I played it for about an hour on my girlfriend's DS, got bored, and haven't touched it since. The touch screen controls completely nerfed the gameplay.

i just got mine this week, and i LOVE it

it reminds me of LoZ:LttP from SNES, which I like more than the newer 3-d ones

i like the top-down viewpoint zeldas and the dungeons so far remind me of zelda and LttP

i'm not very far yet tho, but so far it's amazing

i grew up beating zelda 100x on NES when I was young and then LttP a dozen times...those who grew up with ocarina onward may not like as much

I dunno what the beef with the Temple of the Ocean King is - how you play through the dungeon changes as you gain new items/abilities and most floors can be completely/partially skipped on subsequent playtroughs, so really, it’s not that bad. You only *need* to visit it 4 times, by the way.

As for the game as a whole, I've said it before; While Phantom Hourglass is indeed severely lacking in some areas, it does several key things better than any Zelda since Majora's Mask, which, in my opinion, bodes very well for the future of the franchise.

A few key points:

Phantom Hourglass suffered from 1) the worst music in the series 2) a shallow plot with yet another throwaway villain, 3) a remarkably plain, dull and lifeless world 4) a slew of bad/flawed gameplay desisions 5) some of the typical flaws in a Zelda game.

It excelled at 1) presentation (graphics, character design) 2) plot-delivery/gameplay-plot relevancy 3) characterization 4) puzzles 5) many of the new ideas brought on with the DS (this bodes well for a Wii game).

Now, as I said, the plot itself is pretty weak. The game starts out by stating it is a sequel to The Wind Waker... Then promptly throws any such connection out the window. From that point onward, the game draws very little from its prequel, other than Tetra and the relation Link has with her. A major disappointment, to be sure (though Aonuma has stated he is thinking about making more post-TWW games). Phantom Hourglass' own story is pretty standard fare, a bit weak, yes; the villain stays in his fortress the entire game and doesn't even talk.

But as I also said, the plot delivery is nothing short of excellent. From the intro to the Link’s Awakening- referring ending, there is a thought behind everything. For example, your fairy partner, Celia, suffers from amnesia. Nothing story related in particular is ever made of this - she is a pretty uninteresting character (though better than Navi) But there is a point to her amnesia - it acts as the catalyst to the power that enables you to defeat the final boss. That is cool planning. Same with the Phantom Sword - it doesn't just look cool and do twice the amount of damage, it allows you to defeat the previously invincible Phantoms. Thus, Story ties into gameplay.

The Spirits, however, are the best example of this, because they are not just 'three stones' that serve no purpose other than to be arbitrary placed in some sacred shrine to allow you access to the Master Sword; they are characters (however simple) that play a continuing part in the story, AND they offer special powers - again, more than any previous Zelda tokens have done.

Moreover, the story is focused and has a point - Link is out to save Tetra, and the game never loses sight of this. Yes, saving the world becomes important in the second half of the game, but that's always second fiddle to Link, which I think is awesome.

The supporting characters were also handled great - Linebeck was awesome, Oshu was an involved character and not just some demigod, and though Zelda was again kidnapped from the start of the game, I did like how she stayed true to her character. The ending was pretty awesome in that regard - even Bellum managed to leave an impression, although he did resort to the 'posses-ally' tactic that has become so popular with Nintendo as of late.

Well, I could go on, but this post is long enough as it is. Like I said, I did like Phantom Hourglass, and though it's not my favorite Zelda, it has made me look forward to Zelda Wii with *great* anticipation.