Japanese Majora's Mask is VERY Different - Region Break 

I did NOT expect this video to open up with Shesez detailing the history of blackface

The Skull Kid scream in the JP version almost feels like a cut away gag. The timing is just impeccable 😂

The mask was called the "Deku Nuts Mask" because in Japan Deku Scrubs are called Deku Nuts.

Intrestingly, the japanese cutscene with Epona is retained for the 3DS remake, rather then using the american one.

12:42 The counter on the japanese save file is not a death count. it a count of how many times the player played the Song of Time.

I find it interesting that there are changes made to the USA version from the original Japanese version, that they would later backpedal in the 3DS remake. In the 3DS remake: 1) The Epona cutscene uses the original Japanese one. 2) The block formation on the entrance of Stone Tower uses the original Japanese one. 3) The shortcut in Pirate's Fortress that was cut in the USA version of N64 MM was brought back. I am sure there are other examples as well. N64 MM had an extremely short/rushed development cycle of under 2 years, so it makes sense that there would be so many differences between each version of the game.

I always interpreted the black face as shadows. Like a jawa.

Here's a couple changes between Japanese and English that are relevant to speedruns. - Song of Double Time in the US does a scene reload, while in JP it does not. This lets you skip some cutscenes in English, like Mikau slowly walking and collapsing onto the beach. - The snow boulders blocking the path to Mountain Village can be backflipped through on English, but not on Japanese, meaning you can skip needing an explosive for it. - Saving Koume in the woods is a little faster in English because you only need to talk to Kotake in the shop once after seeing Koume to have her give you the red potion, instead of twice. If she's in the Woods looking for Koume, targeting her to talk in the US version has her lower down immediately, while in JP you need to talk to her first before she starts coming down to you. - Loading zones are faster on English than on Japanese. - When doing a Hyper Extended Superslide (HESS) with Infinite Sword Glitch (ISG) active, hitting a ledge in English does not stop the superslide, while in JP it does. This makes a method of skipping Goron Lullaby called Snowhead HESS only doable on the US version. Combined with other little time savers, this makes English the faster version for a lot of categories over the Japanese version, when for a lot of other games it's the other way around where English is slower.

Early in the year that Majora's Mask came out, there was major controversy arsing over Jinx's blackface appearance in Pokemon. I imagine around the time this game first came out in japan, all that drama was fresh in their minds and made the earliest decision to remove the blackface.

Bean Salesman- That honestly makes WAY more sense. That's not an easy spot to find, so it makes sense to have him on a higher ledge not normally accessible. Otherwise its so weird that the Deku Guards don't just go in this obvious hole with two torches next to it, find him, and kick him out. Pirates Fortress- Seriously?! Every time I access that I keep thinking "there's obviously a shortcut to jump down, right? Wait, no? Why not? What's the point of this extra wall here? Well it was in Japan! It also makes more sense the chest would face the throne as well.

The Japanese Deku palace does make more sense. I was always wondering why the bean guy is just in a hole that is just there for no reason inside the castle

It's unfortunate they changed the Skullkid's face from Ocarina of Time. Navi mentions that he's sad he has no face, which is also implied to be why he purchased the skull mask. So him being faceless is kind of very relevant given the mask symbolism of the sequel. 2:33 Skulltula comes from tarantula and the last half is pronounced similarly. 5:00 We kinda got the short end on the Deku Palace, it was like its own mini-dungeon in the Japanese version! 9:15 I don't think I ever actually used the owl statues to save, maybe once. Idk, I just always wanted to "finish" a session and not stop in the middle. xD

Seems like the changes for the US version were a bit of a mixed bag. Lots of good QoL improvements for the most part but also some weirder changes like removing those underground passages in the Deku Palace.

The Last/Final day part was explained poorly, you should have said that confusion could arise from the fact that "last" could be interpreted to mean "previous" and so it was changed to "final" to avoid confusion or misinterpretation. Otherwise, great video!

Part 2 Part 2!!! Great video, always love a Region Break episode!

I prefer Skull Kid's scarecrow design, but I kinda think the change was unnecessary. Maybe I was ignorant, but I never got the vibe that it's blackface from OoT. I thought he just looked mysterious, like his face was a shadow. I still think that actually.

3:49 Wait, why is it unnecessary if it's way better? That's reason enough. And why is it surprising when looking at a 3D game like this? It makes sense because it's a 3D game. Like, in the US version, you can actually see Epona now. They fixed an issue that happened because of the 3D perspective.

