Reviewing Monsters: The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask Bosses

I don't think it's an exaggeration for me to say that the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a strong contender for my favourite Legend of Zelda game of all time. Its graphics is sure outdated now, and even the 3DS remake doesn't really bring it up to current HD standards or whatever, but I really do still love this game. I'm not here to talk about the gameplay or the story or the vibe of the game as a whole... but it's still basically my favourite in terms of the trippy world-building, the gameplay mechanics, the storyline, and the very dream-like vibe of whatever is going on.

To the uninitiated, Majora's Mask works off of the same N64 engine that Ocarina of Time ran on, so the developers were able to re-utilize a lot of the combat mechanics and general assets from that game, allowing them to focus more on designing the story and how everything else fits together in the game. And you don't have to play Ocarina to play Majora's Mask... but it sure really feels like such a more complete experience.

We covered the normal monsters before, now we're going to cover the overworld bosses, minibosses and dungeon bosses!


Skull Keeta
We'll start off with the 'overworld bosses'. Majora's Mask is kind of interesting in that each area (the swamp, the snow mountains, the great bay and the canyon) all have their own stories and storylines that you have to complete before tackling each respective dungeon, and for the fourth segment, the Ikana Canyon, some of the fights involve you fighting against, well, bosses. I'm not going to spoil the entire story but Skull Keeta is basically the gigantic captain of the now-undead Ikana forces. In practice, he's basically a giant Stalchild with two tiny hands on top of his head, and Link basically has to re-enact Skull Keeta's final battle in order to get him to properly 'rest', allowing him to properly pass on his 'duty' to Link. Pretty fun, and the fact that Keeta is a giant is always something that the game never explains.


Igos du Ikana
You fight King Igos du Ikana and his two unique-model bodyguards in the former throne room of the Ikana Kingdom, all of whom have been brought back to life because of the emergence of the Stone Tower. The two bodyguards basically are reskinned versions of the Stalfos from Ocarina of Time, although I do like that they added the simple addition of making them take on the trope of 'one skinny guy, one fat guy'. It's a simple thing, and they could've simply made Igos's two bodyguards regular Stalfoses without changing much, but I liked that they went the extra route. Igos himself looks real fancy with that ornate cape, sword and shield (particularly in the artwork and the MM3D remaster)

Igos himeslf fights like a regular Stalfos, but he does have a bunch of wacky attacks befitting a boss fight, including a poison gas breath, and his head will split off from his body and fly around at one point. There's a fun bit of vampire-esque goodness to the fight, where Link has to permanently 'destroy' Igos and his bodyguards' bodies by dealing the finishing blow on the parts of the throne room where the sunlight shines down. A very, very fun little battle, even if design-wise the Ikana characters are just ultimately fantasy skeleton people.

Mini-Bosses:

Dinolfos
The Dinolfos have a minor role in Ocarina of Time, only showing up in the Gerudo Training Grounds. In Majora's Mask, however, a Dinolfos (alternatively Dinolfols in the original translation) is the first mini-boss you fight, and the Dinolfos is particularly deadly at the stage of the game you meet him in. The Dinolfos breathes fire, and fire means instant-death for your poor Deku Scrub form. I honestly kind of debated putting the Dinolfos in the 'regular enemies' segment, because as the game goes on multiple Dinolfosi keeps showing up as mini-bosses in different parts of the game.


Gekko (and Friends)
You fight Gekko as a mini-boss twice, and I absolutely love Gekko. Look at this absolutely manic-looking orange-and-black frog! That facial expression is perfect, and I absolutely love the bright colours on this one. Gekko first shows up as the second miniboss in Woodfall Temple, and he's a kung fu frog! He has a Snapper buddy that he rides around in, and it's a fun chaotic race as you have to try and take out the Snapper (who is a known quantity) while also trying to figure out what the Gekko can do. And while he's a frog and not exactly a gecko, he can crawl around the ceiling and walls. Interestingly, when you beat the Gekko up, he reverts into turning into a teeny-tiny regular-sized frog. Okay?

The Gekko reappears with its buddy, the Mad Jelly, in the third dungeon, Great Bay Temple. It's an interesting way to bring back a boss that's a familiar face but fights in an utterly different way. Initially it just seems like it's similar to the first Gekko-Snapper fight, with the Gekko spawning in a room with a bunch of jelly minions, but then all the jelly combine together into a massive orb, which will bounce up and down and try and trap Link inside. In the jelly, the Gekko will kung-fu kick you while you're stuck and immobile. The way to defeat him, of course, is to freeze the Mad Jelly and beat him up. Kind of a pretty cool concept, and honestly, a lot of this probably wouldn't work if the design of the Gekko and its shit-eating grin wasn't so perfect.



