Area Transitions

[Enkidoh]

Not this again... 1.0's giant open world came at a severe cost, in that the maps were basically big expanses of nothing with the same environment model and texture literally copy and pasted ad nauseum, and and as Velox mentioned, the transition between different areas in a zone was disguised by having frequent long tunnels you had trudge down, all very dull and boring. And ironically, actual region transitions were still handled much like ARR does with a black screen, a long pause and a 'now loading' icon.

These problems were one of 1.0's major complaints and thus, ARR's development was actually guided by this, thus the much smaller, but more greatly detailed and varied zones, with the result that zone lines are also separated by a now loading screen. And before you pass judgement, this is common with practically every FF game before FFXIV (even FFXIII has zone borders!).

This game is not Second Life, GTA or any other sandbox game, nor will it ever be. It's not trying to be an open world-simulator, it's an RPG. And RPGs have limitations placed on how that world is depicted gameplay wise - it's one of those things where you can't have your cake and eat it too.