Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Thought I would start a thread for this. It looks pretty good. I got it but haven't played it yet. I personally loved the Windwaker look, but that may just be me...

[schild]

Looks fine.
Feels like it was damned by Nintendo.
Smells like the bird flu.

[MrHat]

It's in my DS for playing.

But my DS has no battery power!

[ahoythematey]

I think it's pretty fun, but the boss fights I've had so far have not been all that satisfying.  If you like Zelda it's pretty much a win.  It does have me hopeful for future dungeon hacks on the DS, should they pay attention to the control scheme here.  If it weren't such a small screen, Diablo would be pretty cool here.

[voodoolily]

The Sea Tramp Thingy Temple is hard. But other than that, it's pretty easy. I started playing the Japanese version a coupla weeks ago (which was way harder since I can't read), so the English version is fun - I can actually keep up with the story and such.

[Strazos]

The demo just felt awkward.

Playable, but Awkward. I didn't get far enough to receive a sword and swing it.

[Yoshimaru]

Incredibly easy if you have ever beaten a Zelda game before... yet still enjoyable.

[schild]

They pulled a Lair on me with Phantom Hourglass.

[ahoythematey]

I had no problems with the controls once I figured out exactly what they meant by certain moves.  I suppose it would have served better to have a system of showing stylus strokes like Okami had, but I think the controls as is work pretty well.

[schild]

The controls are as good as stylus zelda gets. Unfortunately, that's not saying enough. Look, I'm not knocking it, the game ITSELF is fine. The controls however, suffer from Lairitis. Which should be defined as "Japanese pride in using shitty gimmicks and being so unable to admit mistake that you either suffer through it or not play the game."

This is coming from someone who beat Trauma Center into the ground.

Still, to this day, the only game that needed a stylus. Oh and Canvas Curse. But that's entirely overrated.

[Yegolev]

Well... drawing your map in Etrian Odyssey.  I haven't tried Drawn to Life yet.

[voodoolily]

I do admit that using the stylus for basic navigation is a bit of a pain at first, but at least the touch screen is getting some action.

[Yoshimaru]

Are you guys using the standard styluses? Styli?  Anyways, I used the Zelda pen Stylus I got from Circuit City and it helped loads.

[voodoolily]

I've been thinking of using a chopstick after the carpel tunnel hand cramps I've been getting.

[Yoshimaru]

On a side note : Nintendo Offers a Zelda Feather Pen Stylus for your Thoughts

[Yegolev]

I do admit that using the stylus for basic navigation is a bit of a pain at first, but at least the touch screen is getting some action.

Using the touchscreen simply because it is there is why DS games make me pull my hair out.

[schild]

I do admit that using the stylus for basic navigation is a bit of a pain at first, but at least the touch screen is getting some action.

Using the touchscreen simply because it is there is why DS games make me pull my hair out.

Yegolev, I love you. Truly.

[Yegolev]

WEEABOO

[HAMMER FRENZY]

I think that having an option for either control style would have been nice. Although I would have still played with stylus control just to try something different.

[Sairon]

Necro!

Got a DS in christmas present from work so I picked up the tops from gamerankings, and well, this was supposedly one of the best. Since I'm a big fan of link to the past this looked like a must have.

First of all I pretty much hate all the characters. I guess Zelda games never been much about the characters but this game actually have some dialogs, all of which I after a while just ended skimming through for clues of where to head next. The story is as always with Nintendo real crap.

Sailing the seas gets boring really fast, partly because it's all auto pilot after you've drawn a path with the stylus on the map, and partly because combat is super easy with the auto aim + attacking by poking enemies on screen with the stylus.

Fighting is very imprecise because of the stylus, fighting consists of going in range of enemies and weaving the stylus around and hoping that it picks up a whirlwind attack, sometimes Link just dicks around and walk right into the enemies since the stylus is also used for movement. There's some plus points to be picked up here for the ranged tools though, especially the boomerang which grants you a great deal of control.

Level design is pretty good at times but nowhere near as good as link to the past, which is a superior game in pretty much every way even if it was released more than a decade ago.

As of now I don't know if I will ever finish the game since there's nothing really motivating me to finish it.

[KallDrexx]

I really wish they used the D pad for attacking.  I like how moving link feels with the stylus, as I can precisely control what direction he moves and how fast.  What sucks is attacking, as it doesn't respond fast enough and usually does not do the action you want (attacks when I want to dash, dashes when I want to attack). 

The games decent, except for the boat crap and a lot of the tacked on DS functionality they put in to go "look what the DS can do tee hee."  It doesn't matter I guess though becuase i stopped playing as I absolutely refuse on principle to yell at my DS in order to get the damn merchant to sell me a salvage arm.

[Tairnyn]

My biggest gripe with the stylus is that my hand often gets in the way of the screen forcing me to twist it into odd contortions just to play. As others have said the game story isn't really all that compelling, but I'd probably like it a lot more if they just let me use the buttons instead.

[cosapi]

I absolutely refuse on principle to yell at my DS in order to get the damn merchant to sell me a salvage arm.

There's a way around this.

semi-spoiler I guess
You can blow air into the mic on the ds for the same result.
end spoiler

But the entire time I've spent playing this game, all that honestly comes to mind is "fucking gimmick" when I'm fighting against the control system. 

[Signe]

My biggest gripe with the stylus is that my hand often gets in the way of the screen forcing me to twist it into odd contortions just to play. As others have said the game story isn't really all that compelling, but I'd probably like it a lot more if they just let me use the buttons instead.

This will probably eventually cause some sort of adverse physical problems later in your life.  I see a profitable lawsuit in your future!

[Mrbloodworth]

Level design is pretty good at times but nowhere near as good as link to the past, which is a superior game in pretty much every way even if it was released more than a decade ago.

Besides the first, Link to the past is the best zelda game ever invented. None of them after have had anywhere near the quality of that game.

[Azazel]

It's a bit old, but so is this thread...