As has been pointed out multiple times – including in our preview – Final Fantasy 16 is not open world. The game instead consists of several large sandbox locations, each of which will be densely populated and can be fully explored. And speaking with Play Magazine, producer Naoki Yoshida has elaborated in a little more detail how it’ll all work.
“We have what’s called a world map,” he told the UK publication, as spotted by ResetEra. “And on that world map there are areas you can travel to, and you select that area, and then you jump to that area seamlessly. And then you follow the main quest there, and then once you finish that, you’ll go back to this hub area named The Hideaway.”
The Hideaway will serve as your base of operations, where you’ll be able to upgrade weapons and partake in other activities. But should you ever get the itch to return to a previous location, you’ll be able to at any time. “You can go back to places you’ve visited before and explore those places,” Yoshida added. “And in some of those places, there’ll be new side-quests you can start.”
We reckon it’d be cool if Square Enix had opted for a truly traditional world map system, where you’re moving sprites across the landscape in order to reach new destinations – but we suppose that’s what the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters exist for. Nevertheless, we like the sound of this more traditional PS2 era system – not everything needs to be open world, after all!
[source twitter.com, via resetera.com]
Comments 66
Oh, wow. That's... Gross.
I really long for the days when we had an overworld and just zoned into different areas. We had boats, and airships, and chocobos too! Those were the days.
Nice spoiler. Would have loved to have just discovered this naturally but oh well. Maybe next game.
Yeah we saw this in the PAX footage, looks great.
I'm happy with this. Have enough open world games and not enough time.
Sounds similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition. It worked in that game and I’m sure it’ll work here.
@Barrymore Not exactly a spoiler. Most people like to know what they’re getting before they drop £70 on a game.
This game looks incredible but holy crap my backlog is getting outrageous.
And Dead Island 2 AND Star Wars coming up. Wow.
I'm fine with it as long as there is plenty to do in each area, unlike 10 which was mostly just corridors till near the end.
I played FFX when it dropped so I probably wouldn't have remembered but I just watched my kid play it and that map sucks. Seriously it's borderline useless. Why would anyone want to emulate a 20 year old map mechanic when so many newer games have so many better maps? 😝
@Barrymore hahaha come on this is considered a spoiler now? kids these days
Sounds lazy! Is that a Square cost cutting measure?
That’s kinda worrying me to be honest. The thought of essentially choosing an area through a menu, following that to the end and then going back and choosing another area through a menu doesn’t really sound all that engaging. FFX worked because it was a linear pilgrimage. FFVII was a mainly linear trek across a couple continents for its first half until it opened up through new transportation. Part of what makes these RPGs sprawling is the way they integrate travelling across the lands into the gameplay and make it feel like an actual journey.
Loved in the newest DQ game you can play it 3d or in sprite form.
If this is a spoiler then you might not want to visit any video game related site ever again.
@SplooshDmg I’m with you completely. Those were the days!
@itsfoz Right!? My backlog was all clear in January...but this year is the Apocalypse for my wallet. My list has grown to about 10 new games to play and they just keep coming. Haha
I'm excited to play...in 10 years from its launch date, on sale for the GOTY edition for 19.99$
I don't mind one bit. One of my favorite JRPGs in recent memory in terms of exploration was Xenoblade 2. And that one you had to fast travel to different titans to explore. As far as I know, you couldn't walk to any of them. And that still felt like such a grand adventure. I have no doubt, it'll be the same if not better in XVI
This is shaping up to be one of the greatest years of gaming ever
@nessisonett God of War had a bunch of locations that weren't interconnected. And it worked for that game. You even had a menu when fast-travelling to select the location you wanted to go to. Yes, it was all cleverly disguised as in-game stuff, but in the end it was just another menu you picked from.
I prefer it like this over another sprawling empty map in between locations that add another pointless 5 minutes of mindless walking to get from A to B.
I honestly don't see the problem, each area has quite a large map to explore and makes fast travelling easier. But I suppose haters will look to anything no matter how trivial to nitpick at.
The 40 min clip with Yoshida sold it to me the other day, so whatever really. Quality of a game isn't ultimately determined by how a map is arranged.
