The very first Zelda game I finished. When I played it, it felt so different from anything else I had ever played, and that made me fall in love with this series. I still find the control scheme and the map drawing mechanic genius, I love the Temple of the Ocean King even to this day and it features some of the most intelligently thought puzzles in the Zelda series. Looking back, it's clearly not among the best games in the series, and that's not a bad thing to say about this one, but a great thing to say about the rest. Also, Linebeck has to be the most charismatic character Zelda has ever given us.

the legend of zelda phantom hourglass is a direct sequel to wind waker. it basically starts right where wind waker finishes.
and boy, i had so much fun with this game. i do not really understand whats so wrong with the touchpen controls. to me they seemed really smooth once you got the hang of it. the dungeons are short but really fun to play through. they use each dungeon item in really cool ways and the boomerang in this game is easily one of my favorite items in a zelda game ever. (the statisfaction when putting all switches with one shoot is... mhhh 🤌)
the characters introduced in this game grow on you and make the ending so bittersweet and touching.
linebeck is probably one of the greatest written characters in any zelda game. his development and growth is absolutely human and makes you love him while playing the game. ciela, while re using navis "hey" in this game for her, is charming and cute, not even once annoying in my opinion.
this game is one if not the best 2d zelda there is.
i enjoyed it a lot.

El primer Zelda que jugué fue Spirit Tracks en mi Nintendo DS. En su momento me gustó mucho y siempre me quedé con muchas ganas de jugar al predecesor inmediato, Phantom Hourglass. Desde entonces he jugado a varios juegos de Zelda, así que, llegando al fin a poder jugar este, me sabe a poco, pero aún así, uno de los "peores" Zelda, aún así es una gran aventura.

Los dungeons no son tan complejos, pero aún así ofrece bastante diversión. Las mecánicas del barco, curiosamente, son más interesantes que en Wind Waker (del cual este juego es una secuela inmediata), pero no logra llegar a las alturas emocionales de ese.

Muchos comentan que este juego prácticamente es una demo técnica de la DS, y en cierta medida lo entiendo, pero las verdad es que las gimmicks de cierta manera sí realzan las mecánicas y muchas se vuelven muy entretenidas, como guiar los items con el panel táctil, o bien, una de mis cosas favoritas, hacer notas en el mapa para resolver puzles o para facilitar tu camino. De hecho, jugando este juego me di cuenta que tal vez una de las razones de por qué me encantan tanto las mecánicas de anotar cosas en mapas y por qué quiero meterlo tanto en mis juegos es porque los juegos de DS solían hacer eso, solo que a mi edad ya no lo recordaba tanto.

En fin, es un Zelda recomendado si lo tienes de paso y te interesa la saga en general, sin embargo, no lo pondría como una prioridad frente a otros juegos de Zelda. Incluso si te gusta mucho Wind Waker como a mí, hay otros juegos de la saga que recomendaría antes.

Some of the most unique solutions and puzzles in all of Zelda
This game took its main gimmick of being on a DS to the MAX with being entirely touch-screen controlled, using the 2 screens for either a map or perspective change, even physically closing the console is used for a puzzle!

The problems are the aesthetics; a lot of similar looking areas and dungeon designs never make you excited to find the next island. The ocean is pretty barren too, just acting as a traveling area with occasional unsatisfying goodies to find.

I won't lie, being a huge Zelda fan I was excited to try this game out and went in very confidently based on previous experience with the series where pretty much every game has been excellent. But Phantom Hourglass ended up disappointing me and discouraging me from completing the game and trying/firing up its sequel, Spirit Tracks.

There are some very innovative things in this game that make use of the DS dual screens and other features but on the flip side, there are many head scratchers in terms of game design and overall structure. Replaying the main temple/dungeon after you finish a main area is extremely annoying and punishing...not sure how that got approved or past Nintendo's QC process.

Maybe one day I will come back to this game, but overall I felt like the experience was not up to par for being a Zelda game.

