If
this interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma is to be believed, the
Wii U Legend of Zelda game will feature an over-world roughly the size of Kyoto! Kyoto is approximately 320,000 square miles! (To make a comparison and get a sense of just how large that is by video game standards,
Grand Theft Auto V's city of Los Santos is approximately 100,000 square miles!)
The Legend of Zelda games have always featured impressively large and varied (for their time) Hyrulian over-worlds that the player can explore non-linearly at their leisure. As such, to hear that the latest game will feature such an impressively large area isn't too surprising, despite being a bit of a feat in terms of game capabilities!
However, how this area will be used is critical: It'll have to feature a sufficient number of varied enemies, hidden treasures, and puzzles to keep treks across the every-growing Hyrulian landscape fresh and engaging rather than feeling like a series of unremarkable road trips from dungeon to dungeon! Quality is even more important than mere quantity!
Most of the
Zelda games have gotten the density of over-world enemies, hidden treasures, etc right thus far though, and as such I'm more than willing to give
Nintendo the benefit of doubt that their latest iteration of Hyrule will be another epic, adventurous land befitting the series!