Interestingly, fairly recent big western RPGs had similar arrangements. DA Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin etc. The system worked because each region was wholesome and interesting; you almost forget that the map is segmented.
This will save players tons of time over backtracking to other locations. It’s especially useful if going for the platinum, which I most likely will. Pretty stoked for this one!
@YourNameHere Dude it's a map, relax.
I'm completely sold on this. God of War Ragnarok seems to be such a influence on it like they said, open world is not my thing, I prefer it like this. So excited!
I don't like the Final Fantasy X map but then I don't really like Final Fantasy X so that might influence that. Either way this isn't a big issue for me.
From an editorial perspective, I’m curious why the team chose to single out PS5 in the headline considering that it is a PS5 exclusive.
This isn't actually like FFX. In that game the whole world was continuous and you didn't need to use fast travel to get from one place to the next. In XVI you do, according to this. You can't just walk around the world. It's less like any previous FF and more like Diablo 2 or 3 where the world is split into totally separate, non-continuous areas separated by hundreds of miles and you can only get between them with fast travel.
I don’t mind this as long as it’s not as linear as FFX. What I think most people are forgetting in this article is that FFX didn’t give you said world map until like endgame with the airship. The majority of that games is alright tidus walk all across besaid island. Watch some cutscenes. Now walk all the way back to get on this boat to go to the next island to see yuna dance. Nope no going back to besaid. As long as it ain’t that linear then I’m good.
Less open then ff4... And even XIII...👍
Same as stranger of paradise though, so, yay?
I appreciate SE respecting our time and streamlining the world travel process. I loved the days of riding a chocobo/airship around a huge map, but that was when I was 14 and had all the time in the world. This sounds like a great compromise. Solid choice, SE!
Actually it sounds like a mission select more than a map. You get to the big area and just have to start at the single starting point and go to an end goal? Doesn't sound like you'd want to revisit areas much.
@JSnow2 That's probably what bugs me about it, it's FF as GoW clone and I don't particularly like modern gow. I don't hate it, I kinda like it, but it's very meh, generic, b-tier to me and I'll never understand all the praise it gets. FF isn't GoW, is just catering to a specific audience. The more gow is is the more I dislike it, more than gow itself because I can accept and generally appreciate it for what it is. But taking this series and just cloning gow from a different genre and tone is infuriating.
Thank god it's a PS5 exclusive where the loading times are minimal, these sorts of games with long loading times on the PS4 are a pain in the butt. I am playing some of my backlog Remnant From The Ashes which is the same sort of structure main hub and smaller hub world's all broken up by loading times. Good game but loading time, the only good thing about it is if you die you'll loaded back in fast.
Another thing that’s worrying me, I hope I like it.
I had been avoiding all coverage for this so I had no clue.
In the bad side, I guess this ended keeping things as a surprise.
On the good side... my excitement for this game just plummeted. I'll still get it, but I can wait for a sale.
@ChronoBreak777
Its one thing when linear games like God of War or Gears of War decide they want to try being open world experiences, but its a whole other thing when games rooted on open world designs all the way back to their NES days, start closing their design into Call of Duty like corridor experiences just because its easier to do.
Not that this is the first Final Fantasy to go that path...
@Wilforce
Search Engine Optimization, they been doing it for a while. Dont be misled by reading "on PS5" on any article about multi-platform games either, the news likely applies to almost every platform.
Now if only June would hurry up and get here that would be nice.
Honestly, normally I'd say a game with 80+ hours of content should have an open world but I don't think that with square. FF 15's open world was terribly done and largely lifeless. Forspoken was worse than that.
I think this is probably best based on their crafting pedigree on that stuff. I do think having a rudimentary sprite type overworld would be nostalgic, but this title is going for a much different tone. And in all honesty the overwoeld sprite thing was a glorified level selector as well.
I do hope that the areas are not largely linear though. they've gone this route in several previous FF games, and it's not very appealing in my opinion. chiefly again because of lackluster level design.
I do hope we have some decent open sandboxes and the devil may cryification of the gameplay doesn't essentially make this far less a mainline FF, and more of a metal gear rising like spinoff.
