Unearthing the Chills of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: Insights from the Developers

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I was a young child when The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was launched in 2000, but I’ve always remembered it as the Zelda installment that came closest to being a full-fledged horror experience. Wait, no, it’s definitely because it’s incredibly disturbing.

Apart from the obvious elements like the rage-fueled moon that gazes at you with its exposed teeth, the overall game has a continuing feeling of weirdness that is simply eerie and disconcerting. A few years later, Twilight Princess would inherit some of that eerie essence, but that game feels more like a rebellious yet good-hearted teenager who hung around Hot Topic a bit too much around 2006.

In contrast, Majora’s Mask is genuinely frightening at times, and yet, one of its primary developers, Takaya Imamura, never sensed that way at all, stating to Edge in issue #407: “Some foundational elements had already been established, like the moon descending and the mask, and that sort of thing. I aimed to create a world where they would harmonize and make sense together.

“When it comes to the design of the mask and the moon, I personally didn’t view them as frightening at all. I was thinking of constructing them with a different design approach, but everyone told me how disturbing they appeared. People on the team were like ‘whoa!’. It’s simply how it all turned out, I suppose.”

It’s amusing because the mask and the moon are likely the most terrifying components of Majora’s Mask… wait, no, that questionable title rightfully belongs to the Gibdos in Ikana Canyon and the scene featuring that unfortunate girl’s mummified father. I truly still feel uneasy just contemplating it.