Early FFXIII players are criticizing the game for being uber linear

FFXIII is out in Japan. And there are already criticisms of the game for being too linear.

Stole this from system wars: *Don't worry, there are no spoilers*

Players of Final Fantasy XIII are aghast at the dumbed down map design the game offers, with the entire game seemingly reduced to a single interminable path punctuated by cutscenes and unavoidable mob encounters.

The first 6 hours of the game in maps:

As Vanille remarks in game: "This path is easy to understand, isn't it?"

There is one small branch (a shortcut) in all this towards the very end, though it involves missing choice treasure. After this the Vile Peaks beget another apparently unending RPG-on-rails experience, the polar opposite of Final Fantasy XII's MMORPG-like open questing; indeed, there is not a town to be seen anywhere, and shopping is handled through the sterile interface of the save points.

Glimpses of later maps in the hint book seem to indicate this linearity persists to the very end – it is a wonder the game even bothers with a map.

Further fueling the suspicion that the game has been dumbed down to remedial level is the fact that several key gameplay elements remain locked even after 8 hours of playtime, and the game only sees fit to fully enable its leveling system after 4 hours.

Pre-release reviews of course failed to mention any of this…

I knew FFXIII would be linear but this is too much. It may be even more linear that FFX. What struck me as odd is the lack of towns and shopping through the save interface. That's like the blasphemy of RPGs is not having towns to shop at!

Say what you will about FFXII, but that game was excellent when it came to freedom and exploration within the main story. I was hoping FFXIII would be more like that with lot's of freedom and sidequests, but I guess it'll be a FFX-like game.

I'm sure the game is still worth playing but after RPGs like Dragon Age, Fallout 3, and Oblivion I'm becoming less of a fan of the newer console JRPGs because they're becoming more and more linear everytime and less of a true RPG experience. Thank God for the DS and its awesome traditional JRPGs.

Anyway, just thought this was worth discussing.

What do you guys think?

im not very worried. the ff series as whole is linear anyways. sure, people point to ffx as really linear (and it was, dont get me wrong), but so was the "westernized" ffxii. sure, the areas were much wider than in ffx, but there was always one general path to follow. im of the position that this method is fine so long as the path you follow is good.LoG-Sacrament

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]im not very worried. the ff series as whole is linear anyways. sure, people point to ffx as really linear (and it was, dont get me wrong), but so was the "westernized" ffxii. sure, the areas were much wider than in ffx, but there was always one general path to follow. im of the position that this method is fine so long as the path you follow is good.ASK_Story

I still think this game is gonna be awesome

[QUOTE="ASK_Story"][QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"]im not very worried. the ff series as whole is linear anyways. sure, people point to ffx as really linear (and it was, dont get me wrong), but so was the "westernized" ffxii. sure, the areas were much wider than in ffx, but there was always one general path to follow. im of the position that this method is fine so long as the path you follow is good.LoG-Sacrament

You're right but I hate this idea of shopping through save points. Crisis Core was like that as well which I didn't like because it didn't feel like an JRPG because it takes away that feeling you're in the game world. Shopping through cities, towns, or merchants makes you feel like you're in the game and participating in it. Shopping through save points takes away that RPG feeling.

Also, one of the Famitsu editors said the first half of the game is on-rails, meaning half of the game will be very linear with no freedom. That's too much in my opinion. I really think Square-Enix made a movie rather than a RPG.

[QUOTE="LoG-Sacrament"][QUOTE="ASK_Story"] But this is too much, IMO. I mean, they took out towns to explore and talk with people and made shopping done on save points. That's not an RPG to me.ASK_Story

You're right but I hate this idea of shopping through save points. Crisis Core was like that as well which I didn't like because it didn't feel like an JRPG because it takes away that feeling you're in the game world. Shopping through cities, towns, or merchants makes you feel like you're in the game and participating in it. Shopping through save points takes away that RPG feeling.

Also, one of the Famitsu editors said the first half of the game is on-rails, meaning half of the game will be very linear with no freedom. That's too much in my opinion. I really think Square-Enix made a movie rather than a RPG.

It's more linear, because the point of the game isn't to provide a non linear experience, it's to provide lots of excellent battles (check) and a great story (looks like a check). When playing the game you probably won't even notice that it's "too linear" if you enjoy the great new battle system, which is half of the reason you should be playing the game and the other half shouldnt' be for a "non linear experience."

At the same time, dungeons are supposed to get more complex as the game goes on and the world opens up once you get to Pulse. It should also be noted that there are giant transforming dungeons that are supposed to be int he game which we saw in trailers and read about in the prerelease novels.

It's more linear, because the point of the game isn't to provide a non linear experience, it's to provide lots of excellent battles (check) and a great story (looks like a check). When playing the game you probably won't even notice that it's "too linear" if you enjoy the great new battle system, which is half of the reason you should be playing the game and the other half shouldnt' be for a "non linear experience."

At the same time, dungeons are supposed to get more complex as the game goes on and the world opens up once you get to Pulse. It should also be noted that there are giant transforming dungeons that are supposed to be int he game which we saw in trailers and read about in the prerelease novels.

hakanakumono

But that's part of the appeal of RPGs in general. The linearity was one of FFX's weak points, and it's not good that FFXIII seems to be the same way. You seem to have the game, so maybe you can tell us if it gets better later on.

This is one of the MAIN reasons FFX was an awful game. There was absolutely no sense of exploration.

I thought things were headed in the right direction with FF XII, (great game btw), but now with XIII, it looks like they've gone backwards.

Too bad.

I like open world RPGs (when done right) as much as the next guy, but linearity isn't a bad thing (when done right). While some may sight FFX's linearity as a weakness, I actually found it as a strength because it made it so the player would focus on the story not exploration. Of course if your the person who likes exploration then yeah, I see why you might not like FFXIII if there is no exploration. Personally, I hope this means the game focuses on story and character development as I find these things are often lacking in open world games.

Hmm interesting. I don't really have a problem with linearity myself, infact FFX is probably my favourite in the series, so likely this will be a non-issue for me.

The fact that the first half of the game is linear is extremely well documented. What are you presenting us with? I'm confused. The OP made a topic to tell us something we already know... Moreover without fair representation of the 2nd half of the game which is reportedly less linear then it is hard to know what to make of this.

---Pre-release reviews of course failed to mention any of thisASK_Story

I have to admit though that taking out the shops is a strange one. It made sense in FFCC due to lack ofa hub world. Though I suppose if there are few towns in FF13 is would make sense given the story setup. These issues are not inherently problems though at all.

The battle system and levelling being slow to come online depend highly on game pacing as well. If the game is paced well then it would support delaying the introduction of certain elements as late as half way or even later into the game. However if the mechanics you are given are so few that they are easily exhausted and become boring then that is indeed an issue. Taken in isolation though that doesn't mean an awful lot.

So I suppose that until the latter 20% of the game, 6,8,9,10 weren't?

I haven't played 13 or anything, but this news actually makes me more likely to play it. I would much rather have the game tell me where to go by making it super obvious and not giving me a choice to do something else than have to stumble around the whole world looking for that one NPC that I need to have a conversation with to advance the story. There was even a point in 7 where you needed to have your party stop at a particular inn to advance the story, so if you were doing good and didn't need healing at that point, expect to walk around doing nothing for a long time.