The game introduces a new and interesting plot to the Zelda's franchise.
In the beginning of the game it shows a cutscence of Link on a horse (namely epona) in a forest wandering around. Then 2 fairies come in and scare epona, Link then falls off his horse and then lands unconscious. Seconds later a Skullkid comes out of nowhere and takes the ocarina out of his pockets and at this time Link somehow gets back up looking drowsy (you have to see his face it's pretty funny). The skullkid is suprised and gets on the horse and link jumps onto the leg of epona and stays on the horse as long as possible, but unfortunatley was shooken off and link falls on the ground and you have to chase him. (At this point you are playing and you have the sword and shield). What I really enjoyed was the unique ability to do FLIPS! yeah, cartwheels and frontflips in the air while you jump! Awesome! Then you fall into this hole and you meet him again and he turns you into a deku scrub and you have to go to Clocktown with Tael. Then you discovered clocktown knowing you got north, south,east,west of Clock town to enter at anytime.
Anywho you get the bubble blast from the Great Fairy and on the 3rd at the carnival you shoot him down and get the ocarina (at this point another cutscene of Zelda giving the ocarina to Link and saying how this will remember her). As far as I remember... Zelda gave the ocarina to Link when he was little in Ocarina of Time and at the end of the game you had to give it back to her. So why did you have to give it back if you were to use it again?...I dont know.
So you have to collect the 4 remains of Odolwa, Goht, Gyorg and Twinmold. In each temple of the game Woodfall, Snowhead, Great Bay and Stone Tower. The dungeons, sidequest, heart peices, new and old characters, bottles, new and old enemies give it more enriched gameplay.
3 days? That's all you get? Some people would hate this, and I have mixed reactions to it. Yeah when 3 days ends you have to start over with the song of time and it is a total pain in the ass but yet it makes everything a lot more exciting. Think of the people that are there. It actualy seems that they have a life. All of them have there own jobs to do. It is not like in ocarina of time where the people just were in one place just doing one thing/had one thing to do and just seemed "not really in the world" yeah you can talk to them but it was more of a cut and paste. The only people that were actualy moving where Link, Zelda, Ganondorf/Ganon, enemies and of course the animals and maybe some other humans like the possesed spiders or something.
Of course compare 4 temples to 8 temples and areas (Deku Tree, Dodongo's cavern, jabu jabu's belly, forest, fire, water, shadow and spirit temple) then you have the dungeons and sidequest to compare with both games.
In terms of which game is longer...well i think they are pretty close. Of course some people agree that Oot was a lot longer because there were a lot more temples, dungeons and having to switch from Young to adult link from time to time and then everything else you have to do. In Majora's Mask despite there are about half the dungeons and temples you have to go through, collecting heart peices/containers, 6 bottles, adults wallet, 24 masks, sidequests,and other known things to do to keep you busy. Therefore if Someone that has both games and were aware of both games as if they know it from the back of their hand, had to time themselves to complete everysingle thing to collect and find out for yourself which game is longer. I know that ocarina has more temples and dungeons but yet they were a lot easier, and i think nintendo could have done a better job making it longer without having Master Quest.
But without a doubt Majora's Mask was an excellent game and it shows that Nintendo is being a lot more aware of what to make it as in realistic. The Gossip stones add an important role in Majora's Mask. I found that the Gossip stones in Ocarina of Time always had the samething said over and over again in different places all over the world and didn't give to much variety to the game. In Majora's Mask, it shows that the stones are there to help and guide you to completing the game. In Termina Field there are some stones that do same the samething about playing the same song with the same character (Zora, Goron, Deku) infront of the Big Gossip stone but it helps you. But in other places they do help especially in that world.
And where was Ganon in this game? Well i'm not to sure but i think that it was great to have a new storyline in this game. I'm not going to say that this is true but i'm going to guess that Ganondorf was trying to escape the Sacred Realm in the Temple of Time and he did so in Wind Waker. So i think that made a lot of sence. (I mean the jump inbetween the Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker). And what about Zelda? Well she just prayed and prayed about your safe trip and for staying alive( i might be a little off about that one but i know she was praying) And i'm glad that they showed Zelda atleast once in this game because it wouldn't bve called a Zelda game without her.
The transformations were pretty cool in this game and shows that Nintendo is really thinking of new ways to present Zelda games. The Zora and the Goron mask are both my favourite mask. The Feirce Deity mask was cool and all but made destruction facing bosses a whole lot easier. The Deku Scrub mask was not that exciting. I played with him for 10 minutes and then i just wanted to change. But no doubt each mask possess there own unique power and even the other 19 masks are usefull...in someways. But i like the masks and the way they look. Of course the Couples mask was a little weird and so was the kumaro mask but i still think there pretty neat.
Sound/music was awesome in this game. Koji Kondo really showed that he still has is talent from Ocarina and previous Zelda games. Each enemy had a unique sound so its not always boring listening to the same thing over again. But some characters had the same voice which kinda upset me but it was just a minor error to this game. Also the voice when listening to the transformation and return into human Link was always the same just a diffrent picture. The sound when your close to an enemy was freaky but it was a great music to be aware about. The boss battles had the best sound other than the theme of each area.
The graphics had a slight improvement of Ocarina of Time(if you compare them closely enough) but it still looked the same and that is what i hoped in this game. And don't think that the graphics would be totally awesome either. LOL...because if you did you would be sadly mistaken. If you going to look for a Zelda game that as outstanding, breathtaking graphics then you have Twilight Princess to play... but right now you would have to wait till the release of the game first.
I personnally enjoyed and loved this game and I hope that there would be more life like this game in Twilight Princess. But Majora's Mask sadlly had 1 bad thing in the game and it was it always rained on the Second day in Clocktown! I mean what was that all about i was disappointed in that and I hope what i see in Twilight Princess would be an improvement to this game as in realism (towards weather and seasons)
So some people might say this game was a total blow out but before you think they are right play it again and see how well the game brings out Ocarina of Time but in a new world, in a new plot, in a new 3 day period, new bosses and enemies and you can see familiar enemies and characters that have the same job and possibly different, but at least they are still in the game and hope is not lost.
Overall decision and rating-excellent game and seriously passed. It takes you a while but it is worth it, like all Zelda games.