Eos is Huge

FinalxxSin

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A person that does quite a few FFXV related videos did one covering a jog from one location to another. You can find out how long it took in the video, and make your own assumptions based on the large scale of the game.
 
Looks big. But bigger doesn't necessarily mean better, ladies :kinky: - it's all about what they do with it. Is it fleshed out and relevant? And is it me or does the world not look like it works in terms of being spherical. The landmasses don't fit - they sort of would look like 2 bits of mis-matched wallpaper.
 
And is it me or does the world not look like it works in terms of being spherical. The landmasses don't fit - they sort of would look like 2 bits of mis-matched wallpaper.

I think that map is just a portion of the world, but where all the major countries relevant to the game are located. It's like FFXII's Ivalice map. The landmasses don't yet end and they evidently carry on, so it's safe to assume that in-universe anyway, there is land we will never be able to see.

I think the last time a (mainline) Final Fantasy has given us a full world map view of a planet and all its landmasses was...FFX with Spira?

But yeah, I'm totally with you there, Smifficus. An open world should be defined not by how geographically immense it is by square miles, but by how it is designed and how it communicates aspects about culture, history, fauna, etc. and interaction to the player. Is this going to be a world with a lot of interesting and distinct physical features, some of which are discreetly tucked away and reward wanderlust players for stumbling across them? Does it have plenty of things to do and to interact with so it's not just a bland landmass as riveting as somewhere between junctions 10 and 12 of the M1 motorway? What does this particular part of the game world tell us about the people who may have lived here or close by?

If the world is simply huge for the sake of it but bears little in terms of factors that will make it worthwhile to traverse, there's not really much point to it. So for me, a more concentrated but beautifully handcrafted world is always more exciting than a game that touts its world as being vast in size. Maybe when I was younger, the idea of a world defined by sheer size alone would have blown my mind, at least until I realised that I would have to sojourn across a map virtually every time I failed and wanted to restart a mission in GTA San Andreas. I've only touched FFXIV's Duscae 1.0 demo and Square Enix's marketing so far has only been willing to show off Duscae and some bland desert environment. I can't make much of a judgement at the moment with so little seen, but I'm not exactly compelled to be let loose on Eos yet...

I do understand that the world has to be big to a certain extent to facilitate the road trip aspect of the game. I know that a drive spanning from one city across an outback and then suddenly to another city in the span of around a couple of minutes would break immersion, so a sense of scale and distance is necessary. What will remain to be seen of course, is whether any of this landscape you pass by while behind the wheel will be worth checking out on foot or on Chocobo...or whether it's just a seemingly endless stretch of terrain that you wish you can take the car off-road for.
 
I think the last time a (mainline) Final Fantasy has given us a full world map view of a planet and all its landmasses was...FFX with Spira?

I guess we've not been able to truly explore a planet and mark out its features and landmasses since FFIX. This is the last time we had a 'world map' feature, and the last time we could fly an airship and circumnavigate the world (although they never did fix the Pac-Man logic where the North and South poles join up).

I think with FFX we assume that what we see as Spira is the entirety of the planet (characters don't seem to reference any other locations), but we're not given the freedom to truly test the planet's size because we can only select destinations with the airship.

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As for FFXV, I think this scale is impressive. I do, however, share concerns that they might not be able to flesh out the world. I have to say though that the trailers I have seen so far do suggest that a lot of effort has gone into making the world feel alive.

I saw this video:

This gives me hope that the wildlife (aka monsters) might behave in interesting, almost realistic ways. In most games we see monsters wander about on set routes, but not really doing anything other than attack the player. They don't act like real animals. This trailer implies that some monsters might take naps, drink water, eat the leaves of trees, and hunt. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that they've managed to make all monsters act like animals living in an actual world (they may have tweaked their behaviour purely for the trailer for all I know), but if I see some creatures behave like this every now and then that might help with the immersive experience.

Also, if the mines side-quest footage is anything to go by, we might see quite a few optional locations that keep us interested enough to explore the world.

I want to remain optimistic.
 
Relevant yes. Why, because it matches up with the reality theme that is part of Final Fantasy XV. Running across a giant land mass in a few minutes, like what could be done with some of the past mainline titles, isn't very realistic. Far as the fleshed out aspect of it, I wouldn't isolate your viewpoint strictly to the map itself. The dynamic weather system and day/night cycle will also have an impact on your experience traveling from one location to another at times. The day/night cycle won't be like the day/night cycle in a majority of games that have one. You'll have hunts, just like in FFXII, and you'll need to explore the land anyway for magic resources. Look at the magic resources like you would draw points from FFVIII. Magic will be limited in this game, but it'll be pretty powerful with a lot of possibilities.

Yes, a good number of enemies will actually feel alive. For example, there was a video clip of a behemoth being attacked with a blizzard level spell, which caused it to panic. In a more recent gameplay video, the goblins interacted with the rail carts shoving them into the Chocobros. The Garula mobs that could be fought in Episode Duscae are normally non-aggro, but will attack you if you are fighting other enemies near them. Then some enemies will on purpose wait for you to go to the wrong spot to get a sneak attack, which may result in death (e.g. a Malboro attack).
 
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