I Have Beaten Spirit Tracks.

[Kao]

Yes, it is true! I just recently beat Spirit Tracks, and I gotta say I'm really impressed with the game! The cutscenes were exciting and well animated, the music was fantastic, there were some fun references to Phantom Hourglass, and the game was visually beautiful and very impressive for a DS title. Furthermore, I was very pleased with the game's length. There were spoiler: 10 or 11 dungeons if you count the temples plus the different sections of the Spirit Tower (and you really aught to count those), and quite a few hidden items and engaging sidequests to discover as well (there's plenty left in the game for me to explore, and I actually want to revisit the game and do these sidequests!).

I have to say, around the second temple or maybe just after beating it, I began to feel that the game was starting to drag. It felt like it had hit its standard gameplay pattern (Spirit Tower section, pre-dungeon town, pre-dungeon sanctuary, dungeon) and it was going to follow that pattern up until the end. I suppose that in a way this was what happened, but there were a few curveballs in there, and I actually began noticing that there were quite a few sidequests for me to do. And unlike some sidequests in recent Zelda games, these sidequests actually offered up spoiler: new areas and items (instead of just rather useless rupees and slightly less useless extra heart containers) . I know I'll be playing the game more to complete additional sidequests as well.

As for the game's ending, spoiler: I loved it. The final battle(s) were separated into maybe three or four sections, with cutscenes before each section. The battles themselves were exciting but also decently hard to complete on my first time through. The final cinematic, credits roll, and epilogue were all wonderful, with great artwork, animation, and music throughout. Spirit Tracks is also one of the very few Zelda games to have multiple endings. I loved that there were three different epilogues, and I played through the final battle twice more to see all of them.

I loved this game. The length of the adventure, the fantastic music and artwork, and the compelling sidequests have all made this a very enjoyable game for me, and I look forward to completing more of it in the future. If you haven't played it yet, I definitely recommend it to you, especially if you are already a fan of the series.

[LinkGroupie666]

I'm at the final showdown. I'm starting to hate the DS controls.

[ifm2181]

They still haven't wised up and made a rupee slingshot, so you have a reason to collect rupees?

[Kao]

Originally Posted by LinkGroupie666

I'm at the final showdown. I'm starting to hate the DS controls.

Are you having trouble with the part spoiler: on top of the demon train ? Or someplace else?

ifm: That's not a bad idea! Rupee-powered weapons would definitely add to their value. They did that in Zelda 1 with the bow and arrows.

[LinkGroupie666]

Originally Posted by Kao

Are you having trouble with the part spoiler: on top of the demon train ? Or someplace else?

ifm: That's not a bad idea! Rupee-powered weapons would definitely add to their value. They did that in Zelda 1 with the bow and arrows.

spoiler: I'm at the part where you have to keep the boulders away from Zelda as she powers up. It's annoying as hell because I keep forward rolling instead of hitting the boulders.

[Kao]

spoiler: For that part, try standing just in front of Zelda and using quick slashes with the stylus on the the rocks instead of simply tapping on them. When you have to defend against four rocks at once, wait until they are very close, and then quickly do a spin attack to knock them away. It's definitely a tough section that can be somewhat frustrating.

[Poe the Great]

Half off the stuff being marked as spoiler here really isn't a spoiler.

I mean, I read all of it, and I still have no idea what's going to happen.

[Ben]

If you're having difficulty, try using your spoiler: train

[Deku]

Lol trains.

[Kao]

Poe: Some people would consider information about the end of the game or how many dungeons there are to be spoilers. There's no harm in blacking it out.

Ben: There are no trains in this game. You are probably thinking of The Legend of Zelda: Turtles in Time for the SNES.

[Videogamemaniac]

I'm up to the point of entering the final area of the game; although I still have some side quests left.

I still need two more heart containers , the last quiver and bomb bag upgrade and collecting my reward for getting all 20 stamps.
Then there's finishing the Ocean map (Linebeck III's Force Gem needed). And finally for optional side quests there's the last two races at Slippery Station, unlocking and completing Lost at Sea Station, the final Ocean Rabbit and Take 'em On (L3). There's also the option of maxing out my points at Beedle's shop.

Otherwise I've completed everything else. I did really struggle a lot on the final two Lokomo Duets; I passed the final one on the try that I attempted timing the notes with the metronome in the background.
The block puzzles at the Ends of the Earth Station weren't too challenging for me; it took me, maybe, 5 minutes to complete all 3 sets (I don't know exactly at what time I started).

[MaLink]

Other than a few random treasure chests that taunt me from unreachable areas, I haven't really found this game to be all that challenging. I do admit that the dark ore transport is a stumper, mainly because those cave crabs are better at dodging my cannonballs than I'd like. I also can't find regal rings, dragon scales, or ancient coins for the life of me. *really wants to complete the golden train set*

[LinkGroupie666]

I beat it FINALLY! I'm going to not play this game for a while until I get used to the DS controllers or something. It was just so frustrating!

[ifm2181]

Originally Posted by Kao

Are you having trouble with the part spoiler: on top of the demon train ? Or someplace else?

ifm: That's not a bad idea! Rupee-powered weapons would definitely add to their value. They did that in Zelda 1 with the bow and arrows.

That's exactly what I did when I made stuff in Zelda Classic. Shooting took a rupee, so I made the bow and arrow a rupee slingshot.

[Vera]

I thought I was going to hate spirit tracks because I didn't much care for phanto hourglass, but I figured I would try it and it was absolutly amazing .

[Red]

I already beaten it.

[Linko_16]

Okay, so, I beat this game a little while ago. I was waiting at the end of the game for like a month and a half because I was working as hard as I could to achieve full completion, which I finally did: All spirit gems, all bunnies, all heart containers, all stamps and all train cars.

FINAL SCORE:
Dungeons: A+ Overworld: B- Sidequests: D

These were some of the coolest, most engaging dungeons I've played in Zelda in a long time. Overworld play was alright, train travel being comfortable with plenty of fun walking-around areas. But the sidequests were a joke. Nothing but fetch quests for the spirit gems, driving around the tracks systematically looking for bunnies, but the absolute worst was treasure hunting to build all the train cars. Availability of some treasures was ridiculously low, and getting them meant doing a lot of waiting and a lot of boring minigames that barely put out the treasures you wanted anyway.

In closing, I look forward to replaying this game again someday and not feeling pressured to do any of the damn sidequests now that I've done them all once, I'm sure I'll enjoy the game a whole lot more when I'm just plain dungeon-hopping.

[Muffin Mage]

So, worth buying?

[Linko_16]

NINETEEN-DAY-LATE RESPONSE: Yeah I think so. Though if you're lazy/unenthusiastic you wouldn't be so bad off waiting for when it's cheap.

[Nova]

Zelda dungeons are always awesome and fun. I only liked 3 of the overworlds. OoT, MM, and ALTTP.