Hyrule Warriors Legends: Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks Pack Expectations

Hyrule Warriors Legends will keep delivering throughout the year 2016, where two out of four DLC packs have been released already. The next pack is called the "Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks Pack", which is scheduled for a release in September, where now we can take the time to speculate about its exact contents.

It's going to feature one new character, one new weapon for Toon Link and a new Adventure Map with new 15 pieces of fairy clothing, as well as the usual color costumes and new 4+ weapons. The upcoming character already has been leaked, but we don't know his weapon type yet, so these speculations will draw on the weapons instead.

Since there hasn't been an official announcement yet, the weapon part will be hidden under spoiler button!

The Weapons

Toon Zelda is going to be the new character and not Linebeck, who seemed like the likeliest candidate. But together with Ganondorf's Wind Waker costume the Toon Trio will be reunited, where Koei Tecmo could probably reenact the final battle of the Wind Waker in some way.

But this isn't yet another Wind Waker Pack, it's a pack featuring Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, where Toon Zelda only appeared in the latter. It's the Zelda game, where Zelda has seen her most active role in the entire series, even though she ironically had to become a ghost first. It's doubtful that she actually will be a ghost in Hyrule Warriors as well, but it would make sense to have her control Phantoms in one way or another, who even appeared in both games. The Phantoms originated as a fearsome enemy type in Phantom Hourglass and then became controllable in Spirit Tracks.

Toon Zelda herself will probably use the Spirit Pipes as her weapon item to call and direct the Phantoms. There were even different Phantom types available: normal Phantoms, Swift Phantoms, Warp Phantoms, Torch Phantoms and Wrecker Phantoms. And probably the ones from Spirit Tracks are the most interesting for a moveset, especially the Torch Phantoms and the Wrecker Phantoms. It could be that a Phantom will follow Zelda around the battlefield and you can switch between the types with the Strong Attack, similar to the Dominion Rod, where you switch between the two different statues. Maybe a moveset could also involve Phantom Eyes in some way and summon multiple Warp Phantoms for a Special Move.

There doesn't seem to be anything else for Toon Zelda, which would be a good fit, so Phantoms are probably the best guess. The element also could be Fire based on the Torch and Wrecker Phantoms (which can roll around like Gorons), where this really is the only character, where a fire moveset would make sense in the DLC options. It's also the only element that the different Zelda incarnations don't use yet. The Hyrule Warriors Zelda already got Light, Lightning and Darkness, while Sheik has another Lightning weapon and Tetra uses Water. So, Toon Zelda with the Fire element would be in a way like Young Link, who's the only Link with a Darkness weapon.

The real question now lies within Toon Link's weapon. There are quite some different options in Spirit Tracks like the Whirlwind, the Whip, the Sand Wand and even something totally crazy like the Spirit Train. But if he also gets something from Spirit Tracks, the whole pack should just be called "Spirit Tracks Pack". There has to be something from Phantom Hourglass as well, which is where Toon Link's weapon comes in.

What seemingly still makes the most sense is the Grappling Hook, which in a way could even span both games similar to the Phantoms, because it would be used more like a whip and the Whip design with the snake head could even be used for one of its tiers. It could be a "Grappling Whip" weapon type, so to say. While it's an item that originated from the Wind Waker, it still got featured in Phantom Hourglass as well. And we did get the Pegasus Boots in the Link's Awakening Pack, while they originated in A Link to the Past. So, it's entirely possible.

With that a real "whip" weapon type could still be open for someone else in the future, e.g. Linkle, while Toon Link gets something that's equally fun. The Strong Attack could even be used for an interesting mechanic, where he steals loot from enemies, similar to the Wind Waker. This would certainly make this weapon type quite popular and it would be nice to have something other than the Gauntlets to interact with what's on the battlefield in a different way.

The only downside is that the Grappling Hook could also be a nice alternate weapon style for Medli, which would be taken away from her, while Toon Link still has several other options in the future, like the Four Sword. On the other hand certain weapon types may as well be shared between characters in the next Hyrule Warriors game (the Dominion Rod would be another candidate or the Deku Stick), where this wouldn't be an issue. Both Medli and Toon Link could share this weapon type.

It's also possible that Toon Link gets the Telescope and summons Linebeck and his boat into the battle. But that would be a terrible choice, because most fans probably would want to play as Linebeck himself. But there isn't really much else left from Phantom Hourglass. The Phantom Hourglass itself basically already is in the game with the Phantom Sword, where all its time freezing mechanics are completely ignored. And since Zelda is probably already going to get to control Phantoms, Toon Link should do something else entirely.

Another possibility would be the Hammer, as it was used in Phantom Hourglass. It was crazily overpowered there, which would match the ideals of Hyrule Warriors very well. But we already got a Hammer moveset for Darunia and every character can use the Hammer already, which looks a lot like the one from Phantom Hourglass.

The Adventure Map

Two words: Rail Map! There's no other way and it shouldn't be hard to translate this into some 8-Bit glory. Especially the travel music from Spirit Tracks in 8-Bit alone would be awesome. It's rather doubtful that they would do the Ocean King world from Phantom Hourglass, because this would just be a third Wind Waker Map. There's a lot more potential with the Rail Hyrule.

On both Wind Waker Maps you can see the 8-Bit characters sit in little boats. On the Rail Map they should sit in little minecarts (like in the Oracle games) and move on rails. You can only get to other screens, if they are connected via rails, where you have to unlock more rails to proceed. In a way it would be similar to the progression in Spirit Tracks.

Here are some Item Cards ideas with that concept in mind:

• Compass (of Light)
• Spirit Gems: make new rails appear
• Tears of Light: destroy Dark Trains to make enemies appear
• Rabbit Net: catch rabbits to unlock rewards
• Stamp Book: used on Stamp Stations to unlock rewards

The remaining seven Item Cards could be based on the different cargos: Cuccos, Fish, Lumber, Iron, Vessel, Mega Ice and Dark Ore. Similar to the Instruments of the Sirens, they could offer different buffs, when used in the right locations. Or maybe it's just an alternative way to unlock rewards. Or maybe they do both.


Costumes and other extras

There will probably be the usual 16 recolor costumes, but it would be awesome, if they made an exception and give us Toon Link's engineer clothes from Spirit Tracks as one of the unlockable costumes. It probably will be just something disappointing, though, like a mere recolor costume in the engineer colors or in Linebeck's colors. Toon Link will also probably get his 4+ sword on this map, where the recolor could be based on that.

Interestingly enough, King Daphnes already got an Oshus recolor and Darunia already got a Biggoron recolor, because otherwise you would expect these with this pack. Darunia could still get something from Spirit Tracks, however, like the Goron Elder or Embrose. The Lokomo in general seem to be good material for different recolors, e.g. an Anjean recolor for Tetra. And Volga should get a Byrne / Staven recolor, because both characters feel pretty similar to each other. The bosses in general might offer some good colors, where it would be nice to see a Bellum costume for Wizzro, since with both it's really all in the eyes.

Anyway, as for the fairy clothing you shouldn't be surprised, if those really got the engineer clothes and a Linebeck outfit just to tease you... Cole's hats are also a must somewhere.