OAO Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Thread

[AndrewTS]

It's out. I picked it up this morning just as they were yanking them out of the shipping boxes.

 

Game begins with a nicely-done recap of The Wind Waker, pictograph-style. Textures are a tad grainy in the real-time cutscenes, but everything looks terrific during gameplay.

 

Currently just getting the swing of the controls, but it's not much of an issue as I'd played other games that used the stylus for movement. Moving, picking up, tossing pots is a cinch, and you can use the stylus to determine just where/how far you throw them. Nice touch.

[DrVenkman PhD]

I really need to find the AC Adapter for my DS. Maybe I could solve that problem by buying a DS Lite... I could get one in the States cheap too with the closeness of the Canadian dollar too.

 

Anyhow, as it was almost 4.5 years ago (wow time flies) that I beat Wind Waker, I don't really recall them leaving anything open for a direct sequel (in my memory it had the "everything goes back to the same state it was at the beginning" type ending) so I'm interested to see (or perhaps read on wikipedia... or have Andrew tell me in spoiler tags) how the story picks up in the WW continuity.

[DrVenkman PhD]

My memory of the ending is way off, apparently.

[Guest Smues]

Everything goes back to the way it was before was Ocarina of Time.

[cd213]

I have this pre-ordered and will be picking it up later today. It got a 9.5 in Game Informer. I played a little bit of it at the store a few weeks ago and it's a lot of fun. Can't wait to get it home.

[AndrewTS]

After putting the Master Sword through Ganondorf's forehead, and his subsequent transformation to stone, the king tells Zelda and Link not worry about Hyrule, and just go on with living their lives, making a better future.

 

Zelda asks the king to come with them, but he refuses, opting to stay behind as the ocean waters come down on Hyrule.

 

Link and Zelda float back to the surface of the ocean, where Zelda reverts to her Tetra clothes, and they're picked up by Tetra's ship, where her crew and Aryll are waiting.

 

They head back to Outset Island, taking Aryll home, but then Link (in his boat) and Tetra and her crew set on the ocean again, presumably for more adventures, with Tetra declaring "the wind will guide us!"

 

Everything goes back to the way it was before was Ocarina of Time.

 

Yup, which is why Majora Link was a kid.

[AndrewTS]

Finished my first real dungeon. Feels very old school, although using the boomerang in the heat of battle requires you to act very, VERY fast a lot of times.

[AndrewTS]

No wind changing.

 

Drawing notes on maps.

 

Grabbing and throwing a bomb with two quick taps of the screen.

 

Really digging this.

[TheSSNintendo]

Man, I really need to finish Wind Waker so I can get Phantom Hourglass.

[AndrewTS]

I'm slowly but surely filling in gaps in my maps, limited only by how much the DSL battery holds out. Argh. I can't believe I forgot to charge it overnight.

 

At any rate, the control scheme works really well. At first the boomerang was iffy, but I discovered that holding down to the L button lets you switch to your equipped item as long as you hold it (thanks to a NPC tip), making it much more useful than I imagined in combat. Plus, when you've purchased the shield, you automatically block small projectiles coming at you from the front.

[devo]

Just finished this today. Kinda short, but excellent otherwise. The temples were really creatively designed and the boss battles were extremely fun and inventive. Excellent usage of both screens.