Top 10 WORST RPG World Maps!
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
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Hello, today we are looking at world maps that are less than stellar, specifically at series which normally had great world maps, but then dropped the ball on an entry. I hope you enjoy this countdown and this walk down memory lane! #gaymer #nintendo #rpg #playstation #xbox #asmr #atelier #steamdeck - Ігри
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The biggest bummer about VIII's map is the fact that when you get to the fourth disc, almost every single spot in the game is inaccessible. Despite allowing you to mess around on the overworld map, you can't get into towns or most other areas because of some random blue barrier. I was really looking forward to visiting all the towns and finding unfinished business/secrets before I finished the game and didn't expect to be basically funneled toward the end when the third disc ended.
As much as I love VIII and it’s world map, disc 4 is complete trash. I was so upset that I didn’t make a separate save during the disc swap.
@@Red0991 I actually love the game too. That's what made that such a letdown to me!
@@zachmusicposting1341 Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana has the worst map, so dam complicated
@@Red0991 its like "Uhh yeah, we couldn't fit the last 2 parts in disc 3 so here's 4
I agree with you. I hate how the game basically forces you to finish all side-quests by the end of the third disc.
Final Fantasy XV’s map definitely is illogical. In a world of monsters there should be more walled in settlements especially with Behemoths existing.
Yeah Super Eye Patch Wolfs vid on this mess is reallly good
Or that half of one of the regions is made up of an arena used for only one boss and never again.
@@kingkamina4953 oh the Behemoth One eye boss
@@kingkamina4953 i think it is reused for a Behemoth that is more higher lvl
@@DarknessXER nah I mean Titan
Regarding FFVIII I'm surprised you didn't bring up the White SeeD ship. They really made the story and game play aligned with that section of the game. They truly did hide Rinoa in a place nobody could find her.
Before guides, it took me a week to find that stupid ship :P
i like ffvii cause u need to actually breed chocobo to get to places that u cant do on a airship. chocobos on FFVIII sucks
And they only give u a small cryptic hint. Terrible
Ellone, they hid Ellone.
@@TheBouncerBecks Same lol I couldnt find it but it was after that where I got stuck and didnt know where to go only to realize that I had to go back to the room where Rinoa was asleep and then Squall would make his way into the other continent
I think Final Fantasy XV's world could have been salvaged if they had just added more life to it. Like, I get that the world is basically being overtaken by the Starscourge, but you can't tell me the only signs of life are just a handful of people at each outpost and that's literally it!!! That being said, I enjoyed FFXV immensely, but that aspect will always be a let down. I guess because they wanted to really drive home the concept that it was a roadtrip.
And dont forget the 5 major cities. Insomnia, Nilfheim, Lestallum, Tennebrae and Altissia. 6 if you count Galdin Quay, though its more of a midpoint between outpost and city.
Star Ocean 5 disappoints on every level. If you ever do a "worst party member" video you should totally add the little girl who can only cast buffs.
Also it's so short!
I hated Star Ocean 3, one of the worst rpg games on the PS2
@@saeefa Have to kind of agree. I think they blew their load far too early to end the timeline of the game. Because now we know it's all just a massive simulation/game created by 4th dimensional beings.
I mean, seriously. Where in the hell do you go from that? Other then earlier start date entries?
@@saeefa i loved star ocean 3. Blew my mind as a 13 year old.
I think Star Ocean 5 is the all-too-common case of unfinished game being shipped out. I heard it had a lot of missing content.
Five is the definitive runt of the litter that coulda been good but wasted most of its potential.
@@DarknessXER Which is such an utter waste seeing how renowned Star Ocean is as a gaming franchise.
It reuses a lot too in the animation and music department.
@@megasoniczxx Man, that sucks. My experience with Star Ocean was on the PSX and when I heard this one was coming I was so excited and then I saw the unfinished piecer that is this game. It's so unfinished that it's insulting to the fans.
didn't try star ocean 5 yet, but when it was released people say it was an unfinished shit and bad, so i lost interest
my first and prob my fav star ocean was 3 on ps2, i played 1,2 and 4. also tried the mobile gacha game anamnesis (but i stopped)
it's kinda sad star ocean is not going anywhere especially since 5 release, i heard 4 was also not good, but at least it was okay for me
i wish they are developing a new star ocean and make it a good game (at least finish it)
exploring suikoden 4 was what i loved about the game everyone hates that game but i downright love it, and you get a npc that teleports you anywhere later in the game, i will always love suikoden 4
A lot of people like IV. There are just many people who are overly passionate about the series.
