The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The fifteenth game in The Legend of Zelda series, Spirit Tracks was released in December of 2009. It is an indirect sequel to Phantom Hourglass, taking place over a hundred years after the events in that game and starring a new Link and Zelda. For the most part, controls are similar to its predecessor. However, there are several new features introduced for this game. Firstly, the player can take control of Phantoms (like those in Phantom Hourglass) to aid in combat and solving puzzles. The second major change is that this game takes place on land, not the ocean. Link controls not a ship, but a train.

A long time ago, in the land of the Lokomo people, a great evil called the Demon King was fought and sealed in the ground. The chains binding him stretched the entire length of the land, and ended up the basis for a railway system. Since then, a new Kingdom of Hyrule was founded in the land (by the Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass Zelda), apparently coexisting peacefully with the native Lokomo. In the present day, Princess Zelda is once again a reigning monarch in charge of a functional kingdom, rather than the Tsundere Little Miss Badass of the prior games. The story opens with Link, an apprentice engineer, needing to attend his presentation ceremony in which Princess Zelda will appoint him as a Royal Engineer. She does so despite the annoyance of her Obviously Evil Chancellor, Cole; secretly, however, she requests Link's aid in investigating why the Spirit Tracks are disappearing. Almost as soon as Link sneaks the princess out of the castle, the Evil Chancellor shows up and casts some sort of spell that separates Zelda's soul from her body. While the villain takes Zelda's body for himself, her soul stays with Link, and they team up to put her soul back where it belongs. Besides playing Exposition Fairy, it is Zelda who can possess the Phantoms and help Link in dungeons.

It is the third Zelda game so far to have a rating that is not the default E (it's rated E10+). The first two were the T-rated Twilight Princess and Link's Crossbow Training, although the latter is a spinoff game.

"Zelda: "Please get changed so we can leave. ...Oh! I-I'm sorry. I'll look the other way.""
 * Action Girl: One of the few canon Zelda games to have Zelda actually DO something other than stand around for most of the game that's actually playable. The game actually makes fun of this. When Zelda is told that her body is being kept at the top of the tower, she frantically grabs Link by the front of the shirt and begs him to go and save it. She adds that she'll remain behind to wait for him ("I believe that's a family tradition!") before being informed that she'd have to help him out also.
 * Aerith and Bob: Delve into the mystic and fantastical world of such interestingly named characters as Anjean, Alfonzo and... Cole? Granted, it does match the Theme Naming of the Lokomo, but still.
 * Ambiguously Gay: The shopkeep at Castle Town. He has one hand on his hip, he uses the word "fabulous", and he doesn't wear pants.
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: Compare the American boxart to its European and Japanese counterpart.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: 15 (of 20) stamps in Niko's stamp book unlocks the train conductor's outfit you wore at the beginning of the game.
 * Animated Armor: The Phantom really is an enemy and will attack Link until he allows Zelda's spirit to possess it.
 * Anti-Frustration Features: The train will flip to the direction you want to go when exiting a station, portal and some caves in order to avoid having to go backwards and manually turning around.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Byrne/Staven, who is quite stoic, but still has a superiority complex to rival Neji Hyuuga's.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence:
 * Badass Adorable: Phantom Zelda. Even the other Phantoms observe that she's adorable, although they don't quite know why (see No Indoor Voice, below).
 * The little round pink eyes that appear in the usually empty space beneath Phantom's helmets are more than enough to qualify her.
 * Badass Mustache:
 * Battle Couple:
 * Better Than a Bare Bulb: This has got to be the most tongue-in-cheek Zelda so far.
 * Big Bad: Chancellor Cole, who.
 * Bigger Bad: Malladus, who Cole wants to resurrect.
 * Big No: Zelda does this when she finds out what Chancellor Cole is planning to do with her body.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Sort of. One of the three Multiple Endings also gives off this vibe, due to
 * Blackout Basement: The darkened areas of the Tower of Spirits.
