Snowhead Temple, The Central Room Structure Evolved - Dungeon Design In Zelda (Majora's Mask)
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- The second dungeon in Majora's Mask builds on what we've learned up until know, and presents a much larger challenge. Let's take a look.
Special thanks to RMFH for providing the Majora’s Mask 3D footage of the boss fight!
0:00 - Intro
0:43 - Before The Dungeon
8:16 - Dungeon Progression
22:48 - The Dungeon Boss 
Игры
I really like the Snowhead Temple, however, surprisingly enough, I am kind of sad there is no mid-dungeon beforehand.
Woodfall got the Deku Palace, Great Bay the Pirate’s Fortress and Stone Tower the Ikana Castle. I feel these mid-dungeons made up for the small amount of traditional dungeons in the game and if Snowhead had one, it’d make it 8 significant structures, putting Majora’s Mask sort of on par with the number of dungeons in OoT.
I'm loving this series, it lets me revisit these games without having to actually replay them.
Snowhead is probably my favorite dungeon in all of Zelda. Maybe because of the atmosphere, maybe because it was the first dungeon that gave me that "aha" moment, maybe something else entirely, but I just really love it.
It has the structure of the water temple but without the slot of playing Zelda’s lullaby and equiping and unequiping iron boots over and over again. You can look around the central room and see how the pillar should be moved to allow access to different doors, so you plan how to solve it and the lack of water means screwing up the solution or falling off isn’t a huge time sink. If you like that style of dungeon, Snowhead is perfectly executed.
snowhead is a very solid dungeon. i don't think it reached its fullest potential because of how the blue disks were placed and the small keys distributed but overall a strong dungeon by making good use of the item to return to previous explored rooms. the stray fairies are also well hidden. relatively speaking, i argue MM has the best dungeon design structure in the 3D entries.
my first experience in snowhead was a painful one. i remember renting it from blockbuster without having a player's guide and thinking that the hot spring water was required for the dungeon. this made the dungeon much harder than intended but i learned that enhances the level design because it can be played in a non-linear fashion but not recommended.
I just finished the dungeon. Curiously, I missed the compass but still was able to progess without problem. Also, for the last fairy I used Link Goron instead lf the bunny hood. I found it easier.
Ok but I love the intro for these videos.
Thanks! 😅
I’m gonna tweak it a bit for each one. This one got icy ❄️
Oh the music, ohhhhh that DAMN music!!! :P It always gives me a sense of urgency, like, "Hurry up! Hurry up! You better get moving or something BAD'S gonna happen!" Always keeps me on the edge of my seat! This is also the dungeon that tends to take me the longest to figure out, much like the Water Temple as you mentioned. Majora's Mask throws no punches with its dungeons man!
Thanks the awesome video Capt! You da best :)
PS: Frogfrogfrogfrogfrogfrog?????
Thanks Rinnnnnnn
Definitely this game is not holding back at all, but I sorta like that about it. Especially playing it back to back with OOT.
Frog?? 🐸
I know someone might have already mentioned it, but you can get to the alcove using deku Link with the flower at the top of the temple, no hooks hot or exploit needed.
Loving these videos, as ever! I never realised how much they tweaked the game in the MM3D version. I’ve only ever played the original, so looking forward to seeing what other changes they made in your future episodes. Definitely prefer the original Goht battle!
i agree, the original Goht battle was WAY better
Yeah it sucks because there are definitely a lot of quality of life improvements in the 3DS version and of course it looks great but they really cut the bosses at the knees for no real reason
I'm watching the great bay video now,,,,,,, I forgot about the zora mask
I can't believe I never noticed those doors were colour coded 😂
An interesting thing, the chords played in the main part of the song use a musical 'interval' commonly used in Zelda and infamous for creating tension.😊
Loving this series! So fun to revisit the dungeons from my childhood with more context and detail behind the art and visual style of the games and the design.
Awesome capt!
I have to say I'm really enjoying your dungeon videos. =)
It's definitely clear the effort u put in those videos. Love it!
