Spirit Tracks is actually pretty good! It improves on almost everything from Phantom Hourglass, better visuals, tighter dungeons, better music, better story. It’s a good sequel in every regard. It still has some shortcomings that I’ll get into but overall, it’s a really solid, inoffensive entry in the series.
The main story in Spirit Tracks is such a fun time. It puts a whole twist on your expectations of how the story would go. Zelda straight up dies in the beginning and haunts Link throughout the game. This story choice is just beyond genius, I’ve been wanting a game where Zelda is in a more active role and you can’t get more active than being the companion character. I talked on my Twilight Princess review about how much I adored Midna as a companion and how I wished Zelda would get to be as dynamic as she was and I got exactly what I wanted.
Zelda is the main character of this game and there is no question about it. They took a lot of what I love about Midna, all the crushed dreams I had for Tetra, and perfectly crafted the best Princess Zelda yet. She has so much personality here. She’s sassy, kind, very funny, and helpful. At first, she assumes that it’s Link that has to go through this journey, only to find out that she’s just as important as he is, ensuing hysterical and heartwarming moments all throughout the story. She starts off as a helpless princess but gradually gains courage throughout the adventure, eventually becoming Link’s knight in shining armor, despite not getting over her fear of rats.
Having a full game where the duo is going through the adventure together is what I’ve been wanting for a very long time and I’m so happy Spirit Tracks finally realizes that dream. Zelda and Link’s relationship in this game is the best in the series by far as you see it develop throughout the game. There's a real sense of camaraderie between the two that is just all so adorable. They made her so important to the story and the gameplay that she feels just as much of a hero as Link, if not more. God, I really loved her in this game. I really hope we get more entries in the future with the duo having this type of relationship and being each-other’s companions.
Spirit Tracks feels like it was made with more thought and effort than Phantom Hourglass did. I don’t know why but I was very surprised that they recorded new voice lines for Link, the first time a Toon Link doesn’t reuse the Wind Waker voice, and he sounds very different and much younger. It made me really feel like I’m playing as a different Link this time and I appreciated that bit of extra effort.
I don’t know what they did but I can swear that Spirit Tracks controls better. Link feels a lot more comfortable to maneuver and I noticed my hand hasn’t cramped once while playing which I can’t say the same for Phantom Hourglass. The game uses less DS gimmicks this time but when they are used, they’re used in pretty fun ways. Blowing on different holes in the Spirit Flute to play tunes on it is a very creative implementation that left me feeling impressed while I was grabbing my inhaler. There’s just a lot of aspects they’ve tweaked in an effort to make for a more streamlined experience. This effort is also immediately apparent with the upgraded visuals and the new music.
Phantom Hourglass left a lot to be desired in terms of music, there were only a handful of new tracks that would constantly be reused and mostly reminiscing tracks from The Wind Waker but that isn’t the case with Spirit Tracks. The amount of new music is great but it’s the quality of the music that really stuck with me. There are some absolute ear-worms, most notably the overworld theme “Full Steam Ahead” which is easily a top track in the series.
I wish the awesome overworld theme wasn’t accompanied by this specific overworld though. Conducting the Spirit Train is a pretty fun feeling! You get to control the speed, turn it to go on the path you want it to and even blow the horn whenever you want. It made me really giddy to control it in the beginning of the game but by the end it gets very very old. I complained in my Phantom Hourglass review about how the traversal was handled in that game and my god do I take it back. I wish Spirit Tracks had more of that and less of… whatever it is we got.
I really like how varied the map is. Each area has its own color scheme and sets of challenges that distinguishes it from the other areas. An improvement on Phantom Hourglass from that front. I don’t mind that the entire exploration is limited to the pre-determined tracks, it’s fun to navigate through a meticulously designed map to avoid the obstacles and make it to your destination. I just really don’t like the gameplay loop of conducting the train. It just takes too long to get to your destination that most of the game’s runtime was me sitting in front of my 3DS just watching the train go to the path I traced while occasionally popping in to clear obstacles. This got very infuriating to be honest, especially when i saw how they handled the “fast travel” system in the game. Which was so confusing and non-efficient that I preferred just going the long way every time.
I was kind of apprehensive when the game started and I saw that it was set in a new version of Hyrule. I was just praising The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass for carving their own identity away from Hyrule, and now you’re telling me those adventures still lead to the creation of Hyrule? Well, yes but no. New Hyrule is only Hyrule by name, I was very pleased to see that they continued the Wind Waker’s thesis in this new kingdom that has its own lore, tribes and beliefs. The Lokomo are a very interesting stand-in for the tribe of higher knowledge, a role that used to be fulfilled by the Shiekah. I’m happy that the Anouki’s were included in the founding of this new kingdom. They were given a lot more personality in this entry. I really enjoyed their specific subplot.
