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[Gusy]

When Final Fantasy VII came out on the PS1, you spent hours exploring Midgar, a steam-punk , quasi-futuristic city full of variety and distinct places. Train and train stations, industrial complexes , Slums, Churches... In terms of variety it rivaled or surpassed most JRPGs you could play at the time.

Then the story progresses and you find yourself in a situation where you have to escape from the city. Reaching this point felt like finishing a whole game. And when you finally do escape.....

You realize that it was nothing but a little dot on a huge map that you are now free to explore. Granted, not other place in that map was as detailed or developed as Midgar... but, the effect caused by the reveal was unforgettable.

 

[GymWolf]

i dont think you can beat the inverted castle in sotn, that shit shocked me to my core when i was little...

What the fuck do you mean i have another dozens of hours of new enemies, loot, bosses, transformations, story etc.

 

[Flabagast]

Recently Blue Prince

Was kind of insane really

 

[HRK69]

TOTK - The depths

 

[Hemingwayoffbase]

Elden Ring is the obvious modern example of this, but I also remember thinking that White Orchard was the entire game world in Witcher 3 and then realizing… oh, this is just the tutorial zone!

 

[Gusy]

Recently Blue Prince

Was kind of insane really

Elaborate !!!

 

[TintoConCasera]

Dragon Quest, so many times I've lost count lol. Dragon Quest XI is a HUGE game for sure.

Another one might be Shin Megami Tensei IV. You play the first section of the game as some sort of dungeon crawler with a hub town ala Etrian Odyssey, only to ending up reaching Tokyo after just a few floors of the dungeon.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Elden ring in two places... the elevator to Siofra River and those trap chests... they show that the map is WAAY bigger than what you would expect initially.

 

[Liopleurodon]

Okami.

When I realized that Orochi isn't the final boss.

 

[Danjin44]

 

[nush]

When Final Fantasy VII came out on the PS1, you spent hours exploring Midgar, a steam-punk , quasi-futuristic city full of variety and distinct places. Train and train stations, industrial complexes , Slums, Churches... In terms of variety it rivaled or surpassed most JRPGs you could play at the time.

Then the story progresses and you find yourself in a situation where you have to escape from the city. Reaching this point felt like finishing a whole game. And when you finally do escape.....

You realize that it was nothing but a little dot on a huge map that you are now free to explore. Granted, not other place in that map was as detailed or developed as Midgar... but, the effect caused by the reveal was unforgettable.

Dude, it was three discs. OMG this game is bigger than the first disc! Mind blown!

 

[GymWolf]

When Final Fantasy VII came out on the PS1, you spent hours exploring Midgar, a steam-punk , quasi-futuristic city full of variety and distinct places. Train and train stations, industrial complexes , Slums, Churches... In terms of variety it rivaled or surpassed most JRPGs you could play at the time.

Then the story progresses and you find yourself in a situation where you have to escape from the city. Reaching this point felt like finishing a whole game. And when you finally do escape.....

You realize that it was nothing but a little dot on a huge map that you are now free to explore. Granted, not other place in that map was as detailed or developed as Midgar... but, the effect caused by the reveal was unforgettable.

i may just have to do a replay of this masterpiece and forget that the remilks even exist...

 

[Gusy]

Dude, it was three discs. OMG this game is bigger than the first disc! Mind blown!

Yeah.. but you could've easily spend the rest of the remaining discs developing the story in Midgar. Doesnt invalidate the feeling you get when the map opens up.

Its really amazing how you managed to bring down the positive vibe of the post with the shitty drive-by. It's like you got a super power

 

[Hudo]

TOTK - The depths

This.

And Dragon Quest XI S

Spoiler: Don't read if you want to still play it

I genuinely thought when the credits rolled at the end of act 2 that that was that. And I felt like it was a good ending. So much so that when I realized that there's actually a third act, I first refused to play it when I found out it would basically "erase" a lot of stuff that your characters have experienced and stuff that they did etc. But I'm glad that I eventually did finish it properly. Such a good game.

 

[Hugare]

Nothing will beat taking a boat in Pokemon Silver/Gold and suddenly end up going back to the Kanto region

Absolutely nothing will top this. My little mind was blown.

