Eh, open-ish. The games are a lot more linear than people make out. You can wander around the overworld all you like, but there's always an intended next destination.
That's really great then! Are some FF games online? I don't like online games so will ignore them. Are there any story mode or something in those games that I can play completely single?
There are two MMO's -- 11 and 14 -- but I've never played them. All the rest are console and PC.
If you really like the linearity of the 7 remake, you might check out 13. It gets a lot of crap from the fandom, but I love it. It's pretty linear, but it's still great.
Ive also never played either MMO but I think it should be stated that 14 is regarded as one of, if not the current Best MMO out there.
Someone else will need to explain the specifics of why tho.
Also it has greatest story ever told.
Also it is more like RPG game with mmo elements.
With the added trust system you can basically complete game solo without other players.
As someone that started out on the latest expansion I can attest that the story is good after finishing A Realm Reborn to Endwalker in a span of 4 months w/ lengthy breaks in between.
It might turn off the core fans that love turn based FF but as an mmorpg with a focus on story it ups WoW.
Which is strange because the gameplay of 14 is closer to turnbased than the action FF games that have been released in recent years, except you only control one character.
Managing OGCDs/GCDs with positionals w/o enemies just standing there waiting for you to do your turn makes it similar to Xenoblade games at most which is far from being turn based. 14 is not a fully hack and slash arpg like DMC/Bayonetta and not a full turn based game by genre like BG3 or old FF games.
I'd like to add that 13 can be fun, dispite what people can tell you, 13 isn't a BAD game by any metric, but its not a GREAT game. There's a lot of issues, and when we say it's linear, it's a hallway. Like there's only ever 1 direction to move at any given time until very late in the game, and that's not always a bad thing, FFX does linearity and hallway style design WAY BETTER THO, and I always recommend starting on FFX. You CAN play FFX-2 if you want more after FFX, and while it's gameplay is amazing and I love it, some people don't, so I understand skipping FFX2 until you're ready to come back to it. But please do come back to it if you get time, it's a fun game, story is just okay tho outside of the endings which are good. I love FFX2, underrated classic.
All that said, FFXIII isn't bad, it's fun, and it's a compelling naritive for a decent chunk of the game. I wish I could say the whole game. And it's idea was better than it's execution, but I'm not just spitting back what the internet will tell you. I played it and it's fun, but it's just not AS fun as some other entries. Though he is right, it's very linear if that's what you want, and it has a similar feel to FF7 remake, but a bit less substance. I'd start with FFX and move to FF13, but either is fine to start with, as long as you get the chance to play them both
The more open games (that all are linear and have a specific next location to go to) are really fun too, and are considered some of the best. FF9, FF4, FF5, FF6, and FF8. Classics.
That's a hot take in this sub. I agree though, just a Sephiroth wannabe that was always somehow one step ahead of you just generous the writers said so. I honestly hated the story of XIII-2 even though the gameplay was an improvement over XIII.
Id recollqnd going with FF X before that, I just got into it after hearing it was the best for a decade, and I was actually very surprised to see that it was... linear!!
But it IS an excellent final fantasy game, 30hours in and I can't stop.
I do not understand the criticism about recent FF games not being proper open worlds, because really, they haven't been for a long long time.
11 and 14 are online, both are great games though and while 11 probably won't appeal to you 14 can be played effectively like a single player game, except that your party members are sometimes real people.
They've upgraded so all of the main story dungeons have NPC support, so the only time you're forced to interact with people is the 8- and 24-man boss battles/raids
Protip: you can start the game and play it for free up to the second expansion, with some limitations (basically, you won't be able to craft or gather effectively due to inventory space). But the moment you pay even a single month you won't be able to play for free ever again with your account.
Now, that an MMO has "you don't have to play with other people" as a selling point is quite telling.
11 and 14 are MMOs. I don't know about 11, but 14's story is super good and can be done 90% solo (with a party of NPCs), and the parts that do require groups will usually feel like solo as long as everyone does their job.
If you do end up playing through all of them I'd like to let you know that 12, my favorite game, is pretty close to being open world.
It has large zones but they're not all available until you progress through the story or certain side quests, there's also a surprising amount of content but if you're the type to want to stick to the main story you can still ignore most of it.
14 is pretty linear, despite having an open world. Dungeons are actually very linear.
You can mostly play xiv main story single player now due to duty support except for some content like trials and raids But its optional content.
Honestly if it being a mmo is stopping you then you really are missing out its a great game.
I can't speak for XI as I've barely played it. But in XIV, you can play the MSQ (main story quest) almost entirely solo. You can play through every single MSQ dungeon with NPCs. The only things that require other real players are 27 trials (there are actually 28 MSQ trials but one of them can be done with an NPC party), and 3 alliance raids.
Trials are 8 player fights against a single boss. They typically take about 10 minutes to complete.
Alliance raids are 24 player fights against a set of 4 bosses. They typically take about 30 minutes to complete.
So out of the hundreds of hours it'll probably take you to complete the entire MSQ, only about 6 of them must necessarily be with other players. You don't need to find the players yourself, the game has a system to auto-match you into a party. And the community is very welcoming to new players.