That tunnel in the pirate fortress is reminiscent of the area with the big stacks of bananas in the Yiga hideout in BotW

"Oh no, the evil moon is crashing into the Earth again! What a totally un-frustrating way to play a video game!" -Strong Bad, "Doomy Tales of the Macabre"

I wonder if the change of barrels to pots in the Skultula house is just that the localizers thought the barrels looked too large and heavy to be put up in the ceiling.

I feel like the changes in the Deku Palace might be to make this part of the game easier for US players. You know less pathways means less ways for the players to get lost in, probably also the reason they moved the Bean seller because as you pointed out right before the top of the hill is only accessible in the Japanese version so the entrance needed to be moved to a different spot so US players could still reach it.

You also forgot one major detail where when you get to the moon, the Japanese version has a short cutscene showcasing the children and the tree while the US version just smashcuts to Link

That tunnel in the deku palace is the only place in the game that features Skullwalltullas, leading to an entire enemy being cut from the US version.

A little fun fact about the 3rd save file is that because it runs double duty for file 1 and 2, you can use it to smuggle save states between the two. This is extremely useful for setting up Arbitrary Code Execution, allowing for otherwise impossible setups.

I assume the issue with Skull Kid's face was that, in the Japanese version, just was supposed to be "shadows". He's got the big hat, so it was probably supposed to be like like the Garo or Poes where the face is too shadowed to be seen... speaking of I don't think *they* got their faces changed, huh.

As someone who is proficient in Japanese and lives in Japan, there is a better explanation to the "Last" part. As most people are probably aware, Japanese people use loan words from English such as "desuku" (desk) or "daburu" (double). Another one often used is "rasuto" (last) which they use to exclusively mean "final" and never "previous". It is also a word they would understand despite it being written in English. If they ever wanted to say "last/previous", they would say the word in Japanese, izen（以前） or zenjitsu (前日) meaning "previous day". I knew this as a fact from my early years teaching English to children who would understand that an activity would be coming to an end when I told them "last" despite their low level of English proficiency. If I told them "final", they would look around in confusion.

I just beat the Japanese version of Majora’s Mask without a guide this year! I can't read Japanese, I'm just very familiar with the game and wanted to challenge myself to see all the differences. Besides the raft being raised at the Marine Research Lab (6:34), the Gibdo fetch quest at the bottom of the well was the trickiest part! I just kept handing over items until they accepted it... 😅 There are a lot of fixes in the US release that make me appreciate it more (like the one you mentioned at 8:06, with Link retaining his original position before putting on a transformation mask).

8:02 it was changed because the US version has switches to move the blocks on the temple side which are not there in the JP version

I remember feeling jealous that Japan would usually get games first (it's almost as if Japanese companies prioritize Japan, first!), but this series has made me realize that in the pre-update world of video games, this often resulted in the eventual US version getting some crucial bug fixes that (mostly) made the US version the most stable and balanced version. It's interesting in this case, though, that some of the changes in the US N64 release were actually changed back to how it was in the Japanese release in the 3DS remake!

the stuff about the tunnels in the deku palace in the jpn version just clarified something that always seemed odd to me about the us version! i played the jpn version when i was a teenager, up through deku palace and when watching people play the us version something about the map always seemed off to me. thanks for solving a 15 year old mystery for me!

Fun fact: In the Japanese version of Majora's Mask, the game uses Japanese for it's language. Meanwhile, in the American version, it uses English for its language. Cool, huh?

I think one of the reasons for them removing the ring from the cow is that the nose rings can be seen as a form of animal cruelty. They're used for controlling bulls and sometimes cows with attachable poles. And for weaning calves from their mother's milk (weaning rings have plastic spikes that make nursing uncomfortable for the mother and discourages her from allowing her calf to suckle). Granted that's a bit of a stretch. The first example is for safety, because you need to be able to wrangle an out-of-control bull/cow to prevent it from hurting humans. The second is so that calves can stay with their dairy cow mothers for longer without the farmer having to worry about the little fella drinking up all the valuable milk. But I do think some groups do take objection to them, and I won't say I don't understand why. It is a little harsh to think about a pierced septum that regularly gets tugged on.

I completely don't understand the explanation for "Final" vs "Last" day.

