LOZ: Spirit Tracks [Discussion]

[Abnegation]

The Legend of Zelda series has once again brought out a new game for us fans! I've played this game *cough*ROM*cough* and it's truely fantastic! Shall I dive into the story for a bit?
Story
Spirit Tracks takes place several decades after the events of Phantom Hourglass. This is evidenced by the fact that Niko, the storyboard narrator from Phantom Hourglass, once again gives a short prologue at the beginning of the game. The game's setting is the now-established land Link and Tetra originally set out to discover at the end of The Wind Waker. Link is an apprentice engineer for the royal railroads, hoping to become a fully fledged rail tycoon. He learns from Princess Zelda that Spirit Tracks, ethereal railroads which not only serve as transportation but also seal an evil force, have started to disappear from the world. The tracks were used to seal the evil because it could not be killed -- instead, it was buried deep beneath Hyrule. While investigating these disappearances, Link and Princess Zelda are ambushed by Chancellor Cole, a man who hopes to revive the Demon King Malladus, harbinger of the sealed evil. Cole attacks Zelda and kidnaps her body in order to utilize her powers. Cole's attack, however, brings about an interesting after-effect: Zelda's spirit becomes separated from her body, and few people other than Link are able to see her. She is forced to travel with Link as he attempts to restore the Spirit Tracks, stop Cole, and return Zelda to her body. Along the way, Zelda both rides atop the train with Link and also physically possesses Phantom Guardians to assist him.
​

Maybe not the strongest of all the stories but it makes for a great game with some nostalgia too!​

Inside the game!
There's some pretty neat features in Spirit Tracks such as the train which is much like the boat in the previous game but less annoying aand more customizable. There's many more too, I personally love the flute feture, don't worry! I'll explain!

The Flute

The flute is a vital aspect of the game, it belonged to Zelda's grandmother and she has given it to you to help you on your quest. It is a sacred flute, one in which helps you discover secrets and solve mysteries across the land.
You can play it by blowing into your DS mic and changing the notes with the touch screen, it's a really neat feature, you learn little snippets of songs to help you also.

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Link & Zelda​

A pretty neat feature in the game is the bility to team up with Zelda who is now a ghost (if you read the story you'd know this duh!) as she posses the bodies of the phatoms which made their appearance in Phantom Hourglass too! You don't get to directly control Zelda though, you can however, control her path nd wht she does with use of the touch screen but only when she is in the body of a phantom, which is benificial when getting through the dugeons.
It's good that you actually get to see more of the princess, she's usually the one you're saving, which you are doing this time too... but... uh well at least she helps you save herself & the Spirit Tracks right?
She does talk to you a lot too, in fact, if you ever wish to leave a place you need to speak to her and tell her that you wish to leave. Though you cannot call upon her during missions and just while walking through town or driving the train, unlike in The Minish Cap though it's always nice to have some sort of a companion.

The Train
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The Train feature. This is how you get around from town to town, so that there is no need to be trekking 300miles from Hyrule castle to get some snow from the snow region! You can go by train! Though admittedly, it does get thedious and repetitive but in saying that it does add something new and fresh to the game. There are many side quests in which you can take part in just by using the train.

Discuss

So are you getting this game? Or have it already? What do you guys think of it?​

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[Kotowari]

Wow, such a neat opening post. :0

Though I haven't really played it (nor PH, tbh) due to lack of a DS(i) and of a decent emulator, I do wish to get my hands on this game. ^^
It seems that this game is a mix of many old elements and of course new features, which from what I heard, are quite good.

I reluctantly admit that I was looking out more to the announced Zelda Wii game than Spirit Tracks... But it sure seems worthy of checking out. :D
Not that a single Zelda game I touched wasn't worthy of playing. o_o"

 

[Feign]

I've liked it so far, its tough right off the bat. XD And I did notice they fixed mistakes from the previous game...

What kind of confuses me is the whole timeline thing, now appearantly, this game takes place 100 years after Phantom Hourglass, so it is a new Link (and a new Zelda?). I realize Link is the hero of time, but does that mean he gets reincarnated as well? Though I remember reading somewhere that they've done this with past games as well... I also know of the adult and child Link split. And also perhaps it has yet to be explained, but I'm guessing Link's Tutor (the old man at the beginning) is supposed to be Linebeck.

 

[Samurai X]

I picked this up yesterday and I was going to play as soon as I got home but I had forgotten that my stylus is MIA. I don't have another stylus for the DS or for anything else and I hate using other things. Anyway, I finally played some today and it's pretty good so far. It doesn't start off as slow as PH, which is good for me, I like to start off quickly.

 

[Jolene]

I bought it last week and I totally loved it. I think it has the best puzzles in the series, and the ending was really cute.

 

[e-unit]

Its an alright game except the touch screen controls really hurt my hands. I was really hoping that Nintendo would lets us have normal controls for this one

 

[Eon-Rider]

I finished it two days ago. Surprisingly, it was the first Zelda game I've ever finished. >.>;

There were several small quirks but I loved the majority of it.

 

[Captain Fabio]

I bought it a few days ago because I have a lot of spare time now and I wanted to see how it compared to the previous games.

