A speedrunner at AGDQ beat The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in under 27 minutes with some unconventional techniques. AGDQ, which stands for Awesome Games Done Quick, is a speedrunning event where gamers across the globe speedrun classic video games. This year's schedule included games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Donkey Kong Country, and, of course, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
Majora's Mask is one of two Zelda titles that released on the Nintendo 64, and it's commonly regarded as one of the most bizarre entries in the series. Players must prevent a mysterious moon from destroying the land of Termina in three days, and they're timed with the game's clock. It received some modern treatment in the form of a 3DS remake, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, in 2015. It's also one of a handful of Zelda games to not feature the antagonist Ganondorf, and it scarcely includes the titular Princess Zelda.
At this year's AGDQ, speedrunner ClaireLynnD toggled with the memory of Majora's Mask to finish the game in under 27 minutes. The first few sections of the speedrun are relatively straightforward, but matters take a turn for the strange not long into the run. She uses Deku Link to inexplicably cut some grass outside. She cuts more grass toward the end of the run and then performs specific inputs, referred to as the "moon dance," inside the Astral Observatory. Apparently, these actions manipulate the game's memory due to a code that Rylie, one of the speedrun's commentators, wrote. Watch it for yourself below.
Although Majora's Mask speedruns have been done more quickly, this is truly one of the most impressive speedruns out there. The cryptic set of actions that ClaireLynnD performs are nearly as strange as the game itself, but according to ClaireLynnD, they're not too difficult to do with the proper code and files. It's also mind-boggling how cutting grass and completing actions inside the Astral Observatory toy with the game's memory. There's no doubt that ClaireLynnD and Rylie have set a precedent with this rather unusual run of Majora's Mask.
What's also an impressive feat is how they managed to accomplish this with a game that's more than two decades old. If ClaireLynnD and Rylie were able to do this all these years later, it begs the question of what can be done for speedruns of other Nintendo 64 games. Other speedrunners will likely try to mirror the "moon dance" and grass-cutting manipulation, so this run of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is breathtaking to say the least.
Source: AGDQ / ClaireLynnD