Review: The Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass
Like some of the past handheld Zelda titles Phantom Hourglass is a direct sequel to a console entry, this time being a sequel to The Wind Waker. I don't always buy into direct sequels to highly-regarded entries in most media as it's usually just a retread of the original. Spiritual successors like Demon's Souls to Dark Souls (pardon the reference) are what I consider an ideal approach to a sequel, though I also like the idea of a loose sequel like Ocarina of Time to The Wind Waker simply because they're so detached from one another.
The Wind Waker ended on such an optimistic note and with so much potential that I'm glad it was addressed in such a small sequel. Handheld games, with their hardware limitations and smaller scope, are often very humble and I appreciate that the story of Phantom Hourglass doesn't try to reinvent the wheel; instead, I feel like it's completely reasonable to sort of "check in" with the Wind Waker cast as they search for their new settlement. Not only was the open-ended plot a reasonable selling point, but I'm also glad we get to see more of the extremely likable Link and Tetra from The Wind Waker even if Tetra is completely under-utilized in Phantom Hourglass.
The plot setup is a bit weak, though like I mentioned, humble: Link and Tetra's new pirate crew come across a massive Ghost Ship which captures Tetra and sends Link to an area of the Great Sea known as the World of the Ocean King. Link is awakened by his new fairy companion and is given his task of rescuing Tetra. The fairy Ciela introduces Link to her "grandfather" Oshus who gives Link a sword and leads him to the foppish pirate Linebeck, the captain of the ship primarily used in Phantom Hourglass.
I already have a problem with the way Tetra is tossed aside as soon as the game opens, and considering we see her for so little of the last half of The Wind Waker it feels like even more wasted potential. Ciela is one of the three fairy guardians found throughout the game and she serves as a nod to Navi from Ocarina of Time, but I don't see why Tetra couldn't just serve the same role as Ciela with the eventual three fairy guardians merging into a single being--named Ciela. Having three fairies circle around Link is already ridiculous enough as it is, but the spirits of Power and Wisdom are completely forgotten about after they're introduced. For instance, the first temple could have the player release Ciela, the second temple could restore her powers, and the third temple could have restored her memories. It takes care of the bloated and underused cast while retaining Tetra as a character, and I'm sure Linebeck being the ship captain could have been incorporated into this idea pretty easily. This one detail would not have saved the game, as the flawed gameplay that permeates every aspect of Phantom Hourglass overwhelms any minor story gripe I might have.
Unlike every other game in the series, Phantom Hourglass controls with the horribly unreliable stylus controls of the DS touch screen. Players point to parts of the map to make Link run in that direction and swipe the screen to control the sword. Yes, mere button presses have to require an unnecessary amount of effort just to play the game, and because controlling the stylus means moving one's hand across the screen, this typically results in the entire playable screen being obstructed--especially if you have hands bulging with muscle like mine.
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| Contain your excitement. Also the Wii U is a horrible choice for this game. |
To go back to the fairies, one of the main reasons for carrying around these completely dry lumps is that each fairy can augment Link's abilities in their own unique ways: the Power fairy increases Link's sword damage, the Wisdom fairy boosts his defense, while Ciela gives him a beam attack. This is interesting in theory but the concept is blown completely in execution: in order to gain access to these abilities, players have to find deeply-hidden items strewn across the game. To simply gain access to one of these abilities requires ten gems--not ten for the first tier of upgrades, but ten for one of the three to even become accessible. To upgrade to their maximum capacity the player needs to find all twenty of each gem, which totals out to sixty collectible items hidden all over the world just to give Link the choice between two passive abilities and an extra attack.
I would compare this negatively to the simple elegance of the Blade Brothers of The Minish Cap, but in that case the game at least allowed players to heavily modify their existing moveset to create a top-down Zelda that surpassed A Link to the Past in terms of combat options. In Phantom Hourglass, these are minor upgrades which would have been tossed to the end of an optional dungeon in previous handheld games and are strung out across the duration of the story for no discernible reason, leaving Zelda's typically gradual increase in character ability as a distant thought.
In terms of game progression there's not much to speak of: the player collects three items across the world to open their final objective and the rest of the world map. In this case, the progression of the game consists of three dungeons to start, a middle dungeon to bridge the two halves and three dungeons to access the final boss. The world is fairly large for a handheld game and it's a nice compliment to The Wind Waker, but since the game is controlled by the stylus the boat's course is charted by the player rather than controlling it by hand. This can be fairly frustrating since players also have to use the touch screen to move the camera and shoot bombs at wayward monsters which can be cumbersome at times.
