Look at what Alfheim is on a map:
https://mapgenie.io/god-of-war-2018/maps/alfheim
Pretty much a straight line.
But in the game? You go through tunnels to unlock bridges, or move platforms up and down. You go to the temple, which curves into itself and has numerous branching paths. And as you leave the temple, many things shift; formerly accessible routes become inaccessible, and vice versa.
GoW designed straight lines far better than FF14 and FF16. It made linear corridors feel non-linear and feel much vaster than they actually are. Why can't CBU3 learn from them?
It originally seemed like FF14's dungeons were extreme linear corridors because it was an MMO and they wanted to streamline the process. But now that FF16 is out, I have the feeling that it's simply because they don't know how to design anything else.