A few months after the night Hyrule was freed from Ganondorf, a boy on horseback quietly left the kingdom. He was not looking for glory. He was only looking for a lost friend — the fairy Navi, who had departed the moment the final battle ended. And that seemingly quiet journey led Link into one of the strangest, saddest and most haunting adventures in the history of video games.

The land he wandered into was called Termina. It had familiar faces — the ranch owner, the innkeeper, the travelling salesman — but all of them lived different lives, with different sorrows. And in their sky, a moon wearing a grinning face grew larger with every passing hour. Three days. Only three days remained before it would fall and crush everything.

This article retells the complete story of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the original 2000 Nintendo 64 game — from the moment Link is turned into a tiny plant creature to the dawn of a new day. Termina resembles Koholint — the island in the Wind Fish's dream in that it too is separated from Hyrule, but with one difference: this world does not vanish when you wake up. It will truly die if you fail.

📌 Quick summary: Leaving Hyrule to search for the fairy Navi, Link is robbed of his horse Epona and the Ocarina of Time by the Skull Kid, who wears the ancient Majora's Mask, and is turned into a Deku Scrub. Lost in Termina, he learns the Moon will fall in exactly three days. Using the Song of Time, he relives those three days again and again, frees the four guardian giants from their four temples, summons them to hold back the Moon, then enters the Moon itself to destroy Majora and bring dawn back to Termina.

The boy searching for a lost friend

The story opens in a gloomy forest. Link is riding Epona through the Lost Woods when two small fairies block his path. From behind them leaps a small creature with wooden skin, wearing a heart-shaped mask with enormous yellow eyes — the Skull Kid. He knocks Link off his horse, searches him and steals the Ocarina of Time, the sacred flute Princess Zelda gave him at their farewell.

Link wakes, chases the Skull Kid, and together they plunge down a deep, dark hole — not into the earth, but through into another world. At the end of the tunnel, the Skull Kid sneers that he has already “taken care of” Epona, then uses the mask's power to transform Link into a Deku Scrub — a tiny plant creature, slow-moving and unable to use a sword.

That is when Tatl — one of the two fairies — gets left behind. Flying a beat too slowly, she is stranded with Link and reluctantly agrees to travel with him in order to find her brother Tael and the Skull Kid. This uneasy partnership, from open hostility to mutual trust, is the emotional thread running through the entire game.

Following the Skull Kid's trail, Deku Link reaches a giant clock tower in the middle of a strange town, where he meets the Happy Mask Salesman — a travelling mask merchant with a smile that never fades. The salesman reveals that the Skull Kid stole his Majora's Mask, a cursed relic from an ancient tribe that has long vanished, and promises to restore Link's true form if he recovers the Ocarina of Time and the mask — all within 72 hours, because after that he will leave this town forever.

The first three days in a Deku body

Clock Town — the central town of Termina — is preparing for the Carnival of Time, the once-a-year festival honouring the four guardian giants. But no one dares to say aloud what everyone can see: the Moon in the sky is growing larger by the day, its face twisted into a grotesque grin. Some people flee to the ranch, others keep their shops open as if nothing is happening.

In his Deku body, Link can barely do anything: he cannot enter shops, cannot talk to many people, and is even chased away by guards from one district to another. But he learns to use Deku Flowers to fly, and with the help of a Great Fairy he learns the Bubble Blast — a magic bubble attack that will prove to be the key to everything that follows.

On the final night of the three days, Link climbs to the top of the Clock Tower, where the Skull Kid hovers, pulling the Moon down. Tatl and Tael are briefly reunited, and Tael tremblingly speaks the only clue they have: seek four beings in the swamp, the mountain, the ocean and the canyon. The Skull Kid laughs, challenges them to stop the Moon, and pulls it down even faster.

Link fires a Bubble Blast that hits the Skull Kid, and the Ocarina of Time falls. The moment he touches it, memories flood back: Princess Zelda on the day they parted, giving him the flute and telling him that the Goddess of Time would protect him, that playing the Song of Time would bring her aid. Tatl shouts, snapping him out of his trance. Link plays the Song of Time — and the world rewinds to the morning he first entered Clock Town, exactly 72 hours earlier.

Returning to the Happy Mask Salesman, Link learns the Song of Healing — a melody that heals magic and sorrow, turning them into masks. Playing it, he returns to human form, keeping only a Deku Mask so he can transform at will. But when the salesman learns that Link has not recovered Majora's Mask, he flies into a rage and tells the legend: the mask was once used by an ancient tribe in its hexing rituals, and its power was so terrible that the tribe itself sealed it in darkness forever. He believes only Link can recover it — and from here, the real race begins: with each three-day cycle, Link must go further and achieve more.

