I agree with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Open worlds were peaking around Witcher 3 level at this point, and then here comes Xenoblade Chronicles X which brought it all to a whole new level: larger, but (because of landmarks and terrain changes) a sense of where you are in the world; yet, it’s also a world you can get even more lost in than other games of its time. And it’s not a “am I in the right area?” Kind of lost, it’s like “whoah! I wonder what I’ll find in this area!” kind of pleasant lost.
You have your five big continents which are a sort of biome, but they all have different sub-biomes and wonders to discover. It was the first open world RPG/adventure game which had the whole “if you see it, you can go there” element, and some of those places were distant, and the peaks were high… this was the next level of the vertical exploration that Takahashi was exploring with the original Xenoblade.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
