Spirit Tracks is the newest game in the The Legend of Zelda series and when the first trailer came out at the Game Developer Conference this year, the reactions of the Zelda Community were rather hostile. Some simply didn't like the fact, that it's going to be a direct sequel to Phantom Hourglass, a game some claim to be the worst game in the series. And others thought, that the train idea was ridiculous and that it just doesn't fit in a Zelda game. I on the other hand was quite positive about the game since the start. I wanted another Nintendo DS Zelda, because I enjoyed the touchscreen controls and I saw a lot of potential in Phantom Hourglass. Potential, that Nintendo was going to harvest. By now, after the Ghost Zelda trailer and the release of the game the opinion of the Zelda community about this game became rather positive. ZeldaInformer called it "the best Zelda since The Wind Waker", for some Zelda fans it's already in their list of top Zelda games, but I'd say that's because the current euphoria.
Here's what I think how the game performs in each individual category.
Story
Stories of videogames should have two characteristics, short but interesting. There is nothing worse than a wanna-be movie videogame, that leads you from one cutscene to another. Something like Twilight Princess, it was like a bad Zelda movie. In every single cutscene the player doesn't have control over the game, it also leads to a more linear game, just because the developers want to tell their stupid story. And video game developers are bad story tellers. However, the story of Spirit Tracks played out quite well. There's some story in the beginning of the game during the tutorial phase and there's the rest of the story at the end of the game, when you fight the bad guys. The rest of the game, you are left alone, so you can play the game and figure the rest of the story details out for yourself. It's exactly like it should be.
The story itself can be quite interesting, but also a little disappointing. What I really enjoyed are all the references to the previous generation, especially Niko, who even gives you items used by the Hero of Wind. It made the whole generations thing look much more solid. The villians are great, all scenes with chancellor Cole have this twisted Majora's Mask feel to them and Byrne/Staven was one badass character. He's someone, with whom you want to fight with and that's great. Just Malladus was a little weak, he was either a simple Ganon clone or a not self-aware reincarnation of Ganon. And he really wasn't driving the story. Who was driving the story was Zelda herself, it was a nice twist to have Ghost Zelda follow you around as your sidekick, even though that she could be a little bit annoying here and then. The story itself probably won't win an Oscar and it's pretty much the same story, that we got in many Zelda games. Someone threatens Hyrule and wants to resurrect an ancient evil (Ganon). We got that before with Agahnim in A Link to the Past or Zant in Twilight Princess.
Gameplay & Controls
If you've played Phantom Hourglass, you get the picture. Touchscreen controls, bird's eye view during the action parts and 3D gameplay during the train tours and some of the boss battles. New is a more extensive use of the microphone to use the Whirlwind and Spirit Pipes items, but it's actually more fun than it sounds.
During a part of the final boss fights my touchscreen went totally crazy and it was a real nightmare to play this part, however, this was only my experience and seems to be a problem with my Nintendo DS system, no one else reported something similar. It's just strange, that it ONLY happens during this fight and nowhere else.
The Train and the Overworld
Probably the most controverse feature of the game is the train. The idea behind it is pretty much having the steam boat from Phantom Hourglass on land. It works fine and it's actually much more entertaining than the boat rides. There's more to see, more to do and it's fun blowing the horn. But there are some downsides, too. The whole idea about the rails, that have disappeared and need to be resurrected, make the game very linear. In addition of that you have invincible trains, that you need to dodge, limiting the already limited freedom even more. Well, during the later half of the game, when you've unlocked most of the tracks, you hardly notice this anymore, but it's an issue during the first half. Also, the graphics during the train parts can be quite ugly like oversized pixels and 2D trees. In Phantom Hourglass the ocean world was much more simpler, but it looked decent. In Spirit Tracks there is much more to see, but what you see isn't always as pretty. But at least the Phantom Hourglass inspired Ocean Land looked fine, especially the underwater part.
But the biggest problem with the train was the speed. It's going very slow and there's no instant warping like the golden frogs in Phantom Hourglass. You only have the Warp Gates in certain locations, but their placement doesn't help you a lot, mostly just for certain sidequests. Travelling through Hyrule takes a lot of time.
The different areas, dungeons and villages in the game are pretty much just like islands in the water. Just with fields around them instead of water. It somehow reminded me of Zelda II, where the villages, dungeons and so on were just small places of a much larger map. It gave the whole world a little more magic to it, because it left certain parts to your imagination. While you go on train you will sometimes ask yourself things like what's behind that mountain or where could the other path lead. And sometimes you are even going to find out by unlocking new secret tracks and stations.
Game Course
The game is very linear. Go to the Tower of the Spirits, unlock more tracks, go to the next Sanctuary, unlock more tracks, go to the next dungeon, unlock another section of the Tower of Spirits, repeat. It's repetitive and gets boring fast. However, later in the game you will be so busy doing all the sidequests and exploring secret areas, that you hardly notice this any more.
