Being the open-world lover that I am, I've never really had a problem with a game giving me too much to do. In fact, I generally prefer it when an open-world RPG gives me plenty of reasons to ignore the main story for hours at a time, whether that means completing side quests, hunting down upgrades, or getting distracted by some random activity I stumbled across while heading somewhere else. However, there is a pretty significant difference between a game giving me a lot of optional content and making me feel like I need to complete all of it, particularly when some of the rewards tied to that content directly affect my character's progression. At that point, what is technically optional can start feeling a lot less optional.
That's one problem Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth had, and apparently, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi knows it. While Rebirth's open world was packed with side quests, mini-games, combat challenges, and plenty of other activities, some of those rewarded players with things like materia, which meant ignoring them could also mean leaving something useful behind. Based on two recent interviews with Hamaguchi, FF7 Revelation isn't going to solve that problem by simply having less side content, either. Instead, Square Enix is changing how that content is introduced and, more importantly, what players actually get for completing it, and I think it might have just found a very simple solution to one of the biggest problems open-world RPGs continue to have.
I'll admit, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth had a lot going on once its world opened up, especially because almost every new region essentially came with another list of things to complete. There were towers to activate, combat assignments to finish, lifesprings to find, mini-games to play, side quests to complete, and plenty more on top of all that. Personally, I enjoyed a good portion of it, but I can also understand how someone who simply wanted to keep the story moving could eventually reach a new region, see another map full of activities, and decide they didn't necessarily want to go through all of that again.
Hamaguchi apparently understands that reaction too. Speaking with GamesRadar+, he acknowledged that some players may have "got a little bit tired" of how much content there was on Rebirth's world map, to the point that some of them may have stepped away from the game altogether. But the amount of content itself wasn't the only issue he pointed out. Hamaguchi also specifically brought up how some activities rewarded players with materia, meaning anyone who wanted that materia might feel like they had to complete a mini-game even if they weren't particularly interested in playing it.
کۆنسۆڵەکان بە ڕیزبەندی دروست دابنێ.
کۆنسۆڵە هەڵبژێردراوەکان لە نزمترینەوە بۆ بەرزترین ڕێکبخە.
That's the part I think is much more important here, because there's nothing inherently wrong with an open-world RPG being stuffed with things to do as long as the player can actually choose what they want to engage with. If I don't care about a certain mini-game, I should be able to leave it alone without wondering whether I'm also giving up something that could make my party stronger. Likewise, if I'm primarily interested in Final Fantasy 7's combat, I shouldn't have to repeatedly play a completely unrelated mini-game just because some useful materia happens to be sitting at the end of it.
Hamaguchi was even more direct about that in an interview with Nova Crystallis, where he said the team was very aware of feedback surrounding Rebirth's "overwhelming amount of content." Interestingly enough, though, he also said Square Enix never once considered reducing the amount of content for Revelation, largely because having such a wide range of activities is something the team considers an important part of Final Fantasy 7. Instead, one of the lessons it took from Rebirth was that tying combat rewards to unrelated side activities meant it was "essentially forcing players to play these mini-games" if they wanted those rewards.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/final-fantasy-7-revelation-side-content-rewards-combat-progression/
