Best World Map
Hyrule has taken many many forms in its years. At one point, it was a lush field highly divided. At another, it was just wet. Every fantasy needs its kingdom, and here's the best renditions of it.Skyward Sword, despite being highly varied in the world map, was a little lacking. It was highly dense, allowing you to traverse the dense woods and honestly believe them to be as dense as depicted. The mountain was tall and fun to climb. The desert was an interesting puzzle to not drown in. The sky was remarkably large. However, it is the freaking sky, so it could have been larger and had more stuff in it. Aside from Skyloft and the thundercloud, I only used the sky to get to other non-sky places. And on the ground, I was really hoping I could find a way between the various regions. The game was plenty epic, but it could have been bigger.
Ocarina of Time has a very good map. The castle, the lake, the zora's domain, the massive mountain... Every place was distinct and suited to the atmosphere it needed. It was much easier to get lost in the lost woods than in other games. However, a number of issues can be raised. The desert didn't seem as big given you can barely see ten feet, the woods was more separated by rock than tree, death mountain seemed a lot more horizontal than vertical, some shortcuts seemed a little too quick for the distance travelled and the civilised world seemed a little divided.
Twilight princess comes next. It reflected the OOT map closely with a few changes for practicality, the desert seemed freaking enormous, the woods were very woodsy, the fields were large and sprawling and the castle stood in the middle of the kingdom. Again, my issue with death mountain is the horizontal feeling it gives and the desert was something that irked me in its connection, as there is no non-magical method to return from that landscape. And if you hadn't scoured every section of the desert, like me, and found the twilight portal, there's only one way to get there.
And the winner is Wind Waker. It's one of the only other contenders with Hyrule in it, albeit a heavily flooded version. Literally every square has something interesting in it. You can be sailing far and not see anything in any direction, which really adds to size. Along the way, you can accidentally find another island and hunt down the painter fish, find a beacon of light and search for treasure, or notice an outpost and kill some bokoblins. My only issue is that it supposedly correlates to Hyrule below it, but looking at old hyrule, there aren't many mountains, and they're definitely not close enough for them all to walk that distance. And how did the Kokiri get that tree inside a mountain?
Best Artstyle
This is subjective, but I have to be honest. And there's not a lot to say, so this will be a short section.Ocarina of Time was limited by the console capabilities, but it still has to be judged. Not even the ground was that smooth, and the style suffers for it.
Wind Waker went for cell shaded cartoonish art which I find quite appealing. It allowed for good expression, and not one creature in the game looked particularly silly. Except the Chus, but they're always silly.
Twilight Princess went for realism, and it works. The blond became a softer shade of brown, and all creatures had to become what they would realistically be, which was quite a think. The darknuts looked as strong as they ever did in this.
Skyward Sword took the best of both worlds, going with the soft cell shading of Wind Waker and the realism of Twilight Princess. The result was perfect for the world and the creatures they wanted to show, and the first time I saw it, I approved.
Best Sidequests
A world only has depth when everything in it is not a flat cardboard cutout of a person made to fill the space. To develop the minorest of minor characters, you give them sidequests. This also helps to fill the game time, handily enough. This excludes minigames.
Twilight Princess had several sidequests: Agitha's bug ball, Jovani's curse, Goron Spring Water and Magic Armour. None of these are as valuable as the benefits would claim, considering your 1000 rupee limit and the difficulty in finding all those grottos.
Ocarina of Time did not have many sidequests in its world. Everything seemed to progress the main story, or wasn't worth creating. To my memory, there are four sidequests: the house of skulltula, the happy mask salesman, Epona and the biggoron sword. Epona was also a feature that substantially makes the game easier and faster, Biggoron was a guide-dang-it of the century, I'm not sure if anyone actually found it worth while to beat the skulltula curse and the mask quest was over before it started, if you knew where to go.
Wind Waker had a good number of side quests, given the simplicity to wind up doing something you weren't meant to. The Goron Merchants, the pair of shy lovers, the moon lover, the poor to rich girl, the rich to poor thief girl, the Koron tree planting and so many others. And none of them feel tiring! Well, the tree planting...
Skyward Sword comes next, with its bunch of gratitude crystals. The sidequest as a whole is a surprise, given how you're prepared for a fight to protect Skyloft, and suddenly you have to make every member happy. You learn more about them, find stuff that fell or never was in the sky to begin with, use your skills or even just use a love letter for crap-wipe. And it keeps you interested. Plus the boss-rush...
And finally, Majora's Mask. There are twenty masks. Very few are for the storyline. You work out why MM is on top here.
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And that's part three. I'm nearing the end, here.
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