 * Blow You Away: The Whirlwind, one of Link's new items, is a pinwheel-like device that creates small cyclones, and is operated by blowing into the DS microphone.
 * Blush Sticker: For Link in a couple scenes, especially the ones with the Zelda/Link hints in them.
 * Body Snatcher: The plot is kicked off by Chancellor Cole stealing Zelda's newly-soulless body.
 * Body Surf: How Zelda takes control of the Phantom.
 * Bonus Boss:
 * Boss Subtitles: Pretty much a prerequisite for 3D Zelda titles. The "boss name, then title" format from Phantom Hourglass is reused (eg., "Stagnox, Armoured Colossus", "Fraaz, Master of Icy Fire", etc...)
 * Bottomless Magazines: The Pirate's Hideout mini-game, which still manages to be difficult regardless. Also occurs during.
 * The Spirit Train's cannon.
 * Bow Of Plot Advancement: The Bow of Light.
 * Though you also get the mandatory sword upgrade right after.
 * Brain Bleach: In-universe, Zelda is understandably freaked out by the idea of the Demon King possessing her body.
 * Breath Weapon: To activate the Whirlwind, you have to blow into the microphone.
 * By the Lights of Their Eyes: Tektites and Roktite's eyes glow in the dark, which is the only way to spot them.
 * Cel Shading
 * Climax Boss:
 * Clothes Make the Legend: Link's tunic and cap yet again, this time justified by being the uniform for the royal guards, and Link has to dress up as one to sneak Zelda out. Interestingly, US-version dialogue indicates that no one seems to find the outfit very flattering; one guard calls it "goofy-looking," and when Link puts it on Zelda comments that "It works...I suppose."
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer: Battle Mode lets you control one of four Links with differently colored tunics, Four Swords style.
 * Continuity Nod: Tetra appears in a stained-glass window; Niko mentions how Link reminds him of someone he used to know when he was younger; you can obtain the shield from Phantom Hourglass at one point, and so on...
 * Anjean is made of these.
 * Zelda desperately notes, during her freak-out, that it's pretty much the required job for the Link in each generation to rescue his corresponding Zelda.
 * You visit Linebeck's grave at one point in the adventure.
 * The Ends of the Earth station has puzzles for Master, Tempered and Golden puzzlers. Those are the names of the sword's upgrades in A Link to The Past.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Link can ride on top of Phantom!Zelda while she walks through lava and neither are any the worse for wear.
 * Convenient Color Change: When Zelda possesses a mook.
 * Cool Train: It's basically this side of the Den-Liner in terms of coolness.
 * Copy Protection: Copied/pirated versions of the game don't display the train controls, making riding the train very difficult indeed.
 * Cosmetic Award: Beat Alfonzo's training record of 900 hits and you get a rare treasure, and the guards call you "Captain". Not much, considering you can get the treasure other ways so all you really have is the honor of their respect and that's it.
 * Covert Pervert: Zelda gives off this vibe when handing Link his "disguise" in her room early on in the game.

""I will wait for you here. That's what princesses have always done. From what I understand, it's kind of a family tradition.""
 * Cursed with Awesome: Princess Zelda. She is cursed into being a ghost. This gives her, among others, the ability to hover (which she openly enjoys in the trailer), turn into a fairy-like orb of light and, most importantly, possess the deadly Phantom-soldiers.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Chancellor Cole, who decides to skip the elaborate plots and just separate Zelda's soul and steal her body himself. Also Fraaz, boss of.
 * Deceptive Disciple:.
 * Degraded Boss: Snapper, the miniboss you get the whip from, later appears as just another enemy. It is very satisfying to whip him to death with the weapon you took from him. The Geozard, a heavily-guarded enemy, is also made short work of after you can use the whip to remove its shield.
 * The Heatoise in the Fire Temple. After you get the Bow and Arrow from the first one, two more show up, and your new weapon can be used to eliminate them in short order.
 * Demonic Possession: Remember what happened the last time Zelda's soul was removed by the Big Bad?