The Dungeons
You don't have to be a Zelda expert to notice, how overused the elemental dungeon themes already are. You can already tell from the dungeon names: Wooded Temple, Blizzard Temple, Marine Temple, Mountain Temple. The whole cliched Forest, Fire, Water and Ice Temple thing was introduced in Ocarina of Time and since then, every game seems to copy it. And it's getting old. Where are the times of creative dungeon design like in Link's Awakening? There you got stuff like the Key Dungeon or the Eagle's Tower. And why does it always have to be a "temple"? The normal dungeons also all follow the typical built-around-an-item formula. You get an item, solve all the puzzles and beat the dungeon boss with it. Overall the dungeons were better than those from Phantom Hourglass, but it's still getting old.
However, the Tower of the Spirits makes up for that. With it's 30 floors it's the largest dungeon in the Zelda series so far, built around the new Phantom controlling feature and offering some of the best puzzles in the series. It's great and unlike it's older brother the Temple of the Ocean King it's always a lot fun to get back there. Primarily because they managed to fix all the issues from the last master dungeon. There's no time limit, the focus isn't set on the stealthing but on the co-op puzzles and you don't have to repeat the individual sections over and over again.
Additionally the game offers a series of fine minidungeons, that can give you quite a challenge. There are four or five of them (depends on if you count the Slippery Station as a minidungeon or as a mere minigame) and they are all of a very different type. From a classic endless maze, over a pure block puzzle dungeon to a replica of the Ocean King Temple, there's something for everyone.
The Phantom
The other big new feature next to the train was the Phantom controlling. This was already briefly explored in Phantom Hourglass, where you had a co-op dungeon with the Goron Temple and the young Goron and where you could control Phantoms in the multiplayer mode. Now they were taking it further and created some of the best puzzles in the series along their way. There are four different Phantom types to control, the normal Phantoms, the Torch Phantoms, who carry around a flaming sword, the Warp Phantoms, who can teleport themselves to Phantom Eyes, and the Wrecker Phantoms, who can curl themselves into a boulder. Each of them were used for different kinds of puzzles and it is a lot of fun to use the evil Phantoms from the previous game for your advantage.
The Items
One of the things I didn't like about Phantom Hourglass was, that there were only seven items. I definitely wanted more. In Spirit Tracks however it played out more well. We didn't get more items, but it felt like they were much better used. But this has something to do with the linear dungeon order, because that way they could use all previous items in one dungeon. Every coin got its two sides.
Three of the items in Phantom Hourglass made a return, but all of them got a twist to them. There is much more emphasis on the Boomerang's ability to carry elements around. It was like the Boomerang was the new Fire and Ice Rod/Arrow. When I learned, that the game would have the Bow again, I was somehow disappointed, because I would have liked something else like a crossbow or a slingshot. But the Light Bow upgrade definitely was a good excuse. And while the bombs haven't changed at all, they are completely optional this time around. They are required for some sidequests and might help you with the Wrecker Phantom parts, but you can complete the game without them.
The Bombchus, Grappling Hook, Magic Hammer and Shovel from the previous game are replaced by four new items. When I saw the Whirlwind in the first trailer, I thought it would be a waste, annoying to use and that it would become obsolete as soon as you get the Boomerang. I couldn't have been more wrong, there are plenty of uses for this item including blowing Phantoms around and it's a lot fun to use. Collecting lots of treasures in Whittleton/Mayscore doesn't get boring with that item. The Whip joins the arsenal as a cool new weapon, which does have its advantages, but isn't as overpowered as the Hammer in Phantom Hourglass. It's weaker than the sword, which makes sense, but it got a larger range, which helps keeping certain enemies at distance. There are also lots of other uses for the whip like doing the Indiana Jones or stealing shields from Zora Warriors. The Sand Staff joins the Cane of Somaria and the Magnetic Gloves in the ranks of best puzzle items ever. It's a sole puzzle item, but the puzzles are all quite good and it can also be used as a super shovel in sandy areas. Only downside is, that it's totally useless in areas without sand.
Last but not least is the addition of the Spirit Pipes. It's the first time since the N64 Zeldas, that we're getting to really play a musical instrument (not counting the Wind Waker). It's amazingly fun to play around with this item and the songs are all very inspired. You would expect the typical teleport and rain making songs from previous games, but instead you get the Song of Recovery, that acts as a potion, the Song of Discovery, that digs up hidden treasures, and the Song of Birds, which calls birds (and can cause funny reactions on chickens and seagulls). But the duets in the sanctuaries can be quite a problem, because you have to be in tact and sometimes you just don't know, what you're doing wrong. Some people are stuck there and can't finish the game, just because they can't get the song right. That's screwed up.