My overall thought was 'Ehhhh'.

It wasn't the worse game I have ever played, but for me, it didn't live up to what I expected.
I want them to move away from the DS.
Put it back on the Wii. ><'

 

[Jolene]

But you hate Nintendo in general, don't you Alinthea?

 

[Captain Fabio]

But you hate Nintendo in general, don't you Alinthea?

Haha.
I don't hate them, but they aren't my favourite games company.

Anyway, that is off-topic.
I would say 6 out of 10 for me =]

 

[professor plum]

I've liked it so far, its tough right off the bat. XD And I did notice they fixed mistakes from the previous game...

What kind of confuses me is the whole timeline thing, now appearantly, this game takes place 100 years after Phantom Hourglass, so it is a new Link (and a new Zelda?). I realize Link is the hero of time, but does that mean he gets reincarnated as well? Though I remember reading somewhere that they've done this with past games as well... I also know of the adult and child Link split. And also perhaps it has yet to be explained, but I'm guessing Link's Tutor (the old man at the beginning) is supposed to be Linebeck.

Link isn't the Hero of Time . . well, the one in OoT/MM/WW's Backstory was, but the hero we played as in WW and PH - the one they refer to in the backstory of this game, predominately, is the Hero of the Winds. :)
Zelda is the grand daughter of Tetra.
Link, we assume is no relation to HoW-Link because Niko doesn't say anything about it, plus, theoretically, he'd be well-known and whatnot being the descendant of HoW. :)

And, no o_o;
The old man at the beginning is Niko XD;
He was on the boat in Wind Waker. He's very old D8

I finished it two days ago. Surprisingly, it was the first Zelda game I've ever finished. >.>;

..D:

Put it back on the Wii. ><'

Agreed. I'm so ready for ZWii ;-;

And.. for me - I got it, but I haven't beaten it. I'm about to do the Sand Temple. :)

 

[Abnegation]

Link isn't the Hero of Time . . well, the one in OoT/MM/WW's Backstory was, but the hero we played as in WW and PH - the one they refer to in the backstory of this game, predominately, is the Hero of the Winds. :)
Zelda is the grand daughter of Tetra.
Link, we assume is no relation to HoW-Link because Niko doesn't say anything about it, plus, theoretically, he'd be well-known and whatnot being the descendant of HoW. :)

And, no o_o;
The old man at the beginning is Niko XD;
He was on the boat in Wind Waker. He's very old D8

..D:

Agreed. I'm so ready for ZWii ;-;

And.. for me - I got it, but I haven't beaten it. I'm about to do the Sand Temple. :)

Sand Temple happens to be exactly where I am too.

Spoiler:

but I cant pass teh flute part for some reason =/

I'm looking forward to the next Wii game too in fact, the follow up to TP

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I've only cleared two dungeons, but I'm not all that impressed with it yet. Train doesn't bug me. I like the princess. But...it just feels empty. The dungeons are so sterile. The villages so quiet. The music is much better than the crap Phantom Hourglass got, but still not memorable or entirely appropriate.

 

[ÇyänïdëÉX]

Actually i prefer zelda games for the DS than for the wii. I really don't like twilight princess because it just seems so over done. i guess i just like to keep it simple.

As for the features i find them very fun. How you use the flute is very fun, also that fan thing heh.

I haven't gotten that far on the game only past the forest temple but so far i find the game very fun.

 

[Esmas]

I haven't gotten this game yet, but I want to. It looks so cool. :D

I've always liked the Zelda games, and the art and stuff.

 

[Ivysaur]

I'm still one dungeon left, but I can't but leave a complaint: what happened to the old 2D dungeons? The 3D ones from the desktop systems are as good as the ones in OoT, but the DS games have had an incredible drop of quality.

I mean, look at The Minish Cap and you'll see that you can make good 2'5D dungeons, with rooms that don't feel empty, more than four doors per level, and without having the map from the beggining. Nowadays it feels that the rule is "Finish a level and leave it forever", when the old Oracles forced you to backtrack to open doors, get more chests, play with the top floor to see how the bottom level changed, etc. Not to mention how each dungeon used to have its own distinctive background music.

The saddest part is that even the old Link's Awakening did all of this, so it's more a matter of lazyness or just spending most of the time with everything else. And you can't tell me they made weak dungeons because they were too busy with the sidequests- Majora's Mask had some of the hardest dungeons out there.

 

[thepsynergist]

I just want them to make a zelda game for the ds using the OOT game engine. I'm tired of cel shading for the DS, its neat looking but, I miss the OOT style.

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

I got it for Xmas and have to say I like it. I like the train more than the boat in PH and the single thing that completely sold me was the fact that my favourite ever LoZ character ('s identical grandson) was included...

Spoiler:

LINEBECK!

 

[Ivysaur]

A note on the final battles: a bit more of a challenge (specially in the last part a few more attacks would have been great, I barely lost four hearts) would have been better, but it's one of the best sets of successive bosses I remember in a game. Definitely better than TP's.

 

[ÇyänïdëÉX]

Ohhh yeah when i walked into the trading post and saw him and the song started playing i was like thats so awesome. Still i really miss that character.