 * Devour the Dragon:
 * Disc One Final Dungeon:
 * Dishing Out Dirt: The Sand Wand has this power. With it, Link is able to raise sand so he can rise to higher spots, move or stop heavy objects, walk over quicksand, attack sand-based enemies, etc. It's very versatile.
 * The Dragon: Byrne is this to Big Bad Chancellor Cole, with Malladus as the Bigger Bad.
 * Dungeon Bypass: The mechanic of "main dungeon you keep returning to" makes a return from Phantom Hourglass, but this one has bypasses built into it and isn't timed.
 * Eek! A Mouse!: Zelda is frightened by a mouse shooting out from its hole, even though she's a spirit possessing an invincible Golem, not to mention the granddaughter of the pirate Tetra.
 * Escort Mission:
 * The Force Gem sidequests which don't involve transporting items from one place to another instead require you to transport people from one place to another without taking too much damage during the ride.
 * Big Keys in a few dungeons are far too large for Link to carry, so Zelda (in Phantom armor) carries them instead -- but then you have to protect her from Keymasters who try to take the key back.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Just call me Postman! All my friends do."
 * Evil Chancellor: Chancellor Cole.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy:
 * Also,.
 * Exposition Fairy: Zelda --
 * Expy: Alfonzo, Link's teacher and master, bears a striking resemblance to Gonzo, Tetra's first mate in The Wind Waker. He's descended him, which would make this an example of Generation Xerox as well, along with Zelda ("Legacy-Expy" of Tetra) and Link ("Legacy-Expy" of...well, you know).
 * For that matter, Malladus is . If that doesn't sound at least a little Ganon-ish, you either don't know much about Zelda or.
 * While his movement and basic design harken back mostly to Malladus's backstory, being an evil king who tried to conquer the world and was sealed away by an ancient hero, also point to his status as a Cut-and-paste villain.
 * Feed It a Bomb: The carnivorous Fire Baba plants will readily swallow Bombs, blowing themselves up in the process.
 * Final Boss, New Dimension:
 * Friendly Playful Dolphins: This game has yellow dolphins that swim alongside the train while it's going over water. They squeak and jump out of the water when you blow the whistle, and they are adorable. If you keep blowing your whistle, they give you hearts to heal your train.
 * Generation Xerox: Princess Zelda; Link; Linebeck III; Alfonzo -> Miss Tetra; Link (Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass); Linebeck I; Gonzo. However, it is unclear if this Link is a descendant of WW Link, since Niko says that this Link reminds him of an old friend rather than this Link's grandfather.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: On Zelda-possessed Phantoms. Despite being pink, they still look quite badass, especially when in one of the dark rooms.
 * Gosh Hornet: When Link learns to roll... and is instructed by the game to roll into a tree with a giant beehive clearly hanging from it.
 * Gotta Catch Em All: In addition to the standard heart containers, this game lets you collect rabbits and stamps.
 * Nevermind the train parts, including the downright expensive Golden Train. Having complete sets of a particular motif gives your train more health than mixing and matching, for added incentive.
 * Grand Theft Me: Cole intends to have Malladus possess Zelda's body. Zelda is squicked out to high heaven.
 * The Guards Must Be Crazy: "What that? The princess('s body) has been kidnapped and the Chancellor was a demon in disguise bent on destroying us all? Stop playing around, kid!!"
 * Guide Dang It: A few, but the worst offender is finding the person who provides the Force Gem for the Pirate's Hideout.
 * Head Pet: Playing the Song of Birds near one of the small pigeons will cause one to roost on your head, staying there until you change screens or pick up an object, but staying even if you start pulling spin attacks.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heroic BSOD: Played for laughs. Zelda goes totally batshit insane for a minute or two immediately after learning what Cole intends to do with her body.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * Identical Grandson: Linebeck III, who is essentially Linebeck with a Nice Hat.
