Snowflake Challenge 2025: #6

[autodach]

Challenge #6

Share your favourite piece of original canon. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


True to form, I picked a video game :)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64 is not only my favourite Zelda, but my favourite game in general. Rather than the overarching story, I want to highlight the side quests, and one in particular – one of the small stories happening everywhere all the time, adding up to a vibrant, living world.

Every side character has their own little story that happens regardless of the player witnessing it (because you can turn back time, you don’t permanently miss anything), and very often, these stories are tragedies. Death and loss are major themes here. If you choose to help a person, you might be able to solve their problem – but all too frequently the best you can do is lay a soul to rest.

Many games would shy away from forcing failure and bad endings on the player. But here it is baked into it; the whole point is that tragedy is inevitable, but you can still help, still soothe, still hope.

And it’s one of these little tragedies I want to talk about, the Deku Butler and his son. The story is presented like this:


During the tutorial, in an area you can never access again afterwards, you pass a withered tree. The tree is used to teach you locking onto an object and prompting relevant information from your companion. She tells you the tree is dead, and it looks sad. You then move into the game proper and are likely to forget about this tree, dismissing it as slightly eerie decoration.

In this game, you can transform into other people by wearing a mask infused with their remains that you obtain after healing their souls and laying them to rest. With one exception: The Deku transformation – a plant-based people that have bark and leaves rather than skin or hair – is forced upon you by the villain, and has no character associated with it. Or does it? I'm sure you can guess, but at this point, most players have long forgotten the tutorial and wouldn’t suspect anything.

Later you encounter the butler at Deku palace, and race against him in an optional side quest.
He then tells you you resemble his son, who left the tribe long ago. Oh no. This is where it clicks for most people.
If you completed the butler’s quest, you see him mourning at the dead tree, confirming his(its?) identity(and that you are most likely literally wearing his face). He found his son at last.


This is not something the player can fix, or indeed interfere with at all. It’s the butler’s story you get to witness through hints and implications. I love this implicit storytelling, letting the player draw the conclusion themselves.

It’s a very small story, very short in summary, and probably sounds very boring spelled out like this. But I love that it’s there, and what it represents.
The butler is a complete side character; he exists for a racing minigame, you wouldn’t assume he has any backstory at all. But he does, because everyone has their own story, and their own pain. It’s what makes the world feel alive.

Comments

[sarajayechan]

...oh my God. That's amazing and tragic and I love the way game lays it out through those story breadcrumbs.

[autodach]

It’s so good! I just love the subtlety when you 'live' the story instead of having it served via cutscene.

[muccamukk]

Oh wow, that's lovely and sad. I've only played the Gameboy Zelda, which had a lot less space, but did like that it had a sombre tone. This sounds so much more thought out.

[autodach]

Oh, the original Link’s awakening? It has a pretty solid story for a gameboy title, I also loved the tone and subtle sadness in that game.

[muccamukk]

Yeah! I think that was the first game I played where the story especially mattered, rather than just "do the thing and maybe you'll get a cut scene." The music was lovely.

[mekare]

It does not sound boring at all! That is some good storytelling.

[walgesang]

This is so wonderful. I'm a huge fan of side quests that are memorable in video games and although I haven't really played anything since the OG Zelda, it's got me curious!

[greetingsfrommaars]

oh wow, that's such a cool and subtle way to convey story so the player can piece it together. and for a pretty minor character, it sounds like! I liked how you put it at the end of your post.

[majoukoufu]

That sounds like fantastic attention to detail way above and beyond what the devs needed to put in!

[silveradept]

Oh, that's a nice part of the storytelling, even though it's not something that can be fixed. And Majora is very much the interesting one of the series, since it takes the time loop as its conceit. You get to explore and see everything happen, and then have to figure out how to go through the days to make sure everything that's supposed to happen does.