Wizzrobe
I completely forgot we got a 3D Wizzrobe long, long before Breath of the Wild gave us its version of the Wizzrobe. honestly, I'm not sure why I found this version of the Wizzrobe somewhat forgettable. The Wizzrobe acts as both of the miniboss in the Snowhead Mountain dungeon, and it's kind of interesting that their first attempt at reimagining the Wizzrobe in 3D has them become these wizened wizards. I've always thought that the Wizzrobe's charm is how stout and short he is, but these lanky wizards waving around their staves are pretty neat. I do like that a lot of the Wizzrobe's attacks are kind of a neat homage to its 2D counterpart, including summoning illusion clones, and shooting elemental blasts.

Like the Dinolfos, the Wizzrobe soon becomes a bit of a degraded miniboss, also showing up in various parts of Ikana Castle, the Sacred Shrine and the Stone Tower Temple. While the original two Wizzrobes in Snowhead Mountains are obviously ice Wizzrobes, you meet Fire Wizzrobes later on too. Not much to say here, a pretty serviceable reimagination of a classic Zelda enemy.

Wart
He's always called 'Wart' in the Japanese games, but in other games it's translated as 'Arrghus'. Like the Hiploop, Majora's Mask retains Wart's Japanese name. This is unmistakably good ol' Arrghus, though! Acting as the miniboss in Great Bay Temple, Wart is a pretty fun 3D interpretation of one of the most memorable 2D Zelda minibosses. Arrghus/Wart has always been one of the most visually memorable bosses, being a giant eyeball surrounded by a cluster of tiny little eyeball-tumours. I do really like the really madcap vibe of this fight, too, with Link having to hurry and rip the little mini-Warts off of him with his Hookshot or just lob bombs at the big guy. As with any Zelda boss with giant eyeballs, all you have to do is to shoot Wart's eyes with eyeballs... but all the polyps that rotate around him makes it hard to get a good shot in. And if you remove all the polyps, it will just rampage and spin around the room in high speed.

Honestly, I've always loved giant eyeball monsters. I'm not sure just what is it about giant eyeballs that make them feel so much like a fantasy monster. I dunno, eyeballs are both threatening and vulnerable-looking at the same time, I guess. It goes without saying, but Wart, like most of the minibosses, would show up later in a miniboss gauntlet.


Eyegore
Oh man, the pun. Eyegore, Igor, Eye-Gore, get it? I genuinely completely forgot that the Eyegores actually showed up in the 2D games as these rather weak-looking statues with a single eye, but here they've been reimagined into a pretty cool looking monster that looks like it spends its weekdays working as a Yu-Gi-Oh monster and its weekends moonlighting as Ultraman's enemy. I really like this design, although I do have an admitted weakness for monsters with huge eyeballs. I like its weird, thin body, the fact that the arms are attached to the side of the eyes, and its two giant claw-arms. They are not exactly mini-bosses, but there are only two of them and they honestly behave like one. They're cool. Their kinda-bug-like carapace can withstand all of Link's attacks, and they can summon rockslides! And, naturally, the big eye is the key, if it glows differently Link needs to poke it with an arrow.


Garo Master
The boss of all the Garos you meet in the game is this guy, the miniboss of the Stone Tower Temple. The artwork doesn't make it clear, but the Garo Master is a straight-up giant, towering over Link and looking pretty impressive with that bizarre white mask and glowing empty sleeves. The Garo Master fights Link with twin fiery blades, and even Tatl tells you that there's nothing you can do but focus on dodging his swords. Which... well, basically means that you really need to get good at swordfighting. There's a way to cheese the fight with your Goron mode, but for the most part the Garo Master is one of those bosses in video games where you just have to rely on the reflexes you've honed for playing the game for so long to beat him. I've honestly never been the biggest fan of the Garos, but I do admit that the Garo Master boss fight was pretty damn memorable.


Gomess
One of the more popular minibosses is Gomess, who shows up randomly near the end of the Stone Tower Temple, and isn't an obvious 'oh random giant monster' like many other monsters, nor does he have any sort of story like the Garo Master, Igos du Ikana or the Skull Kid. And look at that design, huh? A reaper-like wraith in all black, with a giant scythe, glowing green eyes and a huge grinning mouth that looks like it belongs to a character in A Nightmare Before Christmas, Gomess arrives in combat with a giant swarm of bats, and I think it's meant to depict the bats forming his cloak or something. I remembered that there's a lot of questions and theories on just what the hell Gomess is, where he comes from, and how he relates to the rest of the lore... but honestly, why can't he be just a giant bat-shadow-demon guy? No one out there questions where Wart or Gekko came from, after all.

