Phantom Hourglass (standard spoilers apply)

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2007-12-07 04:16pm

The search function assures me that this hasn't already been done, so having just beaten Phantom Hourglass, here's a thread about it.

First, the controls. The touch screen controls are nifty, and fairly intuitive. Rolling isn't quite as accurate as I'm used to, so I have to fiddle with Link for a bit before I can knock shit out of trees. But what gets me is the bow. I keep trying to shoot at the upper right corner, but I end up tapping the item icon and not shooting. Still, the implementation of the Bombchu was fun, and it makes for a very effective delayed weapon.

The game seems fairly short, but I'm sure that's just because the last Zelda game was Twilight Princess. To my chagrin, there was no shield upgrade, so I made it through the entire game without a shield, and I didn't notice that there aren't any heart pieces until I was getting ready to tackle the Isle of Ruin.

And now, plot points! The post-Bellum, pre-ship chase battle cutscene was a good fakeout, what with the start of credit music and everything. The real ending to the game was...strange, and if not for the fact that Ciela can do funky things to time, I might've dismissed the whole thing as Link's Awakening redux. My other thought was that perhaps the Ghost Ship was a dimensional portal like in Majora's Mask, but it stems primarily from Ciela's farewell, which is rather open to interpretation, and may mean nothing more than how spirits and mortals don't usually interact.

I once argued that LttP Zoras could be OoT Zoras wearing battle armor. The presence of the Zora swordsmen (assuming they are in fact Zora, sine they look like fishmen and even do the whole fire breathing thing) completely torpedoes that.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-12-07 06:46pm

You can hold a shoulder button to equip your item rather than clicking on the icon. I found that to be a lot quicker.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2007-12-08 10:14am

It is, but the problem is that I tend to tap on the enemy I'm trying to shoot, and if it happens to be in the corner, I'll end up tapping the icon and not shooting. It's easy enough to get around, of course, since all I have to do is not tap the corner, but that's what my instincts are. I blame it on Elite Beat Agents.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-12-08 01:43pm

Darth Yoshi wrote:It is, but the problem is that I tend to tap on the enemy I'm trying to shoot, and if it happens to be in the corner, I'll end up tapping the icon and not shooting. It's easy enough to get around, of course, since all I have to do is not tap the corner, but that's what my instincts are. I blame it on Elite Beat Agents.

I had a similar problem with the on-screen icons. If there were an option to have made those disappear, then it would have been just about perfect as far as the controls go.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2007-12-08 03:54pm

Yeah, I found the problem of clicking on the sub-item icon to be an irritance every once in awhile, but it was easy enough to get around, and never really got in the way of what I was trying to do. However, if there had been some way to make the icon vanish- and there are more than enough unkeyed buttons for it- that would have been quite nice.

Personally, my only problem with the game was that it felt way too short. Yes, there was a lot to do, but much of it was so easy to do as to take no time at all.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2007-12-08 03:55pm

Yeah, I found the problem of clicking on the sub-item icon to be an irritance every once in awhile, but it was easy enough to get around, and never really got in the way of what I was trying to do. However, if there had been some way to make the icon vanish- and there are more than enough unkeyed buttons for it- that would have been quite nice.

Personally, my only problem with the game was that it felt way too short. Yes, there was a lot to do, but much of it was so easy to do as to take no time at all.