In the Japanese Nintendo Direct, which aired simultaneously with the North American Nintendo Direct, Eiji Aonuma takes a brief tour through the Clock Town of Majora’s Mask 3DS.
The explanation sounds geared for new players. He runs through (in Japanese) the concept of Clock Town, of the festival construction going on, as well as the rupee man, a carry-over character model from Ocarina of Time, as many of the character models are. He explains the owl statues. He visits the (and my Japanese is a bit rusty, so I apologize for any errors) ‘man who is floating’ and explains in a sentence who Tingle is. He tells us to remember in advance the little boy with the bomber’s notebook because he has an important item.
He journeys over to the Mayor’s house, explains that this is indeed where the Mayor lives. At this point, he seems to be setting out for new player’s the keynote locations for quests, which will indeed be incredibly helpful for anyone who hasn’t committed the locations to memory from their first play through. After mistakenly telling players that the mayor is in the right hand side room, he returns to the left hand side and greets the mayor – we see the argument between soldiers and workers that was in the trailer, this time with Japanese captions. He joshes about further in Clock Town, visiting the jugglers and the boy who he describes as being similar to the kid with the bomber’s notebook; one of his crew. He explains the bombers in depth, showing the much improved layout of the notebook itself, which he describes as “extremely convenient”. He tells us to try out the bombchu game with the “octopus sign” on the front.
We visist Anju in the hotel, where Aonuma explains that during the festival, there are a lot of reservations and we see the familiar speech about the goron family being booked in. Anju’s grandma is the first entry we see made into the Bomber’s Notebook. We visit the buy and sell shop, where Aonuma explains that it will be the site for yet another grand drama as the game unfolds. The sword master is up next, his flowing brown locks haven’t gotten any less voluptuous in the latest version of the game.
He says something strange here. He tells us to seek out the small stuffed cows, as he points out in the sword master’s den, as ‘something will happen after you seek them out’. Mysterious Aonuma, very mysterious indeed. (Keaton’s Questions Hint)
On the second day, we visit the laundry pool and the frog, who Aonuma says you will be able to engage in concourse with given that you’ve obtained a necessary item. He points out the bell – Anju and Kafei Quest keynote – and tells players that it is ‘extremely important’.
The last segment of the video sees Aonuma showing us the way across rooftops in East Clock Town, which as he says, allow for a slim margin of error – opening the 100 rupee chest. He then proceeds to rattle off how important it is to bank your rupees. He sort of apologises for not having enough time to go through all the shops and then stands enticingly before the Clock Town exit as the video finishes.
While the video was clearly aimed at players new to the series and designed to introduce key concepts, locations and characters to first-timers, it’s worth noting the new bottom screen layout and the updated Bomber’s Notebook format as we rapidly approach the drop date on February 13th.
Full footage (In Japanese), is here: