User:Yonydesk/sandbox

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 in Japan) is a game released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. It was the last Zelda title developed by Flagship with supervision by Nintendo. It was rereleased on the Nintendo 3DS in December 16, 2011 as part of the 3DS Ambassador Program. Additionaly, it saw a rerelease on the Wii U's Virtual Console program in 2014.

(btw i'd really appreciate if you didn't edit this very rough draft directly and instead leave your suggestions on Comments. any non-critical edition (i.e. anything that's not staff warnings) will be reverted at discretion, thx)

Plot
According to the official Zelda timeline, the events of the game take place after Skyward Sword and before Four Swords, being the second game in the overall timeline.

After paying a visit to Link, Zelda goes with him to Hyrule for both to enjoy the Picori Festival, where a tournament already took place; the winner of this competition gets rewarded with a sword (who Link will deliver to the king) and a chance to touch the Picori Blade, which is keeping the Bound Chest sealed. When Link and Zelda arrive to the awards ceremony, the winner is revealed to be a mysterious sorcerer named Vaati.

Vaati's intentions were to win the tournament to get a chance to get near the Picori Blade, break it, and open the Bound Chest where he suspected the Light Force was saved at. After doing so, he discovers the chest actually contained monsters of which Hyrule got inmediately flooded with, which got him in track again behind the Light Force, not without turning Zelda into stone before.

Now Link must embark on a quest to restore Princess Zelda to normality by restoring the Picori Blade, with the aid of his new, talking hat-shaped ally Ezlo, who he rescues in Minish Woods.

Why It Rocks



 * 1) The game's titular mechanic, gameplay wise, is shrinking into a microscopic size, a cool and innovative concept for the Zelda franchise (save for occasional sections in Four Swords). By finding a Minish portal and shrinking yourself to the Minish size with the aid of Ezlo, you can access new places in the area you're in that you normally can't access, such as cracks in the ground, riding lilypads, entering tiny villages and houses, or toggling ancient machines, among many intelligent uses of the mechanic to hide away the typical Zelda goodies and solve puzzles. The mechanic in Minish Cap is overall well executed, and the game makes sure it doesn't feel overused.
 * 2) It also introduces Kinstone Fusions, the game world's exclusive reward system created by the Minish, where you collect Kinstone Pieces as objects, then fuse one with an NPC who wants to do a Fusion too and has the corresponding missing half. They reward you with Rupees, Fairy Fountains, Piece of Hearts, or story progression.
 * 3) Despite being fewer than the average typical Zelda game, the dungeons in this game make up for it by being varied and creative, especially Palace of Winds for introducing the Roc's Cape. They faithfully follow up the classical Zelda formula, by requiring the use of items and the new Minish mechanic in enemy encounters and puzzles. Additionally, two dungeons are fully Minish sized, offering a break from the mechanic.
 * 4) New items are introduced, which are fun to use in both puzzles and combat. To name a few new items:
 * 5) * The Guts Jar, which absorbs air to allow you to shoot air projectiles, clean impurities in the ground to potentially reveal Minish Portals or other tiles covered up, and attract far-away objects and enemies to throw them at others.
 * 6) * The Cane of Pacci, to flip objects and some enemies with a beam of energy. Said beam can be stored in a hole to propel out of it to reach new heights. It's also used to reveal Minish Portals.
 * 7) * The Roc's Cape, to make Link jump and glide, clearing huge gaps, avoiding enemies, and flipping fence doors in platforms to reach or get down from them.


