Like sands thru the Phantom Hourglass, so are the days of our Lin
The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass is latest entry in the very long line of the Nintendo adventure franchise, and although this game doesn't fundamentally break much new ground, when it's all over you're not going to care that much. The same old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality is there, but it's such perfect formula and executed with such flair that you'll barely notice that PH is the same game that we've all been playing for the last 20+ years.
You play as Link (shocking, I know) and the story picks up right after the events of the Wind Waker game. Link is at sea with the pirates of the previous game and that ships captain, Tetra. The crew is on the look out for the "Ghost Ship", a ship that is said to contain massive amounts of lost gold. In adventure game fashion the crew does run into the fabled Ghost Ship, and in adventure game fashion things don't exactly go as planned. Tetra is kidnapped, Link is tossed overboard, and he wakes up on the shore of an unknown island. If you know Zelda games, then you know the rest. Link must track down Tetra *cough*Zelda*cough* by unlocking and exploring various towns, dungeons, and mini-games, freeing her, and destroying the ultimate evil that is terrorizing the world.
Where this game sets itself apart from it's elders is, of course, the DS touch screen. Everything, and I do mean everything, is done thru the touch screen. Combat involves tapping and slashing the enemies on screen, opening menus involves touching boxes at the bottom of the screen, walking/running involves holding the stylus down in the area you need to go, and throwing objects (like the eventual boomerang) involve drawing the path you wish it to take. There's also moments where you'll need to rub the screen or draw objects, and all of this is handled incredibly well. Movements and actions are super intuitive, almost to the point that it feels like as if it blunts some of the challenge. The puzzles are still there, and are still uber-fun, and use the new DS control scheme very well, but the combat gets kind of stale after awhile. Battles end up being very point-and-click, with very few (none for me actually) that felt like I was in a "do or die" situation.
Where the game truly shines though, and is the one thing I loved about Wind Waker so much, is the art direction and overall charming look. I don't care what anybody says, I love the cartoonish cell shaded look of Wind Waker and Hourglass. It jives much more with the franchise and I never really understood how anyone could look at a Zelda game and think or want a "super hardcore, realistic, D&D fantasy". I like my Zelda's light, fun, and with a little self referential wink here and there. I hope beyond hope that Nintendo will at least keep this look and style for the DS iterations of the Zelda franchise. Maybe we can have the cartoon Zelda in the handheld world, and the darker, more serious Zelda in the console world. That way everyone is happy. Right?
If there's one thing that kind of puts the breaks on this game being truly phenomenal I think it might have to be the game's final dungeon. This is where you learn why the game has Phantom Hourglass in the title. The dungeon involves unlocking all its mysteries, but under the restriction of a time limit. The hourglass gives you a certain amount of time to accomplish a set of objectives. There are additional ways to add time to the hourglass as the game progresses, and for the most part you won't find yourself ever truly pressed for time, it's just that you'll be visiting, and revisiting, and rerevisiting this dungeon many times. The structure of the game is such that you'll only be able to go so far within the dungeon at certain points in the game. Either Link won't have the tools to move on or he must explore a new section or island on the world map before he can move on. By the end of the game Link will have all the tools he needs to blast thru that dungeon in just a few minutes, but there's a real hardcore tediousness to having to take on the same floors, traps, and enemies (that reset every time you exit) over and over and over again.
All in all though, if you're a fan of the Zelda series, you're probably going to love this game regardless. The game's formula hasn't changed much over the years, but that's due to the fact that the game's formula is damn near bullet proof. It's fun and challenging when it needs to be, the controls work fantastically, and the art direction has a real sense of charm and uniqueness. I may have essentially played this game several times already over the yaers, but it's pretty hard to hate on a proven war horse like Zelda, and I often wonder what it would be like if Phantom Hourglass were my first Zelda game ever. I would imagine that it would feel a lot like playing the first Legend of Zelda on the old and dusty NES, and that can't be a completely bad thing. Can it?
+Intuitive controls
+Fantastic art direction
+Tried and true gameplay formula
-Fundamentally not much has changed
-Combat is a little too easy
-Final dungeon gets mucho tedious