 * Applies to Zelda as well; her appearance is that of a tan-less Tetra. She even wears Tetra's royal garb (which Tetra herself, however, didn't wear that often).
 * Averted with Link, who is apparently unrelated, despite being a copy-paste of the Phantom Hourglass Link.
 * Also Alfonzo to Gonzo, in looks if not personality.
 * Implied Love Interest: Of course, Link and Zelda. Actually, in the entire series, only Skyward Sword can compete with this game in how clear it is.
 * Internal Homage: Remember the episode of the Zelda cartoon where Link's spirit was separated from his body and his soul guided Zelda so that his body and soul could be reunited? Hmm, interesting little role reversal we have here...especially interesting, since we find out that only Link can see spirit-Zelda (apart from the Lokomos, anyhow). Just like only Zelda could see spirit-Link in the cartoon. In the cartoon, the given reason for this was that Zelda was in love with Link... Wait a sec...
 * The final boss's final form is
 * The final boss battle is very similar to that in  in that and how  The key difference is that this time,
 * May or may not be intentional, but the symbol for the Ocean Realm bears a striking resemblance to an hourglass...
 * You travel to forest, snow, ocean and mountain, with a large tower standing in the middle. There's some differences, but the resemblance to Termina is hard not to notice.
 * The whip is known as the "rope snake." In several games in the series, the snake enemies are called 'Ropes'.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The guy who runs the Rabbitland Rescue really, really loves bunnies...so much so that he left his wife behind in Castle Town with no indication of where he went. When Link brings her to see him, she's angry at first, but relents and decides to stay and help him take care of the bunnies, since it makes him happy.
 * Lampshade Hanging: From Zelda:

""YOU SEEM CUTER THAN USUAL. WHY." "SOMETIMES IT'S LONELY BEING SO ELITE.""
 * Also the kid who tells you about the trade system, remarking at the end that she has no idea what it means.
 * When fighting (or rather, fleeing for your very life from) the Roktite, Zelda will cry out "Why hasn't this tunnel ended yet?!", noting how implausibly long the tunnel is.
 * Large Ham: Malladus, who, despite getting barely 3 lines in the whole game, manages to still be almost hammier than Ganondorf himself. Malladus' very first spoken line in the game was "RELEAAAAASE MEEEEEEE!!!"
 * Legacy Character: Link and Zelda, and also Linebeck III.
 * In a sense, Hyrule itself is a Legacy Country. This game takes place on a new continent discovered by Link and Tetra and named after the country that was destroyed in The Wind Waker. It seems different enough, however, what with the trains and all.
 * Averted with Niko. While some characters like Alfonzo seem to be Expies or descendants of Wind Waker-era characters, Niko appears as an old man in Link's village, with a pictograph of himself circa Phantom Hourglass on the wall.
 * The Postman. This is the third game where a postman comes to deliver mail directly to you.
 * MacGuffin Escort Mission: Most of the Force Gem sidequests involve transporting fish/ice/lumber/iron/cuccos/a highly breakable vase from one location to another.
 * Magic Music: The Spirit Flute.
 * Marathon Level: The "Take 'em All On" minigame.
 * Match Maker Quest:
 * The Maze: Disorientation Station.
 * Minecart Madness: There are a few minecart puzzles in the game, including a full minigame centered around it.
 * Money for Nothing: Once you find Linebeck, you can sell the many pieces of treasure you've picked up to him. Earlier in the game, this doesn't quite result in a Money for Nothing situation, since good treasure is rare, and there's still plenty of nice items to spend cash on. Later on, however, once you've bought the major necessities and have accessed the multiple minigames that hand out rare treasure like candy, the game clearly reaches this point.
 * Multiple Endings: Three, although they differ only very slightly from each other, depending on the answer given to Zelda's question shortly before the final battle.
 * Mundane Utility: The Hylians take the Seal on an Evil In A Can and ride their trains on it.
 * There's also the Song of Discovery, a magic tune for the Spirit Flute that essentially functions as a shovel.
