Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

[jj984jj]

The official website is up:
http://www.zelda.com/phantomhourglass/

And a new trailer:
http://www.redwoodeditor.com/content/Nintendo/ecard/

This game is coming out next week, anybody else getting it? I think it looks pretty awesome, I hope the stylus controls work well but I'm not to worried since it's EAD Zelda and not Capcom Zelda.

[Prime Mover]

Yeah, since Capcom Zelda's suck...

...wait, WHAT THE FUCK?

[jj984jj]

Yeah, since Capcom Zelda's suck...

...wait, WHAT THE FUCK?

They never touched Link's Awakening, that's for sure.

[Jimmy]

Minish Cap was pretty good. Oracle of Ages/Seasons? Well, they weren't bad, but as jj said, they were a far cry from Link's Awakening.

I'd love to try Phantom Hourglass, but I'm afraid I won't be able to have the time or money to give to it.

*shrug*

[Eusis]

Capcom's Zeldas are fine, but I myself would trust Nintendo more to create a new, intuitive control scheme. Anyways, yeah, I'll see about picking this up.

[Prime Mover]

Eusis has a point, as great as Capcom's Zelda's are, they all do a great job of polishing out existing styles that Nintendo originally created, like Minish Cap which basically merged the gameplay of Link to the Past with the presentation of Wind Waker. Parts of Capcom are wonderfully innovative, but it's usually best for the creators themselves (Myamoto and friends) to deal with pushing the series forward in some direction.

[Lord Scottish]

1up gave it an 8. I can't wait until the Zelda fanboys read that.

*grabs popcorn*

[Sennin]

I'm on the fence for this, having yet to finish Twilight Princess. What is scaring me off are reports that players finish it in under 15 hours for the import! For a Zelda game I expect something epic, like 40 hours of pure dungeon puzzles and slightly over 50 hours if we cue in the sidequests.

I'd see how this goes before I pick it up. Blacklog's pretty healthy at the moment. ^

[Eusis]

Does it actually have a timer though? I think most Zelda games have been 20-30 hours, with TP just being exceptionally long.

[Sennin]

I think there is a time record on every save game. In Wind Waker it is there, I recall finishing close to 100% (all figurines complete... I might have missed 2) at the 60 hour mark.

[Superflat]

Would you really want to hunch over your DS for 60 hours though? I'm not getting it any time soon, considering that I got Halo last week and that college apps are taking over my life. Maybe sometime next year though. Plus I've got an enormous backlog and haven't beaten TP.

[Eusis]

I swear the 'timer' on WW was only to say at what times you saed of the day, like at noon and not that you played for 12 hours. If my memory's correct, then it was only with TP we got timers like that, plus this appears to follow the mold of LttP more than the post-OoT console Zeldas, none of those were really that long.

Also I feel that spending 5/6ths of a game in a dungeon's missing a large point to Zelda. It's about adventuring around the world, not simply dungeon crawling. They're essential of course, you'd be a fool to argue otherwise, but you should be spending half or even a third of the time in those, not 80% or whatever.

Edit: And while spread across various games I probably DID spend that much time on the DS when I initially got mine.

[Sennin]

I don't have Wind Waker with me now, and I think I deleted the save file on my 251 mem card as well so I can't really back up where I get my 60 hours mark from. Just fuzzy memory I guess =D

I don't want to spend 60 hours hunching over my DS; I don't think anyone wants that. ^ I want value for my $30. If I spend $50 for TP and I'm hearing reports of 50~70 hours play time from multiple sources, I'm happy! If I'm have to shell out $30 for Zelda's latest entrance, I should be expecting 30 hours if I'm pegging $10 to 10 hours of entertainment.  

I've also read Golden Sun 1 and 2 is roughly in the vein of 60 hours each as well. I've yet to play it, so someone who has gone through the motion might want to refute or support my claims.

Fire Emblems were around 25~30 hours for me. I'm fine with that, since the it falls within my criteria of $1 for an hour of playtime.

I don't like replaying rpgs as they are huge time sinks, and I play them for the dialogs and stories. I also acknowledge the commitment made by several rpg gamers who invest upwards of 200+ hours for Disgaea and FFT. That's really making the game work hard for you!