~~HEY HO THIS MAY HAVE SPOILERS IN DUE PART TO SOME QUESTS BEING EXPLAINED OR STORY ELEMENTS BEING TALKED ABOUT SO PLEASE AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU HAPPEN TO SEE THE SQUIGGLES COME ON SCREEN ON ANY PART OF THE REVIEW, THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY~~

The Minish Cap is a game created by Capcom that uses elements of their previous foray from the Oracle games and puts them into great use on the new technology that the GBA is able to provide, bringing a breath of fresh air into the Zelda universe with a unique twist to the gameplay, however despite those efforts the game didn't sell as well as the two prior games on a lesser handheld.

Some are completely mixed on this game while others say it's perhaps one of Zelda's finer adventures. On this review I'll be expressing my opinion on this game, what it did right, and what could of been improved upon the gameplay to make it much more enjoyable. Let's begin, shall we?

Graphics: Personally i'm quite in love with the graphics, based in line with the Four Swords game that originally came packed in with A Link to the Past GBA being another game they worked on and as well infusing that with the style and look of the Windwaker that came out a year before, it gives this game it's own identity. While Link looks pretty similar to how he looked then, he's now surrounded in gorgeous visuals inspired greatly by the Wind Waker's look and even down to some of the NPCs you talk to.

Sound: The sound is pretty fantastic, making use of the sound chip that's in the GBA and bringing it to it's knees. The compositions in this soundtrack all sound excellent, even including some old favorites from Link to the Past into the Sappy Engine with little to no compromises. One of the things about this game is that the characters all have Soundclips that play when you interact with things, including the NPCs. It adds a lot of the charm factor I mentioned in the Graphics section and just oozes it, without a doubt.

Addictive: I think one of the main things that make the Minish Cap it's own is the fact that it uses this feature called Kinstones, this being how a lot of the side quests in the game are done. There are various many ways you can collect them, through grass, rocks, other NPCs, depending on which ones you have you can connect them with others for rewards or to move along a side quest. There is also a lot of other side quests that aren't accessed through the use of Kinstones, though as I'll get into later with this review there is one that completely halts you to a screeching grind as you try to complete it, though like I said it'll be later down the line.

Story: ~~WHOOPS OH HEY STORY TIME YOU KNOW THE DRILL, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED BY SOME MINOR OR POTENTIALLY HUGE STUFF THEN PLEASE DON'T VIEW THIS PART OF THE REVIEW, IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD TO GET THE FULL GRASP OF THE GAME IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED IT YET~~

You're playing once again as the Hero Link, one day waking up and your best friend who's heir to the throne Zelda brings you to a festival of the Minish where once every year people gather and celebrate a sword dawned by the previous hero which was given by the Picori. The Blade is sealed within a chest to lock away the evil spirits until one day, a man known as Vaati who've won the competition to be able to touch the blade approaches and breaks the seal of the sword to only find that the chest that held it doesn't happen to have what he seeks. Vaati then encases Zelda into stone, with Link to now be the one to find the Picori and bring the Blade to it's former glory by collecting the 4 elements that once made it up to create the Four Sword.

Along his travels, he meets a fellow being attacked, with Link scurrying them off and the Hat reveals himself to be Elzo, a great Picori who was cursed into his new form and becomes acquaintances with Link to help him travel through the world and shrink down to the size of a Picori so that he can help those in need at a smaller scale. With the two together, they venture out into the world and bring peace to Hyrule and rid of the evil known as Vaati.

~~OKAY STORY TIME OVER~~

While not really being that grand of a story, I still enjoyed it! It's a lot more enjoyable as you go on though it's a typical Zelda Story, take that as you will.

Depth: In a sense, the Minish Cap isn't super in depth though like i've stated it does have Quests to go around, however there is a bit of a drawback I feel to some of the quests and there being one really good example to why you wouldn't want to go 100% in this game. Kindstone Quests typically hold a lot of the time access to other parts of the map, basically making secrets availible. Is it always worth it? Well... it really depends, you're usally getting rupees or Mysterious Shells from them.

You can also learn techniques through Tiger Scrolls at certain points at the game, usually requiring you to obtain a certain item or be at a certain point of the game, with them being in the range of quality of life stuff to actually really useful. The only hurdle really is that you got to figure out where to find each of the Dojo's of which the masters teach you. While not absolutely required to beat the game, if you can get ahold of them then you should defiently try to, they're very useful

Some sidequests allow you to get upgrades to your items such as one that allows you to upgrade your Boomerang or Your Shield, Even upgrading your invetory space, though those can be few and far between. Just so I don't spoil too much, i'll end that here. Wait... what do you mean I forgot... oh no.

So, you want to know what the Mysterious Shells are used for, huh?

That brings me to the worst side quest in any Zelda game i've had the displeasure of going for. Somewhat a ways in the game you'll have access to a shop where a man named Carlov is located, and he trades you those shells for figurines. Nothing wrong with that so far, not until you figure out that one of your Heart Pieces are locked behind this side quest. Doesn't sound so bad either... until you realize you have to collect over 130 of them. Not convinced of how bad this side quest is? What if I told you you had to collect every single figure, one by one, in a really slow manor... You can't buy multiples of them, you have to buy them one by one. It's one of the most tedious things in the whole game, and while you do get a sound test as well as rupees to go with it, but it's not at all worth that effort.

If you're really the type of completionist who wants to go for *all* of this type of stuff then I'd recommend to set aside a lot of your time because you'll be having to go through the trouble of doing a *lot* of work and sometimes it's not always rewarding.

Difficulty: Honestly i'd have to say that this game is about average, though the final dungeon takes a bit of a steep nosedive because it cause get really hard, especially if you're not fully powered up. Not only that but sometimes the difficulty can spike a bit and you'll probably have to deal with quite a lot of frustrating moments, though overall I would say it's still not too challenging if you know what you're doing

Would I say this game got overshadowed in the Zelda Series? To be honest, this is one of my favorite 2D Zelda games and while i'm somewhat a bit negative towards some of the stuff it did, it's such an overall fantastic game otherwise that I'd have to say that a lot of people generally slept on this title more then any other and that's a massive shame. I understand however that it's a pretty subjective thing and a lot of people would disagree.

This GBA adventure however over the years has not only grown on me but i've come to appreciate the aspects of it more for being a portable game with that intention in mind. Still, even with that, it has a lot of qualities that shine honestly more then some of the 2D Zeldas that i've played through and I can say without andy doubt this has to be one of my favorite playthroughs to look back on. If you can forgive some of the negatives of the game, you're looking at one of Capcom's finest and even one of the best Zelda games in the franchise.