The Minish Cap Referencing Previous Zelda Games

Recently, I saw someone make the claim that Twilight Princess is the "quintessential Zelda game",  because – on top of using the foundations laid out by A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time – it's "full with cameos and references to past games". I can't say that I agree with any of that, because it became too linear to truly respect those foundations. And while it certainly has some references to past games, it's mainly A Link to the Past and the other 3D Zelda games. As for cameos, I can really only think of the Skull Kid and the Postman...

However, there is one game from that era that truly was filled with references and cameos to ALL past Zelda games and that's The Minish Cap, where I was reminded of that while replaying the game once more on the Nintendo Switch. So, I thought that I should make a list of how every Zelda game before The Minish Cap gets represented. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, only to give examples to proof this point. But if you can think of anything important that I should have mentioned, feel free to leave a comment.

The Legend of Zelda

Royal Crypt. Period. This mini-dungeon is a callback to the labyrinths of the NES classic. You can hear a rendition of the music, and you can hear the secret item melody when you make keys appear, which are also just put on the ground, instead of inside a treasure chest. Gibdos can also be seen carrying items, which they otherwise don't. It's a shame that this wasn't turned into a full dungeon...

In addition, the Ocarina of Wind plays the same little tune as the Flute / Recorder.

Zelda II - The Adventure of Link

Well, Zelda II is probably the one game that has very little to go with, but in the very least The Minish Cap featured a series of learnable sword techniques, as it was first done in The Adventure of Link. And one of those techniques is even the Down Thrust, though you don't get to use it in a side-scrolling perspective here.

A Link to the Past

Mostly, A Link to the Past is represented via different music pieces. Of course there is the usual stuff, like Zelda's theme and Hyrule Castle, which are also featured in many other Zelda games. But there is more than that, like the unique callback to the beginning of A Link to the Past during the rainy part on Mount Crenel.

Also, you get to hear the cave theme when you're inside the secret passage that leads back into Hyrule Castle. And if you have unlocked the sound test, then you can listen to a rendition of the title screen theme from A Link to the Past. This one doesn't play anywhere else in the game, though, so it's really just a hidden feature.

The Four Sword's curse-breaking magic looks like the sword beam of the Master Sword from A Link to the Past. And while the Ocarina of Wind plays a different tune, the way you call a bird to travel over Hyrule is very similar to the Flute (which was also an Ocarina) from the SNES. The witch Syrup also returns, who had been present in all handheld Zelda games til this point, except for Four Swords.

As an environmental reference, you get the same prison cells in the basement of Dark Hyrule Castle as the ones in the beginning of A Link to the Past. Instead of Zelda, the king of Hyrule is imprisoned here, but overall it's quite similar in how this area is structured.

 

Link's Awakening

Naturally, the first handheld Zelda game had to be referenced in several ways. The Mysterious Shells are a nod to the Secret Seashells, even though they work differently. Simon's Simulations are reminiscent of the Dream Shrine. And your normal sword beams make the same sound as those from the L-2 sword.

This might be a minor detail, but the room with the two Sparks before the boss chamber in the Fortress of Winds is a callback to a similar room at the end of the Face Shrine, Level 6. More importantly, The Minish Cap is one of the few Zelda games other than Link's Awakening to feature enemies from the Super Mario series, like the Bob-ombs and Lakitus.

Ocarina of Time

Mainly, Ocarina of Time gets represented with a variety of recurring characters. Malon, Talon, and Epona make an appearance – there is even a whole Lon Lon Farm and you can get Lon Lon Milk for your bottles. Then we also have Biggoron, the carpenters, Anju (as the Cucco lady), Dampé, and more. The Hyrule Castle Town music is also a remix of the Kokiri Forest theme.

Majora's Mask

Similar to Ocarina of Time, the other N64 classic gets multiple character cameos, including Tingle, Gorman, and the Postman, but also characters that are present in both N64 games, like Dampé and Anju. Well, technically Gorman and the Postman also exist in Ocarina of Time, but here they are based on their iterations from Majora's Mask. Otherwise, Major Hagen's obsession with masks can be seen as a reference to Majora's Mask overall.

And let's not forget one of the most impressive boss fights in the game: the Gyorg Pair. Though, why they are called "Gyorgs", we will never know...

Oracle of Ages & Seasons

Din, Nayru, and Farore make an appearance. Also, each of them are looking for a new home, but you can only give two of them a house, which happen to have a red and a blue roof. This can be interpreted as a callback to how they were only able to make two of three planned games in the "Mystical Seed" series, though you don't have to go specifically with Din and Nayru.

There are even more characters from the Oracle games to be found, like Stockwell and Dr. Left (who was a reference to Mr. Write from Link's Awakening). And the Roc's Cape returns as an item from Four Swords, which originated in Oracle of Seasons as an upgrade to the Roc's Feather.

The Wind Waker

This is probably one of the most obvious examples, given that both Four Swords and The Minish Cap translated the toon style of The Wind Waker into 2D sprites, which can be seen in certain enemies, like the Moblins. However, The Minish Cap went a step further by also bringing many of its characters into 2D. We have Tingle's siblings, Beedle, Carlov, Sturgeon, Zill, or the Goron Merchants. And King Daltus greatly resembles the King of Red Lions, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule.

Also, the Mirror Shield looks exactly like the one from The Wind Waker. And one of the bosses, Mazaal, is clearly based on Gohdan. In German they even share the same name: Quartoxuma.

Four Swords

In this case it's probably easier to list what didn't make it into The Minish Cap, since the game uses the same engine and assets as Four Swords. They essentially took the multiplayer Game Boy Advance title and used it to make a new singleplayer experience.

Major story aspects, like Vaati and the Four Sword, made a return here. Even the Minish Cap itself is based on one of the items from Four Swords, the Gnat Hat.

