-quarters combat with Zora Link can also feel inelegant because of the awkwardness of transitioning between his swim controls and his combat controls. Merging the two control schemes could have made a huge difference, and it’s especially disappointing given how cool his boomerang attack and dash attack are that trying to use them can be so tedious. On top of this, the underwater camera can get insanely spastic and unwieldy, so much so that it can feel like a totally different game. So, on the whole, what should be a ridiculously fun and interesting transformation is instead entirely botched in the 3DS version. 

Unsurprisingly, almost every aspect of Great Bay Temple is somehow concerned with water. From its central meta-dungeon puzzle, to its item, to its enemy selection, to its boss fight, the dungeon is completely absorbed in its aqueous theme (and for once in a Zelda game, that’s a good thing). Coming off Ocarina of Time’s miserable Water Temple, it seems as if the Zelda team rethought what properties of water would be most fun to engage with. While raising the water level in Ocarina could be tedious, slow, and full of backtracking, changing the current here is simple and results in speedy and empowering movement. While Ocarina of Time’s Iron Boots literally and figuratively weighed the player down, the Zora Mask gets players from here to there in a jiffy, with style to spare. While the Water Temple has Link wade through the same areas time and time again, Great Bay requires minimal backtracking. As a whole, Great Bay emphasizes different properties of water (currents, freezing, and three-dimensional freedom of movement) than those in Ocarina while also more thoroughly understanding what makes water-related gameplay so despised in many games. While swimming can undoubtedly be a chore, specifically in the 3DS version, Great Bay Temple redefines and re-energizes its oft-maligned theme.

Despite being an Arrow derivative, like the meddling Fire Arrows of Snowhead Temple, the Ice Arrows fully realize their potential as a unique item. For puzzles, Ice Arrows prove more satisfactory than Fire Arrows because they enable the player to create a solution rather than simply melting away an obvious obstacle. Moving from one side of a body of water to the other, for example, has the player shoot at sparkling spots on the water’s surface that harden into temporary platforms the player can walk on. While the sparkle is a tad on-the-nose (Breath of the Wild updates and improves upon this with its Cryonis Rune), they still require the player to spot something secondary to the scene and use it to forge a path forward. Further differentiating themselves from normal Arrows, Ice Arrows freeze many enemy types, which are sometimes used for puzzle-solving that masterfully blends puzzles, combat, and platforming. For these reasons, the Ice Arrows are the best dungeon item in the game, and the only ones that feel fully fleshed-out and meaningfully integrated into their respective dungeon.

Great Bay Temple is home to ten enemy types, two of which (Bio Deku Baba and Dexihand) the player has likely not yet encountered. Despite the lack of new endemic enemies, the enemy selection is strong not just because they are more strategically deep than the average foe (for example, the Bio Deku Baba is a rare multi-phase enemy the player can interact with in a surprisingly wide variety of ways), but also because they are especially well-suited to the dungeon. In terms of theming, this is by far the most suitable enemy selection yet, with eight of the ten enemies marine-themed and the other two appropriately placed. But it’s even more impressive how enemies are integrated into each room, often acting as perfectly-positioned obstacles or the solution to a puzzle. The only downsides to the enemy selection is that underwater enemies require underwater combat, which, at least in the 3DS version, is subpar.

The first mini-boss battle against Wart is enjoyable and impressive. Numerous strategies work against Wart, a giant eye surrounded by bubbles, so playing experimentally is hugely advantageous. In fact, seasoned Zelda players may be at a disadvantage if they default to using  the Hookshot, which is actually less effective than bombs or arrows. Wart’s bubble surfeit might make the first phase of the fight slow-going, but discovering, strategizing, and battling him is one of Great Bay’s highlights. The second mini-boss fight against Gekko and Mad Jelly is also surprisingly fun. Though freezing the Jelly in the second phase of the fight can get repetitive, it’s incredibly clever that the game asks the player to equip Fire Arrows before entering the fight. This ensures the player will have to deliberately equip the Ice Arrows during the fight, thus making the battle more about conscientious strategizing than simply trying out whatever item is on hand. Unfortunately, the final fight against Gyorg is a major letdown, with the first phase focusing on shooting the masked fish with arrows, and the second on underwater combat and traversal. Both phases go on far too long, and while the first phase is incredibly easy, the second is can be tedious and touchy given the finicky swim controls and camera. On the whole, this makes Gyorg is one of the most disappointing fights in the entire game. 

Great Bay Temple is an exemplary Majora’s Mask dungeon because it wholly embraces its water theme and the intentionality-driven gameplay that comes with it. In fact, the entire dungeon seems designed around intentionality. Its second mini-boss, for example, has the player unequip the weapon they will need in the battle before entering, so that the player has to intentionally equip it. Meanwhile, the dungeon’s visual clarity and use of color strengthen the water current meta-puzzle and make the player’s decision to change the current more deliberate. And Ice Arrows’ multiple uses involve foresight and conscious decision-making compared to other Arrow types. This all combines to form Majora’s most conceptually genius dungeon so far, even though it is significantly weighed down by its subpar underwater combat, controls, and camera. And if any dungeon in the series inspired the Divine Beasts, this is it — from its gold mechanical setting to its dungeon-altering central gimmick. Even though the 3DS version makes several unfortunate changes that harm the overarching experience Great Bay Temple provides, its delicate, intricate, brave design ensure it holds up shockingly well after almost twenty years.

For deep dives into other levels from Majora’s Mask, as well as levels from other classic Nintendo games such as Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, click here.

Kyle is an avid gamer who wrote about video games in academia for ten years before deciding it would be more fun to have an audience. When he's not playing video games, he's probably trying to think of what else to write in his bio so it seems like he isn't always playing video games.

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