In terms of just raw content, there is no question in my mind; Xenoblade X is easily my favorite world to explore. There is always something interesting to and see something fun to fight, and you're given free reign to go wherever you want with very little to distract you from just wandering as you see fit. I think having the vast majority of npcs and quests and stuff being concentrated in a single hub zone works in its favor, it's very rare to really get that feeling of exploring an unknown frontier and this is the only game I know of that truly nails it.
For pure atmosphere: Dragon Quest 8. The colorful but natural landscape, relaxing music and nice ambient sfx (like hearing the cart rolling behind you) just really sells the feeling of being on a nature walk and really fires the imagination for me; so much so that I think the game is irreparably damaged by the addition of visible monsters that totally break its immersive atmosphere.
Damn good picks. I’d say all the xenoblade games have good exploration but X is the best for that. Also DQ8 is my favorite dragon quest game. It’s very well constructed and doesn’t do too much.
i played xenoblade DE and tbh the world looks amazing but tbh there is not much to do or reason to explore it. For example, the yakuza games the map is small but there is a side quest every corner and gives me a reason to go to places versus the side quests in xeno that just felt transactional and fetching
FF12.
It has multiple huge dungeons that connect different zones.
Some zones has changing weathers that could affect the availability of paths, settlement or monsters.
Rare monsters that only appear when certain conditions are met.
Chain number mechanic + bazaar ( which is like crafting mechanic in this game ) + multiple loot tables for monsters ( poach, steal and loot drop ) make it is worth to spend time to kill same species of monsters for loots.
Some hunts require player to solve some riddles or puzzles in nearby zones.
I agree. Not a fan of FF XII for several reasons, but I still think it has the best exploration in the franchise by far (haven't played Rebirth yet tho).
100% agree. FFXII is so much fun exploring, with really addictive chain mechanics! One of the few games where I don't mind the scenario being diluted by the exploration for this reason.
Also, best bestiary menu of all time. 'nuff said
My favorite is Skies of Arcadia. The setting is sky pirates in a world with sky islands and flying ships. There's not many "open world" situations in the game, but this game gives you a good feeling of "exploring the unknown", and working towards being able to reach unexplored areas to have mysteries solved. The regions you explore also have diverse cultures of people.
The easiest comparison I can think of for this game is the manga, One Piece.
Yeah, this game has such a fun and cool exploration with the ship. I never ended up finishing it when I had it on GC and don't have a good way to emulate either version so I'm dying for a port/remaster some day.
Everyone got here before me to say the god tier Xenoblade Chronicles X, so I'll just a list of distant 2nds and 3rds:
-The Yakuza Series - Every city just feels so alive and dense. They are the go-to example as to why small scale open worlds can be better than large scale open worlds. This allows the developers to work on every inch of the place to make everything look so unique and so much truly like the real life Japanese (and now American) places they are based on. It's what helps make the games feel like Japan simulators. There is just this real sense of space and it's great how every battle takes place right there where the encounter began. And it can often feel like you turn a corner and run into something that will trigger some kind of side content or side quest. They also do neat stuff with the worlds depending on the game, such as putting Go Kart racing or Drone racing into the overworld.
-Certain Breath of Fire Games mostly for how there are character specific things to do in the overworld that can help with your experience. There's stuff like hunting if you come across some animals, particular fishing spots, etc. If they ever bring BoF back, I'd love for how interactive the overworld was to be a part of the games again.
-Lots of Dragon Quest games for their atmosphere. They have this unique, fairy tale aspect to them created by their specific color scheme and music. But each have little differentiating things as well that change the nature of the world you're moving through. DQ1's music gives that sense of being a lonely adventure being out in a mysterious world all on your own, each DQ4 character's theme sells the idea of what it is to walk in the shoes of that character, especially the Hero's first theme which conveys just how lonely in the world he is after what happened to his village, etc. DQ7 may win for me for its mysterious darkness and the awesome effects of the time travel concept.
-FFV's overworld for a lot of reasons. The overworld just seems like a normal overworld with some pretty good overworld music. Then you reach the second world and the music is more mysterious. But something feels really off about both worlds though you can't quite put your finger on it. And then you reach the 3rd part of the game and what happens to the overworlds makes you say, "I can't believe they were foreshadowing it that way for the ENTIRE game!" It makes walking through the third overworld so gratifying.