I didn't like the emptiness of the map, but I still love the game and I agree that the discovery part was awesome.
What made it worse was that it felt like you had to travel more than you had to in order to find more Stars of Destiny when you didn't.
Suikoden 4 was the first game of the series I played and I loved it, I would just sail around the world to discover hidden island and characters since I didn't use any guides lol.
square has said that plans for a new star ocean game are still in the works, so the series isnt over just yet.
That's fantastic news! But I'm just afraid that we will have to wait till the PS5 is released in order to play it. The series has a habit of just releasing one new game per console generation.
@@davidvinc very true. Theres also a switch port of star ocean 1 psp. Hopefull both will end up better than integrity was. Soooo disappointing
@Grima the Fell Dragon yeah the way it ran was weird, it would like drop frames in town and weird places. Also ive heard from a lot of people that star ocean 5 made them sick but i never had that issue. Very weird
And a new Bravely Default and a new Mana. But yet they won't make a new Chrono game.
@Grima the Fell Dragon Chrono Cross is a good game. But it was incomplete, because Square management rushed it. If Chrono Cross got a proper remake with all the missing story/character content added in, it could be one of the best games ever made. But it would also need all the original team members to return. And that's the excuse Square keeps giving for why they won't make a third Chrono game. "We can't get the original Chrono team back." Which is bull since they merged with Enix and now have the whole Dragon Quest team there, plus Kato and Kitase still work there. The only people who are gone are a few people in Monolithsoft...which they could hire them.
When it comes to Bravely Default II, all the original team members from Bravely Default 1 are coming back. And no one like Nomura or Toriyama are involved. So I have high hopes for it.
The dragon quest builders series is great when it comes to exploring its maps, you can build blocks to get to higher points in the game and get a good view of your surroundings.
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a new World. And any rpg map that is similiar to that is no bueno. May as well give me a blank screen with names of places i can select.
Right? Symphonia is my Favorite game, imagine my surprise when i thought we were gonna be able to explore the new unified world and then bam fuck you point and click (but hey listen to that phantasia wolrd map theme pretty cool huh?)
Still better than Zestiria..
Yup. I came off of completing Symphonia 3 times. Finally decided to play DOTNW. played it about an hour (if that) before I got bored and quit. Haven't touched it since.
Honestly, this is a problem in just about all the Shin Megami Tensei games.
The places you visit can be well designed, but the world map always feels so lazy. It's all just point and click.
Or there's a menu that pops up, and you pick where to go from there.
I hope this starts to change if we get SMT V on the Switch.
Oh yeah i realise he didn't put any SMT games. Did he not play it?
@@mochamadcorysaktitriwangsa1398 He seems to mainly talk about games that have had good maps before but then got worse in some newer installations. Shin Megami always just had the point click maps right?
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[1:10] - 10)
Tales of Legendia
[2:23] - 9)
Suikoden 4
[3:44] - 8)
Final Fantasy 8
[5:02] - 7)
Phantasy Star 3
[6:38] - 6)
Final Fantasy Tactics
[7:54] - 5)
SaGa 3: Champions of Time and Space - Shadow or Light
[9:04] - 4)
Wild Arms 4
[10:18] - 3)
Breath of Fire 4
[11:34] - 2)
Star Ocean 5
[13:03] - 1) Dragon Quest Swords
I really appreciate you listening to my suggestion. I think it is very cool you are actually listening to fan input and I believe this separates you from the crowd. I enjoyed this video man keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for the suggestion! I think I’m going to look into the best world maps for each system too.
BoF4's map was a huge letdown but at least it had one and wasn't an underground dungeon crawler like Dragon Quarter.
Honestly, I'm happy just to see someone acknowledge Phantasy Star 3's existence. The towns (and a lot of things) could have been done much better, but I think I recall that a different team worked on 3. The generation system is such a cool idea that I wish the rest of the game had followed suit. There were at least some memorable tracks in the OST.
I'm a little surprised Legend of Dragoon didn't make the list. You want "boring world map", try walking in straight lines on a _literal_ map from point A to point B, with nothing but the rare random battle to break up the monotony. As awesome as the rest of the game was, they really dropped the ball on that aspect.
