Is Phantom Hourglass worth picking up?

[Rman]

For the most part I've enjoyed the Zelda series with my faves being Link's Awakening and Zelda 2.  Unorthodox choices, I know.  I didn't find Wind Waker to particularly compelling, so I skipped PH when it was originally released.  I'm just curious, it is worth at least a rental?  The fact that it is all stylus controls was also a turn off.  What's the verdict, EB?

[dark1x]

I love the series, but hated what I played of Phantom Hourglass...

It just felt generic and...odd.

[demi]

Poop game

[recursivelyenumerable]

There is one great dungeon in the game (which most people hate because they have bad taste) and the rest is mediocre.  The stylus controls are fine, though.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

^If you're talking about the Temple of the Ocean King, then you are WRONG. One of the worst, most boring, repetitive levels I've ever played in video games. And you have to play it over and over again!

Don't play this game, OP

[TakingBackSunday]

I'm a huge Zelda fan and even I struggled to find strengths.  It controls real well, and some of the temples were cool...but it's just drab and slow all around.  Music SUCKS

[recursivelyenumerable]

^If you're talking about the Temple of the Ocean King, then you are WRONG. One of the worst, most boring, repetitive levels I've ever played in video games. And you have to play it over and over again!

bad taste confirmed.

[Great Rumbler]

What I played of it was pretty good, but having to come back to that one temple over and over was already starting to get annoying.

[recursivelyenumerable]

You don't have to go through it over and over for the most part, IIRC the most you ever have to go through any section is 3 times, and there's only one section like that.  and of course it's designed so that you can use those later runthroughs to improve your time, find different ways to get through it with your new items, etc.  So all in all, the "OMG you have to go through it multiple times" complaint doesn't make much sense to me.

[Kestastrophe]

Phantom Hourglass was the first Zelda that I didn't like. Stylus controls were fine, and finding parts for your ship was cool, and I even liked the art style. it just wasn't a very good game, so I wouldn't bother unless there is nothing else for you to play.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Bland. Mega bland. Stylus control worked but felt pointless and the dungeons are some of the worst in the series.

[cool breeze]

It's the worst Zelda game by-far, but I still enjoyed it.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I think you had to be dumb to find the ocean king temple annoying.  I ran out of time once and had to repeat in the whole game.  As you accumulate items you can get through floors in like ten seconds.

I consider it the refinement of the Wind Waker template.  Its better as a result.

[Beezy]

I fell asleep on like the first island/area of the game. Sold it to a ninfag at school.

[TakingBackSunday]

I think you had to be dumb to find the ocean king temple annoying.  I ran out of time once and had to repeat in the whole game.  As you accumulate items you can get through floors in like ten seconds.

[/b]

That is such fucking bullshit and you know it.

[Bebpo]

I liked it and hated it.  Not sure if i'd recommend.

[Vizzys]

terrible game

[EmCeeGrammar]

I think you had to be dumb to find the ocean king temple annoying.  I ran out of time once and had to repeat in the whole game.  As you accumulate items you can get through floors in like ten seconds.

[/b]

That is such fucking bullshit and you know it.

No. Some floors were like - shoot arrow here go upstairs now.  Other floors had quick item solutions , especially bombchus.  You seriously must not have been paying attention to your surroundings.

edit: the only part I couldn't speed through was the shape in holes floors. The corpses hint for skipping that floor made no sense to me.

[TakingBackSunday]

Not one single fucking room took that short amount of time to complete.  Try ten minutes.

[EmCeeGrammar]

Not one single fucking room took that short amount of time to complete.  Try ten minutes.

I'm sorry I can't bust out my copy and stopwatch my runs. But I remember the floors could be done in very short amounts of time if you had the right arsenal.  Seriously, its dumb to criticise the game for the temple.

[demi]

Very legit reason to nitpick

[TakingBackSunday]

Not one single fucking room took that short amount of time to complete.  Try ten minutes.

I'm sorry I can't bust out my copy and stopwatch my runs. But I remember the floors could be done in very short amounts of time if you had the right arsenal.  Seriously, its dumb to criticise the game for the temple.

No, no it's not.  It eats up nearly an hour and a half each time you have to go back there, and with the absolutely awful dungeon music, horrible floor design and the fact that you can't kill a motherfucker in the entire thing makes it a drab, awfully boring experience.

[EmCeeGrammar]

Not one single fucking room took that short amount of time to complete.  Try ten minutes.

I'm sorry I can't bust out my copy and stopwatch my runs. But I remember the floors could be done in very short amounts of time if you had the right arsenal.  Seriously, its dumb to criticise the game for the temple.