Four Swords Adventures

The Minish Cap and Four Swords Adventures were developed in parallel, so it's far-fetched to claim that there are any intentional references between the two games. Still, since both are based on Four Swords, they share many similarities, other than featuring Vaati and the Four Sword. For example, both games use the four stones from the Four Sword Sanctuary as key items: in The Minish Cap they became the four elements, while in Four Swords Adventures they are the four "Royal Jewels".

Four Swords Online, Round 5

Today was our final stream of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords via Nintendo Switch Online, where we had to get the last Hero's Key from Death Mountain and then finish Vaati's Palace in its 12 floor variant, which is big as all stages from the basic games combined. One last time of cooperating while screwing each other over.

This stream was already planned to happen a week ago, but the blue Link had no internet at the time (it should be no secret to the rest of the world by now that nothing is really working in Germany), so we had to reschedule. Today the timing wasn't the best for me, however, and I just wanted to be done with it, so if I sound more annoyed than usual, then that's why.

It also didn't help that blue Link's connection was lost in the middle of a stage and we had to start over. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a big deal, because the stages are rather short and replayable. But we were right in the middle of the Vaati's Palace marathon, the final stage, so this was a huge setback. Here it's not really the best how Nintendo just kicks you out of the game, instead of suspending it and giving the players a choice of what to do. The connection was only lost for a brief moment, where we could have waited...

What also annoyed me today is losing all your seed upgrades after a death. You already have the Rupee loss, but they also reset all your stats back to 0, which feels very punishing. Well, this gives you an extra incentive not to die, that's for sure. And if you die, then collecting the seeds will have value again. But depending on the level it might not be so easy to max out everything in the first place...

Anyway, first we had to conquer Death Mountain with 5000 Rupees, which is the most difficult of the Hero's Keys to obtain, because the fire levels can get very punishing. You really need to make good use of Rupee Fever, but if you're constantly hit by something, then that's not a given. We failed the first time, but we did it on our second try, so this went actually quite well nevertheless.

Since I already had 10 Medals of Courage and cooperation was key, I stepped back during Death Mountain, even let others have the treasure chests, but I still managed to snatch a medal after the second run for some reason. Maybe I subconsciously was still acting greedily... I mean, none of the other players were interested in the A Link to the Past connectivity, so the medals never mattered to them at any point. It was really only about getting more Rupees than others and scoring first place.

And the fight was on for the last stage! Here we didn't have to worry about Rupees any longer and you get more than you need anyway, so we were free to compete again. Still, we couldn't shake the mindset of "we need to maintain Rupee Fever" for some reason. I guess that it became a (good) habit after the Hero's Keys.

We also got sidetracked by the one floor of the sky palace where you have this platform that goes around the main room in a circle and you have to shoot eye switches to make chests appear. But there are a lot of blocks in the way, which can and will push you off, especially when there's lag to deal with.

I got stuck there for a moment, because there is a "safe zone" in the northeast corner of that parkour, a little past the halfway point. So, when you fall off, the game will put you there. Sounds nice in theory, but in practice there is no way of getting back to the beginning, unless you are able to beat the obstacle course, which took me a number of tries...

But ultimately we even got all treasure chests, because the blue Link ended up in the same situation and managed to shoot one last switch that I had missed. Teamwork! However, this was right before the connection loss, so this was all for nothing... And afterwards we've decided to rush things, because there was no need to go out of your way for Rupees.

We still finished with almost 25,000 Rupees, but collecting Rupees in this game is just so addicting. Well, I was torn a bit between "I don't really need them any longer" and "this is the finale, so I want to win this". And in the end the red Link (which was me) established his role in Hyrule's history as the one true Link:

I always liked the red tunic best, so this fits. And I would have gotten enough Medals of Courage for the Riddle Quest from this playthrough after all, but I really enjoyed having the Hurricane Spin Attack during this last round. It's just the best tool for annoying the other players and it was worth it for the "why do you have this?!!" reactions alone.

So, now I'm 100% done with Four Swords, for the very first time experiencing it as you should – by playing this game with three other people and in parallel to A Link to the Past, where one achievement leads to another. And I'm very happy about that.

Should you ever want to do the same, keep in mind that the Suspend Points store both the RAM of the game and the battery save data for some reason, unlike save states on conventional emulators. That's a huge pitfall here and the first thing I did after our session today was overwriting all existing Suspend Points, just to be safe.

In case of multiplayer you can't use Suspend Points, so you have to rely on the traditional battery save data. But now, if I were to load a Suspend Point from A Link to the Past, then all of my Four Swords progress today would have been lost... with no means to restore it (unless it's still there as your latest cloud save). So, keep that in mind!

Four Swords Online, Round 4

Problem already solved... Earlier today I left off worrying that I might not find anyone to collect Medals of Courage with, because there was simply not enough interest within the ZeldaChronicles community. I can already be happy enough to have found a round where we want to beat the entire game, and not just the simple Silver Keys level.

This is clearly not like the early days of Tri Force Heroes, where it was generally easy enough to find someone who wants to play and where people where genuinely interested in doing all the challenges and such. To be fair, Four Swords is not a new multiplayer Zelda game, it's over 20 years old. But being able to play this online on a Nintendo system is still a novelty, at least officially...

Now, I looked in other communities where I am or was active, but to no avail. Either people already had someone to play with or there was no interest at all. Finally, I hit pay dirt in the r/Zelda Discord community, which is quite active at the moment about seeking other players, and I was able to find someone there immediately. A guy named Carlos helped me to get my last two medals and now I'm happy.

Again, much thanks to Carlos (should you ever happen to read this)! I really appreciate it. And I will still hang out there in case other people need help as well. So, should you be in the same position as I was, where you need more medals, or generally looking for other players, check out r/Zelda.

(Update: People on this Discord are mainly from North America and playing the US version, so if you're looking for European players it still might be tricky. I was just lucky enough to run into someone else playing the EU version at the time when I joined.)

Anyway, I've cleared both the Riddle Quest and the Palace of the Four Sword right afterwards, so now I'm done with A Link to the Past (more on that in a separate post) and ready for the big finale.