Esse jogo me deixa triste, principalmente tendo Zelda como minha franquia de jogos favorita.
Ele tinha tudo pra ser incrível, mas foi muito prejudicado por escolhas idiotas da Nintendo.
Eu entendo querer usar as mecânicas únicas do console, mas a Nintendo extrapolou no nível que isso aqui virou praticamente um jogo de celular. Nenhum botão é usado pra nada, é tudo no touch.
Isso estraga muito a gameplay do jogo. Andar é UMA MERDA, atacar é UMA MERDA, interagir com o ambiente e com elementos plataforma é UMA MERDA, navegar é UMA MERDA.
Tem várias gimmics legais usando o DS, como assoprar pra interagir com o vento, fazer barulho no microfone pra machucar certos inimigos, desenhar pra passar de portas, e etc. O jogo poderia muito bem ter se limitado a isso e fazer o resto do jogo ser UM JOGO normal, que seria um jogo incrível.

Linebeck é um bom personagem, gosto muito dele, talvez um dos melhores personagens secundários da franquia, e ele carrega o jogo nas costas.

Essa ideia de toda hora ter que repetir a Dungeon principal várias vezes é completamente horrorosa. É um saco, é tedioso, e tira totalmente a vontade de progredir.

Enfim, se fosse qualquer outra franquia, esse jogo seria horrível. Mas ainda é Zelda, e tem algumas das coisas que fazem a franquia ser o que é: a trilha sonora perfeita, a arte lindíssima, e o design bom das dungeons. Isso impede o jogo de ser um desastre.

Can be good fun sometimes but the puzzles and dungeons are very dull and among the easiest in the series, with the obvious exception of the Temple of the Ocean King which isn't hard so much as it is really tedious. Also 100%ing this game is a chore. Getting all the ship parts is entirely up to luck and it took me over 90 consecutive real life days, even with calendar manipulation, to get the one ship part I was missing. I think Spirit Tracks is an improvement over this game in every way. At least this has Linebeck.

I really wanted to like this game, but that did not happen. The Temple of the Ocean King is the first major problem I have with this title, but no one likes it so it's not worth complaining about right now. Everything just takes longer to do in this game (similar issue I had with Skyward Sword). I didn't like sailing, I didn't like the Jolene fights, I didn't like how finding treasure in the ocean worked, and I didn't like the stylus controls for combat. Despite me thinking that the dungeon puzzles were cool and enjoying the new cast of characters, this is easily one of my least favorite Zelda titles.

Phantom hourglass was a lot more enjoyable of a game than I expected, and doesn't deserve the hate it gets at all. At first when I found out that the game was only controlled through the stylus it put me off continuing to play game, as it seems very tedious and I was looking forward to this being another 2D Zelda game but with Wind Waker's world and graphics as I haven't been able to play that game yet, but thankfully after an hour or so I got used to it pretty easily and found it was a creative albeit unnecessary way that makes this game standout and is a great method to make the player use all of the feature that's included in the DS, with this probably being the first game on my 3DS that's had me use my microphone.

Apart from the stylus controls, everything else is what you'd expect from a 2D Zelda game, and I found the characters, locations and method of traversal was good but much easier and more compact due to being on a DS but it probably made the experience more streamlined so I didn't mind too much. The only real negative I have to say about this game is having to return to the Temple of the Ocean King, as you have to go there 5 times, and the fact you have to redo some sections feels like such a waste of time even though new items you acquire does make the process faster. I feel like if they'd made it into one big dungeon that you go to at the start and then return to at the end would remove this problem entirely, as you'd still feel the satisfaction of finally being able to kill the Phantoms, but remove the painful experience of going back and forth several times in a pretty uninspired dungeon.

Overall, Phantom Hourglass was a fun, smaller Zelda story and definitely is overhated, as whilst I do agree this game would've been nicer if it had used the d-pad and the 4 buttons, Nintendo decided to try something different and I feel for the most part it worked. Also Linebeck is one of the best Zelda characters.