Phantasy Star 3 is what happens when you only have the sound director involved and have him take over as the lead to produce the with a bunch of new guys from Golden Axe. I believe all the rest of staff were too busy doing Sonic games. And yeah phantasy Star 3 what is in a 7 sectioned colony ship with two fake moons ( battlestations?).
I was going to comment about legendia before even watching, the moment you get to the quiet lands is breathtaking, but then it just doesn’t live up to that first impression
Wonderful video. Will you be doing a 10 most awesome RPG World Maps?
Phantasy Star III really suffered from being rushed, considering the map's concept was quite interesting. Just very badly implemented
I do like the idea of Huge Ships with entire nations and/or town(s) on them. It's crazy, kinda looking forward to that one game announced at E3 where you build a town on your ship for that reason.
'Suikoden 4'
Yeah, I am a huge Suikoden fan (Favorite game series.) but there's no defending Suikoden 4's world map.
Also Obligatory "I'M ON A BOAT!".
......There's theories speculating Suikoden 4 was rushed and that has to do with it's lower quality to some degree.
'Phantasy Star 3'
Not defending the maps, but I did like that it took place over generations.
I like the concept and wish it was utilized more (Oreshika did it in quite an interesting way in that the reason you are is tied to plot, but it's also tied into gameplay HEAVILY.).
'Star Ocean 2'
That was my first JRPG (That I got into anyway, Technically I think I saw Mario RPG first, but I don't think I got into it til after I played Star Ocean 2.) Watched my cousin play it and shortly got my own copy.
Freaking love Star Ocean, I got a physical copy of every American release.
I loved the fact you could pick and choose who your party members were (I was livid when I found out 4 didn't have optional party members. I knew 5 didn't going in, but I pretty much bought that just to show Square I wanted more Star Ocean.)
Looking Forward to that PS4 port of 1.
I'm not crazy about 4, but the one thing I will give it credit for is the fact they do more with the Sci-Fi setting than the previous 4 did (There was a gameboy color game.), which was basically "Sci-Fi setting, so your expecting laser guns, laser swords, or space travel? LOL STUCK ON A MEDIEVAL WORLD FOR MOST/HALF/ENTIRE GAME! What's this Sci-Fi you speak of?". Even as a young child that kinda baffled me.
Star Ocean 5 is a trainwreck in just about every way.
Also let's talk about it's Subtitle 'Of Integrity and Faithlessness', Integrity nor Faith or liack thereof has literally no relevance to the game.
Speaking of Swords and Motion controls, I gotta ask how the hell did Lucas Arts never make a Lightsaber Combat game for the Wii? That was a goldmine Nintendo basically handed them on a silver platter and they never did it.
I've replayed Final Fantasy Tactics alot, and to get around the random battles I just reload my save if I get one. it does help you get through the game sooo much faster. they might as well have made that a mechanic where they are optional, because it does get frustrating.
I loved FF8's world map! The setting is actually why I really liked that game a lot. I loved the European influence with trains that run everywhere. Also I love the modern Americana setting in 15.I feel like both broke new ground.
FF8's map was absolutely horrible
no, no, no, no!!!! if you remove random encounter in FF tactics you end up with a game like Vandal Hearts where you're not able to power up your character at will. Vandal Hearts is not a bad game but this is something I very strongly dislike about it.
In Breath of Fire 4 its very disappointing, because halfway through it there is a minigame where you control a ship and move through a isometric field just like BoF 3's world map. So they definitely could have put another gorgeous Bof3 style map in 4 - the code and architecture is all there - but they were obviously rushed and under budgeted for that entry.
Yeah, it seems like 3 was their peak at least in terms of what was added. It added the Master System, made Fishing much more involved, and also the Dragon Gene System. 4 basically dumbed down everything. The Master system was about the only improvement, where you had to do different things to get new skills, rather than tedious leveling up. Fishing was boring to me, and the art style was awful. It looked too grey and boring to me. Dragon gene system was way too simple and stupid. Music stunk as well, I can only remember a few songs that were good. The battle music was boring and didn't bring to mind a tough battle, just a casual sorta encounter. Dragon Quarter was even worse and sadly pretty much killed the series.
Still light-years better than bof6
I adore the Phantasy Star series, but good Lordy III is a slog to play through.
