The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

I may as well just say it - I don't like the controls. I knew I wouldn't, going in; controlling a character with a stylus just isn't something I take to. For its part, I will say that they're not as bad as I anticipated, but after spending an hour and a half with the game I'm still liable to accidentally swing the sword, roll around, or leap to my death. And of course, there's the little matter of the hand getting in the way of the action screen. The other touchscreen uses, thus far including puzzles and the super-cool boomerang, are excellent; but I'm just not a fan of using it to walk and run.

Nevertheless, Phantom Hourglass has engaged my full attention in short order. The introduction is little more than a cute little throwback to Wind Waker, but the real adventure wastes no time in presenting itself. It all begins very mysteriously, ala landing on Koholint in Link's Awakening, and I am compelled to drive through the game and figure things out.

In the prologue of the game, after recapping the defeat of the Evil King by Link and the "handsome pirates," Tetra boards a ghost ship to keel-haul its treasure. A scream lets out, and Link attempts to come to her rescue, but plunges into the sea and eventually washes up on Mercay Island, where a fairy (of the "HEY HEY HEY LISTEN" variety) named Ciela offers to help Link in his quest. Curiously, she says she doesn't remember anything about her life from before she came to the island.

The first real dungeon of the game, on the Isle of Ember, is marked at first on the map with the emblem of Din's Pearl from Wind Waker. This emblem recurs at the end of the dungeon, and defeating the boss frees a red fairy who calls himself the Spirit of Power. Here it is revealed that two more such spirits - of Wisdom, demarcated by Nayru's Pearl, and of Courage, by Farore's Pearl - must be rescued in order to catch up with the dreaded Ghost Ship.

The dungeon design, just as I've come to expect from a 2D Zelda, is magnificent. The puzzles are already becoming really interesting, as the stylus-guided boomerang is the first item (other than sword and shield) Link comes across, and even the first dungeon requires some crafty boomerang-ing.

The multiplayer mode has been public knowledge since some of the earliest previews of the game: Link must find Force Gems and bring them to safe spots, all the while evading Phantom guards, using Metal Gear Solid-style map radar. What hasn't been talked about as much, is that the game's recurring quasi-hub dungeon, the Temple of the Ocean King, has this same mechanic, and not instead of typical dungeon puzzles, but in addition to them. Also, there is a limit on how much time Link can spend in non-safe spots within the Temple! As the game goes on, he must venture deeper into the sublevels of the dungeon to recover more treasure, but even the first few are delightfully challenging.

I'll talk more about charting and driving the ship next time, but I must mention that you can customize the ship with special parts, which appear to be able to affect its performance and resilience. Awesome.

Progress: Found the second Sea Chart