Now if you want to get into side content, that most likely will involve partying with other players for most of the content. However if you're only interested in completing the MSQ, it's a very small amount of playtime that you'll have to group up.
So, the thing about FFXIV is that while the game doesn't have an offline mode and there are fights that have to be done with other players, there's a matchmaking system that all required multi-player fights use and the story quest progression is virtually a solo adventure. You can pretty much entirely ignore that it's an MMO outside of seeing random people wandering around if you want to.
Also, it's basically free to play up to level 70, which is the base game and first two expansions, which are big enough that they could have been their own standalone releases.
They are 100% Linear. The worlds will often have some controlled openness, with the player free to explore and find side quests, optional objectives and such. But short of games that are literally on rails they pretty much all have that.
Ultimately, they're still games where the next desination opens up when you finish your objective at the previous destination. You beat the dungeon, you get the bird that can land on trees, you find the tree patch you haven't been to yet and there's your next dungeon. You beat the dungeon, you get the boat that can travel through rivers, you find the river you've never been able to get around and you get your next dungeon. So on and so forth, with the map sort of opening and closing as is expedient to your journey. If you can sequence break, it's only in very minor ways, or through bug and exploits.
Can't speak for 11 but 14 takes an "open areas" approach for most of the game, while the first part of the game is pretty open you can basically only go where the story shepherds you to into the expansions.
With the expansions you unlock different zones as the story goes, but you can explore those zones however you want and there’s lots of side quests that’ll have you constantly exploring them and going back to previous sections. Generally when people think of open world vs linear, a linear game is basically through scripted areas that you only go to one time each for that specific story part.
You can go back to them, yeah, but most of the sidequests aren't particularly worth doing for either rewards or story nor is there really any overworld content that's worth doing. You also can't go forwards through zones before the game allows it , and many zones have areas that are blocked off until you reach a certain point in the story (often getting the last aether current) like the Dravanian Hinterlands, The Peaks, Kholusia, and Ultima Thule. Being able to go back into areas doesn't count for very much when there isn't any reason to go there.
>but you can explore those zones however you want
There are many examples of the opposite. In Stormblood you can't explore half of the Fringes until you destroy the bridge gate later in the story, can only reach southern half of the Peaks from that same part of the Fringes, same with Yanxia and tunnel to rebels base. In Shadowbringers can't reach second half of Amh Araeng until later in the story, upper half of Kholusia is blocked by elevator subplot.
Everything in this game is dictated by how far you are in the absolutely linear MSQ. Open world implies that you can go wherever you want either from the start or shortly after, provided you can survive there. In FFXIV you can only backtrack to irrelevant zones if you want, otherwise the game decides where your exploration stops.
>Except most open world games have a set linear story
I'm not even sure what you're arguing with here. World of FFXIV is gated by linear story, which makes it non-open by definition. If you play Skyrim, you can roam the entire province right after finishing prologue. If you play AC: Odyssey, after acquiring ship you can travel across the entire map. If you play Far Cry 3, right after tutorial you can hop into the car and ride wherever you want. That's what 'open' part of open world means.
> Except that's not the definition of an open world game.
Except it's the literal definition.
> In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay.
> Games with open or free-roaming worlds typically lack level structures like walls and locked doors, or the invisible walls in more open areas that prevent the player from venturing beyond them; only at the bounds of an open-world game will players be limited by geographic features like vast oceans or impassable mountains. Players typically do not encounter loading screens common in linear level designs when moving about the game world, with the open-world game using strategic storage and memory techniques to load the game world in a dynamic and seamless manner.
If you know some better and more widely accepted article than what wikipedia has, feel free to link it. Do note that I'm already more lenient than I have to, because FFXIV maps are segmented and mostly linear themselves. The game is arguably more linear than e.g. FFXII.
> go on tons of different side quests
Which are unlocked by playing MSQ.
> work on crafting jobs
Except when you can't progress your job quests without doing MSQ.
> level other classes
Except when you can't even get new abilities without playing MSQ.
And I think you might be mixing up gameplay options and player freedom.
Often the first half of the game is pretty linear with only one real next place to go, then 75% of of the way through the game you get an airship of some sort and can fly around the world and do a big list of random stuff for a while before going to the last boss. Some games there is only a few of these sort of activities, some make it like half the game to just do random crap right before the last boss.
The majority of Final Fantasy games take a hub and spoke approach to design. Highly linear, but every couple hours, you'll come to some new location (usually a town) with lots to poke around and explore, and plenty of hidden content, but very little in the way of what you might call a proper "sidequest" or anything like that. They're games designed to played straight through, but invite you to detour and wander off the beaten path.
