History VIdeoGame / TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass

* BuildLikeAnEgyptian: One of the last areas Link visits on his quest is the Isle of Ruins, which contains a lot of pyramid-like architecture built by the long-gone people of the Cobble Kingdom.

* DropTheHammer: A magic Hammer is collected in Mutoh's Temple. While much smaller than the Skull Hammer of the chonologically previous game's fame, it's still impressive considering it's wielded by [[NinjaButterfly a tiny fairy]], especially for {{Charged Attack}}s. And because it ''is'' Ciela who uses it, it's required to defeat enemies and press switches placed in spots that are unreachable for Link himself, including the weak points of the dungeon's boss (Eox).

The fourteenth game in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series, released in 2007, ''Phantom Hourglass'' is a sequel to ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' and stars the Hero of Winds once again. Unlike previous ''Zelda'' games, there was also a single central dungeon, the Temple of the Ocean King; beating other dungeons would allow the player to progress farther in the Temple, which would open up more dungeons, and so on. The UsefulNotes/NintendoDS game is entirely stylus-based, with the bottom screen consisting of most of the action and the top screen containing a map that the player can bring down and mark for clues.

** The crest pointing to the Sun Key. Who would have known that you're supposed to [[spoiler:''close the DS'' to put the marking on it?]] Ciela even congratulates you on figuring it out! It's even harder to figure out if [[spoiler:you're playing it on a [[UseulNotes/Nintendo3DS Nintendo 2DS]], where sleep mode is activated by a switch, or the UsefulNotes/WiiU UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, where you have to go to the Home Menu or Virtual Console Menu and back.]] At least the original DS solution does have a logical connection as you are physically putting the two maps together, if in a more meta way than most would expect, while the later methods are basically arbitrary.

* LevelMapDisplay: Both this game and the succeeding ''Spirit Tracks'' have the map displayed on the top of the UsefulNotes/{{DS}} screen.
* LostInTranslation: The game contains an island called [[ConsoleCameo Dee Ess Island]], which as the name suggests, looks exactly like a UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. However, the French name for the island translate to "Island of Ess(es)". This is because in French, the word "de" means "of", and apparently, "Dee" was translated as "de". This means that the island's name's pun is lost on the French. The name is correctly translated in the New World versions of French, perhaps because Nintendo of America handles translations for all of North America. Italian belongs to the same language family as French, but the name was translated properly in that language, making a clever pun ("Diesse" sounds both like "DS" and "di Esse", "of Ess" in Italian).

** At one point you're required to transfer a seal on the top screen to its corresponding location on the map on your lower screen by closing your UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and reopening it.

* TogglingSetpiecePuzzle: Red and blue barrier blocks are present in the Temple of Fire, and as usual only the red blocks will be active by default. Once Link collects the Boomerang, he can guide it onto seemingly impossible-to-hit orbs with the help of the touch screen of the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, thus overlapping with TrickShotPuzzle, and toggle off the red blocks while toggling on the blue ones.

* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: At one point, the game asks you to transfer the crest engraved in a wall mural onto your sea chart by pressing them together. The way to accomplish this is simply by opening up the chart so that it's on the bottom screen, and then closing the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS.

* FissionMailed: If you have a purple potion on you when you die, Link collapses as he does in the game over sequence, but then drinks the potion and gets back up.

* GoWaitOutside: There's a convenient distraction in the form of a sub-plot resolution when the blacksmith is forging the Phantom Sword.

* BackStab: The dangerous Phantoms can only be defeated from behind (and only if you have the proper weapon to do so). If your sword if powered up by the Spirit of Courage, you can still stun them, though.

* BackStab: The dangerous Phantoms can only be defeated from behind (and only if you have the proper weapon to do so).

* PrecociousCrush:
** An odd one. After defeating the GhostShip, if Link returns to Molida Island, he'll encounter a girl near the dock who wasn't there on his previous visit. She swoons over her mental image of the hero who defeated the GhostShip and gives Link a treasure map to give to the hero, who she seems to think is much older than him.
** In a more subtle example, three of the four sections of the map feature areas where rocks are arranged in a formation of three, and an island is hidden near each of them.

* IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: The Cubus Sisters, once you figure out they are lying to you. ([[ObviouslyEvil Which should take all of two seconds]]).

* AntiHero: Lineback, oh, Linebeck. He makes it ''very'' clear he's only letting Link use his ship not because he wants to set sail with him, but because he just wants the treasure that awaits him on the Ghost Ship. [[spoiler:Then when it turns out there was no treasure, he gets briefly upset before he's told the Ocean King will grant him a wish--which immediately gets him to motivate Link to continue his quest.]]

