The Misconsception of Open World in Final Fantasy

Hey guys welcome back to my page!  Today I wanted to write an opinion piece in relation to a common problem I see pop up when people discuss Final Fantasy.  Now a lot of fans around their mid-20’s and higher will claim that the golden age of Final Fantasy titles was in the 90’s.  The 8-bit and 16-bit era of JRPG goodness and the exciting world of “3D”.  Now I don’t disagree.  All those titles were definitely fantastic!  But I rarely look as the series as a whole when a title drops.  I typically don’t compare a new installation to the previous entries.  I listen to a lot of people debate the decline of “good” Final Fantasy titles.  Many think the last good title was IX, some say it was X, heck some even say it was XII.  And one of the many loud opinions is that the newer Final Fantasy titles specifically XIII is “too linear”, “It’s a hallway simulator”, “this game lacks an open world!’ and those are going to be my speaking points today.

Before I get into my discussion on “open worlds” I want to address one other topic that typically ends up high on the list as well.  And that’s where the fans come in.  According to a lot of people, not myself mind you, FFXIII is considered one of the worst Final Fantasy titles to date by some very loud fans.  And loud does not mean all.  Now let’s get a couple things straight first.  1) that’s basically only the opinion of western fans and 2) It actually did extremely well and was highly enjoyed by eastern and western audiences.  So while you might dislike XIII, it has the numbers to back itself up as a successful title.

Now a lot of people at this point, particularly those who dislike what XIII was, will claim “Sure Final Fantasy XIII might not be that bad if you started with X, or XII, or even with XIII itself.”  But they then go on to say it’s because “they’re too young and don’t understand what came before it.” And that is where I disagree.  Many fans claim that this linear atmosphere started with Final Fantasy X and it was just plainly obvious in XIII.  And that now brings us to the discussion of today.

Anyone who claims that the Final Fantasy titles of the 90’s were not linear, either hasn’t played it in the last 10 years or they have no idea what linear means.  Allow me to explain what I mean.  When you look at titles such as X and XIII you essentially start at point A and walk to point B, events happen, some battles, then you move to point C.  Basically walking in a mostly straight path, zig zag or not, it still goes forward.  Folks blame X and on for those issues.  And I know the real problem.

People see a world map and think “Oh an open world game!  Great!”.  If you’re one of these folks then, sorry, you’re mistaken.  What’s that?  What about the great titles of IV-IX?  Well thank you for bringing up the “golden age” of Final Fantasy.  Let’s talk about the issues there.

First what does “open world” mean to folks?  A lot of people think an open world means that you have a world map you can run around on and go wherever you like, however you like, and do whatever you like.  They mostly think of the 2^nd off or near end portion of most Final Fantasy titles.  Typically when you unlock and airship and can literally explore the entire world map.  Sounds about right.  You can go wherever you like all right!  Except people blindly see a world map and forget that it might not be as open as they thought it was.

We will start with Final Fantasy IV.  IV was basically the first title in the franchise where the director decided “hey let’s be more story driven and add more to our characters and world.”  Sound like an all right idea.  I’m certainly more interested in story driven games.  But the issue that arises when you start designing a story driven universe, is the story itself.  A big issue with open world meets story is that in a true open world you can get to anything, by almost any means possible.  You maybe have thought “hey the player will come from this direction and enter here, so this will happen.” Well your game is open world, which means they could enter from a different area, or come there at a completely different time.  A good example of open world is the original The Legend of Zelda.  Where the game drops you at the starting point and basically says “good luck kid” and you can go anywhere and explore anything.  Heck you can do the dungeons pretty much however you like as well.

Now you might think “okay big deal, let’s set a few events, you have to come here first before you can go there next.” Good call.  This way folks can’t accidentally miss key story elements.  Bad news is, you just made your game linear.  Huh?  You might be asking yourself, how did I do that?  Well any time you create something where a player must go do A to start B to get to C, you have just created a linear concept.  A true open world would mean you can go anywhere, experience anything in any order, and potentially miss stuff because of that.  Now there isn’t anything wrong with that, but in Final Fantasy that has never EVER been the case.