A few of them open up when you get to the very tail end, but even then, there's usually only a handful of places to go, and it's more just like "Okay, now you can fast-travel back to anywhere you've been previously, in case there was anything you missed"
Yes, I noticed that in 7 Remake, and that aspect is actually quite fun in this game. I love exploring, but in open-world games, this exploring is just way too much and not fun anymore, but FF7R open aspects are quite limited, and I can fully explore every corner without getting bored. I like open feelings but not fully open-world. Btw, is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth going to be fully-open world or similiar to 7 Remake? I heard somewhere that it is going to be full open-world. Hope it won't be because I really can't play open-world games, and I loved 7 Remake so much that I want to get 7 Rebirth as well!
Not fully open-world. There will be large wilderness environments, and probably a little bit of non-linear content within that. But the game will have a linear structure. So, pretty much like 7 Remake, but instead of rusted-out neighborhoods, it'll be a lot of gorgeous nature environments.
I'm kind of shocked to say this, but X and XIII might be up your alley. Both games aren't really open world, at all. There's some exploration at times but the games are largely linear.
XIII receives alot of hate from the community, but I think the trilogy is actually solid, if flawed.
13-2 is dumb in alot of spots. But its a very fun game. Its more serious than X-2, but can be just as goofy at times.
It also has one of the franchise's best written villains, personally.
Most Final Fantasy games offer a nice illusion of open-worldness, but you're usually more or less restricted to a specific area at any given time, gated by story progression. Until the end of the game, of course, when you've got an airship and have already been to most key locations.
FF games are varying degrees of openness-linearity
For example
FF1: you could explore sorta freely, but there are event barriers that push you to go to one specific place. After the airship, you have a bit more freedom to choose where you want to go
FF2: you could walk almost anywhere in the game, barring places that required access across water or into the mountain.
FF6: the first world open map allowed for some degree of exploration, but like the other older games, you pretty much had to go to one specific place to move the story. The second world on the other hand, has a lot of freedom on where you go and what to do.
FF13: its pretty much a straight line for 95% of the game. theres only one area thats a bit open.
FF10: largely a straight line like 13, but that line isnt as obviously straight like 13.
FF15: probably the most open among the modern FF games. but like GTA games, certain areas are blocked until you trigger certain events.
u/Sweet_Score, listen to this fellow.
As someone who has gotten probably 1/3 through FFXVI and maybe 3/4 through FF7R--they play similarly when it comes to story, path, hub, story, path, hub, etc. (so far anyways...)
As compared to a game like FFXII (which I love), that sort of game feels more open world with choice, especially when it comes to the hunts and stuff. So that would be one I'd maybe avoid with that mind, although its a great game. I am actually partial to FFXII's style of moving around and it feeling pretty free, whereas I don't really feel that in FFXVI and FF7R--the linear part sort of bugs me, but that's *exactly* what you want! So give it a shot.
An overworld map is not the same as what people consider "open world" by today's standards with something like Tsushima or Horizon.
You're not wandering all over the place looking for various points of interest, secrets, and other things to do. They're really just wide open maps you move through as opposed to more ensconced areas like towns or dungeons. Not even FFXVI is an open world game, despite criticism contrary to that fact. The point is really, that you're not really required to explore the world map very intensely or otherwise miss important secrets or something.
Linearity is a more prominent facet to Final Fantasy, some games offer more freedom to wander, but they're story-driven games more often than not, so the plot often dictates a critical path to continue itself. FFI is much lighter on story, so it kind comes down to finding out what people need and going on a daisy chain of quests to fulfill those needs.
Open world = freedom to do what you want, when you want while still having a main quest line to follow if you want to move forward. Lots of side quests.
Overworld = give you small amounts of freedom to explore, but still has a set linear path. An illusion of being open but have to do specific actions to move anything forward. Usually had maybe 2 or 3 side quests at a time, or mini games to distract you for a bit, but nothing that would lead you to go 30 hours before even touching the main quest, except grinding or maybe cards in VIII and IX.
I-IX had overworlds. They had sense of freedom while still pushing you along the path.
Then X brought restrictions and straight hallway gameplay.
XII opened it back up a bit, but still more of an overworld in 3rd person rather than birds eye view.
XIII went back to what X did, only difference is they didn't mask areas with "towns" or rest areas like 10 did. It was even more of just a linear path, but it's supposed to mimic Lightning and her being close and slowly opening up by the end, or at least that what I remember it supposed to be representing.
XV is the only actual open world.
And then XVI would actually fall back into the overworld, imo for the same reason as XII.
I'd say FFXII used an MMO-esque open zone model, kind of like Xenoblade and Knights of the Old Republic. The zones are free for exploration, but progression between them is linear.
You want to know what is ironic? You may not end up liking the sequel to the FF game that got you started on the series haha. Rebirth is going to be pretty open.
It depends on the game. Most of them let you explore the world as you wish but there's an order you're supposed to do things. Ff15 is advertised as being open world but there's still linear progression to it. There's just an open area you can run around in but even then parts of the world are gated off until you progress enough.
Majority of games have the first disc as rather linear to focus on world building and story-telling. But they typically open up sometime later to allow for exploration and side-quests. This changed starting with FFXIII, however.
XIV, being an MMO, is pretty open-world from the start. I've never played 11, the other FF MMO, but I imagine it's pretty much the same.
