Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Extra Entry

Okay, this is nothing too interesting, but more a note to myself. Over the holidays I played some more Spirit Tracks, like ten minutes every day. It became a small ritual. My main goal was to get the Diamond Membership level in the Beedle shop for a real 100% completion and to collect some more treasures on the way, especially rare ones.



To get the Diamond Membership level I bought the treasures, which were offered every day in the Beedle shop, and three packs of bombs. The treasures always were a 150 rupee treasure and a 500 rupee treasure sold for a higher price. (Well, I've already complained before, that the offerings in the Beedle shop are quite bad, so I won't do it again. :D) Every membership level gets you a new letter with a price and a new membership card, which gives you a higher discount in the Beedle shop. This is a list of the prices:

• Silver Membership: Freebie Card (200 Points)
• Gold Membership: Heart Container (500 points)
• Platinum Membership: Quintuple Points Card (1000 points)
• Diamond Membership: Regal Ring or maybe Alchemy/Priceless Stone (2000 points)

You get one point for every ten rupees you spent in the shop, which means you need to spent 20.000 rupees (!!!) alltogether. I got a Regal Ring for the efforts and I'm not sure, if you can also win an Alchemy Stone there or if it's always a Regal Ring. I've never used the Freebie or the Quintuple Points cards, because I want those items to stay in the menu (gives me more a feeling of completion). And I could have fastened this process by changing the internal clock of the Nintendo DS, but I enjoyed the small sessions every day, so I didn't do that.

I've also collected some more treasures during the days just for the fun of it. I always play the lottery, I repeated the Lost at Sea Station minidungeon some more times (always gives you a Regal Ring), played some of the minigames and blowed some leafs in Whittleton/Mayscore. By now I've already got six Alchemy/Priceless Stones and ten Regal Rings left over, which is more than enough to buy the entire golden train set three more times. So, if you're patient enough, collecting enough treasures shouldn't be a problem.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 9

I've finally got all the train cars and pretty much 100%ed the whole game with the exception of the higher membership levels in the Beedle shop and some treasure chests, which I may have overlooked somewhere. The different train sets are all very creative, especially the different horn sounds. The wooden train might be the exception, but that's the train from the beginning of the game, which gets destroyed after the tutorial. So, this set is special in its own way. All the full sets only give you six hearts, while the golden set gives you eight. Like I said yesterday getting the required treasures went very well, during the game I had problems finding Wood Hearts and Dark Pearl Loops, so I needed about 20 of the Wood Hearts and a dozen of the Dark Pearl Loops to complete my collection. But they came in well this time around, I didn't have the feeling anymore, that they were extremely rare. At least if you try hard enough and look in all possible spaces including the shops and the lottery, it shouldn't be a problem. Well, I'm really glad it just took me a couple of hours to get all train cars and not forever like the ship parts in Phantom Hourglass. I'm also glad, that you don't need to trade treasures in the Contact Mode to get a complete train collection.



So, it has been nine days full of fun. As for the next days, I will regulary buy the treasures in Beedle's shop to get the Diamond Membership Level, play the lottery every day and try to collect some more treasures. So, the game will probably keep me busy ten minutes every day over the holidays. Great game, review coming here after Christmas.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 8

Spoilers ahoi.

I know, I said yesterday, that it would be the last part, but today was a nice day. I've beaten the third level of the "Take Em All On" minigame in Hyrule Castle Town. It was MUCH easier than I expected. I thought earlier that there would be nine floors before each of the bosses, much like in Level 2. Which is why I gave up early the last time, the psychological pressure was just too high. :D But turns out, you only have to fight through the first series of "normal" enemies as a warm up and after that a pure boss rush starts. Which is totally fun. Also, the Great Spin Attack made some of the normal floors much more easier, especially the one with the three giant pirates. The secret boss at the end was a little disappointing, because he only had very low health, but it was cool nonetheless that they included a Dark Link. It's a nice easter egg. But hey, the effort gave me a Pirate's Necklace and an Ancient Gold Coin. Wait, I didn't even get a Regal Ring or a Alchemy Stone for the torture?! Very rewarding! :D Well, but the reward was somehow to see and fight the secret boss. And remember, that a lot of Zelda fans actually wanted a boss rush mode. Looks, like they are lucky this time.



Treasure hunting goes surprisingly well. There's a spot with leaves in the Disorientation Station on the highest level of the cliffs, that always gives you treasures. Just enter and leave the minidungeon, go to the spot and repeat. But the best spot to go for 50 rupee treasures is still Whittleton/Mayscore. As for the 150 rupee treasures, the sword training is definitely the fastest and easiest way to get them. Just get 60 hits, receive your reward and repeat. If you need 500 rupee treasures I advice the archery minigame, score more than 4000 points. You can also replay the Mini Ocean King Temple and earn more treasures doing so, if you'd like. Interestingly enough, the Wood Hearts and Dark Pearl Loops, that were very rare for me before, flow in normally by now. It's like the probabilities changed after a week or after I've finished the game. I got seven more train cars today (only four left) and I'm positive right now, that it won't take as long as to get all of them like it took to get all ship parts in Phantom Hourglass. Still the system could have been better, if there weren't any extra-rare treasures during the game.

And I finally have more time to notice all the small details in the game. Like for example if you play the Song of Birds next to a seagull (or is it a dove?), it will sit on your head and won't go away until you leave the area or start attacking something. It's really funny. Also, check out the quotes from the Phantoms in the Tower of the Spirits, some of them are quite funny. And I noticed, that I rarely found any buried treasures with the Song of Discovery. There are the obvious ones, where you get treasure maps or where the spots are somehow marked. But alltogether it was not a lot, so I'm looking for those right now. (Update: Apparently, there are only seven spots in the game.)

That's it for this little extra entry.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 7

Dear Rail Diary,
today I've finally beaten Spirit Tracks. It was about time. :D

Well, I accomplished to do, what I intended to do last night before I visit the final boss. I got the final Heart Container and I managed to get that last treasure chest in Hyrule Castle town. As for the Heart Container at Beedle's, he really has bad offerings in this game. Next to the two treasures, which he sells every day, he only offers a purple potion, a red potion and bombs. Well, I made Link drunk of purple potions and got the Heart Container. But some of those prize postcards or a golden potion would have been nice. About the treasure chest in Hyrule Castle town, I did look that up and the solution made me just say "why didn't I see that?". It's actually quite obvious if you look very closely at the map. I wished I hadn't looked the solution up, because if I would have figured out by myself, I would be very proud now. :D But at least I was able to solve all the other tricky puzzles in this game. And in this department Spirit Tracks really, really shines, it offers some clever puzzles, that require good creative thinking to solve them. I didn't have this "I don't have any clue how to solve this" feeling since Link's Awakening and N64 Zelda days. You know, where you would run around and try simply everything, but you can't come up with the solution. I had at least three of these moments in Spirit Tracks and I'm not someone, who sucks at puzzles, for example the ice block puzzles in Twilight Princess were a piece of cake for me. But if you remember my Difficulty of Zelda article it's exactly what I wanted for a new Zelda game. You could actually create puzzles that are really hard for longtime Zelda fans and easy to solve for new Zelda gamers. Because as a Zelda fan, who has played most of the games in the series, you're used to certain patterns and puzzles and you knew the solution to most of the puzzles in a new game like Twilight Princess in advance. But you can actually create puzzles, that hide the solution, if the player is thinking in those strict Zelda patterns. And some of the puzzles in Spirit Tracks are really awesome, especially in the later sections of the Spirit Tower. Aonuma promised this in one of the later interviews and looks like he kept his word.

