Overall 8.7 Graphics 7.3 Sound 7.7 Addictive 7 Story 8.7 Depth 8.7 Difficulty 6
7.9
The Legend of Linebeck: Ocean King Temple juuldude
Overall, The Legend of Zelda is a great game series. But if you are going to look at the games individually, you will notice that there’s often a lot of controversy about them. For example, some think Twilight Princess is just another great game, while others think it is garbage. There are people who like the new things that Skyward Sword did while others could not get into the game. The Nintendo DS Zelda games, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were also controversial games. You have to use the touchscreen constantly, you play Toon Link and the main gimmicks are traveling by boat or train. I have yet to play Spirit Tracks, but I played Phantom Hourglass and I felt like this would be the next game that I will write a review about, so let me talk you through the game!
Story: 7
You wot mate? A seven? *Gets punched*
Sorry guys, but I can’t give it a higher score. Phantom Hourglass is a sequel to The Wind Waker, but while I think the story of Wind Waker is awesome, I felt like Phantom Hourglass has a story with some good and odd parts.
The prologue of Phantom Hourglass tells the story of Wind Waker in a nutshell including some major spoilers, so if you haven’t played Wind Waker and don’t want the story spoiled, don’t play this game. What I can tell you without major spoilers, is that Link sails the seven seas with a pirate girl of his age called Tetra and that after a big adventure in Wind Waker, Link still is sailing with Tetra and her crew.
It turns out that our prologue existed of paper cut-outs, made by one of the crew members. He is showing them to Link, who actually was
sleeping. Tetra then sees what they are doing and tells them to pay attention, as a mysterious ghost ship is said to sail nearby and it’s rumoured to have something amazing on board. But it is not called the ghost ship for no reason, because many people and other ships have disappeared when they got close to it, that’s why the crew members rather wouldn’t go near, but Tetra is convinced.
All of a sudden, the ship gets covered in mist and the ghost ship comes near. Tetra climbs aboard and disappears into the mist surrounding the ship and then it gets eerily quiet. But then she screams! While everybody else is shocked, Link tries to climb aboard the ship, but falls into the sea. Is this the end for our hero?
This is actually where the story really begins, as Link is awakened by a fairy named Ciela, it turns out he washed up on an island. Ciela’s grandfather, Oshus, wants to help Link with looking for Tetra, but he needs to go to a strange temple on the island to look for something inside. Once inside, Link not only finds the mysterious phantom hourglass but also rescues a man called Linebeck, a man who sails the seven seas and could help Link on his quest, who got stuck in the temple when he wanted to look for treasure but got stuck. Initially Linebeck doesn’t want to help Link, but he eventually helps him.
WARNING:
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
[spoiler] So far so good right? Yes, but from then things get strange from then on. It turns out it isn’t as easy to enter the ghost ship as Link and Linebeck thought, since they constantly end up in a thick fog and get sent back to another area. Later on, Link also learns that the evil force behind the ghost ship is not some kind of person with an awesome backstory like Ganondorf or Vaati for example, but just some kind of evil being that suddenly was there and started doing evil stuff.
Ciela turns out to be more useful and important for the story than she seems at first, which isn’t too odd considering that besides her there are only to other fairies in the game that also play an important role. And Linebeck is a greedy adventurer for most of the game, but in the end he totally changes whatsoever.[/spoiler]
END OF MINOR SPOILERS
In case you didn’t want to look at the minor spoilers above, here’s a short version: A few things turn out to be very strange in terms of story, and there’s a vague antagonist.
While it’s really cool that Nintendo made a direct sequel to the Wind Waker, they also made it a lot harder for themselves, making the story weird at certain points. Luckily though, a big part of the story is still really good and it didn’t bother me most of the time when I was playing this game. But if you liked the story in other Zelda games and expect something as good, then I wouldn’t recommend this game maybe.
Graphics: 9
When I started this game up, I honestly was surprised how well it looks. The Nintendo DS had a lot of diverse games, with some being really beautiful, and others being plain ugly. Of course, it’s a Zelda game, and except for the strange CD-I games all Zelda games simply looked beautiful. But since they went for a 3D-world on a very small screen with an average resolution I have to say they really did their best. But also normal images, like the ones seen in the intro of the game look really good.
