Day 25: Odolwa
Before Majora's Mask, most of the Zelda series' first bosses were...lackluster to say the least. Not bad, but as the series would go on the first bosses would see a lot of improvement. With that said, let's talk about Majora's Mask's first boss, The Masked Jungle Warrior, Odolwa.
Right off the bat, Odolwa proves to much more difficult than the likes of Gohma from Ocarina of Time, the other N64 Zelda game. For one thing, Odolwa is packing a long sword which can hit Link easily if he's not blocking, and a shield that blocks most of his attacks. And don't even think about using bombs, Odolwa will just jump from that shit.
Your best bet is to wait until his guard is down, most likely when you dodge/block one of Odolwa's attacks or when he starts dancing, and then shoot an arrow at him to stun him, giving you free range to hack away at him with your sword.
After taking enough damage, the second phase will begin. In this phase, Odolwa will resort to other means to attack you such as summoning large bugs to fight Link or a swarm of moths to chase after him, trapping Link in a ring of fire, performing a spin attack with his sword that you need to block, and creating rockslides.
During this phase of the fight Odolwa will take a break to chant and this is your chance to attack. After attacking him enough time, Odolwa will have a seizure and fall to the ground defeated.
This is the first boss in this marathon that I'd say is legitimately challenging as the second phase in the fight can really keep you on your toes due to the vast amount of attacks that are thrown at you, and you need to time your attacks just right in order to stun Odolwa to damage him.
The N64 version of this fight is fine enough on its own, but alas, there is another on the system we call the 3DS!
In the 3DS remake of Majora's Mask, this fight is made notably easier than its N64 counterpart, but that doesn't mean it's any less fun.
Majora's Mask 3D felt it necessary to give the bosses weak points that Link needs to attack. In the case of Odolwa, his weak point is on his head. In order to reach it, you must don the Deku Mask, fly towards Odolwa by using one of the Deku Flowers, and drop Deku Nuts on him to stun him. Once Odolwa falls down, turn back into Human Link and wail away at the weak point until he jumps off to another part of the arena. Keep stunning him and wailing away at the weak point until he's finished.
Other than the addition to a weak point, the fight mostly stays the same.
It's hard to say which fight is better. I like the N64 version because of how it challenges the player, but I also want to like the 3DS version for trying something new by giving the boss a concrete way to defeat it, that and it makes good use of the Deku Mask.
I guess it's a matter of preference. If you love a hint of challenge to your bosses, pick the N64 version. If you love your bosses simple and quick, pick the 3DS version...
(And maybe since Majora's Mask is always on a time limit maybe you do want the quick and easy option)
...But no matter what your taste in boss battles are, there's no denying that Odolwa made one hell of a great first impression on the majesty that is Majora's Mask.