The Tower of Spirits is Spirit Track’s own dungeon the player has to constantly revisit throughout the story like Phantom Hourglass’s Temple of the Ocean King. In some ways it’s an improvement, I like how every revisit only opens 2-3 extra floors at a time. It makes the dungeon less daunting especially when you’re not required to replay through the floors you’ve already done, you can just pick up where you left off last time. These floors are also very well designed with some really challenging puzzles.
The only aspect that I feel like halts it from being an improvement is the fact they removed the time limit. The Tower of Spirits feels like it has significantly lower stakes which honestly I didn’t like. I ended up preferring the Temple of the Ocean King, to be honest, it had such a fun layer of challenge and intensity to it that I ended up missing here, which I know is a very controversial opinion.
The main dungeons are an overall improvement from Phantom Hourglass but only slightly. They get a bit more complex and contain more clever puzzles. Nothing really mind blowing, just super solid. The bosses are all great once again, this duology genuinely has some of the most fun and creative bosses in the series. The final boss was also fantastic in every way.
Overall, Spirit Tracks was a great time for me. It streamlined most of the aspects I had issues with in Phantom Hourglass and delivers such a tight, solid Zelda game with a good story, the best Princess Zelda, great music, clever dungeons, and creative bosses despite having an inferior overworld and on-going temple to its predecessor.
The main story in Spirit Tracks is such a fun time. It puts a whole twist on your expectations of how the story would go. Zelda straight up dies in the beginning and haunts Link throughout the game. This story choice is just beyond genius, I’ve been wanting a game where Zelda is in a more active role and you can’t get more active than being the companion character. I talked on my Twilight Princess review about how much I adored Midna as a companion and how I wished Zelda would get to be as dynamic as she was and I got exactly what I wanted.
Zelda is the main character of this game and there is no question about it. They took a lot of what I love about Midna, all the crushed dreams I had for Tetra, and perfectly crafted the best Princess Zelda yet. She has so much personality here. She’s sassy, kind, very funny, and helpful. At first, she assumes that it’s Link that has to go through this journey, only to find out that she’s just as important as he is, ensuing hysterical and heartwarming moments all throughout the story. She starts off as a helpless princess but gradually gains courage throughout the adventure, eventually becoming Link’s knight in shining armor, despite not getting over her fear of rats.
Having a full game where the duo is going through the adventure together is what I’ve been wanting for a very long time and I’m so happy Spirit Tracks finally realizes that dream. Zelda and Link’s relationship in this game is the best in the series by far as you see it develop throughout the game. There's a real sense of camaraderie between the two that is just all so adorable. They made her so important to the story and the gameplay that she feels just as much of a hero as Link, if not more. God, I really loved her in this game. I really hope we get more entries in the future with the duo having this type of relationship and being each-other’s companions.
Spirit Tracks feels like it was made with more thought and effort than Phantom Hourglass did. I don’t know why but I was very surprised that they recorded new voice lines for Link, the first time a Toon Link doesn’t reuse the Wind Waker voice, and he sounds very different and much younger. It made me really feel like I’m playing as a different Link this time and I appreciated that bit of extra effort.
I don’t know what they did but I can swear that Spirit Tracks controls better. Link feels a lot more comfortable to maneuver and I noticed my hand hasn’t cramped once while playing which I can’t say the same for Phantom Hourglass. The game uses less DS gimmicks this time but when they are used, they’re used in pretty fun ways. Blowing on different holes in the Spirit Flute to play tunes on it is a very creative implementation that left me feeling impressed while I was grabbing my inhaler. There’s just a lot of aspects they’ve tweaked in an effort to make for a more streamlined experience. This effort is also immediately apparent with the upgraded visuals and the new music.
Phantom Hourglass left a lot to be desired in terms of music, there were only a handful of new tracks that would constantly be reused and mostly reminiscing tracks from The Wind Waker but that isn’t the case with Spirit Tracks. The amount of new music is great but it’s the quality of the music that really stuck with me. There are some absolute ear-worms, most notably the overworld theme “Full Steam Ahead” which is easily a top track in the series.
I wish the awesome overworld theme wasn’t accompanied by this specific overworld though. Conducting the Spirit Train is a pretty fun feeling! You get to control the speed, turn it to go on the path you want it to and even blow the horn whenever you want. It made me really giddy to control it in the beginning of the game but by the end it gets very very old. I complained in my Phantom Hourglass review about how the traversal was handled in that game and my god do I take it back. I wish Spirit Tracks had more of that and less of… whatever it is we got.
I really like how varied the map is. Each area has its own color scheme and sets of challenges that distinguishes it from the other areas. An improvement on Phantom Hourglass from that front. I don’t mind that the entire exploration is limited to the pre-determined tracks, it’s fun to navigate through a meticulously designed map to avoid the obstacles and make it to your destination. I just really don’t like the gameplay loop of conducting the train. It just takes too long to get to your destination that most of the game’s runtime was me sitting in front of my 3DS just watching the train go to the path I traced while occasionally popping in to clear obstacles. This got very infuriating to be honest, especially when i saw how they handled the “fast travel” system in the game. Which was so confusing and non-efficient that I preferred just going the long way every time.
