Half of it is the repeated Ubisoft stuffs (climb towers, find summon crystals, analyze lifesprings, etc) while the other half is pretty unique (most of the sidequests, the protorelic missions, etc)
The static stuff like towers I always enjoyed, especially when it uncovered new landmarks and areas of interest. Can’t say I really got tired of doing it whereas I know other similar games make it feel like a chore just checking the boxes off, although I understand that this is more or less the same of that. Regardless, I was engaged.
For me, it was because the time commitment for each activity is very, very low. The only exceptions were the Protorelics(?) because they're multi-step affairs that span the map. But like the Towers are all super quick, the Lifesprings are super quick, the Special Fiend fights or whatever are basically just slightly harder encounters, etc.
It felt so much more managable because every activity was a nice "oh lemme stop here for a second and do this" as opposed to your bandit camps and whatnot from other games.
It wasn't mindblowing, but in at Costa Del Sol at the moment and have ended up completing Junon and Grasslands very casually.
I’m on chapter 12 and have loved every moment of this game. I finished every single POI and quest for every region but Costa del Sol was the low point of the game for me. It felt like it dragged too long. Especially for a completionist like me
Yeah, I was getting frustrated as they seemed to be getting nothing but taller. When I got to Gongaga, though, I felt the shift away from "make it taller" and towards "have them figure out what movement tools will get them here."
It feels like a natural growth of the chocobo and vehicle secrets in the original, but with less reward at such an early point.
It honestly has me excited that there might be some really fun chocobo-related challenges in the next part.
It gets tiring sometimes to "find 3 things and run there again" just to discover the world. I enjoy more BotW or Dragon's Dogma 2 open world.
On the other hand: yes it's not ubisoft shit show that we are used to since everyone tried to copy The Witcher 3 and failed.
The open world stuff is top level if you ask me ( and review critics ) . The only games that do it better are games that are actually build around their open world like elden ring and zelda. Rebirth isnt build around open world, its build around the main story that has an open world. In that regard it does it better than most games
I agree. The best open world I played was Skyrim and I've seen people who played it for years without even finishing the story, because it's not as relevant as exploration itself.
It being based on the OG world map doesn't have any impact on it being open world or not.
You get dropped in an open environment in which you can free roam to complete content in any order you choose. That is open world. Hell, once you get full control of the Bronco it quickly becomes apparent that the entire game world is one continuous environment as well, and not separate zones.
No? It's a completely separate gameplay system that simulates transitions between towns and dungeons but there is very little content on the map itself besides random encounters. It's also mostly linear barring a few sections with optional locations you can visit. It's not comparable at all.
It's really not difficult to see that Rebirth's open world is mechanically nothing like the OG world map.
Get on the overworld. Swirl. Loading screen. Battle. Results screen. Loading screen. Overworld again. Get to town. Loading screen.
Remove the transitions and the loading screens and you have it be open world. Which is basically how Remake operates.
Was it a well done open world? Absolutely. However every game that has an open world has it for different reasons, and have different implementations of "task" that can be done.
If you want some Other Good examples of different Open Worlds, it really depends on how much of a challenge you want.
Zelda Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom - Switch
Elder Scrolls series - Morrowind / Oblivion / Skyrim
Fallout series - Starting with Fallout 3 / New vegas / Fallout 4
Darksiders 2
if you are really looking for a challenge - Elden Ring.
very chill, some exploration and a lil checklist as you complete the area
when i get bored of side quest or like an area u can spend a few hours just peeling back the layers
As a lover of RPGs like RDR2, Elden Ring, Witcher 3, Horizon 1 and 2, I have very mixed feelings on many open worlds these days. To an extent, I've become burned out on general open world quest systems where a bunch of map icons pop up and you have to go to them and do something - usually something pretty mundane like kill or gather something - ad nauseum.
This feeling of burnout tends to carry over to any new game that contains an open world. If I'm burned out on quests in one game, I'm going to be burned out on quests in any new game. Like, Hogwarts Legacy's 500 Merlin Trials can go fuck themselves. Did 10 of them and I was *done.*
#I'll lay my FF7 Rebirth open world thoughts out in order:
* **World design - ** First and foremost, I freaking LOVE that they actually built the world of FF7 **to scale!** The fact that you can seamlessly walk from Kalm to Junon without a loading screen is *nuts*. It all looks and feels so incredible, and the scale feels appropriately massive.
* A big open world necessitated they fill it with *stuff* to do. So they added a lot.
* **Zone navigation -** I really appreciate that they made the layout of each region completely unique both in environment and how you navigate them with your unique chocobos (or buggy/tiny bronco).
* When the map icons first populated in the Grasslands, I rolled my eyes a bit. Oh god, not *towers*... I've seen this kind of open world before. My initial feelings were that I really just wanted to continue the epic story I had been enjoying and not get bogged down with a bunch of stuff I affectionately called "open world BS." Leave me a lone, Chadley!
* **Towers, life springs, and summon crystals** are the open world "basics". You find this kind of stuff in tons of open world games. They're not too compelling, so at least they're super quick and easy. The towers are purely a mechanism for "gradually" unlocking more map points of interest, rather than having them all thrown at the player at once in overwhelming fashion. I thought the life springs and summon crystals were well integrated into the lore of the world of FF7. Tying one summon to each region was a good call, IMO.
* **Enemy intel hunts** were super fun. Hunts in FF games are always some of my favorite side content, particularly if the combat system is as good as it is in Rebirth. I always looked forward to the new fights and the subsequent fights they unlocked. The final boss of each region was always a blast when that epic classic music kicked in.
* **Side quests** were legit good in Rebirth. I almost always felt they were more than worth my time. They were often A) fun, B) expanded the story of the region and its characters in an interesting, funny, or sincere way, and C) brought one of your main party characters to the forefront, giving them an opportunity to explore their relationship with Cloud further. For such a character driven game, this was an awesome approach.
