Quote Originally Posted by Konicorgi View Post
6 new zones but each zone was at least twice bigger than an old zone, mean 12 zones
For me personally, the zones in HW were a letdown not because of how many or few there were, but because of the locking of them behind MSQ. Some, I get (like Azys Lla), but others? Flight is locked not only behind exploration and side-quests but also behind MSQ, so it's not like you'd be able to completely ignore MSQ anyway to go everywhere on the maps, but part of what was so enjoyable with ARR was the whole "oh gods oh gods I'm not supposed to be here, please don't let that monster see me and eat me" feeling of running around in too high areas, just exploring. When it comes to games, I'm very much a "Oh, I'm supposed to go left here? Then let's go right and straight forward first, before we go left, just so I don't miss anything" kind of person. So for me, being able to go into, say, Hinterlands through careful hide-and-run exploration, while my MSQ was still stranded in Western Highlands would have been amazing. Now it felt more like a railroaded point-A-to-point-B kind of game.
(I still enjoyed it, don't take me wrong. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would have with the kind of free exploration we had/have in ARR.)