It does depend on the game as
SpiteChaotic said(welcome to the forums by the way). I love the overworlds, most of all the 2d titles....I dont know if you count the ds titles as 2d, but i didnt like or play much of those. A Link to the Past has to be my favorite overworld but im also Bias. But the game had content in every nook and cranny of that game. Loved Minish Caps overworld, actually all of the gameboy titles. LoZs was alright, it was a good start, whereas AoL was kind or a crappy overworld and kinda felt like a lot was lost with the transitions to sidescrolling. Even though the sidescrolling is what i loved most about it, it was still a zelda game yet so very different.
WW is a lil sketchy for me. I mean the dungeon were cool, but there were so few, and thats hard to overlook. and the overworld "felt" barren, but there was so much sea, and only one little island unless there was a dungeon there, and actually two of them are small island with just an entrance to a dungeon. But if all the Island were one landmass, i could easily say that it was a great overworld with lots of content. overall i still like the game.
Twilight Princess was an even playing field, a good but sometime empty overworld but not too bad, and the dungeon were stellar. so i can choose one over the other. OoT was a good start for 3D, the overworld seemed empty, but at its time of release it was a really big step and seemed plenty full. Then we get MM, which completely NAILED the overworld with all sidequest, and goodies everywhere. yeah there were only four dungeons, but the overworld was really big even in comparison to OoT.
SS on the other hand, while im not trying to say it was a horrible game, but there were so many things done wrong, most notably the disconnected areas, which made the whole feel of traveling those areas seem to like they lack substance due to them not being part of one big world. Instead feeling like Levels instead of one continuous adventure. I dont know, it was an alright game with lots of cool new ideas that felt progressive. Just so many things about it that broke the immersion.
In the end, i guess I look forward to exploring the world more than the dungeon, though I dont want to take anything away from the dungeons themselves, or say they arent good. I just like adventuring more than dungeon dwelling.