And today was the today. I finally have beaten the game and the final boss. I kicked this moment down the road for a while, actually since Monday, and played lots of sidequests instead, simply because I didn't want this game to end and I still wanted to have something to look forward to. And this is a VERY good sign, if I actually do this. I will put the next paragraph and the screenshot in a spoiler box, just to make sure you don't get accidently spoiled. (The screenshots are actually made by ZeldaInformer, my train is golden by now. :D)

Okay, seriously... That was probably the most annoying final boss fight in any Zelda game. It's like they managed to take the most annoying things from the entire game and put a large concentration of it into the finale. I've constantly whined about those bomb trains, so you could imagine how much fun the first part was. Not very much. I know, I know, I actually should love the part, because it's the first time you get to kill those Phantom trains. It was somehow like Pacman on train and the looks were very cool. But the trains were actually faster than you and I died a few times by overestimating the time those Tears of Light would last. Or the trains would suddenly take turn in the middle of the tracks and run into me. Hello? My main problem is, that you don't just loose one heart, it's an instant Game Over and you have to start over again, if you make one single mistake. It's just cheap. Then I died once more during the chase battle, because the tracks suddenly disappeared at one point (if you take too long), so I had to repeat the first phase yet again. Thank goodness you could save after that or otherwise I would have lost all motivation. Well, the chase battle was actually really cool and badass if you knew what to do, but I could have passed on repeating the first part multiple times.



Next phase was Phantom and Link, but not a cool head-to-head fight like Staven/Byrne, but a cheap puzzle fight, where you have to start over and over again, if you screw something up, which also isn't too much fun. Cole is sending rats at Zelda, which is her greatest weakpoint, and if you miss to hit one of them, he will be able to control the Phantom. Actually the sequence wouldn't be too hard, if my touchscreen wouldn't have gone totally mad during this fight. It screwed up every time those train sections were starting to move, so I couldn't throw the boomerang to free the Phantom from Cole's strings until I was back at the start. And I had problems hitting the rats, because the aiming was off. It was like the entire input area moved to the side. I don't know if this is a bug, a problem with my screen protector or supposed to happen. But the game works perfectly fine everywhere else and if this is really supposed to happen, then it's an aweful and terrible idea. I was a big fan of the touch screen controls since the start, I didn't have any problems with the hourglass drawing in the final boss fight of Phantom Hourglass, but this sequence was a pure nightmare for me. I just made it with tons of luck. But there's no one out there reporting similar problems, so it might be just my Nintendo DS.

Next phase. Of course the annoying stuff wasn't just over yet. This fight was a test, if you are by now perfectly capable of striking your sword without accidently rolling even once. Well, I got the drill and didn't have problems with the rolling, but it was still a tricky sequence, that I needed to repeat many times. But you're not loosing much health and that way you can practice it until you get it right.

So, now the question is, what could be more annoying than death trains and messed up touchscreen controls? Of course! A session on your Spirit Pipes. Ugh. However, it was the title song and therefore somehow naturally to play and even fun. I noticed, if you move the Spirit Pipes faster, you can easily skip over the notes, which helps a lot. And this sequence was more forgiving, I played some wrong notes and it still gave me an "okay". The Dune Sanctuary Song was way more fussy. So, against my expectations this part went really smooth and well.

After all that annoying fuss and touchscreen troubles the real battle finally started and it was really awesome (loved the music!). Finally a fun fight, why not from the start? It's very similar to the final fight in The Wind Waker. Malladus, who looked like a mix between Ganon from Twilight Princess and Cole, was jumping around and Link had to distract him, so Zelda could shoot Ganon, errhhh Malladus with the Light Bow. However, this time, you're controlling Zelda, too. It's more fun than it sounds. You have a Light Bow icon at the bottom of the screen and the upper screen shows you Zelda's viewpoint. You just have to tab the icon as soon as she has a clear shot. You can move her around too, but it isn't really necessary, so you can concentrate on Link alltogether.

The final cutscenes were quite epic, but a little disappointing, because we aren't any smarter than we were before. Is Malladus now Ganon or not? You'd say no, but he sure resembled him, the idea of the big face sphere and the design of the beast were very similar to Twilight Princess, just a little more greenish. But we don't know for sure. It's left open to interpretation pretty much like the ending of Phantom Hourglass, which gave you the impression, that everything was just a dream like in Link's Awakening and that the Ocean King is the Windfish (just in the other timeline). But you can't be sure about that either and there are still Zelda fans, who say, that's ridiculous. So, there will probably lots of debate in Zelda Forums, who Malladus really was. Was that really Ganon or just a simple Ganon clone to fit the train story? Or maybe a reincarnation of Ganon, that isn't aware of its earlier self (yet)?

But hey, the Lokomo weren't half train half human after all. They are just too old and lazy to walk. The scene also slightly adressed the topic of characters being reborn. It's said that the spirit is persistent and that the person will come to live in another time again without his previous memories. It could explain all those multiple Links, Zeldas and Tingles over the ages. And there are three different ending scenes, which depend on the choice you've made, when Zelda asks you, what you want to become. I watched the other two on Youtube, because I don't want to play that fight again right soon, but none of them is actually special.

Don't get me wrong, I loved how they pulled the fights off. The use of the characters (and especially Byrne's tragic death in the cutscenes) was really well done, the music was great and it was all quite epic. I'm just totally pissed right now, that my touchscreen went so buggy during the Puppet Zelda part. I have to figure out, why's that and try it again later.

I didn't have the chance to play the multiplayer mode yet and I doubt, that I will ever have the chance. See, I'm not someone, who always whines about missing online mode, because he doesn't have any friends or something. I'm perfectly fine with games like Wii Sports Resort or New Super Mario Bros. Wii not having online functionality, because those games are all about the local multiplayer experience and it's really easy to find someone to play those games with you. Everybody loves the Wii. But none of my friends or colleagues are interested in Zelda. I don't even know anyone, who does have a Nintendo DS. So, how am I supposed to play the multiplayer, Nintendo? This is not Japan, where everyone runs around with Nintendo DS systems and plays Zelda on the streets. I wouldn't mind the missing online too much, if it didn't affect the singleplayer mode in a way. But you're supposed to trade treasures to complete your train car collection, but you can't trade treasures without the online mode. Remember that you would need to find someone, who also plays the game and who also desperately wants all train cars. Go figure. Online it would be not a problem thanks to countless Zelda freaks crawling internet boards, but offline here in Europe or the States? Good luck.

So, what's left to do is lots of treasure hunting. I got enough of the 500 rupee treasures, I mostly need treasures in 150 or 50 rupee category. The easiest way to get 50 rupee treasures is blowing leaves away in Mayscore/Whittleton. And the fastest way to get 150 rupee treasures is the sword pratice minigame in Hyrule Castle, just make 60 hits, score a treasure, repeat. I even got my first Dark Pearl Loop there, just eleven more to go... The pirate archery minigame and the goron target range are also very good for treasures, but they take too much time to complete them. I want lots of treasures in a short time. The whip minigame is faster, but you have to concentrate more. In Phantom Hourglass the archery minigame was the most effecient way of collecting ship parts, but here I haven't figured the best way for me out yet. But one thing is sure, it's going to be a long, boring and repetitive process. Thanks, Nintendo... Ah, and I haven't beaten the third level of the Take 'Em All Down minigame yet, where the secret boss awaits me (yeah, I know already).

It's a hidden Dark Link!!! How AWESOME is that?! Together with all those nice minidungeons the game offers some of the best sidequests in the series. Nice. But I haven't seen him for myself yet, so I'm not sure, if it's really Dark Link or simply a Link doppelgänger like those in the Palace of the Four Sword. But it's definitely a big motivation for playing through the entire level.

This was (probably) the final entry in my Rail Diary. I hope I didn't bore you too much and I will write a real review for Spirit Tracks this weekend.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 6

This night I gave that Dark Ore sidequest another chance. Luckily the nasty train tunnel boss was gone after beating it once and I could deliver enough Ore to Linebeck safely in time. This unlocked yet another secret station with a minidungeon on it. Spirit Tracks is a minidungeon paradise! The Lost Sea Station is inhabited by countless birds and you can test the reaction of all bird types here to the Song of Birds. Chickens will follow you in a row (like in Majora's Mask, when you used the Bremen Mask) and the seagulls will sit on your head. Overall the place looks rather harmless, but what's inside the small hidden cave is quite the shocker. A replica of the Ocean King Temple! Woah... Well, it's not an exact replica and it got "only" five floors, but it's still the largest and probably most challenging of the additional minidungeons. You're not allowed to use sword and bow, so you can't stun the Phantoms with your Lokomo Sword or Light Bow and Zelda can't control them. Each floor of the dungeon represents one of the different Phantom types in the game. The first floor got normal Phantoms and you're supposed to light some torches. The second floor is a dark area, where Torch Phantoms patrol, and you have to blow out torches. The third floor features Warp Phantoms and four pairs of switches. Every pair got a right switch and a fake switch. If you draw the wrong one, more Phantom Eyes are released on the floor. Floor Nr. 4 then has lots of Wrecker Phantoms and crumbled blocks. You need to destroy all those blocks in order to proceed. The bombs really are useful on this floor (but don't forget that Bombs are an optional item in the game and you're not supposed to have them). The last floor offers four treasure chests and is a combination of all the above floors. All four types of Phantoms patrol here and you have to solve similar puzzles in order to get all treasure chests and beat the dungeon. Cool, huh? The dungeon isn't too much of a problem, after playing the Temple of the Ocean King dozens of times and the Tower of the Spirits recently, you should be an expert veteran for this specific type of dungeon by now. Still the feeling of having to play such a dungeon yet again alone gave me the creeps. I was like "oh no".

However, you only get one of the two golden treasures at the end (a Regal Ring). Again. Seriously, they should have added a Heart Container in this spot. While all those minidungeons are really awesome, they aren't really worth all the effort. I mean, just think about what you all had to do for that sidequest. You had to discover the Dark Ore Mine, beat yet another of those terrible train tunnel monster crab spider bosses, transport the Ore in time, discover the hidden minidungeon, beat five floors full of classic Ocean King Temple action and all you get is some treasures? And on the other hand the supposed to be rare Heart Containers are funny giveaways in minigames. But for example the archery minigame and the whip minigame both give you an upgrade for your bombbag/quiver AND a Heart Container. Why not just the upgrades, while the Heart Containers are put in some of the minidungeons? Would be way better. Or why not give the player some more fun items? For example the Slippery Temple minigame could have given you "Snowshoes" at the end, that let you walk normally on ice. Remember the Snowshoe Ring from the Oracle games? Like that one.

Well, for me the tour through Lost Sea Station Temple was worth it, because I finally got enough treasures to complete my golden train. Shiny. Gives you eight hearts like the golden ship set in Phantom Hourglass and looks really shiny. And the horn has the sound of a large bell. But interestingly enough it's actually the first set, that I've completed. It looks like one or two of the cheaper treasures are coming in more rarely than the others. For example I couldn't find a single Dark Pearl Loop in the entire game. Not even one. There are similar reports on GameFAQs, that people have problems finding certain cheaper treasures. Like Demon Fossils or Ruto Crowns. Could be, that Nintendo made certain pieces extra rare to encourage the stupid trading mode. And on the other hand they removed online. Really nice, Nintendo, break my legs and send me on a marathon. Overall I thought the new treasure and train car system is much better and solid than the treasures and ship parts in Phantom Hourglass. If all the treasures of the same price class would have the same chance of appearing (like it's supposed to be and like it was in Phantom Hourglass), you should have nearly enough treasures to buy all trains cars at the end of the game. There might be some pieces of one kind missing, but not dozens. In Phantom Hourglass the probabilities worked out right, if a treasure or a ship part had the same value, they had the same chance of appearing. And there were spots, that will give you rarer items more often. It worked perfectly. The problem with the system in Phantom Hourglass was simply, that were way too many random items. 64 ship parts to collect, so it would take forever to get a specific part. When you were down to one or two, it could be quite the annoying process of doing the same thing (like playing a minigame) over and over and over and over again without any luck. I was hoping, this wouldn't be the case in Spirit Tracks thanks to the better system. But of course Nintendo had to screw it up and just because they think it's fun to force you to use a multiplayer mode, that you can't play, if you don't know any Zelda fans personally (Four Swords anyone?). So, I will probably end up trying to find Dark Pearl Loops and other missing treasures over the next few weeks. Annoying, boring and unnecessary process. I'm still missing 11 train cars and it could take some time to get all of them. For someone like me, who always wants to get 100% of all the items, it totally kills the replay value of the game.

