Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
The three day limit of Majora's Mask really isn't as restrictive as the naysayers make it out to be. From what I've seen, most people who harp on it either haven't played the game or played it so little that they never truly got to experience how it plays out. There is some repetition involved, but that usually entails doing things differently the second time around, as you keep what's important. It's a really interesting system, in actuality. Granted, the game does expect the player to be somewhat skilled at 3D Zelda, since it's assumed that the player already has played Ocarina of Time.
There are dungeons where you have to kill or capture a certain number of creatures to progress. When the timer resets they are all back in their original positions and you have to do all that work over again.

In addition, I felt the time pressure punishes you for being thorough and exploring. If you can't get to the bank before three days are up, for example, you lose all your money. There were plenty of times where I was making good progress on something, then the timer resets. Gameplay is interrupted, forcing me to trek back to the dungeon I was at. In addition, if you want to save, you have to reset the timer and get warped back to the town. This means that if you want to get anywhere in the game you have to sit there for 1-2 hours. I can't always devote that kind of time to a game. Why can't I just save and restart at the entrance to the dungeon, like every other Zelda game since 1992?

The game has merits, and there are some interesting puzzles and things to explore (the stealth sequences are really cool and unique for a Zelda game, for instance), but I just felt all the good things were undone by a punitive game mechanic. The game gives you a rich, vast world to explore, then punishes you for taking the time to investigate it. Maybe there was something I didn't understand, but I put in about 10 hours before getting frustrated. Maybe I'll pull it out again and see if I can figure out what I was missing, because I know the game is well regarded.