 

[nush]

Yeah.. but you could've easily spend the rest of the remaining discs developing the story in Midgar. Doesnt invalidate the feeling you get when the map opens up.

Its really amazing how you managed to bring down the positive vibe of the post with the shitty drive-by. It's like you got a super power

Drive by, I'm involved in the conversation. See you got a quick reply.

 

[The Cockatrice]

At the top of my head:

Elden Ring once you see the real map
Dying Light once you reach the second city
Crimson Desert(in a bad way) bloated af
KCD2 once you get to the second map
Star Wars Jedi Survivor once you realize how big Koboh is
Hades 2 once you go to the surface
Hollow Knight once you realize there are 4-5 more areas you discovered

 

[TheHellenicGuy]

Alien Isolation, maybe? The more I played the more I felt 'it must be ending now' but noooo... there's a lot more to do.

 

[Windle Poons]

I thought the whole game was in Midgar so I'm with the OP when I got to the outskirts it was my WTF moment in time.

 

[LectureMaster]

Breath of the Wild when you spent five hours finishing the starting zone and then opened up the map and were like:

 

[Holammer]

Finding the reverse castle in SotN the first time. The entire castle inverted with new monsters. I was suitably impressed.

Noita, breaking into parallel worlds for the first time.
Then the second parallel world, the third, fourth, fifth and your wizard dude is becoming a demi-God of destruction.

 

[Gusy]

Elden ring in two places... the elevator to Siofra River and those trap chests... they show that the map is WAAY bigger than what you would expect initially.

The conversation suddenly turned into a hype generator for Elden Ring. Havent played it yet , I cant find the hours I'm surely going to need to completely dive in

Drive by, I'm involved in the conversation. See you got a quick reply.

Hey, feel free to bump my thread.

Alien Isolation, maybe? The more I played the more I felt 'it must be ending now' but noooo... there's a lot more to do.

Alien Isolation got some meat in it, but in that particular case I would've preferred a more streamlined playthrough. I would shave off a couple of hours. Still a masterpiece though..

 

[ScHlAuChi]

 

[Windle Poons]

Breath of the Wild when you spent five hours finishing the starting zone and then opened up the map and were like:

Man I need to get myself into this game. I'm literally ready to jump off the starting area that's as far as I've ever got.

 

[LectureMaster]

Man I need to get myself into this game. I'm literally ready to jump off the starting area that's as far as I've ever got.

Do it my man, I really wish I could erase my memory and experience botw freshly again. One of the best gaming experiences for me.

 

[dgproject]

I think ff series in ps1, after that big maps and locations are kinda expected in jrpg. FF7/8/9 was cultural experience, even though I played them in psp years after original launch. I can only imagine for people who played them on launch day in ps1.

Also, gta San Andreas with Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas; kinda crazy that they'd able to put all of those in a 2004 ps2 game.

 

[Bartski]

Surprise teleport to Leyndell in Elden Ring

 

[ssringo]

Elden ring in two places... the elevator to Siofra River and those trap chests... they show that the map is WAAY bigger than what you would expect initially.

The trap chest(s), if you find them early enough, are the big one(s) imo. Because up until that point when you open your map it's still zoomed in to the local area and when you get teleported it's zoomed out and you're so far away from where you just were.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Recently, I had several of these moments in Silksong.

You just keep finding new areas and new connections to old areas and it's absolutely mind-boggling.

 

[Represent.]

Black Myth Wukong

CHAPTER 6

 

[justiceiro]

On God of War I thought we would go just to the mountains, but then, we got other realms.



Kinda sad you don't visit all, though.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Instead of posting adventure game maps, here's my amazement on a much smaller scale. And I never knew it till I played it.

Playing endless amounts of COD 4, WaW and MW2, great games but predictable content and menu screens. Black Ops 1 comes out....

- Combat Training bot mode vs cpu
- Spectator mode
- Theater mode
- Many new MP modes
- Make your own emblem
- Contracts
- Tons of stats like kills/accuracy per gun, kills per killstreak etc....

 

[Markio128]

The Crater region in GOW R was a nice surprise for me. It wasn't massive by any stretch of the imagination, but it was certainly unexpected.

