Legend Of Zelda: Spectrum Trial

Okay, this is another idea I've been sitting on about a sequel to Phantom Hourglass. It isn't as developed as my other idea, Surreal Stretch, but I still think it's alright.

The game is called 'The Legend Of Zelda: Spectrum Trial'.

The game takes place an unknown amount of time after Phantom Hourglass. It starts with Link sailing on a ship, Tetra and crew too, almost identical to the beginning of Phantom Hourglass. But out of nowhere, Link is grabbed away from the ship by a strange force, a multicoloured portal.

Link awakens, in a Temple that appears to break the boundaries of conventional structure. Think of all those optical illusions you've seen in which there are stairs on the ceiling and everything seems to lead into each other in a nonsensical manner. Yeah, like that.

In this room are seven people.

Jala, the 'Hero Of Flames', saviour of the land of Ambrell not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls heat. She wears a red robe, with large boots and unimaginable amounts of jewelry. Her weapon of choice is a mace.

Daun, the 'Hero Of Weather', saviour of the land of Tenriss not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls rain/sun/clouds. He wears peasant clothes in an orange colour, with sandals and a funny looking sailor hat. His weapon of choice is an axe.

Pire, the 'Hero Of Light', saviour of the land of Kyojin not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls Light and darkness. He wears a shimmering gold plated suit, with a streak of Silver running down his torso. His weapon of choice is a rapier.

Link, the 'Hero Of Winds', saviour of the land of Hyrule not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls the wind. He wears a green tunic with a green matching hat. His weapon of choice is a generic sword (as always).

Clik, the 'Hero Of Water', saviour of the land of Drohht not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls the waves. She wears a blue kimono. Her weapon of choice is a katana.

Yuan, the 'Hero Of Illusion', saviour of the land of Kraden not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls peoples vision and image. He wears an indigo set of clothes similar to those that Linebeck wears. His weapon of choice is a trident.

Slet, the 'Hero Of Entropy', saviour of the land of Quaddi not long ago by using a fabled wand that controls the passage of time (only forward, mind you). He wears a Violet robe with a cape and a helmet. His weapon of choice is a whip.

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Of course, none of this is revealed straight away.

As the seven of them stand in the room, puzzled, a shadowy figure rises from the middle of the room, similar in appearance to Phantom Ganon, only much more fluent and graceful.

This figure, Motral, tells the 'team' that they spend too much time saving other peoples lives and that they don't appreciate their own lives, even after risking it to save their respective lands.

Thus, he traps them in a trial on the island of Piron.

Each of the heroes' right hand starts to spasm and slowly morph into a strange looking mechanical hand, powered by cogs and clockwork. It is called the Curse of the Spectrum. Each of them are dressed in their respective colour of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (Link, being dressed in green, is the middle colour of the rainbow).

Each person can use their Spectrum Hand to their advantage - they can change the colour of something by shooting a harmless orb at it. Link, then, can change things green. By changing the colour of something, it changes its behaviour. For example, by turning a rock green, it behaves like a tile of grass allowing you to walk over it. By changing a tile of lava into blue, it would behave like water. By turning an object into the colour of the floor tiling below it, it behaves like flooring and stops being solid. I could go into more detail, but I'd be here all day. Red means fire, Orange means soft/Sunlight, yellow means light, Green means nature, Blue means water, Indigo means Illusion and Violet means Swamp. There are limits as to what is affected by colour change, though.


The mysterious spirit sets them off on the 'Spectrum Trial'; they must work together to find the seven Shards of the Spectrum Lens. By doing so, they can use its power to return to their own land. However, as well as using their abilities in tandem, they must put their own lives ahead of others because only one person can leave the island. This means that even if someone seems like they're helping you out, you might find that they turn against you. By defeating someone who turns against you, you gain their colour power as well as keeping your own.

Thus, normal Zelda questing occurs as normal. For each dungeon, you must first (as with every Zelda) do a side-quest to gain entrance. However, each of the first six side-quests involves being helped by the other heroes, until they turn against you, at which point you must take their power and use it in the dungeon. The seventh dungeon involves all of the colours.

The eighth dugneon takes place in the original temple that you started in. You get mugged at the start by the other heroes, of your powers and your seven shards of the Spectrum Lens. You then slowly make them back up over the course of the dungeon.

