Phantom Hourglass takes place several months after the ending of The Wind Waker, where Link, Tetra and her pirates set sail in hope of discovering a new homeland. On their travels they get stuck in the middle of a dense fog, and soon encounter an abandoned ship. Tetra is quickly eager to explore the ship, though is soon enough found in some trouble of her own. Naturally, Link follows after Tetra in an attempt to rescue her. However, Link’s impulsive actions end up putting him in a bit of a dilemma, as he falls into the ocean and soon loses consciousness, washing up on the shores of a remote island. Link is awakening by the sound of a fairy’s voice, whose intentions are to aid Link through his adventure to find his missing companions. While looking for clues to find the ghost ship, Link unexpectedly meets a man named Lineback (the man in the picture below), who is seeking the riches from the treasure of the ghost ship. Since both are looking for the ghost ship, the two decide to work together.
Plenty of fun antics ensues.
The game is largely centred on this one ghost ship, acting as one huge master dungeon that you’ll slowly progress through. Despite players spending a lot of their time trying to edge their way through this massive dungeon, Phantom Hourglass will still be comprised of much smaller dungeons that, once successfully completed, will allow players to move further along in the master dungeon. To add a slightly unique twist, and a bit of urgency, to the game, a new type of enemy ironically named ‘Chaser’ will relentlessly chase Link throughout the course of the game. These enemies will follow the player in dungeons and can kill Link with one blow, though Link can receive temporary immunity from them by using certain special pots. The theme of Phantom Hourglass is naturally time - in the sense of being given limited time in the master dungeon, and requiring more time to avoid the Chaser.
Following in The Wind Waker’s footsteps, Phantom Hourglass will once again rely on a lot of sea travel. After the criticism given to The Wind Waker in regards to ocean travel being empty and boring, Nintendo are filling up the ocean scenes in Phantom Hourglass with not only more action, but also more importance on the aspects of traveling from island to island. To tide over the boredom experienced in The Wind Waker, players will no longer have to worry about the manipulation of the wind (thanks to a handy new steamboat) and will be given much more to do during these periods. While sailing across the ocean, the top screen will show the real-time gameplay action. Meanwhile, the bottom screen is where you’ll be able to pull out your stylus and draw a path for your ship to sail. However, if the situation requires it, you’ll be able to switch the action onto the bottom screen, enabling players to use their cannon, or other items, via the use of the touch-screen.
The battle sequences during sea travel are strictly on-rails, allowing players to tap the bottom screen to shoot cannonballs at potentially dangerous enemies. Additionally, before setting anchor on an island, players may have to face mini-bosses that require clever ship maneuvering tactics. Players will also need to perform plenty of precise sailing to successfully make it through tight gaps in dangerous rocks.
Scribble your own destination and enjoy the ride.
The dual screens of the DS work in several unique ways throughout the game. As with sailing, you’ll be able to switch the action during exploring to either the bottom or top screen depending on the situation. You’ll generally use the bottom screen to move Link around, to attack and to pick up items. However, you can also switch the dungeon map to the bottom screen and scribble in some quick notes to aid you in remembering the sequences of a certain puzzle or a location of a certain item. In addition, all boss battles in the game will span across both screens and some cinematics will also make use of the dual screen set-up.
The DS touch-screen adds a lot of versatility to just how players approach certain situations, such as movement, combat and puzzles. Guiding your stylus across the screen will move Link; the faster you move your stylus across the screen will determine just how quickly Link moves. Combat will also make use of the touch-screen, allowing players to quickly tap on enemies for Link to attack them. Of course, you’ll also be able to perform Link’s iconic spin attack by simply sweeping the stylus around him. The majority of the game uses the touch-screen in some form, such as double tapping items for Link to pickup, or drawing a distinct path for your boomerang to follow. Additionally, there will be plenty of puzzles and sequences throughout the game that’ll rely on players to tap and rub the touch screen to progress further. It is also expected that Nintendo will implement the system’s microphone in some form too. The control pad will only be used as a shortcut to access menus or items. While full touch screen use has been used in several games in the past, alas to little success, signs so far suggest Nintendo has hit the nail quite clearly on its head.
Nintendo has slightly touched on multiplayer in previous games in the Zelda series, though never to such calibre to match its single-player endeavours. Phantom Hourglass's multiplayer, however, has enough pedigree to steer interest into making it highly successful. The multiplayer in Phantom Hourglass is a two-player battle mode, where one player will control Link and the other will control three enemies in a small arena. The goal for the person playing as Link is to pickup as many Triforce shards as possibly and to secure them at their coloured base. Meanwhile, the person playing as the enemy will have to capture Link, resulting in an end of turn and the players swapping characters.
Multiplayer mayhem!
The person playing as the enemy will have to trace a path out on the touch-screen to guide where they want each of their three guards to go. If used effectively, this can be used to corner your opponent, and eventually trapping them in your decisive plan. For Link though, when he picks up a Triforce shard his running speed will slow down, which depends on the size of the shard he picks up. Smaller shards are worth fewer points, larger ones are worth more.
Arenas are full of hidden tunnels, safe zones and a handful of items to pickup too - with certain items increasing run speed or offering limited invisibility. To add that little bit of extra icing to the already delicious Phantom Hourglass package, the game will support online play via Nintendo’s Wi-Fi connection service – oh joy!
Phantom Hourglass appears to implement plenty of The Wind Waker’s excellent flair, ranging from its superb visual style, gameplay elements and returning enemies such as Octoroks, Keese and ChuChus. Chances are players will come across a few familiar faces along the way too.
If previous Zelda instalments are any indication, we'll only have a short delay from Phantom Hourglass's Japan release. And with the game readying release in Japan later this month, we PAL gamers can expect the game to be ready just before the Christmas holidays – a present any ‘real’ gamer will want in their Christmas stocking.
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