* CreepyChild: The Cubus sisters look like little girls in hooded dresses and are scared of spiders... but are for some reason on an extremely creepy haunted ship. Their eyes (unlike Link and Linebeck) are black, with little dots of blue in the middle, and they seem extremely "off" [[spoiler:until the player's suspicions are confirmed and they turn into ghastly grinning flying demons]].

* FinalExamBoss: The final battle involves the grappling hook, the bow, a new form of the drawing gimmick, and even some boat combat. To finish it all off is a form of swordplay you've been developing by battles against Jolene.
* FireIceDuo: Gleeok, the boss of the Temple of Ice, is a two-headed dragon that can shoot fireballs from its red head and frigid ice from its blue.

* KidHero: Link is still not beyond the age of thirteen in this game.

* LovableCoward: Linebeck makes a strong case for this trope, given his constant excuses to ''not'' go into anything remotely dangerous and various other blunders. In spite of this, everyone continues to put up with him.

* OneWingedAngel: Bellum plays with the trope. It starts out as a big, squid-like monster covered in eyeballs, then progresses to a ''possessed Ghost Ship''. Once that's out of the way, though, it actually assumes a much smaller, humanoid form, via [[spoiler:possessing Link's buddy Linebeck]].

* RedundantResearcher: Linebeck makes an interesting twist on this trope, being a character who very much wants to discover the secrets of the local Temple but has done very little to actually work for it. Other characters, however, do make a considerable effort to uncover the Temple's secrets, as evidenced by the large number of corpses inside. Linebeck also fails to carry a sword, let alone the legendary artifact that actually allows people to survive the temple. Even so, he still does more to assist Link on his quest than almost any other character in the game. Not that this stops the ExpositionFairy from teasing him for [[MilesGloriosus his bragging and cowardice]].

* TreacherousQuestGiver: The main gameplay of the GhostShip consists of an EscortMission with four ObviouslyEvil CreepyChild girls. Upon their reunion, they reveal themselves as the dungeon's WolfpackBoss.

* {{Tsundere}}: Linebeck from Phantom Hourglass is a male example, both to Link and to the fairy Ciela. At a late point in the game, he manages to call the latter by her name.

* ForcedTutorial: You're playing the exact same Link from ''The Wind Waker'' and you still [[http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?comic=100807 have no choice but to re-learn sword play]]

** During one of Jolene's later ambushes, she reveals that she knows that Linebeck is hiding in the wooden box. When she calls out to him, [[Franchise/MetalGear the only thing you see coming from the box is an exclamation point.]]

* NoobCave: There is a cave that precedes the entrance to the Temple of the Ocean King. The first floor of the temple itself counts as well.

* BottomlessPits: Deep holes in the ground are a recurring hazard in the dungeons, and Link loses half a heart if he falls into them. Curiously, the pits can also be used to the player's advantage, as knocking a Phantom into the void is the only way to kill the creatures before obtaining the InfinityPlusOneSword.

* ChestMonster: You can occasionally come across rupees just sitting out in the open. These are attached to an antenna on a Like Like (monsters that look like a giant blancmange with a maw on top) that would pop out of the ground and try to suck you in if you get close enough.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: The Cubus sisters surprisingly do this, praising Link for his skills on [[DeadlyGame Dead Man's Volley]] before fading away.

** Most of Bellum's monsters have the same eye as Bellum. For the big blue cyclops monster, you can't go near them at all unless you fire an arrow in its eye first, thus stunning it.

* HeWasRightThereAllAlong: The boss on the Ghost Ship that won't show up until you get all four of the "sisters" together. {{Justified|Trope}} in that [[spoiler:the sisters themselves ''are'' the boss.]]
* HoldYourHippogriffs: When Linebeck refuses to enter the Ghost Ship, Ciela refers to him as a "cucco." Cuccos are [[CallARabbitASmeerp chickens]] in all but name and [[LethalJokeCharacter ferocity]].

* JollyRoger: Warships are little boats with only a canon on them that fly a small white flag with a black skull and crossbones, a color-inverted Jolly Roger.
* KeepTheReward: At the end of the game, Linebeck is given a wish by Oshus for anything at all; everyone assumes he will wish for money, but having "grown" he wishes for nothing more than his ship back, which was destroyed in the course of the story.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Cubus sisters' name comes from succubus, female demons who tempt men. Meanwhile, their master Bellum's name can literally be translated as "war".

* OneWingedAngel: Bellum plays with the trope. It starts out as a big, squid-like monster covered in eyeballs, then progresses to a ''possessed battleship''. Once that's out of the way, though, it actually assumes a much smaller, humanoid form, via [[spoiler:possessing Link's buddy Linebeck]].

