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ST: Trying To Be Twilight Princess?

Joined
Nov 26, 2008
So, I played through all of Spirit Tracks and I noticed something pretty consistent. This thing really looks up to Twilight Princess. I remember mentioning before the game came out a few of these similarities that we could already see then, but that was more about if the game will actually connect to TP plot-wise, which we know is false.


Some examples:

-Enemies in common, such as: Bulbos, Bulblins, White Wolfos, Mini Freezards.

-Boss in common: Skeldritch, while fought differently, was similar to Stallord in theme, arena and appearance.

-Tears of Light, while serving a completely different appearance, appeared in both games.

-Postman, and a few other gameplay quirks. You got letters, read them, and used them ALL EXACTLY THE SAME as in TP. Additionally, the story was very linear, and it had the endurance dungeon.

-Similar themes. Dark clouds, heavenly or benevolent "spirits" (the Spirits of ST vs. the Light Spirits of TP), an initially invincible recurring villain (Byrne/Zant) and a fruitcake psychotic villain (Cole/Zant) who is replaced by a bigger badder villain (Malladus/Ganondorf).

-Ganon and Malladus. Let's face it, they were identical. Malladus' final form is identical to Beast Ganon, they're the same in personality and plot, and they BOTH POSSESS ZELDA.


I'm not really sure if there's much discussion to be had here, but what are your thoughts? Can you find any other similar elements, characters, or other items of note?

----------------

Me I think this is way past the possibility of coincidence. This is obviously intentional. I think they were just trying to add in familiar elements to possibly net some of the "TP crowd" into playing it. They probably expected the lower sales that ST had (in comparison to PH), and were trying to maximize them. Overall I like it, getting to see these concepts in the toon style... although in the case of plot and characters, it's sad to see a lack of creativity.
 
Joined
Jul 14, 2010
i didn't care much for that copying because all zeldas know matter what always have this great feeling when you play them and atleast you knew malladus was the big boss earlier in the game.
 

TheWakerofWinds

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I didn't notice anything about monsters and dungeon layouts, but I'm sure ST was looking up to TP in at least one retrospect. And that is trying to 'fix' what errors the previous game had. For example; everyone (not me) raeged at cel-shading, and how bright and happy everything was. So, TP was dark, and was REELISTICCC. Same was ST. It went out to fix the errors of PH; and it did. (well to most people) and they were both immediate successes. :/ well that's what I think.
 

Kybyrian

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Didn't I already answer this one?
ST does seem a lot like Twilight Princess in various ways if you think about it. Perhaps they just didn't want to put as much work into it to make something completely original in every aspect? Maybe so. All they really did with Malladus was name him Malladus. They both possessed Zelda, both were hiding behind somebody else, had the same(or nearly the same) forms, and whatever else you can get from it. Malladus was really just Ganondorf with a new name. Perhaps they were just trying to lure more people in by stressing the fact that they had a new villain in the game but didn't really want to put the effort into making him completely new.

As for the rest of the things you mentioned, I've thought about those too. They just took enemies from the other game and dropped them into Spirit Tracks and added in a few others. They recycled old things like the Tears of Light and the Postman/whatever else you meant by "other gameplay quirks". All they really did was make a new game and then drop in elements of an already existing one to fill it in a little bit.

This doesn't make it any better or worse, though. I don't mind that they're giving us some stuff from an older game, as long as they don't overdo it. The game was still good. It's at the bottom of my list, but compared to a lot of other games it is pretty good.
 

bigflyingpotato

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I've long thought that they made Spirit Tracks to try to redeem Phantom Hourglass, but I don't think it succeeded. I mostly think this because of improved music over PH, and much less repitition in the Tower of Spirits. So it took many elements from Phantom Hourglass and Twilight Princess, Wind Waker too. The game even took the "hitting the boss' weak point" from Twilight Princess in the mulitplayer mode, the happy dance from Wind Waker too. It's not the most creative game.
 

basement24

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I noticed the same things, but not much else really. I think it's possible due to the short time between PH and ST development wise that they could have gone back to the recycling bin for some concepts, and the standard 'three temples with a green, red and blue artifact' was overused. Luckily the game didn't feel like a rehash of TP, but the similar elements do make me think ST was tossed together from left over PH and TP concepts to make a filler game to keep fans happy while SS took more time to develop. Still, a great time was had (greater thatn PH, personally), so I can't complain!
 