While the game doesn’t look like it’s made with cel shading, there are small cutscenes where characters get unique expressions and movements, making them feel alive. Link is humorous to watch, since he often pulls confused faces or almost falls over. Every boss gets a small introduction as well, where they look awesome. Not only that, but things like menus have sweet designs as well, and sometimes
things like walls or floors have complicated designs. One could think ‘Why go through so much trouble?’ and it’s because it makes the game more interesting. It’s also a nice distraction to stop and look what’s around you.
The game does have some ugly moments though. During cutscenes, water looks blocky and strange. And some of the designs for characters and monsters are so complicated, that they start to look a bit blurry when you focus on them. But in the end, this game still looks gorgeous, and these things are just minor complications I was bothered by.
Sound: 6
The prologue of the game had great music, so when I began this game I was hopeful that most of the music would be great as well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I hoped.
Have you played multiple Zelda games? Think about some of the iconic themes. Does any of the songs in Phantom Hourglass come to mind very quick? Probably not, because of the music isn’t really memorable. Wind Waker had a great and new style that really stood out, but Phantom Hourglass didn’t try to sound new or interesting so we got generic music. That doesn’t mean all music is bad though, for
instance, characters like Oshus and Linebeck have cool themes. A lot of people also like the boss theme, although I’m not a big fan of it. And the best themes are probably the ghost ship theme and the first theme of the final boss. The later one is my favourite because it’s one of the more original and catchy themes.
So why is most of the music not memorable? Looking up the soundtrack will make it clear. A lot of the music is just very short. The minigame music, the dungeon music and the unknown island music are three themes you’ll hear often but they loop after just a few seconds. Sure, the few seconds don’t sound too bad, but short music means it can get very repetitive. If you look up the soundtrack of Spirit
Tracks, then you’ll hear the music is a great improvement over Phantom Hourglass.
Luckily though, the sounds are spot on. Link has its own simple and cute sounds that fit with his appearance, monsters have growls so that you can hear them when they’re behind you and most items have their own sounds as well when you use them. Really, I can’t say anything bad about the sounds, since there are so many of them and they are spot on all the time.
Difficulty: 4
I know, I know, a four is really low. But this game was too easy, obvious hints were thrown around everywhere, dungeons felt like a breeze, there weren’t many difficult monsters and bosses, and the only boss I died at once was the final boss!
Most of the Zelda games get more difficult as the game progresses, or already are very brutal from the beginning till the end. But when playing this game I kept hoping there would be more difficult parts, but things I had hoped to be difficult were most of the time just tedious. I never felt really challenged throughout the entire game and that really bothered me.
What were some difficult things then? Well, some of the bosses had attack patterns that weren’t easy to figure out, or I was not sure which item I should use to weaken or damage the boss. And because the game is a sequel to Wind Waker, you of course have a lot of sailing moments and you are vulnerable to attacks from pirate ships, and on sea you’re a lot weaker than on land. When you get close to pirate ships they will chase you and fire cannonballs at you, so you need to defeat them quick or you can be dead in a few seconds, which happened to me one or two times.
I think that this game was easy because Nintendo wanted it to be a casual game, so they did it on purpose. It might also be because this was the first time they implemented the touchscreen in Zelda games, so they kept things safe and easy.
Depth: 8
Zelda games often have lots of small side quests and hidden items, waiting to be discovered. This one is no exception. There are lots of heart pieces, ship parts and rupees to collect for those who follow every hint and doubt anything suspicious. I think spent as much time on the main quest as on searching for treasure and playing minigames.
There are five minigames in the game, four are mostly there for fun and great rewards, but the fifth one will reward you with a heart container if you are great as this. The first one is a minigame that you can get once you get a crane on your ship. The
first time you have to use this it’s to progress in the story, but after that you’ll find places that mark treasure in the sea which you can reel up with your crane. In the second minigame you can fish. This is the minigame that does reward you with a heart container, but that depends on the fish you’ll find in the sea. The third one is a minigame where you have to use the cannon on you ship to hit targets while your ship is on automatic captain sailing a set route.
