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Maps in Video Games | What is the most ridiculous / confusing? Your favorite map? Ever got lost in a map? What game has the shittiest map?

hwarang

hwarang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,452
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Sewers in Parasite Eve. Fuck this place. Map looks simple, but everything looks the exact same from what I recollect. If you don't visually create your own map, you will be stuck.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I didn't like the map at all. It was total crap.

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Liked the map overworld system they did for Final Fantasy Tactics. Was memorable.
 

Normal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,296
MegaMan ZX. Hated that map system, it was just a confusing mess. Had to play the game with guide.
 
Canucked

Canucked

Comics Council 2020 & Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,416
Canada
Oh and there was a forest in Secret of Evernote that I drew out as a kid.
That was cool.
 
Tatsu91

Tatsu91

Banned
Apr 7, 2019
3,147
The map in control sucks to the point I had to use a dark souls mindset to not get lost
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,742
I seem to remember the final dungeon of Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne being such a nightmare that I never finished the game. Noah killed me and when I reloaded my save I COULD NOT find him again. Ran around in circles for three or four hours before I just gave up and never went back.
 
Cenauru

Cenauru

Dragon Girl Supremacy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,976
The Black Shroud map in FFXIV 1.0 looks like a nightmare. Never played 1.0 myself but my girlfriend has shared a number of horror stories with me.
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Birdie

Birdie

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
26,289
Normal said:
MegaMan ZX. Hated that map system, it was just a confusing mess. Had to play the game with guide.
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I didn't mind it as much once I realized the map just showed what areas connected to which, and that WHERE a segment was didn't necessarily indicate what direction it was in compared to the other areas
 
Griffins22

Griffins22

Member
Oct 30, 2017
467
First game that comes to mind is Jedi; Fallen Order. I swear I spent a half hour on Zeffo trying to get back to the ship lol
 
RockmanBN

RockmanBN

Visited by Knack - One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,985
Cornfields
Xenoblade 2's was absolute ass. Spent so much time trying to figure out where to go on Chapter 4. Took the wrong path thinking the main path had you go through bull shit of monsters way above your level during that period of the game.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,380
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Legend of Zelda. I love the game to pieces, but this map is a stupid piece of shit.

Edit: Including the route to solve it.

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Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,941
God of War 2018 is brilliant but its map is not good. Too much stuff on the screen, but what especially bothers me is that, if you press "Go to map" for a particular quest, it doesn't take you to the location of that quest. I think - and this is after 20 hours or so - that active quests are only indicated by a radiating circle. But given how cluttered everything is they don't actually stand out.

Hopefully this is something they significantly simplify in the sequel.
 
Shopolic

Shopolic

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
6,866
I'm playing Control these days and really love it, from amazing gameplay to great atmosphere and other things, but the map... It has the most confusing map in my gaming life. I'm usually good with maps, but this game...
 
Minthara

Minthara

Freelance Market Director
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
7,940
Montreal
Canucked said:
I saw only videos but damn that looks bad. I wish we could just go into a virtual tour of it.
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You say that but a lot of the map was just the same terrain copied, rotated then pasted over and over, so you got a lot of repeat views. The zone may have also made a bit more sense as maybe an end game maze area, but this was one of the starter zones.

Some parts of FFXIV 1.0 were truly ridiculous.
 

Deleted member 283

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,288
Interesting this topic comes up because I was just playing Cthulhu Saves the World for the first time yesterday and it's an overall fine game, but one of the things I was thinking about while I was playing was how confusing the maps were, especially if you're trying to get all the treasures, and how random encounters definitely don't help with that. Fortunately, each area only has a certain number of random encounters, after which point they stop, so I just grinded out the random encounters near the entrance of an area and then explored.

It's also fortunate though that both Cosmic Star Heroine and Cthulhu Saves Christmas, later games by the same developer that I had personally played first, are much, much better about this and I had no issues with the maps in either of those games.
 
Septimus Prime

Septimus Prime

EA
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
8,500
Arkham Origins: Blackgate (I think that's the title. It's the one on Vita) has a map that's flat out unusable.

Here's the map:
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Oh, btw, this game is in 2.5d.
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So where the fuck are you?
 
lvl 99 Pixel

lvl 99 Pixel

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,706
Ever play the Descent games? you had to navigate them at weird upside down angles and memorize the layout to escape.
 
Snagret

Snagret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,782
Septimus Prime said:
Arkham Origins: Blackgate (I think that's the title. It's the one on Vita) has a map that's flat out unusable.

Here's the map:
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Oh, btw, this game is in 2.5d.
ss_7cfa1da2b18a0a54ec17a818a54b350a129d56cf.1920x1080.jpg


So where the fuck are you?
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That reminds me of the compelety bizarre and incomprehensible "spiral tower" section of Bloodstained, though with that one they're kinda doing the opposite and trying to cram a 3D space into a 2D map.
 
