The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is an action-adventure game and the twelfth entry in The Legend of Zelda series. The Minish Cap serves as a prequel to Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures, telling the origins of the titular Four Sword and the villain Vaati. The game retains many elements common to previous Zelda games, especially top-down predecessors such as A Link to the Past, and includes new features and mechanics. Chiefly, the protagonist Link acquires a magical talking cap named Ezlo, who can shrink Link to the diminutive size of a Minish.