[review][ds] LoZ - Phantom Hourglass
So for the last two months I've been playing Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on and off. I just finished the game! And I thought I'd share. =D
Phantom Hourglass takes place in the same universe as LoZ: Windwaker. Windwaker was remarkable for its entirely new style of animation, using cel-shading, with a cartoony, childlike Link as opposed to the srsbsns style for Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It also boasted a new Hyrule - one sunk underwater, so all adventures took place on a variety of islands scattered all over the sea - and Princess Zelda is re-imagined as Tetra, adventurer of the high seas. Phantom Hourglass (PH) is done in the same art style - cartoony characters, etc - and involves the same world and characters.
Like all LoZ sequel games, you go on the same basic adventure but the final Big Bad isn't Ganandorf (gasp!).
Guys, you have to play this game if for only one reason: Link is a pirate who can't swim. That's right. Falling into the water makes you lose health. EPIC.
Plot: ... wait was there something I was supposed to be doing?
You're minding your own business, being a lazy bum on Tetra's ship, when - HOLAY CRAY - a GHOST SHIP totally pulls up right next to you! Tetra thinks that's the coolest thing ever, so she jumps aboard - and then she starts screaming in horror. You, being the hero, go after her ... but instead you wake up on a beach with a fairy hovering over your head. Looks like the Ghost Ship got away! In order to rescue Tetra, you need the three Spirits of the Triforce and three Pure Metals, scattered to the four corners of the ocean: only then will you be able to defeat the evil haunting the high seas.
Naturally you've lost your gear and every weapon at your disposal. Time to start all over again ...
Characters: as quirky and ridiculous as ever
It might surprise you to know that the main character of this game is LINK! I know! I was totally shocked! WHAT A TWIST.
Okay in all seriousness, you're familiar with Link the Silent Protagonist, Zelda aka Tetra as the damsel in distress ... aaand that's the extent of the consistent characters. The first character you'll meet will be Ciela, your new fairy! Yes, someone to tell you essentials in case you didn't read it the first time (Game: You've acquired the spirit of Power! Ciela: Link! That's the Spirit of Power! Me: THANK YOU, CIELA.) She doubles as your pointer, and later in the game she'll also carry around your hammer which is pretty sweet. You'll also meet Oshus, an old man who ... raised Ciela? er. He pops up in the weirdest places. And Linebeck! Oh, Linebeck. Linebeck is the quitessential coward, hiding behind bravado and bluster, sailing the high seas for treasure. He also owns the boat you'll be trucking around on, so you're stuck with him. You'll feel bad for hating him by the end of the game, though.
Gameplay: interesting use of the system
The DS is usually used in one of two ways: either the stylus/touchscreen is of primary use, or the buttons (or both can be used interchangably). In PH, the stylus is pretty much the only thing you will use ... which is why it will be such a shock when you have to use something else.
The equipped fairy will double as your pointer, which Link will follow around the landscape. To attack you can either tap an enemy, slash the enemy (Link will lunge towards it or poke his sword at it) or somewhere past it (Link will slash his sword in that direction); you can also use the super-famous never-to-be-forgotten Kaitengiri Slash by drawing a quick circle around Link. If you do this too many times in a row, Link will get dizzy, which is actually really cute. XD; When you have a shield, to block just face the enemy head-on. If the attack can be blocked then it won't harm you.
Items that can be equipped are listed in a menu at the bottom of the screen; you can select one item at a time, and select its use (over the sword) by press-holding L or R. The boomerang's path can be drawn onto the screen to hit multiple targets or go around a corner or you can tap the screen to throw it at a specific point; the grappling hook can be used to form tightropes to walk across. You'll acquire a shovel that you can use to find treasure or get to plot-specific places. Bombchus will pause the game while you draw a path for them on the map.
The big selling point for PH seems to be 'YOU CAN DRAW ON YOUR MAP'. This ... is admittedly kind of cool, but I find the stylus a little too imprecise for most notes. I'd need to make my own map legend so that I know why I drew this or that on a spot if I walked away from the game for a while. It's very useful from time to time, though.
Despite using the stylus for so much of the game, there will be a few times that you need to use ... the mic? Yes, the freaking MICROPHONE. Early in the game there will be a point where you need to 'blow out the flames' to continue. So I figure, you know, the boomerang is needed - that usually blows stuff out, right? I spent about an hour and a half running back and forth across various islands trying to figure out how to get the boomerang before I finally went to a walkthrough and found out I had to blow into the mic while facing the flames. .......... OH. ... on the plus side if the game ever indicates you have to yell, blowing into the mic will suffice. The DS doesn't know the difference.
