Had you asked me a month ago what my favorite dungeon of the Zelda series was, I highly doubt that I would have chosen this one. Not because I don’t love it, obviously – heck, I’ve chosen it now, haven’t I? – but more because my focus has always been on the 3D games. From my first time playing Ocarina of Time to my latest run-through of Skyward Sword, the worlds and the gameplay of those have always enthralled me far more than the top-down look of handhelds and earlier titles. But when I ran through the list of dungeons from across the entire series, weighing each one’s merits and charms and difficulties and disappointments, I surprised myself by continually coming back to the Tower of Spirits.

The mighty Tower stands in the very center of Spirit Tracks‘ Hyrule, able to be seen from all across the overworld, and its prominence is well deserved – this is one of the largest and most mind-challenging dungeons in the series, filled with tricks and traps that even the Hero cannot overcome by himself. Enemies abound, secrets are hidden in every nook and cranny, and each of the thirty floors has a new way to impede your progress and force you to start thinking.

Its overworld placement also makes sense given how much of the game is oriented around the dungeon. The massive structure serves as the lock that keeps the demon Malladus at bay, and the goal for a vast portion of Link’s quest is to reach the very top of the tower so that he can stop the beast’s resurrection. Such plot relevance is rare for a dungeon; usually, dungeons that tie directly into the main quest of the game are the final dungeon in Link’s quest, and because of that they usually suffer in the puzzle-challenge and length department.

Fortunately, the Tower of Spirits does not make that same mistake. The puzzles in this game range from simple to mediocre to difficult to I-just-spent-thirty-minutes-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-hit-both-of-those-switches-quickly-enough-and-HALLELUIAH-I-DID-IT! Back when the game was released, Aonuma commented on how some of the puzzles were designed by a former programmer, leading to a very different feel in how to understand and solve them – and I enjoyed them immensely. Several of the puzzles really required players to step back and examine the puzzle as a whole before figuring out how to solve it piece by piece, an approach that has rarely been necessary in the series.

Part of the reason for the variety of puzzles comes back to the Tower’s story relevance, in fact – as you are required to visit it five times throughout the game, the Tower is divided into five different sections that much be individually traversed. That “individually” word is key, as – unlike Phantom Hourglass‘s much-maligned Temple of the Ocean King – you do not need to reconquer areas if you leave the dungeon. Instead there is a central staircase that gains new levels as you proceed through the game, and you need only scale it to the newest section. Bypassing those earlier levels is a great relief.

Of course, that staircase could have been a rather tedious trek – having to go around four times to reach the fourth level could have gotten old, if the team hadn’t added an amazingly simple but fantastic detail: the music. While the music for the dungeon sections of the Tower is excellent on its own, I always feel the need to give special praise to the melody of the central staircase. Each time you start climbing a new section of the Tower, a new layer is added to the tune, transforming it as you ascend from the mere blowing of the wind to a gripping, powerful song driving you forward to save the world…assuming you can bring yourself to leave the staircase and its music. I often have to let the tune repeat four or five times before I get my fill and can leave it behind.

When you do finally move from the central staircase into one of the dungeon segments, you also have to deal with the Phantoms, and this is one of the aspects that makes the dungeon so interesting and truly special. The ability to partner up with a Phantom was one of the truly perplexing things seen in the first trailer for the game, but it became one of the most astounding twists when a later trailer revealed that it was Zelda herself possessing and controlling your former enemy. A fantastic maneuver in and of itself, but even more so because of all the puzzles it allows for.

Even Link, the legendary Hero, is unable to get through the Tower by himself – the puzzles are too devious, the dangers too great. For the first time in the series, Zelda has to adventure into these dungeons alongside Link, and the layout and design of the dungeon reflects that from the very first floor. Teamwork between Hero and Princess is an absolute necessity to succeed here.

Multiple puzzles require the two of them working in tandem – pressing switches and opening massive doors being the most simplistic versions. Zelda may have to carry Link over pits of lava, or roll over otherwise-indestructible blockades, or teleport behind closed doorways. And Link, wielding a sword filled with sacred energy, has to reach and take on the unbeatable Phantoms in order for Zelda to possess them. He must find paths for her to get around sand pits, or protect her from enemies as she carries Big Keys to their destination, or…kill the rats that terrify her so much. Yeah…

Especially memorable, to me at least, were the rooms with tiles that would cause Link and Phantom Zelda to switch positions. To this day, I find myself having to mentally work out beforehand exactly how to proceed through the sequence of tiles – ‘Okay, I want Zelda to end up here, so I’ll have to use this tile to get her past the sand pit…but Link can’t reach that one because of those spikes, so I’ll have to use the triangle tiles first…’ I’ve been playing Zelda games for sixteen years (…I feel so old right now >_<), and these days I can figure out most Zelda puzzles at a glance. So to be forced to work them out like this time and time again, even knowing that I’ve already done them several times before in my previous playthroughs, is an incredible experience that I love more and more with each run.

Puzzles are only one side of the coin of Zelda dungeons, though; one must also consider combat. The Tower…isn’t as amazing in that arena, unfortunately, but it does still have some solid fights. Several of these battles require Link and Zelda to take on an enemy simultaneously, as the Hero on his own would be overwhelmed. As one would expect, the most awesome of these is probably the boss fight against major antagonist Byrne/Staven; although the confrontation becomes rather easy once you’ve played it before and know what to do, that doesn’t diminish the joy of that first time you confronted him and won – despite only being a couple of “mere humans.”

Even if the combat portions weren’t as strong as some other regions of the game, the puzzles, teamwork, and story elements of the Tower of Spirits are more than enough to push this into the realm of one of

the greats. The Zelda team definitely learned from the criticisms of PH’s Temple of the Ocean King, and they came back to prove that massive, game-spanning dungeons like this one can be some of the best in the entire series. Thirty floors, four types of Phantom, countless brain-twisting puzzles, and two adventurers ready to take it all on – now that’s how you craft a dungeon.

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