The other two minigames take place on two different islands. The first is a simple ‘dig 20 holes and keep what you find’ while the second minigame is rolling through a parkour with a Goron and collecting diamonds, this one is my favourite as it’s not too long and I found it the most addictive.
But of course I can’t say nothing about the Ocean Temple when talking about the depth. It doesn’t matter who you will ask, this is the thing that’s more mentioned than anything else about the game. If you don’t know what it is, it’s the main dungeon in the game that you have to visit about five times to get several items and directions to progress in the story. Doesn’t sound too bad right? But the thing is, there’s a time limit and there are so called ‘phantoms’, basically haunted sets of armour that will attack once they see or hear you. When you’re hit, you’ll lose some time and you get sent back to the entrance or stairs of the floor you entered. Not only that, but the first few times you go in there you have to go through several floors all over again, after your third time you get a shortcut.
Does that mean it’s bad? No, it is in fact a great part of the game. At first it might seem like a long and tedious cave, but there are lots of shortcuts and hidden treasures you can get when you get new items, making the dungeon interesting every time you visit it. Some people think it’s too hard, but as long as you pay attention to what you’re doing, and take a good look at the map it shouldn’t be difficult.
Addictiveness: 6
I found the main adventure pretty addictive, especially looking for treasures and completing dungeons. But that’s it. I really have no desire to play this game a second time, I felt like playing it once was great but I didn’t find it addictive enough to play a second time.
With lots to collect, sailing through all the islands, many dungeons and bosses this game might take a lot longer than you would expect, and some of these things aren’t rewarding or interesting enough to do over again.
But the main adventure was really fun, the first time I started I stopped playing it because I was more interested in Professor Layton, but when my brother completed the game and I completed Professor Layton I started to play this game non-stop, and played it every day. It was really as addictive and good as I hoped it would be.
When I finished it though and had collected everything, I was happy but didn’t want to do it all over again, even though I had a grand time playing it. This is a game that really needs to be enjoyed in one run and then it’s done.
For those of you who don’t like to read long parts:
Pros Cons
+ Great graphics, very charming - Much of the music is way too short
+ Lots of minigames and treasure - Awfully simple
+ Good story for a sequel - Sailing can take a really long time, even with warp points
+ Touchscreen works good
+ Ocean King Temple is a great addition
That brought me to the end of this review, it’s been a while since I wrote my last review so I hope that you liked it and have some words of advice or opinion for me, they are a great help to me, don’t be afraid to tell me what you didn’t like about my review, and I hope to see you back on more of my reviews!
Graphics 9 Sound 6 Addictive 6 Story 7 Depth 8 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 4.8/5
Submitted: 02-25-16
Updated: 02-25-16
Review Replies: 16
8.5
A worthy sequel to The Wind Waker gamerforlifefor..
On October 1, 2007, the first DS Legend of Zelda game was released in the U.S. That game is known as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and it's the sequel to the Gamecube classic The Wind Waker. Seeing how popular and successful The Wind Waker was, one would have to ask themselves how it's sequel would be. Well, I'm going to answer that question for you by making this review.
Graphics: 9/10 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has really good graphics for a DS game. The character designs are very similar to the ones in The Wind Waker. For being on the DS, they look fantastic. Link, Tetra and her gang of pirates look almost as good as they did in Wind Waker. The new characters such as Linebeck and Oshus look fantastic for a DS game as well.
Now as for the environments, there's plenty of variety. Along with the ocean and grassy areas, there's a volcano, a snowy area, and even an area with Gorons, something that was missing in Wind Waker. There's also 2 different perspectives which you view the game in. When you're on land, the game's in a 2D overhead view. The only parts in the game that are 3d are when you're on the ship and during certain boss battles. The 3D parts are a great example of what the DS is capable of graphically. I just wish there would've been more areas that were in 3D, but that's only a minor complaint. Overall, the graphics in Phantom Hourglass are a great example of how good a DS game's graphics can be. Because of this, I'm giving the graphics a 9.