Still, I really do find him pretty cool. I don't think I really remember him all that fondly mostly because for all his badass design he's kind of a disappointment as a boss fight (spam Light Arrows = win) but I do appreciate the dedication to making him the sort of boss that would be memorable even though unlike the other minibosses Gomess only shows up exactly once in the entire game.
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Dungeon Bosses:

Masked Jungle Warrior: Odolwa

The very first dungeon boss takes place in the Woodfall Temple, the source of corruption, the toxification of the swamps and all the problems that are plaguing the nearby Deku Scrub people -- which is going to be a running theme as you find out that each quarter of Termina has its inhabitants plagued by a certain people. And at each of the four dungeons is a powerful masked creature created by the main antagonist which in turn holds one of the four giants captive... it all makes sense (or doesn't; this is a trippy game) if you play through the story. Our main business is, after all, the monsters. 

The first boss is the masked tribal warrior Odolwa... which I feel would raise a bunch of raised eyebrows if he debuted now. Still, neither Odolwa nor the Woodfall Temple really ends up being 100% based on any certain specific tribal culture, which I feel is why he can get a bit of a pass, and he's just a pretty generic giant masked tribal man with a giant sword and shield. He's also got a pretty awesome battle theme with chanting in the background. Design-wise he's honestly kind of just generic and it's more of the atmosphere of the background chanting and the animations of him jumping around and ululating that really makes him stand out. He's got a bunch of interesting tricks -- summoning beetle minions, creating rock slides, creating giant rings of fire, in addition to some spinning sword attacks. Pretty basic, but honestly, the combination of the difficulty curve of Majora's Mask and the sheer vibe of this savage tribal warrior is just pretty fun. 

Thanks to the Groundhog Day rules of Majora's Mask, you can (and will have to) battle the bosses multiple times, and the first time you return and start beating up on Odolwa with a fully kitted-out Link you will feel like a badass. 

Masked Mechanical Monster: Goht

I have to be honest that I thought that all four bosses were going to be bosses revolving around masks. And you sure do loot the masks of the four bosses, but honestly only Odolwa's tribal-mask really fits into a whole 'mask' theme. I'm not complaining, though, because the other four bosses are very fun encounters. Goht is a giant robotic goat-monster with a mask that gives him the face of a stern-looking human, and I genuinely feel that the combination of an animal's body and a human-like mask (especially since it's so comparatively small compared to Goht's huge red beard thing) makes him feel so much more unsettling. 

You fight Goht as you transform into a Goron, and that leads to one of the most fun Zelda boss fights ever as Goht runs around a circular-shaped track, while you spin around like a goddamn wheel and chase him around and try to ram onto Goht as you spin around. In the battle Goht himself sort of shoots out lightning balls, laser beams and uses his horns to knock down rocks and bombs to harass Link... and this ends up being easily one of the most surprisingly fun interface-change boss fights I've ever seen in an older game, and honestly I still rate Goht's boss fight pretty highly among all the Zelda bosses I've faced. My only real complaint is that I kinda wished that maybe his attacks were more thematically ice-themed, since isn't he the monster that summons the blizzard that laid waste to the Goron lands? A very cool boss fight as a whole package. 

Gargantuan Masked Fish: Gyorg

Likewise, design wise, Gyorg is a pretty freaking boring monster. It's just a monster fish with some extra spikes and weird-looking fins. Pretty cool, but as a giant monster in the same level of Goht or Twinmold? Or comparing him to the likes of Volvagia or Twinrova from the previous game? A giant angry piranha isn't super threatening. But on the other hand, Gyorg (his name borrows from 'gyo', Japanese for fish) is also known as one of the most punishing bosses in Legend of Zelda's entire history. I personally never had that much trouble with him, although I admittedly do find him the hardest of Majora's Mask's five main bosses. 

The fight against him is pretty cool, it's a giant pool with a central platform, and you have to fight Gyorg and his many, many spawn in the area. And whether you are in your human form sniping Gyorg from afar or turning into a Zora to fight Gyorg underwater, he will have a way to damage you a lot, either by chomping down on you underwater, or ramming onto the central platform to knock you into the water. Ultimately, a boss that's mostly memorable for the sheer difficulty and speed that he fights you with. It's an interesting inversion from a game like Twilight Princess, which had real wicked-cool looking bosses that are a bit underwhelming, whereas Majora's Mask's bosses are pretty simple but the fights are memorably different.

