Pits as Far as the Eye Could See

Setting aside whether the content was good or bad, the most straightforward way to judge just how much content a game had was by looking at its map.

Though a smaller map did not necessarily mean less content in practice, a large map definitely would not be lacking in content.

After all, there were so many places players could go, and if a game had designed that many areas, it had to give players a reason to explore them.

If Final Fantasy had been an Open World game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or The Witcher: Wild Hunt, Song Ren would not have been particularly surprised.

Even if it had used a map design like Xenoblade Chronicles, he would not have found it all that unexpected.

But the shifts between locations in Midgar, from Shinra to Area 7, proved one thing: Final Fantasy's maps were not seamlessly connected.

Instead, like traditional RPGs and games such as Uncharted and The Last of Us, it used separate areas.

That was to say, it relied mainly on story cutscenes to transition between maps rather than allowing players to freely run from point A to point B.

Add in all the side quests and minigames scattered across the different maps, and it was absolutely a massive time sink.

At the very least, Song Ren had spent over an hour in the gym alone.

All so he could watch Tifa do squats. Of course, that big brute of a coach was honestly a little inhuman too.

Then there was Midgar's content itself.

From a story perspective, Midgar did not actually contain that much.

It mainly established Shinra's existence while introducing Cloud's core Main Character Group and the clues surrounding Sephiroth.

Although he was the main villain, Sephiroth had never actually shown