Shrinking into the size of a pea to wander in a miniature landscape, no matter how tasteful or pruned it is from outside its perimeters, probably won’t sustain inquisitiveness for long. We are willing to risk our neck diving into every waterfall, and peer cautiously over a precarious cliff, if we can only find just one more coin.īut where does this motivation come from? While hakoniwa gardens are mesmerizing, regular-sized gardens can be a bore (to me, at least).

The boundaries set by the diminutiveness of hakoniwa gardens are removed-we can see, touch and interact in these worlds through Mario-and we become overwhelmed by a yearning to explore. Their distractingly vibrant environments hide a bonanza of collectibles, with some concealed beneath layer after layer of levels and scenes. Rife with collectibles, Easter eggs, secret passages, and nooks and crannies to get lost in, each kingdom is a self-contained world, thrilling players with surprises at every turn. Inspired by the very concept of hakoniwa gardens, the myriad kingdoms in Super Mario Odyssey are brimming with secrets to unearth. That’s why scenes that may seem mundane outside these gardens, like watching a lone figure fish at a secluded spot, become a thoroughly fascinating secret-one that evokes wonder and awe. Perhaps we can bow our heads a little, or bring them closer towards our eyes yet, these acts, however intimate they are, merely grant us glimpses of spaces we cannot occupy. But as outsiders to these miniature worlds, we can never inhabit them. Many observers ruminate over these creations, keen to ferret out and indulge in their finer elements. In these boxed gardens, each diminutive landscape boasts an abundance of detail-from figures to immaculate structures-and the joy is in discovering the minutest of features.

Hakoniwa is a Japanese word referring to the intricate, miniature gardens created within a small, constrained space.

All the worlds in super mario odyssey