The stray fairy in the room with pilars where you have to look at the ceiling is DIABOLICAL
I love most zelda dungeons that have one big central room that you return to often. Snowhead temple did it very well. They made perfect use of the masks
I never knew you needed to use the scarecrow song for the final fairy nor did I know you could jump to it, I'm pretty sure (it's been awhile) I used the deku flower to get it every time (just gliding down slowly haha)
That sounds so tedious ngl haha
@@CaptBurgerson It gets better: the 3DS version changes the geometry and unintentionally(?) patches the Bunny hood exploit. Meaning the Deku Flower is the ONLY early method for obtaining it
@@TheGameCreator13 I know more than one person who got bored and stopped playing because of that faerie...and you need the upgrade to progress comfortably, imo
I honestly never used the bunny hood. I always just jumped it from a different spot than shown on the video at kind of an angle. I think that works in the 3DS version too. Still think it is one of the worst fairy locations in the game though.
Me too lol
Yeaahhhh loved the upright bass call-out! I just love the attention you give the music in every video 🥰 I have never noticed stone tower in the background by the shrine, so thanks for pointing that out! This was another great video. Darunia has always been a very sad character to me. I wonder where Nintendo came up with the idea for the character... 🤔
Good point about the silmiarity to the water temple from oot! That was something I hadn't ever really considered before, so thanks 👍🏼 LOL about how satisfying it is to land a Goron punch on the wolfos 😂 I think it's so funny how often you use the blast mask... I never use it 😝 I found the Double Wizrobe mid bosses a little repetitive... Is there any other boss you would have liked to see as a second mid boss?
Ugh, everything you share about the 3DS version of this game makes me want to play it less tbh 😝 that's okay though. I really appreciate your analysis of this fight!! It really is a very unique boss battle, and it's really enjoyable for that reason. I agree with all your nit-picks (I swear I'm not just a yes man 😅) also!! Great points all. Another great video done!! 👍🏼👍🏼
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@@tetra1767 thanks T! Except it’s Darmani, not Darunia! LOL just giving you a hard time.
Both Damani and Mikau are deeply tragic characters imho. We’ll get more into that next week.
I can’t think of any to replace it but yeah. It’s not the most exciting mid-boss to begin with but it’s fine.
The 3DS version really isn’t my thing tbh. Sorry if that sways you in a negative way but I also can’t not say how I feel about it haha.
Thanks for such thoughtful comments as usual :)
@@CaptBurgerson LMAO RIP ME thanks 😂👍🏼
Solid into, liked it a lot
The comparison between Snowhead Temple and The Water Temple is something I've not thought of before but it makes sense with the different levelled floors. The twangy instrument you mentioned in the Swamp Area sounds like a computerised sitar, I think. I really enjoyed the 'ice-themed soundtrack of the cursed Mountain Area and inside the dungeon,' which also links the music thematically and it works really well in capturing the winter aesthetic - that suggests a lot more thought behind the soundtrack than just having a random soundtrack.
I found this dungeon really difficult as a kid particularly with aiming Darmani's Rolls at the right time... Organising the pillar in the middle to reach certain areas, I also found really tricky but really worth it when you finally got to the place you wanted to go. The colour coded doors and switches are really new as far as I'm aware to 3D Zelda Games at this point so those were interesting features. I like the idea of earning 'elemental bow upgrades,' however replacing that with traditional dungeon items is actually innovative in itself, however I think I prefer traditional dungeon items more, for example, the 'hookshot,' 'the mirror shield etc.' There is a very easy way to deal with Goht, which I discovered by accident. If you stand by the door and shoot arrows at him while he runs round, you can beat him without getting damaged at all but I prefer the chase these days haha. Also, if you use the Deku Scrub form and use the flower at the top you can jump down to the last stray fairy but it is much, much slower.
I didn't really have an issue with returning to the dungeon after collecting all the stray fairies but I can totally appreciate it can be really stressful if you're running out of time!
Definitely agree about the music! You can tell Kondo really put a lot of thought into his compositions.
The elemental arrows building off the bow is something I really like, but if it completely replaced other items I could see it being an issue. Thankfully the game still does provide these items in other areas, so we still get our full arsenal. If we didn’t, yeah it would be an issue for me.
