the Spirit Tracks, Link and Zelda return to the Tower, but are too late to prevent Malladus possessing Zelda's body. Malladus betrays Byrne and escapes with Cole to the Dark Realm. Anjean and a now-reformed Byrne direct the two to find two artifacts they will need to find and defeat Cole and Malladus: the Compass and the Bow of Light. After retrieving both, Anjean gives Link the Lokomo Sword and joins Link and Zelda as they head for the Dark Realm where Cole and Malladus await. In the Dark Realm, Link and Zelda successfully banish Malladus from Zelda's body, and Byrne sacrifices himself to give Zelda the time to return to her body. Malladus then possesses Cole, but Cole's body is unable to contain Malladus' spirit for long, and Malladus vows to destroy the world before vanishing. Link and the restored Zelda work together to defeat Malladus with Zelda's magic, the Bow of Light and the Lokomo Sword, destroying Malladus and Cole. With Malladus no longer a threat, Anjean, Byrne's spirit, and the other Lokomos return to the Spirits' realm. Depending on how he answered a question from Zelda concerning his future, Link either remains an engineer, becomes a royal guard, or his future remains unknown. Development The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was developed by Nintendo EAD. It was developed by one part of the Legend of Zelda team, the other working on Skyward Sword. Director Daiki Iwamoto and producer Eiji Aonuma returned from Phantom Hourglass, along with half the original staff. The team were so pleased with the touchscreen design of Phantom Hourglass that they wanted to develop a sequel on the same platform. Their plan was to produce Spirit Tracks on a short schedule, similar to Ocarina of Time sequel Majora's Mask, using ideas that had been proposed and not implemented in Phantom Hourglass. Due to a number of factors, development was extended to two years, double the estimated time. Despite the increased production time, Aonuma described this as a smooth production compared to other protracted or turbulent development cycles of earlier Zelda games. The graphics were chosen, similarly to Phantom Hourglass, as a result of the decision that toon shading would be best to deliver the games on their chosen platform. Aonuma commented that with realistic graphics, it would make the characters poorly scaled to their surroundings, adding that though possible, it was not ideal. The