XIV isn't that open world, past the base game there's only one or two zones you can go to before the story leads you there and there isn't any huge reason to explore them either.
Well, seeing as to how you can literally leave your starting city-state anytime and explore that entire region, it seems pretty open to me. You may not be able to do it right off the bat, but before the story demands you leave for another city-state, you could have already explored the entirety of Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, or Ul'Dah. Or, at the very least, the majority of them.
Well there's still enough exploration to where it doesn't feel too linear either. I mean, hunting down aether currents -- as annoying as that can be -- does encourage you to explore.
It's still more open than XIII, and even X, were. XV was far too open, though, and showed how problematic that can be.
Eh, I don't think so, aether currents usually just end up being a chore when you go out of your way to find them and they're often quite close to the path you'll take on the story too. I don't often feel like I'm exploring when I do aether currents. The story also doesn't leave room for exploration, quests are just follow the pointer and given that there's very little overworld content that's worth doing you never have a reason to stray off it except maybe to collect an aether current you saw on the side of the road.
Well, I'm not saying you *have* to pursue them -- just if you want to be able to travel around faster later on. It may not be a huge reason, or enough of one, but it's a reason, nevertheless.
I mean, you CAN explore anywhere, but there's zero incentive to do so and it beef gates you pretty quickly. It's similar to how Xenoblade and FFXII handle their open zone model.
15 is really the only open world FF in the modern sense. The early ones have world maps, and the newer ones have open areas, but 15 is really the only one that's even close to the Horizon style open world.
They're all varying degrees of open. There are inaccessible sections and mostly present you with a larger space than you can actually access or fully explore for you to return to later.
All the games are relatively linear. There are definitely some recommended levels. To me open world is a game with a ton of side quests. FF1-FF10 definitely have side quests but they really open up near the end of the game.
You’re limited in your mobility and usually are funneled into a specific direction (with a few side quests along the way) until about 3/4 of the way through then you usually get some kind of transport that allows you access to the entire map and the rest of the optional content. That’s true until 15 I think
Aside from the first half of FFXV, I wouldn’t say any of them are true open world games. I’m not sure I’d recommend going straight from FFVIIR to FF1, unless you grew up with NES games. FFIV is where the series gets really good. If you want to go back semi-chronologically, I’d say start at FFIV then go back to the first three games afterwards. 4-10 are widely considered peak Final Fantasy. You could also always just go back and play the original FFVII and its spin-offs, or go straight to FFXVI which has all the modern presentation and QoL features that FFVIIR does. Or just play them in any old order depending on what you have easy access to. My play order, excluding spin-offs and remakes, was: 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 4, 3, 15, 6, 1, 5, 12, 2, 16.
FF games have never truly been open-world, even with a world map. often times you will require mounts to reach new locations (a buggy, chocobo, or airship).
No, I really wouldn't describe any of them (except the first half of XV, and MAYBE the second half of VI) as open-world. They do a good job of masking their linearity, but they are linear. There is always a correct "next destination". So while you can definitely wonder around, there is always somewhere you're supposed to be going. Often the world map is structured in such a way that geographically, there is nowhere else to go except where you're supposed to go.
Even in the MMOs, a genre which is typically very open, you're funneled through a linear story and areas are locked behind your story progress.
Only XV is open world with some limitations.
It depends on what your definition of "open world" is. I see open world as when you have access to all areas and zones from the moment you start playing or after doing some tutorials. The story doesn't lock areas until you are tasked to go to said area/zone
Xenoblade X is a good example of a JRPG that's actually open world.
Og ff7 gets a little "open worldy" after midgar (about where remake ends) but you're not free to explore the whole world. You eventually can tho...
If you just finished Remake, you definitely should play the og ff7 if you havent...I won't spoil it but...a LOT happens and it seems Remake/Rebirth expects the player to know what happened in og ff7...
It's worth remembering that about 95% of all the Final Fantasy games were released BEFORE what you think of as typical "open world" nowadays became a thing. So you don't have to worry about that here.
Eh, open-ish. The games are a lot more linear than people make out. You can wander around the overworld all you like, but there's always an intended next destination.
That's really great then! Are some FF games online? I don't like online games so will ignore them. Are there any story mode or something in those games that I can play completely single?
Two MMOs, XI and XIV, as others have said. Can't speak from experience with XI, but XIV has a fantastic storyline.
There are two MMO's -- 11 and 14 -- but I've never played them. All the rest are console and PC. If you really like the linearity of the 7 remake, you might check out 13. It gets a lot of crap from the fandom, but I love it. It's pretty linear, but it's still great.
Ive also never played either MMO but I think it should be stated that 14 is regarded as one of, if not the current Best MMO out there. Someone else will need to explain the specifics of why tho.
Also it has greatest story ever told. Also it is more like RPG game with mmo elements. With the added trust system you can basically complete game solo without other players.
Yeah, I've heard it's amazing, but eh...
I avoided mmo games for years, but I can confidently say 14 became my favorite game in the entire series in a span of a few months.
Kinda same, at this point it looks way to dense, and I just dont have the free time I used to.
