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[Glass]

Ultima Ascension was the first game I bought which came with a cloth map, loved them ever since

You then had the in game maps for each region

And the treasure maps with accompanying clues to find the spot

 

[Hellraider]

Final Fantasy XIII Map

You know what's amazing with this? They had one of the most linear games that have ever existed, yet they managed to ruin the Map system. When you have areas that 95% out of the time are a straight corridor, the only useful thing about a map would be to tell you which area transits to which. It doesn't.

 

[His Majesty]

Lords of Xulima, one of the best RPGs of 2014, has a beautiful world map.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

This is still my favorite.

 

[dragonfart28]

I like lotro's maps.

 

[Stumpokapow]

A lot of JRPGs seem to have world maps that look primarily like archipelagos, with long thin peninsulas and lots of small islands. I wonder if this is because creators are inspired by their area of the world, Asia, which is most similar to this design. Just really quickly let's go through Final Fantasy.

Look at FF4:
http://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/4/overworld.jpg
On the right, an archipelago, and every island has extensive spidery peninsulas, with very little land density.

Final Fantasy 5:
http://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/5/map1.png
Again, mostly thin long peninsulas and an archipelago in the bottom right

Final Fantasy 6:
http://www.uffsite.net/ff6/images/maps/1.jpg
Closer to continental land masses, but still look at the finger-like peninsulas.

FF7:
http://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/7/map1.png
Still with the fingery peninsulas and spidery bays

FF9:
http://www.ffwa.eu/ff9/images/worldmap.jpg
One main continent and a bunch of long thin islands and fingery peninsulas.

FF10:
http://www.ffshrine.org/ffx/ffxmap.jpg
This is just explicitly a take on Japan.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Seriously, maps and very especially videogame maps are my fetish. A decade ago I spent dozens of hours stitching together all of WoW's in-game maps (now lost to history and HD crashes). VGMaps is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Real talk: I made a map dump on Imgur that went largely unappreciated

There's zero reason not to hotlink them in this thread!

 

[SolVanderlyn]

This is still my favorite.

Wow, this takes me right back to my first time playing FFVII.

Maps are amazing. Looking at them is like being transported to another world. Each region has its own traits and atmosphere, just like the real world. I'd even go so far as to say a good map is essential to building a good world, like the foundation of a house.

 

[Hashmal_Bringer_of_Order]

Three pages without the GOAT MMO

(Was the newest and most complete one i would find. It's larger now, obviously)

This fan map is great too

 

[Zalusithix]

Since SoA was posted, I'll go with XCX in which the map and interaction with it was critical to certain aspects of the game.

 

[Stormblessed]

I think Drakengard 3's upside-down Europe is pretty funny. Most of the Pokemon ones are good, but I actively dislike the Kalos map.

A lot of JRPGs seem to have world maps that look primarily like archipelagos, with long thin peninsulas and lots of small islands. I wonder if this is because creators are inspired by their area of the world, Asia, which is most similar to this design. Just really quickly let's go through Final Fantasy.

Look at FF4:
http://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/4/overworld.jpg
On the right, an archipelago, and every island has extensive spidery peninsulas, with very little land density.

Final Fantasy 5:
http://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/5/map1.png
Again, mostly thin long peninsulas and an archipelago in the bottom right

Final Fantasy 6:
http://www.uffsite.net/ff6/images/maps/1.jpg
Closer to continental land masses, but still look at the finger-like peninsulas.

FF7:
http://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/7/map1.png
Still with the fingery peninsulas and spidery bays

FF9:
http://www.ffwa.eu/ff9/images/worldmap.jpg
One main continent and a bunch of long thin islands and fingery peninsulas.

FF10:
http://www.ffshrine.org/ffx/ffxmap.jpg
This is just explicitly a take on Japan.

Is it not partly a response to scale? They're quite small worlds, typically, so going for that kind of design approach makes sense. Spreading the towns and dungeons across larger continents would leave a lot of empty space, and having just one big one instead of 3 or 4 smaller ones makes it feel like less of a grand adventure.

 

[Zioman]

Such a classic

 

[Jackpot]

Raccoon City

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Seriously, maps and very especially videogame maps are my fetish. A decade ago I spent dozens of hours stitching together all of WoW's in-game maps (now lost to history and HD crashes). VGMaps is a guilty pleasure of mine.



There's zero reason not to hotlink them in this thread!

Hello friend.

Seriously, I got some map books for Christmas the last few years - shit's great.

On topic, I would like to present Thedas:

Absolutely fucking huge version (and different style) here

It benefits from many a fantasy map trope, but it's also got several small twists (like being an eastward facing map) that make it stand out.

 

[Kaji AF16]

Some of the maps from Outcast (1999) feel less "organic" from a top-down perspective than in the default third-person view:

 

[Weltall Zero]

On topic, I would like to present Thedas:
Absolutely fucking huge version (and different style) here

It benefits from many a fantasy map trope, but it's also got several small twists (like being an eastward facing map) that make it stand out.

The second link also goes to the small version for me (wikia's cache has played this trick on me too), but I think if you remove the part of the url after the .jpg it should work.

Some of the maps from Outcast (1999) feel less "organic" from a top-down perspective than in the default third-person view:

Wow, that's amazing. At a glance one would assume these are tile maps from a 2D rpg, not a 3D third person game.

 

[afternoon delight]

This thread is gold for design ideas.

Raccoon City

These are incredible, thank you for sharing!