Look back to the original Final Fantasy.  You start on the world map, you get no introduction, no instruction, heck no equipment even.  You have to figure it out, find out where to go, and you can stumble into those situations without prior knowledge and dumb luck.  So does that mean the original Final Fantasy is open world?  No, it’s not.  It just gives the illusion of an open world.

Here is why.  Yes, you get a world map.  Yes, you get a boat and you can sail across the ocean and go anywhere, for the most part.  But you know what you can’t do with that boat?  Skip the story.  Go to the final boss.  Go get the airship immediately.  You might think “hey now, I can go clear the crystals in any order I please!” Sure you can, but some bosses are designed at higher levels because they planned for you to get there after A, B, and C.  And it’s not like you can walk right up to the final boss and take it on instantly either.  Now it’s been a few years since I played I myself, and there are so many different versions of it at this point that it can be difficult to know exactly which version is being spoken of.  For me I almost always refer to the NES version.

Airships, boats, chocobos, all that stuff messes with folks their perception of “open world”.  They think that just because “oh I have a boat I can go to this town right now rather than wait the 4 more hours for the story to bring me here.”  Well great job, the story isn’t going to progress thought and neither will the game.  I suppose to some folks that would stimulate the idea of open world, but even then, it still is not a true open world.

Final Fantasy VI is one of the titles that does become open world, but even then it’s only after the halfway point of the story.  If it’s your first time playing you won’t even hit the half way point until about 15 hours.  And even when you get there, you have some mandatory story events that you HAVE TO DO in order to get the means to go wherever you want, including the final boss.

And that’s where a lot of the problems lie.  Folks think Final Fantasy and they think questing, story, and open world.  But they forget that those worlds aren’t as “open” as they once thought they were.  And even for a couple titles it isn’t a true definition until almost the end of the game.  While some other titles give the illusion of it.  Heck in my opinion one of the only titles that is open world is Final Fantasy VI and that’s again, after the halfway point and the few mandatory events.

But that’s where the real debate lies.  In VI after the first5 hours or so you can literally walk just about everywhere, with a few exceptions, and soon after that you end up with an airship that allows you to fly wherever you like.  To some folks even having the ability to just explore everywhere, that’s “open world” to them.  Other’s think you should be able to walk right up to the final bosses front door whenever you want and that’s “open world” to them, that is the camp I end up falling into.

To me, you either have an open world, or you don’t.  Either I can walk over to the final boss and say hi, or I can’t.  Now for Final Fantasy you have never been able to turn the game on and just head to the final boss at level 1 and try to win.  For many titles in Final Fantasy you have a 1^st half and 2^nd half of the title.  2 world maps basically.  I can tell you that in all of those 13 titles you can’t just jump between them whenever you want.  You need to get to a certain point for some of them.  Some titles will allow you to explore both worlds however you like after certain events.  Others start you in one and eventually you’re stuck in the other one with no way back.  It’s because of those things that make Final Fantasy titles not “open world”.  They’re story driven worlds first and foremost.

So the next time you get into a debate with folks on which titles are the best and why, please remember this and don’t bring up “linear” as a reason to dislike one of the titles.  Just because it’s “really noticeable” in XIII doesn’t mean IV, or VII, or even the first Final Fantasy doesn’t have its linear parts about it.

But that’s just my thoughts on the matter.  I’d love to know what you all think!  My page isn’t just about me spouting my opinion, it’s about having a conversation with the rest of you guys.  So let me know your thoughts on open world and what your favorite Final Fantasy titles are.

Thanks for reading my article.  If you found this interesting or liked it I’d love it if you left a comment, shared it, or liked it, otherwise I’ll see you in the next article.  See ya!