{"id":54214,"date":"2025-11-22T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54214"},"modified":"2025-11-21T18:35:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T09:35:40","slug":"is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Last week,&nbsp;Shanghai-based developer&nbsp;Hypergryph&nbsp;held a presentation&nbsp;about&nbsp;<strong>Arknights: Endfield,<\/strong>&nbsp;their&nbsp;upcoming 3D real-time strategy RPG based on the mobile game&nbsp;Arknights.&nbsp;I had the opportunity to interview RUA, a core member of the development team, and when I asked them whether Endfield is an open-world game, they&nbsp;gave me an interesting answer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Arknights: Endfield Gameplay Preview \u2014 Advance and Expand\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PpyzMnjSuZo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For context, ever since its first teaser,&nbsp;Endfield&nbsp;has been shown with&nbsp;vast landscapes,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2h85NtIwduY?si=EU-qjhQ9iJcEUpxL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">including&nbsp;expansive areas players can traverse in-game<\/a>. Because of this,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;sometimes described as&nbsp;\u201copen&nbsp;world,\u201d&nbsp;but I was curious about what the creators themselves consider it&nbsp;to be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#eaeaea\"><strong>\u2014Some people\u00a0refer to\u00a0Endfield\u00a0as an open-world game.\u00a0For you personally, is\u00a0it a yes or a no?<\/strong>\u00a0<br><br><strong>RUA:<\/strong>\u00a0<br>This is just my personal view, but\u2026 if you ask me whether\u00a0Endfield\u00a0is an open-world game,\u00a0the answer is\u00a0no.\u00a0However, even if players\u00a0end up\u00a0calling\u00a0it an open-world game,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not going to get mad about it (laughs).\u00a0<br><br><strong>\u2014(laughs) The definition of \u201copen world\u201d is\u00a0pretty vague\u00a0to begin with,\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0it.<\/strong>\u00a0<br><br><strong>RUA:<\/strong>\u00a0<br>Exactly. These days, if a game\u00a0has a large map, it tends to get labeled as\u00a0open\u00a0world. And since\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0common\u00a0notion\u00a0among players,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0hard to deny\u00a0it\u00a0outright. But from a level-design\u00a0standpoint, we did\u00a0not\u00a0build this game as an open-world title.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0designed to be very densely packed with content\u00a0from start to finish.\u00a0<br><br><strong>\u2014True,\u00a0with open-world games, you often get empty areas\u00a0here and there\u00a0where nothing is happening.\u00a0But in Endfield I felt like there was something going\u00a0on\u00a0every few steps.<\/strong>\u00a0<br><br><strong>RUA:<\/strong>\u00a0<br>Yes,\u00a0internally\u00a0we call it\u00a0a \u201csandbox-like.\u201d\u00a0I think that\u00a0for most players,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0difficult to distinguish between\u00a0an\u00a0open-world and a sandbox-like approach. And since\u00a0the\u00a0game&#8217;s\u00a0fields are\u00a0connected\u00a0seamlessly,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0no surprise people might call it\u00a0open\u00a0world. So yes,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0come to\u00a0tolerate the\u00a0label\u00a0(laughs).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hypergryph\u00a0themselves do not call\u00a0Endfield\u00a0open world,\u00a0and they\u00a0seem to have\u00a0a good reason for it. Namely, during the\u00a0game\u2019s\u00a0first beta test, the map was extremely large,\u00a0and players could roam freely\u00a0within it. But that freedom caused many players to get lost, which in turn led to people dropping out of the\u00a0playtest.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of that, the team made&nbsp;some changes. In&nbsp;its second beta version, the game&nbsp;has been&nbsp;reworked&nbsp;to a sandbox-style design.&nbsp;This includes making routes to&nbsp;objectives&nbsp;a bit&nbsp;more obvious and enemy placements clearer. Rather than a&nbsp;typical open world where you can go anywhere and do anything, the new&nbsp;build&nbsp;is&nbsp;more&nbsp;structured, with&nbsp;clear routes&nbsp;that players are meant to follow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u00a0got to play the second beta version\u00a0in advance\u00a0(before the playtest officially starts on November 28), and I\u00a0definitely\u00a0felt\u00a0that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0much harder to get lost\u00a0now. Even when\u00a0an objective\u00a0is\u00a0far away,\u00a0Endfield makes it\u00a0pretty\u00a0obvious\u00a0which way to go, and by fighting enemies and collecting items,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0naturally be led toward the destination. Based on these design choices, I can see why RUA and their team\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0see the game as\u00a0a\u00a0typical open world\u00a0title.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arknights: Endfield&nbsp;is currently in development for PC, PS5, and mobile.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/arknights-endfield-devs-heavily-modified-unity-to-accommodate-the-games-100000-polygon-characters-models-and-massive-factory-systems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Arknights: Endfield devs heavily modified Unity to accommodate the game\u2019s 100,000-polygon character models and massive factory systems<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/arknights-endfield-devs-dont-want-to-paywall-players-out-of-strong-parties-new-update-to-make-low-rarity-characters-more-useful\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Arknights: Endfield devs don\u2019t want to paywall players out of strong parties. New update to make low-rarity characters more useful<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arknights: Endfield developer RUA talks about why his team doesn&#8217;t consider the game open world, from a level design standpoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,10,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-54214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-interviews","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arknights: Endfield developer RUA talks about why his team doesn&#039;t consider the game open-world, from a level design standpoint.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arknights: Endfield developer RUA talks about why his team doesn&#039;t consider the game open-world, from a level design standpoint.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-21T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/endfield-20251121-366674-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1904\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"782\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ayuo Kawase\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ayuo Kawase\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Arknights: Endfield developer RUA talks about why his team doesn't consider the game open-world, from a level design standpoint.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Arknights: Endfield developer RUA talks about why his team doesn't consider the game open-world, from a level design standpoint.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-11-21T16:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1904,"height":782,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/endfield-20251121-366674-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ayuo Kawase","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ayuo Kawase","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/"},"author":{"name":"Ayuo Kawase","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/c4956fe8b9817b63cdaf4708ad59bc8e"},"headline":"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-11-21T16:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/"},"wordCount":658,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/endfield-20251121-366674-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Game Development","Interviews","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/","name":"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/endfield-20251121-366674-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-21T16:00:00+00:00","description":"Arknights: Endfield developer RUA talks about why his team doesn't consider the game open-world, from a level design standpoint.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/endfield-20251121-366674-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/endfield-20251121-366674-header.jpg","width":1904,"height":782,"caption":"Arknights: Endfield"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-arknights-endfield-an-open-world-game-the-devs-say-no-but-we-wont-get-mad-if-you-call-it-that\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is\u00a0Arknights:\u00a0Endfield\u00a0an open-world game? The\u00a0devs\u00a0say \u201cNo, but we won\u2019t get mad if you call it that\u201d\u00a0\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/c4956fe8b9817b63cdaf4708ad59bc8e","name":"Ayuo Kawase","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/minoru-umise-250-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/minoru-umise-250-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/minoru-umise-250-100x100.jpg","caption":"Ayuo Kawase"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief of AUTOMATON Japan","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/ayuo-kawase\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54219,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54214\/revisions\/54219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}