The game starts with Stalkid (possibly Skull Kid in the US version) taking not only Epona, but the Ocarina of Time as well. To make things worse, he turns you into a Deku Nut scrub. While following him, you cross paths with the Happy Mask Shop Owner. He asks you to find Stalkid and retrieve a special mask that he stole from him. It takes a little while, but eventually you catch up with Stalkid.
However, you only retrieve the Ocarina of Time, not the mask. Recovering the Ocarina of Time does two things. First, you can play the Song of Time to go back to 6 am on the first day. There you meet the mask shop owner again and he turns you back into your regular self and gives you the Deku mask. The only way to save in the game is to play the Song of Time and go back to the beginning of the first day. Naturally, since you're going back in time, some things will go back to the way they started as.
You can take the following things with you through time: masks; instruments; special items like the hookshot, etc.; items on your collect screen such as songs you've learned; entries into your scheduler; maps; dungeon maps; compasses and money you've stored in the bank. Things that you can't take back with you are: the clearing of dungeon traps or sub-events; the conversations you've had with people; consumable items such as bombs, deku nuts, etc.; small keys; boss keys; fairies and any rupees that you're holding. With this being the case, you'll find yourself going back to the start many, many times.
There are so many things to do in this game, you can't possibly do them all in the three days of game time. Or you may spend way too much time searching for someone or an item and end up running out of time. A day is roughly 12 minutes in real time. The key is to complete major tasks and then save. There are only four dungeons (any more would've taken too long in development time), so it's probably best to finish the dungeons in order to get the special item/mask or whatever and then save. The dungeon would reset, but since you've already gotten the item from it, you wouldn't need to go through it again. The only true Game Over occurs when the third day ends and the moon crashes into the earth. If you happen to run out of hearts, you simply reenter the area from the entrance you came and your health is back to three hearts.
This new save system is interesting. You can't just play for a few minutes and then turn the game off. I'd say it takes 20-30 minutes before you catch up with Stalkid and get the Ocarina of Time back. Of course, once you have the Ocarina of Time, you can save at anytime, but if you haven't done anything major, then nothing's really going to be saved. The fact that running out of hearts doesn't result in game over eases the pressure a bit, but you do notice yourself being a bit frantic when running around trying to meet a deadline. Overall, this is a nice new feature that helps distinguish it from Ocarina of Time. However, don't be fooled by 12 minute long days and 4 dungeons, this game will take some serious time to complete. There is so much more to do than dungeons that you'll find the days fly by. As addicting as the game is, the days are going to start flying by in real life too.-IGN 64
