Researching The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Rime

 Both The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (I will from here refer to as Zelda: MM) and Rime both share the similarity of dealing with loss within the game both overtly and covertly in their methods and have differing rates of success in their outcome and are well worth examining in how they brought across such a sensitive subject matter to the audience even though I don't believe my game will touch this subject matter it will no doubt bear the same sensitivity and may use similar techniques to keep he audience engaged so that a real world response and positive change can occur.

Starting with Rime, we play as a young boy who after awakening on a beach journeys through an unknown place. We travel a linear path solving various puzzles to progress through constantly following a friendly fox-like character and later a mysterious stranger who, through the use of cut scenes between each level, we begin to piece together is our father who was also on the boat that crashed during a storm leading to us reaching this land at the beginning.  Each level has its own unique design and antagonistic elements though the general puzzle and platform elements flow neatly through each landscape only slowly progressively increasing in difficulty so as to not create too much of a challenge. 

The end of each level has the player character scale up the next staircase of a tower with us chasing to reach this stranger we came across at the midway point of the first area, this alluring stranger coupled with the cutscenes leads us to believe we lost our father during the storm and chasing him now is how we can successfully regroup. It is only when we complete this game that we learn that it was the boy who was lost at sea during the storm and the father survived with the whole game being the father experiencing his sons journey through limbo and completing the game is both the fathers acceptance of his loss and the sons spirit being able to rest. This isn't exactly how the game resounded with critics who whilst praising the games visual art gorgeous or beautiful found the puzzles shallow with Marty Silva of IGN saying that "On the surface, Rime is a gorgeous, melancholy adventure of a lone wanderer in the similar fashion as memorable games like Ico, Journey, or The Witness. But just under that layer of beautiful art, mysterious locations and wonderful music is a game with very few new ideas. Instead, almost all of its puzzles are shallow and ultimately uninteresting versions of things we've seen and done in other, better games." though he still scored the game 6.5 out of 10, not a poor score at all.  I feel most critics of the game don't comment at all on the message of the game or how its theme is presented within purely looking at it as a product and taking from that whether it achieves success at being a puzzle solving adventure.  Interestingly the game was later nominated as best puzzler of 2017 by IGN contradicting the earlier review by them.  A stronger discussion of the themes and particularly the ending of the game can be found amongst fans and gamers alike on discussion forums where plenty of commenters relay how sad but ultimately memorable an experience the game left them with once finished.  

In comparison is Zelda: MM which on the surface holds a lot of similarity to the franchises predecessors with the main character Link exploring a land and interacting with a slew of characters helping them with their own issues and gaining tools/upgrades to progress through the adventure a stop whatever impending doom is about to occur. The theme of loss whilst present in certain NPC's is not as overt with Link himself as it is in the ending of Rime.  We see the Deku of Woodfall with their princess missing and how they react with anger, also Lulu a Zoro who has had all her eggs stolen and how depressed she has become.  What is a more covert look at dealing with loss that most likely missed by a younger audience is how each of the areas are representative of the 5 stages of grief within the Kubler-Ross model.

Denial - Citizens of Clock Town denying the impending fall of the moon above them.

Anger - Deku of Woodfall so blinded with rage they accuse the monkey thats trying to help them of being the one to cause the loss of the princess.

Bargaining - Darmani leader of the Gorons is aware of his death but fears leaving his people behind and bargains for his life back.

Depression - Lulu the Zoro has sunk into depression when her eggs are stolen with those close to her concerned with how she has isolated herself and even lost her voice.

Acceptance - This is what Link finds at the end of the game when using light arrows to defeat the darkness of Ikana Valley.

It is perhaps only as an older individual who has experienced loss or is aware of the 5 stages of grief that this narrative within the game becomes apparent, though still contested by players with differing opinions of the meaning of the game through the subjective nature of a creative format. 

Clocktown with moon descending.

Captured monkey at the Deku's wrath.

Darmani's self-awareness of his death

Lulu's apparent depression

The Ikana Valley with its graveyard like appearance.

Unlike Rime, Zelda: MM received critical acclaim holding a score of 95/100 for metacritic and 9.9 out of 10 for IGN but again critics tend not to approach this theme of loss when evaluating the game but more so looking at the product as a game and how it plays with its use of puzzles and objectives for completion.  In its favour Zelda: MM is a longer game with more depth through side quests and a long established franchise from a bigger studio whilst Rime was only the second game produced by Tequila Works with no previous tie-ins to help bolster its audience. Therefore to look at how successful these games were at helping its audience come to terms with loss and change their lives is a lot more complicated and does not require use of grades and sales figures with those apparently being solely based on gameplay features.

When it comes to the theme off loss it is a lot more apparent that audiences understood this theme in Rime whilst Zelda: MM has much more dispute among players with some believing it is more aligned with the idea of Love represented in Greek mythology/beliefs represented through Philia, Eros, Agape and Storage.  Each of these types of love being presented in a different area of the game and the purpose of the player character is to fix these broken relationships.  Perhaps the more overt idea of loss through the storytelling of Rime with its use of cutscenes to establish an incident and characters as well as the ending with the Father showing him coming to terms with the loss of his son allows for less subjectivity and a more agreed upon theme, I believe the sensation you feel at the end when you do switch from son to father has a cathartic feel that causes an emotional response resonating with most players due to a concluding narrative, you no longer play as this character you've travelled with throughout the whole game.  There is no confusion as to what has happened and having experienced the sons adventure you also feel a sense of completion of his journey and can come to terms with this ending much like the father coming to terms with his loss.  Though initially unaware of what the games conclusion may be this beautiful art and simple but "shallow" puzzle format is what can immerse the audience into the gameplay.  With Zelda: MM having the player character deal with NPC's who may represent the stages of grief there is no connection with losing someone/something which is why there may be some dispute about the theme - with the theme being such a sensitive one it is understandable for such covert approach to be used and the studio can always rely on the success of the franchise to produce sales and high acclaim if the rest of the game play is of a high standard but I can't help but feel if there was one part of the development team who wants this secondary objective of the game to be helping its audience members they may feel dissatisfied with this uncertain outcome among the fan base.

Looking back at the two games in terms of delivering a message some key take aways for me without dealing with loss but still some sort of theme that can change the audiences lives are;

- Beautiful art style to draw players in to the world.

- Tying into this is a soundtrack that also draws audiences in.

- Ensuring the theme can be agreed upon by all players whether through an overt message or some other means.

- Choosing a theme that is easily experienced by all, no niche subject matter.

- A cathartic feeling to be accomplished by players through their own involvement with the game.

- Detailed research of the theme or change you're wanting to implement, how has it been implemented before, how can this be represented in video game format.

- How can a message be misconstrued within gameplay and how to avoid this (perhaps too many side quests unaligned with the main theme)