The Southern Swamp: Woodfall and Odolwa

Tael's clue leads Link south first. The entire Southern Swamp is poisoned: the water has turned purple, the plants are withering, the princess of the Deku Kingdom is missing, and an innocent monkey is imprisoned in the palace awaiting execution for allegedly kidnapping her.

To enter Woodfall Temple — the first temple — Link must learn the Sonata of Awakening and use his Deku form to fly across giant flowers. This forest temple is full of poisoned water and man-eating plants that only Deku Link can get past. At the end of the temple, he receives the Hero's Bow, then faces Odolwa — a giant masked warrior dancing wildly with his sword. Defeating Odolwa, Link frees an innocent spirit from the monster's mask, and a huge, sorrowful being appears before him, singing.

That is one of the four guardian giants of Termina — one of the “four beings” Tael spoke of. Before departing, the giant teaches Link the Oath to Order, the melody that summons the four giants at the decisive moment. Link also rescues the Deku Princess, clears the monkey's name and restores the swamp's purity — but that is only a quarter of the journey.

The Northern Mountain: Snowhead and Goht

The north is Snowhead — a mountain region trapped in an unnaturally long winter. The Goron Village is almost buried in snow, and the Gorons tell of their hero, Darmani III, who climbed the mountain to save his people and never returned.

On the mountain road, Link meets Darmani's spirit — a powerful Goron warrior full of guilt for having died before saving his people. Link plays the Song of Healing for that spirit, and Darmani's sorrow becomes the Goron Mask. Wearing it, Link becomes Darmani, able to roll like a wheel and play the Goron Drums. With this new identity, he learns the Goron Lullaby, lulls to sleep the invisible giant blowing a blizzard across the temple door, and enters Snowhead Temple.

This frozen temple is a vertical maze with a huge central chamber, bridges and pillars that rise and fall. Goron Link must roll down slopes, smash weak ice and use Fire Arrows to open the way, then face Goht — a giant masked mechanical monster that charges like a steel bull. Defeating Goht ends the unnatural winter and frees the second guardian giant.

But Link also learns a painful truth: every time he plays the Song of Time to return to the first morning, the people he saved forget everything. Darmani will still die on the mountain, the swamp will still be poisoned, unless he finishes everything within a single three-day cycle. That is the game's haunting core: you cannot save everyone at once, but you can try again, better and faster, in the next cycle.

The Western Bay: Great Bay and Gyorg

To reach Great Bay in the west, Link needs a horse — and Epona has been taken in by the sisters Romani and Cremia at Romani Ranch. But only by arriving on the First Day, while young Romani is still healthy, can Link recover his horse. Arrive late, and Romani will suffer a terrible fate on the first night, leaving Cremia alone at the ranch.

Offshore, the Great Bay is murky under a curse. On the shore, Link meets Mikau — guitarist of the famous Zora band — dying after trying to recover the eggs of the singer Lulu from the Gerudo Pirates. Before collapsing, Mikau plays one final guitar passage and asks Link to retrieve the eggs and heal his soul. Link plays the Song of Healing for Mikau, and the musician's soul becomes the Zora Mask. Wearing it, Link becomes a Zora, swimming fast as a fish, using his fins like boomerangs and playing the guitar.

The search for the eggs takes Link to the Pirates' Fortress and Pinnacle Rock, where giant eels stand guard. Seven eggs hatch in the marine laboratory, and seven baby Zoras teach Link the New Wave Bossa Nova. Playing it for Lulu restores her voice, and a giant turtle awakens, carrying Link to Great Bay Temple.

This temple resembles a factory more than a shrine: the whole structure runs on water, with a network of valves, pipes and lifts that Link must operate in the correct order, even reversing the flow itself. After defeating Wart for the Ice Arrows and getting past the monsters guarding the Boss Key, Link faces Gyorg — a giant masked fish at the bottom of the temple. Defeating Gyorg restores the sea's clarity and frees the third guardian giant.

Ikana Canyon: Stone Tower and Twinmold

The east is Ikana Canyon — a dead kingdom where fallen soldiers still wander as ghosts. The gatekeeper, the Poe Collector, will not let Link pass unless he wears the Garo's Mask, won in a horse race against the Gorman Brothers.

In the ancient castle, Link faces Igos du Ikana — the undead king of the kingdom. After the battle, the king tells him that the Skull Kid, by opening the doors of the Stone Tower, cast the curse that keeps the dead from resting. To break it, Link must seal the tower's doors again. The king teaches him the Elegy of Emptiness — a melody that creates hollow copies of Link himself to hold down switches — then departs peacefully to the afterlife.

