Pixels n' Print: December 2014

Faith is tested, hearts are redeemed, but the monster never dies. The time has come once again to discuss one of the most mysterious video games in history. It has been two years to the day since I started my series on the themes and story of Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I wanted to write this follow-up post because not only does the game mean the world to me, but the blog series remains the only series I have followed through to completion. The writing featured on this blog was very much a labor of love and I was determined to see those thirty posts through with reflection. I also sorta want to get the Great Mighty Poo off of my front page, so there's kinda an ulterior motive in making this post, but you'd do it too if it meant scrubbing the giant singing turd off your front page. In all seriousness, I'd decided to follow up on my musings on Majora's Mask for some time now, but decided to hold off on posting until today.

The glorious news that accompanies this post is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is getting an HD remake on the Nintendo 3DS/2DS/and New 3DS. This is one more reason for a post and for you to go out and get a 3DS/2DS/or New 3DS dependent upon your budget. It's true that the game is a little difficult, but there are countless walkthroughs on the internet in this day and age so you don't have to be some sort of major league gamer to play it. Also, the 3DS is a solid gaming platform with many excellent titles for all ages and such apps as netflix, hulu, and youtube, so consider that as well. All the phone minus the phone, but you probably bought an iPad, so this isn't your first rodeo. Admit it... you'll buy anything with a screen and buttons on it. I've got you figured out, muahahaha.

So then, what in particular do I want to talk about for the anniversary. I've already said a lot and there are countless other people saying countless other things about this game. The Game Theorists have pointed out that the falling Moon wouldn't actually be much of a threat to the world given the velocity and mass of the moon and the possibility of Link being dead, and recently there has been a series by the brilliant Gaijin Goombah on the African roots of the game's cultural elements. It's a popular game that inspires discussion, so I'm gonna link all of those videos at the end of the post as well as Jirard "Dragon Rider" Khalil's Completionist video on the game to give those who are new to the game a fast and dirty look at the game itself (I say fast and dirty, but Jirard does a really good job putting those videos together so show him some love).

However, what do I personally bring to this to the discussion that I haven't brought before? Why not just put it off to the 3 year anniversary of my blog series? Well, recently I have completed a class on the study of supernatural fiction focusing on ghost stories. After studying many critical debates in ghost stories, I've realized Majora's Mask is among the great ghost stories of video games, up there with Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame, and even Metal Gear Solid (I'll talk about that when Phantom Pain comes out, remind me if I forget). So in the spirit of the season, I'm gonna write a blog post every day from now until Christmas on the Ghosts of Majora's Mask. You're thinking "Christmas isn't a time for ghost stories!" and I'm saying "uhhh, Christmas Carol, and 'tell scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long long ago.'" Apparently it's a very English thing to tell ghost stories around Christmas, in America we just buy stuff so that our children don't grow up to be cowboys because we didn't get them a Tickle Me Elmo one year. Pretty sure there's a bit in the Bible where the spirits of dead saints were proclaiming the birth of Jesus at the nativity, so you could go at it from that angle too.

Things you can expect from this series is a discussion of the abodes of the ghosts (Lost Woods, Clock Town, Ikana Valley, things like that), a discussion of desire among haunts, accursed objects, the role of gods in ghost stories, and the inability to let go. So with that, get yourself a glass of milk (or some chateau romani if you're 21 or older or 18 and not American) and we'll meet back here tomorrow and get started.