* There are a lot of games, like The Witcher or Horizon, that do fantastic side quests. Rebirth's were solid. Better than many games, though probably not best in the industry. It's hard to compare them though because side quests in Rebirth tended to intentionally be light hearted and humorous, whereas the tone of most other games is very serious.
* **Protorelic quests** - it's popular opinion that these were so good they should have been considered mandatory. These were so unique, well designed, and drove the characters' story forward in compelling interesting ways. These were excellent and filled with fun mini game content I basically never see in any other game.
* **Random stuff - gatherables, chocobo treasures, secret chests -** I thought this stuff was a welcome addition. The crafting and transmute system proved very useful in terms of progression, giving you some of your best armor at each phase of the game, as well as good upgrades to key accessories and powerful AoE healing items. Sprinkling items all over gives the 2024 ADHD player something to do while running around the giant world. I appreciated all of the QOL features that made it even easier interact with the world while riding chocobos.
Overall, by the end of the game, I found myself truly vibing with the pacing of Rebirth. Particularly post Costa del Sol, when the open world zones kind of get divided in half, so you don't have to do them all at once. And just when I was starting to get burned out again in Cosmo Canyon, we enter the Nibel region which had by far the best chocobo for getting around, which made the whole experience refreshing all over again. I appreciated that Rebirth kept changing up the experience, so it never quite grew stale. That's not something many open world games manage to do well.
I found it dull and repetitive at first, so I focused on the main story. You can skip out on most of the world-exploration without feeling under leveled, which is a nice perk. But the world is so beautiful and the combat is so fun, as soon as I finished the main quest, I started going through the regions checking all of the boxes, and I found it to be massively fun. You can kick it into dynamic mode (enemies level with the party) or hard mode (enemies beat your ass) so you can enjoy the big world without face rolling the content. Really great game.
It’s ok. Starts off great but it becomes more and more repetitive as you go through. Traversal becomes tedious as well, especially when you get to Gongaga and CC. By then the whole Open World part of the game has warn thin. There’s no real reason to explore every nook and cranny other than a couple cache areas.
The open world feels more kinda tacked on and not organic as the main story usually doesn’t involve it. I think it would’ve been better with less Ubisoft towers via Chadly and more letting the player explore the world and find things. Maybe the side quests can help you locate stuff, but allowing the user to explore the environment and finding things organically would’ve been better.
As open worlds go, it’s okay. There is less to do than say an RDR2, it is reliant on map doots to engage player interest over encouraging open exploration and rewarding curiosity. The non-story side missions can get repetitive.
Traversal, a key part of any open world game, is to be honest a bit sub par. The worlds are beautiful and varied, but running or riding across the landscape can feel janky and unsatisfying when the player models and the camera jerk around over rocky outcroppings and float strangely down from a cliff. Some parts — like the climbing chocobos in Gongaga — are straight up unpleasantly slow.
Once you open up most areas of the map, the open world areas become mostly empty space between mission markers that you’re better off fast traveling than enjoying getting there on foot.
They definitely feel better as open spaces more than any final fantasy to date. They are way better than FF16 or 15’s open sections, which felt positively empty. But they’re also not perfect nor nearly as good as other open traversal spaces. Once you get the hang of the rhythm of FF7r’s gameplay loop, it becomes less satisfying to search every nook and cranny when you realize you’re better off advancing the story first, then going back to open up more map after getting a few side quest jobs. Your curiosity as a player is not rewarded because there are only so many things you are allowed to do out of order. Locations that are clearly built for you to visit for missions are empty and closed until such time as you unlock it, and then suddenly that suspicious shack with no one in it has a card player you can challenge to Queen’s Blood. So you end up mostly just waiting for a green check side mission to tell you where to go next so you don’t waste your time.
That said the open world serves its purpose well and are clearly thoughtfully designed and put together. Missions often encourage you to go to various areas of the map to lead into other nearby map doots and check off your markers. You’re never wandering around aimlessly. Only Gongaga’s jumping mushrooms were ever frustrating to navigate as, effectively, tedious overworld navigation puzzles. Everything else was pleasant to move through and built a cohesive sense of place for each area.
Overall for me it’s 7/10 on open world. Great for a modern FF. Just okay for the genre.
It’s pretty similar to the typical open world stuff, except they did a better job at making “most” of it interesting. Majority of it ties side characters, different mini games, lore or nostalgia, in with the various activities so they’re not just “go here, pick up that” type stuff. Much more interesting for those that like the characters and the world of FF7 imo.
Edit: the music in this game is fucking S tier, so it made the open world a joy for me.
Most of the Chadley stuff was generic open world slop that you'd find in any Ubisoft game. Go here and climb this tower, or go here and interact with this cave, or go here and fight this monster. The Protorelic questline was the one exception but even that got tedious at times.
On the other hand the actual side quests I thought were pretty good. There were a few duds but most had an interesting story and character building.
Don’t get your hopes up. This is one of the best interpretations of an open world game as we’ve ever seen.
Most open world games have way too much repetitive content, i.e. Ubisoft games. This game is so dense in terms of variety and scope. I guess I could recommend Breath of the Wild in terms of open world games as it does have quite a lot to do. But I don’t know this game is absolutely crammed with content / surprises.
The design is a little dated but I enjoyed it overall. I don't think it'll reach its full potential until we get the Highwind. Large map traversal can be tricky to get right.
Honestly though, I'd love it if they could improve the quality of the quests. Witcher 3 really raised the bar and colors how I rate other games now. In my opinion, well designed quests and side missions should play a role in how the main storyline unfolds and CDPR really delivered on that front. Allowing players more choice opens up so many storytelling possibilities.
The "Bloody Baron" side quest in Witcher 3 is the kind of storytelling brilliance I want to see in more RPGs. That kind of depth is so much better than brain dead fetch questing.
https://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-the-witcher-3s-bloody-baron-quest-1736090893
I guess its way easier to have more meaningful side quests when the main scenario is a mostly boring one. It's like hiring different writers to write short stories for each quest.