Four Swords Online, Round 3

Today we had another stream of playing Four Swords together, which you can watch on Twitch. And we've made some good progress here, as you can see above, where we got two out of the three Hero's Keys by now: in the Sea of Trees and Talus Cave. So, only Death Mountain is left, but since the final version of Vaati's Palace is essentially all levels combined, we have saved those for the next time.

We had some connectivity issues early on, where the game really became hard to play due to the lag. Like, there was a part in Vaati's Palace where you have to carry a teammate onto platforms of your color from moving platform, which normally should be easy enough, but the delay makes you just run straight into the abyss...

We lost a lot of  health there, I can tell you that much. Luckily, the connection became more stable afterwards, because otherwise we probably would have aborted the session.

Then, after failing miserably with the Hero's Key at the Sea of Trees, there was a clear shift from competition to pure cooperation. Without Rupee Fever it's very difficult to reach the 5000 Rupees required and you really want to make the most out of it. So, we had to stop messing with each other and even save treasure chests until everyone was at full hearts. And we've made good use of the Rupee Wraith exploit, where you recollect the Rupees that it makes you drop and this gives you double the amount back (this was fixed in the DSi version). It's overall super satisfying to get enough Rupees in the end, it feels like a real accomplishment and good team work.

Despite moderately holding back, I still managed to snag three Medals of Courage today, only two more to go. Though, I would love to complete the Riddle Quest and obtain the Hurricane Spin Attack before the last stream next Sunday, because otherwise I won't have much use for it. I've also finished A Link to the Past in the meantime, except for the Palace of the Four Sword, where I want to have the Hurricane Spin for that as well.

Sadly, we haven't played in the other round a second time, because those two of the guys were too busy with Among Us. And the last one might not have any interest in continuing after the credits have rolled, I'm not not sure. So, now I'm hoping to find someone, anyone really, to help with those last two Medals of Courage, because I really want to finish this. But I seem to be the only one who cares about the A Link to the Past connectivity from the two groups that I've joined, so that will make things difficult.

Four Swords Online, Round 2

Another day, another round already. I've played in a slightly different group this time, organized from the ZeldaChronicles community. So, no stream to show today. But I still had this one guy (again as the blue Link) with me, who is really ambitious about getting all the Rupees before everyone else, so it was as competitive as yesterday, probably even more so. It was also more balanced, where everyone scored first place at least once, so that was great.

In the beginning we were only three, which made it feel like Tri Force Heroes, but after one stage we had the fourth guy join us for some mad fun. And we've beaten the game on the easiest difficulty, so we've played five stages in total. Well, a little bit more than that, because there have been accidents...

If a stage starts on a difficult section and you don't have any Rupees yet, it's easy to get a Game Over, especially if people are screwing around.

Anyway, in case you're wondering how progression works with different people, the progress is saved individually for every player in the form of the different keys for each stage. And you're always playing by the lowest common denominator. So, even though two of us had Golden Keys already and I was the host, we still were playing for the Silver Keys to let the other two players catch up. But now that we've beaten the first version of Vaati's Palace, we're all eligible to earn Golden Keys, which we will do next time.

Why even bother and not just stay in the same group, you may ask? Well, I suppose, here it's actually a good thing that you need ten Medals of Courage in total. This encourages you to play with less experienced / progressed players, because this gives you another / a better chance.

So, even though blue Link and me didn't see any actual progress in the game today, we still made some progress by earning medals. I got two more, which brings me to five, only five more to go!

Overall, we had some good laughs. At the end of the floors we often just started attacking each other maniacally, so it became impossible to finish. Or some levels in Vaati's Palace have these bridges, where one player has to stand on a switch to keep them retracted. Of course he wouldn't dare to step off right when everyone else is crossing... right? And it was always a fierce fight for every treasure chest. The possibilities to mess with each other in this game are priceless.

The guy who played purple Link, who has joined us last, also brought in some nice dry humor, which is perfect for a game that you shouldn't take too seriously. Would love to play Tri Force Heroes with him one day and hear what he has to say about those epic tales from the Drablands.

Can't wait to continue this!

Four Swords Online, Round 1

We are live! Quite literally. Today I had the pleasure of playing The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords with four people at the same time, for the first time in my life. Best I was able to do before was three, usually just two, so this was interesting.

You can actually watch the whole thing on Twitch, but it's in German. A friend of mine, KarlderHeinz, streams there regularly, just for the fun of it and to stay in contact. Mostly this is singleplayer, but from time to time he plays multiplayer games with people from his small, but great community, usually on Sundays. In the past two years this was almost exclusively Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where we've checked out the new courses...

Now I had made the suggestion that we should give Four Swords a try via Nintendo Switch Online, because I had a feeling that this could be a lot of fun in this round. In fact, some of us had played Four Swords Adventures together in 2018 and I still remember the laughs.

And it was fun, more than that, because the motivation to keep going is there. I went in with the expectation that we would play this until the credits roll and then be done with it, but we've actually got two Golden Keys already and are planning to complete the game eventually. There was a spark there. Getting the Silver Keys is too easy, so there was the ambition to play this a bit more seriously, as far as this was possible...

But let's start from the beginning. This was the first time that I've played any of the classic games online and it's about as bumpy as you would expect. It's peer-to-peer, as most Nintendo games with online multiplayer, so there can be some lag with four players. For the most part it went well, but you want to make sure to play this with people who live in the same state or country as you. It probably also helps to only play this with one other person, but that wasn't the goal here.

There can also be some visual glitches, like flickering shadows, which is notable in the stream. However, I personally didn't have such issues on my TV. But what I really dislike with the Nintendo Switch Online emulators in general is that it shows you part of the controls at the bottom and there is no way to hide this information. It's just wasting space and looks ugly. (Update: you can turn this off in the options, but you'll need to do this before you go into a game.)

Well, I was the group's overachiever, because I'm the only one who is bothering to also play A Link to the Past, where I had obtained the Master Sword beforehand. This unlocks sword beams in Four Swords, which was giving me a bit of an edge, but for the most part it didn't matter, because you only get them at full health. Still, you want to be at full health for the Rupee Fever, where for the Golden Keys we already had to be a bit more strategic and make sure that everyone gets enough health.