Bald Bull have loved those games my whole life and replayed 1,2 and 4 multiple times including the two remakes, but still have never got through 3 🤣😂
Going western here, but Ultimas 6, 7, and 9. Now 6 and 7 are great games, 9 not so much, but in 4 and especially 5 you had this decent sized world of Britannia to explore, with all sorts of towns, villages, castles, dungeons etc., that had decent sized maps of their own to wander in.
This worked because 4 and 5 used the traditional seperate world map with the town maps being entered through various icons on the former. However with the new game engine for 6, they were able to make towns and world travel part of the same map but space limitations meant that the overall world was drastically reduced in size, and it happened again in later games. Basically as the graphics improved, Britannia shrunk, going from what was basically a small continent with various sized islands, to a large island with various smaller islands in size. This even had an effect on the in world technology, as between 6 and 7, you went from sailing frigates with deployable long boats to basically viking longships, since they obviously couldn't fit big ships onto the smaller maps.
Now 6 and 7 were great enough games to get away with the massive world reductions, and 8 took place on another world...but 9 was a trainwreck that definitely wasn't helped by reducing the world even more to the point that, once you unlocked most of the story gates, you could walk the distance of the mainland in under a day, something that took at least several back in 5, even using the fastest, non teleportation, travel method. I like immersive gameplay, and I get hardware limitations, but yeah, it was disappointing to watch the world that had introduced me to RPGs get shrunken down, especially given how badly the series went out.
I thought the FFVIII overworld was fine. Much worse was when FFX came out, no overworld map at all. Even when you got an "airship" you couldn't fly around the world -- you just selected locations from a menu.
Thank you! This needed to have been noticed!
Yeah but ironically the world building of FFX is much better than FF8. So you don’t need a map in FFX. A good example would have been FF13, were you have no map and the world building is non existent.
i am a wild arms series fan, and you are totally right, i love wild arms 4 story and characters, and it has unique battle system too. but it lacks the exploration. wild arms 5 has great explore map, i love it so much that i complete all their some blocks mini games that you have to find by going around the map... it is so fun!
I'm gonna say it now and again and I've always said it: I love Suikoden IV and I love the whole world map ship traveling thing in that game. Especially that you can only see the parts where you've already been. I really enjoyed going to new places. I seriously never understood the hate towards IV
I agree with Tactics. I love FFT, and it's my favorite game of all time (notice my username, yea) but that part I didn't like either. Funny enough, they made it better in the advanced series, where you could see the encounters walking around the map, and avoid then if you whished.
Actually for an overworld I'd like to see more of them with them being mostly traversed by only vehicles.
Imagine these overworlds felt like traveling around from country to country in real life, no way you're gonna walk there unless you're fit enough for it and have the time to.
So having a vehicle to be the only ways to travel the overworld so the party doesn't just pass out from exhaustion imo is a good thing. Not saying the game will add an exhaustion meter (please don't add that) but in context you can make it like that to make the world more believable.
Like Phantasy Star 4's various vehicles needed to get past massive terrain hazards, or Skies of Arcadia needing airships to get anywhere because none of the settlements were connected to one another by land or water?
I have to disagree with two of these. FFT World Map was fine, I saw no issues with it and the same with FF8! I love the world map in that one. Other than that, good video :)
FF8's world map was garbage - what a boring world. I liked FF Tactics just fine though
@@StewNWT Well, that's your opinion on it lol 😆 I loved FF8's world map but FF7's will always be my favorite.
Thank god we can agree that FF8 has one of the most boring, bland and empty worlds every created. Holy crap did the world design SUCK for that game. Weren't there only like 3 towns in the whole world? I want to smack whoever designed half the features in that game
Legaia 2: Duel Saga. We went from a decent world map requiring actual exploration in the first one, often having story based reasons for why walking just wasn't viable and you needed an, often one-way, ride to a new location. Then you had... Legaia 2. They kept the story-driven reasons for needing to go to certain places to acquire a ship to sail or dragon to fly, but it was all so bland and two dimensional despite having cleaner graphics and being on a stronger console. They basically kept the same type of map and removed the option to explore. Ugh.
FF8 had a 'bad world map'? lol
It had tons of locations scattered throughout the map. The reason that it was big was because it was meant to deter some people from accessing certain places too soon, but if you knew the game, accessing them earlier was cool.
