@ThyBlight Yeah preferably I'd like to ignore glitches.

When I first played Super Metroid, I thought it was solid but unremarkable. A few years later, I gave it another shot and managed to finally learn how to properly wall jump. All of a sudden, the game went from good to revelatory. The designers were thinking 10 steps ahead of me and they designed the areas to reward wall jumping and allowing the players find their own path. Since then, only Mario World's Star World and Dark Souls' mystery keys have allowed me this degree of control of a game's pace. Are there any other similar games that you can think of and recommend?

What's more important for you? An excellent standalone level that is detached from the others or a series of interconnecting smaller areas that are , usually, not as excellent as standalone levels. AKA, Dark Souls vs Bloodborne, Super Metroid vs Metroid Prime, Super Mario World vs Yoshi's Island, Symphony of the Night vs Rondo of Blood, etc.

@DeweyDTruman sure but at that point why make an open world if there isn't a sense of space. Might as well make it a cursor like persona.

@Haru17 I would say that it's a different approach to level design. RE4, Majoras Mask, Ico and Metroid Prime are some of my favorites because of their tight level design but that doesn't invalidate games that use negative space in their design as a means of immersion and theme. I like Goodfellas because how brisk it is but I also love My Neighbor Totoro for how meandering it is. Different approach = different result.

Whenever someone criticizes an open world for being empty, I find myself actually interested in HOW it's empty. Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of games never use their large spaces properly but those that do are something special in my eyes. Shadow of the Colossus is an obvious example where the dead landscapes allow the player to meditate on their actions. Recently, Breath of the Wild used its vastness to constantly play with the players desire to explore, inviting them to navigate towards interesting landmarks. Red Dead Redemption uses the long stretches of wildnerness to juxtapose it with the games vision of an untamed land in a state of revolution. Some would argue that Mafia 2 uses its intentially barren city to illustrate the emptiness of the American dream. I disagree but whatever. But the game that does this the absolute best is good old 7.8 himself: The
Wind Waker. That's right, I love the sailing in this game because of how it reinforces that Link is only a child and his growth towards heroism. Also, it manages to do something no other game has ever done before: capture the banality of exploration. In every other exploration heavy game, you are never too far from finding new stuff around every corner, whereas in Wind Waker, it reminds me of when my friends did scavenger hunts and there would be a period of nothing really happening after every discovery. It creates a beautiful wave of highs and lows where your anticipation for the next discovery would slowly rise every time. In short: All hail The Wind Waker, the greatest action adventure game of all time. So do you guys have any other examples of games that use space in interesting ways.

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