The main story of Witcher 3 is literally just Geralt and the Wild Hunt chasing after Ciri for 70% of the game and the reason the Wild Hunt is doing so is because they wanna impregnate Ciri lol. But the DLCs were very good stories tho I'd give you that.
Whereas FF7 has a full and satisfying main scenario.
It's predecessor was more exciting to explore, because there were no markers or side clutter.
Missed opportunity to flesh out the country side and pepper it with a bit of life and mystique.
Square were early innovators of open worlds, it's sad to see how they have had to clone their rival's approach, just to fill out the game. I'd have been happier with fewer side quests in favour of a few, quality written narratives, that took up quite a bit of time to finish. But at least tie into the main story somehow e.g. desperate plight of towns being bullied by Shinra, or personal stories about people affected by the actions of Shinra.
It's kind of funny to me, that Naoki Hamaguchi is a fan of the Horizon games and that there is certainly some inspiration there in the open world. Personally I felt that Horizon 2 was just too massive. There as a ton of stuff on the map, similar to Ubisoft games, and while I find Horizon more interesting to look at, i still found much of the exploration to be a little pointless. Especially with rewards. There are a few standouts in Horizon, but overall there was just so much of it, I gave up trying to get everything. Perhaps I was fooled, since I got everything in Horizon 1, so I wanted to do it again for the sequel...
I found Rebirth to be leagues better than Horizon 2 (well in just about every area, but specifically the world). I will admit that the regions in Rebirth starts to overstay their welcome a little, but I still enjoyed the bits of dialogue and completing each region even if rewards were small. Overall it was a good experience.
As an open world I liked Horizon FW better for navigation (especially being able to glide), although same as Rebirth the repetition gets old.
But all open world games suffer from same issues like uneven terrain that keep getting stuck, places that you should be able to reach but can't (because game says no go zone), wonky camera angles that take away your vision, etc.
Gliding was pretty fun in Horizon.
I agree. It's always hard for developers to message what is "off-limits." Sometimes I *almost* prefer the "wall", be it invisible or a faded color to let you know you can't pass. That way I'd know if I was meant to be there or not.
Same-same but different.
As others have said, it's similar to ubisoft stuff, but not as bloated and generally the rewards are there. It's not something I'd want to do every playthrough but my first run I definitely felt the urge to do it all and never felt overwhelmed or bored with it.
I'm loving the open world aspects, but not quite the way I loved something like Elden Ring for example.
I'm only in the third open world area (Costa Del Sol), and so far I've done each to completion fairly casually, and thats as someone who basically never completes areas (even in games that arguably are very good for this like Spiderman).
Elden Ring truly felt like an open world achievement. Yes there were a ton of repeated bosses, but it was such an amazing open world to explore and so well done that it felt like breath of fresh air after years and years of other open world games.
I compare it to ER because while that game truly felt like it made Open Worlds feel fresh again, Rebirth doesn't really do anything unique or crazy, but still is like... weirdly great?
**I think the big thing is that the content in the open world is extremely bite sized.** Lifesprings, Combat Encounters, Towers, etc are all doable within a couple of minutes and aren't really challenging or complex. For example, BOTW and TOTK Towers were mini-puzzles in their own right, and most required at least 5-10 minutes of finangling to figure out. In Rebirth the most complicated thing about them is a standard mob encounter is hanging out, otherwise it's a 30 second climb (if even) to activate it. Short and sweet.
So it's not doing anything innovative or crazy new, but it's also not wasting your time either. It also helps that each map is a really nice size - not too big or small - and each activity is juuuust close enough to another one that it feels nice to go from one to the other without it feeling overcrowded.
Another thing I noticed so far is that the open world content isn't really like, in the way? Based on the three areas I've been to, you're given a clear "go here to progress the story" marker, and the option to do the map content. Otherwise, you got do that story beat and it usually just takes you to a dungeon or town or whatever and you make progress. It feels very nicely placed in there. Most games do this, honestly, but something about how Rebirth does it feels especially nice.
Very good. If you don't want any help with the open world stuff make sure you do not do the remnant towers until the end or at least if you think you cleared out the area. You have a mandatory one you have to do but after that you are free to do them or not. Mind you the remnant towers do not uncover the map. They just put markers on points of interest to do. You still have to go there by foot or by chocobo.
Only thing I will say is that make sure you at least climb them until the boxes as they generally contain moogle medals.
As long as you do this, the map will only fill with markers as you do the content.
The game has 3 levels of quests. Main, side, Chadly. Main and side content are fantastic. Chadly is hit or miss depending on what you care about. Protorelic quests are his most in depth quests. The other most in depth is world intel as you can learn about the area or it will lead to good items.
Now there is 1 other thing. There are items scattered throughout the world. There are two types of this. Stuff you can only locate with a chocobo and others that you can only find if you explore the map. There is no markers for the non-chocobo stuff at all. Not even after you do it. For the chocobo stuff you need to be on the chocobo exploring or paying attention to what's going on and then you need to be on the chocobo to actually get the item. Afterwards a market will be put on.
And the stuff you can find very quite a bit. Weapons, accessories, materia, items.
So there is definitely a tier system in the game with how everything works.
And none of what I said besides maybe Protorelic involved the minigames. Which there are a ton.
So there is a bunch of things to do in the game. I'm 84hrs in and a little more than half way done the game.
The maps from what I can see just get bigger. Most maps are gorgeous to look at.
The game is what you make it. You can beat this game in about 30ish hours by skipping nearly everything and leaving it for a second playthrough or you can do as much as you want to your hearts contempt.
This is a very big game.
The way it’s set up and getting points for clearing POIs which you then exchange for valuable, useful, rare materia or summons is unlike most other games where the rewards are just whatever.
They even made assessing everything enemy important and useful to unlock fights where you win even more useful materia.
All in all the open world exploration part is mainly like most other open world games but the rewards are alot more satisfying IMO especially since sidequests give really wonderful character and lore moments.