Besides completing the golden train I finally caught all 50 rabbits and collected all 20 stamps. Both got you an ancient sword scroll, one for the Sword Beam and one for the Great Spin Attack. The one for the Great Spin Attack is the same one you got in Phantom Hourglass, just much, much older. Both are nice rewards, the flaming sword technique would have been nice too, but I guess this is what the Torch Phantoms are good for. The only thing I'm missing next to some train cars is the Heart Container at Beedle's. And first I thought, the small island in the southeast of the Forest Land holds another hidden station with a minidungeon on it. Which is why I was looking in all villages for potential passengers or people, who want goods, without any luck. For a good reason, like I soon would notice. I've also tried the third level of the Savage Labyrinth / Cave of Ordeals clone in Hyrule Castle Town, that one is insane. You can't even use the stupid Song of Recovery. First time I've played the song and I wasn't allowed to use it, awesome. But I didn't have the new sword techniques yet, so I will sure try again fully armed and more ready. I guess, at least the room with the three big pirates will be much easier with the Great Spin Attack. Another big challenge in Hyrule Castle Town is the treasure chest on top of the house next to the Cucco hut. I can't fly to it with a Cucco (or can I?) and I don't have any idea how to get there. Maybe a bridge is built from the wall to the house, but how do I trigger it? There was a similar puzzle in Twilight Princess at the south exit of Hyrule Castle Town. No, not the treasure chest in the middle of the pond, where you had to use the Spinner. That one was easy. There was another one on top of the pillars and I couldn't figure out how to get there. Turned out there was a ledge along the castle town wall and you could move over to the chest by hand. It's quite similar here, I have no idea how to get the chest in Spirit Tracks, but it's probably very easy. I won't look it up somewhere and please don't tell me, I want to find out for myself. Also, I've heard about a secret boss somewhere. I have no clue, where it could be, but I also want to find that out for myself. My best guess is, that he waits at the end of the third boss rush level.

So, most of the sidequests are done by now, so I decided to return to the Tower of Spirits. Earlier I thought I was done with that dungeon after beating Byrne/Staven, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.



I like it, how they placed the stamp stand on top of the tower, I was afraid, that I missed it earlier. You could rush through the last section again and I started to feel like, that this simply can't be it. Of course not, seven more floors and yet the hardest part of the dungeon awaited you. With 30 floors alltogether the Tower of the Spirits is the longest and largest dungeon in the entire Zelda series. It's amazing. Like the last floor of the Lost Sea Station Temple the last section now dealt with all four types of Phantoms and using them for the right puzzles. The beginning of the section was very confusing, but as soon as you cleared the entire dark floor and got access to all the Phantom types it got easier. I liked the idea of the three doors and choosing the right one, but that would have been nasty, if one door leads to the end and the other two make you to go through more torments. But of course you had to clear what's behind all three doors. After that came some more co-op fights at the end and a final floor having all four Phantom types. Nintendo sure is proud of the different Phantoms they created. But overall the last section was a good challenge, a worthy final dungeon. My vision of hunting the Gannon-Train like the Ghost Ship in The Wind Waker didn't become a reality, but the Golden Compass opened the path to the island, where I wanted to go earlier and thought it was sidequest related.

Of course I haven't gone there yet, I'm saving it for tomorrow. :D Tonight I'll try to get the last Heart Container and the tricky chest in Hyrule Castle Town. And tomorrow then will probably be the last entry in my Rail Diary.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 5

Wow, Spirit Tracks gets more and more fun. I've previously complained, that the game is very monotone and linear. But between all the sidequests I hardly don't notice this anymore. It's a little bit like Majora's Mask, the four dungeons there are played in a strict order and every dungeon follows a certain pattern (like getting a new song to access it), but overall the game is so stuffed with sidequests, that you don't care or notice. Though Spirit Tracks doesn't offer any big sidequests like Majora's Mask does, there's plenty to do and to discover. Especially the hidden stations and their minidungeons are to my liking.

But I wasn't all lazy, I finally managed to play the Desert Temple. It was like I thought, the dungeon wasn't hard at all and pretty short. But still sweet thanks to the newest addition to the Zelda series, the Sand Staff. Really cool puzzle item, which also acts as some kind of Hyper Shovel in sand regions. I didn't like the fact, that there was no shovel in the game. It's actually the first handheld Zelda without a shovel, but now I perfectly understand, why they cut the shovel item out. For example in the Dune Sanctuary you can dig up hundreds of rupees in no time. Together with the Song of Discovery this is more than enough. There were some really nice puzzles in the Desert Temple, that made use of the Sand Staff. I played so much around with that item, that I accidently found the hidden key on the basement floor. Before that I wondered what "the key lies between the 1 and the 3" means, which referred to the eye switches on the floor. Fun item. The boss at the end of the dungeon was a pure puzzle boss and couldn't hold up to Byrne/Staven at all. But he looked like Stallord's little brother.



And the dungeon finally broke the overall pattern, instead of adding another section on the Tower of Spirits, it got you even another item, the Bow of Light. It works exactly as the similar item in The Minish Cap, if you draw and hold your bow for a second it powers the normal arrows up to Light Arrows, which insta-kill most enemies and even shoot through them. However, while this is awesome, it makes the archery minigame a little harder. The trick there is to draw and hold the bow while aiming, so the arrows shoot without the delay. Without that method it would be impossible to beat the similar minigame in Phantom Hourglass. And you can't do that any more, because if you load up a Light Arrow, it shoots through the enemies and you loose some bonus points. I still managed to beat 5000 points though even with the Light Bow, it's just not as easy.

And that's not it. The reward for the Desert Temple was not one, not two, but THREE items. In the cutscenes directly after the dungeon the Lokomo hag Anjean also handed me the Lokomo Sword. Couldn't she give me that right from the start? :D But the sword design is such a joke, it's the Master Sword (again!) just with rails engraved on the blade and a steam engine gear style handle. Like the Phantom Sword was just the Master Sword with the Phantom Hourglass in the handle. Lame. They could have come up with something more interesting. Like for example instead of just engraving rails on the blade, make the blade itself look like a rail. Something like the Razor Sword from Majora's Mask just longer and unbreakable. And with a different handle. Maybe in the dark red color of Links hat (the one from the engineer's uniform, not the his green tunic), that would have looked more unique.

However, now I'm supposed to return to the Tower of Spirits yet again. I sure hope, that I don't have to repeat that last section a second time, because the last section sucked. Useless Wrecker Phantoms. Also, this is not the Ocean King Temple, I don't want to repeat anything except for hunting missed treasures. However, the Lokomo Sword may change things. I probably won't have to collect the Tears of Light anymore and just go for the Phantoms straight ahead. My mission is to find a Golden Compass (a compass in a NDS Zelda game? Woah, and that's when I thought, I've seen everything...), that guides my to the Demon Train. It sounds a little bit like the Ghost Ship in The Wind Waker. You weren't able to access it without the Ghost Ship Chart. Probably the Gannon-Train goes over the Spirit Tracks somewhere, but I can't see it without the compass.

