When Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida revealed that the game's European-style high-fantasy setting would not be an open world, many fans expressed their concerns. However, since there have been several recent, highly praised RPGs that have not featured an open world and have been all the better for it, there is good reason to believe that the same will hold true for Final Fantasy XVI.

Considering that other high-profile RPGs such as The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, and even Final Fantasy XV have all featured open worlds, it is understandable that fans would assume that this latest addition to the franchise would follow suit. Though it is natural for fans with these expectations to feel disappointed, Final Fantasy VII: Remake did not feature an open world either, and still managed to please fans and critics alike even more so than Final Fantasy XV.

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Final Fantasy XVI trailer: A character with a sword hanging on his back stands in front of a burning background.

The truth is that not every game benefits from an open-world setting. For example, what worked for The Legend of Zelda series with Breath of the Wild will not necessarily work for the Sonic series with Frontiers. Final Fantasy XV came under fire for having an almost barren open world that the game then trades in for a more linear, narrative-driven experience halfway through its main campaign. This is because when players are given greater agency to explore a game's world in the order they see fit, story progression takes a back seat and environmental storytelling takes the wheel. Breath of the Wild makes this very compromise; the overarching story is simplified and serves only as a foundation for more subtle, environmental cues that work with the player's exploration to flesh out the history of the world.

In a recent interview with IGN, producer Naoki Yoshida expressed his team's desire to retain control of the sequence in which players progress through the game's world: "[...] 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."

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An area-based game design can still leave plenty of room for exploration, which is exactly what other RPGs such as Tales of Arise, Dragon Quest XI, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus have accomplished. Tales of Arise, for example, is split up into interconnected areas filled with alternate paths leading to hidden treasures, optional boss fights, and the like, so players nonetheless gain access to and progress through in a sequence dictated by the narrative. This allowed the creators of Tales of Arise to construct a complex plot that spans not just one world, but three: a planet, its moon, and a second planet with a big story reveal behind it that would not have been possible had this game attempted to feature an open world.

Perhaps the best way to look at Final Fantasy XVI's lack of an open world is not as a missed opportunity, but rather, as an intentional choice to craft a specific, narrative-driven experience for players to enjoy. The best Final Fantasy games tend to feature an overworld map that connects areas to each other, but never an open world because what the series is really known for is its stories. A return to linear progression does not signal an end to exploration. Instead, this could mean that a game that is already breaking so many series conventions with its gameplay could be making a return to form by delivering a sprawling tale befitting the Final Fantasy name.