FF8 felt empty, i like big worldp maps but when theres not much in it, its not great, 6 and 9 had the best world maps
@@saeefa Your own metric would be off then, there are quite a bit more locations both big and small in ff8 than ff9 liking one over another is fine, but ya know... If it felt empty, it wasn't because of a lack of locations for 8. More space between places? Lack of thousands of mountain ranges to block your walking path? Lack of tiers? (ff9's first continent, for how few places they were were on different heights which I guess could give the feel of it being bigger)
so good of a vid I had to sub, your awesome
Every time I am reminded of Star Ocean 5 I wince. I would love a DQ11 level quality game in the series as SO6. Just imagine with today's graphics exploring lovingly crafted planets and areas with a mix of traditional and modern game design philosophy. If I had 3 "gaming" wishes that would be one of them. If I had 3 regular wishes I'd wish for infinite money and then buy tri-ace and all the old devs of SO2/3 and have them make it.
The PS1 version of Tales of Destiny only in hindsight. That world map looks like a Sega 32X game. They should have kept it sprite based because it's difficult to even navigate it. Also The Legend of Dragoon want to backtrack to a previous continent? Insert Disc 1! Never understood why I had to do that. Also the on rails aspect combined with disc 2s back and forth through the Badlands made me wish it was point and click like Grandia.
Legend of Dragoon pushed the psx to its limits, hence why you had to swap discs to load data, and I believe it was because of the voice samples in the game ( I think TLOD was the only multi disk game on the PSX that allowed you to revisit previously visisted areas).
Interesting that you picked Final Fantasy VIII because I feel like you could say the same thing about VII. I had no problem with either VII or VIII's map, honestly. There were extras if you knew where to look for them/knew of their existence in both games (materia caves, Knights of the Round, Goblin Island & Cactus Island, Chocobo Sage and Lucrecia's cave in VII; Centra Ruins, Island Closest to Heaven and Hell, Shumi Village, Deep Sea Research Facility, chocobo forests and Obel Lake in VIII).
because it was the safe pick. the truth is, VIII had a better world map then IX. IX's map was such a huge let down for me, after playing VIII
Tales of Eternia had a terrible underwater map , I remember wandering for nearly hours trying to find all the caves
Unpopular opinion: A rpg being linear isn't inherently a bad thing and can actually be an upside.
One of the most linear games I ever played was FF 13 with lightning
Ill put it as one of the worst things possible for rpg
@@Rerpesentz I've never played 13 so I can't really comment on that, but 10 is another really linear entry and it's probably my favorite ff entry.
Skyes of Arcadia should be here. The WM was empty and the amount of random encounters was just crazy.
What about the hidden random encounters and special dungeons strewn throughout ff8? And the chocobos!
For star oceans' case, i think that was because of the shenanigans with tri-ace.
It's really sad.
To this day, I consider ff2 as the entire black sheep of the series. Ff2 has the smallest and worst map in the entire main series so far. Ff2 is clearly in par with MG Survive.
Not to mention the instadeath enemies you get the second you wander into the wrong part of the map. 😂
@@AH-ve3ys same could be said for most early rpgs. in the original DW, just walk across a bridge to the north, and a skeleton will end you.
Finally someone else who pronounces Suikoden like I do!
What would you rather have: a bad world map or point and click maps?
i just want a world map that feels real and not a sand box or one big hallway so thank you for pointing this out david ps maybe a soon to be top 10 greatest jrpg soundtracks of all time ?
The first Phantasy Star I ever bought was 3 from a game store used. I had not played either 1 or 2 yet but figured with the lineage of the game series it would at least be cool. Phantasy Star 3 was royally unfinished. I don't know the story behind why but everything from the status screen, to the maps, to the fighting was all super rushed so the whole game just felt broken and decrepid. I hated it and sold it not long after. When Phantasy Star 4 came out gosh what a difference! Everything was polished and enjoyable. I hope some day that 3 is done justice.
there are still modern rpgs with world maps though. ni no kuni 2 for instance.