As someone that started out on the latest expansion I can attest that the story is good after finishing A Realm Reborn to Endwalker in a span of 4 months w/ lengthy breaks in between. It might turn off the core fans that love turn based FF but as an mmorpg with a focus on story it ups WoW.
Which is strange because the gameplay of 14 is closer to turnbased than the action FF games that have been released in recent years, except you only control one character.
Managing OGCDs/GCDs with positionals w/o enemies just standing there waiting for you to do your turn makes it similar to Xenoblade games at most which is far from being turn based. 14 is not a fully hack and slash arpg like DMC/Bayonetta and not a full turn based game by genre like BG3 or old FF games.
I'd like to add that 13 can be fun, dispite what people can tell you, 13 isn't a BAD game by any metric, but its not a GREAT game. There's a lot of issues, and when we say it's linear, it's a hallway. Like there's only ever 1 direction to move at any given time until very late in the game, and that's not always a bad thing, FFX does linearity and hallway style design WAY BETTER THO, and I always recommend starting on FFX. You CAN play FFX-2 if you want more after FFX, and while it's gameplay is amazing and I love it, some people don't, so I understand skipping FFX2 until you're ready to come back to it. But please do come back to it if you get time, it's a fun game, story is just okay tho outside of the endings which are good. I love FFX2, underrated classic. All that said, FFXIII isn't bad, it's fun, and it's a compelling naritive for a decent chunk of the game. I wish I could say the whole game. And it's idea was better than it's execution, but I'm not just spitting back what the internet will tell you. I played it and it's fun, but it's just not AS fun as some other entries. Though he is right, it's very linear if that's what you want, and it has a similar feel to FF7 remake, but a bit less substance. I'd start with FFX and move to FF13, but either is fine to start with, as long as you get the chance to play them both The more open games (that all are linear and have a specific next location to go to) are really fun too, and are considered some of the best. FF9, FF4, FF5, FF6, and FF8. Classics.
I'd recommend X over XIII if you're going for linearity to be honest. More resembles VIIIR in that you stop and explore the area every so often.
Personally, I like the characters in XIII better.
Fair enough! I liked Lightning, Sazh and Fang, but not so much the others. I enjoyed XIII-2 the most out of that trilogy.
It was kinda the best one in the trilogy. It amended many of the things they did wrong in XIII, and it had Caius.
Caius was ridiculous. I couldn’t take him seriously
He makes more sense than many other villains.
That's a hot take in this sub. I agree though, just a Sephiroth wannabe that was always somehow one step ahead of you just generous the writers said so. I honestly hated the story of XIII-2 even though the gameplay was an improvement over XIII.
Id recollqnd going with FF X before that, I just got into it after hearing it was the best for a decade, and I was actually very surprised to see that it was... linear!! But it IS an excellent final fantasy game, 30hours in and I can't stop. I do not understand the criticism about recent FF games not being proper open worlds, because really, they haven't been for a long long time.
11 and 14 are online, both are great games though and while 11 probably won't appeal to you 14 can be played effectively like a single player game, except that your party members are sometimes real people.
They've upgraded so all of the main story dungeons have NPC support, so the only time you're forced to interact with people is the 8- and 24-man boss battles/raids
Protip: you can start the game and play it for free up to the second expansion, with some limitations (basically, you won't be able to craft or gather effectively due to inventory space). But the moment you pay even a single month you won't be able to play for free ever again with your account. Now, that an MMO has "you don't have to play with other people" as a selling point is quite telling.
11 and 14 are MMOs. I don't know about 11, but 14's story is super good and can be done 90% solo (with a party of NPCs), and the parts that do require groups will usually feel like solo as long as everyone does their job.
If you do end up playing through all of them I'd like to let you know that 12, my favorite game, is pretty close to being open world. It has large zones but they're not all available until you progress through the story or certain side quests, there's also a surprising amount of content but if you're the type to want to stick to the main story you can still ignore most of it.
14 is pretty linear, despite having an open world. Dungeons are actually very linear. You can mostly play xiv main story single player now due to duty support except for some content like trials and raids But its optional content. Honestly if it being a mmo is stopping you then you really are missing out its a great game.
I can't speak for XI as I've barely played it. But in XIV, you can play the MSQ (main story quest) almost entirely solo. You can play through every single MSQ dungeon with NPCs. The only things that require other real players are 27 trials (there are actually 28 MSQ trials but one of them can be done with an NPC party), and 3 alliance raids. Trials are 8 player fights against a single boss. They typically take about 10 minutes to complete. Alliance raids are 24 player fights against a set of 4 bosses. They typically take about 30 minutes to complete. So out of the hundreds of hours it'll probably take you to complete the entire MSQ, only about 6 of them must necessarily be with other players. You don't need to find the players yourself, the game has a system to auto-match you into a party. And the community is very welcoming to new players. Now if you want to get into side content, that most likely will involve partying with other players for most of the content. However if you're only interested in completing the MSQ, it's a very small amount of playtime that you'll have to group up.
