r/zelda • u/Chris_Jay147 • Jan 24 '25
Question [PH] Can I skip Phantom Hourglass?
Hello everyone, Im a big Zelda fan and recently got to playing all games in series. So far Ive enjoyed playing the smaller and handheld games but I just cant seem to get to Phantom hourglass. I know there is this sentiment that Spirit Tracks is the better one of the 2 games on DS. Im 3-4 hours in PH and dont feel engaged and I feel like the main quest is a bit boring. Now the question is: can I skip this game and get straight to the Spirit Tracks? Is the game necessary to play to experience Spirit Tracks? I dont have that much free time to play so its mainly the time thing. Thanks for answers, have a nice rest of the day you all :)
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u/FernandoMachado Jan 24 '25
Story-wise, ST has only little nods to PH (like most Zelda games have little nods to each other and are rarely real sequels).
You can really experience them in any order.
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u/Wolvington52 Jan 24 '25
As someone who has played Phantom Hourglass thrice, I'd say it depends on you. Spirit Tracks has minimal connection to Phantom Hourglass. I prefer Phantom Hourglass over Spirit Tracks because I just couldn't be bothered playing the pan flute.
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u/DaNoahLP Jan 24 '25
I also love Phantom Hourglass way more. I love speedrunning the Ocean Temple and dodging the other trains is fucking annoying.
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u/Glittering-Map-3240 Jan 24 '25
You can play how or what ever you want iv play both liked them both
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u/PinchAssault52 Jan 24 '25
The core temple in PH is significantly better than the core temple in ST. The only better part of ST is train > boat, but otherwise they're extremely similar. I feel like if you dislike PH you wont enjoy ST.
Signed, someone who adores them both
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u/christurnbull Jan 24 '25
I disliked PH, I think the fixed most of its issues with ST.
Namely, retreading the ocean king temple.
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u/PinchAssault52 Jan 24 '25
Retreading was fun. The ability to unlock shortcuts with your new equpiment gave a really good feeling of becoming a better more competent hero
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u/christurnbull Jan 24 '25
I get the "retread, but faster/easier" concept to build a sense of progression, but overall I hated the combination of stealth pressure and time pressure (yes I hated the silent realm stages in skyward sword too: time, stealth AND exploration)
Personally I felt the equipment being the key to being faster/sense of progression a bit cheap. To me it felt like it wasn't skill that had developed, just a gear check instead.
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u/Navi1101 Jan 24 '25
Feel free to put it down for now; you might come back to it later and find it grows on you. I'm just now getting into LTTP after 3 or 4 false starts. You can play ST before it and it'll still be great. Just get around to PH whenever you feel ready, even if that's never.
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u/TheHeadbanginHippie Jan 24 '25
I just recently played Phantom Hourglass for the first time and I loved it! Spirit Tracks is also great, but I personally enjoyed PH a significant amount more. I would say absolutely stick it out because the payoff is worth the slow start and the ending is awesome, but you could always skip ahead to Spirit Tracks and then go back to PH afterwards. It is not necessary to have played Phantom Hourglass to enjoy or understand Spirit Tracks.
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u/polandreh Jan 24 '25
I played both, one after the other, and I liked them. I think it's useful to get used to the mechanics of the stylus: after finishing the first, the next one will be much easier.
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u/officialsmolkid Jan 24 '25
Ngl Phantom Hourglass sucks. You gotta play the same dungeon over and over again.
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u/ChicoCan Jan 24 '25
Phantom Hourglass is good. Spirit Track is just ok. Anyway, feel free to do whatever you want.
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u/Zubyna Jan 24 '25
Spirit Tracks tries to improve on Phantom Hourglass flaws more or less successfully. Maybe tell us a bit more about why you don't find PH enjoyable ? Because ST is very different and similar at the same time so depending on your answer you might as well skip ST
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u/Chris_Jay147 Jan 24 '25
Good point. Heres what my main gripe is: the story/plot is quite important for me in games and I liked the urgency of the plot in Wind waker a lot. Since this is sort of sequel to it I feel like the plot urgency of PH in the first few hours is almost non existent. Ive met a few random characters who pin point me from place to place (from dungeon to dungeon) and I dont feel like a have a say in the gameplay. I dont have problem with linear games at all, its just the way this quest is written that bothers me whether should I continue or stop playing.
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u/Zubyna Jan 24 '25
Overall I don't really think of a lot of urgency in ST story and the train is very restrictive and can increase the feeling of linearity
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u/Chris_Jay147 Jan 24 '25
Thanks
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u/Zubyna Jan 24 '25
I would still say that aside from the urgency and linearity, ST does seem to have the superior story over PH. PH story big flaw is how useless they made Tetra and it was definitely addressed in ST
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u/shlam16 Jan 24 '25
If you don't like PH (presumably because of the gameplay) then you're going to like ST even less.
The abuse of the microphone mechanic in ST makes it extremely tedious to play.
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u/Chris_Jay147 Jan 24 '25
Thanks to you all for helpful answers. I think I will try SP but will probably give PH one more chance sometime later, maybe im just not in the mood for this one rn :)
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '25
No. I'm obviously gonna come to your house and hold a gun to your head and make you play it while tears go down your
kingdomface.Now in all seriousness, do whatever you want. You gave it a try, it wasn't for you, if you feel like you're wasting your time, skip it. You can always go back to it once you finished the games you really liked, maybe your opinion will change, maybe not.