GAMEFURY

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – Review (DS)

Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series has seen little changes in its classic formula established over twenty years ago since its inception. Sure, there have been aberrations- Zelda II and Majora’s Mask come to mind- and the leap from 2D to 3D warranted a paradigm shift in the games’ gameplay concepts. But on the whole, the essence of the quintessential Zelda experience is the same today as it was all those years ago, when we first booted up our NES’s with our shiny new Zelda cartridges firmly inserted.

So it would probably come as a surprise to many to learn that Phantom Hourglass, Link’s maiden outing on Nintendo’s quirky two screened handheld, actually fiddles around with the formula a bit. And yet the game does all that and more: over the course of the adventure, you’ll find a complete re-imagining of the standard Zelda structure, a fresh take on every gameplay element that has come to be a trade mark for the series, and all the while, you will find yourself caring more and more for the world that the game presents. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass may not be the most epic of all Zelda adventures, but it certainly is one of the most involving.

Phantom Hourglass is more or less a direct sequel to The Wind Waker. This means that the game has pretty much no overworld, only vast expanses of treacherous seas, dotted here and there with sparsely populated islands. However, the game can be fully played and enjoyed even if you have never played The Wind Waker- a measure on Nintendo’s part to no doubt attract casual gamers who have never played a Zelda title before. The game does a decent job of recapitulating the events of the preceding game at the beginning via adorable cut outs, and the story in itself is pretty much independent in and of itself.

However, as anyone who has ever played a Zelda title, or any Nintendo title for that matter, should know, the true point of these games is not in their narrative- which, while engaging can hardly ever be tagged as ‘literary masterpiece-’ but rather the gameplay, or rather, how the game goes about executing concepts that have by now been imitated by other, lesser titles countless times.

In the case of Phantom Hourglass, the game takes up all conventions of gaming, and throws them out of the window. Having rid itself of the baggage and prejudice that more than twenty years of gaming have warranted, the game now sets out to begin anew.

Phantom Hourglass is controlled completely by the DS’s touch screen. You touch a point on the screen, and Link will walk or run upto it, depending upon just how far the point is from him. To attack something, you just tap it, or slash at it with the stylus, and Link will execute the appropriate move. All of Link’s classic moves can be controlled similarly, including the Spin attack, and Link’s famous roll dodge.

The interesting twist that touch screen control adds to all the classic weapons in the Zelda arsenal is really worth mentioning here. Indeed, I shall never be able to look at a boomerang or a hookshot the same way, ever again. The boomerang is controlled by drawing out a path for the boomerang, which the boomerang shall then follow, no matter what. The hookshot control in a similar way- just draw the line, and the hookshot shall follow. Arrows are aimed such that you feel you are actually using a bow to nock them, albeit without the characteristic resistance that the tension of the string of the bow usually offers. But most probably, the best use of the touch screen for a weapon has been made by the Bombchu, which is an all new spin on the classic Zelda concept of using bombs.

Bombchus are like little blue Pikachu. To control them, we first draw them a path on the map, and the Bombchu will then follow that path, and explode at the end of it. This makes them like homing missiles, and quite lethal, because you can now attack accurately from a distance.

The intuitiveness that is afforded to the game thanks to all this is only enhanced by how the developers integrated some of DS’s other and oft

overlooked features into the gameplay experience. The microphone, for instance, finally comes into its own, and how. For instance, some time onto the game, we come across creatures with abnormally large ears, and the game gives us a hint that they are ‘sensitive to loud noise.’ To defeat them, then, you actually have to shout into the microphone, which stuns them, thus enabling you to slash them into oblivion.

The developers even found a way to actually integrate the DS’s clamshell design into the game, and I’m not kidding. Halfway into the game, we come across a tablet that opens a door, upon which we need to press our map. The key is to walk to the tablet, gaze closely at it so that it covers the entire bottom screen, and then shut the DS so that the map, which dominates the upper screen, is ‘pressed’ upon the tablet. Ingenious, I say.

There are so many such examples- blowing out torches using the mic. Being able to make notes on the map, which actually comes in very handy. Rubbing furiously across the screen in context sensitive commands. In fact, the developers even managed to make good use of the DS’s two screens via many boss battles. I’m not going to go and spoil any of these for you, but mark my words, the boss designs in this game are some of the most memorable we’ve had in recent memory.

