Quote Originally Posted by Sotek View Post
Sorry, but how is that not currently the case? This is a MMO, the whole world isn't handed over at once, right now we haven't even left the Mist Continent, for example. The zones between dungeons? Much better than the nondescript overworld of old. The dungeons? Much bigger than places like The Ice Cavern. If you go back as far as Final Fantasy I, XIV already has more than double the number of zones that had, and Eorzea is only one subcontinent of Hydaelyn...
I don't think too many people are going to be impressed that some progress has been made over Final Fantasy, which was released 27 years ago on an 8 bit console.

Still, even the original Final Fantasy had a sense of exploration and danger, which is what this game lacks. Even in 1.0, you could wander around and find yourself in an entire zone underground in a transition so seamless that it didn't even feel like a "zone," it felt like an extension of the world you were just in. On the other hand, ARR couldn't possibly try to fragment the world any more than it currently does. You can go from green forrests to a land covered in snow in the blink of an eye. Trying to wander into any kind of unknown territory brings up a menu to "queue up" to enter. It doesn't help that there's no sense of danger either, and that you can easily blitz through anywhere you need to go knowing that nothing in the entire world poses any kind of realistic threat. It's not exactly a step forward in terms of what one might expect from a Final Fantasy overworld in 2013. In many ways it's a big step back.