Spirit Tracks Spirit Tracks: Good or Bad?

[Caleb, Of Asui]

I loved Spirit Tracks quite a lot, but I kind of get the feeling that I would have enjoyed it more had I replayed Phantom Hourglass rather than The Wind Waker prior to playing it, seeing as Spirit Tracks seemed like it was supposed to complete Phantom Hourglass. I didn't really see these flaws as much of a bad thing in Phantom Hourglass, though, so Spirit Tracks really just added to it. It was a good challenge, too, especially after how easy Phantom Hourglass had been.

I really loved the train, more than most people, and didn't feel that it limited the open-ness of the game any more than, say, A Link to the Past's overworld - being unable to go in between the tracks is just like being unable to walk through walls, and in some cases the tracks actually led to a more intricate landscape to traverse.

I enjoyed the Tower of Spirits quite a lot. It perhaps perfected the idea of a central dungeon by allowing you to skip ahead rather than repeating floors. When compared to the Temple of the Ocean King, however, I kind of felt like something was missing because you didn't have to re-traverse parts of the dungeon. Not something I'd give up being able to skip ahead for, though.

My only real gripe is the huge gaps in the story. They could have made that more even throughout the game, although where the story was there it was quite amazing and quite impressive. I wouldn't criticize Mallaudus as a rip-off of Ganon; on the contrary, the ways in which he was inspired by Ganon seemed to add to his role.

 

[Hylian Wolf]

Sadly I did not really like Spirit Tracks at all. Spirit Tracks was the first Zelda game I actually put down and said this really isin't worth my time...I didn't like the overall layout, the dependancy on the train, how you could barely go anyhwere on foot, how there was a lack of freedom, and it just got old fast. However I did like Phantom Hourglass but that was leaning more towards Wind Waker...
I must say though I have a bias against the cell-shaded cartoony Zeldas and critisize them a lot harder... :nerd:

 

[JuicieJ]

Sadly I did not really like Spirit Tracks at all. Spirit Tracks was the first Zelda game I actually put down and said this really isin't worth my time...I didn't like the overall layout, the dependancy on the train, how you could barely go anyhwere on foot, how there was a lack of freedom, and it just got old fast.

Hm. I have the total opposite feeling towards its "freedom." It felt very freelance to me. But, to each his own.

I must say though I have a bias against the cell-shaded cartoony Zeldas and critisize them a lot harder... :nerd:

Haha, well that's not very fair, now is it?

 

[Xinnamin]

I have always stood by, and will continue to stand by, my opinion that Spirit Tracks was an excellent game, and for me, much improved on Phantom Hourglass. For one, I thought Spirit Tracks had a wonderful storyline and for once a proper inclusion of Princess Zelda herself as a real protagonist character rather than a story NPC. For another, the soundtrack is my favorite of any Zelda game to date. And lastly, Spirit Tracks fixed a lot of problems that I had with Phantom Hourglass.

I'm not saying ST was without flaws, it had plenty. Starting with story; I find the story to be wonderful. For one, I really enjoyed the story ties to WW, rather than just the stand-alone dream-like plot of PH where you didn't even know who or what you were really fighting until halfway through. With ST, Malladus was established as the main villain from the prologue. Cole and Byrne were also amazing villains in their own right, and even with Byrne's cliche'd switch to goodness, his character was still pulled off pretty well. I do have qualms with the pacing of the story, sticking too much at the beginning and end with little in-between to space it out, and Malladus was also a flawed character, having little personality and acting often like he was taking commands from Cole. On the other hand, compare this to PH, where the story really didn't feel at all urgent and Bellum had ZERO personality, and ST wins by a longshot.

There's also Zelda, finally a fully fleshed out character with her own personality and quirks. She's kind but excitable, giggly though spoiled, brave despite a phobia of rats, etc. She was also useful for once as a Phantom; she could help you and the teamwork involved made for the best sidekick interaction mechanism in any Zelda game. Her panic regarding her stolen body also allowed the plot to feel more urgent than PH's plot, since her plight was introduced at the game's beginning, whereas PH introduced the conflict halfway through.

Other areas that ST improved on were the central dungeon, the Tower of Spirits vs the Temple of the Ocean King. Whereas the TotOK was repetitive and almost entirely stealth based (in other words, it was mostly waiting and watching), the ToS actually involved new puzzles with each floor, new Phantoms to use, each felt like a minidungeon in its own right rather than just the same old same old that was the TotOK. The main dungeons also felt more vibrant, more true to their elemental roots than those of PH, because to me, PH's dungeons and bosses were mostly forgettable. The only thing I think ST did worse with was overworld travel; the tracks were far more annoying than the boat for me, even if the New Hyrule scenery was more interesting than that mindnumbing PH ocean (underwater railways ftw).