Enemies & Bosses
I was quite surprised, that they included some enemies from Twilight Princess, like the Bulblins riding on pigs and shooting Bomb Arrows or the Mini Freezards (which turn out to be frozen Oktoroks, funny). There are some new enemies too, like the whip guardians, the large club pirates or new types of Phantoms.
Most of the bosses in the game are the typical gigantic monsters with a uberobvious weakspot, that you have to attack with your newest addition to your equipment. Additionally Phantom Hourglass made better use of the second screen during the boss fights. For example there was only one fight, that gave you a different perspective. My favorite among all the bossfights was definitely Byrne/Staven, he was disappointingly short of health, but he offered the right head-to-head fighting mechanics. I want more of that and less of the item based bosses. There are also two different train bosses in the game, but the Rocktite, the Gohma thingy in the tunnels, can be a real pain in the ass.
However, the most horrid enemies in the game are the Dark Trains. Invincible enemies, that can kill you with one hit. Which is just cheap. Your only chance is to avoid them or to stun them temporarily. However, there are even stronger, armored versions, which can't be stunned, which can take 180 degrees turns on the tracks and and which will chase you around. Those trains limit the already very limited freedom on the tracks even more. Sometimes I chose to drive around territories with Dark Trains alltogether, which costs time. In the later half of the game, the trains are sometimes gone and replaced by pirate tanks, which can be destroyed easily. This is when you feel absolutely free and the game invites you to explore the tracks and hunt rabbits.
Sidequests
It doesn't look that way from the start, but the game is quite sidequest heavy and the sidequests really keep you entertained during the second half of the game. Most of them are collecting quests, but you'll also do quite some trading and exploring later in the game.
The rabbits are basically your Gold Skulltulas or Poe Souls in the game with the exception, that they only can be caught on train. I wonder why they had to give Link a small bug catching net, the minigames can be a little annoying, if you happen to miss the same bunny again and again. Because then you have to go back to a station and back to the spot, where you saw the bunny. And this can take time. But it's nice to see how the Rabbit Haven fills more and more up with bunnies, it's definitely one of my favorite places in the game, because it's somehow a small version of the entire overworld. And at least you get more than just rupees, even if it's just a Heart Container, lots of treasures and the Sword Beam move. But overall hunting the bunnies is not really fun compared to hunting the Gold Skulltulas for example, because it's always on the train, very predictable and sometimes quite annoying.
Then there's the stamp collecting. It's a good sidequest, some of the stamp stands are well hidden and the stamps all look really nice. But the best thing is definitely the rewards for this one, I really liked the outfit changes and it was nice getting old items used by the Hero of Winds.
There are eight additional Heart Containers, but finding them is a joke. There are all gotten in very obvious places like minigames or bought in shops. Gone are the days of secretly hidden Pieces of Heart in games like Link's Awakening, where you really had to keep looking. The same goes for the upgrades for your quiver and bomb bag, you get all of them in the minigames or shops.
One of the biggest problems with the sidequests of Phantom Hourglass was the massive randomness, especially getting all 64 ship parts could be a long and repetitive process. Spirit Tracks reduces the randomness to 16 treasure items, that are divided in four prices classes. There are different spots for the different price classes all over the game and there is a maximum of five different treasures per class, which means on the paper the chance of getting a specific treasure is 20% at the lowest. The 28 extra train cars are then bought from the treasures in Linebeck's shop. However, Nintendo screwed the system up by making some treasures appear more often or more rarely regardless of their price class to promote the Contact Mode. But don't be discouraged by this, getting all of the train cars still works much, much faster than getting all the ship parts in Phantom Hourglass. Also, there's nothing else in the game, that involves random factors. So, you don't have something like the Stowfish, it's just the treasures. But still the treasure and train cars system could have been much better without the cheating probabilities or with less randomness alltogether.
But the treasures have the advantage, that collecting them is more interesting than just collecting rupees. Take a look at Twilight Princess, where two out of three treasure chests would contain rupees and where the reward for collecting Poe Souls and Golden Bugs again was rupees. You were swimming in rupees in this game and you had no use for them except for buying and wearing the Magic Armor. Treasures on the other hand can always be changed into rupees, if you need them. And they also can have different uses like buying the train cars here in this game. It's also much more diversified. So, I would say, that Nintendo should keep the treasure system, as long as the probabilities of the treasures with the same value are the same and not different like in Spirit Tracks. And they should reduce the randomness more. There should be more spots, where you're guaranteed to find a specific treasure.
One of the most rewarding sidequests in the game is the transporting. You're transporting goods and people with your train between the various villages of the game and get Force Gems for your efforts. These Force Gems create new tracks and these tracks can either be short cuts or lead to Warp Gates and the hidden stations. The latter are the best part, these hidden stations offer the nice minidungeons of the game. Also, I enjoyed the trading of goods between the villages of the game.