Now, I should be the only one in this groups who cares about earning the Medals of Courage, but I still have to fight for them. One guy in particular (he was the blue Link) has this mindset of "I don't care what Rupees will do for me, I just don't want any of the other players to get them." It's absolutely infuriating, but believe it or not, this is also exactly what I was hoping for...

In the past I was either playing this game alone, thanks to the added singleplayer mode in the Anniversary Edition, or I had someone who helped me out to finish the original Game Boy Advance version. So, I've rarely played this in an environment where the people would fight for Rupees.

Four Swords has this mix of cooperation and competition what makes it so unique. You have to work together to make it, but you also want to snatch all those Rupees for yourself, where this encourages toxic behavior. You may, for example, let two other players do the work and then harvest the fruits of their labor. And you can always carry and throw other players, where once their fate is in your hands, they can't do anything about it. In German we say "Kameradenschwein", someone who betrays their comrades. And you sometimes have to be the Kameradenschwein in this game if you want to score first place.

Or maybe you are just lucky. That also helps a lot, but I've ran out of luck at some point in my life, where today's session was proof of that. Whenever there are two treasure chests, usually one of them has a big Rupee and the other has a small one. And I always got the small one, every single time, so that didn't help.

We've finished half of the game by now and I only got three medals out of ten, so I certainly won't be able to complete everything in this round. But the requirement of ten Medals of Courage is way too much in any case. If nothing goes wrong, you will be playing twelve stages in total. And if you keep things even, then every player will end up with only three medals... Even if you're only playing two-by-two, you won't get enough. The Anniversary Edition was a lot fairer here, where either you needed five medals or 30,000 Rupees in total.

But I will try to play with some other people as well. And once I get all ten medals, I will keep playing A Link to the Past some more. It's actually a great choice for replaying right now, before Echoes of Wisdom returns to the same Hyrule. And it's been a while since I have played the GBA version with its extras. In case you don't know, here's a summery of how the two games interact with each other:

• Obtaining the Master Sword in A Link to the Past unlocks Sword Beams in Four Swords.
• Scoring ten Medals of Courage in Four Swords unlocks the Riddle Quest in A Link to the Past.
• Solving the Riddle Quest unlocks the Hurricane Spin Attack in both games.
• Beating both games opens the Palace of the Four Sword in A Link to the Past.
  

Most of this was impossible (or very hard) to do on the Game Boy Advance if you didn't know anyone else with the game. So, it's really nice that after all these years this title has become a bit more accessible.

Nintendo Switch Online Adds Four Swords and Zero Mission

There were more Zelda news today and it's not as small as you might think it is... Nintendo has finally added A Link to the Past + Four Swords to the Game Boy Advance library, which is part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. What makes this so special is that you can now play the first Zelda multiplayer game online with friends, which is something that wasn't possible before on any Nintendo hardware.

To beat and complete the original game on the Game Boy Advance you needed another GBA, a connection cable, and another copy of the game for every player. It took me many years to cross this off my list and I was never able to play the full four player mode, three players were the most.

So, Nintendo has now given me a reason to subscribe to the Expansion Pack, congratulations. I have preferred to purchase the offered DLCs and there weren't any other games in the extended library that I really wanted, but this has now changed.

In addition, they've also added Metroid: Zero Mission. This one doesn't have any multiplayer, but it did have some connectivity bonuses, where the Metroid Fusion Gallery is now unlocked by default (source). Originally, you needed to connect it to Metroid Fusion for this, using two Game Boy Advance systems and a link cable. And the Wii U Virtual Console didn't allow you to access it at all, so this is already an improvement.

Four Swords for Nintendo Switch Online?

There has been a leak of Nintendo's early development efforts with GameBoy (Color) and GameBoy Advance titles on Nintendo Switch. This shouldn't be all too surprising, where many fans are expecting this to happen eventually. Ideally, the GameBoy (Color) games will be part of the standard subscription, while GameBoy Advance games get moved to the Expansion Pack. It would be really low if every new collection became part of the latter from now on, and the GameBoy really should be next to NES and SNES.

Anyway, if Nintendo truly wants me to subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, they will only have to do one thing:

Four Swords, with online multiplayer. The ability to play the multiplayer NES, SNES, and N64 games online hasn't been interesting to me so far, but the GBA with Four Swords could completely change this. I loved this game, but rarely had the chance to play it with others, where I've never even played this with four people at once, which could be fun and utterly chaotic.

Also, the GameBoy Advance version of A Link to the Past has never been re-released, where this would be nice to have, even though the original game is already part of the Super Nintendo service. But things like the Riddle Quest or the Palace of the Four Swords would be completely lost in time otherwise.

Well, the Anniversary Edition of Four Swords is equally lost in time, but the best thing about it was the singleplayer mode, which won't be as important if you can just easily play the game online with others. The Anniversary Edition was a DSiWare game and all about the 25th Anniversary, where it's questionable whether Nintendo will ever bring this back in any way, shape or form.

However, the current list of leaked GBA titles doesn't include A Link to the Past & Fours Swords, only The Minish Cap. There may also be concerns about griefing, because Four Swords was a game where you were cooperating and competing at the same time. You can pick up players and prevent them from doing things, kill yourself to waste Rupees, and so on. But since playing these emulated games online is limited to friends, this shouldn't be much of a concern, unlike in Tri Force Heroes, where you could play with random strangers.

Another 2D Zelda on the eShop?

Before the Nintendo Direct last month, Vergeben said that the new 2D Zelda game won't have a connection to Link's Awakening (source). When it came to predicting the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Vergeben was on point, but otherwise it doesn't really seem like we can trust the guy, as proven by the fact that the new 2D Zelda game is literally Link's Awakening.

