Introduction

This is the TAS of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The run itself was 10 solid months in the making and is the result of many years of research into this game. I've had a reasonably free year, the chances of having another like it are low, and I really wanted to see a new Majora's Mask run. Since I'd finished my Gex 64 movie and AKA had given up on this I thought that I may as well do it. The route was far too interesting/exciting to waste, the run would be challenging (which is what I was looking for) and I'm a firm believer that if you really want to see a run made then you have to do it yourself.
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses death to save time
  • No predefined saves
  • Genre: Action
  • Genre: Adventure
  • Due to the length of the movie I chose to include speed/entertainment tradeoffs although I only drop a couple of seconds throughout the run. I drop time to get better camera angles often (usually 3 frames, 1 input frame). I also drop about a second in Ikana Canyon to pick up a fairy to replenish my health, otherwise the last fifteen minutes of my movie would have been ruined by annoying bleeping.

Game Synopsis

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is much darker and more sinister than your average Zelda game. It is the story of one of Link's adventures after the events of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
After saving Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf and laying the Master Sword back to rest, Link's companion, Navi the fairy, flies away. He becomes lonely once again as 'the boy without a fairy' and sets out to find her. This is where The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask begins.
Whilst travelling through the forest upon his noble steed, Epona, he is attacked by Skull Kid and his two fairies, Tatl and Tael. Skull kid is lonely, like Link, and is usually harmless, but after attacking the Happy Mask Shop man he came to posess the evil Majora's Mask and is now ruled by it. He then steals Link's precious Ocarina of Time and horse and runs away. Link seldom takes shit from anyone and backwalks after him before falling down a huge hole in the ground into the parallel world of Termina.
The evil power of the mask turns Link into a Deku Scrub. Link pursues Skull Kid all the way to Clock Town (now with the help of Tatl the fairy, a more 'in yo face' version of Navi).
Link enters Clock Town at dawn of the first day. The evil power of the mask is pulling the moon towards Clock Town. Skull Kid has cursed the four surrounding areas and the Giant's that suffer there are the only one's who can save Termina. At dawn of the fourth day the moon crashes into Termina and everyone dies, can Link do it in time?
This run completes the game in three cycles, one cycle being over when Link returns to Dawn of the First day. The first two cycles are very short with the third being the main one.

The Run

  • Pre Clock Town: A relatively small, mostly cutscene orientated, segment. Not much to note here other than that it is played supremely! Moving on...
  • The First Cycle:
    • The very first thing I do is visit Grandma in the Stock Pot Inn. The front door doesn't open until 8:00AM so I have to enter via the second floor. Each of Grandma's long stories takes a day to listen to. I listen to it twice to get quickly to the final day.
    • I then visit the scarecrow in West Clock Town and watch his dance. His dance takes us to night of the final day. This is when time stops becomming a factor since I'm waiting for midnight and so I'm deliberately unoptimised to make time spent in South Clock Town less.
    • I get the fairy from East Clock Town and 100 rupees from the Stock Pot Inn. The Great Fairy is visited, magic is gained and the green is deposited in the bank for usage later on...in the past.
    • In South Clock Town I move around for a while until it's near midnight. I then use a cool trick; I backflip onto the sloped wall beside the Clock Tower ledge and then quickly grab it. This trick skips the Bomber Hide and Seek game, the Observatory and moon's tear.
    • I then kill the rest of the time by playing around with the piece of heart. This is a good example of fast motion collision abuse :D I then skip a Tatl text before entering the tower by more fast motion abuse.
    • I get the Ocarina of Time, jam out the Song of Time and return to Dawn of the First Day.
  • The Second Cycle
    • First of all I go to ECT (East Clock Town from now on) and get 100 rupees from the chest there. In WCT I buy a bomb bag and some bombs from the bomb shop (ugh, the amount of trouble that caused). I deposit what's left and then head out into Termina Field.
