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Moments: Majora's Mask Moon Crashing Into Termina
Few, if any Zelda games, can match the darkness and maturity of Majora's Mask. This specific moment takes the cake as the title's most depressing.
If you haven't played Majora's Mask (shame on you!), you should know that the premise of the game is that Link somehow finds an alternate dimension by the name of Termina. This cool new dimension, unfortunately, is due for a moon-induced apocalypse in a mere three days in-game time.
To complete the game, you must repeatedly turn back time in order to complete different tasks and save the world before an angry moon falls on Termina. What you find out, however, either after forgetting to reset the clock or by masochistically accepting your fate, is that Majora's Mask doesn't fool around. When it says the moon will crash into the world and destroy everything if you don't save it, it means it.
This video is what players are forced to watch if they let time run out. As you can see, the moon falls and begins to crush the entire world--starting with the game's central hub, Clock Town. Then, as if that weren't enough nightmare fuel, players have to watch poor little Link get swallowed by an apocalyptic firestorm, and the creepy, omnipotent Happy Mask Salesman ask, "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
To Zelda fans, being able to see the consequences of their inaction--consequences that literally destroy an entire world and the people in it before their eyes--was something new, powerful, and very terrifying.
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