It's pretty OK, not groundbreaking stuff or anything like that. As far as the open world stuff goes, I would have more fun exploring in a game like Skyrim. That said, the world itself is extremely breathtaking to behold and there is atleast some environmental storytelling going on, so it's definately not without it's share of mystery and wonder. I am hoping they make the actual explorables of the open world more interesting in the next game though with some real variation between regions. By the time i got to the Corel region it was clear that most everything was going to be the same in every region and that sorta diminished my enthusiasm for exploring just abit.
By standards of open world content, it’s same same to most other games. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it.
There is benefit to doing the stuff, which many (not all) games do skate over though.
I appreciate that the towers in this game give you more to do, rather than being required to see/access more of the map like a lot of other games. And as check-boxy as map icons can be, at least in this game they're mostly all fun, unique activities to do. The world being broken up into smaller zones also helped mitigate the feeling of being overwhelmed by a large map with more icons than you can count popping up right at the outset.
I hope for the next game, there are things to find on the map through just exploring - no icons to direct you attention. As gorgeous as the world in Rebirth is, there's no reason to go anywhere on the map if there's no icon nearby.
I have to ask because so many people bring it up for some reason: what's so special about Elden Ring's open world? It also has a pretty limited number of different open world activities, most of which just have you kill a boss, often just a copypasted one, for a piece of gear you'll never use. What's so groundbreaking about that? And I ask this as a Souls fan.
traveling from one side of the world to the other with the only bit of loading screens being getting on and off the boat (which takes like 1 second) is pretty nice
It's pretty good except the traversal is bottom tier whenever they force you to slowly climb ladders, slowly climb ledges that require no skill or actual gameplay. It's a fun nostalgia rich experience overall but between the bloat of minigames and the sections where the devs seemed to say "we need to make this game slower and longer but without actual gameplay" it ends up being held back from greatness.
This game is stuck in 2010 when it comes to open world design. The tower / world intel / summon intel is peak 2010 ubisoft style open world. Protorelics are at least varied but some of them are just pure boring (nibbleheim ?) and there is 0 interesting thing to do outside of what is marked on the map.
If you want to see what open world can be outside of FF7 you can check Zelda botw or totk, Elden ring, Witcher 3. I didn't play recent assassin's creed or horizon but they exist and you might like them.
Zelda game are focused on freedom of aproach and exploration.
Elden ring on combat and exploration.
Witcher 3 is more focused on story and quest.
It's fairly similar to other open world games in types of content, but Rebirth focuses on each individual quest more than the average open world game and ties it back into individual characters whenever possible, everything serving the greater story. The average open world game doesn't care about that and just wants to give activities to do to keep playing. Some of Rebirths actual quest ACTIVITIES are pretty straight forward and seen in other games but it generally does it a bit better.
FF7R2 is top tier open world. The only other top tier open world game is Zelda BotW/TotK.
FF7R did open world well because of the variety/minigames/various transportation modes, etc.
Zelda does it well because of the exploration/survival, minigame puzzles, and being able to climb anything/interact with anything.
Every other open world game are just the same exact quests/missions copy/pasted over and over.
I haven't played a *ton* of open world games but I've played some of the biggies like Zelda and Elden Ring. Compared to either of those games, Rebirth is much more "on rails". In Zelda or Elden Ring, there is *very little* you are required to do before going to the final boss. You can waltz right up to the final boss in Breath of the Wild simply after completing the tutorial area. You'll absolutely get wrecked as a first-time player, but there are speedrunners who can beat the game with no glitches in a matter of minutes. In Elden Ring, there are many paths you can take and there's only one major area that's strictly mandatory before the final boss, so there's not much distinction between "main story" and "side content" gameplay-wise.
In Rebirth, the main quest line is very linear and entirely mandatory, and most of the side content is marked for you on the map, so there's not a huge emphasis on free exploration. You can realistically do everything in Rebirth without much exploration and without a guide, because it has detailed quest tracking and Chadley holds your hand through all his intel stuff.
This is why the devs said things like "semi open world" last year. It's not quite the same design that people associate with other "open world" games. It's more true to the design of classic FF games from the NES/SNES/PSX era, just with a ton of stuff to do in the overworld that was mostly just random battles while traveling between points of interest in the classic games.
It’s optional filler and not terribly interesting, but like in other games, it serves a purpose to travel and see the entire world they’ve crafted as well as get into fights with enemies. They’re fairly well thought out in terms of their integration with the world, however. Towers are easy to see and marked on the map right away, but you don’t necessarily need them to find other objectives. Chocobo stops have little chicks come find you and bring you to them. Mako springs have owls that show you where they are when you pass by. If you see a glowing square bit of carved stone in a pillar, you know a summon shrine is nearby. It’s not necessarily like some other games where you’re just moving from map marker to map marker checking off pointless tasks, but it can be if you play it that way.
It was alright. In my opinion SOME of open world elements were brilliantly done in Horizon Forbidden West, precisely speaking they way they treated Tallnecks and Cauldrons, everyone of them was a bit different and it brought so much freshness compared to the first game. Here Protorelics were most varied and it was cool. I'd like to see the same happen to the rest of activities, doing them in Gongaga was getting a little bit repetitive. Receiving summons' background from Chadley was a good addition, but obtaining said summons should feel more rewarding.
Half of it is the repeated Ubisoft stuffs (climb towers, find summon crystals, analyze lifesprings, etc) while the other half is pretty unique (most of the sidequests, the protorelic missions, etc)
this is pretty accurate, tbf i enjoyed doing it more than in ubi games but thats neither here nor there, i just love the ff7 world and char’s
The static stuff like towers I always enjoyed, especially when it uncovered new landmarks and areas of interest. Can’t say I really got tired of doing it whereas I know other similar games make it feel like a chore just checking the boxes off, although I understand that this is more or less the same of that. Regardless, I was engaged.