Sound: 8/10 One thing The Legend of Zelda series is known for besides the dungeons is their soundtracks. Phantom Hourglass is a good example of how great these soundtracks can be. It has some great music such as a remix of The Great Sea theme from Wind Waker. Some other great music in the game includes the boss theme, the final boss theme, and Linebeck's theme. All these tracks are good examples of how good a soundtrack for a DS game can be. While I will say that there are better DS soundtracks out there such as Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and a majority of DS Pokemon games, the music in Phantom Hourglass is good enough for me to give it an 8.
Addictiveness: 8/10 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass makes great use of the DS stylus and touch screen. You use the stylus to do just about everything. You use it to move Link, to use the sword, items, and to do other actions as well.. The best use the stylus has is for the boomerang. You draw the path you want the boomerang to take and it'll follow that path. The boomerang has never been more fun to use. The dungeons and boss battles are fun to, though they aren't the best the series has to offer. Fortunately, there aren't to many bad ones, other than the Temple of the Ocean King. Every time you need a new sea chart, you have to come back to the Temple of the Ocean King and go deeper than you did the previous time. This constant backtracking can get very annoying and tedious very quickly. Other than that one temple though, Phantom Hourglass is a really entertaining game. For these reasons, I'm giving the addictiveness an 8.
Story: 9/10 The story in Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is just as good as storylines from other games in the series. The game starts with you hearing a summary of the events from the Wind Waker. Afterwards, Link, Tetra and her crew come across a ship that's known as The Ghost Ship. It's said that people that come across the ghost ship are never seen again. Tetra doesn't believe the rumors, so she decides to board the ghost ship to see what kind of treasures may be on it. Unfortunately, things go wrong as she screams for help. Link tries to board the ship, but he's unable to climb on and falls into the ocean. He eventually wakes up on an island and meets a fairy named Ciela, who's lost her memory and lives with a man named Oshus. Link visits Oshus and is told to find a man named Linebeck, who's a captain of a ship known as the S.S. Linebeck. Link finds him in the Temple of the Ocean King and he must save Linebeck from a trap he got himself into. Afterwards, Link goes deeper into the temple and finds a sea chart. With this in hand, Link joins Linebeck aboard his ship and together, they begin their journey to find the Ghost Ship. Will Link be able to save Tetra? What secrets will they find aboard the Ghost Ship, and what sort of evil could be responsible for kidnapping Tetra in the first place? You'll have to find out by playing the game. Overall, I think Phantom Hourglass has one of the best storylines in the series. It also has some funny dialogue as well. I definitely feel like this game's story is worthy of a 9.
Depth: 9/10 Like the rest of the series, Phantom Hourglass has everything you'd expect to see in a Zelda game. There are 8 dungeons to complete (including the dreaded Temple of the Ocean King), there's plenty of hidden items and locations to explore, such as uncharted islands. Like other games in the series, there's plenty of heart pieces to find, and there's plenty of ship parts for you to find. These are used to customize your ship to make it look the way you want it to. There's plenty of fun minigames throughout the game as well. With all this content, Phantom Hourglass will keep you busy for hours on end. For these reasons, I'm giving the depth a 9.
Difficulty: 6/10 For the most part, Phantom Hourglass isn't a super difficult game. A lot of the dungeons and bosses aren't super tough and they likely won't cause you However, there is one temple in the game that can cause players some trouble, and that's the Temple of the Ocean King. One reason why this temple can be frustrating is because there's a time limit for you to complete it. Another reason is because of the enemies in the temple known as Phantoms. If one of them sees you, they'll chase you until you reach a safe zone. The safe zones are the only areas where the time in your hourglass doesn't go down and the phantoms can't touch you. Other than that, the phantoms can strike you, causing you to lose 30 seconds from your hourglass and sending you back to the beginning of the floor you're on. Also the traps and puzzles in this dungeon can get pretty tricky, but because of the time limit, you can't afford to dawdle outside of the safe zones for too long trying to figure out what you're supposed to do. For these reasons, The Temple of the Ocean King is the toughest location in the game.
