The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Review

In late 2007, over 4 years after the Wind Waker was released on the Gamecube, its sequel, Phantom Hourglass, was released. This seemed a good time to release another cel-shaded Zelda, as the fans’ thirst for a more realistic Zelda game had already been quenched with Twilight Princess. This, and people had then got over the slight disappointment of the Wind Waker’s new art style, if they were initailly disappointed. Is the brilliance of the Wind Waker recaptured for it’s DS sequel, or did Nintendo fail to deliver?

The game starts very shortly after the events of Wind Waker, where Link, Tetra and Tetra’s crew of pirates are sailing along the seas where they come across the mysterious and infamous Ghost Ship, surrounded by fog. Tetra has heard of the incredible amount of riches that await on the Ghost Ship, so goes to board the ship. Silly girl. Doesn’t she know overwhelming amounts of fog is bad? Anyway, Link tries to save her, but gets washed away to Outset Island. It is here where he meets Ciela, the games equivalent to Navi from Ocarina of Time. Ciela just happens to be amnesiac, just to cause some more inconvenience. Ciela then takes you to see Oshus, an elderly man who Ciela believes to be it’s grandfather. So, Oshus and Ciela decide to help you, and on the island you are introduced to Lineback, and the Phantom Hourglass, which is the gimmick that holds a place in the title this time around. I find it strange that the Phantom Hourglass is featured in the title of the game, where it is used in just a few instances in the game (every time you enter the Ocean Temple, to be exact). Link is now off on a quest to save Tetra, in short. And hey, you may just be able to help Ciela get her memory back.

The game has now reverted back to the same type of camera angle that was featured in the original Legend of Zelda game on the NES. It is now controlled with the stylus. It is very easy to be skeptical of the idea, but you can rest assured that it works, though. Most problems that you could consider about controlling the game completely with the stylus have been dealt with, and suprisingly well. To walk, you tap and hold down with the stylus on to where you want to go. If possible, Link will automatically jump off of an edge if he approaches one. To slash, you simply do a slicing movement with the stylus and Link will follow suit. To do a spin attack, draw a circle with the stylus. This new control scheme is something Nintendo simply have to be congratulated for, as squeezing all the possible actions for Link onto just the touch screen must not have been an easy task at all. That being said, I prefer the more traditional controls of Wind Waker in this case, but that’s just down to personal preference.

Sailing the seas is now much more a part of the game than it was in Wind Waker. You can now plot your path on the map using the touch screen, which will allow you to be more aware of local enemies and cyclones. Enemies in the sea are simply defeated by tapping them a couple of times to shoot at them with your cannon. Encounters at sea are certainly very easy, but I find sailing the seas much better than in Wind Waker. There is more of a focus on exploring the seas to find certain things, such as hidden treasure, hidden islands and even fishing in this game. While there are a lot of additions on the side in this Zelda, for whatever reason, I just don’t feel as compelled to do these things as I am in other Zelda games.

The Phantom Hourglass is only ever used in the Ocean Temple, a temple in which the 4 sea charts lie. In order to be able to even go anywhere in the seas, you will need to collect the charts. The Ocean Temple sucks the life out of you, quite literally. There are highlighted areas where you can stay for a few minutes. In them, you’re health will not be taken away, and the guards of the temple won’t be able to see you and will soon go back to where they were before you were spotted. Even one hit from these guards will have you killed, which encourages you to be much more cautious of your enemies. With the Phantom Hourglass, however, the life will not be sucked out of you, but you have a time limit. The time limit is displayed in the top left of the screen, and, until the time ticks to 00:00, you won’t have any health sucked out of you. In the highlighted areas, just like with your health, your time limit will stay the same.

The dungeons are not quite as good in this Zelda game as in the other games, and the puzzles are easy. The only difficulty to be found in the puzzles is if the touch screen, for whatever reason, doesn’t recognize what you’re drawing on the touch screen. Believe me, it happens more often than you would expect. The dungeons do make some clever uses of the items, however. One example is you using the hookshot as a tight-rope.

As I have said before, the games art style remains as it was in Wind Waker. What was astonishing on the Gamecube is still good when squeezed on to the DS. Obviously, because of the games camera angle and the DS’s much lower graphical capabilities, what is done with the graphics is much more limited and pixelated. That being said, it’s probably one of the prettier looking games on the system.

+ Sailing is now much more fun

+ The touch screen controls work near flawlessly

+ One of the prettiest games on the DS

- The game is short by Zelda standards

- The side quests aren’t as compelling as in other Zelda games

- The game sometimes has problems recognizing what you’re trying to draw

Overall: 9.0

A very good attempt by Nintendo to squeeze the Zelda world on to the tiny DS, but it has it’s fair share of faults which, although somewhat minor, do affect the experience provided. The music is also great, but there’s nothing too memorable in there like there is in most Zelda games. It is a great game, but, by Zelda standards, it’s only decent.