Spirit Tracks Storyline! (as told by IGN)

Here is the storyline as layed out by IGN:

Originally Posted by IGN

First, a little backstory: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is the direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. If you played that game, at the end of the adventure you set sail for New Hyrule. Well, in that journey apparently the pirates did land at Hyrule – they just hit undiscovered land, set up the stakes and called the area Hyrule. Pretty convenient.

Spirit Tracks takes place 100 years after the events of Phantom Hourglass. Apparently in the land that's now called Hyrule, the inhabitants had to deal with a vicious Demon King. In the timespan between the two games there was an epic battle and the spirits of the land helped take down this evil being. Though they couldn't kill the beast, they could muster just enough strength and energy to subdue him with chains and shackles and bury him underground. The shackles, extending the land of Hyrule in four different directions, became the Spirit Tracks, and the surrounding community used these tracks as transportation railways.


Dead, but not out.

The game opens up with you, as Link – an apprentice railroad engineer – off to Princess Zelda's castle for a graduation ceremony where the honor of Royal Engineer will be bestowed onto you by the princess herself. As she rewards you for your service, she slips you a note, warning of the suspicious Chancellor Cole, and to take a hidden path and meet her in secret. She requests your help in investigating the mystery of the vanishing Spirit Tracks – she's restricted to her quarters, but needs your help sneaking out of the castle to figure out why the Spirit Tracks are mysteriously disappearing all over the land.

Zelda then presents you with a change of clothing – the familiar green garb – which will help you blend in and trick the guards. The first mission is to stealthily get Zelda through the hallways without being spotted by the castle's security. You're in direct control of Link through the same touch screen control as Phantom Hourglass, but to control Zelda you tap a swirl icon connected to her and draw a path for her to follow. It's a careful process, running up to guards as Link to get them to look away, and have Zelda walk past when their backs are turned.

After your success, you finally make it out of the castle and bump into Alfonzo, your Master Engineer who's trained you into becoming the Royal Engineer. Apparently Alfonzo has some history with Hyrule as a soldier, but he's left that life behind…for some reason. He does help Zelda and Link escape on a train towards the Spirit Tower, but as they're off to investigate, the tracks start vanishing right out underneath the vehicle. After a spectacular crash, Chancellor Cole reveals himself to be not-so-nice and sends his second in command to take care of the group. He takes down Alfonzo. He takes down Link. And then…he takes down Zelda.

When Zelda's down, her spirit floats away like a glowing fairy, leaving her unconscious body for the taking – and that's exactly what Cole does.

When Link awakens, he's in Hyrule Castle. Zelda's spirit floats in all ghost like – after a few moments, Zelda learns she's sort of, you know, dead, and that no one can see her but Link. With her help, Zelda leads you to your sword and a bit of training for those not up on the touch-screen control, and then directs you to head to the Spirit Tower where she might be brought back to life.

Apparently Cole's using Zelda's body as a vessel to bring the Demon King back to life. The quest: to restore the Spirit Tracks – without the Tracks, the Demon King can't be held down. And without him held down, he can be brought back to life. The only way to do this is to ascend the Spirit Tower, which has been broken apart into segments, and secure the Stone Maps. The sage of the tower is using all her strength to hold the tower's base down, which gives you enough opportunity to ascend the first portion of the tower.

In this first area, you learn how to get Princess Zelda to possess the Phantom knights. You'll first need to track down the Tears of Light, which will power up your sword in such a way that will, with a well placed smack to its backside, deactivate the Phantom and let Zelda sneak in and control it from within.

And now you'll see why this is the first Legend of Zelda game from Nintendo where you can play as Zelda. Sort of. (and yes, I'm aware of the CD-I game). You'll control Link with the standard touch-screen controls, and then move Phantom Zelda by touch-dragging her a path around the area. You'll need to work together in order to solve puzzles, unlock chests, and open doors.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks improves on a few elements from complaints people had in the original Phantom Hourglass. One issue was when the game forced you to replay dungeons just to get to the new, unlocked portions of the temple. But in Spirit Tracks, the Tower has an entrance staircase that allows you to ascend and bypass the previously completed portions, so no constant backtracking.

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I didn't want to get any spoils, but I wanted to know how this connected to spirit tracks, thanks for posting!

Apparently in the land that's now called Hyrule, the inhabitants had to deal with a vicious Demon King

then is this train in the trailer ... Ganontrain the Demon King?