Now, apparently this came from one of Vergeben's sources, who is confused about this reveal as well and now claims that he or she has heard about a different 2D Zelda game that is going to be eShop exclusive (source). But this is quite the claim, honestly, and far from a safe bet, because Zelda games normally get a retail release, unless it's Virtual Console. But the Switch so far only featured a Virtual Console via the Nintendo Switch Online service.

The only new Zelda that ever used to be eShop exclusive is none other than the Four Swords Anniversary Edition. And even that was just a FREE re-release of an old game with some new features.



So, one scenario would be that we're getting another enhanced port of an old 2D game, where it offers something new, but it's still too "shabby" for a retail release. This doesn't allow for many options, however. The NES games are already part of the Nintendo Switch Online service. A Link to the Past will most likely follow. And the GameBoy (Color) games are currently all ready for remakes. That basically leaves the Four Swords games...

Of course they might decide to re-release the Four Swords Anniversary Edition for free again, maybe make it even part of the Nintendo Switch Online service and add online multiplayer to it. That would be great. Or they could decide to finally do something with Four Swords Adventures, but that could be eligible for a retail release...

Otherwise the emphasis really is on "free". If they ever release something for Zelda that is digital-only, it's probably because it makes no sense to distribute it as a retail release for some reason, like this being a free to play game.

This could even happen with a new game. Take something like Kirby Team Clash Deluxe for example, which is a horrible example with its monetization via Gem Apples, but still an example from Nintendo. They could use the engine of the new Link's Awakening to make a new multiplayer Zelda that focuses on the Battle Mode, like the Shadow Battles in Four Swords Adventures or the Coliseum Mode in Tri Force Heroes.

Similar to the different Kirby minigames on Nintendo 3DS, they could take such a small mode and turn it a game of its own. It certainly had some potential, but ultimately lacked the focus it needed to become something lasting.

Well, this would be something new entirely and could be used to advertise Link's Awakening. "Like the minigame? Then get the real deal with this upcoming remake in the same topdown style!"

Right now we don't have any reason to believe that there really is going to be another 2D Zelda game coming this year, but it's a possibility nonetheless.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Vaati?

Vaati seems like a forgotten villain, who has last appeared in The Minish Cap 14 years ago... He is the only other recurring main villain in the Zelda series, but his fate was tied to the Four Sword, which has vanished completely from the series.

Still, fans are asking for his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which is doubtful at best. His mage form from The Minish Cap, which would most likely be used for him as a fighter, simply isn't as recognizable or iconic as other potential Zelda characters like Skull Kid or Tingle. Vaati hasn't appeared in a new Zelda title for a while, while Majora's Mask 3D was a fresh thing at the time the development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate started.

However, with the new Spirits mode there seems to be a big focus on bosses, which might be the perfect place for Vaati to finally make an appearance in Smash. Of course they would go with the giant eyeball design, which has been used in Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap for his final boss fights.

Hyrule Castle also seems like a good place for his boss fight. It's up in the air, where all his boss fights took place, and the tornadoes on the stage are very similar to the ones that Vaati keeps summoning to attack the four Links. So, in case of the boss battle he would create the tornadoes himself.

This is just an idea and still not all that likely, but it's certainly likelier than Vaati getting in as a new fighter.

Smartphone Zelda Content Concepts

A Zelda game developed for Android and iOS mobile devices, following games like Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, isn't unlikely and already had been rumored last year. In a recent post I've explained, why I would like to have such a game, but in the meantime I've been putting more thoughts into how the contents of such a game could look like and how it all would be structured.

For this I didn't look far, but instead I've been taking many pages from the multiplayer Zelda outings, mainly Four Swords and Tri Force Heroes. Those count as some of the least popular Zelda games, but let's face it, a Zelda game on smartphones probably won't become a fan favorite either. But it could become something that works well on the platform and would focus entirely on singleplayer this time, which certainly would be preferred by some fans.

Let's go through the basics again. The game would utilize the top down perspective and Toon Link as its protagonist, similar to Tri Force Heroes or the Nintendo DS Zelda games. The touch controls would be based on the latter, so you point in the direction where Link should be going, you tap things in the environment to interact with them, you tap enemies to attack them and there would be button in one corner of the screen to activate your current item. Simple.

Areas and Dungeons

With smartphone games people often want to play in short bursts, instead of going through extensive play sessions that they get from PC or console games. There are exceptions, of course, but Nintendo's smart device titles so far have backed this up. Playing short levels in Super Mario Run and quick rounds of strategy in Fire Emblem Heroes support this play style.

So, with a Zelda game on smartphones it's likely that it will adopt the level-based structure of the multiplayer installments: Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and Tri Force Heroes. Instead of having a big connected overworld, the game world would be divided into individual areas that give access to shorter levels. Let's take a look at Four Swords and Tri Force Heroes here:



Four Swords featured the Sea of Trees, Talus Cave (ice cave dungeons), Death Mountain and Vaati's Palace. The Anniversary Edition also had the Realm of Memories and the Hero's Trial on top of that.

Tri Force Heroes had the Woodlands, the Riverside, the Volcano, the Ice Caverns, the Fortress, the Dunes, the Ruins and the Sky Realm. Additionally, there has been the Den of Trials as a free DLC level. From the selection of areas this is looking really good here.

The difference between both games is that Four Swords had randomly generated stages in each area (except for the additions in the Anniversary Edition), while Tri Force Heroes had four static levels per area.

It's remarkable how Four Swords featured procedurally generated content at its time, which is quite popular with "Roguelike" games these days. Technically, the game didn't fully generate everything at random, but put together its stages based on different templates. But there are so many that I kept discovering new floors and rooms, even though I've played through the game various times. It really adds to the replayability, which is something you want to have with a smartphone title.

In the case of Tri Force Heroes you had three additional "Challenges" per level, which gave you a reason to replay them, but once you've beaten all 32 levels in all four variants you were done with the game and there was no reason to keep playing other than the fun of it or to support other players with their remaining Challenges. But you'd really want to avoid such a stop here, where procedurally generated levels are the key.

Of course even with level generation you will learn and discover all patterns eventually, but it still would offer a lot more to discover than static levels. It would also allow for a continuous increase in difficulty, where the more often you beat a certain level, the harder it will become.

