I've always had a soft spot for Phantom Hourglass. People dismiss it, but I remember really getting into it! It had such a weird setting and mechanics.

I've replayed a lot of Zelda games in the past few years. Some, I've been surprised by how much I adored, like Minish Cap. Others, I've been surprised by how much I've disliked, like Oracle of Seasons and, to an extent, A Link to the Past. I've learned to see the redeeming qualities in Skyward Sword's puzzle design and the tedium in Majora's Mask's time loop.

The Zelda game that it's been the longest since I've played is Twilight Princess, and I'm waiting for a Switch port of that so I can play it in HD. But it dawned on me the other day that Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks might never get ports, meaning that the time is ripe for a replay.

I was a little concerned going in, after my reaction to OoS. Maybe I was just getting a little sick of Zelda in general?

But no, Phantom Hourglass rules. I only just got to the second dungeon, and it's already one of the most unique Zelda games I've played. On top of packing every gimmick the DS has into its bag of magic tricks, it just controls fundamentally well.

After breaking out my 3DS to play some PH, I revisted a few other games too: Ocarina of Time 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, and Kid Icarus: Uprising. This reminded me that I really don't enjoy playing games on the DS very much. I love holding a nice ergonomic controller and sitting in front of a TV; the DS cramps my hands. It's why I didn't finish Samus Returns and loved Metroid Dread.

But Phantom Hourglass is all touch screen! A lot of people hated this, but to me, it's what a DS game should be. It feels so much nicer on my hands, and the new control style makes for unique gameplay too. Outside of Rhythm Heaven and WarioWare: Touched, Phantom Hourglass is probably the single best DS/3DS game.

It isn't perfect. Skyward Sword's chatty handholding is here in a primordial, ominous form. But when you're actually getting to play, moving through dungeons and solving puzzles with this one-of-a-kind control scheme, it's excellent. Dividing the world up into islands that you can easily move between makes for a really satisfying flow for a portable game. This is why the music sucks too—this isn't meant to be an atmospheric immersive experience that tempts you into wishing you could play it on your TV. This is a DS game! Play it on mute on the subway!

Have you replayed this game lately? Have you replayed it ever? You should!

Secret_Tunnel said:

But Phantom Hourglass is all touch screen! A lot of people hated this, but to me, it's what a DS game should be. It feels so much nicer on my hands, and the new control style makes for unique gameplay too. Outside of Rhythm Heaven and WarioWare: Touched, Phantom Hourglass is probably the single best DS/3DS game.

Exactly! So few games utilized *all* of the various features of the DS. Phantom Hourglass did so *well* and in a solid Zelda game no less. I definitely had it as my top DS game.

The other main criticism against PH that was ridiculously overblown was the incredible Temple of the Ocean King. So many people used to bitch about having to 'constantly repeat' this dungeon as you revisit it throughout the game. But those people are either bad at the game, or outright lying as I went on to prove in my own investigative replay:



The whole thing gets repeated only twice, and on the second visit there's usually some trick or shortcut to be found. The only truly repetitive part would be the first three floors which would take all of 5 mins. Whoopeedoo.

Conversely I found speedrunning TOTOK for a perfect time to be immensley fun and I wish they'd bring back the concept of a central meta-dungeon in a future Zelda. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both had that 50 floor Battle Challenge, and BotW had the Master Sword Trials...Imagine a ridiculously huge mega-dungeon that took all your skills to traverse and beat. That'd be really cool I think.

Definitely part of the "Phantom Hourglass was an incredible showcase of features and creativity" crew.

Amazing game.

@Shadowlink

I'm only two or three loops in an am already loving optimizing my TOTOK route, and am seeing ways I can do it better next time. Calling it repetitive feels like one of those generic complaints people throw at games when they're not really engaging with the mechanics and need a bullet point to fall back on, like "BOTW doesn't have any dungeons." Even if you suck at PH, it's like ten minutes out of every few hours, which is way less filler than any other game has—most games just disguise it better.

I adored the Master Sword Trials in BOTW. On Master Mode, they were incredible (outside of one specific floor that you had to cheese). I want more replayability from Zelda games like that. On my most recent playthrough of Ocarina of Time, I noticed how that game's combat system actually has a lot of depth with the way you can integrate items like deku nuts and bombchus into your swordplay, but there aren't enough challenges in the game that highlight that. The Master Sword Trials (and Eventide Island) really drew attention to the best aspects of BOTW.

Did you play Pikmin 4? The Dandori Challenges in that game are kind of the same thing.

I didn't like the repetitive temple but otherwise it was great.

Secret_Tunnel said:

Calling it repetitive feels like one of those generic complaints people throw at games when they're not really engaging with the mechanics and need a bullet point to fall back on, like "BOTW doesn't have any dungeons." Even if you suck at PH, it's like ten minutes out of every few hours, which is way less filler than any other game has—most games just disguise it better.

Agree 100%. I mean a lot of today's popular games are built around gameplay loops and repeating things over and over again. And people love it. Like grinding a paticular mission for a rare loot drop or something. Metroidvania's have clear backtracking where you can spend lots of time simply traversing old ground to get from point A to point B.

But one game where you have to spend a couple of minutes *sort* of redoing a section of dungeon? Blackest Heresy! Denounce the game forevermore! It's so overblown.

Did you play Pikmin 4? The Dandori Challenges in that game are kind of the same thing.

I bought it, but I haven't played it yet. I need to steal my pro controller back from my friend, I don't want to play in portable mode or with the joycons.

Zero said:

I didn't like the repetitive temple .

Shadowlink said:

But those people are either bad at the game.

Worst Zelda game, no extra additional investigation required.

But it's cool that you all like it!

Yeah, this game rules. I really enjoyed it, Temple of the Ocean King and all. I even enjoyed the music!

The "sailing" around the overworld was much better than The Wind Waker's wind mechanic, and I was thrilled that there is a fishing mini-game this time around. (how did TWW *not* have one of these? The ENTIRE game is on water!)

Great use of the hardware, really great adventure, and some pretty clever bosses as well.

Also, glad you're playing this on the handheld. The VC port on Wii U is...kinda weird.

Finished the game tonight! Yup, this was incredible. The Temple of the Ocean King might be the best dungeon in all of Zelda.

The story stuff in the first hour also totally subsided and gave way to deep puzzles that put a lot of trust in you to figure them out. The final boss sequence brought back the story in a way that totally earned it and gave a great stinger to the whole experience.

This is probably my sixth or seventh favorite Zelda game now, right at the top of the B-tier pack. Future Zeldas could learn a lot from this one.

This is reminding me to get back to Spirit Tracks. Maybe I can figure out a way to get it in my DSi. Started it on Wii U, and it feels like the only opening of a Zelda game that felt legit kinda bad. One day I’ll get back to it because I hear the dungeons are good. I will say I don’t think these games ever LOOKED good. I think with Link Between Worlds, they finally got the graphics to a good point with the top down 2D.