The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, released in Japan as The Legend of Zelda: The Earth’s Steam Whistle” (ゼルダの伝説 大地の汽笛, Zeruda no Densetsu: Daichi no Kiteki?), is the fifteenth installment of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series. Developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, it was released worldwide throughout December 2009 after Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced the game at the 2009 Game Developers Conference.[4]
The game features a cel-shaded art style similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Link, the protagonist of Spirit Tracks, travels across the game’s overworld using a cannon-equipped steam train much like the steamboat in Phantom Hourglass. Link is also able to control Phantoms, one of the more difficult enemies from Phantom Hourglass, which are possessed by Zelda, and play an instrument called the Spirit Flute.
Plot
Spirit Tracks takes place approximately 100 years after the events of Phantom Hourglass. Link lives in a peaceful village and is going to graduate from an apprentice to a qualified train engineer. He travels to Hyrule Castle to receive his engineer’s certificate from Princess Zelda. Zelda’s adviser, Chancellor Cole, believes the ceremony to be a waste, as the Spirit Tracks are disappearing and rendering trains useless. After the ceremony, Zelda asks Link to smuggle her out of the castle so she can investigate the Tower of Spirits, where she believes something has happened to cause the disappearance of the Spirit Tracks. Zelda disguises Link as a guard by giving him a recruit uniform, which resembles the traditional green outfit that Link wears in most Legend of Zelda games. On the way to the Tower of Spirits, the tracks disappear from underneath Link’s train and the tower breaks into hovering pieces. The group is ambushed by Cole, who reveals himself to be a horned demon pretending to be human, and a mercenary named Byrne. Cole forces Zelda’s spirit out of her body and leaves, taking Zelda’s body with him.
Link wakes up in Hyrule Castle and sees Zelda’s floating spirit, who is unable to speak with the castle guards. She gives Link the Spirit Flute and asks him to accompany her back to the Tower of Spirits. At the tower they meet Anjean, who explains that the Spirit Tracks carry energy from four towers to the Tower of Spirits and are used to imprison the Demon King Malladus. Cole is trying to resurrect Malladus, and needs Zelda’s body because only a body of royal lineage can house the spirit of Malladus. Anjean says that the Spirit Tracks can be restored by retrieving ancient stone rail maps from the tower. Link and Zelda recover a map from the tower and Anjean asks them to seek out her people, the Lokomos, who can generate energy with sacred instruments to power the Spirit Tracks.
As Link and Zelda restore energy to the tracks, sections of the Tower of Spirits are rebuilt, which allow them access to a new map. After obtaining the fourth map, the pair are intercepted by Byrne. Byrne approaches Link to kill him, but is interrupted by Anjean, who reveals that Byrne was her failed apprentice. Upset that the spirits did not give him the power he wanted, Byrne turned to Malladus, believing him to be the only being more powerful than the spirits. Anjean teleports Link and Zelda to the tower lobby, allowing them to escape and restore the last set of Spirit Tracks.
Link and Zelda return to the tower to retrieve Zelda’s body, but are blocked by Byrne, who says that they are too late and that Malladus is nearly resurrected. The two overpower Byrne and follow him as he escapes to the top of the tower, where Malladus successfully takes control of Zelda’s body. Byrne asks Malladus to grant him the power he’s always wanted, but Malladus attacks him instead, since Byrne used to be a servant of the spirits. Malladus appears to have difficulty adapting to his new body and leaves with Cole on a demon train.
Anjean then gives Link the Lokomo sword to help him on his journey. At Anjean’s direction, Link and Zelda retrieve the Bow of Light and the Compass of Light and depart for the Dark Realm. There, they battle the Demon Train and Cole, removing Malladus from Zelda’s body. Malladus attempts to repossess Zelda, but Byrne interferes, allowing Zelda’s spirit to rejoin her body. Enraged, Malladus destroys Byrne and inhabits Cole’s body instead. Malladus says that Cole’s body is rejecting his spirit, but that he will destroy the world before he is removed. Link and Zelda defeat Malladus and Cole together with Zelda’s magic,the Bow of Light and the Lokomo sword. After the battle, Anjean reveals that servants of the spirits are hard to destroy, and that Byrne will return in a new form years from now with no memory of what has happened. Now that their duty to protect the kingdom from Malladus has been completed, Anjean and the other Lokomos ascend into the heavens as Link and Zelda watch; holding each other’s hand.
