Every Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

The game opens with a storybook summary of the events of Wind Waker, which this is a very direct sequel to. Link and Zelda/Tetra (who has reverted to pirate Tetra form) are sailing the seas searching for a legendary ghost ship, and discuss rumours of an "Ocean King" diety protecting the area. They encounter the ghost ship, and Tetra is immediately abducted. Link attempts to jump on board and follow but passes out. He is woken on a beach by a fairy, Ciela.

Ciela takes Link to see Oshus for more info about the ghost ship. Oshus attempts to dissaude Link from persuing the ghost ship, but Link insists, so he sends Link to meet Linebeck at the harbor. There's an earthquake on the way (and some discussion of frequent recent earthquakes), which has destroyed the bridge to town, so Link has to go another way via a cave. The path is infested by monsters, so Link "acquires" a sword from Oshus' storehouse. Oshus catches them but relents and gives Link a basic swordfighting lesson. (Wait, isn't this the Link from Wind Waker who's already defeated Ganon once? He doesn't need sword lessons)

Link finds his way to the harbor without incident. Linebeck isn't there, or at his favourite haunt, the milk bar. Apparently he's going to the Temple of the Ocean King, which is rumored to suck out the soul of anyone who enters. Link heads there, and immediately finds Linebeck stuck behind some spikes, claiming to have sprained his ankle. Link retracts the spikes (although the temple does indeed slowly drain hearts outside of safe areas), and Linebeck runs to freedom. They meet up by the entrance and Linebeck tells Link that the temple holds a clue to the ghost ship, and gives him a small key he found. Link explores the temple and finds a sea chart for the SW quadrant of the sea.

Back at the harbor, Link meets Oshus and Linebeck at the boat. Oshus prompts Link to scratch off a section of map, revealing an icon over the Isle of Ember where a fortune teller, Astrid lives. Oshus suggests that Link go see her, Linebeck agrees to sail there, and Ciela agrees to come along too (which is convenient as we need a cursor).

On the Isle of Ember, Link saves Astrid from... being locked in the basement forever because her assistant left her locked in there "for her safety" and went and died outside? Astrid gives a suitably vague prophecy about Link saving the world and then sends him off to the Temple of Fire on the island's volcanic summit.

Link adventures through the temple and finds Leaf, the spirit of fire, another fairy, at the end. Leaf works for the ocean king but says that they cannot sense his presence. After a quick debrief with Astrid, she tells the gang they need to collect another 2 spirits, and for now to return to the Temple of the Ocean King. Once there, Oshus pops up and tells Link to do up to the dais which we ran past earlier. The hourglass there starts glowing and Link grabs it - it's the titular Phantom Hourglass.

Oshus explains the hourglass will protect Link from the temple's life drain effects as long as the sand lasts, before needing to be recharged outside in the sun. Link had collected some of its sand of hours from the first boss, and will need to get more from bosses in the other temples. Oshus tells Link to explore the temple to look for another clue to the location of the next dungeon. Link does so, and finds a chart of the northwestern sea with another temple marked.

Stopping off at a nearby island, link acquires a cannon for the boat. Heading through a blocked passage at sea, they encounter the ghost ship and persue to the northwest. However, thick fog manifests and they find themselves teleported back to The start. Stopping off at another island, they meet a fella who’s mad at his father, who is known to have made it through the fog. They find his notes for the passage through the fog, as well as a handy shovel, and leave.

Using the fog info, link makes his way through the fog and thence to the isle of gusts. On the isle he finds the temple of winds and clears it, beating another boss which turns into hourglass sand. He also finds Neri, the blue spirit of wisdom who joins up. Back at the Ocean King Temple, Link makes his way incrementally deeper and finds a clue to the location of the 3rd spirit.

Link stops off to get a salvage hook? Then heads to the map spot. There they fish up a sun key which matches a symbol on a door we saw earlier on the island where we got the shovel and fog info. Going back there, we fhead through the door and find another temple. Clearing the temple, another boss turns into sand. We find a spirit but it’s apparently mute and a plain white, identical to ciela rather than the green we were expecting, how mysterious.