    • I slide in a super way to the Mountain Village path. I use the Infinite Sword Glitch to glitch over the icicles blocking it. Normally you need the arrows to do this because Woodfall usually comes first (I go back for it later).
    • To save backtracking I hit the owl statue and then get the lens of truth. Although I don't really use it I have to get it otherwise Darmani doesn't appear by his grave.
    • I make my way to the grave, play song of healing, get Goron Mask, Song of Time, back to Dawn of the First Day.
  • The Third Cycle: Southern Swamp / Woodfall Temple 1
    • I once again get 100 rupees from ECT and use it to buy some bombs and chus for some glitchin'
    • On the way to Southern Swamp there is a long cutscene about Skull Kid's plight and emotions, but we don't care about that, so I use the bombchu hover glitch to skip it.
    • The Koume and Kotake section in the swamp is part of something much longer, but I only do as much of it as I need to get the bottle (for the Zora Egg Quest later). I then use my Goron Mask (which I shouldn't have at this point) to dodge my way past the Giant Octorok to get to Deku Palace.
    • This part is just plain awesome. I use a mid-air superslide to get past the guards. I then Goron Bomb jump onto the wall and backflip onto a platform and then into the chamber. This skips ~90% of the area :D
    • I then make my way to Woodfall (Deku Flowers here were another desync hotspot) and do the first half of the temple. I get the Bow and Arrows because it is all I need. Link then uses a bomb to kill himself (yes, the pressure had become too much).
  • Great Bay 1 / Pirate's Fortress 1
    • I buy more bombs and chus before heading to Great Bay. I Goron Bomb jump over the fence to skip Epona.
    • I get the Zora mask and head to Pirates Fortress. I use the bomb hover glitch to skip straight to the inside. This skips 50% of this area.
    • All I need is the hookshot and so I shoot the beehive from in front of the loading zone to skip the cutscene and then go down to open the chest. I pick up the first Zora Egg here, but I don't come back for the rest until later. I warp back to Snowhead.
  • Snowhead Temple
    • Okay, an hour into the run, better start taking out some bosses. The Goron Lullabye skip was a nightmare and easily the most difficult part of the run. It skips out the Elderly Goron/crying baby part of the game. Between the Zora mask and Goht I kept doing and redoing over a period of about 5 months. This wasn't helped by the fact that the lullabye skip is notoriously difficult to optimise and it desyncs every 3-6 frames, but after a while I got through!
    • Snowhead Temple was pretty easy with the Hookshot (I'm not supposed to have it) and I use it to get onto the upper levels of the dungeon without having to do all the crap in between.
    • Normally the player is to take care of Goht with Goron Rolling, but with some nice archery Human Link makes light work of him.
  • Goron Race / Romani Ranch / Smithy
    • I do the Goron Race because I need the bottle and the Gold dust inside it (to upgrade my sword). My race turned out 5 seconds faster than the world record.
    • Getting to the Ranch on time was troublesome to say the least. When inside I just have to keep then away from the barn until 5:15AM. Afterwards I get my final bottle.
    • I go to the smithy in mountain village and upgrade to the Gilded Sword which kicks everything's ass. To get this it has to be Dawn of the Final Day, which means I have 24 in-game hours to complete the game.
  • Woodfall Temple 2
    • Now I return to finish what I started. I use the hookshot to skip all the Deku plant stuff. In the Gekko chamber I beat it with an obscure tactic using the Goron Mask, this is faster than using the Deku Mask version. As with Snowhead, having the hookshot allows me to skip virtually all of this temple.
    • Because I now have the fire arrows I can easily light the torch to open the door to the pre-Odolwa chamber.
    • Using the Zora Mask and hookshot I skip the lengthy Deku plant parts of this room.
    • I destroy Odolwa here. The Gilded Sword does huge damage to this weak boss. The arrow stops him jumping away and whilst he is frozen I hit him with three well placed attacks.