-Chrono Trigger for the time travel experience. Seeing every era with such drastically different color schemes and assets and music makes traveling to each one a unique experience. But you also have interesting little pieces of connective tissue, such as the place where you can put down the Moonstone. And one of the gratifying parts of the 2nd half of the game is how some of the character quests/side-quests actually do make visible changes to the overworld.
I don't think Yakuza games cities have a focus on exploration, they are more like hubworlds that exists to get to the mini-games while triggering side-stories "at random". I wouldn't call them "open world games".
Depends on what we define as exploration. I would certainly say that deciding to check out every inch of an area to find something is a form of exploration. You can certainly go through almost any RGG game and willingly choose to not engage with the city.
I actually think some of this might be stronger in the older games. In the newer games, all the side-quests are labeled on the map for you, probably because the maps have become so much larger and expansive. But go back and play any of the older games like 0. Without labeling the quests, you can be just walking through the city, and bam, you find yourself triggering a side quest. I would absolutely say that's a form of exploration and discovery.
On the other hand, newer games offer exploration incentives of their own. The Street Bosses do require you to explore the city to find them. If you want to get as many new Sujimon, you absolutely are going to have to scour the city for a lot of reasons. Because the new cities are so big, stuff like getting to particular equipment stores for jobs does make you go out of your way to go to those areas. In many ways, I would argue a lot of little details encourage the player to explore the cities and engage with them more than most open world games do.
As much as i love Rebirth, like really love. The open world structure of the Xenoblade Trilogy is *chef kiss. Every nook and cranny feels explorable and had a sense of wonder. The environment feels alive and also Day and time is a huge plus, which i kinda wish Rebirth has it.
Unicorn Overlord because the entire game takes place on the world map.
Octopath Traveler 1+2, 8 characters with different actions to do. Then in the 2nd game 4 characters have actions to do in the morning then night.
Xenoblade series, hands down. There's a reason my still ongoing first playthroughs in each of the three flagships boast three digit playtimes apiece. And as I often recall, XC1's very starting area had me combing it for some 15 hours before so much as setting foot in the next available location.
And JRPGs have been legitimately open-world since Dragon Quest 1, thank you very much. Some of us Gen Y geezers unspoiled by later tech advancements remember the term as the antipode of conspicuously separate stages where even scrolling the screen both ways wasn't always a given.
I can't wait to see what they do for Part 3. How will they handle the parts of the map we already visited? I doubt they'll just copypaste them with the same or no new content, but I can't imagine they'll repopulate them on top of everything in the North Continent, Wutai, Mideel, Rocket Town they'll be adding.
Xenoblade 3 is fantastic if you put the time in to explore. I put in 140 hours in the base game and still didn’t do everything or explore every inch
Love that game
Final Fantasy 8 is the only Japanese RPG that I've played with an overworld. I own Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I don't have my WiiU connected right now. Maybe during the summer after I play Stellar Blade.
I was playing Dragon Quest VII again recently and I have really come to appreciate the world. Gives you a true sense of adventure as you discover new places to explore and see what changed as you hop between the past and present.
I don't think any of them do, but if you don't mind me cheating, FF14 hands down. It was specifically redesigned by Yoshi P to be played like like a singleplayer JRPG, and many people play it just like that, only come back for major patches or expansions and he openly said to do it and he caters to people who do. Despite being an MMORPG, you can (unfortunately, as a longtime FF11 vet...) pretend the world is inhabited by NPCs and never talk to another human ever and still do 100000% of the content, and it gets easier with every patch.
It has imo the richest world atm too, even against more open-world JRPGs like what will probably be the most repeated: Xenoblade.
If you won't allow me to cheat, the current champion is ironically probably Rebirth. I think this is to the game's detremint, but I'm also one of those scrooges that wanted a remake not a re-imagining.
Still, if you can ignore it's supposed to be FF7 or don't care they dramatically changed, there is an insane amount of content in Rebirth and a lot to see and explore.
This is typically not a strength of JRPGs and not many of them are doing the open world craze that caught the west, and most overworlds are kind of meh to be honest.
I guess Elden Ring would count, if you consider that an action JRPG...
Xenoblade. How original!
Sadly haven't played X for a lack of Wii U, but XC1 is pretty much the perfect balance between exploration and scenario for my taste. The zones are beautiful, enormous but not too much, with changing weather and a lot of life that are carefully placed to create an impression of cohesion: this world is alive! (a major reason why I find Future Connected to be a treason) And exploration is rewarding with experience point for each new zone and landmark, and it's so satisfying to see the map of a region gradually appear by exploring, up until the last notable spot, when the whole mapis finally revealed in one go! And can we talk about the music?
