History Main / LawOfCartographicalElegance

* The ''Franchise/WildArms'' franchise is good about this.

* The world maps (which are actually very large islands) in ''OperationFlashpoint'' work this way. Each one is bordered by endless ocean, much like the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games but without the invisible barriers out to sea. If you do insist on flying out into the ocean, you just end up off the map and hopelessly lost.

* Justified in the first ''[[TheBardsTale BardsTale]]'' RPG. You were trapped in a very square city.

-->-- '''TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches''', Rule #45

* ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'' and its sequels are partial aversion. At the lower sizes the world is restricted by WaistHighFences. At the second highest size it is the classic toroidal shape, with the katamari, teleporting to the other side of the map in mist. At the highest size the Katamari rolls over a proper globe.

* ''MotocrossMadness'' had an Insurmountable Thirty Foot Fence around the arena, which was actually pretty easy to get over if you crashed into it just right and hit the recover button (in some versions, recovery occured automatical). You can then drive around the border of the arena, but if you drive too far away from it you get fired back into the center of the arena, painfully. Driving along it or even doing nothing doesn't help - sooner or later, you get kicked from the zone of nowhere whatever you do or do not do.

* SuperMario64 has the worlds not only neatly fit into a square, but also has them as {{Floating Continent}}s above the void with an invisible wall bordering them on all four sides. Justified in that these worlds are contained inside rectangular paintings.

* Most games in the ''Zelda'' series are bounded by topography (usually mountains to the north and the ocean to the south). ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' keeps you hemmed into the game world by having your boat [[ButThouMust forbid you]] to continue past the edges.
** It also mentions that there's a storm (which you can see) further on. So, if you like, you can just imagine that the Wind Waker world is occasionally frequented by ''horrendously magnificent'' hurricanes, and that the game takes place in the eye of one.
*** Being that the world of Wind Waker only came about [[spoiler: because the Gods themselves flooded Hyrule, creating the ocean]], that's not as far-fetched as one might believe.

** In all of the games (and the spinoff ''[[SidMeiersAlphaCentauri Alpha Centauri]]''), the worlds are cylindrical: you can circle endlessly east and west, but north and south you are blocked by "the poles". You can, however, enable an option that allows you to build flat worlds.

* In the MarioAndLuigi series, almost all the games bar one have the entire world map as an island in the middle of some ocean somewhere and no indication that there's anything beyond the borders. Which makes sense in Dream Team, since Pi'illo Island is well, an island. But in Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story? That's the entire kingdom that's supposedly stuck on an island with water on all sides, despite the fact multiple games have Mario and co crossing the border to other areas of land! Although this is just the world map that's like this, you never get near enough to the border in game to figure out where it cuts off.

* ''DragonQuest'' differs from the later games in the series in that all of Alefgard appears to be surrounded by water.

* Averted entirely in ''VideoGame/XComUFOEnemyUnknown'' (''X-COM''), which has a nice rotatable round map.

* Averted entirely in ''UFO:Enemy Unknown'' (aka ''{{X-Com}}''), which has a nice rotatable round map.

* The ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' games (In some installments. In others, the world literally ''is'' flat and rectangular, surrounded on all sides by an ethereal void).

* ''KatamariDamacy'' and its sequels are partial aversion. At the lower sizes the world is restricted by WaistHighFences. At the second highest size it is the classic toroidal shape, with the katamari, teleporting to the other side of the map in mist. At the highest size the Katamari rolls over a proper globe.

* The ''TalesSeries''.

* The [[VideoGame/SuikodenI first]] [[VideoGame/SuikodenII two]] and [[VideoGame/SuikodenV fifth]] ''{{Suikoden}}'' games all feature a limited game area in an (implied) much larger world. While the second and fifth game were better about using mountains and rivers, the first mostly relies on Great Wall of China-esque barriers.

* The first two and fifth ''{{Suikoden}}'' games all feature a limited game area in an (implied) much larger world. While the second and fifth game were better about using mountains and rivers, the first mostly relies on Great Wall of China-esque barriers.

** Noteworthy however is that with the exception of the Hoenn Region, all the regions are shown to be part of a larger landmass. In fact, [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldandSilver Gold and Silver versions]] show that beyond the Elite Four is Johto/Kanto (depending on your starting point) - and the [[VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldandSoulSilver remakes]] feature one location not shown on any map: the Sinjoh Ruins, which are shown to be somewhere far to the North of Johto, which serves to tie the Johto region to Sinnoh.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', the Island of Vvardenfell is supposed to be surrounded with a mile or two of water, but that same water seems to be infinite.

*** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' takes the same approach.

** Earlier, ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' was borderless like ''Morrowind'', and beyond the map was randomly generated terrain leading to nothing. No notice was given that the player was wandering outside the game territory, but a look at the map before even getting that far made it obvious.

* ''{{Drakengard}}''.

* Justified in most of the {{Avernum}} games: You're trapped in a massive cave system so the edge of the map is the ends of the cave. In Avernum III, you're on a peninsula that's [[spoiler:under quarantine, so no boats in or out, and a massive mountain range/magical wall keeping you from going north.]]

It should be noted that this trope can be blamed on actual maps of earth which also happened to be set up in such a way that the only land masses that actually cross over the edges are Antarctica and the Chukchi Peninsula. In any case, [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality an acceptable break from reality]].

* The original TheBardsTaleTrilogy. The guide for the second game refers to it as "wraparound magic".

* In all of the main series ''{{Pokemon}}'' games, the routes and cities are all bounded in by the environment, with mountainous cliffs and impassable forests being most common on land, and convenient rocks marking out the sea routes.

** Noteworthy however is that with the exception of the Hoenn Region, all the regions are shown to be part of a larger landmass. In fact, [[PokemonGoldandSilver Gold and Silver versions]] show that beyond the Elite Four is Johto/Kanto (depending on your starting point) - and the [[PokemonHeartGoldandSoulSilver remakes]] feature one location not shown on any map: the Sinjoh Ruins, which are shown to be somewhere far to the North of Johto, which serves to tie the Johto region to Sinnoh.

[[caption-width-right:335:[[MightAndMagic Every continent neatly in its grid.]]]]

* Creation in ''{{Exalted}}''. Like the ''Ultima'' example given above, this is because Creation is ''literally'' flat and (roughly) rectangular; the {{Insurmountable Waist Height Fence}}s are the Elemental Poles of Air, Wood, Fire, and Water, beyond which lie the formless chaos of the Wyld.
* The Domains of ''{{Ravenloft}}'' are all "demiplanes" within the Deep Ethereal Plane, bounded on all sides by the Mists. You ''can'' enter the Mists, but there's no knowing where they will take you except for a few [[HyperspaceLanes consistent "Mistways"]].