Top 5 Zelda Overworlds

[A Link In Time]

Zelda features some amazing overworld making picking a Top 5 an incredibly difficult endeavor.

5. Skyward Sword-For my criticism of its discontinuity, SS's overworld is well designed and flat-out beautiful to look at. While the sky is lacking in aesthetic, a plethora of sidequests on Skyloft seal this deficit.
4. Ocarina of Time-Cliche by modern standards but it was certainly a revolution when first released. There was a forest, a field, numerous towns, a mountain, a volcano, a river, a lake, a desert. Pretty solid selection.
3. Majora's Mask-Majora's Mask briliiantly juxtaposed the areas present in Ocarina of Time, incorporating a swamp, ice mountain, canyon, lake, and the perilous moon looming overhead. Of course, Clock Town is the fantastic hub which weaves this all together.
2. The Minish Cap-There is so much to do in the Minish Cap's overworld, it's ridiculous. Tiger scrolls and Kinstones are the tip of the iceberg. Size shifting serves for many interesting puzzles and hidden areas.
1. A Link to the Past-Every wall is suspicious in this game. The amount of caves present is absolutely ridiculous. Then, you have the franchise's two best dual overworlds present and dungeons which intertwine with the overworld, as MW7 mentioned, namely the Desert Palace and Skull Woods. It's a rather primitive game by today's standards but in my opinion, ALttP is the most difficult Zelda to 100%.

 

[Igos du Ikana]

5. The Minish Cap
4. Legend of Zelda
3. A Link to the Past
2. Majora's Mask
1. Ocarina of Time

 

[SavageWizzrobe]

5) Twilight Princess
4) A Link to the Past
3) Majora's Mask
2) Ocarina of Time
1) Wind Waker

 

[Zorth]

I never liked any of the overworlds except for MM and TMC, They were the only ones that were populated and fun to explore to me. While there are games that have beautiful scenery and huge fields it just wasn't fun for me to explore them because they were often empty and didn't have anything else to offer besides the scenery. :/

Really hope Nintendo starts populating their worlds much more especially in the Wii U games upcoming, The new engine should be able to handle a lot of more characters with their own little stories. They should follow the concept of MM, You have a central town filled with people that have their own thing going which you can choose to intervene in as a form of side quests (Maybe even bring in some morality choices), Then have lots of smaller cities also filled with same types of side quests around the entire overworld so it doesn't feel so empty. It's really a shame when there is so much beautiful scenery in the games but no people to populate it.

 

[JuicieJ]

I never liked any of the overworlds except for MM and TMC, They were the only ones that were populated and fun to explore to me. While there are games that have beautiful scenery and huge fields it just wasn't fun for me to explore them because they were often empty and didn't have anything else to offer besides the scenery. :/

A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, and Skyward Sword have loads of things to do in their overworlds.

 

[Zorth]

A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, and Skyward Sword have loads of things to do in their overworlds.

Was long time ago I played AlttP and LA so yea that's probably true, But I disagree with SS.. Was just a letdown for me personally since I was expecting over 50 huge and different islands in the sky with tons of different side quests, So it was me having too much hype I guess. :/

 

[JuicieJ]

Was long time ago I played AlttP and LA so yea that's probably true, But I disagree with SS.. Was just a letdown for me personally since I was expecting over 50 huge and different islands in the sky with tons of different side quests, So it was me having too much hype I guess. :/

I was talking about Skyward Sword's surface. With the exception of Lake Floria, each area is littered with puzzles, hazards, enemies, and well-hidden/hard-to-reach secrets. It's very much like A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap's overworlds. The only issue is that the provinces weren't connected.

 

[ShadowDiety]

5. Ocarina of Time
4. Oracle of Seasons
3. Wind Waker
2. Majoras Mask
1. A Link to the Past

 

[Terminus]

5. Skyward Sword. It would have ranked higher but for the Sky and the partioning.

4. Majoras Mask. This was far more interesting than the OoT overworld.

3. Twilight Princess. Hugely expansive with loads of things to find.

2. A Link to the Past. Loads of stuff to do, albeit confusing.

1. The Minish Cap. I think my arguments are the same as above.

ps. I preferred the TP overworld to TMC, but TMC was better.

pps. Im writing this on my 3DS during AP Calc so excuse any grammatical errors.

 

[Seth]

5. A Link to the Past.

ALttP was a fantastic game with a fantastic overworld. It took the exploration from the original LoZ and beefed it up. Unlike before where their were only a few characters scattered in caves, in this game we had a whole bustling village, a castle, plus houses/buildings and characters dispersed in every corner. Playing ALttP as a kid I would wander around for hours and always find something new or interesting. Hell, it wasn't even until like 12 years after the game came out that I discovered the hobo under the bridge who gave you an empty bottle!