Giant Masked Insect: Twinmold

Oh, it's two giant Moldorms! Moldorms are my bane in the 2D games, and for some inexplicable reason I never had any good luck with those hamburger worm bastards. Twinmold here is a bit more of a serious take on the concept of a giant subterranean worm compared to the classic Moldorms, and I do really like the face that it has (especially since we steal that 'mask') with three eyes and giant centipede claws. Even moreso than the other three bosses prior to it, Twinmold is an interesting fight in that after trans-versing the Stone Tower (despite its simple name, it's a trippy mindfuck place) and randomly arriving onto a vast expanse of a desert. And then you see two gigantic Dune tapeworms that can float through the sky! There are two of them, one red, and one blue, and I do find the animation of them almost peacefully snaking through the sky before slamming back down to be pretty cool. 

Twinmold's weak spots are their head and tail, and... it's remarkably difficult for you to catch up with the giant undulating worms, or to aim and shoot fast enough before it moves away. You can beat Twinmold that way, but the faster way is for you to find the Giant's Mask, become a giant and fucking Ultraman-punch the god damn giant worms to death. That sure is a very, very cool fight for sure!

Worth noting that both Twinmold and Gyorg got extra weak spots in Majora's Mask 3D, which added some extra eyeballs for you to shoot arrows into. Get on my level and fight them N64 style, n00bs!

Majora's Mask / Majora's Incarnation / Majora's Wrath

So the source of all the problems in this game is Majora's Mask... which is just that purple, creepy mask. What a creepy mask that is, by the way, with the glowing orange eyes and the beady pupils and the spikes all around its heart-shaped vibe. At the beginning of the game, the Majora's Mask is stolen by Termina's local prankster, the scarecrow-like fairy Skull Kid, who became absolutely possessed by the mask and starts to cause all of the havoc that is plaguing Termina -- not limited to unleashing the previous four bosses, but also summoning the all-too-famous giant tortured-face moon to crash down upon Termina. There is a reason to Skull Kid's actions and it's kind of sad, but it's also all but said that Majora's Mask is fucking with Skull Kid's desires and warping them in granting its wishes. 

I also do like just how Majora's Mask really doesn't give two shits in explaining to us what Majora's Mask is and why it's so damn powerful. It's a magic, powerful mask, the story isn't about it, the story is about what it's done to the land of Termina. It's a delightfully mysterious object, and I absolutely loved that. You can maybe piece together theories about what it is, especially since the final dungeon has Link end up in this trippy 'is this heaven?' dimension in a peaceful, bright meadow with a single tree, five children with the masks of the previous bosses and a couple of small extra-dungeons... before you fight Majora's Mask itself. 

And the first phase of Majora's Mask? It's just the mask, floating around with a couple of extra blood-red tendrils around it, and it attacks Link hilariously by spinning around like a goddamn shuriken. Eventually it gets faster and faster, start shooting eye beams, and summons the masks of the four bosses which would help it to shoot laser beams and stuff. And then Majora's Mask transforms into its second phase, Majora's Incarnation, which is the mask but it grows gangly legs, arms and a little neck-and-eyeball, making the heart-shaped mask its body. A hilarious looking thing, honestly... and one that jumps around and dances as you fight it. Hey, you're fighting a mask of madness, let it dance, okay? This form, I remembered, was so disarming and you have to really chase it down either with your arrow-shooting skills or simply using a faster form (like the Goron spinning attack or the Bunny Hood), and it's ultimately this bizarre bit in the midst of two spooky, atmospheric fights where the game is all crazy and shit... but you know what? Considering Majora's Mask, it's a facet of the fight that works. 

The final phase is Majora's Wrath (Majora's Demon Man in its original Japanese) where the creature transforms into a far more humanoid, 'serious' mode. The Majora's Mask pattern is still on his torso and abdomen, and the little eye from Incarnation is still on its forehead... and... it's kind of an admittedly boring final form, especially compared to just how absurdly bizarre everything else involving the mask is. I dunno what I expected. Something that involves the Skull Kid, or the four bosses, or the four giants, or the Moon... but Majora's Wrath is just a brightly-coloured boss with hands that can turn into whip-tentacles, and is just a 'I attack fast and hard' boss. And don't get me wrong, it's a pretty challenging phase and you really need to aim properly to get your light arrows in to stun him. Ultimately, while the final phase is kind of a downer (in visuals; the actual boss fight is tense as hell) I do think that as a whole package, between being an antagonist that has been fucking with you from the start of the adventure and all of the bizarre trippy visuals in the final dungeon, Majora's Mask is still one of my favourite final antagonists in Zelda. 

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And... and there you have it, we've marked another Zelda game down! This one was a bit hard to do, because I know that Majora's Mask is a game whose bosses and creatures are so much more enhanced by the story and the vibe behind it and I don't want to downplay that. I'll try to at least do a couple more Zelda reviews, though -- if nothing else, I definitely do want to get through Twilight Princess, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening.