PixlBit

Number 17

*Disclaimer: Thoughts on this game will be taken from the 3DS version of said game, not it's original version. Please Understand. With that out of the way, continue with the post. Also, today's blog was a bit late since it took me a while to finish the art for this. So without further ado, please continue reading. Thanks*

I like Zelda games. Who doesn’t? I remember the first Zelda games I ever played. You see back then, the only games I played from Nintendo were Mario for my platforming fix and Pokemon for my rpg fix. It wasn’t till Smash Bros that it introduced me to Nintendo’s other franchises. It wasn’t till the Gamecube that I got my first taste of Zelda games. I was blown away that such games existed.

From then on I tried every Zelda game I could. I learned that there were also games on Nintendo’s portable systems. I tried as many as I could, but there was one portable game from the franchise I could never get. It wasn’t till I got my 3DS that I got my chance to try it thanks to Nintendo’s 3DS Ambassador program.  

Minish Cap was a game I always wanted to get, but couldn’t do to unforeseen circumstances. I had a Nintendo Power Magazine that detailed were all the Pieces of a Heart were located and I read that to death, so I would know when most of them were when I would get the chance to play it one day.
It wasn’t till Nintendo rereleased it exclusively that I finally got to try it. I was really amazed at the game itself. It was unlike any of the portable Zelda games I ever played.

Minish Cap was the first game in the series “timeline” till Nintendo sort of retconned it with Skyward Sword. The game is basically like an origin story of Vaati from Four Swords and it also tells the origin of the Four Sword. One of the things I loved about the story, is that how it tells you how Vaati became to be. In Four Swords, he was just a bad guy that was released because the Four Sword seal was broken. Right here they expand that by telling you more about him and why he became evil, kinda like an origin story to him and tells you about his motivations. I also like how the Four Sword was given an origin story too and how it was forged.

Another thing I liked about it was the dungeons and the weapons. The dungeons are short, but they are pretty good, probably some of the best from the portable entries in the series. But what I really loved about them was the items. In Zelda games, you usually end up with a very neat item but it only has one use in the dungeon you acquired it in. Worst offender in this is the Spinner. Not in Minish Cap though. You have your traditional items like bombs and stuff, but new items also have their use. The best one is the Gust Jar which is one of the first dungeon items you find.

This thing amazed me. You would think that the Gust Jar would outlive its usefulness once you completed the dungeon you found it in, but no. Remember when I said that the dungeons were pretty good? Well it’s all thanks to the Gust Jar. You might be stumped in a puzzle in a room, you try all the items you have, only to try the Gust Jar and you suddenly see new use in it. It uses the Gust Jar in neat and clever ways, it’s like they designed the dungeons in the game around it. Not only that, but all the items have their own use and really make way for clever puzzles.

This game also brings in a new mechanic to play. It allows you to shrink to size thanks to Link’s new companion Ezlo. In this game, Link has a new companion named Ezlo and he’s a talking hat, but I can’t say why he’s a hat or I’ll give away plot points and spoilers of the story. But think of him like Link's version of Kazooie. He gives you hints and advice, as well as allowing you to shrink to size. A new mechanic in the game is allowing you to shrink size and access new areas while being really small. It works like the Alternate/Dark World of any Zelda game. It offers a new and fresh perspective on the series, and it’s the only way to see Hyrule’s hidden race known as the Picori or Minish and their towns hidden across Hyrule. The Picori/Minish are a race of small beings and legend claims that they can only be seen by children. I guess this is true since Link is a kid and he can see them because of his diminutive size.

                                    
Link also packs new moves this time around too. Link can learn new sword attacks and skills courtesy of scrolls in this game like he would learn them from the Golden Wolf in Twilight Princess. It’s not easy to find them, but they are just part of the optional sidequests in the game but I'm not sure if there are some that are needed since it's been a while. Be sure to correct me if I'm wrong on that though. And if you’re into sidequests, then you’re in luck. This game has items called kinstones, they are like a half of a medal, and you need to find an npc who has the other half. It is indicated which npcs have them by a thought bubble in their head with an image of a kinstone. If they do, you check to see if you have the corresponding kinstone to perform a fusion, which unlocks treasure chests or new areas in the overworld. There’s a lot of these so it will keep you busy for a while.

As for the story, I can’t give too much away without spoiling it.  I can talk a bit about it. Like I said, it explains the origin of Vaati, the Four Sword, and was the first game in the timeline, and it was also the origin of Link’s hat. Like I said previously, I like how Vaati and the Four Sword are explained here, so I give it props for that. The game still uses the Wind Waker style for character sprites, which I think it was a good choice for the game, and probably any Zelda game that depicts Link as a kid.

               
As for final thoughts, it’s a very great game. It packs a lot of content and the story is pretty good too. The dungeons are short, but it all makes up for all the neat and clever uses of the Gust Jar. The shrinking mechanic offers a new perspective to the series which is a nice fresh of breath. Sadly, there is now way you can try it now, unless you find a used copy at a price you’re willing to pay, or if you have an Ambassador 3DS. I don’t normally say this, but I would try to emulate it I guess. Unless Nintendo rerereleases (get it, because it's was rereleased on the 3DS?) it on the Wii U eShop.

I would of loved to try this game around the time it released. I couldn’t because of unforeseen circumstances. You see, we used to live in a crap apartment. In our apartment, the floorboards of were lifting or bulging up, so it made the floor uneven. It also smelled pretty weird too. The apartment was a 4 apartment complex, 2 in the top, and 2 in the bottom. We lived in one of the bottom ones, and the other people who lived in the other bottom people were pretty bad neighbors. They were actually behind in their rent payments, so the landlord evicted them. However, those people actually were coating the bottom of the apartment so they could burn it down, or the whole complex. It might have been that weird smell I talked about. I guess it might have been a part of a revenge or something. But when the landlord evicted them, he brought some cops with him and they were arrested. Weird thing is that they were actually relatives of the landlord.

A few weeks later, the landlord was remodeling the apartment that he evicted the people were from. My mom and dad complained to the landlord about fixing the floor on ours, so the landlord suggested that we move to the one they were fixing since it would require to remodel the whole floor. My folks said yes but the landlord wanted a deposit now since it meant that we were moving to an apartment. My folks were around 30 bucks short, and I had 30 bucks which I was going to use to buy Minish Cap on the GBA. I gave up Minish Cap in order to live in a better place. Well a somewhat better place.  It took me almost a decade, but I got to try it.

                    
But that’s the story on Minish Cap. Why I never got to try it, but glad I did years later. Over the years, I always shuffled which portable entry is my favorite. Sometimes I say Oracle of Seasons because that's the first portable entry I tried, sometimes I think the GBA port of ALttP might be it since it's A Link to the Past and was my first time with it, or Spirit Tracks. But I think Minish Cap might be my favorite portable entry. Maybe next to A Link Between Worlds, but I tip my hat to Minish Cap for trying something other than a Dark World and because of the story, new mechanices, Gust Jar's clever puzzles and more.

So, did you ever try Minish Cap? Thanks for reading and later.