Lowlander

Lowlander is an absolutely wonderful retro RPG where you explore the world and save it from evil. It’s quite a linear game with no real character customisation but the strength is in the huge game map and satisfying levelling. There is a food mechanism that can be challenging early on, but later you can just buy so much food that you’ll never run out. Food has no weight, fortunately.

Exploration gets easier as you go: you eventually get some boots that let you cross mountains, then a boat so you can navigate the seas, and finally an airship. The map has several levels of zoom which is very helpful. And as a super secret insider tip: you can blow up bridges with a spell (and you will eventually need to).

Here’s a very useful map by lex3001.