Why It Was So Important To Have An Explorable World Map In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

gameinformer.com:

When Final Fantasy X exploded onto the PlayStation 2 in 2001, it revolutionized not just the Final Fantasy series but the role-playing genre as a whole. The tuned-to-perfection turn-based combat, the beautiful soundtrack, the heartfelt story, and the eye-popping-for-the-time visuals created one of the most important entries of one of the most important franchises in video game history. However, one element was absent from Final Fantasy X that several of the key developers involved with the project lamented: an explorable world map.

For Yoshinori Kitase, a producer on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth who also served as a director on Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, and X, the world map's disappearance was a sore spot as someone who has been involved with the series since 1990. «We started off expressing this world that you can venture through this world map,» he tells Game Informer. That was how it was for Final Fantasy I, but starting with Final Fantasy X, when we entered into this real-time 3D world, this is when the world map development ceased or halted to some degree."

Despite all its praise and importance, Final Fantasy X has received criticism for its linearity, with the game truly opening only near the final stretches of the main story. Even then, unless you run through the linear path of the party's pilgrimage, the best way to explore the world map is by selecting points of interest in an airship, which felt counter to how the team had envisioned before Final Fantasy X.

«With X, it was the style where a player chooses a point or an area that they would like to go, and they travel from there,» Kitase says. «The feeling was that, since it's real-time 3D, it's not quite possible to create this full world map anymore. Beyond X,