Phantom Hourglass gets a really bad rep. It’s really not as bad as a lot of people would have you believe. It’s one of two games I’m actually playing for the first time through this marathon, the other one being Spirit Tracks, and I can say that I’m pleasantly surprised by its quality. I started Phantom Hourglass many years ago but I never even got to the first dungeon, I ended up dropping it because I had games that interested me more at the time so the only impression I had of Phantom Hourglass was the first hour of adjusting to the controls which I found to be weird and unintuitive at the time.
Little did I know, I found myself warming up to the controls quite a lot this time, even when they occasionally made my hands cramp. Maybe because I grew up during this era of gaming where gimmicks were in every corner of the industry, but the way Phantom Hourglass controls reminds me of better days. If I had played this game 10 years ago or more I would’ve probably rolled my eyes at the amount of gimmicks used but in the current gimmick-lacking space in gaming, I find myself impressed and kind of yearning for this type of creativity. Having to use the microphone to yell for someone on the other side of an island to lower a bridge for me is goofy and amazing in all the right ways. The way the game controls just adds to its overall charm for me.
Speaking of charm, man It feels really good to be back in The Wind Waker’s world. It just has a different vibe than all the other worlds in the series. I really thought it was because of the cartoony arty style but we got 3 games in that art style between The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass and none of them had the same vibes that The Wind Waker gave me. This era just feels so fresh and full of new ideas. The Wind Waker was all about letting go of old standards and forging a new identity, away from Hyrule and its legends. I’m really happy they kept going with that thesis with Phantom Hourglass. The game has its own original bits of lore and history with The Ocean King and Bellum. Its own tribes like the Anouki, Yook, and the Cobble. Each with their own histories and conflicts. It just brings back a sense of much needed wonder after becoming familiar with the lore of the triforce and the nature of certain tribes like the Gorons and Zoras.
The story is pretty much nothing but it does the job. There’s a couple of “twists” here and there that you can kind of see coming. The characters do a good job of keeping the momentum going though. Linebeck, Oshus and Ciela are interesting enough to make me care about the events of the story but in the big picture aren’t standout characters in the franchise as some would argue, especially for Linebeck. Linebeck is pretty good don’t get me wrong, he’s very funny and is that standout character in the game but nothing super interesting happens with him and I felt like his arc was telegraphed very clearly. Once again, I’m immensely disappointed by the way Tetra is treated. I really really like Tetra and it’s very unfortunate how they keep misusing her in these two games. I’m really bummed that this is the last time I’m going to see her, I’m pretty sure she won’t be in Spirit Tracks, I wanted to go on a proper adventure with her again but sadly I’m gonna have to settle for these two misfires with her appearances.
The dungeons are actually pretty great. They do a great job utilizing the game’s unique control scheme to make for some really good puzzles. Better dungeons than the ones in The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap, they have a good sense of added complexity compared to those two. Making them feel like actual Zelda dungeons compared to the watered-down and overly simple dungeons of The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap. Phantom Hourglass actually restores some much needed faith in these toon games. These can be real Zelda experiences even with their different vibe.
I understand the frustration towards the Temple of the Ocean King as it’s a temple you constantly have to revisit throughout the game. That part is fine, the thing that’s frustrating is that you have to redo all the floors you had already finished to get to the new sections that open up. That aspect was daunting the first time I heard about it but honestly, there’s a lot of nuance to these revisits. You’re going through the same floors but the new items you picked up make you go through them faster and open shortcuts you couldn’t go through before. I also find it to be cool how you have limited time in the temple and you have to avoid enemies instead of attacking them. It honestly offered a really nice sense of strategy that I was kind of missing for a couple of these games.
The item utilization was actually pretty good. All of the items feel soo good to control thanks to the touch screen. Tracing the path you want your boomerangs to be thrown at is genius. The way arrows work is perfect. A highlight though has to be the grappling hook, returning from Wind Waker. It’s used in really creative ways throughout the dungeons and the Temple of the Ocean King that it really revitalized the game for me just when it was starting to get stale. My favorite implementation of the grappling hook was during the Gleeok boss fight.
Speaking of bosses, these boss fights are great. All of them are so fun and creative. Gleeok, Eox and the final Bellum boss fight are favorites of mine. The way you fight the final boss is just so creative and I loved every second of it. The final section overall was a really great way to top the game off.
I will say though that the game isn’t without its flaws. The sea traversal isn’t nearly as engaging as it is in the Wind Waker and the drawing mechanic just doesn’t work most of the time. Sometimes you get asked to draw symbols like the Triforce or an hourglass, which is a way for Nintendo to add one more use to the stylus but the problem is that these drawings most of the time don’t register. They programmed the game to register these drawings if they’re drawn in specific strokes for example, drawing a triangle starting from the right side would work while starting from the left side wouldn’t. This is absolutely insane, especially when the final boss relies on you to constantly draw.
