"An improvement over Phantom Hourglass, but by how much?"

For the most part, I love the Zelda franchise. The portable titles in particular have a history of getting on my good side with Link’s Awakening being my second favorite title in the whole Game Boy catalog (next to Tetris). That being said, I was shocked when I didn’t fall in love with 2007′s Phantom Hourglass.

While Spirit Tracks looked disturbingly similar to the object of my disappointment, the Zelda fan in me was determined to give the game a fair shake from beginning to end.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks takes place about 100 years after Phantom Hourglass. As somebody who’s dabbled in writing Zelda continuity theories in the past (nerd alert!!), having a well defined place in the timeline is something I can really appreciate. There are direct references to the characters of the last game and even some clever nods to the heroic deeds of the previous Link. For example, you will start the game in your engineer clothes (you know… because you ride a train), but end up with the iconic, green tunic by disguising yourself as one of the castle guards whose uniforms now resemble the famous hero of old.

The story of Spirit Tracks is very quirky and lighthearted. The new mythos explaining the trains, as well as sages known as the Lokomo is very silly. Fortunately, the game never takes itself very seriously, so this actually works to the game’s advantage. Due to various circumstances introduced in the beginning of the story, Zelda follows you around throughout the game as a ghost (it’s no longer a spoiler when it’s on the game’s cover in certain regions). Since she’s present for the whole game, they actually made her into a character with a personality. Her dialogue is often genuinely funny and one of the game’s highlights.

If you played Phantom Hourglass, you know exactly what to expect from the mandatory touch-screen controls in Spirit Tracks. You’ll be dragging the stylus around to make Link walk, double tapping to roll, and so on. Though I prefer the button setups of the earlier games, the controls are bearable… most of the time. In certain instances, I longed for the precision buttons provide. I can’t count how much health I lost from failing to adequately compensate for the slipping caused by icy floors or how many times I had to restart a long sequence during one of the final boss’ last forms due to a dodge roll that I accidentally performed in place of a slash. Knowing that my failures were caused by imprecise controls rather than level or enemy design are what had me cursing at my DS from time to time as I played the game. Also, be prepared to blow into the mic a lot; both to use one of your items and to play your magical pan flute.

Like Phantom Hourglass before it, Spirit Tracks abandons the series’ staple of an overworld for a vehicle mechanic. Given the nature of how trains work, you won’t be drawing paths every which way this time. Instead, you’ll be tracing along preexisting tracks which will increase in number as the game progresses.

Your train can move forward in two different speeds, but you’ll soon wish it had a third. There are occasional enemies, but most of the time you will simply wait to reach your destination. While there are a few teleports unlocked as you progress, they are very inconvenient. Traveling by train is often so uneventful that it feels like an interactive loading screen. Sometimes there will be invincible, evil trains traveling on certain tracks that you’ll have to avoid. But rather than adding a much needed spice to your travels, this just temporarily shifts the trip from boring to downright annoying. In what I can only assume is some kind of sick joke, you’ll sometimes be forced to take on passengers that will force you to slow down during certain parts of the track.

Between dungeons, you’ll mostly travel back and forth to towns. These sections drag on. Anytime I wasn’t in a dungeon I was wishing I was. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are the only games in the series that have made me loathe not being in dungeons. The continued removal of the overworld in the DS entries is nothing short of baffling to me. The overworld is a vital staple of the franchise. Removing it is like taking jumping out of Mario. Without it, much of the joy of getting a new item is diminished since you won’t be using it to advance between dungeons. One of my favorites aspects of Zelda is exploration, and it pains me to see the developers toss this aside yet again.

The items you collect in Spirit Tracks are a mixed bag. The first two you acquire are literally Twilight Princes’s Gale Boomerang split into two separate items in two separate dungeons. I don’t mind them reusing items (the series does it all the time), but splitting an existing item’s abilities into two separate items, stripping the possibility of another unique item, just feels lazy. On the other side of the spectrum, one of the game’s last items, a rod that lets you control sand, feels very fresh and innovative.

Spirit Tracks has two sets of dungeons. First, you have the standard dungeons that provide you with your new items. Second, you have the Spirit Tower. Unlike Phantom Hourglas’s Temple of the Ocean King, the Spirit Tower never forces you to repeat floors you’ve already completed. It also has no time limit. These are welcome improvements over the last game.

The Spirit Tower is where Zelda will be able to occupy the bodies of Phantoms (the large knights) after meeting certain conditions. You can have her follow you or draw direct paths for her to follow. This leads to some pretty clever puzzles, but like the train she is incredibly slow. In fact, she is so slow that I’d often reach for my phone to keep myself occupied while I waited. There are different types of Phantoms Zelda can control, each with a different power. But this led to more moments of impatience as, for example, I walked a few steps at a time to allow a fire-based phantom to light the way in a pitch black level. As I neared the end of the game, I started to resent the Phantom almost as much as I resented carrying Princess Ruto through Jabu Jabu’s belly in Ocarina of Time.

Spirit Tracks also features a multiplayer mode, but it really feels like an afterthought. You and up to three friends can battle (without swords) to collect the most force gems as you try to trigger traps to disrupt your opponents. Jonah and I both agreed the mode was a disappointment, but at least your three friends don’t have to buy their own game cart to find that out.

I’m sad to say that The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is more tedious than fun. While it manages to fix some of the problems I had with Phantom Hourglass, it adds a few new ones and retains some of my most glaring gripes. If you were a fan of Phantom Hourglass, you’ll most likely enjoy Spirit Tracks. If not, though, this isn’t a better enough game to win you over.

Tags: DS, Nintendo, nintendo ds, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Zelda

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.