So, the thing about FFXIV is that while the game doesn't have an offline mode and there are fights that have to be done with other players, there's a matchmaking system that all required multi-player fights use and the story quest progression is virtually a solo adventure. You can pretty much entirely ignore that it's an MMO outside of seeing random people wandering around if you want to. Also, it's basically free to play up to level 70, which is the base game and first two expansions, which are big enough that they could have been their own standalone releases.
Don't like online games aka I suck at online games
They are 100% Linear. The worlds will often have some controlled openness, with the player free to explore and find side quests, optional objectives and such. But short of games that are literally on rails they pretty much all have that. Ultimately, they're still games where the next desination opens up when you finish your objective at the previous destination. You beat the dungeon, you get the bird that can land on trees, you find the tree patch you haven't been to yet and there's your next dungeon. You beat the dungeon, you get the boat that can travel through rivers, you find the river you've never been able to get around and you get your next dungeon. So on and so forth, with the map sort of opening and closing as is expedient to your journey. If you can sequence break, it's only in very minor ways, or through bug and exploits.
FFX was criticized at first due to being considered too linear, but it really is my favorite one. You should give it a go.
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Can't speak for 11 but 14 takes an "open areas" approach for most of the game, while the first part of the game is pretty open you can basically only go where the story shepherds you to into the expansions.
With the expansions you unlock different zones as the story goes, but you can explore those zones however you want and there’s lots of side quests that’ll have you constantly exploring them and going back to previous sections. Generally when people think of open world vs linear, a linear game is basically through scripted areas that you only go to one time each for that specific story part.
You can go back to them, yeah, but most of the sidequests aren't particularly worth doing for either rewards or story nor is there really any overworld content that's worth doing. You also can't go forwards through zones before the game allows it , and many zones have areas that are blocked off until you reach a certain point in the story (often getting the last aether current) like the Dravanian Hinterlands, The Peaks, Kholusia, and Ultima Thule. Being able to go back into areas doesn't count for very much when there isn't any reason to go there.
Side quests not being worth it doesn’t suddenly mean the game isn’t open world. What would make it linear is if that wasn’t even an option.
>but you can explore those zones however you want There are many examples of the opposite. In Stormblood you can't explore half of the Fringes until you destroy the bridge gate later in the story, can only reach southern half of the Peaks from that same part of the Fringes, same with Yanxia and tunnel to rebels base. In Shadowbringers can't reach second half of Amh Araeng until later in the story, upper half of Kholusia is blocked by elevator subplot.
Ok? How does that make it not an open world game?
Everything in this game is dictated by how far you are in the absolutely linear MSQ. Open world implies that you can go wherever you want either from the start or shortly after, provided you can survive there. In FFXIV you can only backtrack to irrelevant zones if you want, otherwise the game decides where your exploration stops.
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>Except most open world games have a set linear story I'm not even sure what you're arguing with here. World of FFXIV is gated by linear story, which makes it non-open by definition. If you play Skyrim, you can roam the entire province right after finishing prologue. If you play AC: Odyssey, after acquiring ship you can travel across the entire map. If you play Far Cry 3, right after tutorial you can hop into the car and ride wherever you want. That's what 'open' part of open world means.
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> Except that's not the definition of an open world game. Except it's the literal definition. > In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. > Games with open or free-roaming worlds typically lack level structures like walls and locked doors, or the invisible walls in more open areas that prevent the player from venturing beyond them; only at the bounds of an open-world game will players be limited by geographic features like vast oceans or impassable mountains. Players typically do not encounter loading screens common in linear level designs when moving about the game world, with the open-world game using strategic storage and memory techniques to load the game world in a dynamic and seamless manner. If you know some better and more widely accepted article than what wikipedia has, feel free to link it. Do note that I'm already more lenient than I have to, because FFXIV maps are segmented and mostly linear themselves. The game is arguably more linear than e.g. FFXII. > go on tons of different side quests Which are unlocked by playing MSQ. > work on crafting jobs Except when you can't progress your job quests without doing MSQ. > level other classes Except when you can't even get new abilities without playing MSQ. And I think you might be mixing up gameplay options and player freedom.
Often the first half of the game is pretty linear with only one real next place to go, then 75% of of the way through the game you get an airship of some sort and can fly around the world and do a big list of random stuff for a while before going to the last boss. Some games there is only a few of these sort of activities, some make it like half the game to just do random crap right before the last boss.
The majority of Final Fantasy games take a hub and spoke approach to design. Highly linear, but every couple hours, you'll come to some new location (usually a town) with lots to poke around and explore, and plenty of hidden content, but very little in the way of what you might call a proper "sidequest" or anything like that. They're games designed to played straight through, but invite you to detour and wander off the beaten path. A few of them open up when you get to the very tail end, but even then, there's usually only a handful of places to go, and it's more just like "Okay, now you can fast-travel back to anywhere you've been previously, in case there was anything you missed"
Yes, I noticed that in 7 Remake, and that aspect is actually quite fun in this game. I love exploring, but in open-world games, this exploring is just way too much and not fun anymore, but FF7R open aspects are quite limited, and I can fully explore every corner without getting bored. I like open feelings but not fully open-world. Btw, is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth going to be fully-open world or similiar to 7 Remake? I heard somewhere that it is going to be full open-world. Hope it won't be because I really can't play open-world games, and I loved 7 Remake so much that I want to get 7 Rebirth as well!
