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I am a huge Zelda fan but I find myself concerned over this game. Partly becuase while the stylus controls worked fairly well in LoZ
H I never felt quite as immersed in the game and I felt it was due to the controls. Maybe I have become stuck in my way's a little bit but I prefer the traditional control scheme. Another thing that scares me is the thought of having one huge tower that I will have to retread through over and over like in LoZH. But the thing that scares me the most is the thought of the rain turning into a boring tiresome ride like the boat in LoZ:WW and LoZH. Now after saying all that I will still be picking up the game when it comes out but I still feel concerned over many aspects of it.
Recently, I had the opportunity to play through the first hour of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal -- the game's launch is just a month away, so we've seen tons of this new Zelda adventure, right? Well, no. Nintendo's been strangely quiet about Spirit Tracks, leading many gamers to wonder if they should be worried about the lack of hype and news. Based on what I've played, though, I don't think that's the case; it's a great-looking game that seems to build on Phantom Hourglass in interesting ways. No, Nintendo's been keeping mum on Spirit Tracks because revealing anything more than the self-contained demo sequences that they've been showing off since E3 would be giving away one of the more interesting conceits of the adventure. But now that the European box art has been revealed, a lot of gamers have already guessed that hook. (This, of course, is in keeping with the long-standing tradition that European press and publishers always screw over their American counterparts by revealing information early.) Where the American box art depicts an angry-eyes Link standing back to back with his golem-like Phantom ally, the European packaging for Spirit Tracks has the hero cheerfully conducting a train emerging from a distant tower. Most interesting of all, however, is the presence of Princess Zelda, sitting ethereally atop the train engine. Some fans have remarked on Zelda's resemblance to a ghost, while others have noted how much she looks like Ico's Princess Yorda. As it happens, neither guess is entirely off the mark. Zelda does appear in the game as a spirit, and she does accompany Link not unlike the way Yorda followed alongside (and occasionally helped) Ico.
Zelda's not dead, mind; through a sequence of events that establishes the game's plot, her spirit has been separated from her body, and only Link can see and interact with her. This isn't the same Link as the hero of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. Spirit Tracks takes place \"at least a hundred years\" after Phantom Hourglass in the land that the older Link and Zelda (a.k.a. Tetra) discovered after setting out from the flooded ruins of Hyrule at the end of Wind Waker. Always sticklers for tradition, they've named this new land Hyrule, too, although it had its own established cultures and legends already in place. (It's a Nintendo game; you're probably not supposed to think too hard about the ramifications of such imperialism, OK?) The new Zelda is a descendant of Tetra, and occasionally shows a glimmer of her however-many-times-great-grandmother's spunkiness, while the new Link is a palace guard in training. His green costume is actually the standard gear of the royal guards -- one would assume as a tribute to the hero who helped establish the new kingdom of Hyrule. And here you thought the Zelda games didn't have any real continuity!
Link's curious connection with the princess naturally means it's up to him to save her, and the kingdom, from the latest threat to their welfare. The quest focuses around a tower at the center of the island, which was established long before the arrival of old Hyrule's exiles in order to seal an ancient evil. The tower is in turn connected by four massive chains to temples at the corners of the kingdom, and these chains are the titular Spirit Tracks on which Link is eventually able to navigate a train via sequences quite similar to the sailing portions of Phantom Hourglass. By clearing each temple, a portion of the central tower (which has been dismantled by unfortunate events) is restored.
The tower plays a role not unlike the Palace of the Ocean King from Phantom Hourglass, though players who disliked the need to return constantly to retread the same ground in that particular dungeon will be encouraged by the fact that the tower has an elevator that allows you to skip previously-cleared areas. The tower's areas are a lot like the previous game's central palace, with floors patrolled by seemingly invincible phantoms -- but this time, there are a few twists.
For starters, Link is able to acquire special items that will power-up his sword and allow him to stun phantoms. That's an ability that didn't happen until the end of Phantom Hourglass, so having it early in the game is a nice touch. In fact, it seems that each section of the tower is designed around the puzzle of finding the necessary sword light fragments to turn Link's evasion into offense.
More important, however, is the role that Zelda plays. While her initial response to being trapped in spirit form is to demand Link restore her proper corporeal form while she waits (\"It's kind of a family tradition!\" she insists), it quickly becomes obvious that Link alone is outclassed by the phantom guardians, so she steps in and helps out by possessing one of the lumbering behemoths. For the remainder of the adventure, Zelda and Link journey together -- with the princess frequently taking control of a phantom to help the hero make his way through dungeons.
As with Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks is played with touch controls; outside of a few minor tweaks (such as a refined rolling system), the two games play almost completely alike. The big difference, of course, is the fact that players have simultaneous control over both Link and the Zelda-phantoms. Swapping between characters is as simple as tapping an icon, and the game actually prepares players for the task of dual-character control at the outset of the quest with a painless stealth sequence in Hyrule Castle featuring a more meat-based version of Zelda. This offers a preview both for character-switching and for techniques such as distracting enemies with Zelda while Link sneaks past behind them. The interface design is pleasantly streamlined, so juggling the dual characters never feels overwhelming even in the heat of action.
It's not strictly correct to say that everything is controlled with the stylus, though. As a matter of fact, the first weapon in the game, a sort of super-powered fan called the Whirlwind, is controlled by blowing into the DS mike. (Admit it, you love when people stare at you as you game in public.) The control scheme for this tool works well, too; holding the L trigger causes Link to hold his ground so you can aim the device with the stylus before blowing. The Whirlwind can be used to push items -- for instance, blowing a key from a pedestal so that you can reach it -- to stun enemies, and to dissipate the poison fog that chokes the first dungeon. Unsurprisingly, the Whirlwind is also essential for defeating the dungeon's boss: Link can blow its projectiles back into the boss's face to stun it and create an opening for sword attacks.
In many ways, Spirit Tracks is exactly what you'd expect from a Zelda game, but this first hour of action already feels much more ambitious than Phantom Hourglass -- which is probably to be expected. The previous game was about reinventing Zelda's controls, while its sequel is about offering more interesting things to do with the revised control scheme. The dual-character puzzles should make for trickier dungeons, and the train system looks like a more elaborate take on the previous game's boat. On top of that, it's a gorgeous game; the cel-shaded graphics look fantastic on the DS's screens. There's an uncanny level of quality to the cutscene direction, too, with camera movements and staging rarely seen on a portable system.
We're not really sure why Nintendo's playing this one so close to its chest, but Spirit Tracks definitely doesn't look like a dud; it seems to be another fine-looking chapter of the Zelda series. And while the portable Zelda entries may not have the fan-drool-inducing cachet of the console titles, it should certainly be one of the strongest games available for DS this fall. And we'll be darned if cel-shaded Link in his little train conductor's outfit isn't just the most adorable videogame character we've seen in years.
I am a huge Zelda fan but I find myself concerned over this game. Partly becuase while the stylus controls worked fairly well in LoZ
H I never felt quite as immersed in the game and I felt it was due to the controls. Maybe I have become stuck in my way's a little bit but I prefer the traditional control scheme. Another thing that scares me is the thought of having one huge tower that I will have to retread through over and over like in LoZH. But the thing that scares me the most is the thought of the rain turning into a boring tiresome ride like the boat in LoZ:WW and LoZH. Now after saying all that I will still be picking up the game when it comes out but I still feel concerned over many aspects of it.
