Topic: Art style for Majora's Mask (N64) Inferior?

Keep in mind I said art style and not graphics. Having said that though, I don't quite understand all the praise for MM in comparison to OoT. As a child the art style and direction took me out of the game more than anything such as the goron baby with its one tooth and hairdo or the extremely disproportionate goron statue with the bizarre pose that you can create. Don't even get me started on the Link statue. Why did Nintendo think that'd be a good idea? I'm not saying it isn't, I'm just curious to know why they thought it was. The stalfos with their incredible overbite is another example. Even the townsfolk looked and felt different to me from their faces down to the nuances of their mannerisms despite the game being a sequel to OoT. The game for me, while it maintains a certain grim and serious attitude in certain aspects, throws seriousness out the window in other aspects. An example would be you as a deku playing the tuba or whatever it is. It's been a while. Despite seeing so much praise about MM being superior in almost every way to OoT, I fail to see how in the art style department at the very least. I would understand more if the argument was about graphics since the game required an expansion pak, but the art? I know it is only my opinion, but immersion was hard to come by in this game for me from the time I met the mask salesman to the end of the game. It all felt very weird. Having said all of that though, I have MM 3D on preorder because **** logic. I respect the fact this is a very successful game, and I respect other people's opinions on the matter. I also acknowledge the fact that there is a TON of content to be had in the game so the appeal is definitely real, so please don't take what I have said to mean I am dissing the game. I am not.

Anyone out there that felt the same as I did?

I always thought the use of bold colors worked well with the "darker" ambience of the game.

The use of shine and blur was also nice.

Other than that, the art style is basically exactly the same as in OoT, just with more shadows thrown in.

Interesting. There is just something different that I'm seeing with the character models, art, and all that gives me a totally different vibe which I don't feel in OoT. The people, undead, etc felt so radically different to me that I had a hard time connecting to them like I did in OoT. Like... Tingle for me is a prime example of the kind of npc I wouldn't expect to see in the last game lol. It felt so random. My opinions on the matter could also very well just be a placebo effect. Who knows.

I never had a problem with it. I know what you're talking about, though. Personally, I thought the moon was really funny-looking when I played it as a kid, and I'd laugh at the fact that no-one seemed to realize that there was a face on it. The giant music box house in the death valley always broke the creepy mood, the crow really looks nothing like a crow with its big head, the entire zora presence is a concert hall with jazz musicians that are treated more like rock musicians. but the zora don't seem to live anywhere.

EDIT: Oh. yeah, I forgot about Tingle. he's definitely up there in the mood wiplash category. (end edit)

But, to me, that's Zelda. Link's green outfit is already kinda ridiculous, and the characters always had strange unrealistic personalities. I've never really cared about immersion in video games; I usually stay grounded in reality when I play, and I play with the lights on, with the windows unblinded, and with people around. Stuff like that doesn't really bother me.

Yeah. That does make a lot of sense. If I can stay more "grounded in reality" as I play then I will most definitely find the game more enjoyable. At least you know where I'm coming from. As for the townsfolk acknowledging the moon's face, I read something interesting before that you may or may not already know. I'll just copy/paste it here.

A statement from one of the Twins indicates that the Moon did not look like this prior to the actions of the Skull Kid. It is unknown if the Moon had a face at all before the events of the game. -Zeldapedia

That bit of info could just be common sense to MM fans for all I know, but I found it interesting

I prefer the art used for MM over OOT. It's bolder and a lot more "out there" than most other games. Looks a lot more unique to me.

Just looking at the art for these games beside each other MM comes of a much more intriguing and interesting piece than OOT, to me.

And let's not forget that the dark and moody Twlight Princess introduced those two:

So I'd say Tingle is not that very out of place. In fact, when playing the game for the first time, I thought he was pretty normal... Considering the setting.

I think I remember that... not sure. But no one else seems to notice. They'll also comment that it "seems bigger than before," when it's taking a sizable chunk of the sky.

Do you mean Stalchildren? Because there are only 3 Stalfos in Majora's Mask, and it looks like they might even have underbites.

Here's a Stalchild...

And here are the Stalfos...

Also, the Stalchildren were in Ocarina of Time too, with the exact same model.

I see. So it seems I was incorrect about the Stalchild being different. Apparently my childhood experience of MM has biased my views of said game to some extent. It was just such a different experience to me from what I had in OoT that even the simple things like character models felt too out of place.

Well I was making a comparison of MM in relation strictly to its predecessor but yes, those are some unique figures lol.

I might as well comment about this as well since I'm curious... Did anyone else ever feel the bosses had extremely unoriginal and/or random names? Gyorg is a good example. The bosses also seemed rather plain to me in comparison to others like say.... Volvagia, Barinade, Bongo Bongo, Twinrova, etc.

Funny that you mention Gyorg, since that one became a regular enemy and kept appearing in the series.

The names are... Ok I guess. Never really thought much about them.

Well I could just be being overly critical. All my memories of the game were during the more impressionable years of my life so far after all. I also wasn't saying that Gyorg is in itself unoriginal, just its name. Although one could argue that the fact its name is so weird is original in itself. I can't really argue with that. It's all about perspective I guess. It's totally understandable why he would be reused in different games though as a regular enemy. It isn't like there is anything in particular about him that screams "I'm a boss!" other than his size. He's just a giant fish in the end. Odolwa could also be used as a regular enemy if you shrunk his size. Having groups clustered throughout a Zelda game of mini Odolwa people isn't hard for me to imagine. Heck, even Twinmold... There are already enemies in the Zelda universe I believe that are similar in some shape or form to that boss.

Ah well. Still getting the 3DS game though, and hopefully will actually finish the game for the first time on my own. Both MM and OoT have been completed for me sadly. I still enjoyed watching though. It was like a live Let's Play (before Let's Play's were actually a thing). The 3DS versions will give me a chance to finish them on my own while also giving me a little something new to keep things a little less predictable. Who am I kidding, even if they were one to one copies of the N64 version I'd probably get em....

A bunch of little Odolwas attacking you would be nightmare material.

About Gyorg's name, according the Internet it comes from Gyo, which means fish in japanese.

Lol well I didn't mean that the little Odolwas would be just as powerful or have the same attacks. I just mean I can personally see Nintendo reusing that model to make groups of enemies. I know they won't, but I can imagine it happening clearly.

Also interesting about the Gyo thing. I guess that makes sense.

implying this is a bad thing

In my opinion, Twinrova and Volvagia sound way less original; they just sound cooler. I can't think of the last time I fought an enemy in a video game whose name sounded anything like Gyorg. It's kinda fun to shout out, you know? They all sound like tribal names, which, after all, is the lore of the game.

Now, Twinmold. That's kinda unoriginal.

What you call inferior, I call interior!

I will say while my previous statement is the same regardless, I am horribly biased towards Majora's Mask art-wise just for the official art. Back in the day, it was the coolest thing.