The Dark World also created a great mirror of Hyrule, a dark and twisted wasteland to explore. It was just as fun as the Light World and served to double the size of the map. It's because if this I choose ALttP OW over that of MC. MC had you able to shrink down to explore new areas, which was awesome, but I just love the size and atmosphere of the Dark World.

4. Twilight Princess.

Not my favorite game, but it had a fantastic overworld. While I think OoT is a better game, TP did do this one thing better. It was a faithful update of OoT's Hyrule. It was large and expansive, with all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore. When traversing Hyrule Field I truly felt I was in a massive fantasy kingdom, maybe more so than any other Zelda Game. The scenery was awe inspiring, from Lake Hylia to Faron Woods and Death Mountain. I could go on naming all tje unique and beautiful areas. The entire map was done very well. Too bad it took so long to open it all up!

3. Wind Waker.

I am a huge fan of the great sea. I remember when I first started up the game on Outset Island, getting the telescope and gazing at the distant islands. I was so excited to explore them. I loved the sense of adventure the Sea provided for me. Whether it was a giant Octorok attack, some strange pirate ship firing at me, or any number of encounters. I loved seeing the islands in the distance get clearer as I approached. When traveling to a specific Island on the main quest I would make sure to stop at every island along the way and explore. I just really loved the TWW's world.

2. Majora's Mask.

I loved MM's overworld. It was like a 3D ALttP in many ways. It had a fantastic hub, Clock Town, my favorite city/town in the series, as well as 4 unique locations in each cardinal direction. Each of the four areas is unique in the series. Sure we have seen other snowy mountains, swamps, beaches and canyons, but MM crafted them in an interesting and unique way. The world was symmetrical but still full of wonder and exploration. The atmosphere second to none. Termina was a perfect compliment to a perfect game. Everything just worked there.

1. Adventure Of Link.

I am not a big fan of the game, but I loved the map. It felt like a real kingdom. It had numerous towns to explore and a large expansive world to traverse. It reminds me of FF in many ways. It felt more realistic in that regard then any other Zelda game. An actual populated country. I always wished they would make a remaking of the game. Not just a port with updated graphics (similar to OoT 3D), but a complete redoing of it. I have an idea in my head, but I am not sure how to explain it. Just imagine the same plot and ideas, but if they were being developed today and not in the 80's. Would make a great 3DS title. I think it would be fantastic.

 

[MsNerrrrd]

I suck at making TOP something- lists, so I'll only name a few of my favourites: TP, OoT, SS, MM & MC

 

[CynicalSquid]

5. Ocarina of Time
4. Twilight Princess
3. Minish Cap
2. A Link to the Past
1. Majora's Mask

 

[Beauts]

1. SS. It gets a lot of criticism, but I liked the merging of under/overworld. The overworld has amazing graphics, interesting areas to explore both on Skyloft and on the Surface, and you have a lot of freedom of movement.
2. OoT. I disliked the wall around Hyrule Field but that can't be helped for the time the game was made. I liked that every area had it's own charm and back story.
3. TP. Again, this gets criticised, and sure, there's a whole lot of nothing, but it's very pretty nothing
4. MM. I just like how each area is so diverse and the kind of bustling urgency of Clock Town, combined with how generally surreal everything is in this game.
6. ALttP. Such a great game, and so much to explore. It's all a big mystery, the overworld is.

 

[Lord Carlisle]

5. Spirit Tracks
4. The Minish Cap
3. Adventure of Link
2. Skyward Sword
1. Majora's Mask

Majora's Mask did a superior job with their overworld. The number of sidequests shocked me, and I spent hours just looking for secrets. Clock Town is by far the best hub... I spent a long time searching for secrets or events around it, and the music ALWAYS filled me with happiness... or on the third day, sadness. Of course, I think the world layout was too linear... each area was perfectly north, south, east, and west. OOT did do better in the shape of the overworld, but I felt sort of lied to when I found that there was so little throughout that game's overworld.

 

[Kupsacker]

5. Ocarina of Time - The sense of freedom is great, especially when the game branches and you have your choice of temples.
4. Majora's Mask - Termina Field was really nice, especially for rupee grinding, and the areas leading to the 4 different temples were very cool in their respective atmospheres.
3. Skyward Sword - I love how the overworld is like its own dungeon, in a sense.
2. Wind Waker - Some people say it's too big, but I think the size is perfect for a sea, and I had no problem with the size. The problem however, was that you had to play the damn song every time you wanted to change the wind.
1. Twilight Princess - It's massive, beautiful, and it's not as "empty" as people make it out to be.