Final Fantasy 15 Criticism Is A Reason Final Fantasy 16 Isn’t An Open World Game

Despite not being an open world game, FFXVI features several open field areas.

[Flawlessmic]

Thank god its not open world.

It impacts story telling so much and final fantasy has always been as much about the story as anything else for me.

[Vx_]

Seriously, the only open world game I have ever finished is GTA and the Witcher, and I struggled to finish it.. most open world games get boring pretty fast. Thankfully this isn’t an open world.

[merlox]

The open world was fun. It let you explore more than a closed linear world. The driving was fun and able to go anywhere was great. It didn't ruin the story any and added more exploration. This was a good thing for the story.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I partially agree, although we haven't had a good FF story since the PS2 days, I think open-world only exacerbated the issues that FF15 had with it's characters and story telling. But that game had alot missing that they could have implement if they dropped the open word aspect, I'd be willing to go semi-linear as well if it had to be done.

[Flawlessmic]

semi linear is perfect, easier to tell a great story, we still have some form of freedom, but more importantly we get different locations.

Thats the other part that makes FF, FF for me anyway, traveling to different and distinct areas. being located on samey looking map just isnt what i want from a FF.

I want to be taken on a nice long adventure across the world they have made, not just one place

[RedDevils]

F yeah! FF15 was a borefest, couldn't even finish the story because it so boring. At least 13 is not as bad.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

For all the s**t we give 13, it really did have a much better story than 15, the characters were also better as well (stuff Snow though, he never really grew on me).

[Magog]

I enjoyed FF15 but I didn't play it at launch I played the royal edition. The end was a downer slog but the beginning was a lot of fun. Road trip with the crew vibe was original and enjoyable.

[TricksterArrow]

Yep. But it was COMPLETELY dettached from the story. Not well incorporated at all.

[porkChop]

I think the road trip vibe would have worked better with multiple smaller open maps rather than one big one.

[Magog]

That would take away the driving aspect which would take away the road trip... If anything it could have done with a bigger map with more cities.

[Rocketisleague]

I don't get it...it was smaller open maps. It would have been fine if the story was paced alot better.

I actually found the last 5 hour sthe best part of the game.

If you want ffxv to be a decent game. Just follow the road, skip the side quests apart from the dungeons and rush through the story.

The only problem with open world is fetch quests, poor side quests etc. All the ff games generally have interesting side content that expands on the world. That started to dry out since ff12. There's still content in ffxv, it's just not worth doing. Again the dungeons being the exception.

I thought the ending in particular was very good though even for an ff game.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@Magog
Bigger map? There was hardly anything worth of note in the original game as it was, nah, small map, more towns and cities.

[shinoff2183]

I hated that the most. It was just a huge dude bro fest. It's wasn't a good game imo

[Harkins1721]

XV's open world should have been spaced out better in other areas. Doesnt help that the story is just all over the place and rushed in places. The DLC should have been in the base game. XVI looks to have all this solved. Obviously I have to wait to play it for sure. And I dont want to jinx it but Yoshida's team looks to have had a great development cycle. Where Tabata saw criticism on any little thing and would change them.

[isarai]

I'm glad we're finally getting over this "Everything needs to be open world" trend

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I'm glad too, most of those open-world games chasing the trends weren't even very good, I don't even like many of those games in that genre.

[Inverno]

15s open world wasn't the problem. The problem was that it was an unfinished game

[Stanjara]

Finally somebody listened.

[CrimsonWing69]

Good!!!! I hate open-world games.

For f*ck’s sake stop trying to make everything open world. FF16’s design seems perfect for this game.

Kudos to the devs for not making it open-world or some GaaSy venture.

[raWfodog]

I don’t hate open-worlds but I agree that every game doesn’t need to be open-world. It should definitely fit in with the narrative.

[KillaJamm]

Tbh I'm glad they went the route they did, the open world in 15 impacted the pacing and story telling massively. June can't come soon enough!

[OWCY]

People saying they hate open worlds. But I always enjoyed getting the airship and going to the world map view and flying around. 7,8,9,10 ect all had it.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

But the overworld maps were much smaller in scope than anything in an open world game ever had (it's not even the same thing). I'd honestly love a comeback for overworld maps, especially in AA and budget titles, I enjoy that more than open-world games.

I don't actually recall FFX having an overworld, I'm pretty sure that's the first game where they started dropping overworlds.

[Gatsu]

Yeah FFX didn't have it anymore.

[Nebaku]

I think "Open World" and "World Map" are quite different in gameplay.

World Maps are usually small areas that you progressively gain more and more access to throughout the game(via Boats, Airships, etc.)

While Open Worlds usually you can explore 100% of them from the get go, and games attemps to gate progress are usually pretty contrived.(i.e. Grand Theft Auto just blocking off cities)

[gold_drake]

i mean .. 15 wasnt exactly an open world either.

but im glad 16 isnt either.

[Daeloki]

Some games benefit from a large open world map, others don't. Personally I think FF benefits from a hybrid like FF7R: freedom to move around and explore once areas become available, but still distinct separate zones that are tied to the main story.

[Nebaku]

There was nothing "hybrid" about FF7R.

It was a linear game, through and through. Down to chaptering the sections because there was so little freedom.

[Daeloki]

Maybe I use the term hybrid a bit liberally, I mainly meant the way it was possible to travel along a large part of the included world. You were free to travel to different parts of Midgar to explore and do sidequests etc. That for me is close enough to open world to call it hybrid. It's not literally open world like Skyrim, Witcher, etc. But you have freedom to explore.
Yes, it was linear, I absolutely agree, but it wasn't like, say DMC5 where you only visit specific locations during specific levels.

[kindi_boy]

Great they listened.