Now, I would add the typical "themes" as areas to the game: forest, volcano, water, ice, desert and so on. But each area would have an overworld stage and a dungeon stage. So, if you select the forest, you can play either some Lost Woods type of level or a Forest Temple dungeon. You can chose every area from the start, but you need to beat the overworld section first, before you can go into the dungeon. And the dungeons always end with a boss. So, there are two sides to each area, which makes sense for a Zelda game.

Beating a boss for the first time will reward you with an additional Heart Container. Beating a stage will score you something different. Four Swords used different keys for Vaati's Palace for this, but it could be something like Force Gems or Spirit Orbs. Let's say you keep collecting "orbs" from the levels, because this seems like a typical mobile game currency. You could keep getting more orbs from repeating the same stages, however, each playthrough will become more difficult and challenging. Tougher puzzles, stronger enemies, harder to find secrets and so on. You might be able to select lower difficulties again, but then you wouldn't get any new orbs.

Finally, those orbs are required to enter the final dungeon. This could be something that has levels to it, like a giant tower. You need a certain number of orbs to open the first floor, but once you've beaten it, you can strive for higher floors, where the difficulty increases and where you might get different endings and greater rewards. You can compare this to the three Epics in Four Swords, where you can replay the game two times for a greater challenge, just that this would be longer lasting and more challenging. It could even go on forever.

Additionally, the game could have a special trial area, where you would have something like the Den of Trials (a survival dungeon like the Cave of Ordeals from Twilight Princess or the Trial of the Sword from Breath of the Wild), with bosses thrown into the mix. And maybe also special super challenging stages like the Hero's Trial in the Four Swords Anniversary Edition.

Items

Unlike in a normal Zelda game you wouldn't keep the items with you, but they would be part of the stages, like in the Zelda multiplayer games. So, for the sake of simplicity you can always only carry one item with you at a time, which can be swapped on item pedestals.

There could be many different items throughout the game for lots of variety. Anything that was established in top down Zelda games and that works with touch controls could be considered. Here's a list of ideas:

• Lantern
• Shovel
• Slingshot
• Bow
• Bombs
• Boomerang
• Hammer
• Grappling Hook
• Whip
• Gust Jar
• Fire Rod
• Ice Rod
• Lightning Rod
• Tornado Rod
• Sand Rod
• Water Rod
• Cane of Somaria
• Magnetic Gloves
• Roc's Feather
• Pegasus Boots
• ...

These are all items that were featured in past Zelda games, but of course there could and should be new ones as well. There are many possibilities here, though Nintendo often likes to keep the selection of core items small, like around eight different ones. This has been the case for the multiplayer installments and Nintendo DS games, but it's still possible that Nintendo could make Ravio really jealous with such a game.

There shouldn't be any usage limitations like ammo or even a magic / stamina / energy meter. Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures didn't have any limits to the items and it worked fine. The Nintendo 3DS games introduced the energy meter for items to prevent spamming and to add a little challenge, but with touch controls you couldn't go all crazy anyway. As long as nothing gets as overpowered as the Hammer in Phantom Hourglass, things will be fine.

And not having a meter will add to the simplicity. You don't want too many things to clutter the screen. Ideally, there only would be the item and your hearts visible at all times.

Outfits

With a game like this you want a collectible that's useful and that stays with you outside of the stages. Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures didn't have something like this, but Tri Force Heroes then introduced the outfits, which were arguably the best thing about the game.

And this is quite popular with Nintendo games right now. Breath of the Wild offers over a hundred different armor pieces and Super Mario Odyssey has many fun costumes, where they currently keep adding new ones in updates, which is exciting. But Tri Force Heroes did it before and put Toon Link in many cool and crazy outfits, which all had different abilities.

There's also lots of potential for fan service by putting Link into costumes based on different tribes and characters from the Zelda universe, like this neat Darunia outfit, which lets you walk through fire and swim through lava:

There were also outfits based on Fierce Deity Link, Linebeck, the Kokiri, the classic River Zora, the Hammer Bros. from Super Mario, Tingle, Princess Zelda and more.

It was a great feature, where they could just copy the whole thing and even bring a majority of the outfits back. I doubt that anybody would mind. Some outfits were based on multiplayer features or the Energy Gauge, which probably wouldn't return, other outfits might be altered and there certainly would be many new outfits that Tri Force Heroes didn't have, for example to enhance any of the new items. It would be like with the masks in Majora's Mask, which originated in Ocarina of Time, but were expanded even further for the sequel.

Like in Tri Force Heroes you would craft the outfits from Rupees and treasures found in the stages. The main difference here would be that the treasures aren't a reward for beating a stage, they are found everywhere inside the stages by killing enemies, cutting bushes, lifting rocks, opening treasure chests and so on. This would really reward the players, who take their time to explore everything within a level, instead of simply rushing to the finish like.

Shadow Link Battles

While this entire concept has taken a lot from the multiplayer-centric Zelda games, it was so far focused on singleplayer and for good reasons. When playing a game on your mobile phone the connection isn't always the best. And with Nintendo's smart device titles it's already annoying enough that they require a good connections (think LTE) for most of the time or they won't work... The situation wouldn't become any better with an unstable multiplayer on top of that.

It will be interesting to see what Nintendo has planned for Mario Kart Tour, but so far the multiplayer modes were based on "ghosts". Super Mario Run puts you against other players' attempts at the "Toad Rally". And in Fire Emblem Heroes you can create a team for the Arena, which will be controlled by the AI, if another player chooses to challenge you.

But the Zelda series has done something similar before with the StreetPass Shadow Link Battles in A Link Between Worlds. There you could create your own Shadow Links and face the Shadow Links of other players in an arena, which was the fiercest enemy in the game. Tri Force Heroes brought this special AI back, but sadly only for the Den of Trials.

Here it could work similar to A Link Between Worlds. Your Shadow Link will have the same number as hearts as you, which gets used to rank you with other players in the beginning. Additionally you can equip your Shadow Link with an item and an outfit.

