N-Philes

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Posted by Dan Biersdorf.

Wow, after four years of being on the market, the Game Boy Advance finally sees an original Zelda title in the form of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. A Link to the Past was certainly a nice bonus, especially with Four Swords thrown in, but it's been too long since we have fought the evils of Hyrule in the handheld world. Nintendo has answered our pleas with The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, a Zelda title which features not only an environment similar to The Wind Waker, but also its signature cel-shaded style.

Nintendo has once again handed the assignment to develop Link's new adventure over to the big boys at Capcom, and it is again a perfect fit. The development team did wonders on the highly acclaimed Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons back on the Game Boy Color and continued its great success with The Four Swords. The Minish Cap follows in the steps of its handheld predecessors and meets the Zelda excellence we've all come to know and expect. Up until now the worlds of the handheld Zeldas compared to the games on the console scene have been significantly different from one another. On one side of the spectrum, you have a very open ended game that revolves around character interaction (Majora's Mask was all about this). On the other hand, because of the Game Boy's limited specifications, the handheld games were much more focused on dungeon playing and gaining more items to further expand your world access. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap takes both systems and molds them into an almost perfect balance that will leave nearly every Zelda fan pleased.

Our story unfolds with the legend that, during an age on the verge of darkness, a hero prevailed and defeated evil with a mystical sword and sealed away evil forever. The sword was preserved and kept guarded from any chance of spreading the darkness back into the land. Yet, during a yearly festival, the Princess Zelda awakens our hero Link and asks if he will accompany her to it. After seeing what the village has to offer, Link will cross paths with an evil sorcerer named Vaati, not only destroying the legendary sword (thus spreading evil across all of Hyrule), but also turning the Princess into solid stone. As the land's last hope, the King begs that Link seek out the fairy tale creatures named the "Minish," a miniature community living in secrecy amongst humans and also the only people who can reforge the broken legendary sword and help Link on his path of defeating Vaati.

What separates The Minish Cap apart from its forefathers is the premise that Link now has the ability to shrink in size. Early on in your journey you will stumble across an odd talking hat named Ezlo, and with his help Link can attain the power to become miniscule in size, accessing areas no normal human could ever dream of. If you stumble across a special warp, Ezlo will use his powers to make Link small. Although this can be very beneficial, it also brings a lot more hazard to the already dangerous world Link travels. For example, what would appear to a normal human to be a tiny puddle would be considered an endless pit to the eyes of the Minish and attack powers will deteriorate leaving you open to more attacks from foes.

Despite the fact that this is an entirely new concept in the Zelda universe, that doesn't mean everything is completely fresh. Like previous titles, Nintendo has made a point to tie in characters, weapons, enemies and environments from other journeys, whether it be the loveable Lon Lon Ranch or the Ocarina of Time (Ocarina of Wind in this case). Many things make a reappearance, yet use new elements and methods to stay clean. Usually when this is done it can leave newcomers often confused as they don't have any previous experience to connect with (see: Banjo-Tooie). Nintendo has always managed to pull this off to work in both parties; favor, as the Zelda veterans will stumble across a slew of nostalgic past times, however, the new crowd will also discover a new, distinguished personality and traits they will never have to relate to other members of the series to understand.

Along with the reoccurrence of franchise favorites, The Minish Cap adds a lot of new elements as well. Soon after you embark on your journey you'll get the traditional sword and shield combo, but as you progress you'll also pick up a new weapon here and there. These are usually found in a dungeon or by purchasing them straight from a merchant. The often-used Slingshot and Boomerang, while nice, have really worn out their uniqueness. This time around things get started on a different foot as Link picks up one of the more interesting new weapons: the Gust Jar. A prime example of something very fresh to the series, it specializes in absorbing objects on the play field, be it enemies, bushes or even rupees. This can be used in a variety of interesting ways. We also see the return of items like the Cane, although this time it carries a brand new, totally unexpected powerup. These are just a few examples of the way that The Minish Cap takes the Zelda world and really adds to it with creative ideas that would do wonders in future titles, both console and handheld.