Most of the time the upper screen will be your map. However, in the boss battles the upper screen is an integral part of your visual cues, so pay attention to both screens!
When you're not running around islands, you'll be sailing between them, just like in Windwaker. On the DS you'll draw a preset path and the boat will move along it all on its own. Along the way you'll have to keep your eyes open, though, for things to jump over, enemies to shoot down, explosive barrels and dangerous whirlwinds, and pirates circling sunken treasure. There's a few other boats sailing the open seas - one of them is a merchant you can buy stuff from, another is the hero of Windwaker ... or so he says ... that you can spar with, and the third is a crazy Gerudo chick girl in a pirate costume that's out for Linebeck's blood ... and thus yours, by extension. If she catches you you'll have to play a really obnoxious penalty game. Thank goodness that if you're fast with the cannon and know where to look you can acquire warp points to get from sea to sea.
Internal Gameplay: the Phantom Hourglass
Any discussion of the game would not be complete without mentioning the game's namesake. The Phantom Hourglass is the item in question: a magical hourglass that, when filled with the sandy remains of the evil monsters you destroy, counts down hours of safety in the central dungeon of the game, the Temple of the Ocean King. The evil Bellum, the big bad of PH, has taken up roost in the Temple, and its evil spores have poisoned every level. To travel safely - aka without having your hearts rapidly depleted - you must traverse the dungeon within the time limits set by the Phantom Hourglass. This is made difficult by unkillable guards that you must avoid while solving the puzzles of each floor.
You'll have to come back to this dungeon over and over and over again, to unlock more of the sea charts and finally to defeat Bellum. You'll also have to repeat and repeat and repeat each level ad nauseam. Each new toy you acquire will make each level easier, though, and you'll be able to unlock more and more goodies each time as well. The last time you enter the dungeon you will finally have the power to kill the unkillable monsters. That is a lot of fun.
General game advancement is the same as any other LoZ game: travel the world, solve the dungeon puzzles, there's two parts to the quest ... in this game, the first part is saving the spirits named for the Triforce - they look like fairies. (Luckily, not like Great Fairies. *cough*) The second part is acquiring three pure metals to make the Master Sword the Phantom Sword while the three fairies help you. You can 'power up' the fairies by acquiring power, courage, and wisdom gems, which once brought to a specific island grant the fairies specific abilities - the ability to power up your sword, protect your health, etc. You can only have one special ability/fairy equipped at once, though.
Minigames absolutely abound in PH. While traveling the high seas you will see islands not marked on your map; most of these, when docked, will have minigames to play - rolling a Gorgon through a maze, digging up treasure, shooting targets, etc. etc. You can also go fishing, and salvage buried treasure from the bottom of the sea. The minigames will give you a variety of prizes - fairy gems, rupees, ship parts (you can power up your ship with better and better parts), and sand for the phantom hourglass. You don't have to do any of them to finish but they're fun time-wasters.
Graphics/Sound/Music: brings new meaning to the phrase 'big-headed child'
The DS has a solid graphics system on the level of an N64 - obvious polygons with painted-on faces, no details, etc etc. With this super-cartoony style it generally works, but it takes some getting used to - characters with no fingers, no feet to speak of, stubby legs and huge heads. That being said they nuance everyone enough that the body language is surprisingly expressive in cutscenes. Most of the game is played with a nearly overhead view so all that really matters is that you can see where Link is and what's around him, and the polygon as seen and recognized is graphically close enough that you don't feel like you're getting hit by/hitting air.
Sounds are generally pleasing; in the Ocean King Temple there are floors that make noise, alerting guards, but it sounds like chimes - it's very pretty. XD;; Link makes all his usual gasps and grunts and battle cries and Ciela has the same ear-grating 'HEY!' as her OoT counterpart. The music is very callback to OoT and its predecessor Windwaker, at times almost identical. You know how you always just 'know' LoZ music? Yeah. This game has that feeling.
