I'm thinking something like, say, Milfy City ( ability to choose what to pursue next, move around) rather than a full blown sandbox?
The free roam events are always limited to a small location with no “travel” options. Leaving the location means ending the free roam and going back to story telling mode.
Initially the free roam location required you to click the hidden arrows (that show up when you move the cursor into the vicinity), to go from room to room, or turn around.
The navigation in these scenes is probably the worst thing about the game. For all the awesome shit the developer has achieved in the game, his free roam navigation feels like it was done by a moron. He’s acknowledged that and provided a navigation bar that improves things.
Often entering into a new room in the free roam will trigger a scene, and certain actions need to be performed before the free roam can end.
It’s still quite well done (disregarding the initial navigation), and the mix of free roam with scene triggers makes the experience quite engaging.
Probably a good comparison between the sandbox of games like Milfy City or Summertime Saga, is the free roams within this game are on a micro level. They deal with a specific event in greater detail, as opposed to bouncing around looking for an event across a world map.