Stone Tower Temple is the strangest temple in the game: it requires all four of Link's forms, and midway through, a Light Arrow fired into a red emblem flips the entire temple upside down — ceilings become floors, floors become sky. In the inverted state, rooms turn into chasms that only Deku Link can fly across, and sun blocks only dissolve in the light of the Mirror Shield. After defeating the Garo Master for the Light Arrows and Gomess for the Boss Key, Link wears the Giant's Mask, grows into a giant himself and faces Twinmold — two giant armoured sand worms in a desert hidden inside the temple.

When Twinmold falls, the curse of Ikana lifts, and the final guardian giant is freed. All four giants are free — but Majora's Mask is still on the Skull Kid's face, and the Moon is still falling.

A wedding under the shadow of the Moon: Anju and Kafei

While Link races through the four temples, another story quietly unfolds in Clock Town — one many consider the finest side quest in Zelda history. Anju, keeper of the Stock Pot Inn, and Kafei, son of the mayor, were promised to each other as children: they would exchange the Sun's Mask and the Moon's Mask on the day of the Carnival of Time. But one month before the wedding, Kafei vanished together with the Sun's Mask.

The truth is that the Skull Kid turned Kafei into a child. Ashamed of his new form, Kafei hid from everyone, including Anju, while the thief Sakon stole his Sun's Mask on his way to seek help from the Great Fairy. Anju knows none of this: she only knows her fiancé has vanished without explanation, and her mother plants the idea that Kafei ran off with Cremia, her best friend.

If Link patiently follows this story across all three days — delivering a letter for Anju, meeting Kafei in the form of a child wearing a Keaton mask, bringing the Pendant of Memories back to Anju so she believes Kafei still keeps his promise, then breaking into Sakon's Hideout with Kafei on the final night — then at 4:30 a.m. on the Final Day, with the Moon almost touching the top of the Clock Tower, Kafei returns to the inn. Anju recognises him at once, even in a child's body. The two exchange their masks and their vows, give Link the Couple's Mask, and calmly tell him to take shelter: they will stay and greet the morning together — even if that morning may never come.

In a game where time itself can be rewound, the one thing that cannot be rewound is human feeling — and even as the world is about to end, people still choose to stay together.

The falling Moon and the battle inside the Moon

The Final Day. Link stands atop the Clock Tower once more, but this time he is not alone. He plays the Oath to Order, and the four guardian giants appear from the four corners of the world, catching the falling Moon with their bare hands. The Moon screams and struggles, but cannot descend another inch. The Skull Kid falls unconscious, and Tatl and Tael are reunited.

But the story is not over. Realising the Skull Kid is now useless, Majora's Mask detaches itself from his face, flies into the Moon and possesses it completely. Link and Tatl follow it inside — and find a surreal scene: an endless green meadow, a single tree, and five children wearing the masks of the bosses Link has defeated. If Link gives all of his ordinary masks to four of the children, the child wearing Majora's Mask will give him the Fierce Deity's Mask — a mask holding the soul of a war god no less terrifying than Majora itself.

The final battle takes three forms: first Majora's Mask itself, flying and attacking on its own, then Majora's Incarnation — a madly dancing creature with long, lanky arms — and finally Majora's Wrath — a humanoid entity lashing out with whip-like arms. Defeating it, the Moon dissolves in a beam of light, and the sky of Termina turns blue again.

Dawn breaks. The Carnival of Time takes place as if no apocalypse had ever threatened. The mask salesman departs with Majora's Mask — now nothing more than an ordinary mask, its evil gone. The Skull Kid, awake and forgiven by the four giants, realises his giant friends never abandoned him. And Link rides away from Termina, resuming his search for Navi. The final image is a tree stump carved with the figures of the Skull Kid, Link, Tatl, Tael and the four giants, while Saria's Song plays very softly. Link in Majora's Mask is not the boy from The Legend of Zelda (1986), but the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time — and his story in Termina ends with a farewell that is never spoken aloud.

The fates of the characters

Link leaves Termina right after dawn, continuing his search for Navi. He stays for no glory and tells no one what he did — true to the nature of the Hero of Time: appear, save the world, then disappear.

Skull Kid is freed from Majora's Mask and forgiven by the four giants. He realises his loneliness was exploited by the mask, and that his giant friends never abandoned him.

Tatl and Tael remain in Termina with the Skull Kid. Tatl — once the harshest towards Link — is the most moved at their parting, turning away to hide her tears and thank him.