I never tried using the deku flower for that final fairy, but based on how slowly you descend with it, it sounds like it would be super tedious! I’ll stick with the jump hahaha.
@@CaptBurgerson Yeah, Koji Kondo is a great game composer and I hope he still gets more involvement in future Zelda Games. That's true, other quest items are found outside the main dungeons in mini-dungeons and that feels more like an expansion to the mini-dungeons we were introduced to in Ocarina of Time and definitely more difficult. I also agree that the fire arrows were underused in Ocarina of Time and the Ice Arrows even more so. I would recommend my method if you don't have 'The Bunny Hood' at this point (I wasn't much of a mask collector in my first play through of this game) otherwise I would totally recommend your method which I've never heard of before so I actually learned something from a game I've replayed multiple times!
Snowhead was a huge leap up in difficulty from Woodfall, I considered Woodfall to be on the same level as Jabu Jabu's Belly in OoT.
I guess the design choice for MM was because there were fewer dungeons, they needed to be more difficult on average.
@@LordMalice6d9 Yes, there was a leap up in difficulty between Woodfall and Snowhead but the level of difficulty also increased more, I think in Great Bay Temple and finally until Stone Tower Temple (probably the most difficult out of all the 3D Zelda Dungeons at the time.)
@@hambartha See, I'm one of those people who thinks that Snowhead Temple is a bit more difficult than Great bay Temple. Great Bay is not as long or as huge of a dungeon as Snowhead is if you understand the gimmick and nuance of the temple.The color coded pipes in Great Bay essentially act as your guide, and if you follow them they will lead you to the valves you have to turn on to get the water flowing. First time players may not grasp it right away, but once you do the dungeon becomes straight-forward and easy to figure out.
Snowhead the central mechanic and gimmick is not so obvious with the central pillar. I remember having to run around constantly with the timer ticking down because I made the mistake of raising the pillar and knocking out the ice slabs to soon before accessing certain rooms in the dungoen. For example you are technically supposed to raise the pillar so it acts as a bridge to fight the Wizzrobe the 2nd time to get the boss key. But first time playing I made the mistake of knocking the ice sections of the pillar out first before going to the miniboss room, which made me backtrack more than necessary. In Snowhead the gimmick is not so clear cut.
So, for the last stray fairy, u CAN use the scarecrow, the intended method however is to lower yourself to it with the deku flower on the top floor, even if it is painfully slow, I think you can also roll with the goron from the middle tower when its at the second to highest level, I'm not sure however.
Also u never need to reset the middle tower, you can reach the second wizzrobe with the same deku flower thats in front of the boss room.
7:53 Ah yes, blocked by the power of bad breath.
Always been confused at one point or another, but somehow I didn't know you could potentially mess up the block-punching thing. It seems linear/straightforward enough. Maybe it's got when you roll along the side and fall
And with that, dungeon completed. Got the last 4 well hidden fairies after the boss fight... Needed to look up where 2 were because i forgot which rooms i had already been within.
The Wizzrob has another giveaway, his blue flame lol
"Thank You RMFH for giving me roast beef for the video!"
I watch good old days gaming quite a bit and when he talks about snow head he frequently mentions how it seems perfectly designed to work with the hook shot to traverse as if that could have been the dungeon item at one point in development (drawing even further comparisons to the water temple)
What do you think of that observation?
As a red-green colorblind person, the color coding on the N64/Collector's Edition (GameCube) versions did not help at all but I'm glad it was there.
Frog.
Okay, so, Snowhead Temple. If you'll excuse the pun, this temple seriously gives me chills. I chalk that up entirely to the music. It's by far one of the most unsettling, nerve wracking songs in the entire game. The dissonant chords and harsh echoes against the low wind howling just creates this feeling of unease that screams "you shouldn't be here", and it feels like there's no life in this place whatsoever. Unlike the other dungeon themes, I find that it's a horrible reminder of the looming time limit as well. For the most part, I wasn't bothered by the time limit in Majora's Mask during regular gameplay, but the Snowhead Temple was the one part of the game where it really started to get to me. The temple's music is already unnerving on its own, but then you add a time limit signaling the destruction of the land by a moon with a nightmarish face on top of that, and it takes on a whole new meaning. You'll go from thinking "I shouldn't be here" to "time is running out and I need to get through here as quickly as possible." Not helping matters is that when I played through this dungeon, I had to rush through it in order to get the Gilded Sword upgrade in time, putting even more pressure on me. Not fun.
