‘Final Fantasy XV’ begins “Open World”, becomes more “Linear” in Second Half
I don’t really know what to make of this news. Or rather, I don’t know what it means. Apparently Final Fantasy XV is going to start off “open world”, as the magical boy band drives around the world. Fighting Titans, jerking each other off in gas station bathrooms (as all bro road trips should be), cruising in their car. However, the title will become more linear in the second half of the game. Okay. Fine. I’m sort of with it so far. But what gives me a pause is when in an interview the game director says “we made it in a way that you’ll also get to advance through it as you have in conventional Final Fantasy games“, which, huh. Wait.
Conventional FF games? Linear? I’ve never really considered the Final Fantasy titles I’ve loved to be linear. However, I consider the one I quit (FF13) to be a claustrophobic, boxed-in gloom-pall of shit.. Single-corridor of Doom, et cetera. So if the game “tightens” into something feeling similar to titles from the franchise’s halcyon days, fantastic. But I’m worried, perhaps undeservedly so, that the game going “linear” will be a return to single-corridor nightmare that broke my spirit.
Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
While Final Fantasy XV doesn’t present players with an open world like that of aFallout or GTA, it does provide large, open areas to explore. But as the game goes on, the open-world elements “tighten,” according to director Hajime Tabata.
Speaking in a new interview with Japanese publication Famitsu (as translated by Siliconera), Tabata was asked about the size of the game. He estimated the three chapters Famitsu played represent “about 15 percent or so” of the game full game, noting that the “chapters go from 0 to 15.”
When asked if the structure was similar throughout, Tabata said, “Final Fantasy XV consists of both open-world and linear parts. The first half keeps going as an open world, but the story in the second half is led by a linear path. That way, you won’t get bored of an open world as the rest of the game tightens, so we made it in a way that you’ll also get to advance through it as you have in conventional Final Fantasy games.”
It doesn’t sound as if the second half will necessarily force you down a single corridor–when estimating the game’s length, he referred to the “main route” of the second half.
“If you play through the first half and only the main route of the second half, I believe the estimated play-time sits at around 40 to 50 hours,” he said.
Following a recent delay, Final Fantasy XV is now slated for release on November 29 for PS4 and Xbox One. Tabata told GameSpot recently as part of a wide-ranging interview that it was delayed so that contents of a day-one patch could instead be included on-disc. He also said he has no plans to expand Final Fantasy XV into a Lightning Trilogy-style series, instead preferring to to simply leverage what the team has learned developing it.