Don't get me wrong, spinoff can be awesome. Just tell us and show us a good chunk that clearly states that so we know what we are buying. As 40-80 hrs of a more simplified devil may cry style combat combos may not be what I or others want to shell out full price for as that's not even in the realm of an arpg.
Interested to learn what rpg elements may still exist aside from rings and talent trees. Cautiously optomistic on this one, but concerned about their stated intent to make this more appealing to a wider audience and what that means for it actually being still a mainline FF title.
Who knows maybe this is the beginning of a complete reboot for the better.
Don't know why some people are getting upset over this. We saw it during the PAX presentation and it's basically a fast travel map that you use to revisit places you've already been. It's not like you'll be navigating the entire game through a menu.
The more I read the more I'm excited for this game. I didn't really like 15 at all and beat 13 but had zero interest in the sequels. Last proper FF I've enjoyed was 12. I'd also rank 12 below 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 soo lol...I really want this to bring the series back for me
I'm liking everything I hear about this game, even this.
@Tharsman Thanks for explaining. I never noticed that they’ve been doing it. Guess it being right in the middle was jarring since most headlines have it at the beginning or end.
I hope it has immersive reasons like in GoW through Yggdrasil.
Otherwise it would break all immersion when traveling a giant continent on foot but not aging. You know what I mean?
I know Clive will age but of course through Main Quest and not traveling back and forth.
It has to be an almost instant fast travel otherwise all immersion will be gone. But the fast travel needs an an in world explanation why it exists. Otherwise again broken immersion.
Seems sort of limiting for a game like this. You'd hope next-gen exclusive RPGs wouldn't have to break up chunks of the world via a menu like a PS2 game. Unless there's a good reason why the world can't be explored via a world map or something.
Describing it being like FFX's is a bit misleading, it's more like the team's other game FFXIV where zones are interconnected and you find warp points as you go and can then select those warp points from the map. The footage from PAX clearly showed this.
Removed - inappropriate language
@Allfather they'll probably use the same reasoning from XIV with Crystal waypoints allowing safe passage through the planets lifestream or whatever they decide to call it.
@NEStalgia I take modern god of war over modern Zelda any day.
Using the FFX world map menu is rather misleading. Would be much better to use screenshots from FF16’s world map system which are readily available, or even link to Yoshi-P’s actual presentation discussing about the world map itself, with an actual demonstration.
Here you go.
https://youtu.be/GPpeKX1PDIo?t=32m43s
I'm fine with this ffx is my favorite so 😋 😍 let's do this ff16
Was not impressed by the gameplay demonstration. Looks like every flashy, over the top action game masquerading as RPG out there already. Lacking pretty much all of the old FF charm. Oh but hey there's a few chocobos slapped in there so its definitely Final Fantasy. This will be a 7/10 at best. God Square Enix sucks these days
@Ichiban This guy gets it.
@NEStalgia Really, though. I think we're being a bit myopic here. It's not just FF that has become an unrecognizable mess, it's basically the entire AAA industry. Huge budget games have the benefit of being drafted by committees now, for our benefit! I try to not let my negativity just ooze out my pores, but today, I'm in the mood to let ooze out. I'm glad Elden Ring curb stomped Ragnarok last year. I have hope for this industry yet. I really miss when gaming was young and budding and bursting with originality. Nowadays we make sure to get excited for the 7th or 16th entry in the name we know. We can even watch the corresponding TV series with it, while we eat a big fat bowl of the promotional breakfast cereal! We're at a point where if you're down on you're luck and aren't successful, just try to clone whatever is successful and hope for the best. It just might work out and you might have a mediocre masterpiece capable of satisfying the masses!
@4kgk2 A corridor slasher with self important drama vs an empty open sandbox. I'll give you the coin toss.
@Ralizah Of course there's a reason. Adult reasons I'm sure...
@Ichiban But the press will give it 10/10 because it's famous, expensive, and flashy. We're back to 1999 PC gaming. It isn't the gameplay, it's the graphics that makes it good! Grindy, mashy, train wreck story.... But my goodness look at that WATER!