Like the NES Zelda titles, the player's health is augmented simply by Heart Containers rather than collecting Pieces of Heart. While I appreciate Phantom Hourglass for making an attempt to give players more variety in the collection aspect of the game, these collectibles--like the spirit gems--are so poorly-implemented that in the grand scheme of things they're more of a detriment than anything. Heart Containers are obtained through mini-games or are simply bought, but the prices for anything in this game are astronomical. Heart Containers cost two thousand rupees--more than players could even hold in past games--and spirit gems can cost five hundred apiece if the player can even find vendors who sell them.
For the first time in the Zelda franchise, a sequel has finally come along to promote farming for rupees in order to buy items that would have otherwise been cleverly hidden across the world. Many of the mini-games are poorly-implemented and require the use of both screens and the touch controls at the same time, so playing these on the Wii U is nearly impossible. Luckily, the total amount of hearts is reduced from twenty to sixteen and the game's balance more or less compensates for this.
Dungeons are more or less what you'd expect out of the handheld Zelda games, trading massive breath-taking chambers for complex and cleverly-designed mazes. The items are familiar Zelda fare, but unfortunately all are controlled by the touch screen. This works in some instances like the boomerang which allows players to trace the trajectory of their throw, but for items like the traditional bow and arrow it's unnecessarily difficult to aim since Link swivels around to follow the player's stylus. It's another example of the gimmicky control option hampering player feedback--there are more than enough buttons to control the game in the same way, so why not at least give players the option?
The problem with the dungeon design in Phantom Hourglass is that it takes cues from Twilight Princess which, while containing some of the largest dungeons in the series, traded complexity for spectacle. Like Twilight Princess, the dungeons in this game can only be explored in a very straight line due in large part to the fact that players can only carry one key at a time. I can't stress enough how important it is for players to be able to horde keys since it gives the player an option for exploring the dungeons in different orders. This could lead to unwinnable situations in games like Link's Awakening, but most Zelda games are generous with their use of keys and intelligent level design should render this point moot. Instead, the developers had one vision in mind for their dungeons and with this game, the series is beginning to appear like the linearity prominent in Twilight Princess might be here to stay.
The greatest sin committed by Phantom Hourglass, and the main reason I would urge anyone to seriously consider the time investment before playing the game, is the Temple of the Ocean God. In order to unnecessarily pad the hell out of the game, Phantom Hourglass contains a dungeon which must be cleared six times throughout the course of the adventure--from the starting floor every time with only a few minor shortcuts. Yes, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has a dungeon that cannot be skipped and must be cleared half a dozen times just to beat the game. Just consider if Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past had a central dungeon the players had to go through from the beginning every time a dungeon was cleared. Hell, think about how much of a waste this would be if The Minish Cap, a game with far fewer dungeons, would be if it required players to constantly revisit a dungeon.
The real shame is that Phantom Hourglass had everything going for it. The first handheld Zelda by Nintendo since Link's Awakening, some of the absolute funniest dialogue and charming characters the series has ever seen and a return to a setting just begging to be explored, all Phantom Hourglass had to do was drop The Wind Waker into The Minish Cap's engine and rework some aspects to change the overworld to the Great Sea. With traditional controls and the removal of the stupid Temple of the Ocean King, The Phantom Hourglass could have been a solid entry for the series. The now-unavailable DSi version of Four Swords has a similar artstyle and looks gorgeous as a result--not to mention the fact that it controls like a dream--so why complicate things for obtuse and unnecessary gimmicks?
Verdict
Nintendo completely dropped the ball on Phantom Hourglass by implementing godawful controls and bizarre, needless mechanics which ruin the promise left by The Minish Cap. Phantom Hourglass has endearing characters and genuinely funny moments, but this return to the Great Sea is tainted by questionable design choices. It's a chore to play through and feels like a step back in every way from its predecessors. If Twilight Princess was the Zelda franchise tripping over its own feet, Phantom Hourglass is the series slipping on a banana peel and throwing its armfuls of pies all over the guests. I hate this game and everything I hate about it could have been changed if someone with common sense had come in to kick over some tables, but instead all we're left with is a steaming pile that I would only recommend to diehard Wind Waker fans, and even then it's a very hard sell. Just don't bother. Play The Minish Cap again if you need to, but please stay away from this boat wreck.
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