Is Final Fantasy 16 open world? While Final Fantasy 16 will take us to an entirely new world, it’s no surprise that you may be wondering if the map follows the last game in the series, Final Fantasy 15, which was open world.
Fortunately, we know whether the latest game in the series will offer open world exploration and freedom, even before the Final Fantasy 16 release date arrives. So, if you’re looking forward to meeting all of the Final Fantasy 16 characters, here’s whether you can freely explore Valisthea or not.
Is Final Fantasy 16 open world?
Final Fantasy 16 is not open world. Instead, the game offers several large locations, all of which you can return to and explore after completing the main quest there. This was confirmed by producer Naoki Yoshida when speaking with PLAY Magazine.
After finishing the main quest within each region, you’ll return to a location called The Hideaway, which is the main hub and base of operations. The Final Fantasy 16 Hideaway is a perfect place to upgrade your gear, purchase or craft new equipment, or find side quests. You can then choose to progress the story or return to previous areas to explore.
As for why they decided to return to a more linear format, Naoki Yoshida confirmed with Famitsu magazine that “if we had a development period of about 15 years, we may have had the opportunity of challenging ourselves with an open world”, so we’d be waiting a long time for a Final Fantasy sequel with an open world again.
The Final Fantasy 16 map will take you into the different kingdoms across the land of Valisthea. You’ll also get to find and witness the various Final Fantasy 16 Eikons within Valisthea, which are typically called summons in the rest of the Final Fantasy series, but here each leader of the kingdom is the embodiment of these icons, rather than them being battle assists for the main character.
Also, we believe the structure of the main story wouldn’t fit well within an open world. The narrative sees Clive Rosfield’s life over three different time periods, all of which culminate to make up the full experience, and having a linear world makes it easier to pace the story for certain key moments in the plot to progress.
Now you know that Final Fantasy 16 isn’t open world like its predecessor and why, you can decide whether to pick up the game. However, given that the Final Fantasy 16 previews are praising the game so far, we imagine it is worth playing. Before it arrives, though, there are plenty of games on our best PS5 RPG games list that you can start playing to pass the time.
