The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
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| The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap | |
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| Developer(s) | Flagship |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) |  November 4, 2004 November 12, 2004 January 10, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Action Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+ CERO: A (All Ages) OFLC: G8+ |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Media | 64-megabit cartridge |
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (ゼルダの伝説 ふしぎのぼうし Zeruda no Densetsu Fushigi no Bōshi?, lit. "The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Hat") is a The Legend of Zelda series game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance released in 2004 in Japan and Europe, and 2005 in North America. It was not developed by Nintendo, but instead by Flagship, with Nintendo overseeing the development process. The Minish Cap is the first original single-player Zelda adventure to be released for a handheld platform since The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons in 2001 (though the original multiplayer game Four Swords was included with the 2002 Game Boy Advance release of A Link to the Past).
Minish Cap is the third Zelda game to be released that concerns the legend of the Four Sword, the other games being The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. The game is based around the idea of a magical 'cap' called Ezlo that Link can use to shrink to the size of the Picori (who call themselves the Minish), a race of thumb size people that live in Hyrule.
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[edit] Plot
[edit] Story
The Minish Cap game reveals some background information about the story in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures.
Long ago when Hyrule was about to be defeated, the Picori, who call themselves the Minish, came with a sword and a light force to save Hyrule. Every 100 years the Picori return to Hyrule, to provide humans with magical gifts.
The coming of the Picori is celebrated in Hyrule with a large fair and a sword fighting tournament called the Picori Festival. On one such day, Princess Zelda and her childhood friend Link, grandson of Smith the royal blacksmith, decide to visit Hyrule town to join the festivities. These are short-lived however, as the winner of the tournament, the unknown stranger Vaati, is in fact a powerful sorcerer who breaks the Picori Blade and turns Zelda to stone.
In Hyrule Castle the king of Hyrule and his counselor Potho are desperate to bring Zelda back home. They place all their hopes in the tiny Picori who had been invaluable allies, and send Link to seek the legendary beings' help. It is an old belief in Hyrule that the Picori show themselves only to children.
On his way to Minish Woods, home of the Minish, Link rescues Ezlo, a strange being resembling a green cap with a bird head, who joins him in his quest and can make Link shrink to the size of the Minish themselves through a ritual he can perform on Minish altars. Link then meets the Forest Minish elder Gentari, who tells him that to restore power in the magic sword broken by Vaati, he must find four elemental artifacts and imbue the blade with their essence. He directs Link and Ezlo to Melari on Mt. Crenel, as Melari is the only one who can fix the broken sword. When Link meets Melari he gives the sword to him and goes on to a human mine for the second element. When he comes back Melari tells him about the elemental sanctuary found in Hyrule Castle. Only after he fuses the four elements can he face Vaati and defeat him.
It is later revealed that both Ezlo and Vaati were once Minish, Ezlo being a renowned sage and craftsman and Vaati his apprentice. Vaati eventually became corrupted by the madness and egotism of men and took a magic hat Ezlo had made for the humans in Hyrule. The hat granted the bearer any wishes, and Vaati chose to become a powerful sorcerer. He then turned his old master, who had tried to stop him, into a hat. Devoured by his desire for power, Vaati took a twisted, vile appearance and set out to search for the mystic Light Force of Hyrule, which would make him even stronger.
When Link completes the Picori blade (also known as the Four Sword), Vaati turns Hyrule Castle into Dark Hyrule Castle - the final dungeon in the game. Link gets to Vaati just before he drains Zelda of all the Light Force (this would kill her), but the Wind Sorcerer states that he already has enough power to defeat Link. Link then fights Vaati in two different forms, the first being a larger form of himself and the second being a large sphere with an eye, and prevails. He frees Zelda from her curse as the castle is collapsing, and then he and the Princess go to the elemental shrine to avoid being crushed. Vaati was waiting there for Link, and faces him one more time. His final form is like his previous form but with arms, and seeming to be indestructible at first. Link managed to defeat the evil Minish again. Vaati disappears, after saying that he is confused as to how Link beat him, claiming he has the power of a god. Ezlo floats off of Link's head and is returned to his original form. He finds the cap of wishes he created and gives it to Zelda, since she has a pure heart, saying "Let your wishes come true!" The cursed people are cured and the castle is turned back to normal. The doorway to the Minish world is closing and Ezlo states he must go. He says he enjoyed his time with Link, and in return provides him with a cap, saying, "I have never seen you with a cap until now, it fits you, little hero." He shrinks down and goes through the doorway, just as it vanishes.
[edit] Characters
- Link is the protagonist of the Zelda series. In this game he is the grandson of the Royal Blacksmith.
- Princess Zelda is frequently a damsel in distress (though sometimes a heroine) of the Zelda games. In Minish Cap, she and Link are childhood friends. She is petrified by Vaati.
- Ezlo is a talking green hat that resembles a bird. He was once a Minish sorcerer that was changed into this form by Vaati.
- Vaati is the main villain of the Zelda games involving the Four Sword. He is a Minish sorcerer who seeks a "light force" to conquer Hyrule.
