Let me make myself perfectly clear.

I have never completed The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I have played it before but never beaten it.

I’ve tried to commit myself to seeing it through many times. First on the Nintendo 64, after my brother and I purchased it from a pawnbroker near where we lived.

This wasn’t your friendly neighbourhood Cash Converters either. From memory it really seemed like the kind of place that dreams went to die. The kind of place where thieves go to offload their haul. The kind of place where father goes to sell his kid’s stuff, just so he can afford to pay the electricity bill and not leave little Jimmy sitting in the dark all by himself while he goes out at night to try and make a buck, tending bar at the local corner pub.

That’s probably what this game was. Stolen or sacrificed. And at just $45 who were we to pass up on this amazing deal!

I couldn’t tell you when this was or if it was even the first time I’d actually played the game outside of the demo kiosk at Toys ‘R’ Us. I may or may have not rented it from a video store prior to this. What I do know is that I must have bought Perfect Dark before Majora’s Mask because both games required the expansion pack and I got that with Perfect Dark.

Perfect Dark was released in Australia in June 2000 and Majora’s Mask October the same year. This information is useless to determine when “Independent Pawnbrokers” parted way with the game as I got neither on release. It also may or may not have been before I got the Gamecube, which I did buy on the day of release which was May 17th 2002.

Based on this information I still have no clue when I first managed to actually sit down and attempt to play this game.What I do know is what I actually got up to.

The Monkey Temple. I got up to that monkey temple. You know, the one with the monkeys?

And that’s it. That is all I remember. Well, except for one other thing. The overwhelming feeling of impending doom.

That’s probably why I never went back to trying to finish the game. Even the times I attempted on other platforms, like emulators or that weird bonus disc for Gamecube that Nintendo gave away if you purchased a particular set of games and sent away for it.

It’s the pressure. The time limit. I can’t deal with it. I hate dying in games because I hate having to re-do things I’ve already done and that’s what this game is all about!

I started playing the 3DS version yesterday and that same feeling is with me while I’m trying to play. I feel like I need to rush to get everything done within the “72-hour” time limit without actually knowing what I’m meant to be doing. I kinda know what I need to do but it feels like I’ve never played the game before and I’m not even up to the monkey temple place yet!

I’ve gone through one and a half three day cycles so far and am in the open field. This is a Zelda game. I know what to expect and I’ve actually played this part before. Yet everything is so foreign to me. The world looks creepy as fuck and the enemies are like nothing I remember.

I want to play this game through to completion but at this stage I don’t think I’m going to get past the overwhelming doom feeling.

Maybe I should try some breathing techniques.