 * Neutral Female: Zelda tries to invoke this for herself in the beginning, claiming that watching on the sidelines is a family tradition. It doesn't stick.
 * Nice Hat: Cole wears two. Linebeck III also has one.
 * Link's engineer cap.
 * No Indoor Voice: The Phantoms talk in ALL CAPS.


 * Obviously Evil: Cole. At least Zelda has her suspicions, but they're not nearly as strong as they should be.
 * One-Hit Kill: Unusually for the Legend of Zelda series, the Dark Trains and Armored Trains will cause an instant Game Over if they hit your train, regardless of how fast they hit you or what condition your train is in.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: More like Our Ghosts Are Princesses.
 * Cute Ghost Girl
 * Pan Flute Playlist: First game since The Wind Waker to implement this trope.
 * Power Fist: Byrne's single oversized gauntlet.
 * Princesses Prefer Pink: When Zelda possesses a Phantom, it turns pink. The cutscene of the first time this happens even shows Phantom Zelda with glowing pink eyes.
 * Psycho Strings: The music that plays when you meet the Dark/Armored Trains.
 * Also, Chancellor Cole's theme.
 * And when the Roktite gets closer... and closer... AND CLOSER...
 * Punch Clock Villain: The Phantoms in the Tower of Spirits, who actually aren't supposed to be villains at all and normally wouldn't be attacking Link. The dark power of Cole and Malladus causes them to incorrectly perceive him as a threat.
 * Punny Name:
 * Chancellor Cole (Coal).
 * Anjean (Engine) of the Lokomo (Locomotive) tribe. Apparently, this is a characteristic shared by all the Lokomo; the other names are "Gage", "Steem", "Carben", "Embrose", and "Rael".
 * Even Malladus falls under this. You have "mal" (evil), "malleus" (hammer, like for railroad spikes), and even "Mallard" (which is a type of train). It's also pretty close to "malady" (illness).
 * Ferrus, who is named after the Latin word for iron (ferrum).
 * The boss Skeldritch is, fittingly, a skeletal Eldritch Abomination.
 * Another example is Byrne. You gotta Byrne the Cole after all.
 * Link's hometown is Aboda Village, "abode" being another word for "home."
 * This is also very true of the Japanese version. Some are rather obscure, though: Byrne is "Diigo", which comes from the popular-with-Japanese-railfans D51 locomotive, while Cole is "Kimaroki", referring to a specific arrangement of locomotives and specialized railcars used in the past to clear snow off the tracks. A third is Shirokuni (Alfonzo), who is a reference to the C62 locomotive, the fastest and most powerful passenger locomotive of Japan's steam era.
 * All of these applies to the English version of the game. Even more Punny Names can be found in the other versions.
 * Rail Enthusiast: Ferrus, the resident Fan Boy in the train-covered world. You meet him a few times in the main adventure, in which he gives you helpful hints about the next temple, and he's also a part of a few sidequests in which you can fufill his dreams of going underwater and meeting Alfonzo. Oh, and you can hit him with the cannon.
 * Redemption Equals Death:
 * Red Right Hand: Chancellor Cole has a pair of horns hidden under his twin top hats. Less conspicuously, he also has reverse-coloured eyes, with black scleras and white irises. For some reason, however, his eye color is normal whenever he shows his demonic traits...
 * Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: This is just about the most active and helpful a Princess Zelda has ever been in this series, second only perhaps to Tetra, who wasn't raised as a princess. After initially demanding that Link do the usual job of a Link and rescue her (body), she consents to follow Link and help him in every way she can. That includes pulling double duty as an Exposition Fairy and acting as Link's invincible armored partner in the Spirit Tower., and show that she's not above doing the important bureaucratic work that comes with being royalty, either. For reference, Spirit Tracks is the first Nintendo-published Zelda game in which Zelda is playable.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The Demon King Malladus. He's such a big evil that his binding chains were big and long enough to form the basis of New Hyrule's railway system.