Even if you weren't comparing all of ST's aspects to their parallels in PH, ST still had an engaging story and highly enjoyable gameplay to me, and I do consider it one of the best games the DS has.

 

[theothernavi]

I love Spirit Tracks so much. I think that Zelda DS games are highly underestimated, since people like complaining about them so much.

 

[Unlucky Monkey]

Currently playing Spirit Tracks again. My old unfinished profile. Not so long ago, I've finished Phantom Hourglass. And in my opinion, Spirit Tracks is better. Well there is a lot of recycling in the game. The ugly textures during the train ride aren't that cool too. But the story is lovely (I'm not finished by now), and the Dungeons are interesting. The underwater train ride was awesome. The Tower of Spirits is far more enjoyable than it's annoying counterpat from Phantom Hourglass (Temple of the Ocean King). Anyway. Like Phantom Hourglass, I've missed the typical Zelda Atmosphere. I would love to play the Oracle Games or Minish Cap, rather than Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks. Also the lack of new content banned Spirit Tracks the way to a classic Zelda. Compared to Ocarina of Time -> Majoras Mask, Spirit Tracks looks like an add on to Phantom Hourglass.

But enough with all the critic. Spirit Tracks is a fine game. Maybe my Fazit (think this word isn't available in the english language) will be even better after I finished the game.

 

[JuicieJ]

The biggest complaint that I've seen from Spirit Tracks was the train. That "it wasn't open enough." And, of course, most of the people saying this are the ones that have been with the series since the beginning and only want "traditional" Zelda. Now, not all of them, but the majority. And it's not just them that are complaining about it. But the majority of the people that I've seen that praise the train would be the second generation of Zelda fans. Ones who didn't come in with somewhat biased eyes. I've been around since Ocarina of Time, so that's long enough for me not to be considered second gen, but not exactly first, either. I've been with the series for closing in on 12 years now, and I have no complaints with the train. Of course, I already went into detail on the train upon posting this, so there's no need now. Just thought I'd throw that little bit out there.

Oh, and it actually seems that the train complaints are dying out somewhat. And I hope it keeps up. I hope that Spirit Tracks will become like Majora's Mask in the fact that people come to realize the great game it is eventually. Hopefully it just won't take 10 years.

 

[ZeldaDungeon]

I never played it, but I saw the train, the train made the game feel Non-Zelda-ish.

 

[JuicieJ]

I never played it, but I saw the train, the train made the game feel Non-Zelda-ish.

That's the kind of talk I'm talking about. It's not "traditional" Zelda, but the game still has a Zelda feel to it. It's a very different Zelda game, even more so than Majora's Mask, but it is a very enjoyable game.

 

[El Bagu]

It´s a good game and quite enjoyable as well. But I also think that it has to be the most boring zelda game out there. I´ve only played it through once and even at that time I didn´t bother about completing it at 100 %. I didn´t like the fact that you had to use the train to travel since it made the game a bit to linear and repetetive.

 

[JuicieJ]

It´s a good game and quite enjoyable as well. But I also think that it has to be the most boring zelda game out there. I´ve only played it through once and even at that time I didn´t bother about completing it at 100 %. I didn´t like the fact that you had to use the train to travel since it made the game a bit to linear and repetetive.

Have you played Phantom Hourglass? That's the most boring.

 

[LolGames4U]

Spirit Tracks was great, in my opinion!!! It had fantastic music, fun dungeons (although most of them were pretty easy), innovative weapons/tools, the train was fun, and the Temple of Spirits was better than the Temple of the Ocean King. ST is no Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess, but I think it's still a great game.

 

[JuicieJ]

If you guys like Spirit Tracks so much, check out this article I made that goes into much more depth on this subject. http://zelda-world.net/2011/06/spirit-tracks-why-its-good/

 

[ケンジ]

ST is a decent game, well in terms of World, Dungeons, Sidequests and Puzzles.

The storyline however, was shortlived. You never really know what Cole and Byrne were up to while you were unlocking all the broken tracks back to the tower of Spirits. The sidequests were a nice touch, and reminded me of MM. I mean, you really got to go around and save people the trouble of doing something, and you get lost tracks as well. It's a winwin. The dungeons were harder then PH, but longer and may confuse some people, which is a plus. I managed to solve everything and do everything myself without a guide on my first playthrough, not to mention discovering the secret Boss. Puzzles within the overworld and Dungeons were also better. It got me thinking and really made me use innovative ways, like using the whirlwind to blow Phantom Zelda about.

The Overworld, was just beautiful, you know what is going on, and you can relax and have fun. The scenery is a sight to behold.
Overall the game was decent, but not bad. It can keep Zelda players entertained with other Zelda games. So it's a plus, yes?

 

[RegalBryant]

2 things: 1. It was awesome 2. what secret boss?!?!?!