So obviously, I’ve been sitting on this video idea for years. I wanted to drop it earlier but I felt like it needed some distance from the Line By Line doco. It can’t be a Jason fest the whole time.

The Lost Majora’s Mask Notebook: https://youtu.be/I7CvcmWVIgE
Line By Line documentary: https://youtu.be/6_Pj33xGqgY

So the story behind this one is that during an email chain between Jason and myself, he mentioned that he found his old notebook from his time in Kyoto and proceeded to send over all of the small little notes he wrote down during his time there.

I felt super honoured to get this info and couldn’t wait to pass it on.

Below is the just the copy and pasted notes from my email. While I altered a few words there and there in the video to help with delivery, I haven’t touched a word here. This is as it was sent to me. Enjoy.

Hi Javed,

I did find one of my notebooks from my time in Kyoto, so I'll share some highlights from my notes. I'm not sure if they'll fit into your narrative, but I'm hoping they'll be helpful.

Items that got renamed (I also attached an image of that page of my notebook)

  • Inspector's Mask became the Circus Leader's Mask became the Troupe Leader's Mask

  • Feather Sword became the Razor Sword (I do remember it was initially called "Feather" because of the shape, but I recommended the change since feather has light and delicate connotations in English)

  • Emery Sword became the Gilded Sword (I remember recommending the rename for this one since emery is more abrasive and associated with nail files, and gilded better matched the gold embellishments on this blade)

  • Majora's Wrath - Not sure what it was originally called, but my notes indicate I pitched that name to Localization, the Treehouse and my Editor at Nintendo Power, and they unanimously agreed on Majora's Wrath

Some other notes

  • I had "Kyoto Municipal Zoo > Heian-Jingu" in my notes. I looked it up and now remember that Heian-Jingu is a shrine in Kyoto near the zoo. Shrines like that were an influence on the game (and many others; the walkways with arches are similar to what you fly through in StarFox), and you could spot several Triforce symbols around the shrine and fox masks (that the Keaton Mask is based on)

  • I also wrote "Imperial Park Nijo" in my notes. Same as above. This castle is literally a 12-minute drive up the street from NCL

  • Carpenters -- These Clock Town characters, who are constantly building and never feeling that they'll finish, represent the game's development team

  • New stuff added to Western version of Majora -- Added the cut scene of Link reuniting with Epona for more dramatic impact since it's a such an important moment; the model for Link is improved with more facial expressions, more detail on his belt, more details on the Hero's Shield, and he actually has a sword strap that holds it on his back now!)

  • Skull Kid is 200 years old, is like Peter Pan and is forever young. Skull Kids can't enter Hyrule (they can never get past Hyrule's Lost Woods), but they can enter Clock Town, where they can "meet nice people." The Skull Kid is scared of the Giants' threat, so he only plays with kids -- he never appears around adults.

  • Takano's favorite mask: Romani's Mask because of the juxtaposition of seeing cute Link wearing such a grotesque mask

  • Aonuma's favorite mask: Mask of Scents because of challenge of how to visually depict smell

  • Tezuka's favorite mask - Goron because he liked the transformation

  • Miyamoto's favorite mask - Deku Mask because it's the first mask you get, it's simple but very important; Keaton Mask is his favorite as far as design

  • Any in-game references about being afraid someone would disappoint their "wife" were references to Miyamoto, Anouma and Koizumi, who were always away from home working

  • Major source of inspiration - The time pressure of making a Zelda follow-up without Miyamoto

  • 3-Day Structure - Ideal because it made it hard to gauge the scope of the game; fans always want more dungeons, so this was a way to make a long game because it's about playing things over and over

Attached Images

  • ZeldaNotes - List of items and renames

  • Notes_TextBlocks - Each block of text in the game was put into an Excel sheet. The numbers I wrote down refer to the row number for a text block that I needed to change or that I had questions about for the NCL team. Somewhere else in my notes, I wrote that Line "20034" was the end, meaning there were 20,034 blocks of text in that game!

Anyway, I hope this helps! As always, feel free to hit me up for questions. Looking forward to the finished product!

Jason

ZeldaNotes - List of items and renames

Notes_TextBlocks - Each block of text in the game was put into an Excel sheet. The numbers I wrote down refer to the row number for a text block that I needed to change or that I had questions about for the NCL team. Somewhere else in my notes, I wrote that Line "20034" was the end, meaning there were 20,034 blocks of text in that game!