Of course, a game that uses touch screen control exclusively is bound to have its problems, and Phantom Hourglass is plagued by its fair share of niggles. The game often misinterprets our commands, for instance, which can be fatal, especially when we are caught up in a furious battle. It isn’t much of an annoyance, but it does tend to get annoying, especially later in the game.

Compounding this issue is the fact that touch screen control, and the sheer ease of use it brings, considerably lowers the difficulty level that Zelda has traditionally been known for. The problem is further compounded when you consider that the dungeon design is without question the easiest in the series so far. Which means, all things considered, the game is actually very short, locking in barely a dozen hours.

There are a few segments that feel as if they’ve been deliberately added to artificially lengthen the game- The Temple of the Ocean King, the central dungeon of the game, and also the toughest one on offer, is one that you’ll be returning to repeatedly. And every time, you have to start the dungeon over from the beginning, the theory being that the new items you return with each time will enable you to get through the dungeon faster and in more innovative ways every time you return. It seems to work at first, but eventually, the Temple becomes a drag to the point that it becomes a chore to go through it repeatedly, every time you finish one of the other dungeons.

Then there are the sailing aspects of the game- only, unlike The Wind Waker, they aren’t sailing anymore. In this game, we’ve been given a steamship, and navigating it is actually quite easy- all we have to do is draw out a path for it on our sea chart at the beginning of our journey, and the ship will then follow the course by itself. Of course, this introduces its own problems, the most important of these being that ship journeys are typically very boring, even though the game does attempt to keep things lively by peppering these voyages with attacks by monsters or pirates.

Yet all problems considered, Phantom Hourglass manages to overcome all the various issues that plague it. And this it does only because it is so much fun. Seriously, I am yet to play a game that offers me more fun than Phantom Hourglass does, and I have played quite a lot of games. In fact, I would go as far as to say that all dictionaries should use ‘Phantom Hourglass’ as their description for fun. At the cost of repeating myself, I assert that this game is the purest and most unadulterated form of fun that one can come across.

This lighthearted approach of the game is reflected in all its other aspects as well- the graphics, for example, which employ a lovable 3D cel shaded look, which imparts so much detail and personality to the environment that the 3D challenged DS would otherwise be capable of. To put it succinctly, playing Phantom Hourglass is like watching a Pixar animation film, even though the game does struggle to maintain its finesse when it zooms in on objects, which usually results in a rather ugly and unseeming pixelisation.

Also worth mentioning is the game’s inimitable story. As I said at the very beginning of this review, the game’s story isn’t exactly the most epic, but it certainly is the most memorable or heart warming in recent times. The game builds up its story and characters in such a way that you actually come to care for its characters, so that, by the time the game ends (with an extremely satisfying conclusion, I may add), you will feel a

pang of sadness at having to say goodbye to the characters that you had come to care for.

The one character who actually illustrates my point rather well is Linebeck. Introduced at the very beginning, he initially comes off as a rather poor Jack Sparrow rip off. However, it is only later on in the game that you come to realise that the character has a personality of his own. Eventually, it’ll be Linebeck you’ll be the saddest at bidding farewell to, and this, in my opinion, is a testament to what the developers of the game have managed.

The story becomes all the more memorable because of its quirky presentation. The game’s graphics I have already elaborated upon- though I think I did neglect to mention the cinematic viewing angle that the game adopts during its cutscenes- but the graphics would be nothing without the game’s soundtrack, which imparts the world with so much flavour and so much personality that it eventually becomes a living, breathing world of its own.

Ultimately, it boils down to this- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a good game, a great game. It is also a game with its faults. Be they the problems inherent to exclusive touch screen control, or maybe the game’s graphics issues; the game’s lacklustre online mode also adds to the game’s growing list of woes. And yet, and yet, when all is said and done, and when you are through with the game, you will realise that you haven’t had this much fun playing a game- ever. And, I think, in the end, that is what matters. Because that is why we play games: to have fun, and Phantom Hourglass offers that in buckets. Incredibly flawed it may be, but The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is also hands down and without question, the most fun game ever created.

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