But before that I discovered two more hidden stations, both in the desert part of the Fire Land. First was the End of the Earth Station with its clever Sand Staff puzzles. Spirit Tracks definitely offers some of the best puzzles in the Zelda series since a while. You have to say that. I've beaten all three levels and got a Heart Container and one more Regal Ring on the way. The last level was really tricky, but it's nice to finally use your brain again for a puzzle in a Zelda game. The other station was the Dark Ore Mine and I only managed to deliver two bars. Stupid spider-crab-monster-thingy in the tunnel, I hate that thing. I sure hope, it doesn't respawn or something when I try again tomorrow.

Now I'm only missing one Heart Container, which is the one in the Beedle Shop. But seriously, the Beedle doesn't have ANYTHING worth spending rupees on. Just some worthless, overpriced treasures. He doesn't even offer the Golden Potion. I managed to get the Silver Membership somehow, but still no Heart Container. Sucker.

It's day 5 and I haven't beaten the game yet. Mostly because I'm taking it slowly or otherwise I would be through since yesterday. But for some reason I don't want the game to end just yet. And that's a very good sign. Spirit Tracks definitely is not the best Zelda game, but more and more I'm starting to like it. Choo-choo.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 4

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. If you haven't finished the Spirit Tower yet, stop right here. You've been warned.

The last section of the Tower of Spirits wasn't the best, the Wrecker Phantoms or "Goron Phantoms" how I like to call them are pretty useless. They can curl into a bolder and roll around, as well as move large blocks (not sure, if the other Phantoms can't move these blocks, I haven't tested it). But on the other hand they can't carry you, can't distract other Phantoms and can't walk over lava. Lots of downsides, which is why you had to find a normal Phantom first and got more of them than you wanted at a specific point. The Warp Phantoms were much more fun. There was again a clever puzzle right before the room with the Boss Key, that also took me a while. Puzzle-wise this game is really not bad.

And at the end of the tower the most stylish boss fight in the game so far awaited you. Byrne/Staven is quite the tragic villain, I like his character. And his fight was purely awesome, it got good fighting dynamics, head-to-head combat. This is what I also liked so much about the Linebeck Phantom fight at the end of Phantom Hourglass or the Ganondorf fight at the end of Twilight Princess. Not some gigantic monster with some puzzle elements and an huge eye as its weak spot. Just you and and a worthy enemy crossing their swords. And it was definitely the best fight with Link and Zelda battling together so far. Epic and lots of fun. The cutscenes after this fight were humerous, dark and offered some nice twists. Storywise this game really shines, it doesn't bother you with too much cutscenes and the few cutscenes are really great and got this dark and twisted Majora's Mask touch written all over them. I like it. But Zelda is quite the loudmouth in this game, I know she has to speak for our silent protagonist, but sometimes she is a little annoying.

Next station was the Desert Land. I love the Desert Land, probably the best area in the entire game. No annoying bomb trains, the sand shark enemies were really cool and overall it was small but nice. It's even the first area, where I got all the rabbits. But what pissed me off was the duet in the Sand Sanctuary. Took me ten times to get this one right. Sometimes the mic was just off and I was playing the same note twice. What was Nintendo thinking here? The way you were playing musical instruments back on the N64 was okay, just play the right notes in the right order. No tact or something. If you aren't gifted in music, you still could finish the game.



Before playing the Desert Temple I decided to clear some more sidequests. I'm really into sidequests at the moment, expanding the railroads, hunting bunnies (got 47 of 50 by now) and so on. I probably stopped playing before the temple, because I wanted to save the best for the last. They really hyped the dungeon, telling you it's an immense fortress, that was only built for one purpose, to protect the Light Bow. It's supposed to be your biggest trial so far. Well, I bet the dungeon will be easy as cake. The outside was plastered with cannons, that looked like from a Star Wars movie. That was a little bit too much for my taste. It's a pyramid in the desert, not the Death Star.

But there are tons of sidequests in this game. Nothing in the ranks of Kafei and Anju, but still enough to keep you entertained for a while. I unlocked eight of these "Stargates" by now (which should be all), which makes travelling much easier, and more hidden tracks. Some of those even lead to unexpected, hidden places like the Pirates' Hideout. I was pretty good in the archery minigame back in Phantom Hourglass, used it to get tons of ship parts. And I see myself already playing the minigame there to get lots of rare treasures. Even though the middle part is a little laggy. (The same happens, when the tank pirates attack you, the game slows down a little). And there was the Disorientation Station in the Fire Land with that crazy labyrinth. I got my first Priceless/Alchemy Stone from there. Another hidden station was the Snowdrift Station, that also had a nice minidungeon, which also got me a Alchemy/Priceless Stone as a reward. However, I simply can't find the stamp stands in both hidden stations, the same goes for the Bridge Worker's House. Either they simply don't have stanps or they are so well hidden, that it drives me crazy. I mapped the entire Disorientation Station labyrinth out, because I thought, the stamp stand might be hidden in there somewhere. (Maybe I draw the map with photoshop and post it here later, it's quite cool) But by now I'm thinking, they just don't have stamps. I only have four pages left and still need to find the Desert Temple and Papuchia Village stamps.

By the way, the postcard lottery game is really awesome. If you send 20 of those cards, you always get the 1st price. Got myself two Regal Rings that way. A Regal Ring is worth 2500 rupees, 20 postcards cost 200 rupees. You do the math. Too bad I can't just sell the yet, I probably will need them for the golden train cars. I'm pretty sure, that there will be golden train cars in the game and Linebeck already showed huge interest in the Regal Rings.

Train carts are coming in slowly, I got the demon and the black train set nearly complete with the exception of the wagon. I'm using the black train right now, because it takes me back to childhood. This may sound totally cheesy, but I grew up in the German Uplands with small villages, mountains, forests, lakes, castles and locomotives going on a narrow-gauge railroad. That's right, it's quite the tourist attraction there. And it's definitely one nice place to grow up. So, playing Spirit Tracks somehow takes me back there, it's very nice. I definitely understand, what Aonuma saw in that idea. However, I wonder, what childhood memories include kamikaze-trains aiming for you. As soon as those things pop up on my map again, the fun is over. Worst idea ever. See, I don't have a problem with the trains running into you, but I have a problem with the fact, that you can't destroy them. I hate invincible enemies. Invincible enemies, that can kill you with one hit even more. Not fun. But more and more they seem to be gone and replaced by the tank pirates. It depends from where you enter the map.