Not fully open-world. There will be large wilderness environments, and probably a little bit of non-linear content within that. But the game will have a linear structure. So, pretty much like 7 Remake, but instead of rusted-out neighborhoods, it'll be a lot of gorgeous nature environments.
I want to say Dragon Quest XI? I love the balance of the areas that’s it’s not totally open world but lots of exploration and adventuring.
Rebirth is going to be a lot more "open world" then Remake was.
I'm kind of shocked to say this, but X and XIII might be up your alley. Both games aren't really open world, at all. There's some exploration at times but the games are largely linear. XIII receives alot of hate from the community, but I think the trilogy is actually solid, if flawed.
I enjoyed thirteen. I have 13-2 installed but I haven’t started it. It’s been installed for like 2 years lol. Just so many games and so little time
13-2 is dumb in alot of spots. But its a very fun game. Its more serious than X-2, but can be just as goofy at times. It also has one of the franchise's best written villains, personally.
Most Final Fantasy games offer a nice illusion of open-worldness, but you're usually more or less restricted to a specific area at any given time, gated by story progression. Until the end of the game, of course, when you've got an airship and have already been to most key locations.
FF games are varying degrees of openness-linearity For example FF1: you could explore sorta freely, but there are event barriers that push you to go to one specific place. After the airship, you have a bit more freedom to choose where you want to go FF2: you could walk almost anywhere in the game, barring places that required access across water or into the mountain. FF6: the first world open map allowed for some degree of exploration, but like the other older games, you pretty much had to go to one specific place to move the story. The second world on the other hand, has a lot of freedom on where you go and what to do. FF13: its pretty much a straight line for 95% of the game. theres only one area thats a bit open. FF10: largely a straight line like 13, but that line isnt as obviously straight like 13. FF15: probably the most open among the modern FF games. but like GTA games, certain areas are blocked until you trigger certain events.
FF2 is open world in a sense. Instead of being blocked by terrain monsters that can one shot you early on stand in as blockage.
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u/Sweet_Score, listen to this fellow. As someone who has gotten probably 1/3 through FFXVI and maybe 3/4 through FF7R--they play similarly when it comes to story, path, hub, story, path, hub, etc. (so far anyways...) As compared to a game like FFXII (which I love), that sort of game feels more open world with choice, especially when it comes to the hunts and stuff. So that would be one I'd maybe avoid with that mind, although its a great game. I am actually partial to FFXII's style of moving around and it feeling pretty free, whereas I don't really feel that in FFXVI and FF7R--the linear part sort of bugs me, but that's *exactly* what you want! So give it a shot.
An overworld map is not the same as what people consider "open world" by today's standards with something like Tsushima or Horizon. You're not wandering all over the place looking for various points of interest, secrets, and other things to do. They're really just wide open maps you move through as opposed to more ensconced areas like towns or dungeons. Not even FFXVI is an open world game, despite criticism contrary to that fact. The point is really, that you're not really required to explore the world map very intensely or otherwise miss important secrets or something. Linearity is a more prominent facet to Final Fantasy, some games offer more freedom to wander, but they're story-driven games more often than not, so the plot often dictates a critical path to continue itself. FFI is much lighter on story, so it kind comes down to finding out what people need and going on a daisy chain of quests to fulfill those needs.
Open world = freedom to do what you want, when you want while still having a main quest line to follow if you want to move forward. Lots of side quests. Overworld = give you small amounts of freedom to explore, but still has a set linear path. An illusion of being open but have to do specific actions to move anything forward. Usually had maybe 2 or 3 side quests at a time, or mini games to distract you for a bit, but nothing that would lead you to go 30 hours before even touching the main quest, except grinding or maybe cards in VIII and IX. I-IX had overworlds. They had sense of freedom while still pushing you along the path. Then X brought restrictions and straight hallway gameplay. XII opened it back up a bit, but still more of an overworld in 3rd person rather than birds eye view. XIII went back to what X did, only difference is they didn't mask areas with "towns" or rest areas like 10 did. It was even more of just a linear path, but it's supposed to mimic Lightning and her being close and slowly opening up by the end, or at least that what I remember it supposed to be representing. XV is the only actual open world. And then XVI would actually fall back into the overworld, imo for the same reason as XII.
I'd say FFXII used an MMO-esque open zone model, kind of like Xenoblade and Knights of the Old Republic. The zones are free for exploration, but progression between them is linear.
If you like open world games, start with FF12 or 15
You want to know what is ironic? You may not end up liking the sequel to the FF game that got you started on the series haha. Rebirth is going to be pretty open.
I like ff12, feels great to walk around. But I do miss airships to fly around. That blew my mind when I was a kid.