No, no it's not.  It eats up nearly an hour and a half each time you have to go back there, and with the absolutely awful dungeon music, horrible floor design and the fact that you can't kill a motherfucker in the entire thing makes it a drab, awfully boring experience.

Dude, seriously. You played the game wrong.  It never ever ever took that long on any run.  I am super serious. You suck at Zelda. You sucked at Phantom Hourglass.  Drink coke play again.

[twerd]

Not one single fucking room took that short amount of time to complete.  Try ten minutes.

I'm sorry I can't bust out my copy and stopwatch my runs. But I remember the floors could be done in very short amounts of time if you had the right arsenal.  Seriously, its dumb to criticise the game for the temple.

No, no it's not.  It eats up nearly an hour and a half each time you have to go back there, and with the absolutely awful dungeon music, horrible floor design and the fact that you can't kill a motherfucker in the entire thing makes it a drab, awfully boring experience.

Dude, seriously. You played the game wrong.  It never ever ever took that long on any run.  I am super serious. You suck at Zelda. You sucked at Phantom Hourglass.  Drink coke play again.

Temple still sucked. Sure, you could get through it quicker each time, but that didn't change the fact that you were fucking backtracking through a temple time and time again which is the ONE AND ONLY reason to play Zelda games.

[recursivelyenumerable]

No, no it's not.  It eats up nearly an hour and a half each time you have to go back there, and with the absolutely awful dungeon music, horrible floor design and the fact that you can't kill a motherfucker in the entire thing makes it a drab, awfully boring experience.

the floor design is great -- a damn sight better than the other dungeons, that's for sure -- and lol @ needing to kill things (not true, anyway).  i will admit that a 10-second loop for dungeon music is rather dubious in principle, although it somehow sort of worked for me.

[tiesto]

Probably my least favorite Zelda game - weak dungeons, pointless touchscreen controls (though a few of the items felt fresh and the bosses were REAL cool), and of course the Temple of the Ocean King, which is extremely repetitive and annoying, and takes forever. I'd say it's worth playing if you have nothing better to play and you like Zelda games.

[AdmiralViscen]

I think you had to be dumb to find the ocean king temple annoying.  I ran out of time once and had to repeat in the whole game.  As you accumulate items you can get through floors in like ten seconds.

[/b]

That is such fucking bullshit and you know it.

No. Some floors were like - shoot arrow here go upstairs now.  Other floors had quick item solutions , especially bombchus.  You seriously must not have been paying attention to your surroundings.

edit: the only part I couldn't speed through was the shape in holes floors. The corpses hint for skipping that floor made no sense to me.

The only parts that get faster as a result of items are the really early floors that were short to begin with and that real gamers never saw again because they didn't run out of time like you did.

The later floors were mandatory to repeat 3x and took fucking forever because of all the guards and carrying shit around.

Any game that forces you to do EXACTLY THE SAME THING three times just to make it longer is worth criticizing. There is no reason why there couldn't be a checkpoint at the end of every session.

lol @ a guy who fucking FAILED THE DUNGEON telling someone else he sucks at Phantom Hourglass.

[Crushed]

worst zelda ever.

also first zelda outside of Zelda II that i actually stopped playing. (i eventually beat it, but christ)

[Oblivion]

garbage game

though the sad thing is in about 12 months or so people will come to love it as an underrated 'gem' 

[cool breeze]

the people who played the import were claiming it was the best Zelda back when it first came out

...

 

[archie4208]

the people who played the import were claiming it was the best Zelda back when it first came out

...

 

That was mostly sp0rsk, also known as one of the biggest defenders of Wii Music.  Come to think of it, doesn't EmCeeGrammar like Wii Music too?

[TakingBackSunday]

garbage game

though the sad thing is in about 12 months or so people will come to love it as an underrated 'gem' 

Yeah, for real.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

worst zelda ever.

also first zelda outside of Zelda II that i actually stopped playing. (i eventually beat it, but christ)

What's your beef with II?

[TakingBackSunday]

It's hard.  :'(

Honestly that's the only "problem" I have with it, but that's really my own fault, not the game's.

[Lafiel]

Starts of awesome, then quickly gets tedious.

[drew]

no.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

worst zelda ever.

also first zelda outside of Zelda II that i actually stopped playing. (i eventually beat it, but christ)

What's your beef with II?

My beef with II is that Battle of Olympus does exactly what II does but a lot better.

[Darunia]

worst zelda i've played, didn't even finish it

the people who played the import were claiming it was the best Zelda back when it first came out

heh, yeah. never trust sporsk's game impressions

[trippingmartian]

The core gameplay works surprisingly well. However,

  The temple of the ocean king

[EmCeeGrammar]

Jesus Christ
Phantom Hourglass is arguably the least tedious of any zelda made after Link's Awakening and it gets shit for a temple that takes hardly any time to repeat if you know what to do.  I have no reason to lie.  But if PH was shit to zelda fans,  I sincerely hope they keep making it this "shitty".