  • Great Bay 2 / Pirate's Fortress 2 / Pinnacle Rock
    • This is the egg quest. It is the only major quest part that resembles what Nintendo intended.
    • I begin with Pirate's Fortress. There are three eggs here to collect; before each egg there is a small espionage section and a battle with a pirate, but with creative use of the jumpslash ability I skip two of these. The third is skippable, but requires so many explosives that it is not worthwhile.
    • At Pinnacle Rock the swimming is strange because a set path has to be followed.
    • After depositing these eggs I head to North Bay for more money and then I go to Great Bay Temple.
  • Great Bay Temple
    • This temple is wonderfully broken. A lot is skipped, but this time without gratuitous use of the bomb hover glitch.
  • Ikana Canyon / Stone Tower
    • I use some nice Goron Bomb jumps in Ikana Access. I skip the Garo Mask with the seam walk.
    • I skip the Ice Arrows by using a tight hookshot to the tree on the cliff. This was difficult to get before the Octoroks hit me and required some cool luck manip.
    • Ascending Stone Tower with the Bomb Hovers skips the Castle of Ikana and the Elegy of Emptiness. Quite a large break.
  • Stone Tower Temple
    • I love how the countdown begins at the start of this temple. I couldn't ask for it to be more perfect.
    • It is possible to hover over the second sun block with one less explosive, however, all the Boes have to be killed which takes more time. I have the explosives to spare anyway.
    • My Deku flying may look slightly suspect because I don't hug the left corner. This is optimal however as Link turns very slowly and so hugging the corner would eventually put him into the far wall.
    • I found that Deku nuts are by far the fastest way to kill Garo Master and time saved more than saves for the time spent collecting/equipping them. Also, you have to spend three rounds with him at least. He has 15HP which suggests a jumpslash and a quickspin would suffice, however the game does not allow him to be killed in two attacks.
    • Hovering to the Armos Night platform is around 200 frames faster than Kazooie's method when optimised. I tried a whole bunch of ways to make Kazooie's faster but it just was not to be.
    • The gaps in between light arrowing Eyegore is mandatory. Light arrows cannot be fired in as quick succession as normal arrows.
    • I like what I've done with the Gomess battle. I hit with a light arrow and press B to take out my sword. This would normally cause a vertical slice, however I manipulate the bats so that one flies through me on the same frame I press B. This makes Link instantly take out his sword which means I can use a jumpslash very quickly. You also have to go four rounds with Gomess.
    • Twinmold was pretty straight forward to optimise. Jumpslashes do double damage while slashes and quickspins do normal. There wasn't much freedom to manipulate here since the starting positions are fixed and where they appear is only manipulable when they are underground. The battle is so quick I only have to do this once :P
  • Moon
    • I superslide because it is faster than rolling. I feel supersliding somewhat ruins the romance of the moment, however, rolling probably would still look worse. I also delay talking to Majora kid by 3 frames so that the camera doesn't get stuck behind the tree.
    • Majora's Mask was pretty straight forward. The angle to hit him with an arrow has to be very accurate. I use the first hit to knock him into the corner so that the following two rounds are much quicker. When he rises I have to wait until he reaches a certain hieght before shooting him again.
    • Majora's Incarnation was a nightmare to optimise. I shoot him so that he falls close to me. I then approach him and sidehop to between his legs. To stop him running away you have to quickspin him there. I tried it on every frame at several other areas around him but it never worked. The only way to approach him is by sideways walking. I can't get rid of Z-target because he'll jus target a mask instead. The only other way around this is to shoot him with an arrow normally but this turns out slower because Link can't move.
    • Majora's Wrath wasn't too bad. I couldn't keep him pinned down with quickspins so I stab most of the time. It may seem as though I could have used a quickspin insted of that last sword slash, however, since he is still invincible through most of the attack it won't kill him.

Special Thanks

Of course, I couldn't have done this alone! Here is everyone who made this run possible.