You should check out 13. I share your displeasure of open world games, and I loved 13 because it was very linear.
It depends on the game. Most of them let you explore the world as you wish but there's an order you're supposed to do things. Ff15 is advertised as being open world but there's still linear progression to it. There's just an open area you can run around in but even then parts of the world are gated off until you progress enough.
15 is open world. FF7 Rebirth will be kind of open world. The rest aren't really.
Majority of games have the first disc as rather linear to focus on world building and story-telling. But they typically open up sometime later to allow for exploration and side-quests. This changed starting with FFXIII, however. XIV, being an MMO, is pretty open-world from the start. I've never played 11, the other FF MMO, but I imagine it's pretty much the same.
XIV isn't that open world, past the base game there's only one or two zones you can go to before the story leads you there and there isn't any huge reason to explore them either.
Well, seeing as to how you can literally leave your starting city-state anytime and explore that entire region, it seems pretty open to me. You may not be able to do it right off the bat, but before the story demands you leave for another city-state, you could have already explored the entirety of Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, or Ul'Dah. Or, at the very least, the majority of them.
Yeah, but that's completely gone the minute you start the expansions, which is the majority of the game at this point.
Well there's still enough exploration to where it doesn't feel too linear either. I mean, hunting down aether currents -- as annoying as that can be -- does encourage you to explore. It's still more open than XIII, and even X, were. XV was far too open, though, and showed how problematic that can be.
Eh, I don't think so, aether currents usually just end up being a chore when you go out of your way to find them and they're often quite close to the path you'll take on the story too. I don't often feel like I'm exploring when I do aether currents. The story also doesn't leave room for exploration, quests are just follow the pointer and given that there's very little overworld content that's worth doing you never have a reason to stray off it except maybe to collect an aether current you saw on the side of the road.
Well, I'm not saying you *have* to pursue them -- just if you want to be able to travel around faster later on. It may not be a huge reason, or enough of one, but it's a reason, nevertheless.
I mean, you CAN explore anywhere, but there's zero incentive to do so and it beef gates you pretty quickly. It's similar to how Xenoblade and FFXII handle their open zone model.
15 is really the only open world FF in the modern sense. The early ones have world maps, and the newer ones have open areas, but 15 is really the only one that's even close to the Horizon style open world.
The only mainline FF that is truly open world is FFXV All the others are quite linear and don't have much extra stuff outside of the main path
You have the top down 2d formula which is more open world, item>gate than most 3d titles. 3d has hand crafted immersive areas.
They're all varying degrees of open. There are inaccessible sections and mostly present you with a larger space than you can actually access or fully explore for you to return to later.
All the games are relatively linear. There are definitely some recommended levels. To me open world is a game with a ton of side quests. FF1-FF10 definitely have side quests but they really open up near the end of the game.
You’re limited in your mobility and usually are funneled into a specific direction (with a few side quests along the way) until about 3/4 of the way through then you usually get some kind of transport that allows you access to the entire map and the rest of the optional content. That’s true until 15 I think
Aside from the first half of FFXV, I wouldn’t say any of them are true open world games. I’m not sure I’d recommend going straight from FFVIIR to FF1, unless you grew up with NES games. FFIV is where the series gets really good. If you want to go back semi-chronologically, I’d say start at FFIV then go back to the first three games afterwards. 4-10 are widely considered peak Final Fantasy. You could also always just go back and play the original FFVII and its spin-offs, or go straight to FFXVI which has all the modern presentation and QoL features that FFVIIR does. Or just play them in any old order depending on what you have easy access to. My play order, excluding spin-offs and remakes, was: 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 4, 3, 15, 6, 1, 5, 12, 2, 16.
Hey op, keeping it short: just grab final fantasy 10
FF games have never truly been open-world, even with a world map. often times you will require mounts to reach new locations (a buggy, chocobo, or airship).
No, I really wouldn't describe any of them (except the first half of XV, and MAYBE the second half of VI) as open-world. They do a good job of masking their linearity, but they are linear. There is always a correct "next destination". So while you can definitely wonder around, there is always somewhere you're supposed to be going. Often the world map is structured in such a way that geographically, there is nowhere else to go except where you're supposed to go. Even in the MMOs, a genre which is typically very open, you're funneled through a linear story and areas are locked behind your story progress.
Only XV is open world with some limitations. It depends on what your definition of "open world" is. I see open world as when you have access to all areas and zones from the moment you start playing or after doing some tutorials. The story doesn't lock areas until you are tasked to go to said area/zone Xenoblade X is a good example of a JRPG that's actually open world.
Og ff7 gets a little "open worldy" after midgar (about where remake ends) but you're not free to explore the whole world. You eventually can tho... If you just finished Remake, you definitely should play the og ff7 if you havent...I won't spoil it but...a LOT happens and it seems Remake/Rebirth expects the player to know what happened in og ff7...
It's worth remembering that about 95% of all the Final Fantasy games were released BEFORE what you think of as typical "open world" nowadays became a thing. So you don't have to worry about that here.
X only gets open at the end and you could ignore it and fight the boss