It's an interesting subject to tackle because one could easily argue that a game could be both open world and linear. Grand Theft Auto for example gives the impression that you can go anywhere you'd like, but it's restricted to the defined rules of the code. You can't go to certain locations until you complete missions. You can't unlock driving until you do a few quests (see GTA: San Andreas). And once you enter that "open world" aspect, repetitive tasks litter the landscape. It may feel real, but it's also tedious.
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Yoko Taro wants to challenge our notion of "freedom" in games by not looking to open world titles like GTA. Instead, we should think of games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He used Zelda as a point of reference for NieR. It's not about littering the world with quests, crafting, and items to pick up. The game will eventually feel like a chore or an obligation if the goal is to pick up every herb in the Hinterlands. Taro suggests two ways to help provide more to the gamer and give that feeling of "freedom". The first is providing content beyond the perceived limits of the game (he used the hidden warp pipes in Super Mario Bros. as an example). The other is not requiring every NPC to be interactive (see GTA4 - this helps provide realism because humans don't naturally talk to every person they see. That's weird. So why do RPG's force every NPC to have dialogue to provide to the player?).
"Open World Fatigue" is becoming more common with games. MMO's included. The design of these games is to fill the realm with "stuff" that you need to do and collect, but the rewarding elements are few and far between. The perceived "freedom" becomes bogged down by content to keep players busy. I will give Yoko Taro some points in that both NieR games didn't feel like a chore to play, even when doing the random fetch-quests and level grinding. There was a flow and purpose that helped the progression. Developers could learn from this.
"Open World Fatigue" is becoming more common with games. MMO's included. The design of these games is to fill the realm with "stuff" that you need to do and collect, but the rewarding elements are few and far between. The perceived "freedom" becomes bogged down by content to keep players busy. I will give Yoko Taro some points in that both NieR games didn't feel like a chore to play, even when doing the random fetch-quests and level grinding. There was a flow and purpose that helped the progression. Developers could learn from this.
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