So as you probably know, trains have appeared in Zelda. The following is a monologue worthy of the occasion. Ye’ve been warned.


Well, it seems like a lot of folks have been talking about “The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks” lately. (Commentary thus far seems to fall fall under two categories: “It’s horrible” or “Give it a chance.” ) The rather (okay, very) astonishing thing about it is that it revolves, at least in part, around a steam locomotive, thrusting the hitherto medieval world of Hyrule very suddenly into the Industrial Age.

Well, most of you who know we would guess that this is all well and good by me. I actually must admit to having some trepidations regarding how well steam technology can be made to fit into the Zelda world, but I’m sure Spirit Tracks’ Wind Waker-linked plot will help smooth those out. With any luck.

Anyway... only a small amount of reading regarding this new game reveals the so-called “ Project Deluge” interview. Deluge would have represented a Zelda game unlike any before seen, for reasons not the least of which being the fact that the game wouldn’t star “Link,” but a border-line deranged guy who takes on the role of the legendary hero when no one else steps up in the game’s time of darkness. Additionally, the game would have been all out “steampunk”— dark, gritty, and generally more disturbed than previous games. “Mystical” items, including the omnipresent Triforce, would have been left out all together. And it would have featured an unprecedentedly enormous overworld linked together with its own railroad system.

(And the industrialization works— that is, it avoids slapping you in the face— because the whole game is so weird that the industrialization hardly seems out of place. (Oh, and the whole thing would have taken place before Wind Waker’s great flood, thus explaining more or less why Deluge’s changes to the Zelda “style” need have no effect on the greater series. It's perfect.))

It all sounds too good to be true, and it probably is. But nevertheless, it leads me to reluctantly conclude this: once again, Nintendo has taken a potentially epic concept and downsized it. (Kinda like the sprawling suburbs of the first Mario Sunshine trailers compared to Delfino Plaza of the final Mario Sunshine.) Am I still excited about Spirit Tracks? Surely. But for now, I’ll do a tribute picture for Deluge— perhaps, perhaps, a game like that will someday come to be yet.


Here be a very good commentary on the Project Deluge rumor: [link] .


(PS: I know the steam looks lousy, but I'm pretty new to this. XD)


(EDIT 4/3: Realized I didn't really say much about the picture itself here... that Link-doppelganger in the middle is supposed to be the "random guy main character" of Deluge. Black hair, glasses, goatee... not to mention slightly more modern clothes (as opposed to a tunic) and a musket strapped to his back rather than a sword. As for the setting, well, when I read that "interview" about Deluge I just couldn't get the image of Link walking down the platform of this poorly-lit train station out of my head. (A Victorian train shed is without a doubt the Industrial equivalent of a medieval Gothic cathedral.) Make it rundown and imagine it as just part of a slummy city and there ya go. )



Legend of Zelda © Nintendo