Originally Posted by IGN

they just hit undiscovered land, set up the stakes and called the area Hyrule

damn, ZeldaZealot had really hoped that Nintendo could have actually tried to come up with something original with the name.

Originally Posted by ZeldaZealot

damn, ZeldaZealot had really hoped that Nintendo could have actually tried to come up with something original with the name.

I think it went like this:

Tetra: So, we finally found a new land!
Link: Cool! What name should we give to it?
*Thinking*
One of the Pirates: We just came from the Great Sea, so... What about Big Land?
Tetra and Link together: I guess we should stick with Hyrule...

I'm excited for this game. So the main tower you can bypass the parts that you've already completed. That's nice.

Awesoooome! God, I just spoiled some more stuff. D=

Tears of Light huh...? Looks like it has a few nods to TP already. @_@ Then again, Force gems were in PH.

If ST becomes a storyfest it will fail in my eyes and I bet it would fail in sales. It had BETTER deliver on gameplay.

But then again, the first game I'm gonna get on DS is Golden Sun DS, so I shouldn't care. I can't help it though.

Oh boo hoo. I like how all the Zelda fans (especially theorist) are loving this game because of it's new story. And you're all "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" xD Lighten up. Zelda fans love story. If anything this new story element has up'd the sales 3 fold. Saying how all the whiners said they weren't going to buy the game and now they're reconsidering.

If ST becomes a storyfest it will fail in my eyes and I bet it would fail in sales. It had BETTER deliver on gameplay.

But then again, the first game I'm gonna get on DS is Golden Sun DS, so I shouldn't care. I can't help it though.

Double A do you ever have anything positive to say? Just wondering.

But the storyline seems pretty legit. I'm hoping for a lot more insight of how Zelda actually is, and since she is your sidekick more than likely this will happen. And the Zelda series likes their 100 years time gap it seems.

ST Zelda seems very different from Zelda(TWW) She's acting like a girly princess for once. I half expected her to act all tough like Tetra. @_@

This isn't necessarily a spoiler, it's just the beginning of the game. IGN wouldn't release true spoilers before the game is even out.

Originally Posted by Double A

If ST becomes a storyfest it will fail in my eyes and I bet it would fail in sales. It had BETTER deliver on gameplay.

Seriously, just shut the **** up already. We know what your stance is on gameplay and storyline. Don't need to ***** anymore about it.

And if you played PH the gameplay will be the same because it is using the same game engine.

It is funny how everyone is excited for this game, and how the storyline is becoming very intriguing, yet your the only one thats whining about it.

I'm extremely happy about the storyline. It seems very intriguing and no doubt will keep my interest. I'll be playing for hours, I guarantee it.

Originally Posted by Double A

If ST becomes a storyfest it will fail in my eyes and I bet it would fail in sales. It had BETTER deliver on gameplay.

Zelda has always needed a story - it's just that this seems to be more intriguing and interesting than previous Zelda games, like Phantom Hourglass. Is that a bad thing?

There's a difference between a complicated story and a good story. Chances are that you would find MM and OoT to have more complicated storylines than this game. So please, stop whining whenever you hear the word "story" mentioned.

Originally Posted by Zeldablue777

Awesoooome! God, I just spoiled some more stuff. D=

Tears of Light huh...? Looks like it has a few nods to TP already. @_@ Then again, Force gems were in PH.

And you just spoiled some more stuff for me, lol. Just because you found the spoilers unintentionally, doesn't mean you shouldn't use tags!

Hmm Zelda dying and you control her spirit....I'M DOWN!

Originally Posted by Abyss Master

Zelda has always needed a story - it's just that this seems to be more intriguing and interesting than previous Zelda games, like Phantom Hourglass. Is that a bad thing?
.

did you just say phantom hourglass has a bad story???

Originally Posted by harpiegirl

did you just say phantom hourglass has a bad story???

It wasn't as good as it could've been I think is what he means. I think it could have been better. It didn't catch my attention and interest me like previous Zelda games did.

Originally Posted by harpiegirl

did you just say phantom hourglass has a bad story???

Phantom Hourglass had a story?

The plots in handhelds never have been that great, LA was the best in my opinion. Even though it is similar to PH in so many ways, it just felt better.

I just hope that ST doesn't use the ghost Zelda mechanic as the story's only pull.