I was kind of apprehensive when the game started and I saw that it was set in a new version of Hyrule. I was just praising The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass for carving their own identity away from Hyrule, and now you’re telling me those adventures still lead to the creation of Hyrule? Well, yes but no. New Hyrule is only Hyrule by name, I was very pleased to see that they continued the Wind Waker’s thesis in this new kingdom that has its own lore, tribes and beliefs. The Lokomo are a very interesting stand-in for the tribe of higher knowledge, a role that used to be fulfilled by the Shiekah. I’m happy that the Anouki’s were included in the founding of this new kingdom. They were given a lot more personality in this entry. I really enjoyed their specific subplot.
The Tower of Spirits is Spirit Track’s own dungeon the player has to constantly revisit throughout the story like Phantom Hourglass’s Temple of the Ocean King. In some ways it’s an improvement, I like how every revisit only opens 2-3 extra floors at a time. It makes the dungeon less daunting especially when you’re not required to replay through the floors you’ve already done, you can just pick up where you left off last time. These floors are also very well designed with some really challenging puzzles.
The only aspect that I feel like halts it from being an improvement is the fact they removed the time limit. The Tower of Spirits feels like it has significantly lower stakes which honestly I didn’t like. I ended up preferring the Temple of the Ocean King, to be honest, it had such a fun layer of challenge and intensity to it that I ended up missing here, which I know is a very controversial opinion.
The main dungeons are an overall improvement from Phantom Hourglass but only slightly. They get a bit more complex and contain more clever puzzles. Nothing really mind blowing, just super solid. The bosses are all great once again, this duology genuinely has some of the most fun and creative bosses in the series. The final boss was also fantastic in every way.
Overall, Spirit Tracks was a great time for me. It streamlined most of the aspects I had issues with in Phantom Hourglass and delivers such a tight, solid Zelda game with a good story, the best Princess Zelda, great music, clever dungeons, and creative bosses despite having an inferior overworld and on-going temple to its predecessor.
3 Comments
Those side missions are up there for me as least favorite zelda mechanics required for 100%ing along with Kinstones and figurines from Minish cap and Dampe’s dungeon maker from the links awakening remake, which was the only optional feature in a zelda game I couldn’t bring myself to get through - worse for me than the figurines somehow.
@ Parallax_M — The train navigation is still pretty monotonous even if you don’t 100% the game. I did some of the side content and i found myself feeling very bored of the train navigation so I decided not to 100% it.
It also doesn’t help that this side content is mostly delivery missions. I definitely agree about it being as bad as the kinstones and the dungeon maker. I still find the kinstones to be the absolute worst, i think it’s a fundamentally badly designed mechanic that wasn’t thought out well. These train delivery sequences aren’t comparable to me because the first couple of times you do them, they’re actually pretty cool but they just get very boring.
I found Temple of the Ocean King to be actually pretty great. I really loved challenging myself and trying to get to the halfway warp point in the least amount of time every time. It had higher stakes because getting caught by the Phantoms would make them eat away your time, forcing you to really be cautious as you move through the temple. Getting caught by phantoms in Tower of Spirits only makes you restart the floor you’re on. While i do really like the puzzles of the Tower of Spirits, especially the last few floors where you have to constantly look for a specific type of phantom for Zelda to possess, I can’t help but feel like the Temple of the Ocean King was a more satisfying temple to beat.
It also doesn’t help that this side content is mostly delivery missions. I definitely agree about it being as bad as the kinstones and the dungeon maker. I still find the kinstones to be the absolute worst, i think it’s a fundamentally badly designed mechanic that wasn’t thought out well. These train delivery sequences aren’t comparable to me because the first couple of times you do them, they’re actually pretty cool but they just get very boring.
I found Temple of the Ocean King to be actually pretty great. I really loved challenging myself and trying to get to the halfway warp point in the least amount of time every time. It had higher stakes because getting caught by the Phantoms would make them eat away your time, forcing you to really be cautious as you move through the temple. Getting caught by phantoms in Tower of Spirits only makes you restart the floor you’re on. While i do really like the puzzles of the Tower of Spirits, especially the last few floors where you have to constantly look for a specific type of phantom for Zelda to possess, I can’t help but feel like the Temple of the Ocean King was a more satisfying temple to beat.
Parallax_M
5 months ago
Also agree with almost everything you said was good about this game. I just couldn’t get over how monotonous and frustrating the train navigation became though. Maybe would have liked it more if I hadn’t committed to 100%ing the game (apart from collecting train parts). Those delivery side missions required to unlock the entire map were such a slog by the end.
I’m also in the minority that likes the temple of the ocean king and it’s time limit. I didn’t personally miss the time limit in this game but do find myself fondly remembering the tension it creates in PH. Maybe not the most fun dungeon to navigate but very satisfying and a fun challenge to progress through. Was expecting that dungeon to be really unfair and also a total slog from what I’d read online but was pleasantly surprised.