Back at the boat, Oshus is waiting. He tells Ciela that she is not a normal fairy but a spirit. The "spirit" we just found was actually the embodiment of her lost powers. Oshus merges the two back together and Ciela becomes the spirit of courage. The other 2 spirits then also pop out and combine their powers to have a vision of the Ghost Ship and find the way to it. Oshus refuses to elaborate on who he is or how he knew about this.

Back on the seas they are ambushed by a lady pirate, Jolene, who's after Linebeck. She catches up but Link defeats her in combat. I don't know if this was scripted to happen or just a coincidence.

Guided by the spirits through the fog, Link reaches the ghost ship. On board is a dungeon, where Link does an annoying stealth section and escort quest to rescue 4 creepy girls. Shockingly, turns out they are evil ghosts and there's a boss fight. After a quick round of Zelda magic orb tennis, they are defeated and drop a ghost key.

Using the key inside the ghost ship, they find Tetra who has been turned to stone with her soul removed. Oshus pops up again and reveals that he's actual the Ocean King. He tells Link that there's an evil being called "Bellum", a creepy eye monster, who attacked him and sealed his life force under the ocean. Bellum used his power in the form of the sand of hours to spread evil and imprison the spirits, apart from Ciela who split herself and escaped with amnesia. The phantoms in the temple are also his creation. The version of Oshus we know is the Ocean King who split himself and sealed the temple with Bellum inside using the phantom hourglass. The Ghost Ship is also a ruse used by Bellum's monsters so they can lure people in with the promise of treasure and drain their life force.

Oshus tells Link to see a blacksmith, Zauz, who apparently knows how to defeat Bellum. Linebeck throws a strop because there's no treasure but gets back on board when Oshus promises to grant him a wish in exchange for defeating Bellum.

Link meets Zauz on an uncharted island to the north, and he explains that link needs a “phantom sword” to defeat bellum, and that while he doesn’t have one handy he can make one if link brings him 3 special ores entrusted to 3 tribes around the ocean. He then sends link back to the temple of the ocean king to look for another sea chart that will lead him to the ores. Link heads back there and manages to grab both remaining sea charts for northeast and southeast seas in one run.

Link finds the 3 tribes (Gorons, Anouki (weird snow guys), and the "Cobble Kingdom" which is all ruins populated by ghosts), and, for each one, solves some local difficulties, gains access to a dungeon, and finishes the dungeon to get the pure metal ore. He then heads back to Zauz and gives him the ores to start forging the master sword. Link has some time to kill while he does that, so heads out to have a final duel with Jolene the pirate. For some reason. After the fight, which is basically the same as all the others, we get a bit of backstory about Linebeck and Jolene being exes.

Back to Zauz, he's finished the blade but it still needs a handle. Link takes it back to Oshus/The Ocean King who uses the sand of hours to make a handle and empower the sword to control time. With that we finally get the ~~Master Sword~~uh... Phantom Sword. Legally distinct from the Master Sword I guess.

We go back to the Ocean King Temple and go all the way through this time, with the added bonus that we can kill the patrolling phantoms now. Finally Link reaches the bottom of the temple and faces off against Bellum. After a round of "shoot him in the eye weak points" fighting, Bellum spits up Ciela's memories. Ciela remembers that she is the spirit of Courage *and* Time and urges Link on to defeat Bellum.

Link defeats Bellum, aided by Ciela giving the ability to ZA WARUDO stop time. The temple starts to collapse, but Link is teleported out at the last second before being pancaked by a pillar. Back on the boat, Oshus explains that his power is being released, he saved Link and is freeing Tetra from being statue. The revived Tetra thanks Link, Ciela, and Linebeck.

However it turns out Bellum wasn't dead. It grabs Tetra and we have a ship battle with a Bellum-possessed Ghost Ship. The gang then boards the Ghost Ship for a final confrontation and Linebeck's ship gets sunk. Bellum then possesses Linebeck and turns him into a phantom for the final final fight. After beating that, Bellum dissolves into sand. After the battle, everyone is fine including Oshus who has incarnated as his true form: a giant white whale. Oshus grants Linebeck a wish, as promised, and he wishes for his ship back. Oshus also suggests that the whole game was taking place in a different world from Link/Tetra's original one and that this adventure will stop the Ghost Ship appearing back home. Link and Tetra are sent off back to their home world.