I’m continuing my study on why The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (and its new 3D incarnation) is really cool. Today’s Let’s Listen doesn’t have an official name as far as I know, but it’s the music that plays during the last quarter of the third day, so I guess “Moonfall” covers it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cml57TSaisw

I’ve already gone over how well Majora’s Mask offers up its intense atmosphere, and here’s a prime example of that expert delivery. This number gathers up every exhausted emotion from every one of Termina’s doomed residents and funnels it into your ears.

Moonfall is a song that conveys wild, stupid hope alongside quiet resignation, especially as you gradually learn how Termina’s residents are spending their last seconds on Earth. Anju believes her missing fiancée has run off with her best friend, for instance. Ha ha. Ouch.

You’ve probably noticed the enclosed video is actual game footage instead of a straight-up music track. The isolated track doesn’t contain the clocktower bells or the flaccid piff-piff of the fireworks show nobody is watching (except maybe the angry foreman who set them up even as his apprentices took off), and I believe those elements really give the piece a sense of isolation that’s nearly incalculable.

Long story short (which describes the history of Termina in a deku nutshell), this particular piece of music is like absolutely nothing else in the Legend of Zelda series.