Is Final Fantasy 16 open world?

Producer Naoki Yoshida reveals that Final Fantasy 16 will have large open areas but will not have a traditional open-world design. 

Final Fantasy 16 trailer from the most recent State of Play looked truly spectacular, which is somewhat expected given that Square Enix are reportedly using Unreal Engine 5 to develop the game, which gives the devs all the tools necessary to create a stunning world, packed with details.

And you may wonder what kind of world are Square Enix creating for Final Fantasy 16? Are they going for a fully open-world design or a more linear approach? Well, it's been confirmed by Final Fantasy 16 Producer Naoki Yoshida that Final Fantasy 16 will not be a fully open-world game.

When asked about it in the most recent interview, Yoshida explained that Final Fantasy 16 will use larger zones to create a sense of global scale, instead of going for a big open world. He also added that the game might still have certain features inspired by recent AAA open-world games.

Square Enix Final Fantasy 16

To some, this might come as a disappointment but as we've learned over the past decade, an open-world design does not necessarily mean a better game so there are definitely no reason to be disappointed with Square Enix's decision just yet. 

Yes, perhaps for the sense of epic scale, open-world is probably a better choice but until we learn more about Final Fantasy 16's large zones, we can't really say whether or not the game will have that big epic feel. 

Final Fantasy 16 is coming exclusively to PlayStation 5 in 2023. 

Source: IGN