>>527572349
>I wanted an entire game out of that side mode, finding new vignettes after clocking the traversal puzzle with limited movement.

Have you played the Professor Layton games? Maybe less so in the earlier titles, which have a lot of riddles and mathy sort of puzzles, but in Miracle Mask, Azran Legacy, and Layton vs Wright, a lot of the puzzles are more "physical". It's not quite the same appeal as the big open map you slowly uncover in EO3 though.

Totally different kind of game but I get the same vibe as the sea quest map from Loop Hero...maybe just because of placing lots of map icons.