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Dungeon exterior vs. interior size

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Dec 10, 2020
So a couple of different things inspired this thread.

Not too far back, someone posted a floor plan from Jerry's apartment in Seinfeld, showing how it wasn't really feasible in an architectural sense: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a36052013/jerry-seinfeld-apartment-layout-hallway-photo/

Then, today, I was listening to the Tandem Legends podcast, in which the hosts mention in an offhand way how much bigger the inside of Lord Jabu Jabu appears than the outside.

Has anyone looked at this in a more rigorous way? What other Zelda dungeons stick out in terms of having a noticeable difference in exterior/interior size?
 

Mikey the Moblin

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The sandship from skyward sword
All the other dungeons have enough overworld space to be feasible but the sandship is so tiny
I think wind wakers dungeons are scaled pretty well
Houses in video games in general are always requiring some level of suspension of disbelief
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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Ocarina of Time often does well with not revealing the size of a dungeon's exterior, Jabu Jabu being the exception. With all the other dungeons we see its entrance but we don't get to see the side of the structure or anything. Majora's Mask is different and I'd say they scaled dungeon exteriors well for the most part, the outlier here being Woodfall Temple which looks a lot smaller outside than it appears within.

With the Wind Waker on I don't think I ever found the exterior scaling bad compared to the interior, and the same is true for all 3D Zeldas after.
 

MW7

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I think some of the tower dungeons in the series have a problem with width. Tower of the Gods in Wind Waker isn't bad as it has a large base, Tower of Hera in A Link to the Past isn't great, but Eagle's Tower in Link's Awakening is horrible. For it to make physical sense, Link would need to shrink to like 1/20th of his size for the first floor and subsequent floors to fit within the narrow tower as seen from the outside. This also reminds me of how uniquely Minish Cap addresses this topic.
 

Uwu_Oocoo2

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Lord Jabu Jabu's logistic has always annoyed me SO MUCH. From the outside, Jabu's teeth are about the size of Link's leg. Inside, they are slightly taller than him. How does that work, exactly??? The only other game where scale has really bothered me is in LA, where some of these dungeons appear to be stuffed inside tiny structures. You could say "Oh, it just goes underground", but consider Turtle Rock
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It's kinda hard to see, but Turtle Rock is right in the corner of the map. In that tiny clifface, there is no room for the underground passages you see. I guess maybe it doesn't count as anything bc of the reality of LA, but it still annoys me.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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Dark souls is a game that does this insanely well- everything is roughly rendered to scale so if you were to drop a soul mass in blighttown, you could see that soul mass from fire link shrine
Which if you dont know what that means, imagine being able to see a rupee at the top of hyrule castle from kokiri forest in oot
 
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Dark souls is a game that does this insanely well- everything is roughly rendered to scale so if you were to drop a soul mass in blighttown, you could see that soul mass from fire link shrine

Imo the dev teams should take good inspirations from Dark Souls' overworld design. It's really impressive af how all levels are still somewhat connected.
 

twilitfalchion

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I feel like most of the dungeons are typically scaled well given how they're in fantasy environments. But if I had to think of one that sticks out more than others for its discrepancy in scale from the exterior to the interior, it'd be Dragon Roost Cavern. The interior is quite expansive compared to how relatively small it appears from the exterior.
 

Mikey the Moblin

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I feel like most of the dungeons are typically scaled well given how they're in fantasy environments. But if I had to think of one that sticks out more than others for its discrepancy in scale from the exterior to the interior, it'd be Dragon Roost Cavern. The interior is quite expansive compared to how relatively small it appears from the exterior.
Huh? It looks huge on the outside
 

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