I understand not being completely on board with some of the world maps of later Final Fantasy games, but I honestly don’t mind them at all, for the most part. FF10’s was simple and linear, which though it cuts down on the “open world” like traveling of previous games, each area is equally represented with story segments of varying weight, adding to the charm of things for me. FF12 is honestly one of my favorite worlds in the series, because of the varying landscapes and music. Plus, I like how everything is connected to one another, though I was a bit disappointed with the airship being limited and the crystal level is a horrible and confusing mess. FF13 has a similar approach to FF10 for a majority of the game, but this game feels a lot weaker in terms of impact, though that’s probably because I didn’t really care for the rest of the game. FF15 is another personal favorite world of mine, because I honestly really enjoy the car travel. The world is so big, and so much is open to you after the tutorial stuff is done with. I do think it’s a shame that you lose access to this world after a certain point in the game, but I didn’t mind that either.
I also like world maps. I'd love to see more games that do a combination of open-world zones with a world map between them. I find that world maps give me a feeling for the true scale of the world.
For instance, in something like FFXII, while I love the game, the world doesn't feel that big because it's separated into relatively small zones with no world map between them. FFXV is an even more extreme version, where it went full open-world, but that only made the world feel small because you can get anywhere within minutes.
It feels this way with games in general, no matter the genre. I get people want a seamless journey from place to place....but, in order to stop us all going mad, they scale the maps down. Video games are full of whole cities smaller than my already tiny suburban area in real life. It gets to that point you'd think technology and man power would allow for bigger maps of any kind to make the world feel big, like it is trying too feel. But they won't because people will complain it takes too long to travel and they'd rather have small but detailed....I hate small but detailed, the same details over and over again in a place that says it's big but is only like 2 square miles...please. To me that is just as unrealistic as a larger area with less detail...but at least then the scale makes up for it. But like I say, to mitigate slow travel they could give you fast travel, speedier vehicles/methods of travel as you play so when you start travelling further afield you can get that sense of scale without the tedium of slowly going there. But that takes effort....
They're not RPG's but games with huge and detailed enough maps are True Crime New York (1:1 Manhattan.) Test Drive Unlimited, Mad Max, The Just Cause series and so on. Other big maps in the early 90's were Vette! Terminator 1990.
I know it's a ramble but I'm tired of them pussy footing around with unconvincing small maps.
I love the random encounters in FF Tactics 🤷🏻♂️
It was pretty fun when you would hit a god encounter like 12 monks or a map completely filled with dragons and tiamats. Definitely vwould have been nice to be able to run from encounters though.
I didn't mind the random encounters in FFT.
Surprised legend of dragoon didn't make the list but then again it is the only one in the entry (no other legend game made) so it wasn't any expectation for it's world map
Never had a problem with FFVIII's world map personally, but I respect your opinion - at the very least, I like the idea of it.
And yeah, I like the idea of world maps - if I succeed in creating my own RPG (I have one planned) it will have a world map, even if it is a dated idea they feel part of it for me, and I just like them (there are times when I imagine what FFX would be like with one.) One of the ideas of my RPG is to call back to earlier-ish RPG formats anyway (world maps, ATB, text speak, etc.) but with a more modern look - yeah, it could be seen as dated, but it's meant to be a call back to them.
For such a good game, Legend of Dragoon had a terrible map. If memory serves, didnt you have to switch discs to go back to older places? I understand a lot of it probably had to do with PS1’s limitations, but I remember hating the world map.
I actually like the map of BOF 3 and 4 over 1 and 2 because I freaking hate random encounters.
In finale fantasy 14 you were forced to us a car to go from place to place. Our it was optional regardless people hated it. They hated the cart mechanic in Mario party 7 and 8. So they got ride of it in Mario party 9.
I wanna drink wine with the guy commentating lmao
I generally prefer a much larger world map, ala the FF series, but Persona really does make me feel that it's possible to have a smaller, more personal world and have it work. Perhaps it's just about layering all kinds of personality so that people feel connected to it.
I thing I will never like persona is the time limit. That's why I can't seem to finish any of the persona games lol. And walking around town to have dates is also very boring to me.
I thought Phantasy Star III had an interesting take on maps, being different sectors on a colony ship and all.
This doesn't change the facts about PSIII but I do want to give it some context. The development team that did 2 (and later 4) was pulled for another project. I think there was only 1 person from the original team, but they were a minor player in the dev team for the 2nd title being thrust into a larger role with none of the support for the 3rd. The games dungeons and caves all look the same too. The context of the game this makes sense, being that it was a spaceship the whole time, but the real reason had more to do with the short development cycle too. I loved the idea of choosing a wife and playing through as your main character's child and grandchild too. Just a lot of wasted potential here. I often think of Miyamoto's saying something like, a delayed game can be good, but a rushed game never is.
