Phantom Hourglass Review

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a first-party game from Nintendo, for the Nintendo DS. This game pushes many experimental gameplay elements that make use of the console’s recently introduced touchscreen.

Release

It is the first LoZ for the NDS and was released in 2007, about 2.5 years after the system’s launch. The previous LoZ game, The Minish Cap, was released for the GBA at the same time as the new console launch. It seems strange that they decided not to develop The Minish Cap as a NDS launch title. This put a large time gap before a LoZ game was released.

Review

I have mixed feelings about this game, having played it.

Creative

Story

The story is pretty standard LoZ fare: girl is kidnapped, Link is here to save the day but first needs to conquer many dungeons to find all the relics that will imbue him with the abilities needed to take down teh final boss.

The plot is pretty mediocre by all standards, no elements were memorable. The game world had potential for building an immersive world-building experience and backstory but that wasn’t used.

World

The world felt empty and sparse. I never revisited any areas and never talked to any NPC more than once. Even the main town, that you are required to walk through dozen of times, was basically non-functional and skippable. I went into the town twice, in 20 hours of playtime, to buy some potions and hearts.

Characters

All the characters were pretty weakly developed. Besides the Ocean King, Ciela, and Linebeck, everyone was forgettable.

But they managed to somehow complete the arc for Linebeck. In the last 30 minutes of the game, no doubt. His character arc went from:

1. Being a stereotypical greedy individual, seeking out treasure, even at other’s expense.
2. Risking his life to attack Bellum, giving Link a chance to recover.
3. Asking for his ship back as the granted wish, instead of riches.

And he developed a bond with the other members of the party. Props to whoever was in charge of his character writing.

Graphics

The game is cel-shaded, the same styling as The Wind Waker. I found it to be very appropriate and made good use of the console’s ability and form factor.

The game world is beautifully designed, rich, and diverse, much as one would expect from a LoZ game.

Sound

There’s nothing too remarkable. Music was good but nothing memorable or unique. The sound effects of the game are alright.

Gameplay

Items

Like all LoZ games, there are a lot of innovative gameplay that emerge from the unique items.

The mouse bomb is a remote-controlled bomb. You draw the path of the mouse with the stylus on the game map. It’s nice because you get immediate feedback as to whether the path is valid or not.

The boomerang is a projectile that returns to the thrower. The path can be controlled with the stylus, which allows gameplay involving hitting things at the right angles or attacking an enemy’s back from the front.

The hookshot is controlled via stylus. This allows using the hookshot for connecting rope between two pins. While the hookshot has existed in the previous iterations, this introduces a slightly novel tweak to an oldie.

Dungeons

The dungeons are not hard but still compelling and fun to complete.

There are a lack of dungeons. Even though the game length is quite long, I would have liked more of it to have been spent inside more dungeons.

Collectibles and Extras

There are collectibles in the form of ship parts and mini-game challenges. However, there is little to no compulsion for me to seek them out. This aspect of the game feels like it lacks cohesion and was added on haphazardly. I think only completionists would be bothered and it might be a chore.

Sailing

Traveling around the world requires sailing. This is a bit of a mini-game, as you avoid or shoot down enemies. It’s very tedious and not enjoyable at all. It was novel for about 5-10 minutes at first. Even the introduction of frog quick travel system is not enough to mitigate how unfun this is.

I’m surprised this didn’t cause issue during user testing. It’s so obvious to anyone playing this that sailing is a massive chore and drag.

Controls

Here comes the meat of the complaints. This game has terrible controls. Like real bad, I’ve never hated a game’s control this much.

It’s clear they’re pushing hard for touchscreen oriented controls and gameplay. It could be surmised that they were trying to showcase what the technology could do or to establish conventions for others to follow. It’s so blatant and they cripple the fallback controls too. The d-pad and face buttons are non-functional, even for basic things like movement. You basically can only use the touchscreen.

The screen is 4:3 aspect ratio, which means you have more range in the x-axis. I often felt like I was hitting the top of bottom of the screen and needed an extra inch or two of movement. And the sensitivity is not fine-tuned. Often Link would only walk when I was trying to get him to run but I ran out of touchscreen space. It’s very frustrating.

They added many gimmicky stylus motions that are never used:

• rolling
• wide sword swing

Overall, it feels like this game was their playground for all things touch enabled. And the developers were tasked with moving the industry forward.

Summary

This game was fun to play through. However, I don’t think I can recommend to anyone who isn’t a fan of the series. It tries out too many experimental gameplay ideas that fall flat. While commendable for pushing the platform forward, it’s not a great LoZ game and would probably put the casual gamer off from the console or even the game series.

It’s strange that this is one of the games I hold a counter-opinion to mainstream critics and reviews. Perhaps I am not appreciating the landscape of NDS and mobile gaming at the time and applying my modern-day lens on it. Or perhaps I’ve rode out the hype cycle by a long shot, the hype cycle that often comes with games from franchises like these.