9.0 out of 10If it is not already dreadfully obvious, I am a huge Zelda fan and imagine my excitement when I was able to finally play the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on my new Zelda-style DS.
Well it has been a while, but I finally sat down and completed the game so here is the review.
First and foremost, Phantom Hourglass is very different from nearly every other game within the series strictly because of the unique capabilities of the Nintendo DS.
The game is basically controlled entirely by using the bottom touch screen and your trusty stylist by placing the stylist in the direction you want Link to walk, drawing a line between you and your enemies to slash your sword, and drawing a path for your boomerang amongst other things.
Needless to say, this transition is rather difficult to manage at first, especially if you are a long time fan of the series.
I found it difficult to walk across the screen, let alone solve complex puzzles, but after a couple of hours I was feeling more comfortable with the control scheme and found that the left and right head buttons where vital when calling up your equipped items.
Nevertheless, this adventure is a direct sequel to the Gamecube title The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The story begins when Tetra/Zelda and her pirate crew encounter a ghost ship and Tetra falls captive to the ship and is pursued by none other than Link himself.
This transports you to another sea-filled world where you search for Tetra and the fiendish ghost ship.
Later you receive the phantom hourglass which allows you to traverse the the Temple of the Ocean King which came under siege by the game's antagonist Bellum.
The sands of the hour glass tick away as you explore the temple and can only be stopped when stepping into these lighted areas that save you from losing your time and your life.
To make matters worse there are various "phantom knights" throughout the temple that act as watchmen. These knights cannot be killed until the very end of the game and force you to sneak across the temple a la Solid Snake.
In the temple, you find various sea charts that allow you to travel to the four areas of Phantom Hourglass via your boat sailed by the treasure-greedy captain Linebeck.
Therefore, you must return to the Temple of the Ocean King numerous times and traveling deeper each visit thanks to your newly discovered items from each subsequent temple and added time to your hourglass thanks to dispatched temple bosses.
This means that you must travel though the same floors of the temple, sneak past the same phantom knights, and solve the same puzzles over and over and over again!
This is easily the most annoying aspect of any Zelda title to date!
You can't even save and quit your game while in the temple without being forced to return from the temple entrance.
Also, the musical score hardly changes with each town, temple, and cave leaving a very bland and generic feeling everywhere you go. Very disappointing from a series known for its fantastic musical scores and themed temples.
Traveling sequences on your ship often feels as dull as they did in Wind Waker and customization does not add an value to the experience.
You are given the option to search for treasure using a claw and engaging in a capture sequence. While the claw dives deeper you have to avoid hitting sea creatures or else your claw is destroyed. The controls for these sequences are not very well polished because you have to slide a devise across the bottom of the touch screen and moving it up and down to make the claw descend or ascend faster or slower. Just plain bad!
Having noted the game's faults, many aspects of Phantom Hourglass are simply outstanding.
After the initial learning curve, the unique capabilities of the DS seem to be a perfect match for the ingenuity we are used to from the series. The touch screen and microphone capabilities of the DS work wonderfully with the many gadgets in the game as well and the option to wr
ite on your map provides some new depth and leaves needless memorization in the past.The cinematic sequences are fantastic for the Nintendo DS and provide a uniquely cinematic feel to the handheld genre.
Phantom Hourglass also brings a much need update to the classic 2D presentation. Much in the same way that New Super Mario Bros. showed us how a 2D plateformer with 3D masking can rejuvenate the genre, Phantom Hourglass does the same with Zelda's classic overhead view.
This is something that could translate well to the Wii.
Bottom line, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has some of the most creative boss sequences in the series and utilizes the full capabilities of the DS in nearly every way. This is one fantastic presentation from a series that keeps reminding us just why we love video games in the first place.
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