The Minish Cap Story

In this 12th installment of the Zelda series, Link is a simple child living in Hyrule raised his grandfather. Link is also a long time friend of the princess of Hyrule, Zelda. Zelda and Link leave Link's House to go to a festival being held in the northward Hyrule Town. There, they both indulge in the local booths, before heading off to Hyrule Castle, for the traditional Picori Festival. When they arrive, the ceremony is about to start. The entire act is a celebration of the legendary Picori Blade, a sword that vanquished all evil, and locked it inside of a box, sealed with the blade itself. One ordinary Hylian is allowed to touch the sacred sword annually. This year's chosen participant is Vaati. As he approaches the blade, he removes his disguise as an average man to reveal that he himself is an evil sorcerer who believes that the box holds the Light Force, a gift from the Minish said to hold immense power. He immediately moves to free the Light Force from the box that the Picori Blade seals. As the guards of Hyrule Castle rush to neutralize him, he blows them away with his magic. Link bravely tries to protect Zelda, but he is knocked aside and Zelda is turned into stone. With all capable people neutralized, Vaati breaks the Picori Blade that sealed the box, releasing all the evils back into the world. However, the Light Force is nowhere to be found, and Vaati runs off. After the debacle is finished, the King, his remaining guards, and Link retreat to the castle's throne room. Here, the king informs Link of the story of the Picori Blade. The sword had been crafted by the Minish, a race of miniature humanoids, that have not interacted with humans for some time. They crafted the blade to stop the evil forces covering the land at the time. A great hero, the Hero of Men, had used the sword to save the world. Over time, the name "Minish" had fallen out of favor, and the Minish became known as the Picori. The Picori only appear in the human world once every hundred years. The king tells Link that he must get the Picori to reforge the blade, so that he can defeat the evil sorcerer. The king continues to inform Link that only children are said to now be able to see the Picori. Link is sent into the Minish Woods with the broken Picori Blade, as well as a sword given to him by the blacksmith. After wandering around aimlessly in the forest for some time, and coming to a dead end, Link hears a scream for help. He ventures once more through the Woods, and comes to the victim he heard yelling. It appears to be a small green hat with a bird head located at the top of it, and is being attacked by Octoroks. Link proceeds to save the hat, who takes a liking to Link, and decides to follow him around. He reveals that his name is Ezlo and, like Link, is also looking a way to break a curse placed upon him by Vaati. Unable to keep up with Links strong pace, Ezlo decides to sit upon Link's head, and this is where he stays for the remainder of the adventure.

While in Minish Woods, Link comes across an unassuming tree stump. Ezlo tells Link that by standing on it, he can be miniaturized. Link does so and is instantly shrunk to the size of the Minish. This way, Link is now able to enter the Minish Village, the home of the forest Minish. As he arrives, he is greeted with strange looks by the Minish, who have never seen any human of their size, let alone any human at all. Because the Minish speak a language unknown to humans, Link sets out to look for a Minish who speaks Hylian.

Link finds the mayor of the town, who is an self-proclaimed expert in humans, and tells them that by eating a Jabber Nut, they can understand the language of the Minish. Link consumes one found growing in a house made out of a barrel. With the new ability to understand the Minish language, Link can now converse with the denizens of Minish Village. Link is told to see the village elder.

The Elder tells Link that he must find the Four Elements, crystalline forms of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water, if he wishes to reforge the Picori blade. By infusing the four Elements with the Picori Blade, the sword's power will return. Link is told that the first Element resides within the Deepwood Shrine, a Minish construction located north of the Village. Fighting his way through the hordes of enemies now in the sanctuary, Link reaches the location of the first element. However, he is engaged by a Green Chu, really an ordinary ChuChu that is only giant relative to Link's current size. After defeating the monstrous Chu and obtaining the Earth Element, Link then returns to the elder. The elder tells Link to seek out a Minish by the name of Melari, a master swordsmith living at the summit of Mt. Crenel.

After the arduous hike up the mountain, Link meets Melari and his assistants. Melari starts to repair the Picori Blade, leaving Link to find the Fire Element, which is located within the Cave of Flames, a human mine long abandoned. When Link enters the mine, it is revealed that Mt. Crenel is volcanic in nature; lava pools are located deep within the mine. The monster Gleerok guards the Fire element. Link defeats Gleerok and obtains the Fire Element, which he takes back to Melari. When Link returns to Melari, Melari is just about done reforging the blade into the White Sword. Melari then tells Link to find the Elemental Sanctuary in order to fuse the power of the two Elements Link currently has with the White Sword. The Elemental Sanctuary is revealed to be located within Hyrule Castle.

While Link is traveling to Hyrule Castle, Vaati breaks into Hyrule Castle and impersonates King Daltus while imprisoning the real king. Vaati, as the king, orders the Hyrulean military to search for the Light Force and lock down the castle.

After avoiding the guards in Hyrule Castle, Link makes it into an inner courtyard. At the wall opposite the door to the courtyard, Link notices a strange, glowing doorway which only he and Ezlo can see. Link enters the doorway and finds the Elemental Sanctuary behind it. Link infuses the blade with the Earth and Fire elements. Suddenly, a giant stone slab appears behind Link. Ezlo translates the writing on the slab for Link. The slab tells of the true power of the blade, which can create up to four duplicates of the wielder of the sword. However, since the sword only contains the power of two Elements, Link can only be duplicated into two clones.