 * Sequential Boss:
 * Serious Business: Trains. You can't be an engineer without what essentially amounts to a knighting ceremony.
 * Possibly justified when you consider that they regularly travel on and interact with the chains binding the resident evil spirit.
 * And as the Esoteric-Goron claims, engineers have a special "aura" allowing them to feel the presence of one. It's like engineer is another word for "really awesome person" in New Hyrule.
 * In the immortal words of Alfonzo: "You sure you don't mean legendary warrior? I've never heard of a legendary engineer."
 * Shout-Out: Eiji Aonuma's main inspiration for this game was The Tracks Go On, a children book he once read to his son.
 * Skyward Scream: Again, when Zelda finds out Cole's plans. It helps that she actually flies up and screams at the camera while spinning around.
 * Slasher Smile: Cole. Makes one wonder how could he fool everyone in Hyrule Castle when he's so Obviously Evil.
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The races for treasure at the aptly-named Slippery Station.
 * Smug Snake: Subverted: Cole has all the trappings of never becoming anything more than an annoying little twat, but he's a surprisingly effective villain.
 * Some Dexterity Required: The final boss fights that require you to control both Zelda and Link, as well as the Lokomo duets.
 * Something Else Also Rises: The tip of Link's infamous hat randomly rises in one scene where Princess Zelda hugs him.
 * Sparkling Stream of Tears: Zelda does this before.
 * Spin Attack: With the obligatory upgrade from Niko once you collect all 20 stamps.
 * Stealth-Based Mission: A variation in which Link's iconic green outfit is also that worn by castle guards, so Link can run around in plain sight of patrols; it's Princess Zelda (whom he's escorting) who must remain hidden.
 * The inverse logically occurs (in a downplayed manner) during the Tower of Spirit dungeons -- Link generally needs to avoid patrolling Phantom soldiers, but Zelda (possessing Phantom armor) can walk around freely.
 * Sweet Hat: Cole wears two top hats in order to cover up his horns.
 * Skeldritch covers its weak point with a Viking-esque helmet.
 * Sword Beam: Your reward for getting all 50 rabbits.
 * Tagalong Kid: You can saddle Beedle with one, the same kid from Link's home village who conned him into rolling into a bee-infested tree. It's necessary to get a Force Gem from the kid, but even more so, it's hilarious to see Beedle's reaction when you bring him into the store.
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Took a Level in Badass: As usual in the series, Link. But this time Zelda turns into Little Miss Badass herself. Malladus' back can vouch for that.
 * Traintop Battle: In a game centering around trains, this was inevitable:
 * Tsundere: Zelda, just like her grandmother. But the most notable difference between her and Tetra is that her default mood is Dere-Dere, while Tetra had Tsun-Tsun for a default-mood.
 * Underground Monkey: The five types of rabbit you can catch.
 * Variable Mix: The overworld theme varies in instrumentation and volume depending on the speed your train is going.
 * Also, the theme inside the Tower of Spirits changes as you progress (e.g. drums are added on the 2nd set of stairs, Ominous Chanting on the next set...).
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Link can whip Zelda when she's possessing a phantom. (Of course, if you keep it up, she will retaliate.)
 * You can shoot Ferrus with the cannon when he's by the tracks, and blowing the train whistle while next to him makes him jump.
 * You can also shoot Beedle's hot air balloon, but all it does is make him take off again.
 * What, you never wanted to wreck your train?
 * Whip It Good: One of Link's new items is a whip that looks like a snake.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Zelda is afraid of mice. This comes up in a few puzzles.
 * Wicked Cultured: Chancellor Cole doesn't embody this trope in personality, but he sure does in dress. In fact, he actually wears two top hats.
 * Of course, they are to cover up his two demon horns.
 * Workplace-Acquired Abilities: Isn't it convenient that a newly-minted train engineer just so happened to be our Link?
 * You Can See Me?: When Zelda realizes that Link has followed her into her room. It's never really explained why he can see her. All of the Lokomo they meet can also see her.