I think there’s a good chance “Last” was changed to “Final” to sound more ominous in English. “Last” also feels more awkward than “Final” to have on its own, as it is on the in-game clock.

As a kid i never used the owl statutes to save my game. I read that if i saved with it it would only save for that time and then anything after was lost amd i took that to mean my entire file would be gone, so i always jaut used the song of time to save

With the cow differences which are confusing but in Japan they normally use nose rings for cows and rarely with bulls.

The USA: "Let's remove that nosering to make it clear this is a cow". Also the USA: "Let's make the Barnyard movie!"

I was on one of your twitch streams that you recorded some footage for this video and it was a good time and I hope I can catch your streams in the future. Can’t wait to check this video out!

"Skull-too-la" for Skulltula always cracks me up. Don't get me wrong, it's how I said it for most of my life, too. Then I saw a comment that pointed out that it's a portmanteau with tarantula- creating "Skull-chu-la" -and I've never gone back.

There are definitely people who get mad about nose rings, but as someone with a ton of farming experience, I gotta tell you nose rings are extremely beneficial. But I guess the process of putting it in is what upsets people because it does involve temporarily hurting the cow’s nose, but it’s more of a momentarily discomfort to them than a trauma. Nowadays people opt for different methods to control/calm down cows, but sometimes when a cow needs care from a vet, their nose does get temporarily clamped to make sure they don’t move around too much. But how rowdy they are depends a lot on the breed and how they were raised. …maybe they removed the nosering to signify the cows were friendly and very tame? Lol. Probably not the reason but it’s true they are very friendly.

Its funny how a new zelda game was announced after this video was uploaded.

Most of these changes seem like additional playtesting tweaks. I bet those hidden paths in the Deku fortress were removed for pacing reasons.

Still my favorite Zelda game!

was just watching zelda 1 region break yesterday, such a coincidence

Nice video i like how you get straight to the point instead of rambling about your channel

Good episode! Majora's Mask is my favorite game of all time and I didn't know some of these regional differences.

I can imagine some Japanese people seing this and being like "omg why didnt we have those qol changes"

The counter on the Japanese save file is not a death counter unlike in Ocarina Of Time, it's actually a counter for how many times you save the game with the Song Of Time. This also means it is impossible to finish the game with zero saves on the file too, because playing the Song Of Time is (obviously) required to continue the game.

Never would’ve expected so many differences ! Great video and presentation, so interesting!!

11:55 That is because Deku Scrubs are called デクナッツ [deku nuts] in Japanese

Awesome differences! Awesome video! Keep it up Shesez!

you’ve met with a terrible fate

didn't realize this was only 10 hours old. Awesome! My favorite game of all time

Yo my favorite game! Thank you for covering this glittering dark star in the Zelda series

As a kid playing this game I was kind of terrified of certain levels and certain enemies even though still one of my favorite games

This is fire! Very nice video

Ooo sweet, I've been curious about this for years.

Yesss, great episode. Shoutout to the seagulls aka ocean vultures 😂. Also, I love your take on the news, best new show around. Did you see the 40 min direct for tomorrow???🎉🎉🎉🎉

really cool to see these differences side by side

Huh, that is interesting that you are doing this sort of series.

I'd wondered why this Skull Kid had a straw-looking face when the Skull Kids in OOT for the N64 showed them having black heads. I'd thought, given that the Skull kid had what looked like a beak instead of a mouth, that they were bird-people based on ravens or crows.

Maybe they thought the secret passages in the Deku Palace were confusing, or didn't like how it looks like it let you avoid sneaking around the guards completely, which I guess makes sense even if it IS cool to have the option to choose one path or the other. Having the bean salesman in a more obvious accessible spot makes sense too.

awesome vid!

For some reason barrels are very relevant in Japanese games. The Atelier series (like Atelier Lulua, Ryza, Lydie, etc) has special dialogues about barrels. If you get near to them and you press A (as if it were a NPC) the character will shout "taru!" which means "barrel". Maybe this is not relevant for other countries and they change the barrel with another object. It reminds me of the fruits from Animal Crossing and Yoshi's Island, in which apples are different as we usually see them. So they are "weird" for us and not for Japanese people.

... You could save at the owls? I guess it's been so long that I don't remember if I used that or not

Great video! Keep it up

Thank you again for such a great video, Shesez!

Love these comparison videos.

