The producer ofFinal Fantasy 16has compared the game’s world map and structure toFinal Fantasy 10and12. WithFinal Fantasy 16’s launch less than three months away, its producer, Naoki Yoshida, has been on a media press tour to give fans more information about the highly anticipated JRPG. This includes extensive trailers, preview clips, interviews, and even a fullpanel dedicated toFinal Fantasy 16at PAX East 2023. These all detail the game’s mechanics and features, including the exploration.
Final Fantasy 16’s world of Valistheais looking to be quite massive, having a variety of environments and biomes to explore. The gameplay demonstration from Yoshida at PAX East focused on the game’s desert areas, which was rather open and had a lot of space to move around in. The player can travel on foot or by Chocobo. Yoshida also showed off the game’s world map, which he elaborates in further detail in a recent interview.
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In an interview with Play Magazine, Yoshida states that the game’s structure is comparable to earlier titles in the franchise, directlyreferring toFinal Fantasy 10and12specifically. He explains that the game’s world map has areas that the player can travel to, with waypoints being marked on the map that players can then jump to at any time. On top of that, there is this hub area known as “The Hideaway,” where players can visit to buy items, upgrades, and more.
Players will be able to revisit any area at any time. Yoshida then expands on this further, explaining thatFinal Fantasy 16players can find new side quests and items when revisiting certain areas they’ve already explored. There doesn’t appear to be any “points of no return” for the field areas, with story mission stages being the only ones that the player cannot revisit.
These comparisons got fans discussing the elements of howFinal Fantasy 10and12utilized their structure. One fan brought up howFF10was wide, albeit linear, giving an illusion of openness with well-paced breaks or a specific goal in mind. The comparison toFF12was also discussed, where players could visit any area as early as they liked, and optional areas were integrated into places that felt organic. These similarities also helped clarify howFF16won’t feature an open-world,compared to previous mainline entryFF15, that did have one.
Final Fantasy 16will launch on June 22, exclusively for PS5.
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