But what was missing are collectible items, that you can get anywhere. Like Pieces of Heart, Spirit Gems or Gold Skulltulas. Something, that makes you look everywhere and in every corner. The rabbits are only gotten while you ride on your train. The Heart Containers and Quiver / Bomb Bag upgrades are gotten from minigames and shops. There's only one stamp stand per station. The train cars are bought in Linebeck's shop (which is good). The Force Gems are gotten from transporting people and goods. The only thing, that you can find everywhere, are the treasures. But they are random anyway and you can get tons of them from the minigames. So, if you miss some treasure chests inside the dungeons, you probably won't ever notice. There's no need for back tracking and there's no need to really look for something, which makes all the collecting quests in Spirit Tracks more predictable and boring.
Minigames
I've written an article about how bad minigames can screw a Zelda game up. Spirit Tracks holds up rather well in this category. Most of the minigames flow in well with the rest of the game, which means there's no Rollgoal or something else, that doesn't have anything to do with game's gameplay. Three minigames make a comeback from Phantom Hourglass and offer some variation, though they still feel very familiar. And there are some new minigames, which includes the rabbit hunting, the whip minigame, the Slippery Station and the "Take 'Em All On" minigame in Hyrule Castle Town.
The Slippery Station won't be everyone's thing, but you only get treasures there, which means, that you don't miss anything important, if you can't make it. The boss battle mode in Hyrule Castle Town was long demanded by fans, provides a good challenge and has a secret boss at the end. It's pretty much the highlight of the minigames in Spirit Tracks and hardcore Zelda fans will love it.
Difficulty
This is where the game really has improved, it's been a while, since a new Zelda games managed to challenge Zelda veterans. Overall the game is still quite easy, but especially the later sections of the Tower of Spirits offer some good puzzles, which require some creative thinking to solve them. Also, the boss rush mode and the hidden minidungeons add some more challenges for Zelda fans.
The game isn't very hard and it never gets frustrating, but it's definitely more challenging than the last three games in the series.
Music
One of the downsides of Phantom Hourglass was the monotonous and unspired music. Spirit Tracks on the other hand offers some best and most unique tunes in the series, especially the overworld and the title theme are real earworms. It's been a while, that the music in a Zelda game felt so fresh and special.
Multiplayer and other Features
The multiplayer overall looks more fun than the Battle Mode in Phantom Hourglass. Each player controls a Link in one of six dungeons filled with traps and Phantoms. It's quite similar to the Coin Battle mode in other Nintendo multiplayer games, just with Force Gems. But I can't say much about the multiplayer, because I can't play it. And that's the biggest downside, they removed the online mode for whatever reason. This is inacceptable, Zelda is not Mario Kart Wii or Wii Sports, where you easily find someone to play with. And even Mario Kart does have online. But for Spirit Tracks you need to find someone, who likes to play Zelda and who owns a Nintendo DS, and unless you live in Japan, where everyone runs around with Nintendo DS systems, this isn't so easy. Four Swords is the least played Zelda game and by now you should think, that Nintendo knows why. Online should be obligatory for every Nintendo DS game and especially for a Zelda game. They can make the best Zelda multiplayer ever, but it isn't of any use without online.
The game makes use of the internal Nintendo DS clock, but not as much as Phantom Hourglass did. At 12AM the treasures offered in the shops change and the daily lottery ends. This leads to some nice daily playing even after you've beaten the game, like ten minutes every day. I normally play the lottery, buy the treasures in the Beedle shop to reach the Diamond Membership level and collect some more treasures. There are some other sidequest events, that only take place after a day, like the times when Ferrus sends you a new letter. But there aren't any special events, that only take placed during a specific time. However, I would have liked to see Nintendo step the system up by including a day and night system, which is based on the internal clock. So, if you're playing at night, it's night in the game, like in Animal Crossing. I see, why Nintendo wouldn't want to do this, because there might be people, who only can play in the late evening, because they have to go to work and don't have the time to play during the day. But still it would have been nice to see the first handheld Zelda to use a day and night system. So far this has been exclusive to the four 3D console Zelda games.
On the bright side, the game doesn't have any DSi exclusive features. This was even unexpected, I really thought, that the game would have some gimmick to lure you into buying a DSi. But I'm happy, that my DSLite still does all jobs.
Summary
Overall Spirit Tracks offers the quality of the Zelda games from the last five years. The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass. The game definitely has its flaws, may it be the offline multiplayer, the messy graphics during the train rides, the cliched dungeons or the linearity. But it manages to surprise and challenge long time Zelda fans with creative new puzzles, to keep them entertained with some good sidequests like secret minidungeons and to please them with a great soundtrack.
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