Zelda fans channel Majora's Mask on the "dawn of the first day" in final countdown to Tears of the Kingdom

With 72 hours remaining until The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches, the internet is relentlessly referencing Majora's Mask's classic "dawn of the first day" opening screen.

For the uninitiated, Majora's Mask is a weird but good Zelda game that takes place in a Groundhog Day-like time loop that resets every three in-game days, with each loop consisting of about 54 real-world minutes. On the first day, you're met with a pretty plain black screen that tells you you're at the "dawn of the first day" and that "72 hours remain." Well, we're now three days from Tears of the Kingdom, and fans all over the internet just can't help their little selves from making all of the references.

Because they deserve it, I'll start with the Zelda fan artist who's been making lovably bad art for 900 days leading up to Tears of the Kingdom. As expected, they absolutely understood the assignment here:

Here's some more:

72 Hours Remain! Let me have all of your wonderful 'Dawn of' posts! from r/tearsofthekingdom

this is going to be the longest 3 days of my life from r/tearsofthekingdom

I made an accurate version ("72 Hours Remain") from r/tearsofthekingdom

Need we go on? Point is, Tears of the Kingdom is three days away, and no matter how much Zelda fans channel Majora's Mask, that still equates to 72 real-world, agonizing hours and not 54 minutes. And remember, if we did somehow fall into a wormhole with Majora's Mask's world timer, we'd only get to play Tears of the Kingdom in the same 54-minute increments, and that doesn't sound like nearly enough time to experience the whole game. Or maybe I just unlocked a new speedrunning challenge.

If you're pressed for time, you should know you don't have to play Breath of the Wild first to enjoy Tears of the Kingdom.