- The Minish are a tiny, gnome-like race of people who traveled from their land to Hyrule. The relative size of a Minish is about that of a human's thumb. Despite this, they possess magical abilities to forge and make magical items, and they purposely tend to leave them where humans can find them. It is said that the Minish will only show themselves to children. Various types of Minish live throughout Hyrule.
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- The Forest Minish live in the fields and forests. They like to leave Rupees and other various items hidden in the grass for adventurers to find. Minish Village is the highest concentration of Minish in the entire land of Hyrule and is solely populated by Forest Minish. They don't hate humans, but instead like to keep their distance away from them and help them from afar. They tend to wear red caps.
- The Town Minish love humans so much that they live near or in the cities of Hyrule. Town Minish do various things for the humans, including making shoes for Rem, baking goods for Wheaton and Pita, cleaning, sorting books in the Hyrule Library, etc. They have a good relationship with the Forest Minish and are visited often by them. Their clothing is different from Forest Minish, and they mainly have blue caps instead of red.
- The Mountain Minish are a special type of Minish that live solely in the mountains. Their primary jobs are mining and smithing items. Mountain Minish tend to sing a special song, called the Ting Tong Song, while working, but this is a privilege given to Minish who are accepted as full-fledged Mountain Minish. Their caps tend to be orange colored.
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[edit] Gameplay
The Minish Cap features a number of enhancements that benefit from the more powerful Game Boy Advance platform and draws heavily on the gameplay of previous Zelda titles. The game's camera angle is much closer to the ground, allowing more detail. In the overworld and in dungeons, the game replaces the traditional item interface with pictures associating items or actions with buttons on the Game Boy handheld, similarly to the item interface in 3D titles like Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. Enemies include familiar creatures from the Zelda universe, such as the Keatons. Link can also perform special actions, triggered by the L and R buttons. With the R button, Link can, for example, roll while running; a move also inspired by 3D Zelda games.
[edit] Kinstones
Kinstones are special artifacts which Link can find throughout his quest. Kinstone pieces are fragments of a complete medallion. In order to successfully form a complete Kinstone, two pieces of the same color and with complementary notches must be used.
After completing the first dungeon, Link receives a Kinstone Bag. This allows him to collect and store the pieces he finds or receives. The most common variety of Kinstone piece is green, with blue being slightly rarer and red considerably rare. There are also special gold pieces that are used to make fusions that advance the story. These gold fusions are the only required fusions; the others are completely optional and are not needed to finish the game.
Throughout the game world there are characters holding Kinstone pieces waiting for a matching piece to fuse with. They are identified by thought bubbles appearing above their heads when Link approaches; the symbol in the thought bubble gives an indication of what sort of special event the fusion will result in.
For example, fusing Kinstones can reveal a secret passageway in a different area, or make a treasure chest appear. Green Kinstones are, with few exceptions, minor things such as golden enemies and treasure chests due to this color's abundance, while the rarer red and blue Kinstones often produce unique results, such as beanstalks and Pieces of Heart, inspiring characters to perform a certain task or sell a certain item, and so forth.
[edit] Figurines
The Minish Cap also features a figurine-based sidequest, similar to that in The Wind Waker. The player can collect Mysterious Shells, which sometimes appear when defeating enemies and can also be found or bought in different locations throughout the world. These can then be used in a gashapon-like machine in Hyrule Town to obtain figurines of characters, enemies or locations that Link has encountered in the course of the main quest. New figurines only become available once Link has met or killed the subject of that figurine. Each figurine has a short description revealing information about the game, that particular enemy's weaknesses, or the series in general. The probability to win a previously uncollected figurine from the machine can be increased by spending more shells at once, with an increase of 1% per shell. There are a total of 136 unique figurines for Link to collect.
[edit] Development
The Minish Cap is artistically very reminiscent of its predecessors The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker as it features the same cartoon-inspired visuals. Link, as well as several other characters in the game, strongly resemble characters in The Wind Waker, although some characters' visuals take their cue from the Nintendo 64 titles The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
[edit] Reception
- 2005 GameSpot Best of 2005 - GBA Game of the Year
- 2005 GameSpy Editor's Choice
- 2005 Gamespy GBA Game of the Year
- 2005 Gamespy GBA Adventure of the Year
- Included on Game Informer's "Top 50 Games of 2005" list
- 2005 Nintendo Power GBA Game of the Year (readers and writers)
- 2005 Nintendo Power Best Adventure Game (readers)
- 5 Out of 5 [X-Play, G4]
- Named 24th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console by Nintendo Power.
- Also named 2nd best GBA game ever by Nintendo Power (behind only Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow).
- Ezlo was placed #5 on the "Top 10 Heroes of 2005" list
- Ezlo won best New Character in Nintendo Power's 2005 awards (readers).
- Ezlo was named one of the top five sidekicks in The Legend of Zelda series by Nintendo Power.
- 89% Game Ratio
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap official website
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap at Nintendo.com
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap at GameFAQs
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap at MobyGames
- Reviews at Game Rankings
- Speed Demos Archive - Speedrun