Overall, I actually had a great time with Phantom Hourglass. It’s a cute little adventure continuing off the cute big adventure I loved with The Wind Waker. Spirit Tracks remains as the only Zelda game I’ve never touched so I am beyond excited to see where they go with this formula and this branch of the timeline, which is actually shaping up to be a favorite of mine.
Little did I know, I found myself warming up to the controls quite a lot this time, even when they occasionally made my hands cramp. Maybe because I grew up during this era of gaming where gimmicks were in every corner of the industry, but the way Phantom Hourglass controls reminds me of better days. If I had played this game 10 years ago or more I would’ve probably rolled my eyes at the amount of gimmicks used but in the current gimmick-lacking space in gaming, I find myself impressed and kind of yearning for this type of creativity. Having to use the microphone to yell for someone on the other side of an island to lower a bridge for me is goofy and amazing in all the right ways. The way the game controls just adds to its overall charm for me.
Speaking of charm, man It feels really good to be back in The Wind Waker’s world. It just has a different vibe than all the other worlds in the series. I really thought it was because of the cartoony arty style but we got 3 games in that art style between The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass and none of them had the same vibes that The Wind Waker gave me. This era just feels so fresh and full of new ideas. The Wind Waker was all about letting go of old standards and forging a new identity, away from Hyrule and its legends. I’m really happy they kept going with that thesis with Phantom Hourglass. The game has its own original bits of lore and history with The Ocean King and Bellum. Its own tribes like the Anouki, Yook, and the Cobble. Each with their own histories and conflicts. It just brings back a sense of much needed wonder after becoming familiar with the lore of the triforce and the nature of certain tribes like the Gorons and Zoras.
The story is pretty much nothing but it does the job. There’s a couple of “twists” here and there that you can kind of see coming. The characters do a good job of keeping the momentum going though. Linebeck, Oshus and Ciela are interesting enough to make me care about the events of the story but in the big picture aren’t standout characters in the franchise as some would argue, especially for Linebeck. Linebeck is pretty good don’t get me wrong, he’s very funny and is that standout character in the game but nothing super interesting happens with him and I felt like his arc was telegraphed very clearly. Once again, I’m immensely disappointed by the way Tetra is treated. I really really like Tetra and it’s very unfortunate how they keep misusing her in these two games. I’m really bummed that this is the last time I’m going to see her, I’m pretty sure she won’t be in Spirit Tracks, I wanted to go on a proper adventure with her again but sadly I’m gonna have to settle for these two misfires with her appearances.
The dungeons are actually pretty great. They do a great job utilizing the game’s unique control scheme to make for some really good puzzles. Better dungeons than the ones in The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap, they have a good sense of added complexity compared to those two. Making them feel like actual Zelda dungeons compared to the watered-down and overly simple dungeons of The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap. Phantom Hourglass actually restores some much needed faith in these toon games. These can be real Zelda experiences even with their different vibe.
I understand the frustration towards the Temple of the Ocean King as it’s a temple you constantly have to revisit throughout the game. That part is fine, the thing that’s frustrating is that you have to redo all the floors you had already finished to get to the new sections that open up. That aspect was daunting the first time I heard about it but honestly, there’s a lot of nuance to these revisits. You’re going through the same floors but the new items you picked up make you go through them faster and open shortcuts you couldn’t go through before. I also find it to be cool how you have limited time in the temple and you have to avoid enemies instead of attacking them. It honestly offered a really nice sense of strategy that I was kind of missing for a couple of these games.
The item utilization was actually pretty good. All of the items feel soo good to control thanks to the touch screen. Tracing the path you want your boomerangs to be thrown at is genius. The way arrows work is perfect. A highlight though has to be the grappling hook, returning from Wind Waker. It’s used in really creative ways throughout the dungeons and the Temple of the Ocean King that it really revitalized the game for me just when it was starting to get stale. My favorite implementation of the grappling hook was during the Gleeok boss fight.
Speaking of bosses, these boss fights are great. All of them are so fun and creative. Gleeok, Eox and the final Bellum boss fight are favorites of mine. The way you fight the final boss is just so creative and I loved every second of it. The final section overall was a really great way to top the game off.
I will say though that the game isn’t without its flaws. The sea traversal isn’t nearly as engaging as it is in the Wind Waker and the drawing mechanic just doesn’t work most of the time. Sometimes you get asked to draw symbols like the Triforce or an hourglass, which is a way for Nintendo to add one more use to the stylus but the problem is that these drawings most of the time don’t register. They programmed the game to register these drawings if they’re drawn in specific strokes for example, drawing a triangle starting from the right side would work while starting from the left side wouldn’t. This is absolutely insane, especially when the final boss relies on you to constantly draw.
Overall, I actually had a great time with Phantom Hourglass. It’s a cute little adventure continuing off the cute big adventure I loved with The Wind Waker. Spirit Tracks remains as the only Zelda game I’ve never touched so I am beyond excited to see where they go with this formula and this branch of the timeline, which is actually shaping up to be a favorite of mine.