I quite enjoyed the game but it's nowhere near the top of my "favorites" list. I'd place it at 6th out of the 8 that I've played. Here's my thoughts on the game; what I liked and didn't like:
1.
STORY. The story is generally the biggest thing that I look for in a Zelda game. The story always draws me to the games, not the gameplay or controls or items. I think the story was not up to par in this game. It was very dull and not very exciting. This was the biggest let down for me. I still have yet to play LA so I can't really compare them though.
2.
GAMEPLAY/CONTROLS. So far, I think this was the most innovative Zelda game, control-wise. I disagree with other posters saying that the controls were awkward. I think the controls were the best part about the game and allowed for some great use of weapons. Items like the boomerang were used in a way that they never had been used before. This was definitely a HUGE plus for me.
3.
MUSIC. So far out of the 8 games I've played (LoZ, AoL, OoT, MM, WW, TP, PH, ST), this game has got to have the most boring soundtrack. There wasn't a single memorable song in the entire game. It was just so uninspired and nothing caught my attention. ST has a great, memorable soundtrack and that was one of my favorite things about the game. Why couldn't PH have had the same?
4.
SIDEQUESTS. There really were none, except for collecting Ruto Crowns and Power/Wisdom/Courage gems, etc. Collection sidequests are always my least favorite because they're not really deep and serve no purpose other than a hassle if you want to get 100%. They add nothing more to the game than time. I really wasn't a fan of how linear (although only 2 games IMO didn't seem so linear, MM and WW) the game was without them.
5.
SAILING. I thought that the sailing, for the most part, was improved upon from TWW. Islands were no longer so spread out and the ocean felt a LITTLE less empty. I don't know if this was done one purpose, or just because of the lack of memory/data space that the DS has compared to the Gamcube. Either way, I think that was for the better. The only thing I didn't really like was that sailing didn't feel as free as TWW and exploration wasn't the same due to the fact that your ship followed a fixed route. For the most part, this was a positive (But I still prefer traveling by foot or horse.)
6.
DIFFICULTY/TotOK. The difficulty and Temple of the Ocean King kind of go hand in hand. While for the most part, this game was a piece of cake (almost TOO easy), the Temple of the Ocean King was insanely difficult (Not to mention repetitive). It was if all the difficulty was focused in the TotOK and they just didn't bother to add any difficulty to the rest of the game. Easiness isn't too big of a deal to me though.
7.
OTHER. Something the I DID like was the comic relief that Linebeck entertained us with.
![:D :D :D](/forum/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/teethsmile.gif)
One more thing I DIDN'T like was the plain-ness of temples. With the exception of the Ice Temple, all the temples were indistinguishable from one another. They were all brown and colorless. They barely felt like they had a theme to them.
Even though I listed a lot more negatives than positives, I still think it was a good game. Compared to other Zelda games though, it was just ok. I'd give it about a 6-7/10.