#manga bellumbeck is cool but its not what it could be

[waywardsalt]

big agree with a lot of these points good and bad. i know a while back i made posts for most of the loz manga (and ph got an extensive one) but yeah ph like the others is a pretty mixed bag.

giving linebeck a little backstory is nice on a surface level but specifically tying him to the ghost ship kind of opens up questions like… why is he going back if he knows exactly what’s waiting for him. i think it would be more interesting to give him a backstory unrelated to the ghost ship tbh

its nice that ph gets this adaptation in the first place but it really is better to consider it a supplemental bit rather than letting it be your only exposure to ph oh my god. the way the story is heavily condensed despite still reaching a lot of the same conclusions is rough going right from the ghost ship into the final boss sequence is insane and rushes linebeck’s arc like crazy esp since his arc doesnt really start to kick into gear until after the ghost ship in the game.

(despite cutting literally half the game i think the worst casualty of the pacing is linebeck’s arc. it feels really rushed and awkward for it to follow the same slow pace as it does in the first half of the game and then suddenly slams into the back half of his development without any of the time or small changes that the game had)

(also we lose the bit with linebeck holding off bellum with the phantom sword rip. and his letter. tbh despite it not having any big cutscenes the second half of the game has some good moments)

the art is a big of a mixed bag here, too, and you’re right about it seeming like it’s caught between two styles while linebeck, oshus, and the kids gets the ph style astrid and jolene get the usual loz manga style and its… why? jolene is like.. sure it still matches up with her game model but what they did was astrid is absolutely insane to me. everything about manga astrid just feels wrong to me. plus, the art overall feels… a bit lower-effort than past zelda manga? the character designs are simpler (linebeck feels inconsistent but that might be me) backgrounds are either simple or nonexistent, and i know art is hard but the other loz manga have good art so idk.

it’s got some good original stuff, like some extra depth to bellum and the changes made to the bellumbeck fight, but its flaws make it hard for me to really enjoy as an adaptation of ph. ph especially feels like it would really benefit from having a longer adaptation since it’s got a larger main cast and the travel time between islands could be good for slice-of-life kind of things or scenes of the characters interacting and extra little bits of character development, plus theres space to flesh out other characters and concepts introduced in ph. theres a fair bit of potential for a longer ph adaptation.

oh we do lose some jokes or otherwise more humorous bits, a lot of the humor in the manga is silly little art or the usual making fun of linebeck except with a bit of a straighter streak (he feels more hetero and neurotypical in the manga i cant explain it but he has a lot less gay/bi autistic swag. but the loz manga in general is pretty fucking het, excluding four swords, so idk)

i think my general overall opinion on the ph manga (and a lot of the other shorter loz manga) is that while some of the new stuff is cool, it doesnt do the original story enough justice to make up for it. the new stuff can do heavy lifting but its not really going to be enough if you cut out half of the story, speedrun through half of the story, or completely omit the thematically impactful stuff (majoras mask im so sorry about your manga you deserved SO much better)

its fun and haunted my subconscious after i randomly picked it up once and before i played ph for real but its mid at best ph deserves an extended adaptation imo

Here's a post where you can share your thoughts about the Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass manga! ⌛️

Pros, cons, general thoughts - go crazy