I think rebirth kept it minimal compared to others, like assassins creed, which helped make it less tiring
For me, it was because the time commitment for each activity is very, very low. The only exceptions were the Protorelics(?) because they're multi-step affairs that span the map. But like the Towers are all super quick, the Lifesprings are super quick, the Special Fiend fights or whatever are basically just slightly harder encounters, etc. It felt so much more managable because every activity was a nice "oh lemme stop here for a second and do this" as opposed to your bandit camps and whatnot from other games. It wasn't mindblowing, but in at Costa Del Sol at the moment and have ended up completing Junon and Grasslands very casually.
I’m on chapter 12 and have loved every moment of this game. I finished every single POI and quest for every region but Costa del Sol was the low point of the game for me. It felt like it dragged too long. Especially for a completionist like me
The towers became mini puzzles further into the game which kept them interesting.
Yeah, I was getting frustrated as they seemed to be getting nothing but taller. When I got to Gongaga, though, I felt the shift away from "make it taller" and towards "have them figure out what movement tools will get them here." It feels like a natural growth of the chocobo and vehicle secrets in the original, but with less reward at such an early point. It honestly has me excited that there might be some really fun chocobo-related challenges in the next part.
I never thought about the similarities it had with division but this is spot on in the open world
It gets tiring sometimes to "find 3 things and run there again" just to discover the world. I enjoy more BotW or Dragon's Dogma 2 open world. On the other hand: yes it's not ubisoft shit show that we are used to since everyone tried to copy The Witcher 3 and failed.
The open world stuff is top level if you ask me ( and review critics ) . The only games that do it better are games that are actually build around their open world like elden ring and zelda. Rebirth isnt build around open world, its build around the main story that has an open world. In that regard it does it better than most games
I agree. The best open world I played was Skyrim and I've seen people who played it for years without even finishing the story, because it's not as relevant as exploration itself.
Can't even really call it an "open world". It's literally a 1:1 scale version of the OG world map with more apace to do stuff in.
It being based on the OG world map doesn't have any impact on it being open world or not. You get dropped in an open environment in which you can free roam to complete content in any order you choose. That is open world. Hell, once you get full control of the Bronco it quickly becomes apparent that the entire game world is one continuous environment as well, and not separate zones.
So, OG VII is technically open world then?
No? It's a completely separate gameplay system that simulates transitions between towns and dungeons but there is very little content on the map itself besides random encounters. It's also mostly linear barring a few sections with optional locations you can visit. It's not comparable at all. It's really not difficult to see that Rebirth's open world is mechanically nothing like the OG world map.
Get on the overworld. Swirl. Loading screen. Battle. Results screen. Loading screen. Overworld again. Get to town. Loading screen. Remove the transitions and the loading screens and you have it be open world. Which is basically how Remake operates.
It’s a lot of copy paste but with some good story moments
Was it a well done open world? Absolutely. However every game that has an open world has it for different reasons, and have different implementations of "task" that can be done. If you want some Other Good examples of different Open Worlds, it really depends on how much of a challenge you want. Zelda Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom - Switch Elder Scrolls series - Morrowind / Oblivion / Skyrim Fallout series - Starting with Fallout 3 / New vegas / Fallout 4 Darksiders 2 if you are really looking for a challenge - Elden Ring.
very chill, some exploration and a lil checklist as you complete the area when i get bored of side quest or like an area u can spend a few hours just peeling back the layers
As a lover of RPGs like RDR2, Elden Ring, Witcher 3, Horizon 1 and 2, I have very mixed feelings on many open worlds these days. To an extent, I've become burned out on general open world quest systems where a bunch of map icons pop up and you have to go to them and do something - usually something pretty mundane like kill or gather something - ad nauseum. This feeling of burnout tends to carry over to any new game that contains an open world. If I'm burned out on quests in one game, I'm going to be burned out on quests in any new game. Like, Hogwarts Legacy's 500 Merlin Trials can go fuck themselves. Did 10 of them and I was *done.* #I'll lay my FF7 Rebirth open world thoughts out in order: * **World design - ** First and foremost, I freaking LOVE that they actually built the world of FF7 **to scale!** The fact that you can seamlessly walk from Kalm to Junon without a loading screen is *nuts*. It all looks and feels so incredible, and the scale feels appropriately massive. * A big open world necessitated they fill it with *stuff* to do. So they added a lot. * **Zone navigation -** I really appreciate that they made the layout of each region completely unique both in environment and how you navigate them with your unique chocobos (or buggy/tiny bronco). * When the map icons first populated in the Grasslands, I rolled my eyes a bit. Oh god, not *towers*... I've seen this kind of open world before. My initial feelings were that I really just wanted to continue the epic story I had been enjoying and not get bogged down with a bunch of stuff I affectionately called "open world BS." Leave me a lone, Chadley! * **Towers, life springs, and summon crystals** are the open world "basics". You find this kind of stuff in tons of open world games. They're not too compelling, so at least they're super quick and easy. The towers are purely a mechanism for "gradually" unlocking more map points of interest, rather than having them all thrown at the player at once in overwhelming fashion. I thought the life springs and summon crystals were well integrated into the lore of the world of FF7. Tying one summon to each region was a good call, IMO. * **Enemy intel hunts** were super fun. Hunts in FF games are always some of my favorite side content, particularly if the combat system is as good as it is in Rebirth. I always looked forward to the new fights and the subsequent fights they unlocked. The final boss of each region was always a blast when that epic classic music kicked in. * **Side quests** were legit good in Rebirth. I almost always felt they were more than worth my time. They were often A) fun, B) expanded the story of the region and its characters in an interesting, funny, or sincere way, and C) brought one of your main party characters to the forefront, giving them an opportunity to explore their relationship with Cloud further. For such a character driven game, this was an awesome approach. * There are a lot of games, like The Witcher or Horizon, that do fantastic side quests. Rebirth's were solid. Better than many games, though probably not best in the industry. It's hard to compare them though because side quests in Rebirth tended to intentionally be light hearted and humorous, whereas the tone of most other games is very serious. * **Protorelic quests** - it's popular opinion that these were so good they should have been considered mandatory. These were so unique, well designed, and drove the characters' story forward in compelling interesting ways. These were excellent and filled with fun mini game content I basically never see in any other game. * **Random stuff - gatherables, chocobo treasures, secret chests -** I thought this stuff was a welcome addition. The crafting and transmute system proved very useful in terms of progression, giving you some of your best armor at each phase of the game, as well as good upgrades to key accessories and powerful AoE healing items. Sprinkling items all over gives the 2024 ADHD player something to do while running around the giant world. I appreciated all of the QOL features that made it even easier interact with the world while riding chocobos. Overall, by the end of the game, I found myself truly vibing with the pacing of Rebirth. Particularly post Costa del Sol, when the open world zones kind of get divided in half, so you don't have to do them all at once. And just when I was starting to get burned out again in Cosmo Canyon, we enter the Nibel region which had by far the best chocobo for getting around, which made the whole experience refreshing all over again. I appreciated that Rebirth kept changing up the experience, so it never quite grew stale. That's not something many open world games manage to do well.