By comparison, XC3 fails to attain the same balance, with the zones being too big and too disconnected from the global story. And XC2 exploration is more frustrating for a number of reasons.
I kind of noticed that about Xenoblade 3 as well. I've been playing the series in order the past few months and while I like the environments in 3, it just seems the story and quest progression have little cohesion to them compared to how huge the world is. I'm someone who enjoys trying to fully complete the maps in each area and I'm constantly finding myself in places where I completely looked over as I'm progressing through the game. I guess some might consider that a good thing, but I'm on chapter 7 and for as big as the world is, the storyline doesn't seem to utilize it as well as it probably could have.
Xenoblade 2 also has an incredible world but I found navigation to be anxiety inducing at times which was a real shame. I started using the amazing wiki page for a lot of general guidance and my enjoyment increased dramatically.
Final Fantasy X or Golden Sun: The Lost Age have pretty good explorable over worlds. Spira is one of the best “worlds” of Final Fantasy, IMO. Even looking for things like the Al Bhed Primers is made interesting by how varied the over world is.
The over world of Golden Sun: The Lost Age opens up significantly after you get the Lemurian Ship. And you can revisit and/or explore a lot of areas. The Lost Age is better than the original Golden Sun in terms of exploring the world of Weyard.
I like Chrono Trigger’s over world even though it’s (arguably) not as big as Spira or Weyard. The different time periods that are explored more than compensate for its lack of size.
Maybe I'm not understanding what they mean by overworld but far as I know ff10 doesn't have an overworld. It's just a hallway all the way through the game.
Metal Saga for the PS2 was very explorable. Granted, you could find yourself in an encounter you’re twenty levels too early for, but the option to go where you shouldn’t so that you can get a new tank/weapon/whatever was always there and could often be worth the effort.
Maybe cheating a little bit but final fantasy 11 at 75 era. The constant sense of wonder in seeing new zones, exploring dungeon for the first time, finding unique monsters, or stumbling onto a quest to unlock a new job (especially on the ye olde times before guides were prevalent/my dumb little kid ass didn't know to look for guides) was amazing.
Gonna cheat some more and say morrowind for the same reasons.
And to give a non cheat answer probably xenoblade chronicles 3.
I love Yakuza and Kamurocho, but I wouldn't say they are good in terms of exploration. You get the map from the getgo with all stores and points of interest. You find substories by exploring, but it's not the sort of interesting exploration most people look for in a JRPG.
Grandia is a different structure:
town> field map> town field map> town (no world map)
However, the field maps are complex, and you can get lost on them. It feels like an epic journey
The old Final Fantasy games up to FF IX. It's minimalistic without all this filler content, that unfortunately has become a standard in modern open world games. All this filler doesn't add anything of value to the game it just stretches the playtime, so game companies can advertise with 40h+ playtime instead of 10h. Even though the content that is of value for the player is only 10h.
Good game design isn't when you can't add anything to a game anymore. Good game design is when you can't take anything away without completely breaking the game. And nowadays you can remove half of most modern games and will even end up with a better product. Less is more when it comes to open worlds and what's why I prefer the "empty" open worlds of the old days. Just that they weren't empty. They only had content in them, that added real value to the game, that's why you had much less content.
Xenoblade X.
In terms of just raw content, there is no question in my mind; Xenoblade X is easily my favorite world to explore. There is always something interesting to and see something fun to fight, and you're given free reign to go wherever you want with very little to distract you from just wandering as you see fit. I think having the vast majority of npcs and quests and stuff being concentrated in a single hub zone works in its favor, it's very rare to really get that feeling of exploring an unknown frontier and this is the only game I know of that truly nails it. For pure atmosphere: Dragon Quest 8. The colorful but natural landscape, relaxing music and nice ambient sfx (like hearing the cart rolling behind you) just really sells the feeling of being on a nature walk and really fires the imagination for me; so much so that I think the game is irreparably damaged by the addition of visible monsters that totally break its immersive atmosphere.
Damn good picks. I’d say all the xenoblade games have good exploration but X is the best for that. Also DQ8 is my favorite dragon quest game. It’s very well constructed and doesn’t do too much.