Little Update: Linebeck's finally selling the golden parts and I bought three of them already. Awesome. Looks like certain parts are unlocked by getting the treasures, which you need for them. For example I couldn't buy any wooden parts before, because I didn't have any Wooden Hearts until recently. The same with the golden parts, because of the Alchemy Stone. Now I'm able to finally map out, how many of each treasure I will need to buy all trains cars, so I could sell the surplus to get that 2000 rupee Heart Container (already got the quiver). And you only need two Regal Rings and two Alchemy/Priceless Stones, which I already had, which is convenient. Talking about those rare treasures, I also found another of these hidden stations, the Slippery Station. Quite the minigame, but I managed to beat all three levels after a couple of tries and won another Priceless Stone (lucky me!). The whole minigame probably just exists because of the new rolling technique, which is a shame actually. And I guess this confirms, that those small places don't have stamps.

So, this was more of a sidequest day. Maybe I will play the Desert Temple tomorrow then.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 3

Not much progress today. Last night I cleared the fourth dungeon, the Mountain Temple. That dungeon was really cool, I simply love mine carts in this type of games, pretty much since Mystic Quest. And there was finally a different music piece for the normal dungeons, it sounded pretty nice and I guess it will be used in the Desert / Sand Temple too, because it got some typical desert music tunes in it. The boss was a little bit too much puzzling for my taste, but still a good one. So far the bosses were all quite good, but none of them delivered some fresh ideas, it was pretty much all standard cost.

And I really like the Fire Land, all the red colors and the view down on the rest of Hyrule. And as soon as you completed the ice transport mission, the bomb trains are gone. Awesome. They haven't come back yet, which resulted in heavy Rabbit hunting on my side. I already found seven or so Rabbits there. Also, the second time transporting the ice was much, much easier, since you were able to use the straight route and didn't have to dodge those bomb trains. The train travelling is so much more fun, if you don't have to worry about those damn things. Without them you're free to take every route you want and you feel so much more free that way, willingly to explore the vast lands. I hope, at the end of the game the bomb trains will be gone alltogether.



But the whole transport goods and passengers is a little bit too much. Most of the time today I was busy with side quests. Once you brought a person from A to B, you find another person at B, that wants to go to C, where someone else wants you to bring goods from D. It's never ending! But doing this unlocks more tracks and shortcuts. The Warp Gate system is actually a little confusing and I didn't use its advantage for a long time. Especially because some of the gates are located in areas with those bomb trains.

And the game is so monotonous and linear, it's terrible. It's not like it is the only linear Zelda game, it makes best friend with The Minish Cap and Twilight Princess, but even those two managed somehow to break the patterns. But here it's all the same. You unlock some new tracks in the Spirit Tower, then you visit one of those Locomo idiots and play a little serenade with him (which always takes multiply times to play it correctly for whatever reason), so some more tracks get unlock to reach the dungeon. The dungeons follow the "get item, solve item related puzzles, kill boss with item" pattern and unlock a new section of the tower. You go back to the tower and the whole thing repeats itself. Ugh. Where are the golden times of games like Link's Awakening or Ocarina of Time, where every dungeon felt like a totally new adventure? Or even Phantom Hourglass managed to do a much better job at this, there you could get two sea charts at once and then play the last three dungeons in ANY order. Something like this seems not to be possible in Spirit Tracks, it's all mapped out and very linear. Aonuma says, they are working to break all those patterns in Zelda Wii, but honestly, they should have tried that in Spirit Tracks already. This game would have been a better choice for experiments anyway.

Like I said, I spent most time today with sidequests. Hunting bunnies, transporting stuff and playing minigames. But hey, I have a real money problem. There's a Heart Container for sale at the Snow Sanctuary and a bigger quiver in the shop of the Goron Village, both cost 2000 rupees each. Where am I supposed to get this money from? In Phantom Hourglass I would sell treasures and duplicate ship parts to get TONS of money. 9999 rupees? Not a problem there! But here I can't sell the treasures, because you need them for the train cars and of course there aren't any duplicate train carts to sell. So, where's the money supposed to come from?

About the Song of Recovery. I was confused earlier about the statement, that you only can use it once. But it should say "once per dungeon". As soon as you leave the dungeon, you get a refill. It's pretty much like always having a back up potion, which is good. Might come in handy for the third part of the "Catch em all" minigame. Parts 1 and 2 were manageable, but fighting all five bosses from the game and tons of enemies in one row might get exhausting. But at least the minigame gives you the opportunity to fight the bosses a second time. Like Ganon's Castle in The Wind Waker. I just wish it would be more like one part for each boss and not stacked up.

And I was right, you get the Engineer's clothes from Niko, when you collect 15 stamps, yay. That's so cool, I'm already using it all the time, that's one nice reward for a sidequest. I wonder, what I will get next. About the Ancient Shield, that one is kind of buggy. I went back to Outset Village and switched it back to a normal shield, because I was afraid it could get eaten by Like Likes (turns out it can't, which is pretty much the "upgrade"). However, my normal shield got eaten away, so I bought a new shield. A normal shield. But next time I'm playing I got the Ancient Shield back... strange bug.

I also noticed that the English translation of the US and the European version is somehow different this time. For example "Ancient Shield" and "Shield of Antiquity" or "Staven" and "Byrne". That's not usual, normally at least the names of characters, places and items are the same. It's already always confusing for me to deal with the German translation, but having two different English versions makes it even worse.

That's it for today, more tomorrow. But I'm glad, I haven't finished the game yet.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 2

I warn you again, these posts contain spoilers. If you haven't entered the fourth land of Spirit Tracks yet, stop reading now.

I played a lot since my post yesterday and right now I'm at the Goron Village, where I got a mine cart for my train. The Gorons seem to be much more interesting than in Phantom Hourglass, I mean there's a black priest Goron praying to a vulcano, how cool is that? And the Goron music track sounds a little bit more interesting than last time. But I'm disappointed, that we're getting just the same tribes, that we had in Phantom Hourglass. No Ritos or Zoras or new races. (Edit: with the exception of the Locomo, sorry I forgot them.)

But first of all, I HATE those kamikaze-trains. Gave me two more Game Overs by now. I was hoping, that as soon as I would get the cannon, I could just simply blow those things off, but turns out the cannon only slows them down. And they really take the fun from the whole train idea. They certainly add a level of challenge, but it's just a cheap kill and it destroys the freedom of travelling, because you always have to keep an eye where those killer-trains are going and map your route accordingly. But sometimes they take unexpected turns and then it's Game Over. Hey, and they cheat. In the underwater part they would run into another, so I thought they would crash together. But what happened? Nothing. Don't know if they just went through each other or if one train jumps over the other. The whole train travelling was the most controversial feature of the game, so you'd expect it to be the most fun part and not just simply annoying. Luckily later in the game it seems like those kamikaze-trains are gone, when you enter the lands from the Tower of Spirits. They are replaced by pirates moving on the land with tanks, but at least you can destroy those.