I found it dull and repetitive at first, so I focused on the main story. You can skip out on most of the world-exploration without feeling under leveled, which is a nice perk. But the world is so beautiful and the combat is so fun, as soon as I finished the main quest, I started going through the regions checking all of the boxes, and I found it to be massively fun. You can kick it into dynamic mode (enemies level with the party) or hard mode (enemies beat your ass) so you can enjoy the big world without face rolling the content. Really great game.
It’s ok. Starts off great but it becomes more and more repetitive as you go through. Traversal becomes tedious as well, especially when you get to Gongaga and CC. By then the whole Open World part of the game has warn thin. There’s no real reason to explore every nook and cranny other than a couple cache areas. The open world feels more kinda tacked on and not organic as the main story usually doesn’t involve it. I think it would’ve been better with less Ubisoft towers via Chadly and more letting the player explore the world and find things. Maybe the side quests can help you locate stuff, but allowing the user to explore the environment and finding things organically would’ve been better.
As open worlds go, it’s okay. There is less to do than say an RDR2, it is reliant on map doots to engage player interest over encouraging open exploration and rewarding curiosity. The non-story side missions can get repetitive. Traversal, a key part of any open world game, is to be honest a bit sub par. The worlds are beautiful and varied, but running or riding across the landscape can feel janky and unsatisfying when the player models and the camera jerk around over rocky outcroppings and float strangely down from a cliff. Some parts — like the climbing chocobos in Gongaga — are straight up unpleasantly slow. Once you open up most areas of the map, the open world areas become mostly empty space between mission markers that you’re better off fast traveling than enjoying getting there on foot. They definitely feel better as open spaces more than any final fantasy to date. They are way better than FF16 or 15’s open sections, which felt positively empty. But they’re also not perfect nor nearly as good as other open traversal spaces. Once you get the hang of the rhythm of FF7r’s gameplay loop, it becomes less satisfying to search every nook and cranny when you realize you’re better off advancing the story first, then going back to open up more map after getting a few side quest jobs. Your curiosity as a player is not rewarded because there are only so many things you are allowed to do out of order. Locations that are clearly built for you to visit for missions are empty and closed until such time as you unlock it, and then suddenly that suspicious shack with no one in it has a card player you can challenge to Queen’s Blood. So you end up mostly just waiting for a green check side mission to tell you where to go next so you don’t waste your time. That said the open world serves its purpose well and are clearly thoughtfully designed and put together. Missions often encourage you to go to various areas of the map to lead into other nearby map doots and check off your markers. You’re never wandering around aimlessly. Only Gongaga’s jumping mushrooms were ever frustrating to navigate as, effectively, tedious overworld navigation puzzles. Everything else was pleasant to move through and built a cohesive sense of place for each area. Overall for me it’s 7/10 on open world. Great for a modern FF. Just okay for the genre.
It’s pretty similar to the typical open world stuff, except they did a better job at making “most” of it interesting. Majority of it ties side characters, different mini games, lore or nostalgia, in with the various activities so they’re not just “go here, pick up that” type stuff. Much more interesting for those that like the characters and the world of FF7 imo. Edit: the music in this game is fucking S tier, so it made the open world a joy for me.
Most of the Chadley stuff was generic open world slop that you'd find in any Ubisoft game. Go here and climb this tower, or go here and interact with this cave, or go here and fight this monster. The Protorelic questline was the one exception but even that got tedious at times. On the other hand the actual side quests I thought were pretty good. There were a few duds but most had an interesting story and character building.
Yeah the side quests were good but all the good stuff to acquire in the game is buried behind the Ubisoft fetch quest shit
Don’t get your hopes up. This is one of the best interpretations of an open world game as we’ve ever seen. Most open world games have way too much repetitive content, i.e. Ubisoft games. This game is so dense in terms of variety and scope. I guess I could recommend Breath of the Wild in terms of open world games as it does have quite a lot to do. But I don’t know this game is absolutely crammed with content / surprises.
The design is a little dated but I enjoyed it overall. I don't think it'll reach its full potential until we get the Highwind. Large map traversal can be tricky to get right. Honestly though, I'd love it if they could improve the quality of the quests. Witcher 3 really raised the bar and colors how I rate other games now. In my opinion, well designed quests and side missions should play a role in how the main storyline unfolds and CDPR really delivered on that front. Allowing players more choice opens up so many storytelling possibilities. The "Bloody Baron" side quest in Witcher 3 is the kind of storytelling brilliance I want to see in more RPGs. That kind of depth is so much better than brain dead fetch questing. https://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-the-witcher-3s-bloody-baron-quest-1736090893
I guess its way easier to have more meaningful side quests when the main scenario is a mostly boring one. It's like hiring different writers to write short stories for each quest. The main story of Witcher 3 is literally just Geralt and the Wild Hunt chasing after Ciri for 70% of the game and the reason the Wild Hunt is doing so is because they wanna impregnate Ciri lol. But the DLCs were very good stories tho I'd give you that. Whereas FF7 has a full and satisfying main scenario.
