In the entire Legend of Zelda franchise, Majora’s Mask is considered to be one of the more challenging 3D entries in the series. While veterans of the game may contest that notion, perhaps even admonishing its dipped difficulty curve for the last half hour or so, it’s important to remember that newcomers to the game will: be overwhelmed🎉 by the time limit, have no idea where to go, and no concept of how to trigger side quests.
That makes for a stressful playthrough and Majora’s Mask is a game that will absolutely demand the player’s attention at all times. With only four dungeons as well, it’s not unusual for players to reach the end of the game♛ with less than ten hearts, setting themselves up for one hell of a fight against Majora. Even then, though, Majora’s Mask’s quality doesn’t come from its difficulty.
In general, difficulty doesn’t make or break a Zelda ജgame– even if the series was known for being challenging for a ✤time. Rather, Majora’s Mask’s strengths come from its atmosphere, its tone, and its bevy of mechanics to play around with♓. Not all bosses are created equal, but the best bosses (in Majora’s Mask, at least) let player🍌s experiment to their heart’s content.
7 Giant Masked Insect: Twinmold
In the original N64 release, Twinmold is an underwhelming, if inoffensive boss fight. It exists more for the spectacle of it all, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Stone Tower Temple is such a long, grueling dungeon that Twinmold’s simpler f💞ight makes for a cathartic enough finale for the Temple. Unfortunately, the 3DS remake mangles the boss fight considerably.
Twinmold wasꦰ already the worst boss in the game, but Majora’s Mask 3D just rubs salt in the wounds by turning a mediocre fight into an awful one. The first half pits Link agains🏅t Twinmold without the Giant’s Mask, which is a good idea in theory, but the Giant’s Mask-centric second half neuters Link’s mobility, ruins Twinmold’s attack pattern, and makes actually killing the boss an exercise in frustration.
6 Gargantuan Masked Fish: Gyorg
Like with Twinmold, Gyorg is worse in the remake but not by too much in the grand scheme of things. Its flaws are more a result of Zora Swimming being much worse in the remake over anything else. Design-wise it’s fine, if worse, than the N64 battle. In both versions, Link is tasked with attacking Gyorg from afar while transitioning to underwater ✅combat to finish him off.
A good idea in theory, but Gyorg isn’t all that engaging a fight, even in the original. It’s mainly a simple back-and-forth that feels more tense than it is since Gyorꦐg can travel across a wide portion of the boss arena with little to no effort. The 3DS version has the second half of the fight exclusively take place underwater, which is a nice idea, but it doesn’t engage with the mechanics in a logical or particularly enjoyable manner.
5 Majora’s Incarnation
It only makes sense Majora would have t𒀰hree phases as a final boss. Ocarina of Time’s Ganon was a two phase fight, but Ocarina was also consiꦚderably longer. A much shorter title in the grand scheme of things, three phases give the final boss some extra weight. Of those phases, Majora’s Incarnation is the worst, but not bad.
Relativ♉ely unchanged between the original release and the remake, Majora’s Incarnation i𝕴s a frantic, almost silly fight whose purpose is about setting a tone. Majora is strange, almost incomprehensible. In one of the game’s most climactic moments, Majora is just playing with Link, treating him like a toy. The fight itself isဣ easy, but it’s strangely unsettling if you let yourself linger on what’s actually happening in the fight.
4 Masked Jungle Warrior: Odolwa
A꧑lthough the remake turns Odolwa into pretty much every single first boss in a Zelda game, the original rele♌ase has him as one of the most dynamic encounters in the entiಌre series. In the Nintendo 64 version, Link can: fight him with his sword, his arrows, his bombs, and the Deku Mask. Everything Link has at his disposal can be used.
On the flipside, the remake only lets Link use the Deku Mask. Odolwa is challenging, fun, and engaging in his N64 incarnation. Coming into the boss fight unprepared can result in a tough encounter, especially if players s🐭till only have three hearts by this point. Odolwa is a♕n especially fun boss to revisit once Link has some more gear, too.
3 Majora’s Mask
It goes without saying to some degree, but the final boss just isn’t as fun with the Fierce Deity’s Mask. Incredibly memorable and a way to end the game on an emotional high? Absolutely. Engaging on a mechanical level? Not at all. Fighting Majora without the mask, however, results in a much more challenging andꦺ dynamic boss fight.
Liꦺnk’s first scuffle with Majora makes use of his long ranged weapons, specifically the bow — pretty much the item players will have been using for almost all of the game. By this point, players should know how to aim and use their bow, but things only get more ch✤aotic when, halfway through, all the boss masks Link has collected turn on him. This ends up leading to an incredibly chaotic battle that can quickly kill unprepared players.
2 Masked Mechanical Monster: Goht
Of the four Mask Bosses, Goht gets away the most unscathed by the🏅 3DS remake’s changes. It’s still a worse fight on every level, but i🦩t’s also a great figh🌳t꧋ on every level as well. Chasing Goht around the boss arena is exciting, and he’s especially durable, leading to an endurance match that The Legend of Zelda rarely ever indulges in.
The fight’s especially tense💛 on a first playthrough since players must defeat him by the end of the first day, with time to spare, in order to get the Gilded Sword. It’s the o𓆉nly boss fight in the game where taking too much time can have serious consequences. Couple that with an already energetic battle and it’s hard not to love Goht.
1 Majora’s Wrath
The grand fi⛄nale, and to his credit, he’s tough. The Fierce Deity’s Mask trivializes him, but the fact that Majora’s Wrath can fight back at ♈all (poorly) speaks for itself. Without the mask, this is a proper duel to the death, as Majora’s Wrath can easily whip Link around the boss arena upwards to five times in a row. He can be an incredibly punishing boss to be caught by.
Anyone 🔯who comes in with less than 10 hearts and no double defense is looking for a long, hard fight — arguably the hardest in any 3D Zelda. Those 100%ing the game, however, will have a much ꧟more manageable time. While Majora’s Wrath is fast, 20 hearts are more than enough to outlast Majora. That doesn’t make it a bad fight, though.
As far as Zelda final bosses go, Majora’s Wrath demands players either fight back with everything they have, or🐽 use an overpowered mask that they admittedly🧸 had to put a lot of effort into earning.