I've played like 7 hours of the game, it's pretty linear. Feels like FFX I don't think you should go in expecting it like The Witcher or Dragon's Dogma (maybe Dragon's Dogma but with the very empty stretch being cut out)

So far I've visited 3 areas. The first one is a tutorial area, short. The second one is more corridor-y, but longer, with more enemy encounters. The third one is wider, less corridor, there's a 'town' in the middle that's so far only for story beats.

All those areas are 'dungeons' to be honest. At this moment, I can't just select and visit those areas, but the game provides you with ability to replay those sections.

But again, all the sidequests i've done are tutorial sidequests, the game hasn't opened up yet.

I can only speak to the portions of the game I have played so far ( I just finished Main Mission 13, maybe 5-6 hours in total) but it's very linear so far. Each area is basically a straight path you follow, I honestly haven't even found many places where you can diverge from the path just for extra treasure or the like.

It could very well open up more later on like XIII did, but it's not open at all so far. There is a side quest system that could definitely lend itself to more of an open-world exploration feeling. I only have seen two sidequests that are given to you when that system is first introduced, so I can't speak as to how common they are yet.

I think it's even more linear than FF7 Remake and that shouldn't be possible. We all haven't finished the game yet, but there is not much Profi in running arround mich because lot of future paths are blocked and you don't find much items. There are a not much uninteresting side missions and the main story that is quite linear. The story is quite interesting and imersive, so the game is designed to follow the build path for an impressive experience, but if you want a game that gives you freedom, then FF16 is the wrong game. Start of the game hast 70/30 Story, gameplay, but it get less the further you get into it, but you will always be interrupted because of this imersive story that is in my opinion perfectly included.