I got Phantom Hourglass last Tuesday.
*Spoilers follow* (in white)
Finished it this morning. Bit disappointed at the length tbh,
Gameplay, graphics etc. were brilliant. The use of the stylus was great.
BUT...
I think it was a little unbalanced. The Temple of the Ocean King, as Wilma said, is extraordinarily difficult. This sets the bar quite high, and I was expecting this to be consistent.
However, all the other dungeons (Temple of the OK is recurring) are, by comparison, extremely easy! THey lure you into a false sense of security, and then you go back to the T of the OK and all of a sudden, it's really difficult!
Until, that is, you get the phantom sword, which lets you kill the invincible monsters that patrol the temple, making it so hard. From then on, it's pretty easy...
One thing I really liked was how you beat the last boss, and then everything's hunky dory, or so you think... Then there's another surprise boss battle! When it is discovered that the boss was feigning death or something, and it comes back and possesses you're reluctant ally, Linebeck. It really adds something to the ending, as the last boss battle against the possessed Linebeck is actually pleasantly difficult. Once you've worked out how to hit him once, though, it gets easy from then on.
A trend in the game seems to be that once you hit a boss once, nothing changes in the way that that boss defends itself, in order to make it more difficult.
The sailing around, etc. is great fun, as is customizing the ship, and the trading sequence, while staggeringly easy, is also fun, and comes at a good time in the game.
The soundtrack was marvellous. It incorporated elements from pretty much all of the games so far, as well as bringing in new music.
All in all, a pretty good game. I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone, as it's comparative ease makes it accessible to everyone, despite it being quite short.