In short, the game is a lot of fun and a great time-waster. Usually when I play videogames I'm racing through the storyline - in this one I was willingly sidetracked between every island, fooling around and searching the seas for adventure for I be a pirate, yarr!. If you want something to amuse you in your spare time or on a long trip, Phantom Hourglass is definitely an enjoyable way to go. OVERALL: 8/10
Phantom Hourglass takes place in the same universe as LoZ: Windwaker. Windwaker was remarkable for its entirely new style of animation, using cel-shading, with a cartoony, childlike Link as opposed to the srsbsns style for Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It also boasted a new Hyrule - one sunk underwater, so all adventures took place on a variety of islands scattered all over the sea - and Princess Zelda is re-imagined as Tetra, adventurer of the high seas. Phantom Hourglass (PH) is done in the same art style - cartoony characters, etc - and involves the same world and characters.
Like all LoZ sequel games, you go on the same basic adventure but the final Big Bad isn't Ganandorf (gasp!).
Guys, you have to play this game if for only one reason: Link is a pirate who can't swim. That's right. Falling into the water makes you lose health. EPIC.
Plot: ... wait was there something I was supposed to be doing?
You're minding your own business, being a lazy bum on Tetra's ship, when - HOLAY CRAY - a GHOST SHIP totally pulls up right next to you! Tetra thinks that's the coolest thing ever, so she jumps aboard - and then she starts screaming in horror. You, being the hero, go after her ... but instead you wake up on a beach with a fairy hovering over your head. Looks like the Ghost Ship got away! In order to rescue Tetra, you need the three Spirits of the Triforce and three Pure Metals, scattered to the four corners of the ocean: only then will you be able to defeat the evil haunting the high seas.
Naturally you've lost your gear and every weapon at your disposal. Time to start all over again ...
Characters: as quirky and ridiculous as ever
It might surprise you to know that the main character of this game is LINK! I know! I was totally shocked! WHAT A TWIST.
Okay in all seriousness, you're familiar with Link the Silent Protagonist, Zelda aka Tetra as the damsel in distress ... aaand that's the extent of the consistent characters. The first character you'll meet will be Ciela, your new fairy! Yes, someone to tell you essentials in case you didn't read it the first time (Game: You've acquired the spirit of Power! Ciela: Link! That's the Spirit of Power! Me: THANK YOU, CIELA.) She doubles as your pointer, and later in the game she'll also carry around your hammer which is pretty sweet. You'll also meet Oshus, an old man who ... raised Ciela? er. He pops up in the weirdest places. And Linebeck! Oh, Linebeck. Linebeck is the quitessential coward, hiding behind bravado and bluster, sailing the high seas for treasure. He also owns the boat you'll be trucking around on, so you're stuck with him. You'll feel bad for hating him by the end of the game, though.
Gameplay: interesting use of the system
The DS is usually used in one of two ways: either the stylus/touchscreen is of primary use, or the buttons (or both can be used interchangably). In PH, the stylus is pretty much the only thing you will use ... which is why it will be such a shock when you have to use something else.
The equipped fairy will double as your pointer, which Link will follow around the landscape. To attack you can either tap an enemy, slash the enemy (Link will lunge towards it or poke his sword at it) or somewhere past it (Link will slash his sword in that direction); you can also use the super-famous never-to-be-forgotten Kaitengiri Slash by drawing a quick circle around Link. If you do this too many times in a row, Link will get dizzy, which is actually really cute. XD; When you have a shield, to block just face the enemy head-on. If the attack can be blocked then it won't harm you.
Items that can be equipped are listed in a menu at the bottom of the screen; you can select one item at a time, and select its use (over the sword) by press-holding L or R. The boomerang's path can be drawn onto the screen to hit multiple targets or go around a corner or you can tap the screen to throw it at a specific point; the grappling hook can be used to form tightropes to walk across. You'll acquire a shovel that you can use to find treasure or get to plot-specific places. Bombchus will pause the game while you draw a path for them on the map.
The big selling point for PH seems to be 'YOU CAN DRAW ON YOUR MAP'. This ... is admittedly kind of cool, but I find the stylus a little too imprecise for most notes. I'd need to make my own map legend so that I know why I drew this or that on a spot if I walked away from the game for a while. It's very useful from time to time, though.
Despite using the stylus for so much of the game, there will be a few times that you need to use ... the mic? Yes, the freaking MICROPHONE. Early in the game there will be a point where you need to 'blow out the flames' to continue. So I figure, you know, the boomerang is needed - that usually blows stuff out, right? I spent about an hour and a half running back and forth across various islands trying to figure out how to get the boomerang before I finally went to a walkthrough and found out I had to blow into the mic while facing the flames. .......... OH. ... on the plus side if the game ever indicates you have to yell, blowing into the mic will suffice. The DS doesn't know the difference.