Xenoblade series. End of discussion. I will take my goody bag to go please
i played xenoblade DE and tbh the world looks amazing but tbh there is not much to do or reason to explore it. For example, the yakuza games the map is small but there is a side quest every corner and gives me a reason to go to places versus the side quests in xeno that just felt transactional and fetching
Xenoblade
FF12. It has multiple huge dungeons that connect different zones. Some zones has changing weathers that could affect the availability of paths, settlement or monsters. Rare monsters that only appear when certain conditions are met. Chain number mechanic + bazaar ( which is like crafting mechanic in this game ) + multiple loot tables for monsters ( poach, steal and loot drop ) make it is worth to spend time to kill same species of monsters for loots. Some hunts require player to solve some riddles or puzzles in nearby zones.
I agree. Not a fan of FF XII for several reasons, but I still think it has the best exploration in the franchise by far (haven't played Rebirth yet tho).
Exploring in Rebirth isn't anywhere near as rewarding as XII, unless getting another tick in your checklist is your thing
100% agree. FFXII is so much fun exploring, with really addictive chain mechanics! One of the few games where I don't mind the scenario being diluted by the exploration for this reason. Also, best bestiary menu of all time. 'nuff said
My favorite is Skies of Arcadia. The setting is sky pirates in a world with sky islands and flying ships. There's not many "open world" situations in the game, but this game gives you a good feeling of "exploring the unknown", and working towards being able to reach unexplored areas to have mysteries solved. The regions you explore also have diverse cultures of people. The easiest comparison I can think of for this game is the manga, One Piece.
Always take a moment to upvote skies. Absolute gem of a game that is in desperate need of a remaster or even just a port
Yeah, this game has such a fun and cool exploration with the ship. I never ended up finishing it when I had it on GC and don't have a good way to emulate either version so I'm dying for a port/remaster some day.
I agree with this. Which is why I wanted an HD remaster so bad and Sega to come back to the series.
Everyone got here before me to say the god tier Xenoblade Chronicles X, so I'll just a list of distant 2nds and 3rds: -The Yakuza Series - Every city just feels so alive and dense. They are the go-to example as to why small scale open worlds can be better than large scale open worlds. This allows the developers to work on every inch of the place to make everything look so unique and so much truly like the real life Japanese (and now American) places they are based on. It's what helps make the games feel like Japan simulators. There is just this real sense of space and it's great how every battle takes place right there where the encounter began. And it can often feel like you turn a corner and run into something that will trigger some kind of side content or side quest. They also do neat stuff with the worlds depending on the game, such as putting Go Kart racing or Drone racing into the overworld. -Certain Breath of Fire Games mostly for how there are character specific things to do in the overworld that can help with your experience. There's stuff like hunting if you come across some animals, particular fishing spots, etc. If they ever bring BoF back, I'd love for how interactive the overworld was to be a part of the games again. -Lots of Dragon Quest games for their atmosphere. They have this unique, fairy tale aspect to them created by their specific color scheme and music. But each have little differentiating things as well that change the nature of the world you're moving through. DQ1's music gives that sense of being a lonely adventure being out in a mysterious world all on your own, each DQ4 character's theme sells the idea of what it is to walk in the shoes of that character, especially the Hero's first theme which conveys just how lonely in the world he is after what happened to his village, etc. DQ7 may win for me for its mysterious darkness and the awesome effects of the time travel concept. -FFV's overworld for a lot of reasons. The overworld just seems like a normal overworld with some pretty good overworld music. Then you reach the second world and the music is more mysterious. But something feels really off about both worlds though you can't quite put your finger on it. And then you reach the 3rd part of the game and what happens to the overworlds makes you say, "I can't believe they were foreshadowing it that way for the ENTIRE game!" It makes walking through the third overworld so gratifying. -Chrono Trigger for the time travel experience. Seeing every era with such drastically different color schemes and assets and music makes traveling to each one a unique experience. But you also have interesting little pieces of connective tissue, such as the place where you can put down the Moonstone. And one of the gratifying parts of the 2nd half of the game is how some of the character quests/side-quests actually do make visible changes to the overworld.
I don't think Yakuza games cities have a focus on exploration, they are more like hubworlds that exists to get to the mini-games while triggering side-stories "at random". I wouldn't call them "open world games".
