Phantom Hourglass is a direct sequel to The Wind Waker, and the opportunity for Nintendo to implement many ideas they couldn't put in with Wind Waker or Four Swords Adventures due to the thankfully short-lived deadline policy back then.

Its massive popularity, especially in Japan, resulted in Spirit Tracks.

Sub-Pages

Course List A list of all the stages in the game. And maybe some that aren't?

Developer Scripts A number of scripts archived in a folder called "Test".

Sound Effects

For whatever reason, one of the Z-Targeting sounds from Ocarina of Time (specifically, the one used for targeting enemies) is present in the files, but goes unused.

Removed Maps

The following maps are included in the course list, but were removed from the final game.

Unused Maps

3A - player_dngn

There is an unused map called "player_dngn" that contains four unused rooms. They may have been used to test various interactive objects. The rooms can be accessed in the PAL version with Action Replay codes that change which room is loaded when Link enters a door.

Room 1

Room 1 features the main entrance, several entrances in each corner, and a teleporter. The blue teleporter and the invisible teleporter at the bottom-left lead back to the room itself, while the main entrance leads to the Great Sea.

The bottom-right exit and the bomb-able wall in the top-right corner lead to Room 2, but both are glitched. Unless this wall hasn't been bombed, trying to return to Room 1 from Room 2 will cause Link to constantly spawns inside the "door", sending him back to Room 2.

Another bomb-able wall in the top-left corner leads to Room 4.

On an elevated platform are three doors from the main dungeon. Each one corresponds to a spirit traveling with Link, and all are functional. Trying to use the Sun Gate, which requires the Sun Key from the sunken chest, causing the game to violently crash.

As for objects, the room holds a chest with a Force Gem which has no text, a rock, two levers, a block Link can pull, a color-switching block, and some immovable blocks, too. There is also an event trigger which hangs the game.

Located on the right side of the area are the bridge Link encounters just before the first final boss form, and many stakes which can be stood on or grappled.

On the floor can be seen a Force Gem panel and the panel from Oshus's Cave, but writing 7 on it doesn't have any effect. There are some slippery ice floors as well.

The wildlife in this area consists of Octoroks and Keese. Fortunately, it features some safe zones from the main dungeon, with their familiar red pots.

There is also small room with a locked door and a chest inside, the latter of which is empty when opened.

94000136 FFFC0000

021B2E94 0000003A

021B2E98 00000000

021B2E9C 00000000

021B2EA4 00000001

D2000000 00000000

Room 2

The main entrance in this area leads to the top-right corner of Room 1. However, as mentioned above, if you already arrived from there, Link will be constantly warped back to the Room 2. There are no enemies here.

Some of the features of this room are oddly textured water, safe zones from the main dungeon, three Force Gem floors with no Force Gems, and an open iron door. To the south of the area above the water are interspaced floors which may have be used for testing Link's auto-jump. There's also a nonfunctional switch, an odd untextured object, and a closed door.

Using cheats to traverse the room reveals a winding path with a small staircase and two more lowered iron doors. To the east is a small bridge leading to two switches that make the doors raise abnormally high when Link stands on them, but lower once he dismounts. At the end of the path is a cracked wall. Using a bomb on it makes the "puzzle solved" sound and raises the last gate indefinitely.

94000136 FFFC0000

021B2E94 0000003A

021B2E98 00000000

021B2E9C 00000000

021B2EA4 00020000

D2000000 00000000

Room 3

Room 3 is a wide area with a locked door leading to nothing in particular. It also boasts an elevated platform with some pillars, and stairs scattered about that make it possible to walk atop the walls, forming a narrow path. At the upper-right and upper-left corners are two abnormally high staircases which lead nowhere, causing Link to fall off at the end. There is a large path at the north of the room that connects the two spots, and two warps to other rooms near the tops of the two staircases. These warps lead to the cracked top-left and top-right corners of Room 1. Also towards the north of the area is an invisible platform positioned slightly out-of-bounds.

In the southern portion of the room are two semi-closed square areas, each with a pot, and one Force Gem in a buggy chest on the right. A third completely closed square can also be found nearby.

94000136 FFFC0000

021B2E94 0000003A

021B2E98 00000000

021B2E9C 00000000

021B2EA4 00030000

D2000000 00000000

Room 4

This room is a duplicate of Room 3, reachable via the top-left crack in Room 1. It differs from Room 1 in that it's bordered by ridiculously high walls, and that its stairs lead to a small curved hallway to the two warps, which work exactly like the ones in Room 3.

The rest of the northern path from Room 1 is replaced with the elevated walls.

Early Mercay Island

Found in "isle_first" is an early version of Mercay Island, complete with a top screen map.

These models are far smaller than regular Phantom Hourglass models. While the setup files are present, they're slightly different from how final game's setup files are formatted, meaning they simply crash if loaded. Furthermore, the models for house insides aren't present at all.

