Remember that Ghost Ship in Wind Waker? It comes back to bite.
As I said before, this is the sequelto Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass starts shortly after it. We see Link being filled in on everything that happened in Wind Waker, as if he didn't already know, in the form of a little show. The Pirates find the Ghost Ship and are about to raid it. Tetra goes first, and turns to stone. Link, being the brave little boy in green he is, goes to save and then ends up on some random island that wasn't even in Wind Waker, in fact none of the islands are the same. Some fairy finds Link and tells her Grandpa, some old man that's really just the Ocean King. Link is sent off to find the Spirits that serve the Ocean King, make a sword, and defeat Bellum, the Evil Phantom. Just like any other Zelda game, right?
The controls are all based around the stylist. Sure you can get to some of the menus or you're map or activate items without it, but you're going to mainly use the stylus. Point and click in the over world to move Link around. Tap on a enemy and Link will attack them. You can also slide the stylus around and Link will slice. Make a circle around Link and he will either do a spin attack or roll. Sometimes Link will do the wrong one at the wrong time. You can also draw on the different maps and you control the boat you get by drawing it's path. See? Just about everything you do is controlled by the stylist.
Many of the items you get are pretty slandered. Grappling hook, bow and arrows, bombs, and a hammer that the Spirit that follows you smashes people with. Normal stuff right? As normal, you get most your items in dungeons which are on different islands throughout the sea. In them you solve puzzles and try to work your way to the big bad boss. There is one dungeon that you have to play through, five or six times. It's really boring to play through it that many times just to get one thing, go off and do something and have to end up coming back and playing though it again. Boss fights are fun, but easy at times. The final boss is a bit too easy if you ask me. Fighting from the boat is fun as well, though it could be hard at times when you're trying to turn the camera, control the ship, and shot at the same time.
In the water, you're in a boat, as I said before. You draw your path to the different islands and then the boat does it's thing. After it's going, you can look around, fire your cannon, or pray to God that the stupid pirate girl, Jolene isn't on your tail. She has this thing for Linebeck, the guys ship you're using, and will attack you whenever she see's you. Travel can be cut down by drawing on a slate and you teleport. There are six point though out the sea that you can teleport to, you just need to find the golden frogs and hit them with your cannon first. You can also go treasure hunting. This time around, you control the salvage arm as it goes down to pick up you chest, but if it get too damaged, you fail.
The game has a multiplayer option to it. Yes you can play over Wi-Fi with friends or random users and take them on with a head to head challenge of getting triforce pieces. Each player takes a turn trying to get the pieces and taking them to their own safe zone as Link. The other player controls three Phantoms to try and stop the other player from getting points. Looks nice on paper, doesn't it? Well in real life, people will leave matches so you don't get your win, which really brings it down.
Graphically, the game is alright. It uses the Wind Waker like graphics that are 3D. The only problem I have with it is that everyone's hands are triangles. It looks weird, OK. Other then that, that graphics are well detailed. Islands and dungeons are well designed, and, as I said before, well detailed. The game lags sometimes, like during a fight with Bellum, but it's only really that one time. Cut scenes are just like the in game graphics, other then the two times you see pictures of Link's little Adventures in Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.
The music in the game is just what you'd think you'd find in any other Zelda game. I don't find anything special about it, but then again that's not really a bad thing. The piece are well put together, and fit the game and that's good. There isn't any voice acting of any kind, like it other Zelda games. Overall, the sounds in Phantom Hourglass are fine.
In all, Phantom Hourglass is a great game that tries some new things with the series and should be in anyone's collection if they want a good game for their DS. It may have it's drawback, but then again what game doesn't?
Pros:
+Story is well written.
+Lots of side-quests to complete.
Cons:
-Lags at times
-You have to play through the Temple of the Ocean King a lot of times.
Scores:
Gameplay: 8.0
Graphics: 8.0
Story: 9.0
Sounds: 8.0
Replay Value: 7.0
Fun Level: 9.0
Overall Score: 8.4