Yeah, I get you. I was worried when i first heard of it being "open world". And I had the same issues with XVI. The story and characters you met in the side quests was awesome and I would say vital to understanding the world as a whole and in turn learning to love it. But the gameplay surrounding the side content was the weakest part of the game by an ultra marathons length.

I'm still in the first few hours and interrupted with a few of the "ubisoft-esque stuff" and so far I'm just glad there's not that much. I'm thankful it's not like an ubi game where doing the "tower" equivalent then shows 50 icons on the map. 3-5 seems fine to me. But who knows maybe I'll get massively bored of that stuff by the end of the game like I did with XVI.

I would like some more open-ness in KH. Especially if you liken it to how the first game was more open and less corridor-esque. Also the open worlds in 3 were probably the best ones. Especially the pirates one. But once again I think that sort of gameplay is suited to just a few worlds. It would probably be more annoying if every world was exactly like that. What they should do is give us a variety of all the different kinds of worlds we've come to see across the franchise thus far. With a few extra ideas thrown on top.