At first glance the overworld looks much smaller then your typical Zelda game. Further inspection reveals that you almost have no access to any of these places at first, but as you progress each weapon and upgrade will gain you new passageways across the land of Hyrule. This has been done before, yes, but too many upgrades have been overshadowed by the next big thing after using it once or twice to get to a few new places. Minish Cap utilizes each weapon equally throughout the entire journey and will have you item swapping the entire game.

As mentioned before, the game has a superior balance of character interaction and dungeon hopping. Right from the start you'll get find yourself in Hyrule Market, one of the busiest places in the game, containing plenty of houses and shops to explore and dozens of characters to chat with. Familiar faces will appear all over the place, but with new ways of impacting you in your journey. As you continue to make your way through the game, the townsfolk tend to change as the story changes; rumors spread and people will be gossiping, telling you what they've heard at a given time. The days of talking to a person just to see what they have to say once are over, and now you might find yourself going through each individual over 5 times checking in on new and exciting events or gossip.

The Minish Cap also introduces the new Kinstones sidequest. Considered the new rave of Hyrule, a Kinstone is a small, broken medallion that is found throughout the land and is said to bring happiness to those who collect and use them. By gathering up Kinstones you can talk to fellow addicts in the game and, if you have the corresponding piece, can connect to their half of the Kinstone to trigger a secret. Once you have forged a complete Kinstone, a small cutscene will play showing the location of the event and also marking it on your map, eliminating the need for memorization. The concept behind them, though fairly linear, adds a lot of depth and exploration to the game. This will feel quite rewarding in the end, as the Kinstones can lead to a variety of exciting secrets and upgrades.

Like all great things, though, it does eventually end, and in The Minish Cap that comes all too quickly. I don't have a problem with the amount of dungeons, nor do I have any grudge with the actual exploring aspect. Once you play through the game, though, there isn't a huge reason to come back. The only sidequest the game provides, and it is a hefty one, is collecting wooden figurines. This is a similar task to the one introduced in The Wind Waker. To be perfectly blunt, it really isn't that fun. You collect seashells that lay around all of Hyrule and can bring them back to a craftsman to get him to make a random figurine. With around 130 to collect, it will add hours of gameplay, but it is more of a chore then anything resembling fun and the majority will simply pass it off. All I can ask is, why no Four Swords mode, Nintendo?

Game Boy Advance graphics can tend to get off track, although there are developers who try and make the most visually stunning game out on the market by pushing the unit to its limits, yet ultimately fail at everything else vital to a game. Luckily, we still have a few companies to fall back on, especially Nintendo who has consistantly stuck with supplying gamers with 2D titles that still look amazing. The Minish Cap is certainly one of the most polished, beautiful games you'll find on the GBA, with its well detailed environments and amazing character models. It truly sticks out as one of the best looking games around and doesn't even need 3D models and effects to woo gamers.

You'll be pleased to know that the soundtrack still contains quite a few hit oldies while also managing to throw in some new stuff that works just as well. When characters do make noises (usually just grunts and yells) it's almost identical to what you might hear on the GameCube. The new Nintendo DS surround sound allows for you to jam away, although you can use the headphone jack to avoid bugging anyone else. How you listen is up to you, but either way is a blessing to the ears.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A-.

Even with all the new exciting elements, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap manages to put something new into the series while not straying too far from what we've come to love from the franchise. With a wonderful mix of Four Swords style gameplay and a Wind Waker feel, the game takes a little something from everything and still manages to improve on it. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is one of the finest examples of what an adventure game should be, but will be over before you know it due to its relatively short life span. Even that is a small complaint, though, compared to everything the game does right. The amazing game design allows for an experience like you're playing one of your favorite childhood fairy tales. It is, without question, one of the best for the system. Once again the Zelda series not only meets the bar, but raises it as an example to the industry of how a game is done right.

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