Destiny

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Yes, I noticed all those same factors while playing the game.
Another thing to add was that The first stage of the final boss matched up a bit to TP first stage final boss although to defeat it was completly differnt.
But you were pretty much spot on with this one. However, Like most of you, I find this game was a rehash with a few new idea crammed in there. And personally I think the game turned out well for the time it was developed and released in.
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
I didn't notice anything about monsters and dungeon layouts, but I'm sure ST was looking up to TP in at least one retrospect. And that is trying to 'fix' what errors the previous game had. For example; everyone (not me) raeged at cel-shading, and how bright and happy everything was. So, TP was dark, and was REELISTICCC. Same was ST. It went out to fix the errors of PH; and it did. (well to most people) and they were both immediate successes. :/ well that's what I think.
Hm... What do you mean that Spirit Tracks was dark and realistic? I guess it was a little grittier than some others, but overall I thought the feel was exceptionally cheery.

I'm also not sure I agree TP fixed anything about previous games, but rather added more weaknesses. I do believe in some way or another, ST was looking up to TP though.


I noticed the same things, but not much else really. I think it's possible due to the short time between PH and ST development wise that they could have gone back to the recycling bin for some concepts, and the standard 'three temples with a green, red and blue artifact' was overused. Luckily the game didn't feel like a rehash of TP, but the similar elements do make me think ST was tossed together from left over PH and TP concepts to make a filler game to keep fans happy while SS took more time to develop. Still, a great time was had (greater thatn PH, personally), so I can't complain!
I do agree that it's likely a case of them rushing ST. Didn't it come out not too long after Phantom Hourglass? It does feel like a filler in many ways considering how thin the story was except for the beginning and end..
 

Goro-Link

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I'd like to point out that in ST the mini-freezards had Octorocs in them, but point taken.


and the maladus/beastganon bosses both had the same weak point (to a point. y'know, the jewl on the head?)
 

PhantomTriforce

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I don't think TP was that linear. But anyways, Zelda games reuse concepts, so ST might have just wanted to incorporate some GCN ideas into the DS.
 

Vanessa28

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Mwah I never paid that much attention to the similarities. But when I finished ST I had not finished TP since I laid that one aside until early this year. Yes some dungeons were more dark and of course Link jumping in the car and spinning around shooting arrows at his target really reminds me of Stallord when I look back at it except for the shooting arrows part of course. I do believe they wanted to make the game look more like TP indeed but you have to pay attention to notice it. At least I had to.
 
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I didn't noticed that much similarities but I also think that newer Zelda games will take elements from previous games.

For example, TWW had a similar to OoT. So is TP. Then, there's Ganon in OoT who acted in similar way like in ALttP. FSA to ALttP. Then, there's the themed dungeons that keeps coming back such as fire, water and sand.
 
Joined
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What is GCN? :O :O :O :O :O Is it, like,

GameCubeNintendo?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I know it refers to the Gamecube.


I do believe they wanted to make the game look more like TP indeed but you have to pay attention to notice it. At least I had to.
Didn't for me actually. I was noticing it way before the game even came out. :xd:


I didn't noticed that much similarities but I also think that newer Zelda games will take elements from previous games.

For example, TWW had a similar to OoT. So is TP. Then, there's Ganon in OoT who acted in similar way like in ALttP. FSA to ALttP. Then, there's the themed dungeons that keeps coming back such as fire, water and sand.
Yes, this is all true. But even games that have borrowed similar themes OR EVEN similar characters have never been this blatant before. Look at the Mini-Freezards or the Bulblin Riders, for example. The only thing different for either enemy really (aside from the Freezards containing Octoroks in ST) is the artstyle. It's literally the exact same character design. See my point? No two games have ever really done that except games that use the same graphics and such, like OoA/OoS or OoT/MM.
 

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