When Nioh 3 got a surprise announcement at last night’s State of Play, an immediate question arose amongst those familiar with Team Ninja’s output: would this sequel be open world?

After all, the Japanese developer had only recently cut its teeth on the genre with last year’s Rise of the Ronin. The semi-historical outing features an expansive map that you’re mostly free to explore, assuming that you’re strong enough to survive.

But no, Nioh 3 will not be open world. As per a new interview with 4Gamer (translated by Automaton), the developer considers the game “open field” rather than open world. That is to say, it’s made up of large environments that encourage some exploration, but don’t take away from the combat-heavy gameplay flow that Nioh is known for.

“If we were to dilute the map’s density to capture the vastness of an open world, it would no longer be Nioh 3,” says general producer Fumihiko Yasuda.

So, while the sequel is going to move away from the level-based structure of prior titles, it’s still promising the “dense, die-and-retry experience” that the series is built around. It’s just that locations should feel a little more ‘connected’ than before.

In case you missed the news, there’s a limited-time demo for Nioh 3 out right now on PS5. It doesn’t really showcase the new ‘open field’ structure we’re writing about in this article, but it does give you a solid rundown of the RPG’s combat system.