I've noticed that if a game has a mini-map on the screen, chances are I'm going to train my eyes to that about 50% of the time when exploring. It's easier to plan the most efficient path, but I'm definitely losing something in the process. After all, the developers spent all this time making a world that I'm not paying attention to, so I've been making a conscious effort to enjoy my surroundings. I was worried that ignoring the mini-map would create a Skyward Sword situation, but I realized the other day that Ōkami didn't have one and I never had a problem navigating in that world. Perhaps that says something about Skyward Sword; everything seemed so unremarkable that without a map I couldn't make heads or tails of it.