Zelda: Majora’s Mask: Five Ages of Link Finally Revealed

The cult following around The Legend of Zelda franchise means that even older games that have been played through and through may attract fans’ attention again. So it happened with the debug version of The Legend of Zelds: Majora’s Mask, released back in 2000. It turned out that this version had different forms of the protagonist, depending on his age.

The debug version has an interesting option that enables the player to choose the age of Link you start the game with. The menu through which you can do it shows five different stages: 5 (Child), 12 (Deku), 30 (Goron), 78 (Zora), and 17 (Adult) years. The first one would seem an interesting revelation, but indeed it looks like a mistake: instead of the 5-year Link, it loads the original Young Link at his 12. This makes sense, though, given that the developers simply didn’t have enough time to implement all the decisions. The game could have a flashback where the presence of a 5-year-old Link would make sense.

As for the other ages of Link and the avatars that match them, they make more sense knowing the other characters in the game. For example, the Deku image is a reference to Deku Butler’s son who supposedly died at 12, at which the age hints. The Goron image is similar to Darmani the Third, who died at about 30 years in a blizzard. As for the 78-year-old Zora, this name is that of a race that lives longer than regular humans.
As for the 17-year-old Link, he resembles himself from the previous installment – Ocarina of Time. This also makes sense, because Majora’s Mask is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, so the games have a lot in common both story-wise and visually.

Was it interesting for you to learn this? Have you played Majora’s Mask or Ocarina of Time when they were released, or later, or just skipped them? We’d like to read your opinion in the comments!