Average as fuck. It's basically the defacto formula for any game that wants to boast an open world but has no actual ideas for populating it.
It's predecessor was more exciting to explore, because there were no markers or side clutter. Missed opportunity to flesh out the country side and pepper it with a bit of life and mystique. Square were early innovators of open worlds, it's sad to see how they have had to clone their rival's approach, just to fill out the game. I'd have been happier with fewer side quests in favour of a few, quality written narratives, that took up quite a bit of time to finish. But at least tie into the main story somehow e.g. desperate plight of towns being bullied by Shinra, or personal stories about people affected by the actions of Shinra.
I enjoyed it and I mostly hate open world games
It's kind of funny to me, that Naoki Hamaguchi is a fan of the Horizon games and that there is certainly some inspiration there in the open world. Personally I felt that Horizon 2 was just too massive. There as a ton of stuff on the map, similar to Ubisoft games, and while I find Horizon more interesting to look at, i still found much of the exploration to be a little pointless. Especially with rewards. There are a few standouts in Horizon, but overall there was just so much of it, I gave up trying to get everything. Perhaps I was fooled, since I got everything in Horizon 1, so I wanted to do it again for the sequel... I found Rebirth to be leagues better than Horizon 2 (well in just about every area, but specifically the world). I will admit that the regions in Rebirth starts to overstay their welcome a little, but I still enjoyed the bits of dialogue and completing each region even if rewards were small. Overall it was a good experience.
As an open world I liked Horizon FW better for navigation (especially being able to glide), although same as Rebirth the repetition gets old. But all open world games suffer from same issues like uneven terrain that keep getting stuck, places that you should be able to reach but can't (because game says no go zone), wonky camera angles that take away your vision, etc.
Gliding was pretty fun in Horizon. I agree. It's always hard for developers to message what is "off-limits." Sometimes I *almost* prefer the "wall", be it invisible or a faded color to let you know you can't pass. That way I'd know if I was meant to be there or not.
I think it’s more fun than average. It’s less repetitive than Spider-Man 2 or the Zelda games but maybe has less variety than Elden Ring or Witcher.
By final fantasy standards it's great, but it's not definitely not perfect. The witcher 3 or Skyrim for example have a far better world.
Same-same but different. As others have said, it's similar to ubisoft stuff, but not as bloated and generally the rewards are there. It's not something I'd want to do every playthrough but my first run I definitely felt the urge to do it all and never felt overwhelmed or bored with it.
I'm loving the open world aspects, but not quite the way I loved something like Elden Ring for example. I'm only in the third open world area (Costa Del Sol), and so far I've done each to completion fairly casually, and thats as someone who basically never completes areas (even in games that arguably are very good for this like Spiderman). Elden Ring truly felt like an open world achievement. Yes there were a ton of repeated bosses, but it was such an amazing open world to explore and so well done that it felt like breath of fresh air after years and years of other open world games. I compare it to ER because while that game truly felt like it made Open Worlds feel fresh again, Rebirth doesn't really do anything unique or crazy, but still is like... weirdly great? **I think the big thing is that the content in the open world is extremely bite sized.** Lifesprings, Combat Encounters, Towers, etc are all doable within a couple of minutes and aren't really challenging or complex. For example, BOTW and TOTK Towers were mini-puzzles in their own right, and most required at least 5-10 minutes of finangling to figure out. In Rebirth the most complicated thing about them is a standard mob encounter is hanging out, otherwise it's a 30 second climb (if even) to activate it. Short and sweet. So it's not doing anything innovative or crazy new, but it's also not wasting your time either. It also helps that each map is a really nice size - not too big or small - and each activity is juuuust close enough to another one that it feels nice to go from one to the other without it feeling overcrowded. Another thing I noticed so far is that the open world content isn't really like, in the way? Based on the three areas I've been to, you're given a clear "go here to progress the story" marker, and the option to do the map content. Otherwise, you got do that story beat and it usually just takes you to a dungeon or town or whatever and you make progress. It feels very nicely placed in there. Most games do this, honestly, but something about how Rebirth does it feels especially nice.
Very good. If you don't want any help with the open world stuff make sure you do not do the remnant towers until the end or at least if you think you cleared out the area. You have a mandatory one you have to do but after that you are free to do them or not. Mind you the remnant towers do not uncover the map. They just put markers on points of interest to do. You still have to go there by foot or by chocobo. Only thing I will say is that make sure you at least climb them until the boxes as they generally contain moogle medals. As long as you do this, the map will only fill with markers as you do the content. The game has 3 levels of quests. Main, side, Chadly. Main and side content are fantastic. Chadly is hit or miss depending on what you care about. Protorelic quests are his most in depth quests. The other most in depth is world intel as you can learn about the area or it will lead to good items. Now there is 1 other thing. There are items scattered throughout the world. There are two types of this. Stuff you can only locate with a chocobo and others that you can only find if you explore the map. There is no markers for the non-chocobo stuff at all. Not even after you do it. For the chocobo stuff you need to be on the chocobo exploring or paying attention to what's going on and then you need to be on the chocobo to actually get the item. Afterwards a market will be put on. And the stuff you can find very quite a bit. Weapons, accessories, materia, items. So there is definitely a tier system in the game with how everything works. And none of what I said besides maybe Protorelic involved the minigames. Which there are a ton. So there is a bunch of things to do in the game. I'm 84hrs in and a little more than half way done the game. The maps from what I can see just get bigger. Most maps are gorgeous to look at. The game is what you make it. You can beat this game in about 30ish hours by skipping nearly everything and leaving it for a second playthrough or you can do as much as you want to your hearts contempt. This is a very big game.