[Oblivion]

Jesus Christ
Phantom Hourglass is arguably the least tedious of any zelda made after Link's Awakening

LOL.

Seems gaming forums have redefined the word 'tedious' while I wasn't looking.

[TakingBackSunday]

Jesus Christ
Phantom Hourglass is arguably the least tedious of any zelda made after Link's Awakening and it gets shit for a temple that takes hardly any time to repeat if you know what to do.  I have no reason to lie.  But if PH was shit to zelda fans,  I sincerely hope they keep making it this "shitty".

God, new Nintendo fans are worse than old Nintendo fans.  This entire post is just fucking awful.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Jesus Christ
Phantom Hourglass is arguably the least tedious of any zelda made after Link's Awakening and it gets shit for a temple that takes hardly any time to repeat if you know what to do.  I have no reason to lie.  But if PH was shit to zelda fans,  I sincerely hope they keep making it this "shitty".

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[TakingBackSunday]

I have hope for Spirit Tracks, thinking maybe they were just getting used to shit with Phantom Hourglass, but...yeah 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

No way in hell Spirit Tracks will have a shitty ocean shit temple, so it might have a chance if the dungeons are even remotely clever.

[Oblivion]

also read this for some much more eloquent ph hate:
http://www.davidhellman.net/blog/zelda-games-petty-domineering/

Eh, the whole 'question with only one forced answer' thing has been prevalent in pretty much every Zelda since LttP.

The dude didn't even bother bitching about the real retardedness of PH.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

That was pretty much the problem. In the better Zelda games you had to do things all over the dungeon to influence the other parts. PH just had small, isolated puzzles. If they can fix that with ST, who knows.

[TakingBackSunday]

That was pretty much the problem. In the better Zelda games you had to do things all over the dungeon to influence the other parts. PH just had small, isolated puzzles. If they can fix that with ST, who knows.

Yeah.  Honestly it's too early to say.  I hope, like I said, that they were just testing the waters with PH, and maybe they'll become a little more complicated with ST.

[AdmiralViscen]

jarosh wins this topic man.

I have 0 hope for Spirit Tracks.

[drew]

horrible game

horrible system

[TakingBackSunday]

^lol

[EmCeeGrammar]

See, the self contained nature of the floors and rooms was why Phantom Hourglass was such a breath of fresh air.  I personally was fatigued of the convoluted interconnected temple mechanics of previous games. It was so boring going through the same cross sections of a temple repeately.  Phantom Hourglass was always moving forward at a brisk pace adjusting the temple gimmick to the slightest degree that was necessary to keep you discovering the variety of ways you could use your items.  And more importantly, it never drags as a result.  You ponder for a minute, the eureka comes and you follow through.  Often in previous Zeldas I'd have a general idea how to progress but I would dread actually performing the task precisely because it took so much pointless to and fro to -for example- change the layout or whatnot of a temple. Its alot of dull meandering. PH reminds me of Super Metroid in that it funnels you where you need to be and in order to progress you have to solve the puzzle/explore in the close area to have the means to backtrack.

Sailing was 100x better than in Wind Waker.  You sailed past any "threat" in that game unless you got caught by a giant squid.  PH kept it involved.  Enemies pursue. Groups pose a real threat.  Even juggling jellyfish was more than WindWaker offered.  I think I preferred the salvaging method in Wind Waker though.

Now to be fair I still think the other 2d Zeldas are fantastic. PH is a decidely different take on the franchise but its still excellent according to its own strengths.

[AdmiralViscen]

Didn't you have to get halfway through the game before you even had a dungeon with more than 1 or 2 floors? Aren't there only 5 or 6 dungeons?

Even if EmCee was right about it being a good design choice, it's executed like shit.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I thought it was a good idea to compare because thats how it felt to me.  All I said is that it reminded me of Super Metroid in a way.  For the most part I sometimes think the franchises are the same type of game from differing perspectives.  I don't know why someone discussing their favor of something riles you up so much Jarosh.

And what constitutes a challenging puzzle?  I have a shit memory but I don't feel like other 2d zelda games had any exponential advantage over Phantom Hourglass in the logic department.  The 3d Zeldas, sure, but they weren't as - shit I can't remember the word for small but good.

[TakingBackSunday]

I'm baffled on how it reminded you of super metroid.  they aren't alike...at all 

[EmCeeGrammar]

Metroid reminds me of Zelda reminds me Metroid
I think the protagonists are both left-handed blondes.
Oh and funnels.