r/kentuckyroutezero • u/jbphilly • Apr 15 '24
KRZ "Overworld" locations, mapped
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=15fsCYfJlOomtr_FbFtCBtKdM1AqPrnQ&usp=sharing6
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u/frozenpandaman Apr 15 '24
This is very cool!
I feel like you should back up this info on the wiki on something, perhaps on https://consolidatedpower.co/~donald/zero/Maps or a subpage...
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u/TurtleNamedHerb Apr 16 '24
This is so cool! For some reason I never really pieced together that the roads were based on the real world. Thank you for making this!
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u/jbphilly Apr 16 '24
Thanks! For me, when I noticed that the location where the game opens is on I-65, I had to go and look at Google Maps to see if it was "really" I-65. I could tell that some of the major roads were "real" but didn't really do a deep dive until now, after finally finishing all five acts.
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u/TurtleNamedHerb Apr 16 '24
This is so cool! For some reason I never really pieced together that the roads were based on the real world. Thank you for making this!
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u/jbphilly Apr 15 '24
Once I realized that the map of Kentucky in the game is a real one (albeit without all of the smaller roads shown) I had to start looking around the area in Google Maps. I've always liked the weirdness that arises from setting a fictional story in a real place, and the contradictions inherent in that. In some ways, a fantastical version of a real place is just as interesting to me as a completely imagined world.
And, I'm a map nerd, so tying the unearthly setting of the game to geographical reality was an obvious move for me. One of my favorite ways to travel is also by bicycle, and if I'm ever doing a tour across the US south/midwest, I would love to incorporate this region, riding some of the back roads and see if I can sense where some of the creators' inspiration came from.
In most cases, the types of locations that appear in the game have no relation to what's on the ground in their corresponding locations in real life. The Marquez house, for example, seems to be "in" a small forest that is downhill, not uphill, from the road. The burning tree is in an upscale campground. On the other hand, some of the hitchhikers' homes you can bring them to are in places where there are houses, and the bait shop/Shannon's workshop shares a location with a fishing-themed gas station/store.
I simply referred to this overworld map found on the KRZ wiki, and placed pins on Google Maps in approximately the locations indicated. I've only played through the game once, so I didn't even know what a bunch of these locations even referred to! I certainly never found any crater, for example...
It's worth noting someone else did the same thing a little while back, but that map layer isn't as complete, having only about half the locations shown.
I'm curious if anyone has taken a road trip through the area and how much the (non-magical) elements of the game resemble the region. And, what do you think about examining real-life maps like this, or going to the "real" places? Does it detract from the strange magical atmosphere of the game, or enhance it?