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Spirit Tracks: More Than We Thought?
I saw this video posted at our affiliate, ZeldaInformer and decided to give it a watch myself.
After doing so, I suddenly realized that we were all very silly to judge Spirit Tracks as stupid or silly based on the cartoon style and the train concept itself. Why? Read on.
Overall, the one thing that we all love about Zelda is the driven storylines. In every game, there is a clear problem, with a clear backstory, with a clear beginning, and a clear ending. These effects are achieved through defined objectives, familiar settings, familiar controls, and the omnipresent villain to defeat. Whether it’s Ganon, Vaati, or some other force, Link always has a clear goal: destroy the villain, and save the world. This works because Zelda is, first and foremost, fantasy, and that’s how fantasy works. Zelda doesn’t try to redefine fantasy, but rather pushes it to the limits. The driven storyline is, in essence, the only thing that makes a game like Twilight Princess not only tolerable, but even fun. Now, what does this have to do with Spirit Tracks?
Well you shouldn’t really be asking that question, because I assume that if you’re reading this article you already watched the attached video, and it should have made you as excited for Spirit Tracks as it has made me. There are a few things that we should notice about this video, the first being that this video seems to elaborate on a time in Hyrule before the events of Ocarina of Time, as well as some of the events described in it. I mean, Ocarina of Time defined the creation of Hyrule for us, but then it didn’t give us much from there. This video already elaborates on “in the beginning”, which I assume would be the time immediately after the creation of the world. Now, it then goes on to talk about the rise of the “Demon King”, and the “spirits of good” having to subdue him. That’s where it gets ambiguous as to whether this is referring to the events of Ocarina of Time or something else. “Demon King”, for instance, does not necessarily refer to Ganon, but it could possibly. Typically, though, we know Ganon as the “King of Evil”, rather than “Demon King.” The part that should make us realize this is not referring to events described anywhere in Ocarina of Time, however, is the battle and the ensuing “burial” of the Demon King. Such events are neither described nor paralleled in any other Zelda game. Now, this leaves us with two possible scenarios: this story is interstitial between the Creation of Hyrule, and the Imprisoning War and the events of Ocarina of Time, or we’re not talking about Hyrule. The words “this land” lends itself either way.
The second thing that you should have noticed was the lack of reference to either Hyrule or Triforce. Now, whether or not this was ambiguous just to arouse interest is unknown at this point, but it certainly has done at least that much. The next thing to notice is the way that the narrative is told. The Hemingway-esque style of its presentation suggests to me, at least, that we’re in for a game that’s got a lot of story and action, and not a lot of superfluous garbage. Not to say that any Zelda game is necessarily replete with such things, but at least we’re assured ahead of time that this game, a game we were unsure of at first, will not deviate from that established pattern.
So in the end, I think the thing that we should all notice is that this video is reassuring us, as fans, this this game will live up to the name it bears. I think we were all a little bit afwaid dat da choo choo twains would wooin our Zelda games. At this point, though, I’m convinced that we’re going to be in for a lot more than we originally thought.