@Tharsman Kind of funny you've managed to avoid the controversy for so long. It's been divisive for a while with the camps basically being one of "I live ff and ff always changes so whatever it is it'll be the best thing ever", "I've never liked ff and hate jrpgs but this looks like gow so I'll actually finally try ff, they're reaching new audience this is a genius move", and those of us wondering WTF were even seeing while the director keeps telling us that the tent poles that make ff are story, characters, and industry leading graphics without managing to say the words role playing, journey, or companions even once
I mean it seems like an ok game as an ff themed gow clone... Just... Why not call it a spinoff instead of a main entry?
I'm as big a horizon fan as some are gow fans, and I still don't want ff to be horizon. Ironically though horizon is still closer to being an ff rpg then whatever this is supposed to be from what we've seen, though.
Also that seo is obnoxious, it really irritates me how some of this is done these days.
@SplooshDmg It's worse than just being committee. Gaming has been half coopted by the Hollywood types that have turned it into everything I hate about film and TV which is why I haven't watched either for like 15 years. And the other half is coopted by the most cynical of consumer products marketing types. All fueled by a market of consumers that doesn't seem to know what they even want unless they're told by the seller they want it. Ff16 lives or dies not in is it good, or if it's a good ff, or even what the 10/10 critics will say, it lives on consumers seeing an influencer pretending to have fun and just LOOK at that water!
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
Excited for this! Having a FF game that finally has combos and fights at a pace I always imagined they'd be is awesome to see. The map thing doesn't concern me, looks similar to how borderlands games work.
I'd rather have large zones with lots to do and discover than a walking sim with less interactions.
This makes a lot of sense, actually. Remember Witcher 3, or Dragon Age: Inquisition, and how they each had locations distinguished by their own climates, ecosystems, cultures, and so on? Now imagine how jarring it would be to skip to Toussaint from Velen, like it's just over the hill or something.
Breaking games down into locations helps keep the world more believable and organic. Gone are the days of jumping from the greenery of Lumbridge to the sweltering desert of Al Kharid. I hope more games follow this design structure.
@NEStalgia Never stop being a depressed old man, it's your best quality. But really, you're probably the only person who hates Hollywood as much as I do. But like, at what point do we as gamers finally just become the equivalent of that one uncle that spent the last of his days tickled as a clam just watching re-runs of Gunsmoke and MASH? Like, it has to happen at some point, right? That the industry has finally adapted itself for 'modern audiences' entirely and we just say to hell with it and keep playing our retro games over and over again? I've got a pretty strong itch to play Mother 3 again.
@ShogunRok People in the Community like to complain. I've learnt to just take what others say like a pinch of salt even if I feel myself starting to get a bit annoyed on the inside.
Final Fantasy 4 from 1991, 32 years ago was able to have a full-fledged world map, an underground map and a moon map but a PS5 exclusive title said to be harnessing the full potential of the latest hardware cannot. Oh, okay..
ffx has a world map? 🤣
the ff that started the linear gameplay 🤣
even 12 interconnected areas are better than ffx 🤣
@Allfather nope! If companies want to suck and the most money comes from the lowest common denominator I'm going to be depressed about it. Of we caved we'd all just be playing call of duty.... And liking it!!
@SplooshDmg At a certain point "modern audiences" stops meaning "tastes and styles of younger generations" and starts meaning "rubes young enough to not be onto us yet". Hollywood crossed that line long ago. I mean one of the biggest movies of the past decade is Top Gun 2. I can't make a snarky wisecrack that's funnier and more cynical than the statement itself....
Yeaaaaahhh.... Not a fan of this. Wish they would have at least done something like FF through FFIX with a zoomed out map where I can fly an airship around. I don't like forced quick travel.
the entire game is based upon various kingdoms, spanning various decades. its not exactly more believable that you can just run across it all in minutes.
as soon as people have fast travel they tend to use it anyway
Open world is a waste of time anyways. After the 1st time I do a journey, I 100% always use the fast option unless I'm trying to level up
I prefer JRPGs better this way, so I'm happy!
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