Just completed the japanese phantom hourglass. here are my opinions.

so, what I have just accomplished is something of a feat. Completing an entire in-depth adventure game with no knowledge of the language in which it is displayed, with nothing but a rough translation guide for cutscenes.
This is probably the most anticipated DS title thus far, and zelda fans are expecting ssomething special. I am here to deliver some ominous news, some deeply disturbing news, something that wil cause all zelda fans to advance on my hovel with pitchforks and all sorts.

The legend of zelda: phantom hourglass is overrated and weak.

see? see what I mean? you're angry. Before you burn me to nothingness, here are my arguments...

1) graphics:we all know graphics aren't important right? its the gameplay that counts right? well, yes you are right, but there are things that need to be addressed. The graphics are, technically very nice. It's very apparent that nintendo spent time on every aspect of the surroundings, and everything is looking very solid.
However, there is one thing thap p*ssed me off about the graphics. They're a fat step backwards. Nintendo decided against cartoon graphics for a reason; the market disagreed with them. Why then have we made a return to the cell shaded look in what is apparently a next gen zelda game?
arguments are welcome on that one.

2) controls: the controls in the game are abysmall. intuitive yes. but poor. I'll begin by talking about attacks. To perform a stab you have to tap the enemy in question, this is fair enough, but in order to do a swipe attack, you have to slide the stylus horizontally in front of link. Somehow, the game gets those two VERY DIFFERENT attacks confused and it manages to mistake movement commands for attacks. So instead of walking past an enemy, more often than not, link will take it upon himself to attack it. This is particularly annoying in one section where there are giant worms tunneling underneath sand, and you have to avoid them or die.
Another control issue I found in the game was performing the spin attack. In order to perform this, you have to draw a circle around link, fair enough? well, you'd think. However, the game makes it so that the circle has to be DEAD ON to perform the attack, and, get this, you have to draw it in a certain direction. In the heat of battling 10 or more enemies at once this soon becomes a proble.
Oh and why aren't there D-pad controls in the game?

3)plot: this is a section im going to deliberately skimp on to avoid spoilerz. All I will say is that phantom hourglass is very much a sub-story. The plot focuses more on the angry pirates from windwaker than princess zelda/ gannon malarkey.

4) THAT dungeon: there is one aspect of phantom hourglass that really was the straw that broke the camels back. Each time you collect a crest from one of the dungeons in the first half of the game, you have to go back to the starting island and complete an "hourglass challenge" in which you have limited time to complete a total of three challenges, with three floors each. Fair enough. Wait no, actually it sucks bell, because every time you go back to complete a new challenge, you have to do the already completed challenges again, in full. This means by the last hourglass challenge, you have to go through a total of nine individual floors, six of which you have done already, and three of which you have done twice. Bravo on repitition nintendo.

so begin the hearty discussion on my opinions and remember, they are only that; opinions.

Is the graphics really that poor cell shading shown in the demo movies?

Originally Posted by AJB2K3

Is the graphics really that poor cell shading shown in the demo movies?

unfortunately yes, I wasn't too hard on the technical quality of graphics, but looking back, they really arent great.

Wow, people are going to have a field day if we get messed-up controls. I'd be quite content if we can revert to the normal buttons. Is there any chance for this?

About the graphics and plot, all of these are known already, so thank goodness we can brace ourselves for the letdown. Anyway, there's a good chance that Nintendo is just testing the waters here with LoZPH. If they see we don't like it, they can make a better one. We all know that they are able to port at least Mario 64 into the DS, so its not far to be able to come up with a DS LoZ game closer to the OoT feel.

I just finished the american version of phantom hourglass and I can't agree on everything killyerselfkid said.
first of all, I think the graphics are nice and I guess I'm one of the few people that actually liked the graphics of wind waker.
second, the controls are just fine, you just didnt figure them out. and there is no part in the game where you have to fight 10 enemies at the time.
maybe if you run through a dungeon without slamming any enemies...
third, the challenge. it's just wrong what you said there. after basement 6 you get a portal that let's you continue from there and on some floors there are even short cut's.
and about the story, to be honest, I was actually happy to see something new. not the same old same old.

the only concern I have is the whole thing was way to short. I played through it in just a couple of days. what a waste of money. let's hope the online play can give me at least a couple of more hours of fun play...

Zelda Phantom Hourglass [USA]
3rd seamap up to Temple of Ice so far and really liking the game.
Graphics are very good and sort of reminiscent of FF3 on NDS.
Sound and music are very good.

Game has a good mix of combat/exploration & puzzles; of which some are devious to work out (!)
This is the only NDS game so far to comprehensively use all the DS's normal controls plus the microphone, dual screen, touch screen and even closing the screens.

The characters are interesting and the bosses - especially that unique crab - are brilliantly done.

As you progress in the game you will get cool new 'gadgets' - you then see what had been previously inaccessible areas can now be accessed.
Some of these like the 'smart bomb' are really well done and made me laugh when I 1st used them.

The way you hunt for treasure both on land and sea really fits the 'nautical theme'. For instance when you sink the larger pirate ship and its 2 small escorts you see an 'X' on the seachart, which you can then salvage using your grappling hook.

Some of the mini-games are irritating like the shooting gallery but others like the cannon run are good an offer fantastic prizes.

You can customise your ship - my favourite are the demon parts

Only 'tough' challenge is the Phantom Hourglass Castle and its sub-levels. But once you get like 6 levels in you activate a warp point with your current time - so you can go straight here in future. These levels are the most challenging but also very rewarding when you finally 'suss' the right way forward

This game is excellent and well worth buying. If you take the time to do the mini-games, optional quests & get all the treasures on each level, there's 30+ hours in the game.

I put my hands up to all the people who disagreed.

As the title said, "here are my opinions" and well, thats all they were.

thanks for taking the time to read my post. THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU ALL SO <3 <3