"An amazing game that was rich, but too short."

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass review

by Donald Mume

Finally, the game so many people reserved and researched has been released! The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was very eagerly awaited by many Zelda series fans, new and old. Many people wanted to see what a DS hosted Zelda game could do, while others just wanted a new adventure.

The story starts just after The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. You're on Tetra's boat, along with her crew. Tetra wants to get after the "Ghost Ship" that the towns people are talking about. Rumor has it, that several people have been captured, never to return. Of course, it's just a myth; or so Tetra thinks. They sail out to find the Ghost ship, when...thick fog arises...and suddenly, the Ghost Ship appears!

Story 4/5

The plot of the game has the classic Zelda feel, while tying in Wind Waker. It wasn't all that surprising, but it was OK. I felt that for the games size, it was just right.

Controls 4.8/5

Controlling Link's movements
The game has a wonderful control scheme, mainly using the touch screen, but using the buttons now and then. You control Links movements by simply touching the screen and holding for him to run, and doing a small scribble type movement for rolling. This feels natural pretty quickly.

Controlling Link's Attacks
You draw small lines to swipe your sword and draw circles around Link to do a spin attack. It feels very satisfying to finish off a boss or enemy by swiping them. Once in a while though, it won't respond as quickly as you would like, but that is the only disadvantage.

Menu and Items
The map is accessible by either tapping the menu button and selecting map on the screen or pressing down on the control pad to go directly to the map. You can also write notes or draw paths on your map, which is a nice feature.

Items are accessible by pressing right on the control pad or tapping the icon items. Then, once the item is chosen, you can either tap the icon on the top of the screen, or hold L or R down to use it. For instance, equip your boomerang, hold L, draw your path, let go of the touch screen and release L.

Also, at key moments they make use of the Mic, and other functionalities of the DS. The puzzles really make you think of every possible thing to do with your DS!

Sailing
You choose your boats path, by choosing the route button, and then drawing the path to the island you wish to go to. Ahh...the beauty of the touch screen! This is very satisfying and gives you a sense of actually navigating. By simply holding the stylus to the screen, you change the angle of your view. Tapping the screen fires the cannon, which has unlimited ammo.

You can also up-grade your boat with different styles of parts to give your ship more health. You can find these pieces by finding sunken treasure, finding them miscellaneously in treasure chests, or buying them. By finding the same sets of pieces, such as the Tropical set, the Artistic set, and the quite rare Golden set.

Sailing in Phantom Hourglass vs. Wind Waker
This might seem a little unfair at first, giving that drawing a path is lots of fun, but let's just go over a few things. Although in Wind Waker, you could not draw your path, fire a cannon precisely where you wanted to, as much as you needed. But, I think having to change the wind's direction and being able to change your course simply by turning a joystick gave you more freedom. In Phantom Hourglass, if I saw something out on the water, like a fish I wanted to catch, it was annoying to set a course for it, because if it wasn't an island or boat, it would keep moving. So I would constantly have to change my course, giving me no such feeling of freedom.

Wind Waker Sailing > Phantom Hourglass Sailing

Game-play 5/5

The game-play in this game, had an overall more "Puzzle" feel to it. The dungeons were a lot shorter, but they all were Puzzle filled. The game had combat, no doubt, but not nearly not as much as Ocarina, or even Wind Waker! I love combat, especially Legend of Zelda combat, but for the games size, a more puzzle effect was perfect. I think it just would have been tedious if they had put mini-bosses in. The puzzle effect really uses the DS features, so I think the game-play was perfect for the DS!

Graphics 4.9/5

Now for those of you who played the demo, and thought Link looked a little odd, here is my reason. The cut-scene graphics weren't anything to shout about, but the in-game graphics were smooth, clear, and not glitchy. The game's size was rather big for a DS game, so they didn't make the game smaller by making the graphics great, they gave it more room by making the graphics acceptable. I totally agree with this, because I'm pretty sure there isn't a single person alive who would forfeit Ocarina of Time's size to give it great graphics.

Sound 3.9/5

The sound didn't stand out to me, but there were catchy songs for the different islands. Link had his all famous "Hiya!" when he would do his attacks, and once again, there was no voice talking. However, they did put the noises that gave the characters expression. Unfortunately, there wasn't all that much classic music. They only put the main theme in the game once or twice the entire game!

Multi-player 2.9/5

I didn't really like the multi-player for this game. It offered: Multi-card, Wi-fi, and DS download play.As a turn based game, one of the two players controlled Link to try and collect as many "force gems" as possible and retrieve them to his own base before the time ran out; using the touch screen to move as in normal gameplay, and the top screen for map. Meanwhile, the opposing player controlled three phantoms by using the touch screen to draw paths for each of them to follow, while viewing them normally on the top screen. By using the phantoms, the second player's goal was to stop Link from taking the force gems to his base by hitting him once with their sword(s), which would automatically swing once close enough. If the time ran out, or Link got hit by a Phantom, they would change sides. It really wasn't that fun.


Although that was disappointing, you could by doing this on Wi-fi or Multi-card trade ship parts with the other player, which was a redeeming factor. Also, by doing "big-plays" in Multi-player, you could get Golden Ship parts in the main game.



I overall think this is a spectacular game, with a great adventure mode, that even if you beat it, you can have fun exploring islands, searching for treasure, or trying to beat a high score on a mini-game. It has a very Legend of Zelda feel to it, and ties in the Classics, and Wind Waker.

Overall 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/08

Game Release: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (US, 10/01/07)