Happy Mask Salesman leaves Termina with Majora's Mask drained of all power, continuing his journey collecting masks. He never explains who he is, where he comes from, or how he knows so much — and that is probably deliberate.

Anju and Kafei marry on the day after the Moon vanishes, as promised since childhood. In the ending, Anju is seen in her wedding dress outside the town — and the camera angle is understood to be Kafei's point of view, back in his adult form.

The four guardian giants return to the four corners of Termina, resuming their protective slumber, while the people of Termina — from Cremia and Romani at the ranch, Darmani and the Goron villagers, to the postman — go on with their lives, never knowing that a boy lived the same three days over and over to save them. And that is perhaps the saddest, and most beautiful, ending in the game.

Common misunderstandings

Is Majora's Mask a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time?

Yes. Majora's Mask begins a few months after the ending of Ocarina of Time, with the same Link — the Hero of Time — leaving Hyrule to search for the fairy Navi. It is one of the few Zelda games that directly continues its predecessor's story, and it reuses Ocarina of Time's engine and many character models because it was made in under two years.

Is the Skull Kid the true villain?

No. The Skull Kid is a victim, not the culprit. Before wearing Majora's Mask, he was only a lonely little imp, a friend of the four guardian giants who liked to play pranks. The mask amplified his loneliness and anger into a desire to destroy the entire world, and when it abandoned him at the end of the game, he returned to being a weak, remorseful child forgiven by his friends.

Is Termina Hyrule in the future or the past?

No. Termina is a parallel world, separate from Hyrule, which Link reaches by falling down a hole in the Lost Woods. It has its own moon and sun, its own history, and its own gods — the four guardian giants instead of Hyrule's three golden goddesses. The fact that many Terminians look like Hyruleans is simply a matter of “counterparts”: the same face, a different life.

If the three days run out before Termina is saved, must you start over from the beginning?

No. At any time, Link can play the Song of Time to return to the morning of the First Day, keeping his masks, weapons and important songs. Only small things — such as money in his wallet or unfinished side quests — are reset. That is the core of the game: you will fail and watch the Moon fall at least once, but with each cycle you grow stronger and understand Termina better.

Is the Fierce Deity's Mask required to defeat Majora?

No. The Fierce Deity's Mask is only a reward for players who collect every ordinary mask in the game and give them to the children inside the Moon. Without it, Link can still defeat Majora with his sword, shield and transformation masks — only the battle will be much harder. Like Dark Link — Link's shadow in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link — the Fierce Deity is like another “Link”, powerful but frightening, and the game never explains who the war god inside it really is.

Theories & mysteries

Is Termina even real? A famous theory holds that Termina is not a real world at all, but a world created from the Skull Kid's sadness and loneliness, resonating with the power of Majora's Mask — and that when the Skull Kid is freed, Termina will vanish with him. The Zelda Encyclopedia once suggested this, but Nintendo has never confirmed it, and many fans argue it contradicts Link carrying the Couple's Mask or the Fierce Deity's Mask out of Termina.

What is Majora, really? The game only says that an ancient tribe used the mask in its hexing rituals and sealed it away because it was too dangerous. Who that tribe was, why they vanished, and whether “Majora” is a god, a demon, or simply evil sealed in matter — none of it has an answer. That very ambiguity makes Majora more frightening than many villains with a clear backstory.

Where does Link go after Termina? The most widely believed theory is that Link later becomes the Hero's Shade — the skeletal warrior who teaches sword skills to Link in Twilight Princess. The evidence is that the Hero's Shade describes himself as a hero who was never remembered. If true, then the ending of Majora's Mask is sadder than it seems: the Hero of Time saved two worlds, but neither world remembered him.

The legacy of a game made in under two years

Few people know that Majora's Mask was born from a challenge: after Ocarina of Time, Shigeru Miyamoto challenged Eiji Aonuma to make a new Zelda game within one year. Aonuma accepted on condition of reusing Ocarina of Time's engine and assets — and the result was a game completed in about 15 months, yet bolder than any Zelda before it: no princess to rescue, no dark lord, only a small town, a clock, and a falling Moon. The game sold 3.36 million copies on Nintendo 64 — less than half of Ocarina of Time — but over time it has been reassessed as one of the greatest Zelda games: the darkest, the most humane, and the most tightly structured. The Majora's Mask 3D remake, released in 2015 on Nintendo 3DS, brought the game to a new generation, and to this day no Zelda game has dared to repeat its “three days” formula in full — perhaps because it is the only game in the series where you save the world not by becoming stronger, but by understanding its people better, one person at a time, one day at a time, until dawn truly comes.