GOSH, THANK YOU! The death of the world map is something that isn't addressed enough, and it was always one of my favorite aspects of classic RPGs.
As for a few disappointing ones for me well...
-Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World. I mean c'mon, the original game's map is RIGHT THERE, you're already reusing town architecture
-Final Fantasy X: This game is great overall, but I played the FF titles from VI to X in order as they came out, and when I finally got the airship... I was pretty let down
-Legend of Dragoon: Absolutely phenomenal game, it blew me away when I played it for the first time, but the point-and-move world map just seemed disproportionately low in quality in comparison to the high bar the rest of the game sets
I actually like the world of FFVIII, but i get what you mean. FFT (FFT WotL) though? I AGREE. i still haven't finished playing it because i take my SWEET time in that game grinding, but getting around to do quests and getting specific items or questlines is a pain. I wish they'd streamlined it a bit for WotL. I still need to finish it.
Wait, what...? Are you saying the locations in Phantasy Star 3 are separate planets or did I misunderstand what you were referring to? Phantasy Star 3 takes place on a space ship of connecting pods. The landscapes are granted quite lackluster and empty, though, agreed. They reused assets in the towns and such far too much as well.
Legend of Dragoon deserves a mention here. Like FF Tactics but with more random encounters.
the random encounter rate was a huge nightmare the first time I played that game.
3:28 this reminds me a lot of Pillars of Eternity II.
Tales of Legendia one town ? Oresoren village want to know your location lol
The only good thing about SO5 is Fiore, the rest felt like an amalgam of all the other games, but with a heavy dash of crappiness.
I agree with others about Random Encounters in FFT, they made sense. The game is basically a hunter/guild/adventurers guild/ Naruto Hidden Ninja Village Simulator. If nobodys causing trouble with you trying to complete your missions or ambushing you..then what are you even doing?
i mean ff8's emptiness always felt as them showing that even with all their tech and magic most of the world was just too dangerous to inhabit due to monsters, and most new towns would only be started if it served a millitary function
Oof. I thought 9's map sucked.
The outer islands are just so empty compared to the first continent.
That's more a comment on the game's content and pacing than the map itself though to be fair.
Haha PSIII "they didn't even try" reflects most of the game tbh. Although, they're not.. really planets? But that's kind of a spoiler.
5:30 Nice RPG Maker Portfolio
And most get encounters are ended in single turns after proper planing so not a big deal (in fft)
Legaia 2. The original had a fully open world with ways to teleport all over the place. Legaia 2 took all that away.
I actually enjoy XV's open world map style. The whole car-centric road trip presentation really gives the act of the journey a lot of character I don't usually get out of RPGs. The game was setting out to be more rooted in Modern Fantasy, so rather than just running across fields of green and into forests and across lakes and all that, you're riding along the roads in your convertible. If you want to go off the beaten path then just find a place to park, file out, lock up and go exploring. It gives the game a sense of adventure and wonder that's more realistic and in some ways more grandiose when things get more fantastical because adventures lie just off the beaten road and it's yours to find if you just pull into that gas station, jump over the highway barrier and check out the scene
By the time driving everywhere begins to wear out it's welcome, you've got enough Fast Travel points to get basically where you need to go and once you finish the quest to unlock the Regalia Type-D, you don't so much crack open the world as you do snap it in half over your knee.
Until the game snaps you in half because once your regalia starts flying, even a mosquito can trigger an explosion 😂
The main thing that disappointed me about the maps in Final Fantasy Tactics and other tactical rpgs starting with maybe Vandal Hearts is that you could no longer explore the world map (or even towns) like in Shining Force but instead have this set of dots on a map connected by lines and you just move from dot to dot. It is a boring downgrade, and even though those games are still excellent, I always felt we got ripped off by the elimination of explorable world maps and towns in FF Tactics and the like.
I blame FF10 for the normalizarion of JRPGs without a world map. FF10 was my first disappointment with the FF series, and the lack of a world map packed with a-to-b navigation in every area just killed this game for me...
