Taking a look at the two successors to my favourite game, and investigating where the wind took them!
Thumbnail by raspbi https://www.instagram.com/raspbi
Special thanks to:
My good friend Tyler for allowing me to borrow his 3DS to capture footage! This video would not have been possible without him. https://www.twitch.tv/tigercowz
ZeldaDungeon for being a fantastic resource, as always! https://www.zeldadungeon.net
And all of the Twitch viewers that helped me record these games live!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
4:17 Visuals
5:45 Core Gameplay
16:52 Items
26:32 Dungeons
39:56 Overworld
1:11:38 The Two Towers
1:21:06 Finale
Sources
https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/Permanently_Missable_Items
Aonuma cites the Zelda formula as “aging” and mentions PH’s appeal to casual gamers http://www.gamernode.com/e3-07-the-director-phantom-hourglass-and-zeldas-future/
Perfect Strategy for Bombchu Bowling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asTd9OOAGq0
Dampe Graveyard Heart Piece Footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALgbq0hMGwI
Battle Mode Footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGkwVVjPIes
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i think linebeck was one of my first crushes
I have a friend who I've jokingly debated between our preference of these games. I played them both and beat them when they came out but I don't remember much about these games. But what I do remember is finding the overworld a lot more enjoyable in Hourglass. More freedom how I engage random enemies while Tracks felt too on the rails for me. I couldn't easily avoid random enemies without feeling frustrated or going on a detour.
i absolutely loved these games as a kid and it is such a breath of fresh air to see someone covering them and talking about exactly the way i felt when i experienced these games for the first time ever
I just really want a remaster of both of the games on the Switch. It would be wonderful
I could say a lot, but I want to go over one single point that was supposed to be obvious but wasn't touched.
in both titles the enemy is never ganon or one of his followers. no one does any reference to him. he's gone
even with the second game antagonist taking a form somewhat piggish, there's no symbolism in his plan. the only game with less reference than these 2 is minish cap
2:20 "one of the lowest ratings in the series"
90
87
For the lowest, these two numbers are still very high!
Lord fudging mercy. 15 minutes into this video, and I realize why I never was able to finish this game (hourglass) when I was younger. All of those puzzles sound insane for anyone under the age of 15 to solve tbh. I used a gamecheat device to get through the game and still has trouble getting to the end.
12:58 how on earth does this look like a kings head 😭 ive been staring at it for like 5 minutes
phantom hourglass was all right, spirit tracks SUUUUUUUUUCKED
it sucked big sweaty hairy dinosaur nutsacks.
I got to the part at the end where you have to play this really complex song with the ds mic that was clearly not meant for that purpose and I was like fuck this shit
Such interesting games but always hated that everything was reliant on touch controls. I'm fine with items using touch controls but I still wish we could at least use the d pad to walk around. No reason they had to map walking, attacking, rolling, spinslash, and items all onto touch screen. Make the game a clunkfest.
Truthfully, I never understood the hatred for the Temple of the Ocean King.
It's evident VERY early on in the revisits of the place that there's more to it than meets the eye. Veterans would quickly notice the alternate paths they couldn't access utilizing familiar visual cues (like cracked walls), and even new players would see that there were things out of the way that they couldn't get right now; the game shows you up front that there will be secrets and alternate paths that will let you get more out of the dungeon on later visits. For me, this set me up to be excited to revisit the Temple of the Ocean King, as I quickly put two-and-two together when looking at the time limit and figured, "I'm going to be able to shave off more and more time to have more wiggle room on later floors." I immediately understood that the Temple of the Ocean King would reward me for mastery over it by making itself more accommodating.
The Phantoms got my heart racing on more than one occasion, but this only really conditioned me to find excitement in triumphing over them – whenever the level offered some way to remove the phantoms from the equation, such as with a pit in the floor, I would neurotically lure them over to get rid of them, something that the game outright rewards, if I recall correctly. The game also established another convention with the Phantoms very early on, because once you get certain items, you can start to manipulate Phantoms more effectively. At first, you have to lure them with yourself or the environment, but then you can distract them with the sound of your items clanking with the environment, which sets up the expectation that you'll be able to manipulate them or deal with them more effectively as the game progresses. You go from luring phantoms, to distracting them, manipulating them, stunning them and eventually outright destroying them. It's satisfying when you gain more and more power over what had previously been an overwhelming enemy – cathartic when you can at last finally rid every floor of every phantom.
Between these, and the fact that you can skip floors to various checkpoints in the Temple of the Ocean King, made me feel like it was the single most fleshed-out part of the game, and it is, contrary to how many people feel about it, the thing I remember most fondly out of Phantom Hourglass. If I were ever to replay the game, it would be exclusively so I could re-experience the Temple of the Ocean King. It is legitimately one of my favourite dungeons in ANY Zelda game, EVER.
I remember fondly all those times that I went back to it just because so I could shave off a precious few extra seconds to update my time-remaining from different checkpoints and get myself more leeway.
My favorite Zelda games are Spirit Tracks, Minish Cap, and then a few of the more mainline ones. Thank you for covering Spirit Tracks
No joke, until today I question why some games don't give the option to take notes on the map. As an example Breath of the Wild would benefit with that sooo much
nice how the thumbnail has the stylus in Link's left hand.
My ranking for the items (in terms of how fun they are to use) would be:
1)Hammer
2)Grappling Hook
3)Spirit Pipes
4)Bombchu
5)Bow
6)Bombs
7)Boomerang
8)Whip
9)Whirlwind
10)Sand Wand
Raise your hand if you, like me, never "solved" the temple of courage puzzle but instead gave up and closed you DS only to come back and find you "solved" it
This isn't something you get from the US release, but another touchscreen innovation in the original Phantom Hourglass is the ability to tap on kanji to see the reading, and otherwise not see it. Something which I think no games did before and almost none did since, but which is ideal for someone learning the language/learning how to read.
The fact someone finally talked about Phantom Hourglass brings me peace
I loved phantom hourglass, but I hate and loath the dungeon song. It’s not bad, but I heard it so much. I wish I could fist fight that song.
I didn't like Phantom Hourglass much at all, but Linebeck might be my favorite side character of the franchise personality wise (my favorite design-wise is Medli, I've got a huge soft spot for Windwaker's Ruto design).
Okay but there's still one question I have remaining.
Who did Linebeck impregnate
I 100% Phantom Hourglass and let me tell ya man i hated the bow mini game as that was hard even speedrunners would tell ya
I never got to finish Spririt Tracks. On one of the floors, you can choose between three doors to open with your one small key; one of which does not have a small key. Guess which one I chose?
Honestly i think the Demon train should have shown up more in Spirit Tracks as that was the coolest part especially when it showed up early on then nothing is heard about it till the very last part where you suddenly have to fight it. Like it should have been a obstacle or shown spawning the small trains that chase you all game that way beating it would have been more satisfying instead of killing a random enemy
fair and balanced perspective. really appreciated the video
Loved this game as a kid, Still my favorite Zelda game.
Me and a buddy would duplicate our files and trade to get infinite items.