The dungeons were okay. The Blizzard Temple had this nice puzzle with the bells, I liked that, and the Marine Temple offered the Whip, a completely new item in the series. It has a larger range as a weapon than the sword, but it is weaker. I believe some inspiration for the whole Marine Temple part came from the Japanese manga One Piece. It's one of the most popular mangas over there, so I wouldn't wonder. But in the manga there were tracks going over water too and a sea train and those Whip-enemies in the Marine Temple looked exactly like those guards in the underwater prison in the manga, which is pretty fetting. I wouldn't say, this is pure coincidence, but maybe those guards are a figure from Japanese mythology, I'm not sure. But another inspiration definitely came from Indiana Jones. I mean a SNAKE whip (okay, this one also comes from Earthbound/Mother), traps with shooting arrows and rolling rocks. It was really obvious. And the entrance to the underwater tracks looked like the entrance to the Level 5 dungeon in Link's Awakening. Lots of nice references. However, overall the whole underwater part was as impressive as disappointingly short. I mean, the potential! Zoras, old Underwater Hyrule, ancient underwater treasures! But all we got is a series of tracks with two more of my favorite enemies in the game on them. Yikes. Nintendo sometimes really is an expert at wasting potential. But it was really beautiful, I have to say that.



Overall I think the new Hyrule is quite ugly. Especially the Snow Land. The best view you get in the train sections is the Tower in the background with the floating parts in the sky. This somehow reminds me of Majora's Mask, where you always could see the moon closing in. About the Desert Land, I wondered yesterday where this territory would pop up and if we would get a fifth map, but it turns out, that it's just part of the ocean map. Pretty much like the Rabbit Haven suggested. I wonder if I have to collect 10 Desert Rabbits as well. :D

The Tower of Spirits really offers different experiences in each section. It's almost like you're getting to visit a new dungeon every time. The second section had a fire theme and offered fire related puzzles. Overall it was pretty basic. The third section then was completely dark with no maps. It offered a new type of Phantom, the Torch Phantoms. They carry a flaming sword, much like what you got in Phantom Hourglass when you collected enough Power Gems. There's lots of backtracking in both sections, especially if you missed the Bombs earlier. The Bombs are aquired at Beedle's and so far they seemd to be an optional item, I only had to use them for sidequest related stuff. That may change later though. The fourth section then introduced the Warp Phantoms. They work like the Gold Phantoms from Phantom Hourglass, just not with the gold and not with the axe. It's so awesome that you finally can toy around with that system, which was your worst enemy in the previous game. You can't teleport freely, the Phantom Eyes are your warp points. Which actually leads to some clever puzzle, the one on floor 15F to be accurate, where you had to get your Phantom over the last sand pit. It took me like 30 minutes to solve that puzzle. But it's actually really easy, if you know, what you're doing. But I considered so many stupid things, I even tried to get the block from the other side of the floor over to the final part. Funny thing is, I tried to use the Whirlwind on the Phantom, but it didn't carry it far enough. Then I tried to get the Phantom Eye to the other side of the pit, but for whatever reason I didn't think of using the Whirlwind, I tried the whip and the boomerang, even luring it directly over there, which really wasn't a good idea. But at some point it made *click* and I felt like a genious and a total idiot at the same time. Smart puzzle. Made the huge, entire floor covering puzzle at the end of the section look like a joke to me.

What I noticed about the sidequests is, there isn't something similar to the secret seashells from Link's Awakening or the Spirit Gems from Phantom Hourglass. You know, something with a limited number, that you could find everywhere. Like in treasure chests, from people or even under bushes. Something, that really makes you look in every corner. There isn't this type of collectible item. There's the stamp stands and while some of them are REALLY well hidden, there's exactly one per place. The bunnies only appear during the train sections and the train cars can only be bought in Linebeck's store. Left are the optional Heart Containers, but most of them are gotten from minigames and that sort of stuff like in Phantom Hourglass, and the treasures. But the treasures are gotten on a random base. It just makes the whole back tracking feel to be not worth it. For example repeating the sections of the Spirit Tower only gives you treasures. It's not something you would notice at the end of the game, if you missed it. Of course you need them to buy those fancy train cars, but there are plenty of ways to get treasures. For example buying them in the Beedle shop, because he wants you to spent 20,000(!!!) rupees in his shop this time for the highest membership. And the only thing you will probably get for this (aside from the obvious Heart Container in his shop) is a compliment. By the way, for the stamp collecting Niko gave me the Ancient Shield, which is the shield from Phantom Hourglass. This is a very nice idea, some outfit changes. It doesn't do anything good besides from Link looking differently, but at least you have two different shields in the game. :D I wonder, what happens, if it gets eaten by Like Likes. Is it gone forever then? I hope not... And I wonder, what I will get next from Niko. The engineer's outfit would be a possibility and definitely a nice choice for an extra. I doubt, that this game will have a 2nd Quest like The Wind Waker, but that doesn't mean you can't have the different outfit while playing the game. There's another sidequest, where you ferry passengers around, which gives you Force Gems made of happiness and joy (lol?), that create new tracks, where you can find some of those warp points and more rabbits.

In addition I want to say that the Hyrule Castle Town turned out really nice. There isn't much inside the houses, just a store and this little Savage Labyrinth / Cave of Ordeals rip off, but the overall design and music is great and there's a nice chicken puzzle, where you can get some treasure chests on the roofes.

What gave me some trouble is the new rolling technique. It's praised as being an improvement over drawing those little circles, but I never had much problems with that. But I do have problems with the double tapping. It's easy to perform a roll now, sure, but it's not so easy not to perform a roll if you don't want to. I used to double tap / spam tap enemies in Phantom Hourglass, but if I do that now, Link performs a roll right into the enemies getting hurt. Nice. I really have to concentrate, that I only tap on the enemies once for every sword strike.

Right now I'm not so sure what to think about Spirit Tracks. It definitely won't turn into my most favorite Zelda ever. The Tower of the Spirits is a lot of fun right now, but the train sections become more and more a turn off. The sidequests are just okay, the best one right now seems to be the stamp collecting. Because it is original and surprisingly well hidden. And hopefully it will be rewarding. The bunny hunting isn't too much fun, the best part seems to be the Rabbit Haven itself, which is a miniature version of the whole overworld. And I don't care too much about those random treasures.

Well, two more dungeons and two more returns to the Spirit Tower left. Considering that I was playing all day and night since yesterday, this is not a bad quota.

