Tag: hub

In my old article, Overworlds: The Land Between, I took the time to define the personal names I have for four styles of overworld commonly seen in Zelda. The wilderness is a wild and dangerous area where you are left on your own, while the map is either a miniaturized representation of the world or little more than a menu. But it’s the hub and transportation overworlds that I will be focusing on in this article, for I believe that…

One might have expected a game called Skyward Sword, with a story that started on a floating island, to have a dense and well-developed sky world. The developers opted instead for a pared-down hub, not that dissimilar from Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time or Termina Field in Majora’s Mask.  Those games’ fields were not particularly deep or involved.  Ocarina of Time’s, specifically, lacked enemies and even secrets were sparse.  In 1998, the joy of riding Epona from one end…

Overworld. This is a common video game term used when discussing adventure titles and RPGs, and as such it is frequently used in Zelda discussions. Wiktionary defines “overworld” as: Noun: In certain video games, the space connecting disparate towns/dungeons/levels. It can encompass the entire world, but doesn’t necessarily have to. So by definition, any area that cannot be classed as one of the “safe areas” (towns) or the dangerous caves, tunnels and fortresses through which you battle (dungeons, levels) is…