I never really hear Zelda fans talk about this game much. My impression was that it was one of the worse Zelda games. However, honestly I liked this game a lot. The elephant in the room... The control scheme. I hated it at first, but over my playtime, I slowly adjusted to it, when eventually it wasn't a bother anymore. Now that thats acknowledged. Why do I like this so much?
Honestly, this game has some of the best Zelda puzzles in the series if I'm honest. And it's thanks to the touchscreen. A lot of puzzles require you to draw on the map to solve them, like mark two locations on a map and draw a perpendicular line to find the hidden treasure. Stuff like that. These were really fleshed out, making my own notes and using the map in the puzzle solving is genius. One of my favorite puzzles required you to go to an unmarked island, DRAW THE ENTIRE ISLAND ON YOUR MAP (yes you heard me correctly), the shape of an island was a whale, then you have to go to parts of the whale to hit switches in order. That was when my mind got blown. They really didnt hold back with puzzles. The touchscreen offers a lot of other cool uses, like being able to trace out the path of a boomerang which had cool puzzle uses or tracing out the path of a bombchu. I just think the puzzles were really neat in this game. They were super engaging.
Like any Zelda game, this has a lot of polish, this looks fantastic for a DS game, the cutscenes are really well animated and have a lot of energy. The game perfectly emulates Windwakers art style on the DS, it's super charming. The sea exploration was super relaxing, it's why I like it in Sonic Rush Adventure so much (also on DS). And Linebeck is such a goat, top 2 Zelda characters if I'm honest. More Zelda games should have human companions.
My only real problem with this game is the Ocean Temple, which gets old fast. Cool idea but repeating puzzles gets old fast. And sometimes combat can feel inconsistent and not register inputs. But overall, I think this game is highly underrated. This is definitely no slouch compared to the other Zelda games.
Honestly, this game has some of the best Zelda puzzles in the series if I'm honest. And it's thanks to the touchscreen. A lot of puzzles require you to draw on the map to solve them, like mark two locations on a map and draw a perpendicular line to find the hidden treasure. Stuff like that. These were really fleshed out, making my own notes and using the map in the puzzle solving is genius. One of my favorite puzzles required you to go to an unmarked island, DRAW THE ENTIRE ISLAND ON YOUR MAP (yes you heard me correctly), the shape of an island was a whale, then you have to go to parts of the whale to hit switches in order. That was when my mind got blown. They really didnt hold back with puzzles. The touchscreen offers a lot of other cool uses, like being able to trace out the path of a boomerang which had cool puzzle uses or tracing out the path of a bombchu. I just think the puzzles were really neat in this game. They were super engaging.
Like any Zelda game, this has a lot of polish, this looks fantastic for a DS game, the cutscenes are really well animated and have a lot of energy. The game perfectly emulates Windwakers art style on the DS, it's super charming. The sea exploration was super relaxing, it's why I like it in Sonic Rush Adventure so much (also on DS). And Linebeck is such a goat, top 2 Zelda characters if I'm honest. More Zelda games should have human companions.
My only real problem with this game is the Ocean Temple, which gets old fast. Cool idea but repeating puzzles gets old fast. And sometimes combat can feel inconsistent and not register inputs. But overall, I think this game is highly underrated. This is definitely no slouch compared to the other Zelda games.