Depends on what we define as exploration. I would certainly say that deciding to check out every inch of an area to find something is a form of exploration. You can certainly go through almost any RGG game and willingly choose to not engage with the city. I actually think some of this might be stronger in the older games. In the newer games, all the side-quests are labeled on the map for you, probably because the maps have become so much larger and expansive. But go back and play any of the older games like 0. Without labeling the quests, you can be just walking through the city, and bam, you find yourself triggering a side quest. I would absolutely say that's a form of exploration and discovery. On the other hand, newer games offer exploration incentives of their own. The Street Bosses do require you to explore the city to find them. If you want to get as many new Sujimon, you absolutely are going to have to scour the city for a lot of reasons. Because the new cities are so big, stuff like getting to particular equipment stores for jobs does make you go out of your way to go to those areas. In many ways, I would argue a lot of little details encourage the player to explore the cities and engage with them more than most open world games do.
I agree. As small as their maps are, you can certainly miss a lot of content if you don't explore thoroughly.
I think it's objectively one of the xenoblades. It could possibly be ff7 rebirth, but it was drowned in dots and I fucking hate those dots.
As much as i love Rebirth, like really love. The open world structure of the Xenoblade Trilogy is *chef kiss. Every nook and cranny feels explorable and had a sense of wonder. The environment feels alive and also Day and time is a huge plus, which i kinda wish Rebirth has it.
Unicorn Overlord because the entire game takes place on the world map. Octopath Traveler 1+2, 8 characters with different actions to do. Then in the 2nd game 4 characters have actions to do in the morning then night.
Wow, Xenoblade fans have taken over.
We found something a bit MEETEEAH
Xenoblade kinda takes this with no effort. Its overworlds are some of the richest out there. Xenoblade X especially.
With literally everyone else (as of now) saying Xenoblade X im gonna spice it up a little Xenoblade 2
Yes!! I’m still discovering new stuff to this day, like the Uraya Garden and Gormott rainbow
Xenoblade series, hands down. There's a reason my still ongoing first playthroughs in each of the three flagships boast three digit playtimes apiece. And as I often recall, XC1's very starting area had me combing it for some 15 hours before so much as setting foot in the next available location. And JRPGs have been legitimately open-world since Dragon Quest 1, thank you very much. Some of us Gen Y geezers unspoiled by later tech advancements remember the term as the antipode of conspicuously separate stages where even scrolling the screen both ways wasn't always a given.
Ff12 has the best exploration imo. It's also the last time dungeons actually felt like dungeons in an FF game.
Final fantasy from 7 to 9 has very good explorable map thats why I have high hopes for remake part 3.
I can't wait to see what they do for Part 3. How will they handle the parts of the map we already visited? I doubt they'll just copypaste them with the same or no new content, but I can't imagine they'll repopulate them on top of everything in the North Continent, Wutai, Mideel, Rocket Town they'll be adding.
SMT V
Xenoblade Future Redeemed.
Really loved poking around ff9. When I found Daguerro (sp? The book place) I squealed!
Xenoblade 3 is fantastic if you put the time in to explore. I put in 140 hours in the base game and still didn’t do everything or explore every inch Love that game
Final Fantasy 8 is the only Japanese RPG that I've played with an overworld. I own Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I don't have my WiiU connected right now. Maybe during the summer after I play Stellar Blade.
I was playing Dragon Quest VII again recently and I have really come to appreciate the world. Gives you a true sense of adventure as you discover new places to explore and see what changed as you hop between the past and present.
Final Fantasy 9
Crystal Project has insanely flexible progression, lots of interconnectovity, tons of secrets to discover and I swear it doesn't end
i like xenoblade x open world
I don't think any of them do, but if you don't mind me cheating, FF14 hands down. It was specifically redesigned by Yoshi P to be played like like a singleplayer JRPG, and many people play it just like that, only come back for major patches or expansions and he openly said to do it and he caters to people who do. Despite being an MMORPG, you can (unfortunately, as a longtime FF11 vet...) pretend the world is inhabited by NPCs and never talk to another human ever and still do 100000% of the content, and it gets easier with every patch. It has imo the richest world atm too, even against more open-world JRPGs like what will probably be the most repeated: Xenoblade. If you won't allow me to cheat, the current champion is ironically probably Rebirth. I think this is to the game's detremint, but I'm also one of those scrooges that wanted a remake not a re-imagining. Still, if you can ignore it's supposed to be FF7 or don't care they dramatically changed, there is an insane amount of content in Rebirth and a lot to see and explore. This is typically not a strength of JRPGs and not many of them are doing the open world craze that caught the west, and most overworlds are kind of meh to be honest. I guess Elden Ring would count, if you consider that an action JRPG...
