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avera's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
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| [February 8, 2008 10:31:48 PM]
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GameLog Entry #1
SUMMARY
In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is an RPG, where you control the classic hero, Link, from the Zelda series. The story continues from Ocarina of Time, with Link being attacked and turned into shrub! Majora's Mask takes place in a 3-D world with 2-D and limited 3-D movement. You begin in a small town, where you race against the clock to finish certain objectives before the moon crashes into the planet. Once you become close to running out of time, you can simply play the Song of Time to return to the beginning, where the simulated world begins again.
GAMEPLAY
The beginning of the game certainly caries a much darker tone evoking some very worrisome emotions. It's also a little depressing playing as Shrub Link and feels a little unnatural. I felt less connected to the main character. The story is certainly an intriguing one, as I yet have no idea how I'm going to recover from this "shrubbish" image, nor how I plan to stop the antagonist (Skull Kid) from making the moon plummet into the planet.
The new character provides some interesting movement, such as being able to launch himself from flowers and gliding to previously unreachable areas. Instead of a sword, he uses spin attacks, and can shoot magic "bubbles." It's a little less fantastic than a hero's shield and sword, but makes for a new and interesting play experience.
The game is single player which disallows for much social interaction. The characters or "bystandards" in the game have little to say (as of yet) with the exception of a few who advance the story line. It seems to have some flow but there is a lot of exploration that must be done, and the amount of agency given to the player and ambiguity in tasks somewhat stalls gameplay and gives little direction.
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| [January 14, 2008 02:05:50 AM]
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Gamelog Entry #2
GAMEPLAY
For the second hour playing Phantom Hourglass, the gameplay continued to be fun while the controls quickly became second nature. My completist tendencies did not drive me crazy as the game is satisfyingly expansive yet allows me to only take a few steps at a time. In other words, the game allowed me to explore to my hearts content without slowing down gameplay significantly. Many new aspects of the adventure are introduced but not at an overwhelming rate.
DESIGN
The most noteworthy design aspect of the game is surely the control interface. The use of the stylus and touch screen creates a very intuitive control scheme (touch here to move her, touch the person to interact with them). There's even clever uses for the built in mic! The easy control design allows for more exploration and complex puzzle solving without the mechanics getting in the way.
The source of conflict however, is not the most creative. It's still a "hero saves the princess" based story line, but so is the majority of the Zelda series. There are many islands to explore, each one fairly modest in size, which is satisfying in the sense that the player will not have travel far on foot from one side of an island to the next. Instead, most of the maze like territory is found in the dungeons.
The reward structure is fairly simple and gratifying. You must complete small objectives to gain things like maps and keys that will lead you on, and you are rewarded larger prizes like better weapons for completing more complex puzzles and defeating bosses.
The only frustrations I've developed are in some of the controls. Performing a roll is a bit complicated in tight spaces and thus far I have still not received instruction on how to use the shield I acquired. Other than that, the game is excellent.
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| [January 14, 2008 01:42:57 AM]
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Gamelog Entry #1
SUMMARY
Phantom Hourglass is an RPG that begins its story from the last adventure of the Zelda series. The introduction clearly establishes the main character, Link (or whichever name you'd like to give him), as the Hero. A ghost ship abducts Princess Zelda and the adventure begins on a quest to save her.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is easy and fun. There are step by step instructions given at the beginning of the game through normal play for controlling character movements and interaction with the environment. The game creates an almost automatic attachment between the player and character, especially for players of the previous games in the Zelda series. The legacy of this legendary RPG never disappoints with interesting story lines and memorable characters.
Phantom Hourglass is fun largely because of the nostalgiac feel of its predecessors. The controls make the game easy to play with a very intuitive touch screen interface. The game. however, does not necessarily allow for social interactions between other players (at least in adventure mode) because the player can become so absorbed into the game.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 14th, 2008 at 01:45:00.
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avera's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 12 January, 2008
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