More Spirit Tracks Information

Some more Spirit Tracks information is now available courtesy of a forum user at NewGAF. According to the user zigg, the following information was revealed in the upcoming Nintendo Power magazine, which featured Spirit Tracks.

—You’ll first control Zelda while sneaking her out of the castle. She follows you normally, but you can tell her to stay put by tapping an icon, then tapping another to tell her to catch up when the coast is clear. You can also draw a path for her to follow, then distract the guards as she passes by by talking to them or throwing rocks at them.
The “big, bad, super-duper evil” that needs Zelda’s body is “apparently not Ganon.”
—Anjean “claims to have known Zelda’s ancestors.” (Wink, wink.)
—The tower doesn’t require you to revisit floors, but you can to get access to secrets you may have missed. I’m hoping they use this to lock away unobtainable treasure until you’ve acquired more items, much like various floors in the Temple of the Ocean King did.)
—The Phantoms, “who are supposed to protect the tower from evil, have gone haywire”.
—Zelda can’t inhabit a Phantom until you (a) get the three Tears of Light in an area, and (b) strike it from behind with your sword.
—As the game advances, Zelda will gain the ability to transfer her spirit from one Phantom to another.
—You aren’t completely free to choose your route with the train; but you will have to watch the upper screen map to see where enemy trains are headed, and switch off to other tracks to avoid collisions.
—There are four dungeons that connect to the Tower of Spirits. The first one, “Forest Temple,” has no Phantoms, but Zelda is still with you in a Navi-like fashion.
—Getting to the Forest Temple et al. involves visiting various villages and other locations which in turn gains you access to new areas.
—There are six slots for items in Link’s inventory.
—“Odds and ends” treasures like wooden hearts and dragon scales tie into sidequests.
—The Forest Temple’s Master Key that leads to the boss must be carried along a safe route lest you get grabbed by Wallmasters. Apparently you will have to note this route on your map at some point?

That is quite a lot of information to take in. Most notable to me, is the Tears of Light reference. Is this just a coincidence or is there actually a relationship between Spirit Tracks and the tears of light from Twilight Princess? Considering the two games are commonly viewed to be in two separate timelines, after the split in Ocarina of Time, this is a bit strange to me. Perhaps it is just purely a coincidence… If so, Nintendo, couldn’t you have chosen a different name?

Anjean knowing Zelda’s ancestors and the fact that Anjean is incredibly old, could in fact mean that Anjean was actually in the Wind Waker or Phantom Hourglass.

Hopefully we will be able to get our hands on some scans in the next few days to confirm all this information as well as to get new information about the game. Spirit Tracks is set to release on December 7th, less than 4 weeks from today.