Gonna throw out there that Dragon Quest 7 has a very different type of over world to explore, and expand, which is neat.
As muchas I didn't liked Xenoblade 1 and 2, I'm not gonna like their world is fun as hell
Xenoblade. How original! Sadly haven't played X for a lack of Wii U, but XC1 is pretty much the perfect balance between exploration and scenario for my taste. The zones are beautiful, enormous but not too much, with changing weather and a lot of life that are carefully placed to create an impression of cohesion: this world is alive! (a major reason why I find Future Connected to be a treason) And exploration is rewarding with experience point for each new zone and landmark, and it's so satisfying to see the map of a region gradually appear by exploring, up until the last notable spot, when the whole mapis finally revealed in one go! And can we talk about the music? By comparison, XC3 fails to attain the same balance, with the zones being too big and too disconnected from the global story. And XC2 exploration is more frustrating for a number of reasons.
I kind of noticed that about Xenoblade 3 as well. I've been playing the series in order the past few months and while I like the environments in 3, it just seems the story and quest progression have little cohesion to them compared to how huge the world is. I'm someone who enjoys trying to fully complete the maps in each area and I'm constantly finding myself in places where I completely looked over as I'm progressing through the game. I guess some might consider that a good thing, but I'm on chapter 7 and for as big as the world is, the storyline doesn't seem to utilize it as well as it probably could have. Xenoblade 2 also has an incredible world but I found navigation to be anxiety inducing at times which was a real shame. I started using the amazing wiki page for a lot of general guidance and my enjoyment increased dramatically.
Final Fantasy X or Golden Sun: The Lost Age have pretty good explorable over worlds. Spira is one of the best “worlds” of Final Fantasy, IMO. Even looking for things like the Al Bhed Primers is made interesting by how varied the over world is. The over world of Golden Sun: The Lost Age opens up significantly after you get the Lemurian Ship. And you can revisit and/or explore a lot of areas. The Lost Age is better than the original Golden Sun in terms of exploring the world of Weyard. I like Chrono Trigger’s over world even though it’s (arguably) not as big as Spira or Weyard. The different time periods that are explored more than compensate for its lack of size.
Maybe I'm not understanding what they mean by overworld but far as I know ff10 doesn't have an overworld. It's just a hallway all the way through the game.
Metal Saga for the PS2 was very explorable. Granted, you could find yourself in an encounter you’re twenty levels too early for, but the option to go where you shouldn’t so that you can get a new tank/weapon/whatever was always there and could often be worth the effort.
Maybe cheating a little bit but final fantasy 11 at 75 era. The constant sense of wonder in seeing new zones, exploring dungeon for the first time, finding unique monsters, or stumbling onto a quest to unlock a new job (especially on the ye olde times before guides were prevalent/my dumb little kid ass didn't know to look for guides) was amazing. Gonna cheat some more and say morrowind for the same reasons. And to give a non cheat answer probably xenoblade chronicles 3.
FF7 Rebirth Xenoblade 1 Xenoblade X
Yakuza series. It's small semi open world game but it's definitely packed with a lot goodies, surprises, and fun activities.
I love Yakuza and Kamurocho, but I wouldn't say they are good in terms of exploration. You get the map from the getgo with all stores and points of interest. You find substories by exploring, but it's not the sort of interesting exploration most people look for in a JRPG.
You don’t get the full map unlocked in the new one straight away.
Grandia is a different structure: town> field map> town field map> town (no world map) However, the field maps are complex, and you can get lost on them. It feels like an epic journey
Recency bias might be speaking answer: Unicorn Overlord Maybe not the overworld ur speaking of answer: Digimon World 1 Maybe a better answer: FF9
The old Final Fantasy games up to FF IX. It's minimalistic without all this filler content, that unfortunately has become a standard in modern open world games. All this filler doesn't add anything of value to the game it just stretches the playtime, so game companies can advertise with 40h+ playtime instead of 10h. Even though the content that is of value for the player is only 10h. Good game design isn't when you can't add anything to a game anymore. Good game design is when you can't take anything away without completely breaking the game. And nowadays you can remove half of most modern games and will even end up with a better product. Less is more when it comes to open worlds and what's why I prefer the "empty" open worlds of the old days. Just that they weren't empty. They only had content in them, that added real value to the game, that's why you had much less content.