At the end of it, Link gives the pieces to Motril. He then reveals that he too was playing in the Trial, and that the trial was set up by the Gods to see who is a truly worthy hero. He, however, arrived first, and, being manipulating as he is, posed as the Game Master so as to get the other contestants to play the game for him. The other contestants, realising their mistakes, chase Motril to the ninth dungeon (where the lens is to be placed), a generic tower on a mountain (who'd have thought?). There, Link returns the respective powers to each Contestant. The Ninth dungeon involves switching between all nine contestants (Like with Gongoron in PH) to solve all of the puzzles. For the final battle, there are seven short segments, each fought by a different contestant (Link being the last).

Upon defeating him, the contestants, having become close friends, are uncertain as to what to do now. They universally agree that Link, being the true hero, should leave the island, but he decides against it, being a true hero. The game ends with the Contestants arguing who deserves to go home most, when the Goddesses, seeing Link as the most deserving, transport him home anyway.

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It's a work in progress, but the way I see it, it would serve to provide both an interesting single-player AND multiplayer-mode. The mechanic of stealing peoples Spectrum Powers could translate well to a 4-player game. I'm not sure why the Goddesses would pull such a stunt, so that's a big problem, but I'll work something out.

Willing to accept criticism. I only thought of this earlier today, so it doesn't have much depth as of yet.

Discuss.

Nice idea, but it reminded me a little bit too much to Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime 3 to be honest. But sounds really nice as a new form of multiplayer Zelda after the Four Swords games.

And maybe you should change the name of the Hero of Entropy, as 'slet' is Dutch for 'slut'

Sounds kinda cool, but the fact that you can predict that someone will turn on you every dungeon is kinda repetative. Also, does this island have any other people on it? Towns, villages, other races? If not, the overworlds gonna get boring really quick.

Originally Posted by ShiekahSage

Sounds kinda cool, but the fact that you can predict that someone will turn on you every dungeon is kinda repetative. Also, does this island have any other people on it? Towns, villages, other races? If not, the overworlds gonna get boring really quick.

Yeah, it wouldn't be a Zelda land without towns, races, etc. I just haven't really put much thought into that aspect of the game.

As for team-mates turning against you, there is no pre-defined time when they betray you. If someone helps you in the second dungeon quest, they may not come back to betray you until the fifth dungeon quest. There are times when you meet groups of the other contestants who gang up on you, just as there are times when you go in groups of three or four and one person betrays you. It also becomes quite complicated because if you try to steal someones power, they may have already had it stolen by someone else.

@MazeMe, those names are only placeholders (each four letters long to parallel Link's default name. And it was inspired by Metroid Prime: Hunters, so it isn't hard to see where the resemblance comes from. The idea also minutely inspired by Saw IV, but that's a story for another day.

While it is a fairly original game idea, I think it would be too repetitive. Won't the wands have anything to do with the whole thing? I think that would be a better idea than using those Spectrum Hands, since the functions of the Hands only represent the heroes' colours, and not their "nature" (as in, what they've done earlier, really). If you used the wands instead, it would feel more linked to the heroes' backstory.

But I think that Surreal Stretch is a better idea. You're really creative though (:

Well, I'll rate yours if you rate mine.

Would each individual character have their own sub-plot? Or is Link the main character, and do they all revovle around him?

Are weapons stealable? Can Link nick weapons off other characters?

What is the NPC interaction like? What is the "sob story" of the game? (Saria in OoT, Midna in TP, Tetra in PH, you know, the heart-wrenching my love has been killed/kidnapped/turned to stone moment)

I can't really review the storyline at the moment, as it is mainly game concept, but once you have that up, I'll look at that as well.

It's not as good as your Surreal Stretch idea, and sounds too much like MPH, but it's a good idea nontheless!

I'm sure you can improve this one, though... (also, change the name Slet, it means slut in Dutch)

Well when I first read why they are there my thoughts immediatly went to the Saw horror series.

Sounds interesting enough.

I like the idea of this but it sounds like Character interaction and scenery/towns will be dull so I really don't know. I hope it isn't going to be like Lufia 2 with pathetic towns, and, good dunegouns I have read the reviews of that game. (shudders and flies away on Triforce bird from the symbol to Termina)