The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Prerelease Info Unused RoomsThere are many of them. System TextSystem text found within the game. Regional DifferencesThere's a whole lot to cover. English Translation Differences(Contains spoilers!) 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.

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.

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.

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.

Unused Goddess Pearls#

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

Unused Vaati Sprites#

Vaati looking to the side. Goes unused due to no situation ever requiring its 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.

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

Four Swords & ALTTP Leftovers#

File Selection#

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.

Leftover Enemies#

Zol & Gel#

Zols and Gels were originally enemies from Four Swords and were most likely replaced by ChuChus in the final game. They can be spawned in blue (YY=00), green (YY=01) and red (YY=02). There are no differences in behaviour from their Four Swords counterpart.

Regular Bubble and mini Bubble#

Bubbles were enemies that originally appeared in Death Mountain in Four Swords. They split into two when hit. Adding a parameter (33001852 000n) makes the Bubble split into n+2 Mini-Bubbles, up to 04, which makes the Bubble a one-hit kill.

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. Only the former is present in Minish Cap, and obtaining one simply plays the regular item jingle.

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, all swords are organized in the order you receive them. For example, the Smith's Sword is hex value 01, the White Sword with no infused elements is 02, etc. The unused sword has hex value 05, which is between 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. Specifically, it may once have been possible to get the White Sword with just one infused element; in the final game, it is only possible to get the White Sword with zero, two, or three infused elements.

No button graphic exists for the unused 05 sword; it uses the lantern, as shown in the picture above (assigned to button A).

Fire Rod#

Watch on YouTube

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.

Unused Enemies#

Watch on YouTube

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

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.

References#