Overworld

An overworld is, in a broad sense, an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other video game genres.

Overworlds generally feature a top-down view or a third-person perspective of the fictional world within the game. It often contains varied terrain (including caves, mountains, forests, and bodies of water) and a collection of towns and other locations (most commonly dungeons or levels). When the party enters one of these locations the world map display may remain on the screen, be replaced by the local geography, or be hidden until the party exits the location. In many games, the player is able to travel on the world map; in other games, the player uses the world map to select their next location. Typically, a dungeon houses a host of enemies, while a town usually is safe. In some games, there are a series of world maps. Some games allow the player to view only a portion of the world map at the beginning of the game, with new locations becoming visible as the game progresses, whereas other games show the entire world map from the beginning.

The term "overworld" also refers to the opposite of the "underworld"—the world underneath the ground.

The Ultima series of RPGs marks one of the first uses of an overworld. Many games have emulated Ultima's overworlds, especially fantasy-based ones. The most prominent example in this category is the Dragon Quest series. In each of this type of overworld game, most of the action (or at least most of the plot-advancing action) takes place in towns, forests, dungeons, caves, castles (and the surrounding area), camps, fortresses, mass transportation systems, celestial bodies (e.g. the moon), and other locations. In the Dragon Quest series, the overworld is used as a "travel map", and changes to a closer perspective for direct gameplay or confrontation. The overworlds featured in most of the 2D adventures of this genre commonly depict the character(s)' proportions as larger than they actually would be in the world being traveled, thus lending necessary visibility to the player. The characters' animation in this type of overworld is often simpler than that found in the game's menus and other areas, while more complicated movement such as combat, climbing or visibly handling objects sometimes happens at closer perspectives, and often involves cutscenes.

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