The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007)
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a 2007 Nintendo DS action-adventure and a direct sequel to The Wind Waker. It adapts Zelda’s exploration and dungeons to stylus-driven controls, sea travel, and the time-protection mechanic of the Phantom Hourglass.
Game Data
| Release Year | 2007 |
| Developer | Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platform | Nintendo DS |
| Genre | Action-Adventure / Puzzle |
| Players | 1 |
| Original Media | DS Cartridge |
Gameplay:
Navigate and fight primarily with the touchscreen: tap to move, draw paths for items, and solve DS-style puzzles.
Explore the Great Sea by ship, and return to the Temple of the Ocean King where the Phantom Hourglass limits how long you can safely stay.
Story:
After The Wind Waker, Link and Tetra encounter a ghost ship—Tetra is captured, and Link teams up with Ciela and Linebeck.
Their quest leads them across islands to confront Bellum and break the sea’s curse.
Trivia:
Phantom Hourglass popularized a “touch-first” Zelda control scheme on DS, and helped prove that full-scale Zelda adventures could be redesigned around handheld-specific inputs.
Phantom Hourglass translated Wind Waker’s adventurous spirit to the DS, with stylus controls, compact island hopping, and a memorable central dungeon built around time pressure and route optimization.
Screenshots
Timeline / Versions
Why Phantom Hourglass Was Historically Important
Phantom Hourglass was a key “handheld re-think” of Zelda: it embraced stylus input for movement, combat, and puzzle interaction, while keeping the series’ sense of discovery and dungeon structure—setting the tone for later DS-era Zelda design.
