Let's hear your thoughts on the train in Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

I agree with the boat travel being the worst part of Phantom Hourglass. I prefer running around a large field like in OoT and Twilight Princess.

On the topic of the train, I wouldn't mind riding a train as long as Im on land most of the time for exploration. The only thing I'm worried about is how similair the train-gameplay looks to the steamboat in Phantom Hourglass.

However the news about being able to upgrade your train, so that you can lay your own tracks sounds interesting, so the train doesnt seem too restrictive and may bring about new ways of exploring,

I don't like train. I feel that the exploration in Zelda should be similar to windwaker. I dont like any kind of mechanic vehicle in a Zelda game. Whats next , a car, a plane, a fighter jet. I like when Link has to travel using the things in his environment. Such as using the wind for a sail or maybe wind for a hang glider. And you cant go wrong with a Horse.

Honestly I feel that the vehicle used to travel isn't the problem in the DS Zelda's, it's the controls themselves. Nintendo abandoned a perfectly fine control scheme that had been used in all of the previous portable entries and it completely killed the game for me. Not only does the touch screen control feel forced it's also quite imprecise, often I would end up walking straight into an enemy instead of attacking like I wanted. If Nintendo can get some solid controls back in the portable series then maybe I'll start caring about the new stuff they're trying with Zelda.

Yeah, I'm not too thrilled about the new gimmick. Sure, "IT'S A ZELDA GAME IT HAS 2 BE GOOD", but still. When are we going to get tired of more of the same, tacked with a new gimmick. It seems to be Nintendo's business plan for every one of their games.

Do what Brad said. Make Zelda with a talking Link, Danny Devito as Navi, a bionic arm, and in the future. Maybe then they'll awaken the fans who have just stopped giving a shit.

I really didn’t like the idea of boat travel but once I played it and thought about it some more, I think it fits fine and is in no way a gimmick. Zelda has evolved to be more linear (especially when compared to the original Zelda). There are still some minor collection side quests, mini-games to play and small bits of exploration for upgrades but none of that is lost because of the method of travel.

Boiling it down, running around in a field is nearly the same as navigating the boat. You are moving from one location to the next, you can stop to find some treasure, you come across enemies and then you reach your destination.

Thinking about it a little bit more though, some of the, if you will, “lead-up” area, just before you get to a dungeon is somewhat lost. This lead-up area might be part of what keeps it from feeling like a series of dungeons in the mainline console Zelda's. (I thought Phantom Hourglass felt like a series of dungeons at times)

Like the over-world (ocean), connects the various locations/towns (islands) and within that location (island) you can enter a dungeon. The only thing in Phantom Hourglass is that, most of the time, the dungeon is right there when you get to the island. There isn’t much build up getting to it.

But I don’t believe that is a result of choosing to go with a boat (or maybe a train, we’ll see) for travel, instead of an intentional design choice or maybe a limit of what they can work with.

lol @ people going to buy this

I do think it is going to ruin the exploration of zelda and to me thats a big part of what makes a zelda game for me. Honestly, I think they should just concentrate their efforts on the new console zelda. I'd rather have something like the first zelda, link to the past, or even zelda 2 on the DS. I think they ar trying a bit too hard to make it innovative on DS.

The big "field" sucks too.

ALttP fo life. That game was all about exploring that world. Finding little hidden secrets and coming back to places when you have your new equipment. It was very Metroidesque in that way. And it didn't feel like a series of dungeons connected by an big open field or ocean. Every inch of that world had something awesome in it. This is lost in the larger, emptier 3d Zelda games.

And the Ocean in Phantom Hourglass sucked for many reasons. it was not fun to navigate, it lasted way to long, it had no real identity, it was easy to lose your hearts and have to do it all over again, and again... I never felt like I was exploring. The train seems even more limited. It's going to be nothing more than a glorified mini game between dungeons. And if you look at the world in that video... it doesn't even look like you can explore that really low poly world around the tracks. I swear, I don't think you can even get out of the fucking train. *sigh*

Returning to the same location with new equipment is why I like the idea of a central dungeon, although it wasn't fleshed out that way too much in Phantom Hourglass.

I never had the issue with losing the hearts and having to start over but I can imagine that would make the ocean incredibly annoying. The main problems I had were that the enemies could become tedious and like you said, it wasn't very well populated with side things. A few more optional islands would have made a big difference.

The train does look limited but maybe it allowed for more explorable terrain on foot after you get off the train? Who knows.