fazz on 26 February 2010
Linearity has ALWAYS been part of japanese RPG games. Be it Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG or Final Fantasy, linearity is key in the success of the game in the West. Let's take for example SaGa Frontier. When it was released back in the day, I even heard of people returning the game to the store next day after purchase thanks to it's open ended nature.
Why this is not a problem with western RPGs? It's probably a matter of conception, and I think FFXIII is being bashed for it's linearity thanks to recent massive success of WRPGs (Fallout, Mass Effect, Fable...), but if it had implemented open ended gameplay, there are high chances that it would've got bashed for it too.
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