The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass -- Final Opinion.

I have completed The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. There was a lot of talk about how Phantom Hourglass was the game that was going to make Zelda seem fresh again. Make it all new. The game that was going to reawaken your love for the series. Well, my love for the series never waned. I technically enjoyed Phantom Hourglass, but it's also the most frustrating and least rewarding Zelda title I've ever played. Let's start with the positives. The story while shallow even by Zelda standards is new. It may be the direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker but it continues the tradition of the paired games going off somewhere else. Just as Link's Awakening did for A Link to the Past and Majora's Mask did for Ocarina of Time. It's not set in Hyrule and there is no Ganon, and there are no goddesses and the creation legend we get time and again. The story is almost entirely for laughs. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Now for the mixed bag stuff, the puzzles and dungeons. They're all over the place. Some great, some bad, and a lot of too easy. Especially with the touch gimmick of writing on the maps. The game will present you with the answer. Have you write it on the map using the touch screen so you'll have it once you discover where to use it. There are a few standout top-of-the-line Zelda dungeons in the game. But most of them are a tad too easy. The music and sound is another mixed bag. Some of the remixes of classic Zelda themes sound great coming from the NDS speakers, and others don't. The game reuses too much music from Wind Waker. It would have been a little better getting more original tracks in the game. The sound effects sound good and crisp coming from the NDS speakers. Now on to the bad, like the graphics. The game is ugly. I know Nintendo wants to push the 3D aspects of the NDS but I think that approach does a great disservice to the Zelda series. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. The game would have been better served with a more stylized 2D graphic style closer to that of A Link to the Past mixed with Wind Waker aesthetics. Trying to stay close to Wind Waker in 3D results in a PlayStation era early 3D level mess. This is especially true in the cutscenes with Link's broken face taking center stage. Another bad aspect for me is the dungeon of the Temple of the Ocean King. The one you have to go through five or six time over during the course of the game withevery time having to redo the same exact puzzles and avoid the same monsters. It's a shame really, because if you had to of dealt with the dungeon in a single go, it would have resulted in one of the greatest Zelda dungeons ever created. I'm not impressed with the NDS gimmickry. I hate having to yell into the microphone in the system. I hate having to blow out candles. I never find it cute or charming. And I've done everything already in other games. Sure the "stamp" puzzle would be innovative, if I hadn't already dealt with it in Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk. In fact most of everything presented in Phantom Hourglass I've already experienced in the first NDS game I've ever played, SEGA's Feel The Magic, which just threw in every gimmick the system offered. I don't find it innovative having these gimmicks applied to every series that hits the system. Overall this Zelda is a real mixed bag. You'll have your moments of Zelda quality and charm that you've come to expect from the series. Depending on your view of the NDS' gimmickry, you'll find yourself annoyed at the controls and devices in the game or wowed by the supposed freshness of it all. I wasn't wowed, I lean towards annoyed. Something about this Zelda just made me want to see it through fast. I wanted it to end. I just wanted to get it done. Something that I haven't experienced in any other Zelda title before, including Wind Waker. Unlike Twilight Princess for example, which I didn't want to end. There's just something off about Phantom Hourglass. I'm giving The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS a 7.5.