Annoying Video Game Helper: Ciela doesn't get as much flak as other Exposition Fairy characters in the series (since Phantom Hourglass is underknown compared to other titles and she has a notable character arc), but she still has a bad habit of repeating information that the game just conveyed.
Ciela gets some hate for being a Navi rehash, but others point out that she has a personality and a character arc, while being a lot less abrasive than Tatl.
Best Boss Ever: Many of the bosses in the latter half of the game are very formidable and are highlights of the game, from Gleeok's unique Tennis Boss encounter, breaking down Eox from a formidable stone giant to a pile of wood, and the intense final battle against Bellum.
Catharsis Factor: After all the tedium that the Temple of the Ocean King provides, being able to utterly cheese its puzzles with your new gear is just a blast, especially once you get the Phantom Sword and can start killing the Phantoms.
In light of the Anouki’s debut in this game, it’s sometimes theorized that Zunari, the shop master from The Wind Waker, is one of them, and that he emigrated to Windfall Island from the Isle of Frost. However, while they may look similar due to Zunari’s hooded coat, the Anouki are clearly not ordinary humans, owing to their antlers and penguin-like flippers, neither of which Zunari is shown to have.
Contrary to popular belief, details provided by the game imply that Eox is not a Cobble Kingdom war machine. Like all over dungeon bosses, Eox still explodes into Sand of Hours on being defeated, and the Cobble knights affirm that it showing up in Mutoh’s Temple is a relatively recent occurrence that woke the king from his eternal rest, implying that Eox is just another creation of Bellum’s.
Contested Sequel: Phantom Hourglass is contested not only with regards to The Wind Waker, but to the 2D-style Zelda games in general. It often gets called the least memorable of the bunch due to an undercooked story, lack of environmental variety, very limited soundtrack, and over-reliance on elements of The Wind Waker, and gets general criticism for the sometimes imprecise control scheme and the Temple of the Ocean King. However, many still enjoy it as a lighter adventure that makes creative use of traditional Zelda items and presents many unique boss fights, and it's not too hard to find people who like the Temple of the Ocean King.
Crack Pairing: Whatever you do, don't enter the words "Linebeck" and "Link" into the search-bar on DeviantArt. Just... don't...
Critical Dissonance: It got glowing reviews from critics due to its use of the DS' features, but it's considered one of the worst Zelda games by the online fandom due to its tedium.
Disappointing Last Level: The game doesn’t have a proper final dungeon. After getting the Phantom Sword your final dungeon is just making it to the final floor of the Temple of the Ocean King, which you already reached on your last visit. While it is cathartic to kill the patrolling Phantoms in one hit, nothing else changes about the final trip. Then you reach the final floor and you have to kill 3 of each type of Phantom, which is a huge pain since their patrol path and the extremely small arena makes it nearly impossible to sneak up and hit the Phantom’s weakpoint without alerting the others. Thankfully the three part Final Boss against Bellum ends the game on a high note. While Spirit Tracks still has a revist of the Tower of Spirits as its final dungeon, it’s at least a lengthy and wholly new section
Ensemble Dark Horse: Jolene shows up in a surprising amount of fanfiction, even though the player only has to meet her twice to beat the game. Being rather attractive and having a "history" with Linebeck helps a lot.
Epileptic Trees: A rather in-depth theory posits that the World of the Ocean King is the Adult timeline's version of Termina, taking place parallel to the Child timeline's Majora's Mask in a similarly-flooded Termina.
Game-Breaker: The Hammer. It's the first instance in the series of the hammer being a long-range weapon, as your Exposition Fairy will be the one wielding it instead of you, meaning you can keep your distance against certain enemies while you command your fairy to wail on them with it. It can even come in handy in the Temple of the Ocean King, as you can slam the hammer in certain spots to distract Phantoms so you can avoid them or attack their backs.
It's Easy, So It Sucks!: If a critic isn't harping on Temple of the Ocean King, chances are they're grumbling about this. Sandwiched between Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks, this game just didn't have any teeth.
Low-Tier Letdown: Despite being your default Fairy Companion, as well as the one with the most personality, there's no reason to rely on Ciela's spirit powers once you've upgraded those of the other two spirits. Having Leaf equipped allows you to tear through your enemies with ease, even shaving precious time off of boss encounters with your upped attack strength. Neri is even more useful: in addition to reducing the damage taken by enemies, she allows you to stun them simply by bashing them with your shield and can cut down the time you lose to Phantom attacks, making her quite useful inside the Temple of the Ocean King. Comparatively, the touch-based swordplay makes Ciela's sword beams too unwieldy to be preferable over items like the bow and arrows, and her narrative functions as an Exposition Fairy can be fulfilled regardless of whether you have her equipped or not.
