Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has confirmed in a recent interview that the game will NOT be open world, facilitating a shift from its predecessor.
final fantasy 16
But as reported by IGN, Yoshida also confirmed that the game will still "find inspiration" from the open-world genre even if its map won't be open-world at all. Instead, the game will be made using a so-called "area-based design." This involves crafting a game world that has multiple, distinct zones that are isolated from each other (via DenOfGeek). This is a kind of world design first seen in Pokemon Legends Arceus, among others.
As for the AAA open-world game inspirations that Final Fantasy 16 is taking cues from, Yoshida didn't name any specifics. Though he did give this reason for avoiding going full open-world, which was one of the many criticisms against Final Fantasy 15:
To bring a story that feels like it spans an entire globe and beyond, we decided to avoid an open world design that limits us to a single open world space, and instead focus on an independent area-based game design that can give players a better feel of a truly 'global' scale.
But even if Final Fantasy 16 isn't truly open world, it will still be designed to cater to more audiences past its long-running fanbase. Square Enix wants the game to reach as many new players as it can, considering how their research revealed that the "younger generation" of gamers have never played a Final Fantasy game or aren't interested in the series at all.
In total, the development team revealed that the game will have six different realms - each based after traditional European fantasy tropes. Players can now expect these to be self-contained locales that can potentially only be visited via loading screens; although it remains to be seen how this could be implemented on the PS5.
The upcoming latest instalment of the iconic JRPG series is set for a Summer 2023 release.
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More New Details About Final Fantasy 16
Of course, there's still far more new details about Final Fantasy 16 that were revealed by Yoshida recently. These details were quite big and could be the ones that will help build up hype for the game.
As shared on the PlayStation Blog, Yoshida's interview revealed that the game will be focusing on recapturing how the original Final Fantasy felt for first-time players back in the day.
In Yoshida's own words, he compared the feeling to "playing the leading role" in a major film, and bringing back that feeling to FF16 will be courtesy of "state-of-the-art game design" and the latest in game development tech.
When talking about the latest tech, Yoshida of course talked about the PS5's hardware and the level of freedom it gives the team when it comes to making FF16.
He specifically mentions the new Sony console's raw CPU and GPU power as the ones that will further enrich the game's visuals. But he also mentions the incredibly fast load times, which Yoshida says will make the gameplay "flow at a breakneck pace."
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This article is posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
