The Music of The Minish Cap

The Minish Cap is a great handheld Zelda game. It features great exploration, story, and art. But one thing that sticks out about the game to me personally, is its music. It follows a very common style of many Game Boy Advance games, containing many modern chords, all done on with midi. But I am here to dive into the music of The Minish Cap, and how it sticks out, for the better or the worse, from the rest of the music present in the series. The Game Boy Advance had a life span during the introduction of modern handheld devices. Handheld consoles have been done in the past, but it was only until around the Game Boy Advance’s time frame when these devices had games just as lengthy and layered as previous home console games. The Minish Cap was the first  Game Boy Advance original Zelda game, but how does that effect its soundtrack? Hit the jump to find out!

As stated, the Game Boy Advance was released during the start of modern handhelds, and during that time in Japan, modern Jazz chords had become a standard in pop songs. Due to the popularity of the chord usage in the country, it would only be logical for the game composers to incorporate the chords into the soundtracks of the games, to prevent the games from feeling dated. This is precisely what Capcom did in many of there games in the Game Boy Advance lifespan.

A huge example of this is the Ace Attorney series. The series, known as Gyakuten Saiban in Japan, consisted of three games following the role of a lawyer. The first game takes place in 2016, each game following years after that. These games follow the Capcom style of Game Boy Advance music heavily, each song focusing on the modern chords. When these games had become such a success, it was only natural that Capcom focused on that type of music style, so that’s exactly what they did.

Mitsuhiko Takano, a composer for Capcom, and the composer of The Minish Cap, had composed many of the songs in his game soundtracks to follow that style of music. When given the job of The Minish Cap, most original songs from the game, primarily locations containing populations of Minish, follow this style of music. This creates a very unique sound to the game, giving the Minish a very advanced feel. This creates a fork in the road concerning how the music effects the game overall.

The Minish are stated to be very advanced, learning to live life safely out of site, helping other beings in order to help themselves survive. The modern sound to their tracks feeds the idea into the player, but this also leaves the Zelda style of music. Zelda games strive on their fantasy feel. The modern sound of the music detracts from this mood, and rather makes The Minish Cap feel more contemporary. A major part of handheld games is to make sure they feel like portable installments of the series, not an entirely different subsection of the series. The music makes the game feel highly unique, but not like a handheld Zelda game; more of a handheld game that just happens to be part of the Zelda series. Sure it may have all the same characters, but the series does rely strongly on its music.

Each game, though having its own soundtrack, create a certain feeling of adventure. The modern sound of The Minish Cap creates the feeling of sitting at a park in a city, rather than the feeling of running through large fields, killing monsters. Though there are certain tracks that do portray the latter, the former injures the feeling. I find this to be a major issue with the game. If a Zelda game’s soundtrack detracts from its sense of adventure, it kills the game. Though the music symbolizes an important mechanic of the game, it takes away from what the games are known for, adventure. But let us know what you think about the music of the The Minish Cap! Do you love it? Do you hate it? Let us know in the comments below! Thanks for reading!