The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is the fourth handheld Zelda game and the only one set in Hyrule. Like the twin Game Boy Color games, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, Nintendo outsourced this game's design to Capcom. As with those Oracle games, Capcom nailed it.
The central gimmick of Minish Cap is that a magical hat can temporarily shrink Link to a miniscule size. Dotted throughout Hyrule are strange portals at which Link can change size by pressing R. While tiny, Link converses with little people called Minish or Picori, whom only children can see. He can't cross any kind of obstacle, such as roads, raised floors, grass, or shallow water. As a result, shrinking is always limited to a small area; once Link has accomplished whatever he needed to do, he must enlarge himself. Little doors and passages enable puzzles, such as going through a little door to bypass a shut, full-size door, then pressing a button to unlock that door.
The Minish Cap is heavy on puzzles (similar to Oracle of Ages), and they come in a wide variety. Many of them forced me to think. Sometimes I was tempted to look up a solution, but I resisted and kept trying different things until I got it! That process of trial and error is one of the best parts of playing a Zelda game. The only really frustrating "puzzle" I encountered was the final boss: it took me too long to figure out how to defeat both his first and second forms! In contrast, I found Minish Cap's combat very easy. The only time I died was during the final form of the final boss, and that was only because I spent so long figuring out how to hurt him that I had run out of potions and faeries.
Minish Cap has another gimmick: the Four Sword. When standing on glowing squares, Link can charge his sword (hold B or A–you can assign an item to each) to create fleeting copies of himself. These clones move and swing their swords in unison with Link. At first he makes just one, then two, and in the end three. Dungeons use these shadows for puzzles, like activating multiple buttons or switches simultaneously or pushing large, heavy blocks. The Four Sword is a tie-in to the previous Zelda game: Four Swords Adventures, which was itself based on the multiplayer game Four Swords that was included as part of the GBA port of A Link to the Past. Those games, however, were multiplayer: each color of Link was controlled by a different player. Eventually, I came to enjoy this aspect of Minish Cap, though at first I was put off by how shoehorned into the game it felt. (The story doesn't even attempt to explain it.)
As for the story, the Minish Cap is actually a Picori wizard named Ezlo. He made a magical hat that can grant wishes. He was to give it to the Hylians, but his apprentice, Vaati, stole it and used it to turn Ezlo into a hat and give himself great power. Now he seeks further power from the Light Force (a stand-in for the Triforce). To defeat Vaati, Link must power up the white sword (reforged by a smith called Melari) with the power of the Four Sword. As in other Zelda games, this requires completing four element-themed dungeons. Each time Link completes a dungeon, he must visit Hyrule Castle, where a secret room, which opens just once a century, holds a pedastal. When inserted into the pedastal, the sword gains power from the just-acquired element. Don't let "elements" fool you; no actual elemental power (e.g., fire, water) is bestowed. Rather, the number of duplicates Link can make increases by one. Honestly, it doesn't make sense. While the plot doesn't impress, at least it's different from Ganon capturing Zelda. This is in the tradition of the earlier handheld games, none of which featured Ganon (or even Hyrule).
As if the dual gimmicks of shrinking Link and making duplicates of Link weren't enough, Capcom threw in a third one: fusing kinstones. Kinstones are broken halves of a circular token, which need to be united with their matching shape. They come in four colors, each of which has several shapes. Throughout the game, as various plot points occur, different people show thought bubbles (only visible when you press against them) indicating they have a kinstone. If you press L, you can check to see if you have the matching kinstone. If you do, something will happen in the game: usually something appears, such as a staircase, treasure chest, gold enemy, or joy butterfly. The gold enemies move rapidly, have a lot of health, and drop hundreds of rupees upon being defeated. Joy butterflies increase Link's speed for shooting arrows, digging, or swimming. Alternately, fusing a kinstone may unlock a door, cause a character to move or do something (such as Gorons smashing a wall), or advance the plot (though the vast majority are optional). Sometimes a kinstone fusion rewards you with ... another kinstone! That always infuriated me. Enemies drop kinstones, and you can buy them later in the game. I found the whole system tedious. I think Capcom was trying to stuff as many ideas into the game as they could think of.
On that point, there is an absurd collection system where you trade seashells for "figurines." There are over 100 of these, each with a description of that person, place, or monster. The more shells you put into the machine, the less likely it is that the machine dispenses a duplicate. It's boring, one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in any Zelda game. I just ignored the shells. Unfortunately, a good number of kinstone fusions reward you with shells....
The best part of the game is the quality of the puzzles. None of the gimmicks particulary impressed me (and the kinstones were a negative), but the overall Zelda formula holds up. It's fun to collect items, gain hearts, explore dungeons, solve puzzles, fight enemies, and defeat bosses. It all works the way it should and harmoniously. I got hooked quickly. I sometimes got frustrated, but that's part of the experience. Any non-trivial puzzle or game must involve frustration, otherwise you couldn't experience the thrill of solving!
Ultimately, I don't think this game is quite as good as the Zelda games before it, but it's still excellent and worthy of the Zelda name. I expect people who grew up with it as their handheld Zelda (for me that was Link's Awakening) have a lot of nostalgia for it. Since I'd never played it, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was not disappointed.
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| Grade: A- |
"Featuring exceptional gameplay concepts, great visuals and a top-notch soundtrack, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap remains a solid entry in the series."
– Martin Watts, Nintendo Life, 9/10
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