In JRPGs: Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean 4, White Knight Chronicles, and Blue Dragon all have towns...
In WRPGs: Dragon Age Origins, Fallout 3, Mass Effedct 1 and 2 all have towns...
Hell, ME2 was developed in 2 years and has a solid handful of full robust FF-sized towns, as well as just as long a singleplayer and a lot more sidequests.
FFXIII had a 4 year development cycle and couldn't break its linearity at all? Why are people still defending this game?