Spirit Tracks Spirit Tower: Like or Dislike?

[enemytracker]

I can't say if I like the Tower of Spirits or not, since I like it and hate it at the same time.

Firstly, there are no like-likes (Yay), the player can use Phantom Zelda to seduce distract the other Phantoms, it has a nice design, pretty tricky, yet fun puzzles (in comparison to the other temples), brand-new Phantoms and the fact that there isn't any time limit are the few reasons that makes me "like" it.

However, several things really bothers me such as the pitch-black floors, the constant respawn of the Phantom eyes, the presence of the Nocturns and the secret path where a bomb is needed to open it (It took forever to find out the exact bombing spot).

But something was so tough that I got stuck for nearly a week, the main reason that makes me "hate" that tower: The key masters.

Yes, these were damn hard to both avoid and eliminate them. They are aggressive, they takes 2 sword slashes or 4 arrows to kill them, they respawn very quickly and can take the boss key away even when Phantom Zelda is still holding it. God, I thought my stilus was broken after I finnaly made it.

And, that's all.

 

[jugglaj91]

I actually enjoyed it. As with a short game being on a handheld it made it much easier to know where to go after beating a regular dungeon. Also the fact that I did not have to repeat the entire dungeon to get to the next part just to beat that was great. I was glad Nintendo learned from their mistake in PH and fixed it.

 

[Godkarmachine]

I really liked the spirit tower as it had the most challenging puzzles in the game and well... Zelda takes part on them xD, going back to the puzzles, they were very cleverly designed, especially the final ones
Spirit Tracks was a good game, even if it fell short on lenght

 

[Zenox]

It's very clear that there's going to be some comparisons to the Temple of the Ocean King, so I'm going to base my thoughts on the Tower of Spirits based on that.

So, the Temple of the Ocean King and Tower of Spirits are basically the same in idea, but they have many differences. The main one being that you don't have to repeat the floors in the Tower of Spirits, but I really felt this took away from the experience. In the Temple of the Ocean King, every time you'd come back, you'd have new items and with that, new shortcuts. I felt that when you passed through the first time and didn't have access to something, then coming back and realizing that you can utilize the object and make a shortcut, it was kinda cool. Although I can see why others would be frustrated with that, I really liked that and it worked well with the timed aspect of the Temple of the Ocean King.

Another difference was that you weren't timed on the Tower of Spirits, and this was an aspect I liked and disliked at the same time. This allowed Nintendo to make the puzzles in the ToS a lot more complex, but it also made the rush to complete puzzles nonexistent. I liked being rushed to figure something out, and I felt that added more to the difficulty of the dungeon than having a hard puzzle.

One of the biggest differences was the fact that Princess Zelda could take over a Phantom once you've collected the three tears of light from that set of floors. I liked and disliked this one as well. It added some cool puzzle concepts, such as using Princess Zelda as a platform, or using her to distract enemies, opening up Link to attack, but the whole time, it felt too gimmicky to me. It didn't feel natural and it just felt unpolished. Switching between the two characters didn't feel very smooth, and her controls were kinda difficult.

Overall, I felt that the Tower of Spirits was just an excuse to give Nintendo a chance to fix what mistakes they made with the Temple of the Ocean King, and as such, didn't really feel as natural as the Temple of the Ocean King felt. It wasn't very polished and a lot of the ideas were just plain bad. The puzzles in there were clever and fun, I'll admit, but a lot of it was just hard to use.

 

[MidnaOfTheTwili]

I think the Tower of Spirits was fun and interesting, but also difficult. Some things about the tower may have been repeating, like the idea of the Phantoms, but they gave you new types of phantoms every time. And more levels, so more puzzles, more phantoms, and more ghosts that chase you whilst making Om Nom Nom noises. Owo. The Tower got really frustrating at some points, but I think it was pretty fun. I most definetely prefer it over the temple of the Ocean King in PH. At least the Tower of Spirits doesn't drain your health.
The purple hands were annoying though, but they didn't always show up in levels. I also didn't like the climb you had to start doing when you got to the higher parts of the tower. I just got dizzy watching myself make Link run up the stairs in that circular motion. Am I the only one? Bahahaha.