Played that game since release, and I'm surprised how many changes there are from the original Japanese version. You did miss one thing. The Second Day was called "Next Day" in the JP release.

It's so strange how much was made simpler, but also how many shortcuts were just removed between the versions

Insane video drop you put a smile on my face I started playing hollow knight a couple days ago you should do a 5-10 minute boundary break on the game because although it's 2D in a 3D plain I believe there might be a lot of cool stuff hidden behind layers or animations or events that change stuff on the map

awesome video , thank you for sharing !!

Both Zelda's are my favorite N64 games. Love your work man, I've been around since around 20k subscribers. I hope everything gets better for you.

When looking up references for Skull Kid I definitely noticed the depictions of him with his face being entirely made of shadow instead of wood/straw. Thought it was a stylistic choice but now I know he genuinely just looked like that! Funky.

That counter on the Japanese version isn't a death counter, though I can see why you would think that given it's a death counter in Ocarina of Time, but in Majora's Mask it's actually a save counter, which I find really handy in having a challenge save file with as few cycle resets as possible. Fun fact: the fewest possible resets in a glitchless run is 002, in other words proof you accomplished the 3-day challenge, and without using owl saving no less! meanwhile 004 is the fewest possible resets for 100% completion~ :9 000 - Save file creation 000 - First save (counter does not go up for this one), entering Clock Town for the first time 001 - First reset, playing the Song of Time for the first time as a Deku Scrub 002 - The first cycle completed, either Beat Majora and the counter goes up, or collect as much as possible, or both! 003 - Wrapping up anything that wasn't obtainable in the first cycle, stuff like the All-Night Mask, Postman's Hat, Bomb Mask, etc... 004 - Listening to granny's stories, effectively wasting a cycle just for a heart piece and bomber entry...

Thanks a lot, always love region break!

Interestingly, that shortcut in the Pirates' Fortress was added back in for the 3DS version of the game

Man, I remember seeing pictures of this game in Nintendo Power while it was still in development. OoT was my favorite game at that point and a sequel to that just blew my mind.

The deku palace feels like it shares dna with the level design of pikmin games.

I never played Majoras Mask, but it is really interesting how many changes were made

I'm impressed by how many changes, for whatever reason, are between both versions haha. Also, I didn't quite get the "last" and "final" difference. Is it because it sort of looks like 1st?

Question, if you levitate above the entrance to Stone Tower Temple, you can see the portal way up in the sky albeit a bit flat. My question though is, does this same thing happen outside of the boundaries in the other temples?

interesting thing about the JP version exclusive tunnels in the Deku Palace, since Majora's Mask 3D is a remastered port, the model data for those areas is still in that game, just untextured.

Awesome to see a Region Break of Majora's Mask, I love that game (I might even prefer it to OoT, but don't tell anyone). Keep up the good work, and keep 'em coming :)

great video as always

great video !

I just completed this game again like yesterday, perfect timing!

Yay new Region Break

Here I thought I knew all there was to Majoras mask, then Shesez drops a knowledge bomb on me. Love seeing Zelda stuff from this channel!

Oh here we go, a video about my absolute favorite game fresh off the press.

I sense a common theme in Region Break that international releases fix bugs of the Japanese version. Basically the origin of updates. xD

I perfer longer videos, but it's always nice to have a shorter one from time to time. :)

The removal of the Deku Palace tunnels is fascinating, what could've been the thought process in removing those?

Another great video about my favorite Zelda game!

Ngl, feels more scary and better when the scream cuts in the jp version

Yes! A new video!

Always ready for some Zelda fun facts

3:05(ish) - i like the 'effect' of Synchronizing both screens to the same controller inputs...Link's little movement twitches, the camera panning, even pressing C-Down for FireArrows/DekuStick... now i wanna know, how many 'sessions' of the game can be played at the same time like this? like, if you hooked up 100 Emulators to a Single Controller (but each game still had its own RNG Values etc), how many of those 100 will watch the Credits? how many Links will fall due to an Enemy spawning in a slightly different spot? which one will end up with the most stray Rupees collected? hmmm.......

This episode will be amazing!! Such a comforting game.

basically overall improvement which, if it had released today, it would have been update patch notes. Since this wasn't a thing back then, they just had to ball it and push the improvements for the other release of the game. also wth the owls weren't used to save in the jp version?? that's just vile oh my. the 3DS remake was already an improvment on the NA copy, this is wild to know it was even worse before they improved it back then