Dear all,

My first ever Nintendo system was a DS lite, and my first ever Zelda game was Phantom Hourglass. I have played through PH several times, same with ST and OOT (virtual console and 3DS versions). I have also completed TP and SS on WII.
However, the one game that I just can't seem to get into is Majora's Mask. It seems to me you need a lot of time and patience to get into MM. The gameplay, and in particular, the save mechanic doesn't seem to lend itself to short bursts (say, half an hour at a time).
As far as I can tell, you ideally need to set aside at least an hour for a good session on MM, which I don't always have to spare.
Am I approaching MM with the wrong attitude? Or is it simply not for me?

There are owl statues scattered throughout the overworld that serve as a "quick save". Using those allows you to make a temporary save without losing anything. Those can help when playing in short bursts.

If you die shortly after loading from an 'owl' save, do you go back to the owl when restarting, or do you have to go all the way back to the last 'proper' save?
I find MM rather unforgiving, in that it doesn't seem to encourage exploration and experimentation. But that may just be because I haven't given it a fair chance.

Play the Song of Time backwards and have fun.

Maybe Zelda II is more your game.
I heard its the best and only zelda game worth playing yay!~ would a cute kitty lies to you :3

Don't insult Zelda II.

You only go back to the last proper save if you let the moon crash (other than resetting the game of course). Dying will just have you respawn at the entrance of the area you came from, behaving no different than if you didn't use an owl save.

In case you are wondering, Zelda 2 seems to be a love it or hate it game. To me, it's the most unforgiving Zelda by far. It's one of the 4 Zelda's I have not beat (the other being the Oracle games, and Minish Cap).
Majora's Mask I'd say is the most difficult of the 3D Zelda games though. At least in my opinion it is. I do think it's best to play it with some good time on your hands. Also, you may want to play the song of time backwards, and it will make time go by slower for you.
Also, use the quick save owl statues, but remember, if you quit without saving when you start the game up again from one of those, you start from the last time you did a 'proper' save.

I find Zelda II to be fairly easy, not sure why everyone says it's so hard.

I think part of it is how you get a small amount of lives, and when they are gone, you have another long walk back to where you died at. I really want to like it, I just always end up quitting by the 2nd temple or so. I can beat the first one, but that I'm kinda lost. I hate having to use a walkthrough every other step (by the way, if anyone needs some good Zelda walkthroughs, may I suggest zeldadungeon.net ).
I get beat around like a rag dog by some enimies, like the annoying guy in the cave that throws two boomerangs at you at a time.

It encourages exploration more than any other entry in the series. Unless you consider exploration just running around cutting grass or running over things with your horse, in which case you shouldn't be playing MM at all. But the Bombers Notebook literally gives you places to look around and do stuff. Also, the 3 day mechanic adds urgency, and strategy, so don't dismiss it so soon.
/fanboy rant

Yeah good point about the Bombers notebook. I wish there was things like that in other Zelda games to help me keep track of what I still need to do. That's one reason the only game I have ever 100% completed was OOT (and that took a lot of time). I want to do the same with Skyward Sword, but I'm not even sure what I'm missing when I look at a walkthrough.

Well you need to beat Snowhead Temple for it to be warmer first! rimshot

1. Play the Song of Time backwards. This will give you three times the amount of time you get in the three day cycle, about three hours in total. This should be enough time to be able to make progress.

2. If you ever want to back-up a save, go to an owl statue and quick-save. Then restart the game and before you select your save file, copy your save into the second slot. And you have a back-up of your save! If you mess up, just restart the game and copy the back-up to the slot you messed up on.

honestly i think its easy, just make sure if your going to a temple start the days again and slow time down. ive never really felt like im on a timer except the odd occasion where you forget something. and i was young when i played it first.

Any of the 3D Zelda games, I think, you need to play for a while at a time. I don't know how you were able to beat Skyward Sword only playing in half hour bursts. It must've taken you forever.

As for Zelda 2, it is my FAVORITE Zelda game. If you find Zelda 2 hard, just level grind at the beginning and focus on upgrading your attack, so you can kill enemies faster. Don't avoid enemies in the overworld. That XP adds up.

MM is my favourite because you have no idea what's coming next. I only ever played it once. I never understood why people found the mechanic difficult, but I guess I was playing it after school back in the day and I always had at least two hours to devote whenever I started a session. Theoretically it should be better suited to half hour bursts because of the time limit. I think maybe having a plan could be a way to approach it. I would have a goal and then devote the three day cycle to completing only one or two things. My memory's hazy to be honest - I'm gagging for a 3DS version so I can revisit it!
I've still got Zelda II sitting in my Ambassador folder. I played through Minish Cap, then the original, then Four Swords and II is the last one. Never played any of them before. Feels good to catch up on some heritage gaming. I can honestly say that were it not for the Restore Point feature there's no way I'd have had the patience to complete the original.

Zelda 2 on 3DS was an ambassador's game? That really upsets me. I understand that Nintendo wants to thank all the people that bought a 3DS before the price cut, but do they really have to continuously screw me over because I had other financial priorities at the time?