Game Review: Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Where to begin...there's just so much to talk about for this game. I am, of course, reviewing Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

I think I'll start with the story, as I usually do. In the opening cutscene, you witness Link and the pirates (from the Wind Waker) searching for the ghost ship. When they find it, Tetra jumps on board and naturally, something bad happens to her. Link tries to jump over to save her, but falls in the water. He gets washed up on a beach where a fairy called Ciela (I wanted Navi D=<) wakes you up and takes you to an old man. Naturally, this the guy that teaches you how to play the game and how to start it off. Once you get your sword you go to a temple called the "Temple of the ocean king" where you meet a man called Linebeck who's searching for treasure, but he got caught in a trap. You team up with him (he lets you use his boat)
I would say more about the story, but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't played it yet :p

Zelda games have never been difficult to control, but Nintendo's made it even easier. You can play the game entirely with the touchscreen (although there are some incredibly useful shortcut buttons)
Basically, you put the stylus where you want Link to go. You can draw little circles to make him roll, but it fails often (especially when you want to knock something out of a tree) if you draw a (invisible) line quickly around link, he'll swing his sword. The same thing happens when you tap an enemy. You can also draw a (still invisible) circle around Link to make him perform a spin attack.
Items are probably the most drastically improved things in this game. Everyone already knows about the boomerang, which you can control by drawing a (visible this time) line on the screen. Bombchu's are a lot more useful now. You draw their paths on the touchscreen rather than letting them go in the direction you want to go.
You control your boat by drawing the path on your map; once you've drawn the path, the both will move in down the line. Whilst at sea, you can tap the screen to fire your cannon (once you have it) at whatever you choose. It makes fighting those stupid pirates a lot less tedious. Also, instead of the grappling hook, you now have a salvage arm. When you're above treasure (usually a ship part) and activate it, you open a little mini-game. During this, the claw moves down the sea towards the sea floor. Your job is to avoid any obstacles in the way. It's a tedious mini-game and I don't really like it that much

The game is quite long for a handheld game. There's seven dungeons (and a mini-dungeon) each having plenty of clever innovotive uses of the hardware. For example, in one of the boss fights, the creature is invisible and you can see what is sees through the top screen, meaning that you have to co-ordinate your attacks by what your enemy sees. Think of the times that you screen-watched your opponent in a first person shooter (or something like)
Another thing I must mention is the puzzle that requires you to close your DS (Sorry if you wanted to beat the game without any help, but I simply must mention it)
See, there's an upside down sea-chart on the wall with an icon not on yours. You need to press the charts together, meaning you need to close your DS. It's genius really.
There's also microphone inclusion, but it wasn't executed very well. At one point, you have to shout to get a fair price on an expensive object. It was early morning when I did that bit, meaning I woke my neighbors up and they shouted at me :/
Then I learned afterwards that you could do it by clicking your fingers D:
There's also some enemies that can be stunned by loud noises. If you can't click your fingers (like me) then you can either clap or shout. The second option makes you look like an idiot and the first is difficult to do when you're holding a stylus and trying to get to a safe area.

The graphics in the game are beautiful (especially for the DS) there's just so much life in the cartoony wind waker style. No other art type would have suited this game better (believe me, the scene where Linebeck knocks something important over behind Link's back could not have been done with realistic graphics (well, at least not as well)
It's just so pleasant to look at, especially with the animation being so smooth.
The sounds and music are a delight to listen to as well. One slight annoyance though, there isn't much differance between the different dungeons and villages like previous games. But remember all the stuff packed into the tiny cartridge. I'd be surprised if there was much space left in it.

The game is not without its faults though (although there are few)
There are certain parts of the game that require you to draw a symbol. Most of the time it's easy, but the triforce is really difficult to draw (Strangely, it only works for me when I leave the point off the top triangle o_o)
There's also some game freezing glitches (once again, not many)
For example, I was sailing past an uncharted island and just as the game was beginning its "Look! A new island!" sequence, I was spotted by Jolene and my game froze.
That said, I'm sure it's very rare.

97%
An exceptional game. I'm honestly not being a fanboy here. It's a must have game! Go. Buy it. NAO!
 
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cloudzero45

New Member
Yes it truely is a must have game....and it get all the Legend of zelda elements and interactivity done right....i mean has there ever been a bad legend of zlda game
 

LinkHylian

New Member
cloudzero45 said:
Yes it truely is a must have game....and it get all the Legend of zelda elements and interactivity done right....i mean has there ever been a bad legend of zlda game
you're right.zelda: phantom hourglass is one of the best games on DS.it's like playing wind waker on the DS.there's no such thing as having a rubbish zelda game.
 
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