Before you enter the arena, you can chose the same: one item and one outfit. The arenas will be based on the different areas and dungeons from the game and have various hazards, but won't have any items in them. This added too much of a luck factor to Tri Force Heroes, where players may or may not spawn right next to their desired items. So, it's best to let them choose what they want upfront.

It's also thinkable that you might face multiple Shadow Links in one match, instead of just one. There could even be different modes, like one where you need to collect Force Gems in a given time.

Content Updates

Nintendo likes to update their smart device titles with new content, features and events on a regular basis. This keeps the games in the news and brings players back to them. And it adds a significant reason to keep playing the games.

Here this would be simple. Major updates would add new areas to the world, which could come with new items that are useful in there. For example there could be a swamp area that features the Water Rod. And of course there would be new outfits to upgrade the new items or to help within the new environments, like a Deku outfit that prevents you from sinking in bogs.

New outfits could also always be part of smaller updates, which are released more often. These could even be there to promote other Zelda or Nintendo games at the time.

Additionally, there could be special "Challenges" for specific areas, which are only available for a limited time and which will reward you with rare materials or many Rupees or "orbs".

Payment Options

With games on smart devices there is always the question, how they eventually become profitable for the developers. Nintendo has tried different approaches here, where Zelda could be somewhere between things.

The game could only give you access to one or two areas in the beginning. You can still enter the final dungeon, if you grind enough "orbs" (or whatever) from those areas, but you can also unlock additional areas by purchasing them. Ideally, there would also be a way to buy the full game, where you get access to all current and future areas at once.

Additionally, there could be micro-transactions to purchase "orbs", Rupees or materials. I'm not a fan of those, but I also don't mind them, as long as they are fully optional.

Conclusion

All of this doesn't really re-invent the wheel here. Make it singleplayer, take the controls of the Nintendo DS Zelda games, take the procedurally generated levels of Four Swords, take the outfits from Tri Force Heroes and the Shadow Link Battles from A Link Between Worlds and all of this would make an entertaining mix for Zelda fans, who want to game from time to time on their smartphones. Of course Nintendo would potentially come up with something new instead, but past Zelda games have already proven that the series might work just fine on smart devices with what it already offered.

The Future of Zelda on Nintendo Switch

Five years ago, in January 2013, Eiji Aonuma announced that Nintendo is working on a new big Zelda game and that they want to rethink the conventions of the series with this title. The Wind Waker HD was announced at the same day and ever since we got many different Zelda titles on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS to keep us entertained, until Breath of the Wild finally came out four years later. There were A Link Between Worlds, Hyrule Warriors, Majora's Mask 3D, Tri Force Heroes, Twilight Princess HD, Twilight Princess Picross and Hyrule Warriors - Legends. Spin-offs, remasters, as well new top down Zelda games, including a multiplayer-centric episode. There has been a lot to play for Zelda fans in those four years.

Now, Breath of the Wild has been released together with all its DLC, where the Master Works artbook confirmed that a sequel is already in the works. That shouldn't be surprising and with the success of Breath of the Wild it's only natural to assume that we finally get a proper sequel on the Nintendo Switch using the same engine, much like Majora's Mask following Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64.

However, such a sequel probably won't be finished in two years time. It's more likely that a sequel will appear somewhere between the end of 2020 and early 2022, maybe even nearing the end of the Switch's lifespan, though the Switch might be around much longer than the Wii U. So, there's again some time to gap and to keep Zelda fans busy in the meantime. We still might see another title on the Nintendo 3DS this year and we might also get something for Zelda on iOS/Android, but the focus will certainly lie on the Nintendo Switch in the upcoming years.

And it already started with the Hyrule Warriors - Definitive Edition. This combines the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions of Hyrule Warriors into one neat package and gives everyone the opportunity to (re)play the game on the Nintendo Switch. So, there's already that, but what else can we expect from the Nintendo Switch in the future? What ports, remasters and even new games could be on the horizon, before the big sequel to Breath of the Wild finally arrives? Let's make a list!

 

Hyrule Warriors 2

While there's already the Hyrule Warriors - Definitive Edition coming to the Switch, we shouldn't expect any new contents for this release, other than the Breath of the Wild costumes for Link and Zelda. It's more likely that Koei Tecmo will soon begin working on a proper sequel, after Fire Emblem Warriors got its DLC done with the "Fire Emblem Awakening Pack" in March 2018, which is around the same time when the Definitive Edition of Hyrule Warriors gets released.

Since the Nintendo Switch kicked off with Breath of the Wild and it became an overwhelming success, it's clear that Hyrule Warriors 2 will set its focus on the new Zelda game. The four Champions will likely be introduced as new playable characters, alongside other characters from the game. And of course there still plenty of interesting characters from previous titles left for lots and lots new content.

Interestingly, the upcoming Dynasty Warriors 9 will for the first time in the series try an open world formula. Maybe that's something that they will adapt in Hyrule Warriors 2 as well? More thoughts about the sequel in later post!

 

Skyward Sword HD

After the Wii U got both the Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD in its library, it's only a matter of time until Skyward Sword will get an HD remaster as well. And the Nintendo Switch seems like the perfect system for the job, where the joycons are predestined to bring back the motion-controlled sword battles of the Wii Zelda. It's a no-brainer, really.

It wouldn't need extensive work, in fact the graphics could be upscaled in a similar fashion to the Wind Waker HD, where only few Nintendo developers worked on the project. They could also hire Tantalus, the studio that made Twilight Princess HD, for the job. Fixing the bug, where you get the explanations for all treasures and insects again after rebooting the game, would make it automatically a hundred times better. Add another trial cave and some amiibo support on top and they got themselves an easy HD release.

However, after Nintendo admitted that they developed Breath of the Wild around the shortcomings of Skyward Sword, it will leave a potential HD version in a bad spot. So, they'd probably wait one our two years, when that's water under the bridge. Or they could advertise this as a "classic" Zelda experience for those, who didn't like Breath of the Wild as much. There are always two sides to each coin.

