Its a watered-down Zelda game with *rare* moments of greatness.
---THE BAD---
First of all, I HATE the train feature. Its not only extremely time consuming, but also frustrating, and very boring. If they had auto-travel it wouldn't be so bad. But instead, you have to stay alert or you'll die and start over. They could've made the train faster.
Second, the world is desolate, empty, dead. Each village has like 5 people in it. This feels like a creepy world being so empty, its not the Zelda I grew up knowing (SNES).
Third, its so heavily scripted, there is no room for true creative exploration (like Zelda SNES had). Expect to play the same exact game as everyone else.
Fourth, I get sick and tired of how badly the NPC's treat link. They treat him like he's some punk who isnt worth respect. HE'S SAVING THE WORLD! But they still spit on him. Its just sickening. Nintendo, get real...
Fifth, it starts out to slow, and takes too long to pick up speed (ha, train joke... >:(
Sixth, the flying merchant wont even give you the discount card by hand, you have to make a purchase, then go find a mailbox, sit through useless dialog, then go find him again to get a discount, which doesn't even get you much at all...
---THE GOOD---
When you actually get to a dungeon, it finally feels like a Zelda game. The puzzles are interesting, the tools you use are cool, the enemies are challenging. I especially liked the ice dungeon, it made me think alot.
Also nice is the tower you have to rebuild, and each time you go in there are new floors to beat, using Zelda herself inside the metal suits (which is cool). Also, you dont have to replay the whole thing each like like in Phantom Hourglass (hated that).
And the bosses are pretty cool too. Not very creative, but makes you think on your feet which I like, and not too easy either.
---OVERALL---
The story is boring, the world is empty, the train sucks, the characters are mean. The only thing that saves this game, and keeps me playing, is the dungeons themselves, which account for about 25% of the whole game.
If you have a chance to rent or borrow this game, DONT BUY IT! You'll probably end up wanting to throw your DS, dont say I didnt warn you.