World map?

[Renmiri]

There are dungeons that are inacessible til later in the game. After a dungeon is accessed then you can go to it at anytime, pretty much, except for 2 or 3 that are in airships

[rubah]

I was kinda depressed when I realized I had hit almost every single map spot. Ivalice is kinda small when you can travel by gate crystal.

@LunarWeaver One of the best moments in my gaming experience was when I first got the ragnorak and could fly it. It might've been because it was 2 am, but I sat there flying it around for five minutes easily, pretending I was doing loop de loops etc.

And at least you could actually go on ffx's airship and ffx-2's. The strahl is a like a distant cousin you have to do stuff with, but you never really get to know

[Hazzard]

I was kinda depressed when I realized I had hit almost every single map spot. Ivalice is kinda small when you can travel by gate crystal.

@LunarWeaver One of the best moments in my gaming experience was when I first got the ragnorak and could fly it. It might've been because it was 2 am, but I sat there flying it around for five minutes easily, pretending I was doing loop de loops etc.

And at least you could actually go on ffx's airship and ffx-2's. The strahl is a like a distant cousin you have to do stuff with, but you never really get to know :(

Vaan's stupid little dream was never fulfilled...

[DM_Melkhar]

I've never thought of Square as being renowned for the overworld =o. They weren't the first or last to do it. I mean, don't get me wrong, flying in an airship over the world is neat and all, and it makes me go "oh" and "ah" and say it's pretty, but it's not the reason I play RPGs and ultimately is the same thing as going to a destination immediately.

FFXII crafts a huge world that is insanely detailed, offers easily over a 100 hours in content, a gajillion monsters to slay and more, yet I've seen quite a few threads about how you can't fly an airship manually and that ruins it. If that's all anybody wants to do, then just play a flight simulator game . I never really understood why it's such a deal breaker for people.

I've not heard of an earlier game than Final Fantasy I that had overworld mapping, but I know it was one of the first and all the way through to IX it stayed that way. I know of PLENTY of other Final Fantasy fans who were aggravated by the fact they got rid of it in X. I never said Square were renowned for using the overworld, but the Final Fantasy series was loved for it. A lot of other developers took the idea from Square (obviously not all) *sigh*, regardless of where Square originally got it from.

What I mean is, a great deal of FF fans believe the overworld is part of what made the series so successful (it can be true for any other RPG, but FF has been the most successful RPG series of all time over the last twenty years). When that disappeared in X, many criticisms included quotes like "where's the overworld?" and "it's linear, why?" To me, and many others, FFX and X-2 felt more like platformers rather than traditional videogame RPGs.

FFXII seems to have a kind of overworld like, as I've said before, Guild Wars. I've heard Guild Wars is popular in Japan, and that Square liked how the game played and so adopted the idea - therefore giving XII that element to it. Please note that I said "I heard". If anyone here's played Guild Wars, you've noticed that they're very similar right?

Most of what I've said has come from things I have read online and been told - including IGN.com, and the rest is my personal opinion. I always loved being able to control my airship myself though.

[Wolf Kanno]

I love flying the airships as well. I always thought of them as a sorta "benchmark" in the game. You finally got the airship and can travel around. I wish the FFXII could have had it, but looking at the world design and the amount of output the game already bleeds from the PS2, I don't think it could have been done very well, or even at all.

[Hazzard]

The world is far too detailed to be able to have an airship being controlled manually. The amount of time taken to do that would be extremely long, and would still disappoint the fans, because it would be a late release.

[McLovin']

SE doesn't want you going to Ordallia. That is the main reason.

[farplaner]

The world is far too detailed to be able to have an airship being controlled manually. The amount of time taken to do that would be extremely long, and would still disappoint the fans, because it would be a late release.

Whoa, there! ... I believe XII was a pretty late release.

That aside, I know what you mean. It would be near impossible (probably) to use a world map system like in previous FF's with the detail of the PS2 gen. games.

I also agree that the previous games gave (at least) the feeling of more freedom. XII is "less linear" than X - by that I mean the spaces you move around in, not the gameplay or anything - but it sill felt, to me, to be sort of closed-in.

There are some areas that are pretty large: Phon Coast, Tchita Uplands, etc., but a lot of the areas felt tight and "chlaustrophobic": Salikawood, Golmore Jungle, Feywood, etc.
The areas are large, but the space you move around in feels kind of constricted to me.

I think it's just the feeling of looking down on the world and seeing half of a continent within your view. It just "feels" more open.

[LunarWeaver]

Oh no, I'm like the only person that doesn't miss it . I'm just a psycho about this it seems. I suppose it was cool Phoenix-Thing Flying around in Dragon Quest VIII...But it really doesn't sway me much one way or the other =/. Poor Strahl, I give you no attention...

[Ashley Schovitz]

Of course there's a World map, what do you think the item World Map is?

[Kointähti]

Of course there's a World map, what do you think the item World Map is?

either you haven't bothered to read this topic at all, or you just misuderstood what I meant.

Overworld was always a sort of trademark of FFs. I too know many fans who were dissapointed when they took away the overworld.. Sure, it's not the most important thing of a game, but it was a thing many fans were expecting. For example in FFVII the beginning started to feel a bit linear until you got out of Midgar.. I at least thought "now this is the good old FF world I was hoping to see".

Many games improve in way that make the worlds larger to explore (take Elder Scrolls series, for example) but it seems like FF has done the exact opposite: more linear and more straightforward. But hey, at least the graphics are nice, and I bet the graphics are what Square mostly is impressed about. At least that's how it feels to me..

[Elpizo]

FF XII may not have a world map like in I till IX, but Final Fanatsy XII: Revenant Wings appears to have a world map (like we know it) again.

AND Airship flying!!! The game already wins, even if it is not out yet.