The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Also known as: Zelda no Densetsu: Fushigi no Boushi (JP) Developer: Capcom Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: November 4, 2004 Released in US: January 10, 2005 Released in EU: November 12, 2004 Released in AU: April 7, 2005 This game has unused areas. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences.

To do: Document the kiosk demo of the game. Source Unused Zelda follower (NPC 5).

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is the Game Boy Advance entry in the Zelda series, featuring a talking hat who has got to be related to a particular fairy from a previous Zelda game.

Sub-Pages

Unused Rooms There are many of them.

System Text System text found within the game.

Regional Differences There's a whole lot to cover.

English Translation Differences The US and European translators can't seem to agree with each other.

Debugging Features

Debug Text

This little green screen contains all the texts of the game, used and unused. To scroll through the texts, just hit Left and Right after you press the L button.

Code
73000FF0 0200 33001002 0005 73000FF0 0200 33001003 0000

Unused Graphics

Unused Language Options

In addition to the five present in the game, there exist two language options for American English and Japanese for the European version's language menu for some reason.

(Source: Leonarth)

Unused Mailbox Animation

An unused animation of the decorative mailbox above the post office in Hyrule Castle Town. The level of animation suggests that there were going to be fully functional mailboxes in the game, much like with The Wind Waker.

The wiggle animation is actually used in the online Flash demo of the game (archived here).

NPC Test

This strange half-naked figure was probably used to test the characters of the game. He has some very strange movements.

Use these codes on the screen "File Selection" to change Link.

Sprites	Animations
330021EA 0047 330021EB 0001	330021E1 00XX 00, 06 and 48

Unused Stained Glass in Hyrule Castle

These three pieces of stained glass are among the decorations of Hyrule Castle and are visible halfway into the "Hyrule Castle Map Test" at the place of the throne room. They show three of The Wind Waker's major characters: the Deku Tree, Valoo, and Jabun.

(Source: Dark Linkaël)

Unused Goddess Pearls

The three Goddess Pearls from The Wind Waker also make an appearance, but ended up unused.

(Source: KlydeStorm)

Unused Vaati Sprites

Vaati looking to the side. Goes unused due to no situation ever requiring it's use.

Vaati walking to the south. The only time in the game where Vaati walks is during his introduction, afterwards he only ever teleports out. It should be noted that there is no east/west walking animation.

Early sprites for Vaati preparing to cast magic. The final game uses a much smoother-looking animation with 6 frames. There also exist sprites of Vaati's animation for firing off magic, however aside from using less sprites than the final they are identical.

(Source: MisterMike, The Spriters Resource)

To do: All of the other unused art in the game (there is a lot).

Four Swords Leftovers

Since the Minish Cap uses a lot of assets from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords, there are obviously leftovers from the game

File Selection

To do: Get the tiles in the proper colour.

Found in the graphics for the file select screen are graphics for the hearts from A Link to the Past.

The graphic for a sword beam in Four Swords and A Link to the Past. Possibly was going to be used when learning the sword technique.

Unused Music

Dark Hyrule Castle Intro

An introduction to the final dungeon that sounds far more dark and foreboding than what the game actually uses. While not used in the game proper, it can be heard as track 2 of the hidden sound test.

Vaati Intro

Another unused introduction, most likely used for appearances by Vaati.

A Link to the Past Title

A rendition of the title theme from A Link to the Past. It can be heard as track 6 of the hidden sound test, and is used in the Flash demo.

Get Small Item

An unused fanfare, from Ocarina of Time. It's the fanfare for getting a Piece of Heart or a Gold Skulltula Token.

Lost Woods

The Lost Woods part of the Credits BGM from Ocarina of Time is also present in the game.

Unused Items

To see any of these items in the game, set the memory address $2002AF4 (A button) or $2002AF5 (B button) to the corresponding value.

Unused Sword

Value: 05

There is one unused sword in the game. Internally within the game, all swords are organized in the order you receive them. For example, Smith's Sword is hex value 01, the White Sword with no infused elements is 02 etc. This sword is listed at hex value 05, which is in between the hex values for the White Sword with three elements and the Four Sword. This indicates that, at one time, there might have been one more sword upgrade before getting to the Four Sword. As it is now, the sword's button graphics use the lantern. In the picture above, it is assigned to button A.

Fire Rod

Value: 16

A Fire Rod with a graphic similar to the one used in Four Swords Adventures. While the game does not normally feature the Fire Rod, the description of figurine #108 in the European version of the game says Ice Wizzrobes are vulnerable to it (the North American version instead says that they're weak against fire), so it was clearly intended to be included at some point in development.

Pickup text for the Fire Rod can still be found in the ROM, at 0x9B6CA3:

You got the Fire Rod! This mystical rod shoots forth mighty flames.

Apparently, it would have (also?) been sold in a shop, according to text at 0x9E0023:

Fire Rod 350 Rupees

The item's behavior is internally identical to that of the (DEBUG) Cell Overwrite Set item, documented below.

Butter

Value: 21

It's... butter. In a bottle. Unfortunately, either its functionality was removed, or it was tied to a character or event that no longer exists.

Debugging Items

Three debugging-related items exist in the final game: (DEBUG) Mega Crush, (DEBUG) Enemy Set, and (DEBUG) Cell Overwrite Set. None of them have a proper icon, and the only one that seems to function is Cell Overwrite, which allows you to modify ground tiles in a variety of ways.

In the multi-language European version, only the English and French scripts have actual names for these items, and the French script uses romanized versions of the Japanese names ((Debug) megacrash, (Debug) teki set, and (Debug) cell kakikae set). All other scripts have single null values (00) where the names should be.

Controls for (DEBUG) Cell Overwrite Set, when set to button A, are as follows:

• Pressing A multiple times will change the tile in front of Link.
• Pressing and holding R, then also holding A will copy the tile in front of Link, who will start to glow. If you keep holding R+A, then go somewhere else and release A, the copied tile will get pasted in front of Link.
• Pressing and holding A, then also holding B will modify all of the four tiles surrounding him. Hold R then hold A to copy, and while holding them, press B to paste.

• 

  (DEBUG) Mega Crush (Value: 18)

• 

  (DEBUG) Enemy Set (Value: 19)

• 

  (DEBUG) Cell Overwrite Set (Value: 1A)

Unused Enemies

The Minish Cap has six unused enemies, four of which are leftovers from Four Swords. They can be spawned with this GameShark code:

Code
33001850 0003 33001851 00XX 33001852 00YY

Replace XX with the enemy ID and YY with the parameter ID.

Golden & Purple Darknut

Value: 05:04 for the golden Darknut, 05:05 for the purple Darknut.

Golden and purple Darknuts exist within the game's code, but their behavior is very glitchy. Their moveset is the same as the black Darknut's.

Unused Text

"Mole" in Castor Wilds

In a digging cave in Castor Wilds, there is a hidden word in Japanese on the map: "もぐら", which means "Mole".

Biggoron's Dungeon

With a hex editor, it's possible to find a list of the places and dungeons in the game. At the bottom of this list is "Biggoron's Dungeon". This is probably used as the game's internal name for the Gorons' cave. Indeed, finishing the "quest" of this cave is the only way to see Biggoron.