Stress over impending doom aside, I actually don't mind this temple. You briefly drew comparisons to the Water Temple in this video, and I can see where you're coming from since there are structural similarities. For whatever reason though, I found this dungeon to be less confusing and tedious. Maybe it was the adrenaline making me rush through it. The only thing I really don't like about the temple is the slopes you have to roll across in the central room where if you fall, you lose a good 1-2 minutes of progress and have to trek all the way back up. Factor in the time limit, and this part made me incredibly anxious. I could practically feel my heart beating out of my chest.
As for the temple boss, Goht (Goat), it's probably tied with Odolwa for my favourite boss in the game. The fight is so exhilarating and a huge change of pace from other bosses, so it's not surprising why so many Zelda fans love it, myself included. Rolling around as Goron Link is just so much fun. I originally didn't think the whole giant eyeball thing being added to Goht in the 3DS version was as egregious as adding it to Odolwa, since that completely neutered all but one of your options for that fight, but after hearing you talk about it, I stopped to think and realised that it's probably just as bad. Breaking the pacing of this fight where one of the best things about it is the fast pace is not a good thing in my book. That and, aesthetically speaking, the organic eyeball clashes with the mechanical design of Goht, making it feel even more out of place. I also never noticed how washed out Goht's Remains look in the remake until you brought it up.
As for what Goht is supposed to be, we really don't see much advanced technology in the Zelda games between Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, which makes Goht even more of an anomoly. Assuming it wasn't created by Majora's Mask, my theory is that it was originallly designed by the Gorons as a large machine to mine for rocks by creating rockfall landslides. Goht was seemingly completed, but was abandoned for whatever reason, possibly because it was too unstable or difficult to control, making it a perfect candidate for corruption by Skull Kid. As for Snowhead Temple itself, it's possibly a foundry specifically built by the Gorons for the construction of Goht. Since it's more of a workplace than an important cultural landmark or place of worship, this could explain why there's no distinct Goron architecture inside the temple. Or it was built by those goofy Wizzrobes for whatever reason. One of the two.
One last thing you didn't mention about the music is that the Ice Cavern leitmotif can be heard at one point. That's a pretty good musical callback to Ocarina of Time.
The cursed land theme is actually called “marsh land”
This feels like a walkthrough, not a design discussion
ive done the pillar puzzle wrong all my life. i always destroy every ice ring of the pillar the first time around, then climb to the boss door and use the deku flower to get to the boss key.
goht is probably my all-time favorite zelda boss. also, it _does_ technically require the fire arrows since you have to melt the ice to initiate the fight. (i mean I _guess_ in theory you could bring some hot spring water but why would you?)
Wait, you can leave the central pillar unbroken and walk to the Wizzrobe Rematch room? I always got there with the Deku Flower.
It is pretty fun to watch your editing get niftier and more confident as you get further into the series
Ahah it only gets betterrrr.
Thanks man. Appreciate it.
3:50 nah that's timpani mate!
the stray fairy on the edge beside the tower can also be access with a goron roll, so no need for the falcultative bunny hood.
Indeed. I’ve also learned since making this video that you can (slowly) deku glide over to it
@@CaptBurgerson yeah from the top
I never bother with the Stray Faries, I'm not a completionist and they are just way to much of a hassel. The Goht battle is incredibly generous with magic Pots so I've always been fine with the small meter.
The central pillar is really not nearly as complicated as people make it out to be. As soon as you raise it up, you can immediately punch out all the ice blocks without fear. It drops it down to the third floor, but you can take the snowball path up to the fifth floor and then just jump down (or use the Deku flower to glide down easily) to nab the boss key. Then just jump back down to the third floor and go right back up to the fifth again. There is no need to delay punching out the ice blocks or do any kind of up/down shenanigans with the pillar. This makes it way way more straightforward than the Water Temple, where you have to carefully manage raising and lowering the water multiple times to complete the dungeon.
