I'm not the type of guy that loves to complain about dumb gimmicks like motion controls or whatever, I usually don't care about that stuff as long as the game is good.

But this one is just a little bit too much. I really tried to get into this game, but I simply was not a fan of the way you have to use the touch screen to do pretty much anything; it just feels unnecessary, tedious and ended fucking up my Nintendo DS touch screen even faster.

Maybe I will play the WiiU version someday, hopefully that one is better than this one...But I don't know if I ever will.

If i could use one word to describe this game it would be underrated. I went into this game expecting a below average Zelda game but i came out loving it.

I'm normally a huge detractor of motion controls or gimmicks. I refused to play the original Skyward Sword because the gimmicks take away from the experience but unlike that game Phantom Hourglass has gimmicks that make the game better. If this game was played with just buttons then it would be a boring Wind Waker sequal.

Phantom Hourglass uses all of the DS's features and creates a unique Zelda experience. You can draw on maps which allows for tons of unique puzzles. You can use the microphone for calling out to characters or blowing out candles. There's even a puzzle where you have to close the system to transfer a symbol from one screen to another.

My main problem with the game is the constant revisits to the temple of the ocean king. Fortunately before each revisit you get new items and this allows for new methods of traversing the temple.

If you can accept that this game uses touch controls and DS gimmicks than you're in for a wonderfully unique Zelda game.

Fine and would have been 3.5 stars otherwise but from now on I am taking a full star off any game on the DS that makes me blow into the mic. I lost half of my day today trying to figure out which core has a button that emulates it only to find none of them work, plugging in “walk through walls” cheats when I needed to bypass it otherwise only to find you also have to blow on a map too! Why does Nintendo have to make every single console of theirs double as a fuckin bop-it? Who is asking for this shit?! I don’t want motion controls on my switch, I don’t want to blow these damn ass candles out, I don’t want to swing my Wii nunchucks around every time I want to hit a bagompagomplin with the master sword. I suppose it might all just there for anti-piracy purposes. Well, if it is, it worked! Good job, Mario inc, now no one is playing “extremely okay Wind Waker 2 on a touchscreen” in 2024, guaranteed.

Also the old man in the beginning needs to chill out. Link just got done rescuing the whole world from reincarnated Ganondorf the scourge of Hyrule himself, wielding the master sword of legend and bearing the triforce of courage to boot, just for this geezer to be like “mmMmM tHerEs MoNstErs OuT tHerE, leT mE TeaCh YoU HoW to UsE a sWorD.” Oh no, a bunch of chuchus and bats, anything but that. My man, I’m pretty sure I already know how to use a sword.

Beating every Zelda in timeline order 9/20:

It's been a decade since the last time I played Phantom Hourglass, and my memories of it were always pretty hazy. I went into this game hoping to be pleasantly surprised since its reputation is that of one of the "lesser" Zelda titles. Unfortunately, I was not pleasantly surprised, and the game is, in fact, one of the lesser Zeldas. It's still fun to play, of course, but it comes up short in pretty much every area. The dungeons all end up feeling quite bland, linear and uncreative. Most of the bosses I forget immediately after beating them. The overworld feels held back by its island concept rather than bolstered, like in Wind Waker. The story is a smaller one with your tasks feeling more like, well, tasks, than part of the progression of the story. Although Linebeck does get a shoutout for being one of my favorite characters in a Zelda game. Sometimes the DS is used in very creative and fun ways. Pretty much anytime the two screens are utilized is fun. I especially enjoy when you have to close the DS to imprint a marking onto the other screen. But most of the time, it feels held back by the touch screen being used for movement, attacking, item usage and menu naviation. (I especially hated when it made me yell into the microphone, I played most of this on a plane so people around me weren't very happy) It all verges on gimmicky and is a tad imprecise, especially during combat. But despite getting hit constantly because of this, I was able to breeze through the game easily. And the Temple of the Ocean King is pretty much as bad as everyone says it is. It's not particularly fun to play through the first time and there's not enough substantial sequence breaking with later items to make it interesting on multiple playthroughs.

It's pretty clear why my memories were foggy about the details of this game. It's a relatively forgettable Zelda experience. Much like the world of the Ocean King, now that I'm finished playing, it's already fading from memory.