** Pol's voices return as enemies, and can be stunned by blowing in the DS' microphone.

* SeaMine: There are underwater enemies during the treasure-salvage minigames that evoke this look, being spiked balls with eyes that explode if you make contact with them with either the crane hook or the treasure chest you're salvaging [[note]]the chain linking the hook and the boat is, by necessity, non-interactive with the mines[[/note]].
* SealedGoodInACan: The game harkens back to this, with the mighty Ocean King left powerless by the BigBad.

* SoundOfDarkness: Phantoms in the Temple of the Ocean King make an eerie noise as they spawn, and are beings of darkness.

* TennisBoss: Wouldn't be a ''Zelda'' game without it. You have to beat the Cubus sisters in a game of Dead Man's Volley.

* BareYourMidriff: Jolene wears an outfit that exposes her midsection, fitting for a pirate captain.

* CommonplaceRare: You must repeatedly visit the cursed Temple of the Ocean King in search of largely ordinary sea charts with which you can navigate between islands. At least the first two are marked with specific locations of the spirits Link is searching for, but the last two don’t offer anything that couldn’t be gleaned from any other chart.

* QuicksandSucks: Zig-zagged. The game averts the trope in both the desert-themed Isle of Gust and its dungeon the sandy Temple of Wind (the actual threat is the wind currents and geysers, sand is harmless otherwise); but it's played straight in the Goron Temple, where '''all''' sand is deadly for Link (luckily, his Bombchus can navigate through them just fine).

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The Japanese, European and Korean box arts got a colourful spread of Link and Linebeck sailing about, the American art has them in moodier poses with a brown-shaded Phantom Ship as the backdrop.

* ImmediateSequel: Not long after the events of ''The Wind Waker'' (which ended as Link and Tetra began their search for a new land), Link gets caught in a maelstrom that knocks him overboard, [[BagOfSpilling separates him from his equipment]], and washes him ashore to where ''Phantom Hourglass'' takes place.

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Japan and Europe got a colourful spread of Link and Linebeck sailing about, the US art has them in moodier poses with a brown-shaded Phantom Ship as the backdrop.

* ImmediateSequel. Not long after the events of ''The Wind Waker'' (which ended as Link and Tetra began their search for a new land), Link gets caught in a maelstrom that knocks him overboard, [[BagOfSpilling separates him from his equipment]], and washes him ashore to where ''Phantom Hourglass'' takes place.

* {{Chickification}}: Tetra, after her role in ''The Wind Waker''. She spends the first half of the game held captive aboard the cursed Ghost Ship, and by the time Link is able to rescue her, she's been turned into a stone statue. She doesn't get better until Link takes down the BigBad's first form, and even then she doesn't participate in the second half of the fight.

* DeathsHourglass: The titular hourglass protects Link from the temple's curse. But only as long as its sun-ray-charged sands keep falling. Once the hourglass runs out, Link's life force is drained, which usually results in a GameOver when you're stuck too deep in the temple. Also, in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', there's the on-screen clock, aided by the fact that the Moon is coming down slowly and it's visible from almost everywhere in the game's world. The on-screen clock eventually changes into a countdown in the game's last six minutes.

* CommonplaceRare: You must repeatedly visit the Temple of the Ocean King, a cursed place filled with evil phantoms and multiple puzzles that drains the life of anyone who enters it, in order to acquire... maps that allow you to sail from one island to another. Something you'd expect to be far more common in a ship-filled seafaring world like this one.

* DamselInDistress: Tetra spends the first half of the game AWOL and the second half as a statue just to make sure she had a reason not to be kicking ass by Link's side.

* AndAnotherThing: The game includes a pirate whom you fight on your ship at least twice. Every time you defeat her, she gives one of these lines - most of them quite lame and irrelevant.

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: In ''The Wind Waker'', Ganondorf, after breaking free from the seal that contained him, had started to outgrow his original evil nature and become a more complex figure who wanted the Triforce to restore Hyrule despite still wanting to control it. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', Bellum was a mindless beast who was trying to break free from its own seal and only seemed interested in consuming life force. Also unlike Ganondorf, Link does not know of Bellum's existence until midway in the game. Even their signature hideouts fit this. The island-based Forsaken Fortress was designed by Ganondorf to repel any intruders, and he [[KnowWhenToFoldEm abandons it]] partway through the game. Bellum's Ghost Ship is mobile and lasts the entire game, and it was designed to use rumors of treasure to lure people in to have their life force drained.