'Final Fantasy XV' Won't Have A Fully Open World, Thank F**king God

In further “Final Fantasy XV may not the billion things it’s been hyped up to be” news, director Hajime Tabata has revealed more detail about the game’s structure. In an interview with Famitsu, Tabata stated that Final Fantasy XV’s first half is open world, while the second half is more linear and structured.

We were told earlier this year that the world of Final Fantasy XV is one contiguous landmass across which our bro-tagonists can walk, drive, or take the train -- perhaps even take an airship, if Tabata’s team has worked that problem out. Though the game’s trailers and Tabata’s own words may have led us to expect a massive open world the whole way through, Final Fantasy XV can only be improved by not going that route.

Let’s face it: “open world” has become a code phrase for “vast expanse filled with useless trinkets, dumb quests and the same few textures over and over” in so many games that tout their huge worlds as a selling point. No Man’s Sky feels like it has maybe twenty procedural building blocks, and who wants to see that scrawled ad nauseum across 18 quintillion planets? Dragon Age: Inquisition took the criticism of Dragon Age 2 ’s stifling, repetitive maps to heart and careened in the opposite direction, loading its huge world areas with thrilling and exciting quests such as “escort this dumb buffalo thing back to its dumb owner for nothing, for no goddamn reason.”

For every sprawling, epic open world game done right, filled with meaningful quest lines and rich tidbits of lore, there’s some sadsack competitor who thought “make something passably pretty, then put STUFF and THINGS in it” was the heart of what it meant to be “open world.” At some point, “open world” stopped being a technological marvel and began to be expected from every AAA title in every genre. Games without big budgets or intelligent direction suffered.

While Final Fantasy XV might have that budget, the game has been in development hell for so long that cramming more hours of crap into its open world is manifestly not the solution. Instead, Final Fantasy XV ’s fifteen chapters are divided: the first half of the game is open world so you can get your need for crap and filler out of the way. The second half is linear and story-driven, so you can actually get somewhere.

“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. 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,” said Tabata.

I might not be a fan of some of the team’s decisions, but this one I applaud. Thanks for saving us from another disappointing open world disasterpiece. (And yes, if you’re wondering, my fingers are crossed for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but Nintendo’s avoidance of the term “open world ” #givesmehope.)

Final Fantasy XV releases simultaneously worldwide on PS4 and Xbox One this Nov. 29.