Another issue with the FFT random battles is that the enemies level up with you. That means you can grind a bit until the enemies get stronger equipment, steal that equipment, and just absolutely breeze through the story missions. On one playthrough I had all kinds of overpowered equipment, mastered job classes, and all the skills to go with it at the very beginning of the story. I think the game is so fondly remembered because of its fantastic soundtrack. It's really not very well designed and there are much better strategy RPG's out there. Fun game, but I wouldn't call it great.
Your supposed to master some of npcs like cloud Orlando Beowulf and the others
And you can steal truly OP equipment only available in specific missions there's alot you could do in the game just had to grind out the requirement
I'ma just say, legends 3 and saga 3 world map difference shouldn't be that big of an issue. Ain't no treasure to collect on world map, just travel to location and deal with annoying random encounters.
Final fantasy VIII was the first world map I ever saw in an RPG so I have a special place in my heart for it, I guess it has a few problems though.
Amazing game, boring world map
@@viktormartinez1405 better world map than FFIX and FFXIII. FFVIII had all the different well done types of terrain with hidden areas. The only thing bad about the map was not being able to go into the towns on Disk 4
@@alecedgeworth2814 the Ragnarok was so badass
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies.
DQ VII: Fragments of the Forgotten past (PS one).
The map of legendia may not be good,but have one of the best stories and characters of the tales series
100% there with ya. Massive world open world was nice the first 10 times... Now everything had to have it? Give me a world map.
what game is being shown at 1:05?
nevermind, googled the dialogue and found that it's Grandia
There will actually be another star ocean game, let's hope that one is better than the last one.
I have a love/hate for Legendia. Love it because it’s a Tales game, hate it for many obvious reasons lol. Despite saying that, I have the sudden urge to hook up my PS2... Bright side? I can also replay Abyss.
I would have to say Tales of Xillia one and two, not because they are worst maps ever even though they are kind of boring. They are some of the most disappointing for me because of how much greater those already amazing games could of been if they would of put in the effort to make a world map with interesting dungeons and places to go! I think the same thing could be said for the majority of Tales of games past Vesperia, but the Xillia games are by far some of the worst for lazy design.
I don't really think Dragon Quest Swords belongs here. Yeah, it's technically an RPG, and it's a huge departure from the usual expansive and meticulously-crafted DQ world maps, but it was never meant to replicate those at all. It's an on-rails arcade-style game, more like Time Crisis with a sword than anything else.
My vote goes to Tales of Destiny. The structure of the world map isn't a problem, but the camera perspective the game uses makes the map downright hideous and frustrating to navigate. A traditional top-down perspective would have served the game well, but the insistence on having a very close horizon that follows world curvature severely restricts your view.
Final Fantasy VIII is one of the few FF games to have a good world map. Because you get to actually explore and find stuff off the story path. Half the GFs and a bunch of backstory for the characters are found by exploring the world. And DQ Swords/Final Fantasy Tactics don't even have a world map...
So, this is all your opinion... and I understand that... but this hurt.
I loved exploring islands and feeling like an explorer in suikoden 4, I enjoyed the connected feeling of Legendia, I felt like immersion didn't break traversing FF VIII (which has many problems, but I never though the world was one of them). Good points that you brought up though, clearly felt different things when experiencing these worlds.
I really hated the world map for Final Fantasy XIII. I wasted a lot of time going the wrong way because no compass.
Can't really say its that disappointing since they made the game just as good, but the port from the first star ocean game made me a bit sad. The snes version didn't have a world map but instead you ran across connected maps to get from one town to another with lots of hidden treasures and secrets that you need to actively look for. Sadly the psp version removed all that and instead replaced it with an overworld map, the areas where the said hidden treasures and secrets are are now points on the map where you can go to (albeit the secrets are not marked on the map so you still need to search walk around to find them).
This is most likely better for most players since it was a pain at times to backtrack in the snes version, but i still feel like i lost something.
FF 6 s Map is like a Geography Class Map.
that dragon quest swords level looks like pokemon snap lol
I loved Tactics's random encounters. *Shrug*
Seriously, they allowed you to grind.
Agreed. His suggestion for arenas to grind in would have been immersion breaking, especially considering the very political nature of the game.
@@precisecalibre6986 Plus it wouldn't be a Pre-XI Final Fantasy without random encounters.
Is your love for worldmaps related to the fact you teached Geography?