What is the best way of modeling out a stylized 3D environment

aeastcoast93

Ok, so I’m new(ish) to 3D and was wondering how environments like these would be modeled out? (reference images below)
I always see tutorials and guides for individual assets, but not the environment itself. Surely it’s not modeled using a flat plane and a sculpting tool like most current open world environments are.I was playing Banjo-Tooie when I had the thought so I’m just using some of its maps as a reference. I’m interested to know everyone’s methods to modeling the ground, walls/cliffs, etc etc so I can start practicing! 

(I use Autodesk Maya 2020 & zBrush 2020 if that matters at all btw.)

Kanni3d

Box modeling

PolyHertz

N64 games, the Banjo titles included, were made using simple box and per-triangle modeling (in the example provided just make a plane, cut out the shape from the top, extrude downward, and refine and add props from there). Textures were 64x64 or lower resolution (textures that needed to be bigger then 64x64 like skyboxes or murals were done by stitching multiple 64x64 textures together), and were tiled whenever possible. Textures were also  generally only 2-bit (4 colors) or 4-bit (16 colors), and regularly had their hue combined with vertex colors for both lighting and color diversity (black and white textures colored entirely by vertices was fairly common). Effects like running water were done via UV panning.

You can explore the Banjo environments to better understand how they were constructed here: https://noclip.website/
For retro 3D art in general this thread may also be helpful: https://polycount.com/discussion/226167/retro-3d-art-faq-everything-you-need-to-know-to-create-ps1-n64-dreamcast-etc-3d-art

aeastcoast93

Thank you!