Older Than They Think: Phantom Hourglass was not the first Zelda game to require you to return to a central temple after each dungeon before you could access the next one. That honor goes to Oracle of Seasons, in which Link needed to gain a new blessing from the Temple of Seasons in Subrosia in order to enter the second to fifth dungeons. It still differed from the Temple of the Ocean King, however, in that the Temple of Seasons was not a proper dungeon; each tower Link was required to visit would at most feature a single simple puzzle or maze obstructing his path.
One-Scene Wonder: The Massive Eye (a flying whale monster) is a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere that randomly shows up for a short boss fight before Link arrives on Goron Island, but its unique and creepy design, coupled with the ominous atmosphere of its battle, make it one of the more memorable enemies in the game.
The reliance on touch controls. They make it close to impossible to multitask while playing, and it can be hard even to see what’s on-screen when it’s partially covered up by the stylus you’re constantly holding in front of it.
Whilst searching for the Ghost Ship, you get forced into a sort of first-person view where you have to manually steer the S.S. Linebeck in the direction where the spirits’ reaction is strongest. Not only is the right direction extremely difficult to get nailed down with complete precision, but you have to do this in a patch of ocean that’s blanketed in thick fog and littered with explosive barrels that will damage your ship on contact, and you can’t use your cannon at all. It's not something you can back out of, either; the only way to clear out of it is by steering yourself so far off course that you're sent back to the start of the area.
Salvaging sunken treasure in this game requires playing a mini-game where you have to steer your ship’s salvage crane down past an arrangement of explosive mines and then avoid them again as you haul the treasure up from the bottom. Not only is this a lengthy process with rewards that are varying degrees of worth-it, but the controls are exceedingly sensitive, and the slightest tap will take off a section of the crane’s maintenance gauge. The only way to restore said gauge is by going back to Mercay Island and having the shipyard worker repair it, for a price proportional to the damage done.
Self-Imposed Challenge: In addition to the usual three-heart run, by using the safe zones which don't take up time when Link is in them, and golden pots that add time, it's possible to complete the Temple of the Ocean King in zero seconds according to the game's measurement.
The Temple of the Ocean King is one of the franchise's most hated, thanks to the repeat visits through the same rooms, the timer, and the ability of the Phantoms to knock you back to a room's entrance while reducing the time you have left. The Tower of Spirits was designed with the intent of remedying these complaints.
The Ghost Ship combines the Temple's Stealth-Based Mission aspects with an Escort Mission, and the escorts are as unhelpful as possible. They're invincible, but they freeze up and scream whenever you run into a spider, which alerts the guards, and there are quite a few spiders between the escort and the drop-off point. They also freeze up if you get too far away from them, and give you bad advice that can make things harder for you if you listen to them. It's no surprise that the escortees turn out to be evil, and become the dungeon's boss fight.
That One Sidequest: Getting all of the Heart Containers is hard work, especially given the difficulty of the archery minigame and Maze Island in general. The fishing minigame and the sparring game (where you have to hit Nyeve a hundred times before he hits you three times) aren't much better.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: People who wanted to see more of Tetra and her pirate crew from The Wind Waker will be disappointed to learn that the crew only appears in the game's intro and outro, while Tetra spends half the game kidnapped and the other half as a statue.
Of the three dungeon items received in the second half of the game, the Bombchus and Hammer get much less use than the Grappling Hook (which helps you find many items on the overworld, has a lot of combat use, and is required for defeating Bellum). Bombchus aren't needed for much outside of the Goron Temple despite having two capacity upgrades. The Hammer is powerful and fun to use, but unless you break sequence you'll get it in the second half of the final main dungeon, and the only extras it lets you access are two non-essential treasure maps in the Temple of the Ocean King.
While looking for the Ghost Ship in the fog, the three spirits will light up and make noise when your ship is pointed straight at the target, leaving you to steer the ship by turning its wheel. This is the only part in the game where the ship isn't piloted by drawing a line on the map.
posits that the World of the Ocean King is the Adult timeline's version of Termina, taking place parallel to the Child timeline's Majora's Mask in a similarly-flooded Termina.