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.
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.