Aside from that, the only difficult part about the game is the cannon controls for your ship. You tap your stylus to shoot a cannonball, but sometimes if you tap the screen at the wrong spot, the cannon will shoot backwards. This can get extremely annoying especially if when you're trying to kill enemies. Other than this and the Temple of the Ocean King, the game is fairly easy and the controls are very smooth. The boss fights and the other temples won't cause you too many problems, but because of how annoying the Temple of the Ocean King can be and the cannon controls, I'm giving the difficulty a 6.
Overall Score: 8.5/10 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was a great way to bring the series to the DS for the first time. It has really nice graphics, a great soundtrack, a compelling story, great gameplay that makes great use of the touch screen and stylus, and it's a long game that'll keep you occupied for hours on end. If it weren't for the constant backtracking to the Temple of the Ocean King and poor cannon controls, it would've been my favorite portable Zelda game ever. Still, I feel like Phantom Hourglass is a worthy sequel to The Wind Waker and it's just as good as other handheld titles in the series. Overall, I give The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass an 8.5 out of 10.
Graphics 9 Sound 8 Addictive 8 Story 9 Depth 9 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 4.8/5
Submitted: 06-27-15
Review Replies: 7
9
The Legend of AWESOMENESS!! lilythetigerkity
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom HourglassGraphics: I rate this 4. The graphics in this game for its time are quite pitiful. They are very basic and really have no character to them. I would just expect more. I always felt like The Legend of Zelda games were always ahead of their time when it came to graphics, but with this game it just was not produced. The monsters and characters themselves looked like the average teenagers meme drawing. Some of the monsters were even just blob looking things. If anything the boats were the best part of the graphics for the entire game, they had the best detail and creativity.
Sound: I give the sound a 9. The sound in this game is catchy. I normally
don’t like to have the sound on when I play a game, but the music in this was very enjoyable to listen to as you go along. Also, the sound of Links sword and his grunts when you attacked were funny though could get annoying when you have to deal with multiple enemies. On the other hand, the sounds of the monsters when they get hit were nice. As well, when Link gets killed the noise he made when doing so made it a little easier to accept the fact that
you just died.
Addictiveness: I rate this game a 7 for addictiveness. When playing for the first time it’s hard to put this game down. It’s something you would just want to play it all the way through nonstop. I don’t finish many games, however this one I wouldn’t put it down until I did. Though, you would not want
to play over and over again. The repetitiveness can get boring.
Story: A solid 10, hands down. One of the best parts of this game is the story line. The basics go like this: Link and Zelda are traveling when Zelda is taken by the Ghost Ship, so Link sets off on an epic journey to save her. By going from island to island, and there are temples to recover. As a plus, there
are a lot of comical parts and puns. The Legend of Zelda has always had a sense of humor, this game being no exception to that fact. Especially Link’s travel partner the captain of the ship.
Depth: 9 for depth. This game gets pretty deep. It’s not a
game you can beat in two days by any means. It takes time and a lot of
patience. There is also a lot of tedious actions that take a lot of time and effort.
Difficulty: I am giving it an 8 simply for the fact that
I was able to beat it and I don’t play hard games. I would say the temples had very difficult puzzles. I am pretty sure you are told this within the first five minutes of the game so it isn’t a spoiler. But the hour glass is for the temples. When you are on certain parts it takes away your life force and the hour glass tells you how much time you have left. The temples are the most difficult parts because if you run out of time you automatically die and have to start from the beginning. For that fact alone it can be very tedious. Every level has new tricks and puzzles.
Overall, I give this game a 9. This game is one of the few games I actually enjoyed. It put a whole new twist on The Legend of Zelda itself. One of my favorite things is the fact you can draw and make notes on the map. So you can remember a pattern you need to draw and so on. One other thing that is quite cool is when you are driving the boat from island to island. Having control of the route you want to take. Very awesome game that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys The Legend of Zelda.
Graphics 4 Sound 9 Addictive 7 Story 10 Depth 9 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4.2/5
Submitted: 07-28-14
Updated: 07-28-14
Review Replies: 4
User Notice 