Most of the time the upper screen will be your map. However, in the boss battles the upper screen is an integral part of your visual cues, so pay attention to both screens!
When you're not running around islands, you'll be sailing between them, just like in Windwaker. On the DS you'll draw a preset path and the boat will move along it all on its own. Along the way you'll have to keep your eyes open, though, for things to jump over, enemies to shoot down, explosive barrels and dangerous whirlwinds, and pirates circling sunken treasure. There's a few other boats sailing the open seas - one of them is a merchant you can buy stuff from, another is the hero of Windwaker ... or so he says ... that you can spar with, and the third is a crazy Gerudo chick girl in a pirate costume that's out for Linebeck's blood ... and thus yours, by extension. If she catches you you'll have to play a really obnoxious penalty game. Thank goodness that if you're fast with the cannon and know where to look you can acquire warp points to get from sea to sea.
Internal Gameplay: the Phantom Hourglass
Any discussion of the game would not be complete without mentioning the game's namesake. The Phantom Hourglass is the item in question: a magical hourglass that, when filled with the sandy remains of the evil monsters you destroy, counts down hours of safety in the central dungeon of the game, the Temple of the Ocean King. The evil Bellum, the big bad of PH, has taken up roost in the Temple, and its evil spores have poisoned every level. To travel safely - aka without having your hearts rapidly depleted - you must traverse the dungeon within the time limits set by the Phantom Hourglass. This is made difficult by unkillable guards that you must avoid while solving the puzzles of each floor.
You'll have to come back to this dungeon over and over and over again, to unlock more of the sea charts and finally to defeat Bellum. You'll also have to repeat and repeat and repeat each level ad nauseam. Each new toy you acquire will make each level easier, though, and you'll be able to unlock more and more goodies each time as well. The last time you enter the dungeon you will finally have the power to kill the unkillable monsters. That is a lot of fun.
General game advancement is the same as any other LoZ game: travel the world, solve the dungeon puzzles, there's two parts to the quest ... in this game, the first part is saving the spirits named for the Triforce - they look like fairies. (Luckily, not like Great Fairies. *cough*) The second part is acquiring three pure metals to make the Master Sword the Phantom Sword while the three fairies help you. You can 'power up' the fairies by acquiring power, courage, and wisdom gems, which once brought to a specific island grant the fairies specific abilities - the ability to power up your sword, protect your health, etc. You can only have one special ability/fairy equipped at once, though.
Minigames absolutely abound in PH. While traveling the high seas you will see islands not marked on your map; most of these, when docked, will have minigames to play - rolling a Gorgon through a maze, digging up treasure, shooting targets, etc. etc. You can also go fishing, and salvage buried treasure from the bottom of the sea. The minigames will give you a variety of prizes - fairy gems, rupees, ship parts (you can power up your ship with better and better parts), and sand for the phantom hourglass. You don't have to do any of them to finish but they're fun time-wasters.
Graphics/Sound/Music: brings new meaning to the phrase 'big-headed child'
The DS has a solid graphics system on the level of an N64 - obvious polygons with painted-on faces, no details, etc etc. With this super-cartoony style it generally works, but it takes some getting used to - characters with no fingers, no feet to speak of, stubby legs and huge heads. That being said they nuance everyone enough that the body language is surprisingly expressive in cutscenes. Most of the game is played with a nearly overhead view so all that really matters is that you can see where Link is and what's around him, and the polygon as seen and recognized is graphically close enough that you don't feel like you're getting hit by/hitting air.
Sounds are generally pleasing; in the Ocean King Temple there are floors that make noise, alerting guards, but it sounds like chimes - it's very pretty. XD;; Link makes all his usual gasps and grunts and battle cries and Ciela has the same ear-grating 'HEY!' as her OoT counterpart. The music is very callback to OoT and its predecessor Windwaker, at times almost identical. You know how you always just 'know' LoZ music? Yeah. This game has that feeling.
In short, the game is a lot of fun and a great time-waster. Usually when I play videogames I'm racing through the storyline - in this one I was willingly sidetracked between every island, fooling around and searching the seas for adventure for I be a pirate, yarr!. If you want something to amuse you in your spare time or on a long trip, Phantom Hourglass is definitely an enjoyable way to go. OVERALL: 8/10