#zettel #gaming/alive sourced from: [[The Minish Cap, The Legend of Zelda]], and https://www.backloggd.com/u/Cadensia/review/732506/ # Kinstone Pieces Make Minish Cap's World Feel Alive One of the most interesting parts of [[The Minish Cap, The Legend of Zelda|Minish Cap]] are the Kinstone piece fusions. While some are used to eventually progress the game like in the Castor Wilds, others are used to advance option sidequests, like the Gorons mining and everything. I think the Kinstone Fusion mechanic is especially cool because it makes the world feel alive. You can just talk with random NPCs in town and fuse a kinstone with them and it unlocks a cool underground space that leads to a piece of heart, for example. The world changes because you talk with people, and to see that in a GBA Legend of Zelda game is huge to me. My only gripe is that I have to guess and check which NPCs will lead to actually useful Kinstone interactions, which means I'm often wandering around the world to find *that one NPC* that will unlock a thing for a piece of heart, for example. But Aonuma (I think) was so impressed by the Kinstone Piece system, he expected it to become a mainstay of the series as it encourage player interaction with NPCs. ## Cadensia's Excellently Written Explanation >Link's strong connection to the world around him – especially Hyrule Town – may echo _Majora's Mask_ (2000), which deliberately designed Termina as a social dungeon. _The Minish Cap_ proposes something similar, but with less emphasis on solving people's problems: to create happiness, all that is needed is to fuse two fragments of a Kinstone, which will bring luck and happiness to those who come together. These Fusions are sometimes necessary to obtain key items and progress in the game, but most are optional and simply open secret passages. The player is constantly invited to re-explore previous areas, which become denser after each Fusion. This maximalist philosophy of area design helps to create a relatively small kingdom of Hyrule, but one filled with many secrets that reward thorough exploration. [^1] > >-- Cadensia's Review of the Legend of Zelda, the Minish Cap on Backloggd [^1]: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Cadensia/review/732506/