Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass [DS]

[HHarm]

The first one will take you to floor 6. Then you get another at floor 10 where you have to draw symbols on the red door or by placing the 3 crystals in a certain order to activate the floor shift. It only goes to floor 13. Once you have the

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Phantom Sword

you can just blaze through the whole thing in about 5 minutes anyway.

Aren't the warps only available during the last (5th) visit?

[MikeF]

As far as I could tell you could only warp to the 7th floor, I never managed to find the warp point on the 10th floor (rest assured once you have done it a few times it becomes rather easy anyway)

[Dogg Thang]

Just finished this over lunch. Yeah, it's a decent game. Pretty short but I didn't really mind that. I would have preferred some meatier dungeons though. There wasn't really anything challenging in there or anything that required really thinking about the layout.

Stylus control I could have done without. The only real contribution I felt it made was with the final item -

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the magic hammer

- which was fantastic fun and wouldn't have really worked with a traditional setup at all. But the trade off of full stylus control didn't seem worth it to me at all. It certainly didn't make the game any different. This is still a Zelda game following the exact same formula as every other one.

I enjoyed more than Wind Waker because everything was much closer. So there was much less dead space. And I love the look and it worked well on the DS, though I could have done with more visual variety in terms of locations. It felt mostly the same throughout, even areas that were designed to feel different

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like the Anouki place

.

Nice simple story. Nice atmosphere. Very much one of the most basic Zelda games I've played. Zelda Lite. I guess I was hoping for more.

I adored the style of the opening and ending stills though. Would love to see a Zelda game in that style. They were just lovely. Ending was very

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like Link's Awakening though.

[Btang84]

I have to agree with Dogg Thang regarding the dungeons. I've always like multi-layered dungeons where you are constantly tracking back and forth, using the map all the time to check where the locked doors are etc. The only real example of this type of dungeon was the Temple of the Ocean King. They were very easy and somewhat linear as well. I remember that a few Zeldas previous had one or two really clever puzzles in each dungeon, but there are less stand-out puzzles in this game. Overall, great game, though still a long way off compared to Ocarina and Link to the Past.

[elkatas]

I have to wonder, while the touch screen controls work superbly, do they really add something to the game? Most of the time I find myself think I could've done this just as easy or easier with normal controls.

Anouma said that he knew that traditional controls would have been more accurate in most cases, but he wanted to prove others that action game could work solely by using stylus. It was his personal challenge, and Nintendo didn't have anything to do with the decision. In fact, game was controlled by d-pad before Anouma finished TP and took director's position for the game.

[Dogg Thang]

While he succeeded to a point, it seems like the wrong reason to choose a control mechanism. And Zelda isn't all that actiony either. In fact, a repurcussion of the stylus control was that the combat lost many of the features that contributed to the action - strafing and dodging, jumping, blocking etc. So, with the action bits taking quite a hit, maybe he didn't succeed after all.

It's still an enjoyable game in spite of the control. And that last item is a blast.

[Ish]

Really enjoying this. The Wind Waker art style seems perfectly suited to the DS.

[Mayhem]

Having trouble getting a treasure chest... any thoughts?

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In the Sun Key dungeon, bottom floor where all the moving platforms are, along with the little directional things you shoot with arrows to hit targets. On the right hand side with the long path leading eventually to where you got the Boss Key from, according to the statue you hit, there's a treasure chest. Any idea how to reveal it? Tried many things...

[Yoshimax]

Not really followed this but I know it's been really highly regarded - Caught the advert on the telly last night and the graphics has sold it to me then the music kicked in and "I must have it now" mode kicked in >_<

[bingowings]

picked this up on Saturday and i have been playing it pretty solidly since. the stylus control is excellent and they have captured WW-style Link perfectly - his little plodding run and the way he looks at people and things as you sprint by.

really enjoying all the touches, like using the mic for different tasks and making your own notes on the maps - i find myself taking care when marking them because i don't want to 'ruin' them.

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even the digging is charming, it's hard to overturn someone's garden without going back and filling in the holes.

it still has the Zelda A->B->A->C->Z->A gameplay but i don't mind as i adore Wind Waker - even the sailing parts. almost the perfect DS game i think, making full use of the DS' abilities without being gimmicky or crowbarred into the game just for the sake of it - it all seems completely natural and intuitive.

[NeilMcRae]

Its a great game best game on DS.

I do fine the roll over jumps hard to do though, thats the only thing that annoys me.

Neil.

[J0e Musashi]

Rolls are easy, if running to the right: —> <— —>. TBH there is only one point in the entire game where you are forced to roll anyway.

Far from the best game on DS, but it's good.

[KIT786]

anyone been playing more of the online multiplayer recently, very addictive and enjoyable (except for the twats who disconnect with about to loose).

[fuse]

I've found a nice little way to increase the longevity and the challenge of this. I'm only playing it on the bus on the way in to work in the morning, and when you're shaking about like no-one's business drawing all of the map markings and doo-dahs that it asks of you, it certainly becomes a lot more 'interesting'.

Really enjoying this though - nice charming little title, and I get the impression it's not too long either, which isn't a bad thing. I agree there's a lot of nice ideas and it's very nicely built around the DS' capabilities, but I can't see me sticking with it if I have to pour hour after hour into it to get anywhere.

[Flinty]

I'm finding this game really hard to enjoy, simply because of the touch control I think I may trade it, I'm a huge Zelda fan but I find this a chore to play.

I had the same problem with tingle, give me button controls anyday.