As Link steps outside the walls of Hyrule Castle, he comes across Vaati, who attempts to kill Link by creating an barrier and unleashing two Moblins within the barriered area. Once Link defeats the two monsters, Ezlo tells his backstory, revealing his relationship with Vaati.

In truth, both Elzo and Vaati were Minish. Ezlo was a powerful sorcerer and Vaati was his apprentice. Elzo had created a cap that could grant the wishes of its wearer in order to bring gifts upon the humans. However, Vaati, seeking power and authority, stole the cap from Ezlo and turned himself into a powerful mage. When Ezlo tried to talk Vaati out of stealing the cap, Vaati used his new powers to turn his master into a helpless hat.

After this unfortunate revelation, Link continues on his way to find the Wind Element, located within the Fortress of Winds, a set of ruins left by a long-forgotten civilization located across the Castor Wilds. In order to traverse the treacherous mud flats of the Castor Wilds, Link obtains the Pegasus Boots, which allow him to dash across the mud with ease. After traversing the swamp, Link enters an area of dry land filled with ruins and several Armos, which Ezlo reveals are ancient robotic servants of the Minish. Several of the Armos block Link's path, so he shrinks using the Minish portals in the area and turns the statues on. making them move away from the path. The path leads Link to the Fortress of Winds, where Link fights the guardian of the ruins, the ancient machine Mazaal. However, after Mazaal is defeated, the Wind Element is nowhere to be found. Instead, Link obtains the Ocarina of Wind, a magical instrument that allows the user to call upon the bird Zeffa to carry him or her to certain locations in Hyrule.

Link then looks for clues to where the Wind Element is located. In the process, Link learns about the location of the Water Element, located within the Temple of Droplets. However, to enter the Temple of Droplets, Link must be able to swim, which he currently cannot. Link seeks Librari, a Town Minish who is said to have entered the Temple. When Link enters the library where Librari is located, he learns that the path to Librari is blocked by holes left by overdue books. Link finds the overdue books and returns them. He finally reaches Librari, who tells Link about a treasure that allows people to swim. Librari then drops Link into a secret grotto below the library. After Link defeats the monsters within the grotto, he finds the Flippers, which allow him to swim without drowning.

With the Flippers in hand, Link can now swim in Lake Hylia in order to reach the Temple of Droplets. The Temple of Droplets acts as a large Minish Portal, which Link uses to shrink and enter the Temple's depths.

When Link enters, he finds the inside of the Temple completely frozen. Link finds the Big Key very early on in the dungeon; he enters the boss room to find a Big Octorok the guardian of the Temple, frozen inside a block of ice, along with the Water Element. Link then traverses the entire dungeon in order to open the boss room to sunlight and melt the ice. After melting the ice, the Big Octorok attacks Link, but Link successfully defeats it and obtains the Water Element.

When Link exits the Temple, the ghost of King Gustaf appears to him and tells him to come to his grave, located within the Royal Valley. After Link enters the Royal Crypt, Gustaf gives him a golden Kinstone piece to unlock the way to the Wind Element, now located high above Hyrule. Link fuses Kinstones with a mysterious wall near Veil Falls, opening a portal to the Cloud Tops. Link traverses the treacherous cloud layers, reaching the Tower of Winds, the residence of the extant members of the ancient Wind Tribe, who guard the entrance to the Palace of Winds, where the Wind Element is located.

Link is directed by several of the Wind Tribe members to the top of the Tower of Winds, which takes Link to the Palace of Winds. He traverses the Palace to find the Wind Element, which had been taken by the Gyorg Pair, a group of two manta ray-like flying monsters. Link defeats the two Gyorgs in a high-altitude battle and obtains the elusive Wind Element. Link then makes his way back to Hyrule Castle, where he fuses the Wind Element with the White Sword. After fusing all four Elements, the White Sword becomes known as the Four Sword. The power of the Four Sword allows Link to access a hidden room with a large stained-glass window, where it is revealed that Princess Zelda had the Light Force within her all this time. Link exits the Sanctuary to find that Vaati had impersonated the king. Vaati then knocks Link unconscious. Link finds himself outside the castle. He enters again, only to find that the castle had been completely transformed into a treacherous dungeon by Vaati. Vaati tells Link that at the end of three tolls of a bell, he would complete his extraction of the Light Force from Zelda's body, rendering her lifeless and Vaati unstoppable. Link successfully reaches Vaati with just one toll remaining; Vaati uses the power he had drained in that time to transform himself into powerful, demonic forms. With the power of the Four Sword, Link weakens Vaati and his powers; Zelda awakens and uses the wishing cap that Vaati stole to seal Vaati away, restore Hyrule, and destroy the cap. With Vaati's power gone, Ezlo is transformed into his original form. With the time that the Minish could stay in the human world almost up, Ezlo gives Link a green cap similar to Ezlo's hat form. After this last gesture of friendship, the Minish disappear into their own world, to return one hundred years later.