In no particular order
Petrie911: A lot that is in this is stuff that I learned from his many (awesome) videos. He also wrote up the route and discovered many tricks. He also provided criticism where due and helped me touch up many parts of the run.
Raiscan: He saved the project early on by discovering that bomb shop desyncs were caused by a corrupt mupen64.ini file. If it were not for him we'd still all be watching Link roll into the shop's doorframe. He also encoded a few WIPs, commented on progress and motivated me all the way through.
mwl: Very helpful in finding ways to improve the run and for helping me out with the aspects that troubled me.
AKA: Many useful tricks were discovered by him. He also helped scrutinise WIPs with keen interest from the start.
bkDJ: For providing support all the way and for encoding my WIPs to .mkv so that other could watch and comment.
Comicalflop: Providing great motivation and enthusiasm to progress. He also managed to persuade me into redoing my second cycle on which I managed to save several seconds.
Yautja Elder: For pointing out some good improvements in the earlier parts of the run.
DLH112: For pointing out the hookshot to torch in Snowhead (which went forgotten until DaShiznawz brought it up) and for advising me on Pirate's Fortress 1.
Swordless Link: His Snowhead and Great Bay videos were immensely helpful and saved me a large amount of work. He also gave useful and constructive critism.
pyh: For occassionally sharing his expertise in the early stages. I also used his speedrun to get a good idea of the Ikana Canyon seam walk.
VANDAL: For informing us that Rice's plugin worked. This brought the movie to more people that wanted to see it.
Dragorn: For helping plan reaching the ranch on time.
Halamantariel: For helping others to sync the movie with his Rice's guide :)
Okaygo: For patching the emulator so that those with name entry screen desyncs could watch the movie.
AngerFist: For posting in the thread something along the lines of "..it's so annoying that it's impossible to TAS this game..." which finally coaxed me into doing this as the challenge I was looking for.
L.Spiro: For MHS which was useful for watching enemy HP values etc.
If I've forgotten you just PM me and I'll throw you in or if you're in here and want out then do the same.

Bisqwit: Test audience (i.e. those who watch submissions) seems to be satisfied; accepting for publication and I'm taking the task of encoding it.

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Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
Thanks Flip for suggesting that plugin, it did the trick, though maybe that was the reason some scenes were just black screens, but luckily it wasn't anything important. Anywho, the run was great. That bomb-hover-jump thingy was really amusing. I guess the rest of the run wasn't that bad either. =P Voting yes.
Player (34)
Joined: 12/18/2005
Posts: 250
I tried to watch this, but I got a de-sync around frame 93k~ Guess I'll have to wait for a friendly AVI version :(
我々を待ち受けなさい。
Editor, Experienced player (730)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
"3 days... 3 days... 3 days..." Once again, I am late to see a highly anticipated run be submitted. maybe I should disappear all the time ;-) Where to start? I have been waiting a long time to see this come to completion, and now that it's here... I am at a loss of words. It's just fantastic. I'm in complete agreement with AKA, the reasons it should get a star is well justified. Big yes vote from me. Kudos, man. Kudos.
Homepage ☣ Retired
emu
Active player (380)
Joined: 1/2/2007
Posts: 188
Location: Germany, Munich
Amazing run and incredibly good route planning. You constantly surprised me with cool glitches and unexpected routes (I think you only got one small key). Thanks for going through all that pain and creating such an entertaining movie. Desynch issue: I have no idea why, but Halamantariel's instructions made the movie synch perfectly. I could even fastforward without any problems.
Player (36)
Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2623
May I request an avi file, pretty please?
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Joined: 3/29/2006
Posts: 273
Location: Sweden
When I tried to get this to sync, I tested rice's plugin first, since it has always worked for me, but for some reason it didn't work this time. After working my way through jabo's 1.5.2 and jabo's 1.6.0 i finally got it to sync with the glN64 v0.4.1 plugin, of all things. Might want to try it if nothing else works.
