There has been a lot of big news dropping forFinal Fantasyfans in the past few weeks. The second part of theFinal Fantasy 7remake was shown off, and it was revealed that the project would have three major releases. At theJune 2022 PlayStation State of Playas well, alongside some other exciting titles,Final Fantasy 16got an explosive gameplay trailer, revealing more of the latest entry in the series to fans.
Excitement has been running through theFinal Fantasyonline communities as they wonder how the story, characters, and gameplay will develop in this new iteration. Already, fans have figured out some details from the trailers, such as the belief that Joshua dies, leadingClive down a darker path inFinal Fantasy 16. Recently, the game’s producer Naoki Yoshida sat down with IGN to discuss some more details on the game, including confirming thatFinal Fantasy 16will not feature an expansive open world likeFinal Fantasy 15.
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“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,” Yoshida said. Instead, Square Enix decided to designFinal Fantasy 16with a focus on a set amount of explorable areas,similar toPokemon Legends: Arceus, which was another game that was initially believed to have an open world but instead decided to give players different spaces separated by loading screens.
This means thatFinal Fantasy 16may not initially be as seamless as an open-world title, but according to Yoshida, this will give the upcoming game a truly “global scale.” It is likely that these areas will encompassFinal Fantasy 16’ssix realms, which were introduced to fans in an update last October. Each ofFinal Fantasy 16’srealms features a Dominant, who holds the power to summon an Eikon that can “level nations.” This departure from open-world gameplay could help to make the realms and Dominants feel more unique then, if the game design reflects its setting.
Yoshida also stated that in “extensive user research,” it has been found that many younger gamers have never played aFinal Fantasygame or have any interest in the series. To combat this, Yoshida and his team played a lot of games, especially taking inspiration from “recent, triple-A open-world RPGs.” It isn’t stated which open-world gamesFinal Fantasy 16will take influence from, but that should become clear when the game finally launches.
