Monday Morning Motivation: Majora's Mask

As a little kid, one of my favorite games was The Legend of Zelda Majora Mask. Out of all the games in the series, Majora's Mask is the darkest and most somber game. Even though most fans regard either Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past as the greatest Zelda game, I like Majora's Mask more for two reasons.

I really enjoyed how the three day cycle was done. Actions that you do or do not take will effect events that play out in the 3 day cycle. Since you go back through the same 3 days, you can see what happens if you do or do not perform certain actions.

Most of the NPCs were given some sort of personality and backstory. Within the 3 day cycle, NPCs will react differently depending on the actions you do or do no perform.

Since there are only 4 dungeons in the game, a lot of the experience of Majora's Mask is experienced by completing all the tasks in the bombers notebook to help all the NPCs. Out of all these sidequests, the most elaborate one is the Anju and Kafei sidequest. But that isn't the quest I'm thinking about for today's motivation.

In Clock Town, there is one postman who delivers the mail every day. Because of his dedication to his job, he makes sure that he is always on time and ensures a successful delivery. During the course of the game, all the citizens of Clock Town are nervous that the moon will fall and destroy Clock Town so most of the citizens flee.

The postman feels the same fear as the rest of the citizens however he can not flee because he lives his life by his schedule without deviation. His schedule does not account for the moon crashing into Clock Town and killing everyone. Despite imminent doom, the mail is schedule for the next morning.

You can enter the post office on the night of the last day and see the post man torn up in agony. His sense of duty is so great that he would sacrifice his life just to deliver the mail on time.

If you give him the priority mail, he will deliver it to the Mayor's wife. Surprised to see that the postman hasn't left she takes the priority mail then orders the postman to flee Clock Town.

Afterwards, you can talk to the postman. He gives you his hat and says that he will flee. He can set his own schedule from now on. He takes off with 10 hours before the moon crashes into the town.