 * 1) Boss battles are great and challenging, following a different approach where instead of randomly swinging your sword in front of a boss, you have to open your opportunity in damaging them by using your items to drop their defenses, which doubles them as a puzzle; all of this while dodging their attacks and showing the graphical marvel the GBA can do.
 * 2) * Particularly, three bosses (the two Giant ChuChus and Giant Octorok) have an extremely clever twist, as they are actually common monsters that are fought while Link is Minish-sized so they can't be defeated by just only swinging the sword, turning them from regular, common enemies to menacing monsters that you can't take out in one hit anymore.
 * 3) * The final battle agaisnt Vaati is awesome. The final, timed sequence before the last encounter with him is very thrilling, and the battle itself its split into 3 phases that will test all of your skills with your arsenal, combined with a satisfying defeat.
 * 4) Unique to this game, Link's sword abilities must be learned by finding the dojos of the Blade Brothers and training with them to get their Tiger Scrolls, along some passive upgrades like reducing the sword's charge time. For comedic effect, all of the Blade Brothers introduce themselves as variations of "the finest swordsman of Hyrule". The abilities are:
 * 5) * Spin Attack: Like others iterations of the ability in the franchise, hold the sword button and release it to perform a 360° sword spin that causes more damage. The only mandatory ability, teached by Swiftblade.
 * 6) * TBA: add here sword ability
 * 7) * TBA: add here sword ability
 * 8) * Down Thrust: Learned at Swiftblade's dojo only after having acquired the Roc's Cape. Semi self-explanatory: With the cape, in the air Link can perform a down thrust that additionally damages nearby enemies by the earthquake's effect.
 * 9) * TBA: add here sword ability
 * 10) * Great Spin Attack: Learning the previous 6 abilities and the Rock Breaker (getting the first 7 Tiger Scrolls) will allow Link to learn the broken Great Spin Attack from Swiftblade the First, where he can chain a lot of Spin Attacks together by mashing the sword button and do a lot of damage.
 * 11) * Some passive effects:
 * 12) ** Rock Breaker: Adds the effect of breaking pots and rocks to the sword swing.
 * 13) ** TBA: add passive sword effect
 * 14) ** TBA: add passive sword effect
 * 15) Characteristic, very remarkable and soulful graphics that have aged extremely well for the console it was made on, capturing The Wind Waker's cartoony artstyle into pixelart. Smooth animations for Link and the characters, animated effects like the smoke explosion after defeating an enemy, and colorful and very detailed locations; all give the game a lot of eye candy, all without any lag.
 * 16) Beautiful musical score that compliments the charm of the locations they're played in, such as the mellow Temple of Droplets and the tiny and humble Minish Village. It also includes rearrangements of some classic Zelda themes such as A Link to the Past's Hyrule Castle in Dark Hyrule Castle.
 * 17) Simple yet engaging story and sequences that, amidst other stuff, narrate the origins of Vaati who was once a Minish interested in mankind's evilness, to contextualize his appearance on Four Swords.
 * 18) The chemistry between Ezlo and Link is very admirable and classic duo-like, as while Ezlo starts very reluctant, sarcastical and doubtful of Link, during their adventure together he grows more fond of Link (more noticeable when you press SELECT to talk to him), expressing guilt for having built the hat Vaati used to gain its powers, and they slowly start to get along each other, until they have to part ways.
 * 19) The Ocarina of Wind, unlocked after the third dungeon (Fortress of Winds) allows for fast travel between areas, optimizing the travel yo have to do, like with A Link to the Past.
 * 20) As with other Zelda games, you can go for optional item upgrades, like the Magical Boomerang, Light Arrows, and the new Remote Bombs, the latter of which would return in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
 * 21) It features many nods to previous installments in the series, including some minor returning characters, like Malon, the Gorons and Biggoron, Beedle, Dr. Left, and returning locations like Lake Hylia, and remixed music tracks; references that cement a sense of consistency with the rest of the franchise.
 * 22) * Derivative enemies from the Super Mario Bros. franchise also appear, like Bob-Ombs, Spinies, and Lakitus.

TODO: Next pointers must be expanded later.
 * 1) Game exploration
 * 2) maybe talk about gliding with ezlo being funny but it's too minor to be a minimally strong pointer, idk
 * 3) overall atmosphere
 * 4) more pointers?

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Achieving all 100 Kinstone Fusions to get the Tingle Trophy can be boring, as it takes too long for a single side quest.  Due to the way that they're implemented, some obscure characters (including Scrubs, Minish in varied areas or the Crenel Hermit) will have their Kinstone Fusion prompt unlocked after certain events in the game, implicitly forcing you to scout for them later, which unfortunately means you have to backtrack to areas. It's also posible to miss characters that have multiple Fusion prompts early in the game.
 * 2) Similarly, getting all the figurines can require intense amounts of grinding for Mysterious Shells, because for each new figurine, the chance to get a non-repeated one starts to decrease, unless you spend a ludicrous number of Mysterious Shells to raise the chance to a more plausible one. The quest is mandatory for a Piece of Heart.
 * 3) Wasted opportunity on the Mirror Shield upgrade, as it can only be unlocked after beating the game, where most players will most likely have already completed every other side quest of the game without anything more to do in the save file.
 * 4) more pointers?

Reception
(TBA)

Tips

 * Start doing the Figurine Quest as soon as you can. If you leave it for mid-game or end-game, you'll have to spend time grinding for Mysterious Shells since they cap at 999; instead, if you start it early (after obtaining the White Sword), you'll be able to spend the Mysterious Shells that you mostly find within your adventure, via chests or Kinstone Fusions, eliminating the need for grinding.
 * Similarly, scout for Kinstone Fusions early, as the majority of them are with green Kinstones. These lead to Rupees, Mysterious Shells or red Kinstones, which are more useful during early or mid-game than end-game.
 * Try to not miss the Light Arrows. Do the Kinstone Fusion with the Wind Tribe NPC in Hyrule Town before reaching the Wind Tribe's Tower by normal story progression, and suck Gregal's ghost so he gives you the Light Arrows later in the game.

Trivia

 * It's one of the shortest 2D Zelda games excluding extra content, with 6 dungeons (7 if counting Royal Cript) and 11 mandatory items, including the Sword and Shield.
 * The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap is the last game to be developed by Flagship, who also made the A Link to the Past + Four Swords compilation for the Game Boy Advance, and the Oracle duology for the Game Boy Color.
 * It's the last Zelda game for the Game Boy Advance.
 * As written before, it's possible to miss permanently the Light Arrows upgrade for the Bow after not healing Gregal and reaching the Wind Tribe's Tower.
 * Additionally, in the European release, it's possible to miss the 4th bottle by not doing the Kinstone Fusion with Eenie (one of the two farmer brothers) early in the game, which is actually a bug that got fixed in the NA and Japan releases.
 * Although it's by release date the last game in the Four Swords trilogy, it's canonically the first, taking place before Four Swords, the latter which takes place before Four Swords Adventures.

Comments
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