 

The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD Ports

Why only release Skyward Sword HD? Why not create a "Zelda HD Collection" with the game and the HD remasters from the Wii U? That's certainly a question that some readers might have at this point, but it's more likely that The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD will stay on Wii U for now. And there are three good reasons for this:

1) The Wii U needs some exclusives after all. Many of its interesting games have been ported to the Nintendo Switch already and Nintendo has to draw a line somewhere, where we're talking about ports of ports now. And these games were mainly filler-material to keep the fans entertained before Breath of the Wild, which was available from the start on the Nintendo Switch.

2) Both titles heavily advertised the usage of the Wii U GamePad while playing the game on the TV. And such comfort features as looking on your map while salvaging treasure or switching items on the go wouldn't work on the Nintendo Switch. Of course both games were playable with the Wii U Pro Controller only, so this won't exclude a Nintendo Switch port, it just makes the thing less likely.

3) Both games added actual ingame items based on Miiverse, which is now dead. The Tingle Bottles in the Wind Waker HD were already a replacement for the Tingle Tuner and used to incorporate Miiverse messages in a beautiful way into the game. And the Miiverse Stamps in Twilight Princess HD replaced the contents of chests that only contained lots of useless Rupees in the original. Both were excellent additions and both would have to be replaced yet again for potential Nintendo Switch versions. So, we'd have replacements for replacements in ports of ports.

With all of this in mind, it's more likely that Nintendo will stick to Skyward Sword HD on the Nintendo Switch for now, instead of adding more to the grand Wii U port tide. But of course it's not impossible, just don't expect these ports any time soon.

 

Side-Scrolling Zelda

While Zelda games are for the most part are either played from a 3rd person or top down perspective, it also used side-scrolling in its past, mainly with Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. It's often considered as the black sheep of the series, but it doesn't have to be. Nintendo could revisit this title and maybe create a remake or "requel" of the NES classic on Nintendo Switch.

The thought has been around for quite some time (see this post for example), but it's getting more likely, after Grezzo started "hiring for a legend 2", where the job offers are asking for experience with the Unreal Engine, which is quite versatile and can be used to make side-scrollers like Shadow Complex.

(image source)

Games like Ori and the Blind Forest or Trine 2 also show how amazingly beautiful side-scrollers in a fantasy setting can be, where Nintendo could create its own outing based on Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. And if they bring back that game's music, it will already be a win.

 

Multiplayer Zelda

Aonuma stated at E3 2016 that he would like to try another multiplayer Zelda game based on what they learned with Breath of the Wild (source). And with the upcoming online service for the Nintendo Switch, as well as local multiplayer support of the Switch it seems rather likely that Zelda will be getting another multiplayer-centric episode on the system.

But right now it's hard to estimate what this would mean. It could be an online experience based on the world of Breath of the Wild, where something like a MMORPG would be a possibility. It could also mean that they might create another top down multiplayer game like Four Swords, but use an open world approach for the game instead of letting you play linear levels. We could even get both or something else entirely.

Anyway, for local multiplayer a top down experience seems like the best choice, because this perspective comes off more natural while playing with a handheld, which is the exact same reason why they used this style for A Link Between Worlds, the new Zelda game on the Nintendo 3DS. So, something similar to Four Swords or Tri Force Heroes, but maybe in a bigger scale, where you have larger worlds and player counts, is more likely, if they want to push the local multiplayer mode of the system.

Apropos Four Swords, it's notable how both games were basically lost in time in the last generation. At least the Four Swords Anniversary Edition was available for a brief time on Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS, but Four Swords Adventures was only ever supported by the GameCube (and Wii backwards compatibility) and was never re-released ever since, unlike all the other Zelda games. And seeing how much Nintendo advertises the local multiplayer features of the Nintendo Switch it comes to mind that they could port the game to the system somehow. However, Four Swords Adventures was played on multiple handhelds and a TV at the same time, which the Nintendo Switch currently doesn't support. The TV screen also used to cover large areas, which won't translate to smaller screens that well. So, it might be that this game will be lost in time forever.

 

Classic Game Selection

It doesn't seem like the Nintendo Switch will get its own Virtual Console any time soon. Of course they could simply re-release The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the Switch for fifth/sixth time, but instead Nintendo seems more interested in putting its Virtual Console on the "Nintendo Classic Minis", where versions of the GameBoy and the Nintendo 64 will most likely follow.

The Nintendo Switch on the other hand will face a new approach with its upcoming online service, where the focus seems to be on adding online multiplayer to classic games like Balloon Fight or Super Marios Bros. 3. This could finally lead to an online version of the GBA Classic Four Swords, but also maybe Four Swords Adventures, if they're willing to put in some more effort.

 

Zelda (Shrine) Maker

Well, this isn't the likeliest candidate and at first we'd have to see, if Super Mario Maker even makes its way on the Nintendo Switch, where you can only use the touchscreen in its handheld mode. And even then a "Zelda Maker" would probably be not as attractive. Zelda is more complicated than your typical Mario level and would probably even need "programming" similar to the RPG Maker, unless they stick to the classic NES style of the first game. But then it would lack the variety and many features of modern Zelda games.

An alternative could be a "Shrine Maker" or "Trial Maker" based on Breath of the Wild, which works similar to the easy-to-use Test Chamber Creator in Portal 2. Players could create and share their own Sheikah Shrines, where the goal would be to reach the end with a given equipment. This could lead to many interesting ideas and lots of fun for Zelda fans.

 

Summary

Breath of the Wild will certainly get a sequel on the Nintendo Switch, where in the meantime Nintendo could entertain us with various side projects. Breath of the Wild itself could lead to a new multiplayer experience and/or a Shrine Maker spin-off, as well as heavily inspire a potential Hyrule Warriors 2. Otherwise we can look forward to more ports and maybe even a return to side-scrolling Zelda. While this is all speculation, we do know for sure that the Switch hasn't seen the last of Zelda.