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215
http://tas.monotoli.org/index.php?sort=date&path=mov/mm/ as far as I know, there are only little bits and pieces missing. you can watch them in order, but stop after the first minute of 05, and don't watch 06. all of that stuff was redone in 07 (don't get the low quality one. it's really low quality). 07 flows into 08 and 08 flows into 09, which is the end. I think some of the earlier ones have bad a/v sync, but oh well. I'm sure someone will encode the entire thing into one nice file eventually.
Joined: 7/16/2006
Posts: 635
I'll take care of that. I have an avi of all the way up to GBT from his WIPs, and there's not a whole lot after that. All I need to do is figure out how to put that little disclaimer at the beginning. However, I'd record the avi with Rice's 6.0.0, so if that's not a good enough plugin for this site's standards, I'll leave it to someone who can get it to sync with Jabo's 1.6. Anyways, I've had so much input into this run that I could probably tell you the entire thing without even watching it. I'll hold off on voting until I actually watch it, but unless Mukki screws up something major between GBT and the end, it should be an absolute yes. Looking forward to how Mukki's GBT compares to my own. BTW, it should mention somewhere how desync-y MM is. AFAIK, Rice's 6.0.0 should sync for everyone, but the only real way to know is to just try them all. Lastly, "Is it not an easy tas" FTW.
Skilled player (1090)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Thanks for the feedback guys! It feels good to finally be done with this. Swordless Link: It is possible to shoot the aliens from outside of the loading zone. I tested out both methods but after the battle the cutscene starts automatically as Link is moved into the loading zone to talk to Romani. It doesn't make any time difference so I chose to get it over with at the start so that I could use the space to play around with the aliens. Tub: If you posted in the thread then you'll probably be in the thanks list. I just went through the thread putting in everyone who said something positive/constructive about the run. However, I do remember that you said something good about it on IRC last week.
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User, Experienced player (532)
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
I forgot to mention that my favourite bits were the alien ant farm, the part where multiple ones get taken out with one arrow and when the timer begins to countdown in Stone Tower. A small entertainment opertunity was missed with the dog becuase you can use the ground jump preparation method on him and pick him up out of thin air, none the less it didn't matter. Ideally the best pluggin to use would be Jabo 1.6 becuase that renders all the cutscenes correctly paticularly the scene where Zelda teaches link the SoT, but if the eventualy publisher can't get that to sync then Rice 6.1.1Beta would need to be used. I wouldn't accept an encode with the 6.0 version.
Former player
Joined: 3/31/2005
Posts: 192
Location: Argentina
After getting several syncing problems, I finally got it working. Impressive route planning and massive sequence-breaking galore! Voted yes, of course. Oh! And I also vote for that "is it not a simple tas" screenshot as the one to use when it's published.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Desynched around frame 123,000 so I'll wait for the AVI. Looked great till then though ;)
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215
theenglishman wrote:
I'll wait for the AVI.
...did you miss my link like 6 posts ago? That's the entire run.
Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany
AHHH! It keeps desynchen for me in the beginning... With Jabo right before the Scarecrow (runs in the middle of the area and then backjumps in the corner) and with Rice AFTER the Scarecrow. (runs on the edge and hangs there, after that he jumps in the water) @GeminiSaint what did you do to get rid of the desynch problems? I did nearly everything. Changed Plugins, changed emulator settings... (I tried about 10 different Graphic Plugins o.o) ANd yes im sure I have the right rom o.o
Joined: 3/29/2006
Posts: 273
Location: Sweden
Snake wrote:
AHHH! It keeps desynchen for me in the beginning... With Jabo right before the Scarecrow (runs in the middle of the area and then backjumps in the corner) and with Rice AFTER the Scarecrow. (runs on the edge and hangs there, after that he jumps in the water) @GeminiSaint what did you do to get rid of the desynch problems? I did nearly everything. Changed Plugins, changed emulator settings... (I tried about 10 different Graphic Plugins o.o) ANd yes im sure I have the right rom o.o
Tried glN64 v0.4.1? Only one that works for me.
Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
Great work Mukki. So many great N64 submissions recently :) Voting yes.
This signature is much better than its previous version.
Joined: 11/11/2006
Posts: 1235
Location: United Kingdom
Snake wrote:
AHHH! It keeps desynchen for me in the beginning... With Jabo right before the Scarecrow (runs in the middle of the area and then backjumps in the corner) and with Rice AFTER the Scarecrow. (runs on the edge and hangs there, after that he jumps in the water) @GeminiSaint what did you do to get rid of the desynch problems? I did nearly everything. Changed Plugins, changed emulator settings... (I tried about 10 different Graphic Plugins o.o) ANd yes im sure I have the right rom o.o
Have a look at this. Red lines are how one leads to another. Red rectangles are things that should almost definately be the same. If that doesn't work, try Rice but make sure the Render engine in its settins is set to DirectX.
<adelikat> I am annoyed at my irc statements ending up in forums & sigs
Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany
Raiscan wrote:
Snake wrote:
AHHH! It keeps desynchen for me in the beginning... With Jabo right before the Scarecrow (runs in the middle of the area and then backjumps in the corner) and with Rice AFTER the Scarecrow. (runs on the edge and hangs there, after that he jumps in the water) @GeminiSaint what did you do to get rid of the desynch problems? I did nearly everything. Changed Plugins, changed emulator settings... (I tried about 10 different Graphic Plugins o.o) ANd yes im sure I have the right rom o.o
Have a look at this. Red lines are how one leads to another. Red rectangles are things that should almost definately be the same. If that doesn't work, try Rice but make sure the Render engine in its settins is set to DirectX.
Hmm... thx i'll try it with this settings^^ @YautjaElder hmm... I'm not sure XD But i'll try it, too.
Former player
Joined: 3/31/2005
Posts: 192
Location: Argentina
Snake wrote:
@GeminiSaint what did you do to get rid of the desynch problems? I did nearly everything. Changed Plugins, changed emulator settings... (I tried about 10 different Graphic Plugins o.o) ANd yes im sure I have the right rom o.o
Well, I followed the instructions in this post.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
bkDJ wrote:
theenglishman wrote:
I'll wait for the AVI.
...did you miss my link like 6 posts ago? That's the entire run.
I'm waiting for an AVI file WITHOUT massive A/V desynchs ;) EDIT: Trying it w/ Rice 6, hope it works. EDIT2: Rice doesn't work, this is ridiculous, I'll wait.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Former player
Joined: 7/21/2006
Posts: 747
Location: Northern Hemisphere
Weeee! I've resisted watching the WIPs to get a better experience watching this fully, and by the looks of it, it will certainly be worth it.
Joined: 6/26/2007
Posts: 147
I also drop about a second in Ikana Canyon to pick up a fairy to replenish my health, otherwise the last fifteen minutes of my movie would have been ruined by annoying bleeping. THANK YOU!!!
mwl
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 636
Congratulations Mukki.
zdude255 wrote:
I also drop about a second in Ikana Canyon to pick up a fairy to replenish my health, otherwise the last fifteen minutes of my movie would have been ruined by annoying bleeping. THANK YOU!!!
I think he would have needed it anyway because he had 1.5 hearts left when he picked up the fairy, and he lost two more after that.
Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Finally was able to watch it. Very entertaining, throughout the entire run. I don't know if I ever enjoyed a run this long as much as this.
Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany
@Raiscan I have the exact same settings but i keeps desynching... @GeminiSaint I used Rice 6.0.0c, deleted the save file AND started from the beginning... (i think i watched this intro now over 100 times oO) @YautjaElder with gln 0.4.1 the same like with the Rice's are happening... I get stuck on this edge: the first time it desynchs is at about 39.000 frames with Jabo. btw. is it normal that when I choose to playback the video... At first the name "AA" is choosen and then nothing? Only when i then AGAIN playback the video it works...
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