Smash-It Stan

Smash-It Stan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,275
Hollow Knight

I loved having to have a charm equipped the entirety of the game, just to know where I was on a map. I loved having to hunt down a shop keeper who's usually in the middle of the new area to buy a map for the place I'm in. I loved discovering more and more areas just to get piles of useless cash because 70% of the entire map is completely optional.
 
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zswordsman

zswordsman

Member
Nov 5, 2017
1,771
Xenoblade 2s is straight doodoo.
Nocturne is a fantastic game but man did I get lost in Amala network.
Nier Automatas map is also very dookie.
 
Prinz Eugn

Prinz Eugn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,393
Halo MCC has some atrocious maps (of the maps) before the start of matches. It's a nice thought, showing you the layout of map you haven't played in ten years, but the execution is just awful, it looks like random blue swiggles half the time. A screenshot of the level itself would be infinitely more informative.
 
BrickArts295

BrickArts295

GOTY Tracking Thread Master
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,772
Septimus Prime said:
Arkham Origins: Blackgate (I think that's the title. It's the one on Vita) has a map that's flat out unusable.

Here's the map:
maxresdefault.jpg


Oh, btw, this game is in 2.5d.
ss_7cfa1da2b18a0a54ec17a818a54b350a129d56cf.1920x1080.jpg


So where the fuck are you?
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YES, I had to rage quit this game because I couldn't figure out where in da hell to go. The backtracking made it worse :/
 
Skeeter49

Skeeter49

I wish Jim Ryan would eat me
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,297
We're all in agreement that Silent Hill has the best maps, right?
 

Deleted member 59109

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 8, 2019
7,877
Not really a fan of Metroidvania maps in general. They're just too complicated and not fun, plus the constant backtracking everywhere.
 
boxter432

boxter432

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
9,271
Breath of the Wild, once fully unlocked plus DLC Hero's path was cool. Loved being able to see where I had and hadn't yet been. Since I played at launch and unlocked whole map before DLC came out it was fun watching my initial path off the plateau and remembering going to spots (and seeing deaths lol) just by seeing a line be drawn.
 
louiedog

louiedog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,296
Deadly Premonition. It would change orientation and I found it impossible to use quickly.

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Bane

Bane

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
5,905
Yuhtunga Jungle in FFXI. It took me moths to finally understand how it works, meaning there would be parties I'd get invited to only to end up leaving because I could not figure out how to get to them. All those little ends do not come out at the nearest one like you think they would It's a clusterfuck of a map.

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I too thought about Black Shroud for FFXIV 1.0 for a few reasons but overall Yutunga was worse for me so I went with that one. I'm glad to see it was mentioned anyway.
 

Deleted member 283

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,288
Smash-It Stan said:
Hollow Knight

I loved having to have a charm equipped the entirety of the game, just to know where I was on a map. I loved having to hunt down a shop keeper who's usually in the middle of the new area to buy a map for the place I'm in. I loved discovering more and more areas just to get piles of useless cash because 70% of the entire map is completely optional.
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I agree with this. I hate how the compass works, how it's actually a Charm that takes up a Notch slot. Especially since there's absolutely no reason since there are plenty of other items that don't take up slots at all. Like, the lantern for instance. Or, say, forget the lantern, what about all the other map markers the same person who sells you the compass sells? Y'know, stuff like the bench markers, the stag station markers, and all that? Why is the Compass like the only one that acts that way, what's it add, and what's the purpose of it other than being obnoxious even if it becomes easy to circumvent in the end by taking it on/off at benches only to reorient yourself? Definitely hate that whole system.

EDIT: I also forgot. The Quill, the thing you need to buy so the map updates when you sit at a bench, is also just something you need to buy and not a Charm right? It really is just the stupid compass for whatever reason, completely inconsistent with how the rest of the map components you have access to at the same time work. Annoying.
 
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GlassCup64

GlassCup64

Member
Dec 16, 2017
1,133
zswordsman said:
Nier Automatas map is also very dookie.
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Was waiting for someone to mention Nier Automata. That definitely could have used some polish... or color or something.

Control was another confusing one, when it would actually load.

For the people saying Xenoblade Chronicles 2, what did you find confusing about the maps? Were you playing at launch? I think they patched it.

The funny thing is, I really enjoyed all three of these games.
 

Scruffy8642

Member
Jan 24, 2020
2,849
Xenoblade 2's map sucks at handling verticality, and the waypoint marker is imprecise as heck. It'll show the objective directly in front of you as long as you're going in the like 150 degrees of the correct direction. So it could be literally anywhere.

Doom 2016. Man I only played the game for like 4 hours in the end, and I spent more than half of that time lost. How could they even make it this bad.

I never thought a map reveal could be as badass as botw made it. Seeing it open up in 2 segments like that, thinking "oh shit, it's massive" andthen getting the proper reveal where it's like 100x bigger than you thought. Epic.
 
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