Our own Matthew Friett, a Bombers writer, quickly busted out comparison maps pointing out all the similarities between Spirit Tracks and the other Zelda games. Hit the jump to see the comparison maps and to let the speculation run all over us.
Feel free to join in the ongoing speculation in the Spirit Tracks geography thread.
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Strikes me as though the map from FSA seems the most likely, It (to me) has the best match up especially with the comparison of the train logo with hyrule castle. In addition, this new hyrule is supposed to have been found on the great see, therefore it makes the most sense as we can clearly see this hyrule as an island.
Nintendo never fails in allowing experienced players to know the geography of Hyrule from the first grunt out of Link's mouth. I like this in some ways, but seriously people, PLEASE GIVE ME SOMETHING TO LEARN!!! I'm tired of the same old maps. I really liked the Twilight Princess map though. I've converted over to Final Fantasy. I still like Zelda, but I'm not impressed with Nintendo right now. I really liked the article and it is interesting to see the similarities and differences. Zelda made me the player that I am today, and I'm not going to let it down just because of some stupid geography and the fact that it's makers waste all their good ideas on Mario. I've had my eye on Spirit Tracks for a long time, and I intend to have that game the day it comes out!!! (Which is in 28 days, 16 hrs. and 33 min.)
@Kalamari: If you didn't want to know, why did you read it? And the maps are similar for a reason: it's the same place. With few exceptions, the Final Fantasy series all take place in completely different worlds (the Ivalice Alliance and FF7 being the obvious exceptions). Zelda is not like this.
Each Zelda game takes place in the same world in a different time period. These maps are great speculation as to where many games could possibly fall on the timeline. Some people speculated that the original Legend of Zelda took place after Wind Waker in the "new Hyrule." This theory was supported by maps and artwork released by Nintendo showing Hyrule as an island.
These new maps for Spirit Tracks could give more weight to those theories as it's obvious at the geography is very similar. But what makes this all even better is that there are other maps with similarities, so nothing is proven as the truth. We can still speculate and come up with new theories based on this new information. Our ability to do so is one of the things that makes this community so much fun to be a part of.
@Matthew/Nathan: Great article. I hadn't even noticed the map in the trailer. :P
It's not that I didn't want to know. I like these things. Thanks for replying to me Yumil!!! I really appreciate it. You're right. Just because it's a different game doesn't mean that Hyrule has to be completely different. This really is a good read. It is nice to know roughly how Hyrule will play out in the beginning, and every map is slightly different. Thanks for enlightening me.
Awesome breakdown. Great job you guys. This was a great read and look over. I had never noticed the similarities.