Sounds better than FFXIII, where the story just pushed you down one path and XV where the underdeveloped open world largely felt empty with sidequests that didn't flesh out locations or the wider world in any sense.
This is encouraging. Hubs and zones totally works for me, and revisiting old areas every 10 years or so could make for very interesting, vertical gameplay. If they have some puzzles and hidden items along the way, I might have to change my mind about this game.