Spirit Tracks Rail Diary: Day 1

Well, this blog is of course not as popular that Nintendo would send my an early copy (maybe on the next game? :D) and I live in Europe, so I couldn't get my hands on this game earlier. But here I am, got my copy of Spirit Tracks today and I'm more then ready for some new Zelda action. The battery of my Nintendo DS system is currently reloading, so it's a perfect time to write about my experiences so far. If you live in the US, you probably already have finished the game. That's good for you, because those articles won't contain any SPOILERS then. If you haven't played the game yet and don't wish to read any potential spoilers, please stop reading now. You've been warned.

First a photo of the very nice European boxart. Link is playing the Spirit Pipes on the cartridge sticker.



Well, where am I? I finished the first dungeon and two sections of the Spirit Tower and the last thing I did, before the battery ran out, was solving the puzzle in the Anouki village. It wasn't as hard as the similar puzzle on the Isle of Frost in Phantom Hourglass, but I liked it more. Mentioning Phantom Hourglass is a good point, overall this game is and tries to be a better Phantom Hourglass. So comparisons with that game are unavoidable.

But let's start from the beginning. The game really takes its time until you finally get into the "real" action, actually I haven't had any feeling of freedom so far, which is really bad for a Zelda game. Your way through the game really feels forced and I hope this is getting better. First you have to pass the test for becoming an engineer, then you go to the castle and try to sneak Zelda out, then you finally get your sword, but you have to do the first Spirit Tower section. But doing that to restore the tracks is not enough, you even have to find another of the Lokomo folks to restore the tracks leading to the next normal dungeon. The disappeared rails, that have to be resurrected, were a perfect tool for the Zelda team to make the game as linear as possible. And that sucks hard, a good Zelda game like Ocarina of Time gave you access to a majority of the overworld very early and let you explore the world by your own. That feeling of freedom and exploration is what made the first Zelda game Zelda to begin with. However, I'm still early in the game and I have still hopes, that Spirit Tracks will offer non-linear parts as well.

But the story really is good. It's kind of dark and twisted, a little bit like Majora's Mask, which is nice. The overall backstory is just pretty much The Wind Waker with trails instead of water, but I said that before. Chancellor Cole seems to be an interesting villain, I certainly like his craziness. And I'm still conviced that Mallard is Ganon, but I will see (plz don't spoil me). What I like the most, however, are the references to the previous generation. Niko, Tetra, Linebeck, ... - it certainly gives you the feeling, that the whole Wind Waker timeline is much more solid and better told than what we got with the other games. The game gives credits to the fact, that incarnations of the same characters reappear in every generation, starting with Link and Zelda. And yeah, I know that Linebeck will be in the game selling train parts, the manual told me so.

Riding on the train is more fun than I thought it would be. The world offers much more than the ocean in Phantom Hourglass, I especially enjoyed the forest and the Lost Woods section. It's an old, classic puzzle, but felt fresh thanks to the train. I love the new cannon, that feels much more sharp and accurate than the old one, and I love using the horn. And I died. Yes, you've heard me, I saw the "Game Over" screen in a modern Zelda game. Did not expect that. But it's an instant kill, when you get hit by those nasty enemy trains and there's one point, before you get the cannon, where a route appears to be safe, but isn't. Unless you studied the path of the enemy trains before, you most likely will crash into one, leading to a game over. But overall riding on the train is a lot of fun, I can't wait for the underwater part.

There's an interesting sidequest while riding on the train, that involves hunting rabbits. You will see rabbits sitting on stones while driving through the lands of Hyrule, it sometimes really looks like one of those Raving Rabbids, creepy stuff. You can shoot the rocks and then try to catch them with a net, which is a minigame. It gets kind of annoying, if you miss them, because you have to go back to a station and then back to the spot where the rabbit was to try again. But it's not as long and time consuming as the salvaging and the fishing in Phantom Hourglass. The rabbits are stored in a Rabbit Sanctuary, a small place that looks like it resembles the entire overworld. It is divided into a forest, an ice, a mountain and an ocean area. I know that there will be a desert world too, I wonder where it will appear on the overworld. If it's up to the Rabbit Sanctuary, the desert is probably the northern part of the ocean world. Or it's an entirely new map, but that would be too good to be true.

There's another sidequest, which I certainly enjoy more, the stamp collecting. Every place in the game, even the dungeons, does have a stamp post station, where you can put a stamp in Niko's stamp book. The stamps look cool and they do have a date on them, which is nice. You will walk across a series of those stations at the beginning of the game, but you won't be able to use them until you get the stamp book. This leads to some serious backtracking, you even have to go back to the first dungeon to get the stamp there. But this is cool, I enjoy backtracking and remembering all those little places, where you still can get something.

The treasures now also can be found in the environment (like under pots) and they do have a real purpose by now. You can buy train parts from them. At least that's what the manual says. It looks like there's going to be eight different sets again, which makes 32 train parts to collect alltogether. Which means, while the treasures still are random, the train parts aren't, which is good. I still haven't gotten the last ship part in my current Phantom Hourglass save game yet, so all the randomness can be quite annoying. And finding entire ship parts in a treasure chest didn't make too much sense anyway. The new treasures do look pretty and again offer some references to previous game, like the Bee Larva from Twilight Princess. I wonder, if you can collect lots of Stalfos Skulls by killing Stalfos.

But overall I'm not unhappy with the collectible items, but not too much hyped either. It's better than Poe Souls whatsoever.

I haven't talked about the most important part yet, the giant Masterdungeon. It certainly feels toned down compared to the Temple of the Ocean King. The stealth sections so far were very short and the cooperation puzzles lots of fun. And of course there's no repetition thanks to the giant staircase in the center of the tower. By the way, I like those teleporters that look like the Spinner item from Twilight Princess. The Forest Temple was nice too, it even got a miniboss, which was surprising. The dungeons in Phantom Hourglass all didn't have one. Like most Zelda dungeons nowadays it was entirely built around the new item, which you get there very early. It's a concept, that is all too well familiar. But the Tower of the Spirits compensates this pretty good and offers fresh ideas. Entering the dungeons with the train feels awkwardly familiar to the Great Bay Temple in Majora's Mask. The entrance hall of the Forest Temple even looked familiar in the structure.

About the Whirlwind item, blowing in the microphone all the time isn't as bad as I thought and actually quite fun. The microphone is quite sensitive and even small blows from normal distance can activate the Whirlwind. And playing the Spirit Pipes is fun as well. Brings you back to the old N64-times, you even can change the tone pitch using the d-pad. But the songs are very weird, there's one song to dig treasures up (as a replacement for the shovel) and one song, that summons a fairy to heal you. But you're told, that you can only use this one time, don't know if there's a way to recharge it.

Well, I admit, that this first post was very generic and more of an overview, but I haven't seen most of the game yet. I will try to write one of these posts every day until I'm finished with the game, so stay tuned.