Yes anything's simple once you know what to do. Without knowing what to do, without the benefit of hindsight, it's not that simple. Yet it is indeed simpler than the Water Temple.
@@lioneart19 I think this is an example of the opposite. If you don't know what to do, you'll just punch out every block you see by default. And my point is that works just fine. It actually IS that simple. This video (among many other comments I've seen on this temple, it's not restricted to this one alone) claims that you NEED hindsight and to know a specific pattern of which blocks to punch out when, and is presenting it like they're helping new players who would be doing it wrong otherwise. But really it's just making it sound more complicated than it actually is. A new player doing what comes naturally will still be able to complete the temple just fine without needing any special tricks or hindsight.
@@phoenixrising211 I agree that it's simpler than it looks. But I think this of every MM dungeon. The 3-day cycle itself already makes temples look a lot more complex. But I think pretending to be complicated is part of the design. Besides maybe the dungeons are simple because otherwise with the time limit they might be too frustrating.
@@lioneart19 Yeah I agree, the time limit already puts pressure on you to solve the temple fast. No need to scare new players into making it more complicated for themselves.
1) I always used the deku form and slooowllly work my way down in the central room to get the stray faerie
2) have you checked out Save Data’s analysis on the Zelda OoT and MM’s dungeon music?
Oh yes. Others have pointed the deku flower method out to me, and tbh it sounds *tedious* haha.
I have watched those videos by Save Data. I hadn’t at the time that I made this video, but have since and they’re great!
9:31 it IS water themed… iced water.
Yeah I’m pretty sure I had an on screen note saying something to that effect lol
(Right at 9:27 in fact)
15:24 a snoulder
Cool, so this is the video you skipped streaming for.
Edit: Also remember to watch this in 0.25 playback speed for maximum screen time. lol
Early Bunny hood?
You can get it any time after the first time reset technically. You just need the breman mask, and you can go to the ranch on the third day when Milk Road is cleared.
7:12 its not just that comment
The story is based on it
I’m confused what you’re referring to?
@@CaptBurgerson the goron thinking link is darmani
@@happysmilesworldandgames8755 yeah. Because he literally turns into Darmani, I get that… but I don’t understand the comment. Like what you’re trying to get across? The time stamp you linked to was me saying that the goron’s reaction to Link was a nice bit of comedy, but I’m not downplaying the importance of it?
Not tryna be defensive I just am not understanding
@@CaptBurgerson i was commenting that it happens for the whole story
@@happysmilesworldandgames8755 I never said it didn’t though? I just noted that one moment for its comedic value
Great Bay is so simple! Snowhead is much better! I wished the other dungeons of MM were as complex or more than this but they all disappointed me.
Stone Tower Temple was inticate and with a unique gimmick not often seen in most Zelda games.
@@LordMalice6d9 a lot of dungeons bave unique gimmicks not seen in other Zelda games. The series has few games, the games have few dungeons and they're creative. It's the norm, not the excetion.
Did I beat Tetra? I'm only here early to say I beat Tetra. If I didn't beat Tetra, I'm unsubscribing, downvoting the video, downvoting her comment & never watching another CaptBurgerson video again.
I uh... 😥
Don't you dare
@@CaptBurgerson love you guys
@@GameOverJesse no u
I take the originals over the re(de)makes any day.
I wish those games would've simply gotten the HD-treatment, like SS, WW and TP. Sharper textures, higher resolution. I, personally, don't need more.
That's also why I prefer remasters over remakes any day. Remakes touch too much on what made the games what they were (even worse if they touch upon story).
I think OoT3D is the definitive OoT actually, a whole bunch of qualit-of-life improvements, a gorgeous new coat of paint and no real changes to the difficulty.
And if you've never done so, there is a mod called the Majora's Mask 3D Project Restoration Mod that I can't recommend checking out enough, which removes A TON of the changes made in the 3ds version (namely the giant eyes in bosses), along with adding many QOL changes itself like mapping all the transformation masks to the d-pad so they don't have to take up item slots.
I have footage of it from my stream on my yt channel if you're curious