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Final Fantasy 16 is taking the long-running and beloved franchise in a whole new direction, both in terms of its combat and how players will be exploring the world. Redesigning their approach to the games has been something that has been happening throughout the franchise’s lifespan, but Final Fantasy 16 seems to found the sweet spot for the franchise that future games will greatly benefit from.
This article will explain each step of the process that the developers have gone through to achieve the final direction the game settled on, including quotes from Naoki Yoshida, the game's producer.
Is FF16 Open World or Linear?
Final Fantasy 16 is a more linear story experience. The game will feature a map from which you can select your intended destination. You will be able to explore and interact with these segmented sections of the game. More of these locations become available as you progress through the main story, which will unearth more places to explore and more things to do. This gives it all the locations it needs to tell its story and adds the freedom of exploration without it being too overwhelming. This may very well be the best course of action for the franchise, as it doesn’t stray too far from past games like Final Fantasy 10, which would keep putting you in new areas with lots of exploration, and you would need to progress the story to expand into newer areas and unlock fast travel late into the game.
Past Final Fantasy Games
Past Final Fantasy games, among other JRPGs, have always had these massive world maps that allowed you to venture far and wide and uncover new areas, guided by quest markers that led you to where the story progressed to keep opening up new places on a true open world map.
Learning From Final Fantasy 13
Final Fantasy 13 was berated by negative comments about it being too linear. The game had you following a set route and some branch-off paths that all ended in dead ends. This helped it maintain structure and keep players invested in the story, but returning fans were not happy about being so confined and restricted.
Learning From Final Fantasy 15
Final Fantasy 15 took the opposite approach, while past games only added what they needed and connected them all together, Final Fantasy 15 had long stretches of road and large open areas just for the sake of adding grandeur. This did fit into their goal of making the game feel like a road trip as you made your way to new locations, but a lot of players felt it was like playing a loading screen. Negative comments saying the areas felt empty and lacking direction. Making a lot of fans dread seeing another attempt at it.
Finding The Sweet Spot For Final Fantasy 16
Final Fantasy 16 has been built from the feedback of Final Fantasy 15, noting everything fans did not enjoy about it and attempts to both fix and fine-tune it. Here are two quotes from the game’s producer Naoki Yoshida cited from a Game Informer interview: “For example, if you create this open world of the 23 wards of Tokyo, then basically, your story has to take place in the 23 wards of Tokyo, and it can’t take place outside of that,” which he followed up with, “You can create more areas outside of that, but then that takes a lot of resources, and the more that you create, then the bigger chance that you have of that giant area that you created becoming empty, and that’s the one thing that players hate the most. Huge open world, but there’s nothing to do in it.” This is a great way to get into the mindset of where they arrived for how to design the world of Valisthea in Final Fantasy 16.