 

[(mat)]

I remember playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as a kid and being so proud of figuring out how to get all 3 spiritual stones. When I pulled the Master Sword out of the pedestal and woke up as an adult, I was dumbfounded how much of the game was left. I think it's taken for granted now, but the kid portion of OoT already felt like a ton of hard work and puzzle solving when you're doing it for the first time as a 7 year old. Finding out there's still so much left was mind-blowing to little me.

 

[Audiophile]

Feel like "so this is just the game from now 'til the end" going to "oh wow, this is much more expansive than expected" is a regular thing I've felt over the years in gaming, yet I'm coming up blank on any examples..

 

[Magic Carpet]

Psychonauts 2 surprised me with how many areas and levels were in the game. I thought I was near the end of the game and bam, an entire new hub area Green Needle Gultch.
Game was much larger than I had expected it to be, over twice the size of the first game.

 

[Codes 208]

Breath of the Wild

Holy fuck I was only expecting it to be about 1/4th that size

Also elden ring, i came in expecting it to be mostly the lower limgrave half, but then i got to the lake, then the altas plateau, then the city, etc. etc.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Elden Ring is the obvious modern example of this

 

[Throttle]

Beauty.

 

[uncreativename]

This is probably one of the only ones for me . I usually end up spoiling things very slightly for myself when I'm doing research on whether I wanna buy a game or not, but that was a looong time ago.

Oh also I don't think I realized how big Super Mario 64 was going in. Discovering new areas and worlds felt magical in that game :].

Yoshi's Story for N64 was the opposite of this thread. I couldn't believe how insanely short that game was, glad my friend's family bought it and not us

 

[Arachnid]

TOTK - The depths

I'm still mind blown they kept it under wraps all the way to release in this leaky day and age.

 

[Aion002]

Crimson Desert.

At launch I spent 2 hours walking exploring the a small part of the map and I was:

 

[Gamer79]

 

[Gamer79]

 

[Gusy]

Feel like "so this is just the game from now 'til the end" going to "oh wow, this is much more expansive than expected" is a regular thing I've felt over the years in gaming, yet I'm coming up blank on any examples..

Here's one that came to mind. When I played Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I spent like 6-7 hours on the starting island exploring and doing every mission. It was after all of that playtime that I finally got the title screen, which felt kinda insane even if I already expected a huge open world adventure from it.

 

[Markio128]

Both Goldeneye and SM64 used inventive ways to make the games seem much bigger than they were. Goldeneye had 4 tiers of difficulty (one hidden) with different challenges to complete in each stage, and SM64 introduced a new challenge for a star each time you entered the same world. This kind of level design is my preference rather than just bigger maps, or higher difficulty options that only have tougher enemies, etc.,

 

[Itchy Tickles]

In the last year or so, Clair Obscure. The game felt like it was ready to end a few times, only for it to (thankfully) continue and none of it felt forced or drawn out. Even the post game had a bunch of content and important story elements that were unexpected.

Inscryption - This was my unexpected and most beloved game for a few years. Thinking after the first section was done and you just repeat it like a roguelike, to then have much more varied game left with some cool AR story was amazing. Some people complained or disliked what happens after the first part, but I was blown away by it. Later they added an update and game mode so that basically the first part can become its own isolated mode with new rules and gameplay, if you want.

A weird shoutout, but WWF No Mercy of N64. Seeing the branching paths and trying to figure out how to unlock them was like heaven to me. Then finding out through gameplay (pre common place internet) that there were even secret paths to discover, made the game feel endless to me. The game did have a save deletion bug that meant a full recall was required, so I also had to start over, but I loved it all over again.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Here's one that came to mind. When I played Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I spent like 6-7 hours on the starting island exploring and doing every mission. It was after all of that playtime that I finally got the title screen, which felt kinda insane even if I already expected a huge open world adventure from it.

Horrible Assassins Creed... excelent game, if only Ubisoft was capable of creating games that did not take themselves too seriously again...

 

[HYDE]

Dude, it was three discs. OMG this game is bigger than the first disc! Mind blown!

Dick-o-meter is beeping. Yep complete dick!

 

[R6Rider]

Elden Ring moment.

I initially thought the map was only mostly just Limgrave and the island to the south.

Then I decided to just ride as far north past Stormveil Castle as I could and it just kept going.