Expansive Overworld Or Denser Overworld?

[February Eve]

It's definitely possible to have both. I played Okami recently, and the game designer has stated that he used the Zelda series as influence, so they're comparable. The first area beyond the village in that game is Shinsu field. In it, I can think of about three things that relate to game-long sidequests and two that are specific to the area. For people, at different sides of the field there's a dojo you can learn skills at, a "nameless man" who is part of one of the sidequests, a bomb shack where you get a technique, and a shrine, also related to a sidequst. There's also a mailman you can race - and actually beat. ( I am wondering if the game designer got frustrated with OoT's running man. :xd Not to mention there are treasure chests buried throughout. So basically, the field feels huge - the main character is a wolf and it still takes time to gallop across it - but not very empty.

A Zelda game that big, with that much to do in each area, would be my ideal. Though given a choice just between the two - Twilight Princess and Majora's Mask are two of my favorite games, and I like both overworlds almost equally but for entirely different reasons. I'd be happy with either, really.

 

[MikauIncarnate]

I personally love WW. It may have one of the worst main quests ever invented, and yeah the islands are extremely small (and boring), and sure some of the dungeons suck. Really bad. But WW is the only game where I can be in a dungeon that sucks and laugh about it (instead of screaming at the tv and throwing my controller, like I wanted to do with TP). I want that sort of a feeling in the overworld, but with actual stuff to do. Such as multiple cities like Windfall Isle, with tons of quests that are all interconnected. I also want something like the Nintendo Gallery, but nothing like it at the same time. Just some sort of collection that you have to play through twice to complete. (that's another thing I want, two play throughs. And actually different this time, Nintendo!) If the game has all this, even the worst main quest could be forgiven.

 

[Ariel]

Alright, more cities or less cities? More populated, less abundant villages, or less populated, more abundant villages?

Personally, I'd like villages to be very far from each other, there can be people between them, but centres of Zelda culture should be fairly far from each other, so as to give Link some sort of adventure between them and an actual reward for traversing the land and finally reaching a resting place.

 

[Kosholts]

I don't really think it matters how big or small an overworld is, as long as you have enough content to keep the player entertained and to fill the area.

I'll compare TP and OoT. I personally prefered OoT more so than TP but only because of the content. Sure, the vast overworld of TP was great, I loved running around killing random enemeys and having fun exploring... for the first 10 minutes.... Plain and simple the overworled in TP was just to massive with such little content to fill it. I don't see the point in having a vast overworled if theres nothing to do in it. I mean, we didn't pay 50$ to sight see grass and trees, we payed 50$ to go on an adventure and have our minds captivated with the main quest and sidequests. The soul reason I prefered OoT over TP is because even though smaller, it captured my attention more. So much to do, and so much to explore even with the small area. I can't complain about the small area when theres just the right amount of content to fill it.

Now in OoT downside, and TP upside, OoT landscape seemed to un-realistic. Not just because of the graphics, but because of the locations. You have huge Death Mountain in OoT filled with gorons who eat rocks and there's no water in sight, to a seemingly few steps away Lake Hylia with waterfalls and lakes and etc. It just didn't seem to realistc to have such a mountaineous (so spelled that wrong) with no water to a vast water filled land. At least in TP the different terrains of landscape were spread apart from eachother. That's how TP is more realistic than OoT, not just because of the graphics.

All in all to me it won't make a difference whether big or large, as long as we have enough content to fill the area I'll be fine. Though it would be sick to have a vast Overworld like TP with enough content to fill it.

One last thing, a lot of people make WW to have a horrible overworld with nothing to do in it. A lot of people claim it to be the worst overworld ever, but I have to completley disagree. There is music, atmosphere, and little things to do along the way. And not even halfway into the game you get can teleport aroung the Great Sea so that takes away 50% of the sailing there. And you don't sail that much up until you get the song anyways (unless you wanna explore or something), so I don't think it's fair to automatically say WW has a horrible overworld.

 

[Dodongobomber]

well, both miyamoto and aonuma have said in interviews that the hyrule feild or watever it is could actually act as a dungeon without you noticing at first, which leads me to thinking that they will probably have a smaller but denser overworld (the "dense" thing is kind of what theyre trying to get us to understand), which im fine with. however, the wii is capable of having a hge and dense over world, but if they made it too big then the graphics or sound might drop in quality a bit.

 

[Link-182]

I really don't mind the world being smaller than Twilight Princess, because frankly, there were about 4 enormous, like gargantuan fields with very little to do in them, and one enormous desert with very little to do, one giant lake with little to do, one very small linear forest, and one small linear mountain. In Skyward Sword Sword all of the areas should be in equal size. The mountain area and forest area should be just as big as the field and desert area, and they should have gameplay to them, not just running from one end to the other, killing bad guys and finding a few secrets. I mean there should be characters roaming the land with personalities and small stories of their own. You should have to fend off enemies from someone and then go collect something for someone else, and then do a sidequest for someone else, and there should be mini dungeons and minigames, and tons of hidden areas and beautiful landscapes with diversity in them. That sounds like the kind of overworld I want. I want it dense!

 

[Aero_Dynamic]

I want a large land full of life in them. TP's fields were large in epic porportions, but there was so little in them. Skyward Sword's gonna fix that, Aonuma says he wants a denser game than a large world. Actually, we're gonna have a large world to explore, two actually! Hyrule and Hyrule field, and Skyloft and its islands.

 

[PhantomTriforce]

I would want both, a large and dense overworld. I do not want it small like Termina field, but big like TP's (not as big as WW's Great Sea), and with lot's to do like Clock Town. However, large and empty fits pretty well for SS, as Hyrule is being formed in this game, so there wouldn't be many towns, etc.

 

[February Eve]

Alright, more cities or less cities? More populated, less abundant villages, or less populated, more abundant villages?

Personally, I'd like villages to be very far from each other, there can be people between them, but centres of Zelda culture should be fairly far from each other, so as to give Link some sort of adventure between them and an actual reward for traversing the land and finally reaching a resting place.

I definitely want at least one big city - Castle Town size, though not necessarily Castle Town itself. Actually, I'd really like it to be located in Skyloft and one of the first places we see. And I'd prefer if a lot of side quests were centered there, based on interacting with the characters, but you don't realize what you have to do until later in the game (like Majora's Mask.)

Beyond that, I'd be happy if most of them were at least of medium size. I'd like a few travelers between them, though, like Rusl did in Twilight Princess, when he was in Ordon Village at times and Castle Town at others. It makes the world feel more connected to see that other characters know about and have reasons to visit other places. In a similar regard, I like seeing how the different races interact (like the Gorons in Kakariko village and Castle Town.)

Also, I'm not sure if this counts as "overworld", but I liked how Ocarina of Time had those shortcuts to other areas - from Zora's Domain to Lake Hylia, for example, and Zora's River to the Lost Woods. I know warp songs/portals take care of that, so there wouldn't have to be many, but it's still a nice touch.

 

[MikauIncarnate]

I agree with everybody who's said they want an expansive, dense overworld(s). I, personally, want millions of side-quests that can take as long or longer to complete than the main quest itself. Side-quests that actually get you things. Like, you don't have to have the Zora armor or mask or whatever it is, but you could do a side-quest to get it. I also want an insanely expansive Zora's domain and death mountain, with actual houses! have you ever noticed that there are virtually no houses in the zelda games? I know there are a few, but in Wind Waker, for example, there are 3 on Outset Island and that's about it. Where are people supposed to live? My personal view, anyway.

 

[Ariel]

Types of space consuming sidequests?

- Fetch quests
- Trading sequences
- Tasks - fishing, building, destroying, locating, infiltrating, fort-holding
- Item related mini-games - arrow ranges, bombchu bowling
- Races/Mazes
- Endurance dungeons

Which would you prefer more of, and which could you do without? And how, do you reckon, would it effect the range and size of playable space in the game? Discuss.

 

[Hyrulian]

I want it to be big, but still with a lot of stuff, I really loved Tp over world, but it was a to big, and had NOTHING to do in it! although it was fun to run around on your horse killing bad guys, it would be more fun finding random holes in the ground, or caves leading to random stuff. I know I have found a few of those thing in tp, but not really... and the only way of me finding them was when I was bored and had nothing else to do. So if it was designed well, I would love to have a world large, but not to big, sorta like half the size of tp, but it would have stuff to do. Maybe have exploration with temple like places that you didn't really have to go to, but you did cuz it will get you extra magic, or makes it so you don't get hurt easily, or maybe weapons that you don't necessarily need, but can be used to a great advantage... sigh... expecting this would be like expecting a wiled tiger to share some of its prey with you...

 

[MikauIncarnate]

Types of space consuming sidequests?

- Fetch quests
- Trading sequences
- Tasks - fishing, building, destroying, locating, infiltrating, fort-holding
- Item related mini-games - arrow ranges, bombchu bowling
- Races/Mazes
- Endurance dungeons

Which would you prefer more of, and which could you do without? And how, do you reckon, would it effect the range and size of playable space in the game? Discuss.

I'm not really sure what a fetch quest is... Endurance dungeons aren't my favorite, but I know they're inevitable in Zelda games, and I'm not a huge fan of mini-games. Trading sequences have always been really fun to me (for some unknown reason), and races/mazes are really cool. I hope there are some really good mazes in SS. What would be really cool, is if the Lost Woods was huge, kind of like TP's, only designed more similarly to OoT/MM's. There could be a set path to follow to get to one certain place, and then there could be other paths that led to secret places. That would be quite cool, and very time/space-consuming, so it would definitely fit my criteria. Infiltrating is also very high up on my list of awesomeness, especially if it placed Link without a sword. I love the Forsaken Fortress 1st time. What else... oh, yeah. Fishing!
I was reading somewhere on ZD (I forgot which thread) about some game where fishing was a major aspect of the game. Something about there being a fish market and trading fish to fish people and getting stuff. That would be pretty cool. That could be what could (see above post) get you the Zora armour/mask. Hopefully some transformation masks will be included in the game, in which case I hope there's a happy mask sidequest. This kind of brings me to my next point:
Castle town! Maybe not in Hyrule, since it takes place before OoT, and even then Castle Town was pretty sparse, but hopefully there will be something of the sort in the game, there's always Skyloft. In Castle Town (or whatever you want to call it) there should be tons of sidequests, including, but not limited to, delivering mail for the postman, something like the golden bugs or skulltulas, something dealing with the banker (maybe being involved in a trading sequence), hooking two people up (like in windwaker), and maybe having a magical artifact craftsman that could make you certain armour or a shield (or maybe an updated sword), but you would have to bring him the materials needed to make it from all across Hyrule and Skyloft.
This is a bit different from what I said in my first post, but for Hyrule itself, I am now leaning more towards having small villages spread all across the land, but still having things to do all throughout Hyrule. It would be cool if people had little huts set up all over the place, or nomadic tents for the Gerudo, and all sorts of collectibles. I want Nintendo to make it feel like Hyrule is very sparse and spread out, but at the same time, having it be dense.

 

[dadude1200]

would both be a good answer? i think so.

 

[jejaynes15]

Great topic!!

I would much prefer a larger overworld. Don't get me wrong, OoT's simple overworld was very easy to manage around but like the original post said, TP's overworld is breathtaking.
Since this is a new Zelda for Wii, Nintendo will prob. suprise us with something we have never seen before..