Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

This is some kind of special Zelda, since Phantom Hourglass was the first one to be released on the Nintendo DS, back in 2007. Storywise it is connected to TLoZ: Wind Waker, this one starts, where WW ends. Somehow Tetra gets kidnapped and you set out to rescue her.
Like WW, this one features a huge amount of cruising open water, since we are still in a Zelda-Universe full of water. I had no problem during the ship-trips, but i heard many people didn't like it, so all i can say is, that it was fun, at least for me. :F
Zeldawise, you get your oldschool-items like the sword and the shield, but some new ones also, like the boomeran, which isn't just thrown. You draw the path it should fly on the touchscreen, and the boomerang will obey your pen. Crawling bombs, which work the same way, are also another tool used to create some really nice puzzles. The riddles were not that hard, since it seems like every game released by nintendo has to be GREAT FOR CHILDREN.
You get your typical zelda-like dungeons, with minibosses, puzzles, compasses, maps, new items, bossfights, hearts, rupees, yadayada, the stuff everyone expects and gets from the games starring Link.
One thing that annoyed the hell out of me: there is one very important dungeon in the game, to which you always have to come back, since there are some maps hidden, which you need in turn to set sail to new islands, to find new items, to come back to the dungeon, to find new maps, which you need in turn to set sail to BLABLA you get what i mean.
problem is: every time you revisit the dungeon you have to go deeper. that would be no problem, if it wasn't for the fact that you have to play through the whole part which you already played a hundred times AGAIN. ARG.

RATING: 7/10

50 comments:

  1. I played a bit of that game... The only puzzle that really annoyed me was the one where you has to close the DS to move on.. I only figured it out because I got annoyed and closed it and then it was like "doo doo doo doooo!"

    Boomerang-ing was fun though...

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  2. Aahhh, yeah, that one place you keep having to go back to, the only place where the Phantom Hourglass actually comes into play (as far as I know). I beat some dungeons and when it was maybe my fourth time to go back to that damn place, I kept failing over and over until I just put the game down. I haven't played it for probably a year now.

    Oh, and I had to look up that part Asher's talking about online. That was totally unexpected.

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  3. I'm glad that i'm not the only one with theses experiences. The close-the-ds-puzzle was some kind of a no brainer for me, because i played "another code: two memories" some time before. and there are so many of these kinds of riddles, it isn't even funny anymore :F

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  4. looks great==> supportin!

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  5. I'm absolutely in LOVE with Nintendo's Zelda franchise on the DS. They don't have TOO gigantic of a fan base, compared to the console counterparts of course, but they are VERY well constructed games. ALWAYS new and exciting mechanics/content.

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  6. Never played this one, I'll have to check it out

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  7. I should try and pick up some Zelda games again in general.

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  8. ahh i'll have to check this one out! thanks for posting!

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  9. Loved Phantom Hourglass, nice review!

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  10. I pretty much stopped playing Zelda after Ocarina of Time...

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  11. I've played this game :D loved it

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  12. Hopefully the 3DS will be backwards compatible so I can have a go at these treasured games.

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  13. Keep up the good work! If you like bubbles, check out my other blog, Enhanced by MS Paint!

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  14. It can't be that bad. I mean, I can name tons of games in which you have to return to the same spot for the same shit. For example:




    Yeah, sorry, I can't think of any right now, you're right, disregard that.

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  15. Too bad I fave away my NDS to my niece :(
    Right now I would so love to play this game :D

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  16. I loved Phantom Hourglass. Unfortunately my game crashed at the final battle and I never finished it. Though it was still a great game.

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  17. Cool game looks worth trying it out.

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  18. zelda is a classic, PHG looks like a good part of their series, nice review, well written

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  19. Never really got into any of these games, wish I did though

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  20. I want this game really bad, I think I might go buy it later. :D

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  21. I picked up this game but never finished it. thanks for the review!

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  22. i liked this game. good things really.

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  23. love this game, used to play it on my little brothers DS

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  24. I love Zelda, but last game I played of Zelda (GBA) I needed a guide, some of them are very hard and when you finish the game you get impressed of everything you did, lol. Zelda is just amazing. Nice review, I'll follow your next reviews. Supp!

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  25. Yeah I thought this game was pretty iffy too. Not their best work.

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  26. Great Review, great game. I have this game and it's amazing.

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  27. The boomerang-draw-path feature seems pretty neat.

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  28. I think the last Zelda game I played was a link to the past on gameboy

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  29. I liked it, but not nearly as much as the other Zeldas.

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  30. awesome, thanks for sharing- supporting <3

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  31. great post... I'd type more, however I still can't stop playin' ocarina of time

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  32. I remember when I first started playing Wind Waker. I thought it was such a cool thing to do to be able to freely sail around the open waters.

    It didn't take long before I grew quite bored of it, and when I would be on a long trip only to die to the hands of a whirlpool and some sea creatures, it was pretty frustrating... still, good memories :)

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  33. i love Zelda games but i hated this one, just like windwaker, fucking hated them.

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  34. hey, I didn't know that Zelda game! But i'm gonna try so hard to get it

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  35. When it comes to your post, GTL can also stand for "Great Thoughts at Length"... keep it up!

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  36. Nice review man. Feel the same about that stupid freaking TIME DUNGEON LOLZ YOU GO A LITTLE DEEPER EACH TIME

    http://quarterqwerty.blogspot.com/

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  37. i liked it, but i wish it was harder

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