The controls in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass work really well, having you pointing to where you want Link to move and slashing enemies with the stylus. It’s a very smooth system - you hardly have to think about what you’re doing - it just happens. There’s almost no learning curve (although rolling will take you a little while to get used to), and anyone can pick up and play it. It’s also the best technical achievement on DS thus far, with beautiful cel-shaded graphics and great sound design. That’s about all the good there is to this game though. While Phantom Hourglass has basically the same formula for progression and cutesy charm all Nintendo-developed Zelda games do, it lacks the immaculate design and epic feel we’re used to from the series.
The boat riding from Wind Waker (Phantom Hourglass is its direct sequel) is back, but this time you aren’t sailing - you’ve got a steamship. The wonder of riding around and discovering new mysterious islands and hunting for treasure is still there, but you lack the same control over the boat you had in Wind Waker, as you just draw a path on your map for the boat to follow, and then man the cannon. The trips are pretty short, so it’s not a big problem, but that also means the relaxing nature of Wind Waker’s sailing is gone.
The main issue with Phantom Hourglass, though, is the timed central dungeon you go back to over and over throughout the whole game. Every time you enter it, you have to replay rooms you had completed before (some rooms you need to do three or four plus times), and even the first time you play them it’s no fun because scattered amongst the puzzles in them are roaming invincible enemies that do a serious amount of damage and cut seconds off your time limit. These game design choices now feel archaic, and aren’t at all enjoyable.
Phantom Hourglass also has you blowing into your DS’s microphone to blow out fires and clean dust off things, and closing your DS’s lid to make something on the top screen meet something on the bottom screen in a puzzle. This kind of thing has been done to death on DS over the last couple years, and were clever in early games on the system, but now are just gimmicky. Making notes on your map is cool, as the game uses it as a gameplay mechanic — not just an option so you don’t forget things — having you connect certain spots on maps to draw shapes (like arrows) to solve puzzles, but it always holds your hand too much.
The whole game is actually too easy. Zelda games, for the most part, always have been easy in combat, but even the puzzles here are too simple, and too many of the answers to them are basically given to the player. The bosses are also really easy, in addition to being boring and ugly compared to bosses in other games of the series.
Phantom Hourglass still comes recommended from me to Zelda fans, and fans of the action adventure genre, but it does not live up to the standard set by previous games in the series, and is the worst Zelda game Nintendo has ever made. There’s a great engine under there just begging for a better game to be designed around it. Now, though, I’m mostly just excited to see what they come up with for the Wii remote.
