Retro Games that feel massive

[diet_orange]

The Gen 2 pokemon games felt huge in a way that no other game in the series managed to replicate. Of course they're linear at first but open up eventually.

Especially towards the end

Spoiler

where you go back to the Kanto region

 

[Eduardo2010]

Most of old RPG games feels to meet those requirements. Especially cRPG games like Final Fantasy or Breath of Fire.

to be honest - the encounter rate kills these types of games for me...

 

[RetroPixelLizard]

The Elder Scroll:s Daggerfall Is the obvious answer, how open Is It? Well It's just flat out open and I know that's vague but that's my point. It's not exactly a living world but you get to live your life your way. But I got a few others.

Gothic, while the world Is not massive, It Is boastign about having no loading screens between most areas (Unless you go deep underground like the mines), but the world Is quite alive as the other Inmates do go to sleep when not working or training, and exploring does reward you with some good gear... usually In a theiving shit type of exploring.

And there Is also Ultima six, and seven, just play for a bit doing whatever, follow an NPC for a day, bake bread, find the Hoe of Destruction (Which has a funny story behind It), blow up Chuckles the Jetster with a powder keg, so much to do.

And I guesss I should bring up the Sims too, while It mostly takes place on one small plot of land being your shanty until you get a decent amount of money. And once you have that money what you can do on that plot of land with your Sims life Is quite massive In scope when you think about It despite not being open world unless you count The Sims 3.

 

[Burzuru Burzuru]

I was going to say kingdom hearts, but in retrospect its not that big. the game just sells you on its sense of scale initially. effectively its not that large.

 

[Sanomoe]

Herc's Adventures felt like that. Never finished it till this day

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Star control 2 or the fan port Ur-Quan masters. You have a whole galaxy to explore, different alien races to interact, various ships to make and upgrade, mining on hostile planets, and much more.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

I would say the O.G. NES

Metroid felt absolutely massive at the time and still does, it has all of your requirements.
However if you are new to the series, I would suggest starting with

If for nothing else, S.M. has a map system.

 

[Ikagura]

I would say the O.G. NES
View attachment 176292

Ouch my eyes

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Ouch my eyes

It was the mid-eighties everything looked like that

 

[diet_orange]

Ape Escape 1 felt, to me at least, really open. Obviously the draw distance is crap and there's fog everywhere, but still, at 10 years old, it felt massive and endlessly explorable (especially when trying to hunt down every last damn Spektor coin for the mini-games)

 

[BrawlMan]

Guardian Heroes felt pretty expansive and big, because of the multiple story paths and multiple endings.

Star Fox 64, because of all the levels and getting the true ending.

 

[Anoobis]

The Tomba! games both feel like big, cohesive worlds.

 

[nomohero7]

TNMT and Zelda 2

 

[Rocket2049]

Dragon Quest VIII was the first game I played where I felt like the character was to scale in a massive world. I feel like almost any retro RPG would suit the criteria, though. The original Zelda was mind blowing as a child.

funny thing is DQ8 has one of the smallest worlds in a DQ game (except DQ1 or 2 maybe)
i was quite disapointed, i played DQ8 after 1-7,9, and 11, and said "what that's it?"

Dragon quest 7 is TOO MASSIVE like 100 hours on Switch (to absolute 100%, on hardest difficulty settings), thats SUPER easier and shorter than PS1 game which is around 200 hours to complete 100%, 3ds version was slightly faster an still was like 150 hours for me,
there's so many areas in present AND Past time, so much story, so much... period!
to be fair it's about TOO big, most people drop it from burning out

Dragon quest 3 has you go through the DQ1 and 2 world map for the 2nd half of the game, even the easier remake 2DHD took me 70 hours to 100% it all on normal difficulty

 

[random0nonsense]

funny thing is DQ8 has one of the smallest worlds in a DQ game (except DQ1 or 2 maybe)
i was quite disapointed, i played DQ8 after 1-7,9, and 11, and said "what that's it?"

Dragon quest 7 is TOO MASSIVE like 100 hours on Switch (to absolute 100%, on hardest difficulty settings), thats SUPER easier and shorter than PS1 game which is around 200 hours to complete 100%, 3ds version was slightly faster an still was like 150 hours for me,
there's so many areas in present AND Past time, so much story, so much... period!
to be fair it's about TOO big, most people drop it from burning out

Dragon quest 3 has you go through the DQ1 and 2 world map for the 2nd half of the game, even the easier remake 2DHD took me 70 hours to 100% it all on normal difficulty

True, but it was the first time the character felt to-scale with the world around him.

 

[shaggi]

to be honest - the encounter rate kills these types of games for me...

I understand you. Some old RPG games have too high encounter rate. There are reducing encounter rate hacks for some of those games. Maybe you can enjoy them this way.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei 2 made me rethink what was even possible in a famicom game

A crapton of beautiful sprites, monsters, fusions, a big map of tokyo AND when you think thats it you find out about the underworld and its own monsters and dungeons and npcs..
Not to mention how epic the good ending is, just amazing


Similarly final fantasy 3 has this floating isles world..but then the world expands

 

[aquova]

Pokemon Red/Blue felt like going into a whole other world when I was a kid. Knowing what I know now, there were games that had the same level of expansion, but being used to most Game Boy games, it was astonishing.

 

[DjQuick2008]

GTA III hard to get bored.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Dust An Elysian Tail, for a game that had to be trimmed down, the game has enough maps to keep you busy trying to 100% them

 

[DarkTownStrutters]

The old might and magic games, and Ultima series, i used to play those to death back in the late 80s, early 90s. Ultima 6 was mind-blowing in how it let you go anywhere, do anything at anytime. I think it was might and magic 3 when it was revealed that your "world" was just a part of a gigantic spaceship, another colossal mindfuck.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Dragon Quest 3, no doubt. One of the rare games that I’ve played and felt like there was almost no end to it, for better or for worse. Mostly better, the game was really good.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

There are many but I would like to add PSO 1 and Final Fantasy XI to the list.

They are massive in many ways

 

[FarJyyUir]

Final Fantasy XII felt like a living breeding world. Today it feels a little less so because of the frequent loading. But it's still breathtaking, and with a massive amount of content.

breeding

Calm down Fran isn't real.

Would Secret of Evermore count?

Post automatically merged: May 2, 2026

It was the mid-eighties everything looked like that

View attachment 176305

 

[BrawlMan]

Sonic 3 & Knuckles still feel massive today. All of those levels with alternate paths, three different playthroughs, Knuckles campaign takes place after Sonic and Tails, and you have the option of gaining the Super Emeralds, if you have both games combined, and had gotten the Chaos Emeralds already.