 

[Kombatgod]

To me it was a good idea to have that central dungeon. It doesn't even makes sense to complain about returning in it, because every time you have to return a new track appears, so technically you always have a new path to go there, it is not like returning to the same spot. It could have been handled better, however, because even if every floor is played like a dungeon on its own, you have the feel of being playing the same one, because they're too short and they all have the same theme with just some minor variation. Controlling Phantom Zelda is great,but has little to do with the tower, because I'm pretty sure they decided to include this feature before deciding the storyline, so it just happened to be featured in the Spirit Tower.

I haven't played PH yet, so I can't compare the two, but comparing it with the other titles I know best (actually I played the Oracles right before ST, so I happened to compare these instead), I found this games' dungeons to be too linear, lacking the feel of a maze and instead featuring minor puzzles to be solved one after the other, but it is a complain about all the dungeons, not just the Spirit Tower...

Anyway my general tought is positive. A minor note: I loved how the music inthe stairs changes with every floor of the tower... (just as it changes with the speed of the train)

 

[Nicole]

It wasn't too bad. The only things I couldn't stand were the Phantoms. I like being able to slice and dice my way through enemies, not sneak up behind them and strike their backs.

The ToS wasn't really fun, and I didn't get excited after beating a dungeon, knowing I'd have to go back to the Tower and climb up more floors. It was a bit dull, and required much more patience than I am currently capable of producing.

What was cool was the music you'd hear as you ascended the spiral staircase in the Tower. At the end, it sounded so epic! I also liked the battle with Byrne at the end. I think the graphics there were pretty neat. And I did like being outside the ToS, when you got to the very top. I have no fear of heights.

 

[Kaiser Kami]

I was happy that I did not have to repeat the floors over and over and over again, and controlling 2 people is fun. At the end of the game though... it felt like the temple of the ocean king to me in terms of difficulty and thinking.

 

[LolGames4U]

I thought it was better than the Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass. The Spirit Temple had good music and puzzles, and I love having Zelda help too.

 

[Meego]

I have mixed thoughts on the Spirit Tower, really.

for one thing, it was better than The Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass, in my opinion. I think this is because you didn't have to play through every single floor again unless you wanted to. It was more challenging though...but it annoyed me. I like the music for the ascent of the tower, it was really cool, even though the actual climbing of the tower was a bit wierd. I liked the fact that this time there was no time limit, again, although this made it easier I preferred it not to be pressured by time. But then the Phantom's again...was a bit similar to PH, along with the sequence of going to a dungeon, going to the tower etc. but overall it was quite cool.

 

[gabesawakening]

Spirit Tracks was o.k! But what was dissapointing was Even Phantom Hourglass had a harder final boss...... 1-5 stars and i'd give it a 3 stars.

 

[Zeldafan777]

Spirit Tracks was a very enjoyable game, but it was very simple and unfortunately alot of people treat it as a side game to play while waiting for Skyward Sword. I didn't mind going back to the Spirit Tower because it was easy most of the time and I didn't spend alot of time there. I disagree with the concept that it was 1. Beat level 1 2. Beat forest temple etc. because there were other tasks to be carried out before advancing to the dungeon.

 

[romani64]

the spirit tower wasent that bad. some puzzles drove you crazy, but its fine.
the ocean king temple, now THAT was a pain!!!hate it there.

 

[Petman1325]

Well, I definitely like it, much more than the Temple of the Ocean King. One of the upsides of the Spirit Tower was that the difficulty wasn't that bad, but still enough to keep you on your feet. There have been times where even myself, a veteran of the older titles, had to look at a guide for one or two puzzles.

Even though you could just always skip to the top of the tower once you've gotten there, you can still use the weapons you've acquired prior to go back to the lower floors and obtain some items or treasures. That's a reoccurring theme I like in the Zelda series, because I like exploring the different regions again, and the Tower of Spirits is no exception to this. The Temple of the Ocean King also let you do this, but for an entirely different reason, but you could also backtrack in there to find some treasures or heart containers.

Phantom Zelda definitely added on to the fun and strategy of the Tower, so long as you didn't provoke her or get her injured. That's a feature that hasn't been in a lot of games, but I'm not sure I can include Phantom Hourglass because that was just one dungeon. So, in closing, yes, I liked the Tower of Spirits; much more than the Temple of the Ocean King.

 

[Michael Heide]

I didn't mind it as much as the Temple of the Ocean King. A minor annoyance, but mostly for plot reasons than because of the level design. And I loved the music when you climbed the stairs, when the score got more and more intense with every level and more and more instruments chimed in. I think that was done very well.