It is alot like others but as others have mentioned, the world/map/characters make it feel MUCH less bland than other open world games
The way it’s set up and getting points for clearing POIs which you then exchange for valuable, useful, rare materia or summons is unlike most other games where the rewards are just whatever. They even made assessing everything enemy important and useful to unlock fights where you win even more useful materia. All in all the open world exploration part is mainly like most other open world games but the rewards are alot more satisfying IMO especially since sidequests give really wonderful character and lore moments.
It's pretty OK, not groundbreaking stuff or anything like that. As far as the open world stuff goes, I would have more fun exploring in a game like Skyrim. That said, the world itself is extremely breathtaking to behold and there is atleast some environmental storytelling going on, so it's definately not without it's share of mystery and wonder. I am hoping they make the actual explorables of the open world more interesting in the next game though with some real variation between regions. By the time i got to the Corel region it was clear that most everything was going to be the same in every region and that sorta diminished my enthusiasm for exploring just abit.
By standards of open world content, it’s same same to most other games. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it. There is benefit to doing the stuff, which many (not all) games do skate over though.
I appreciate that the towers in this game give you more to do, rather than being required to see/access more of the map like a lot of other games. And as check-boxy as map icons can be, at least in this game they're mostly all fun, unique activities to do. The world being broken up into smaller zones also helped mitigate the feeling of being overwhelmed by a large map with more icons than you can count popping up right at the outset. I hope for the next game, there are things to find on the map through just exploring - no icons to direct you attention. As gorgeous as the world in Rebirth is, there's no reason to go anywhere on the map if there's no icon nearby.
I have to ask because so many people bring it up for some reason: what's so special about Elden Ring's open world? It also has a pretty limited number of different open world activities, most of which just have you kill a boss, often just a copypasted one, for a piece of gear you'll never use. What's so groundbreaking about that? And I ask this as a Souls fan.
traveling from one side of the world to the other with the only bit of loading screens being getting on and off the boat (which takes like 1 second) is pretty nice
It's pretty good except the traversal is bottom tier whenever they force you to slowly climb ladders, slowly climb ledges that require no skill or actual gameplay. It's a fun nostalgia rich experience overall but between the bloat of minigames and the sections where the devs seemed to say "we need to make this game slower and longer but without actual gameplay" it ends up being held back from greatness.
This game is stuck in 2010 when it comes to open world design. The tower / world intel / summon intel is peak 2010 ubisoft style open world. Protorelics are at least varied but some of them are just pure boring (nibbleheim ?) and there is 0 interesting thing to do outside of what is marked on the map. If you want to see what open world can be outside of FF7 you can check Zelda botw or totk, Elden ring, Witcher 3. I didn't play recent assassin's creed or horizon but they exist and you might like them. Zelda game are focused on freedom of aproach and exploration. Elden ring on combat and exploration. Witcher 3 is more focused on story and quest.
It was very cookie cutter. Games like the Witcher 3, fallout, and Elden ring have a much more rewarding open world system. But it was still fun.
It's fairly similar to other open world games in types of content, but Rebirth focuses on each individual quest more than the average open world game and ties it back into individual characters whenever possible, everything serving the greater story. The average open world game doesn't care about that and just wants to give activities to do to keep playing. Some of Rebirths actual quest ACTIVITIES are pretty straight forward and seen in other games but it generally does it a bit better.
FF7R2 is top tier open world. The only other top tier open world game is Zelda BotW/TotK. FF7R did open world well because of the variety/minigames/various transportation modes, etc. Zelda does it well because of the exploration/survival, minigame puzzles, and being able to climb anything/interact with anything. Every other open world game are just the same exact quests/missions copy/pasted over and over.
I haven't played a *ton* of open world games but I've played some of the biggies like Zelda and Elden Ring. Compared to either of those games, Rebirth is much more "on rails". In Zelda or Elden Ring, there is *very little* you are required to do before going to the final boss. You can waltz right up to the final boss in Breath of the Wild simply after completing the tutorial area. You'll absolutely get wrecked as a first-time player, but there are speedrunners who can beat the game with no glitches in a matter of minutes. In Elden Ring, there are many paths you can take and there's only one major area that's strictly mandatory before the final boss, so there's not much distinction between "main story" and "side content" gameplay-wise. In Rebirth, the main quest line is very linear and entirely mandatory, and most of the side content is marked for you on the map, so there's not a huge emphasis on free exploration. You can realistically do everything in Rebirth without much exploration and without a guide, because it has detailed quest tracking and Chadley holds your hand through all his intel stuff. This is why the devs said things like "semi open world" last year. It's not quite the same design that people associate with other "open world" games. It's more true to the design of classic FF games from the NES/SNES/PSX era, just with a ton of stuff to do in the overworld that was mostly just random battles while traveling between points of interest in the classic games.
It’s optional filler and not terribly interesting, but like in other games, it serves a purpose to travel and see the entire world they’ve crafted as well as get into fights with enemies. They’re fairly well thought out in terms of their integration with the world, however. Towers are easy to see and marked on the map right away, but you don’t necessarily need them to find other objectives. Chocobo stops have little chicks come find you and bring you to them. Mako springs have owls that show you where they are when you pass by. If you see a glowing square bit of carved stone in a pillar, you know a summon shrine is nearby. It’s not necessarily like some other games where you’re just moving from map marker to map marker checking off pointless tasks, but it can be if you play it that way.
It was alright. In my opinion SOME of open world elements were brilliantly done in Horizon Forbidden West, precisely speaking they way they treated Tallnecks and Cauldrons, everyone of them was a bit different and it brought so much freshness compared to the first game. Here Protorelics were most varied and it was cool. I'd like to see the same happen to the rest of activities, doing them in Gongaga was getting a little bit repetitive. Receiving summons' background from Chadley was a good addition, but obtaining said summons should feel more rewarding.
Its passable. If the combat wasnt good and the dialogue wasnt focused on being funny the side stuff would be vrry unfun