Phantom Hourglass - My thoughts. (Spoilers)

Phantom Hourglass is slated constantly, and I can see why. In comparison to many other Zelda titles it really doesn't live up to the expectations that we hold as fans. With that being said, the game wasn't completely unenjoyable. Though I doubt I'd play through it again, I'm glad I gave it the time of day and below are a few aspects of the game that I thought fun or enjoyable.

Characters

Linebeck - I liked him from the start and he did actually get a laugh out of me from time to time, especially when he pushes over the stone Tetra and looks edgily from side to side. Heheheh..

Jolene - I imagine some people thought it pretty boring being AMBUSH-ed by her, regardless, I thought it pretty fun and she just gives you another reason to keep an eye out whilst sailing!

The Anouki - So cute. Needn't say any more.. :3

Items

Grappling Hook - Bad-ass item. It was cool enough acting as a Hookshot, but when I found out I could fling myself across holes and onto higher levels.. Well, I'd love to see it again.

Hammer - Dull and basic, though it did help me against the enemies that alert the Phantom's in the Temple of the Ocean King as you can kill them from afar when they are flying over to you. Handy!

Bombchu - Nothing special or new, but it was cool to be able to direct them.

Other

Sailing - Loved it in tWW and it's equally as cool now, though far less to explore than in tWW it's still an awesome mode of travel in my eyes.
(The Golden Frogs) - Very handy and saved me a lot of time!
(The Ship) - Customisation is cool, though I doubt I'll ever get every single boat part, so.... /emo :'(

Mini Games - I won't go into each separately, but I enjoyed all of them. The damn shooting gallery was a little annoying though. HAD to hit the 2000 mark before I went to sleep, lol.

To sum up, it's really not as bad as people make out, returning to the TotOK multiple times was fun to me, not boring or repetitive and you even get a portal when you get to the 6th floor. New items open quicker methods and when you enter for the final time you are able to kill the Phantom's (NomNom treasure chests for killing all of the enemies on each floor.) Could do with more character development and more exploration but I did enjoy the game!

I definitely agree. Phantom Hourglass is a better game than most people say. It has its faults, but overall I think it's a good game.

I agree wholeheartedly! Some of the characters are really fun! Linebeck was a card and I loved his theme music. Some of the things that happened really made me laugh. When Link opened that chest in F1 of the TotOK that turned out to be empty, I thought that was funny. What made me roll on the floor with laughter was the scene after you free Linebeck and he makes Link very dizzy. Linebeck's reaction to Jolene was also hilarious. Salvatore's explanation of his little game is worth more than just one viewing.

I thought that the grappling hook was a lot of fun and extremely handy. I liked to string the rope between two posts and make Link run against it. Then he would go flying! Hehe... I laughed hard over how far I could pull one of those tongues in the Temple of Ice.

As for the mini games, boy were they fun! At first I thought that the archery game was horrible because I had terrible scores. I persevered and eventually pulled off a 2000+ score. I really like that game now. I've spent thousands of rupees playing the game and collected many golden and other ship parts by getting over 2000 points. I think my highest score is 2350, or was it 2400? Anyway, that mini game is now my favorite!

I also spend considerable time going through TotOK. I can get to the last room (the one with the staircase leading to Bellum) with the full 25 minutes left in the hourglass. I've found many golden ship parts by going to the end like that. I like slaying all the Phantoms and collecting the treasures, ships parts and rupees that appear after killing all of them on each floor.

I've played PH more than ST, as a matter of fact. I don't like ST any less and I think that it too is a great game. Each game has it's perks and its downsides.

I haven't played Spirit Tracks. I was out of console gaming for a few years (hooked on MMORPG's) but now I'm back and I'm filling in the gaps, so to speak. Of course, I kept up with the 3d Zelda titles, but I let myself slip when it came to the handhelds, especially since they received poor reviews. Once I've hit 100% on Phantom Hourglass (Possibly excluding the boat parts) I'll pick up ST. I'm still down one heart container (The fishing one) and many Power Gems though.

With the game beat, I'm still wondering about Bellum. The devs didn't really go into much detail about him, either that or I missed it. I didn't get a sense of his motives or future plans. Ah well, still a brill' game. From what I hear, ST improves on PH in many ways, but has less exploration.

Yeah, the game was great, but the Temple of the Ocean King kinda ruined it for me to be honest. I'd have to say Spirit Tracks is my favourite out of the DS games.

Liked PH when it came out, and I still like it now. It's a good game, and it defiantly doesn't deserve the hate it gets. I really liked how it was a continuation of Wind Waker, because WW is my favorite Zelda game ^_^

My opinion has always been that Phantom Hourglass (and Spirit Tracks as well) was an experimental Zelda game.

