LLOOOLL!!!

Hey Shams, I completely agree. Glad I'm not the only one, cause I don't want Zelda to go any further into that direction.
The Zelda and Mario series are the only ones I absolutely love, I usually start getting nervous 2 years in advance of a new Zelda game. Finished ST yesterday, and I really have to say I am disappointed.

- Removing the free overworld roaming cuts my Zelda experience by half. I can't even be bothered to complete the missing side quests, cause the train travel is such a chore. And side quests are usually my favourite part!
- Another point I strongly agree on is the painfully evident 'rinse-and-repeat' structure. After some 20 years of playing Zelda, this is the game that made me feel tired of it.
- Trains. How are you supposed to feel a sense of exploration when you're going somewhere by train!?! Oh, I've found a secret, ancient temple! How? There's a railway station! Come on... Guardians and villains on wheels? Is this an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical?

On the plus side:
+ Since you haven't finished the game yet: The dungeon design is very good! Actually these were some of the best Zelda dungeons in recent memory, really fresh puzzles. And the last dungeon and tower section were freaking hard. Makes you wonder how the casuals are supposed to get through... no way, I say.
+ Graphics are great
+ Good enemy design

7/10 for me. Really sad.

And lay off the people who are criticizing Helios.  They are also some of the biggest fans on the forum.  It's all right for them to disagree with him and criticize some of his remarks legitimately ;).

I agree with almost everything in your post but I still somehow manage to love it ;)

Nice joke!keep it this way.

I'm up to playing the 4th Locomo song. I enjoyed parts of the water world... but also managed to dislike parts of it. I found the dungeon "ok" - but way too predictable, short and easy for me. I thought the ideas were under-exploited.

But the train bits are becoming shorter and more varied - which is good. I liked transporting the ice around, even though those bomb trains still annoy me (and who the hell uses ice to cool lava? it doesn't work!! :>).

My overall score is probably up to an 8...

BTW - it took me 4 days to *play* the 3rd Locomo song... arrrgh!! I'm really hating the wind pipe tracks (most of the playing is real easy though?). And I then breezed through the dungeon in one train trip to work. The boss was a good idea, but also too short/easy IMO.

I'm at the very end of the game, and to say I haven't enjoyed the ending would be an ... understatement. It feels all frustration, and not much fun.

I always try and finish a game before giving a final review/score - so I'll give the final boss another go first.

Once I'm done, I'll go back and replay PH - just to see how they directly compare.

God this game is frustrating.

I was enjoying the game until the sand sanctuary, that song is frustrating!!!. I tried more that 200 times! and nothing.

Okay, after finishing it I can safely say...

-train travel was just as boring as boat travel, but it at least lost treasure salvage nonsense
-dungeons/puzzles were a HUGE improvement over PH
-double tap rolling >>>>>>>>> circle draw rolling
-more challenging bosses than PH
-better side missions/content than PH

...overall it's a much better game than PH, but still not the best DS could deliver imo and worse generally than the rest of the series due to the gimped overworld. I really, really want a DS Zelda with a full, lush overworld to explore ON FOOT.