The problem with Zelda....

The god damned Temple of the Ocean King!!!!!!!!

Now keep in mind that I love the game. A lot. It's brilliant. 9.5 for me. But I am so baffled as to the choice to keep returning to that stupid temple. Now it's a mixed bag for me because the layout, structure, and puzzle solving and dungeon exploration are top notch within the temple itselfand all of it's 13 or so floors. Some of the best and hardest ever! But why in the hell do they make you return to it so many times! With a clock due to the Phantom Hourglass? Beyond that though the real problem is that you have to re-do AAAAAALL of the puzzles and item searching and crystal placing tasks again every time. Wtf? Are you kiding me? The stupid triangle went back to the treasure chest two floors above it? What is this 1992?

Now I loved 1992. Smack dab in the middle of T2 and Jurassic Park. But that seems like archaic game design in that one aspect. It pissed me off everytime I had to go and do the same tasks againand avoid the stupid phantoms again. What also hurts this design is that the game has you do so much in between visits that, at I, had trouble remembering the exact order and process for getting through it. I found it very frustrating. Especially in a game I loved so much. Anyhoo I survived.

Anyone else feel this way???? Discuss.

yes at first it is VERY annoying. the last two times you go there however, you'll benefit from the many shortcuts there are and finish the whole temple in less than 5 minutes. yes the temple of the ocean king is very annoying and put the score of the overall game down on my review, nintendo shouldnt have gone with it, though its not bad in the latter stages.

EDIT: the dungeon design for the rest of the game though is great

Yes I found it to be a little frustrating to at first, but when I got the hang of it I actually liked it. When you aquire a new item the next time you can easely skip some floors, and most of the puzzle parts that where very time consuming in the first place.

But yeah, I have to agree with you it can be very annoying when you play the game for the first time. Then again.., I like a game where you have to do something in between, otherwise it would be to straight-forward and to easy. The Hourglass itself may not be the most original idea, but when you're near the end it's like, ...aha..so that's it's purpose to.

Im doing a second run on PH trying to collect all the Seacharts, Ship parts, Heart containers, Sand, Spirit gems, etc. I love collecting all the the stuff in Zelda games, and PH has allot of it.

yes at first it is VERY annoying. the last two times you go there however, you'll benefit from the many shortcuts there are and finish the whole temple in less than 5 minutes. yes the temple of the ocean king is very annoying and put the score of the overall game down on my review, nintendo shouldnt have gone with it, though its not bad in the latter stages.

EDIT: the dungeon design for the rest of the game though is great

alia999

I do agree with you on both accounts really. Mostly about the dungeon design. As I stated I did love the game and the dungeon design and use of the DS's capabilities in conjunction with a Zelda title coouldn't have been better, like you said in your review. And the same does hold true within the temple of the Ocean King itslef as I also said. Great dungeon crawling and puzzle solving. I just thin that you shouldn't have had to re-do already solved puzzles. It was just asinine in my opinion. It seems as hough you see my point, which helps me lol. And yes going through the temple later does get a little easier with short cuts and being able to destroy the Phantoms the last time through with the Phantom sword made it like butter.

[QUOTE="alia999"]

yes at first it is VERY annoying. the last two times you go there however, you'll benefit from the many shortcuts there are and finish the whole temple in less than 5 minutes. yes the temple of the ocean king is very annoying and put the score of the overall game down on my review, nintendo shouldnt have gone with it, though its not bad in the latter stages.

EDIT: the dungeon design for the rest of the game though is great

Darth-Samus

I do agree with you on both accounts really. Mostly about the dungeon design. As I stated I did love the game and the dungeon design and use of the DS's capabilities in conjunction with a Zelda title coouldn't have been better, like you said in your review. And the same does hold true within the temple of the Ocean King itslef as I also said. Great dungeon crawling and puzzle solving. I just thin that you shouldn't have had to re-do already solved puzzles. It was just asinine in my opinion. It seems as hough you see my point, which helps me lol. And yes going through the temple later does get a little easier with short cuts and being able to destroy the Phantoms the last time through with the Phantom sword made it like butter.

yes lol doing it with the phantom sword at the end however, was very easy. stray at a safe point, and when theyre near, hit the wall with your sword, they will come and investigate, as theyre walking away, arrow their backs to phantom hell.

I liked it BECAUSE it was challenging. I havent had to use gamefaqs in forever for a game. It really got me sweating when you had to go to bellum because if you lost, you had to start all over. Anyways, you only have to go back, what, 4 times? The first 2 times being really easy...Plus the phantom sword makes it way better since you can finally kill the phantoms. Theres tons of different rooms to explore, as you progress you can get some good stuff. Let me remind you, only 4 times you have to go inside. you make it sound so tedious when its relevant to the plot.TalesofRaGnArOk

See I have to stand by my statements that it was tedious. And again beyond being tedious it was annoying. Everytime I had to go back again it was having to do the puzzles over again. They could've easily reduced the frustration and pointlessness of it all if everything you did everytime you had to go back again was saved. Everytime I went back in I was like "Dammit now I have to do the three puzzles I did last time AGAIN before I can progress one maybe two more floors. Sigh..."

I don't know what else to tell you. Doing the same thing two or three times consistently just didn't do it for. Keep in mind that I LOVED the game and personally gave it a better score than Gamespot did.