It was a sort of a fusion between 3d zelda and 2d Zelda, with elements from the "big" console releases as well as the "smaller" portable releases.

Obviously, not all did work out. The central dungeon splits opinions, the characters split opinions (although they are generally accepted as nice, I think), the traveling splits opinions. With this many opinion splitters it is bound to have less of a liking to it.

Saying that, I am one of those who like it. I played through it in one weekend back when it was released and enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't even remember the dungeons being particularly annoying as they have been in many Zelda games actually.

Originally Posted by Mack

Yeah, the game was great, but the Temple of the Ocean King kinda ruined it for me to be honest. I'd have to say Spirit Tracks is my favourite out of the DS games.

I loved Phantom Hourglass a lot, and I'm sad I quit around the middle of the gameplay, or maybe near the end, I'm not too sure, but the sole reason was the Temple of the Ocean King. Call me weak, but I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

I had no problem with the Temple of the Ocean King. It's a different experience pretty much every time you enter, so I can't see the problem people have with it? :O

Originally Posted by riserri

I had no problem with the Temple of the Ocean King. It's a different experience pretty much every time you enter, so I can't see the problem people have with it? :O

Time Limit.

Unkillable Guards that 'kill' in one hit (And shorten your already small time pool)

Annoying sentries that alert the guards.

Poorly timed switches with moving platforms that require luck or extreme foresight to pull off without a guide.

The map bit isn't much to complain about, but I'd consider it only for the fact that there were places you couldn't get to, so you'd usually just ignore it.

Not exactly gamebreakingly bad, but enough to make me not touch the game for a year and a half and then trudge through it with a FAQ.

After that, though, I admit I liked the game as a whole and performed a 'perfect' run with it.

Am I the only person who didn't have a problem with the temple? Actually, I liked it a lot. Plus, time's never really an issue. Heck, you can finish the thing with a full clock.

Really liked the phantoms actually. Plus, you can get past them with a good roll if they do get close.
Have to admit though the obvious phantom ripoffs in SS can be downright evil when their psuedo-sentries decide to follow you at high speed halfway across the map.

I really like Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. I thought they were absolutely delightful. My only complaint was that they were just too easy. I could run through a dungeon in a half-hour on my first try. Occasionally you would run into a really creative puzzle, but for the most-part there was no challenge. Even so, I love those games.

To be blunt, the only things that I didn't enjoy were hunting the Ghost ship and the Sea King Temple They were just things that could have been done much better than the way they were

I loved Phantom Hourglass for all those reasons, plus the Temple of the Ocean King. I found it really enjoyable revisiting the temple to unlock new rooms, and was thrilled when they brought it back in Spirit Tracks.

I can see why people complain about it, being such a long temple that you have to traverse again and again (except for the yellow portal) but I treated it like a game in itself, trying to see if I could get the best completion time. (I've finished it in 11 minutes so far, I could still do better.)

Originally Posted by Ningan the Lone Ninja

I loved Phantom Hourglass for all those reasons, plus the Temple of the Ocean King. I found it really enjoyable revisiting the temple to unlock new rooms, and was thrilled when they brought it back in Spirit Tracks.

I can see why people complain about it, being such a long temple that you have to traverse again and again (except for the yellow portal) but I treated it like a game in itself, trying to see if I could get the best completion time. (I've finished it in 11 minutes so far, I could still do better.)

Actually, my issue isn't with going back and forth, it's more with the time limit (and health depletion) , around the 25th floor it reached zero and I was stuck there slowly dying. That's why I didn't mind so much the way it was on ST

PH was a great game but the only problem was the temple of the ocean king everything else just perfect the frogs save you time great lenght of story,great and funny characters and we didn't have to be so much time sailing like in WW

This was probably my favourite Zelda game, and I can't really find anything wrong with the character design or the minigames or anything really. That's just me though i suppose...

I do like this game, actually my name is Jolene so the moment I saw her character I was just extremely excited.
Haha but oh well, it's a great game all and all.
I really do like Ciela, she's less annoying than most of the other assistant characters and she helps too.

I actually just got this game for my birthday! (last Friday) I don't think it's too bad. It does lack the whole grand destiny/deep story/sidequests/large overworld/general Zelda feel, however, if you look at it separate from the series, it's a decent game! I'm enjoying it. Linebeck is a total caricature I like him quite a bit. Nothing special about Ciela, in my opinion, but she's all right. I like the way weapons are used on the touch screen- interesting interface!

PH and Spirit Tracks are both way underated in my opinion. Though PH obviously wasn't as good as its prequel WW it was still awesome.