Early	Final

Room 0

Somewhat similar to the final version of the room, but featuring in-model water, while the retail version's water is an actor, allowing it to move around. The bottom of the final island ended up being another actor; a beach with animated waves. It seems Oshus's house would be elsewhere, or not present at all. The cave with the sword is not present at all, as isn't the bridge leading east near the waterfall.

Early	Final

Room 1

Similarly to Room 0, the water featured in this room is just a static texture. The biggest difference, however, is the complete lack of provisions for the Temple of the Ocean King.

Early	Final

Room 2

Room 2 is entirely different, and seems to have been where the Mercay Port was originally placed. The boat seems to have been placed at the very top of the map, and the cave exit out of the tutorial dungeon is near the staircase on the left.

Early	Final

Room 3

Room 3 was very likely where the broken bridge was originally intended to be. Other than that, there isn't much to speak of, aside from an extra box of tiles at the very bottom of the map; the rest of the place is just a load of water.

Early	Final

Early Zauz's Island

Found in "isle_ice" is what is likely the earliest map present in the final game's files. Featuring textures not seen elsewhere, the island most resembles the layout of Zauz's, with the boat pier placed on the south instead of west of the island. Similarly to the Early Mercay Island, the model for the inside of the house isn't present, water is static, setup file is formatted differently, and the model itself is several times smaller than regular Phantom Hourglass maps.

Early	Final

Ice Dungeon Pre-Boss Room

The Ice Dungeon doesn't feature a pre-boss room found in all of the other dungeons - but there IS a model, map and setup of it in the game. The model itself refuses to load when accessed, however. All that's present in the room are some pots, torches, the exit leading to the boss battle and a sign which activates a warp to the entrance.

Flooded Isle of Ruins cave

Isle of Ruins has two versions; one with water raised, and one with the water lowered. The latter allows you to access a secret cave with treasure. This cave ALSO exists in the flooded version, however, and is clearly incomplete.

Flooded	Unflooded

Unused Graphics

Banner Icon

This is an unused version of the game's banner icon that's displayed on the main Nintendo DS menu.

Fairy Doors

Unused designs for what look to be doors that would be unlocked by fairies. The final game features only three, and they're styled differently.

Debug Fonts

Debug fonts found in many other Nintendo DS games, including the sequel.

Unused Text

Script Text

During the opening cutscene with Link, Tetra, and Mako, there's an unused part of the script with Tetra and Mako bantering over whether or not Tetra should go by her pirate name or Princess Zelda. It comes in-between "Tetra worked just fine before, you know." and "But enough about that!" in the game.

Mako:

But...you're the princess of

a whole kingdom!

I can't go treating you

like a pirate.



Tetra:

You'd better start trying,

Mako!

I may be a princess, but

I'm a fearsome pirate.

I'm traveling the world in

search of new lands.

And I'm the leader of you

salty lot. I'm Tetra!

Near the beginning of the game, Link needs to rescue Linebeck by deactivating the spikes surrounding him. By using a cheating device to Moon Jump over the spikes, Link can talk to Linebeck before rescuing him, whereupon he says this otherwise-unused line.

How did you get this far, anyway?

Debug Text

Camera Settings

Message Manager

Item Manager

Link Actions Menu

Unknown

Build Dates

May 17 2007 23:32:51

May 17 2007 23:34:26

Jun  8 2007 10:28:53

Jun 27 2007 15:50:41

Jul 26 2007 13:51:36

Jul 26 2007 13:47:15

2007_08_09-13_53

2007_08_07-18_09

2007_08_11-11_29

2008_01_24-18_19

Found in the ROM's ARM9 binary. Oddly, there are two build dates using different date formats, and some versions of the game have one build date but not the other. The "multiboot ROM"s are the ROM images used for DS Download Play contained within the actual ROM.

Regional Differences

Japanese Version

• During the Opening cutscene, it takes 7 extra seconds to skip the final cutscene in the Japanese version.


• When using the Cyclone Slate in the Japanese version, there is no ending animation showing Link's decent from the cyclone.


• The are certain sound effects on the Japanese version that are either missing or desynced compared to the localized versions.


• In the Japanese version, the Cubus Sisters causes the game to lag a ton when there are 3 lasers firing.


• The Japanese version of the game has its text centered, while the localized versions don't. This was also the case for other Zelda games, from the N64 titles up until Skyward Sword.


• Japanese players can use the stylus to tap on kanji and reveal their furigana transcription, rather than tapping to advancing the dialogue like players in other countries.

European Version

• Minor portions of the English script were rewritten for the European version, and a few lines of Wi-Fi text were updated.

To do: Compare the changed lines and their appropriate context. The American and European text can be found here and here, respectively.