"Linearity": Why all the fuss?

[Scoobes]

Xoj said:

spenderzz said:

Xoj said:
WRPG will never have a "sephiroth" or a "Aeris".

WRPG is not my favorite genre, but you just made one of the strongest arguments in favor of why it should be.

 

In all seriousness, though, I don't see what Sephiroth has to do with a discussion on linear JRPGS.  Are you saying that because FFVII was relatively linear, it allowed them to make a character as awesome as Sephiroth?  For one thing, FFVII was not aggressively linear, for another, JRPGs brought us Kefka from FF6, a 10x better character than Sephiroth in a game that was far more open-world (second half at least).

again it's not open after second half of the game, the only difference it's it have "world map"  that really block tons of place until it let run free.

the difference to FFX-XIII instead of walking from point to point, u know go there by selecting.

as for sephiroth, it was because unlike fable/oblivion or any other JRPG, character design have the freedom to make his character with more universal appeal, like WRPG makes u choose how it his personality will be. in JRPG character freedom it's in how they will operate in battle,

either how they get their skills or what job they will operate, and even if you don't like it, sephiroth, aeris and rikku are loved or hated by millions, something that u will never see in a wrpg.

as freedom the only thing u really loose in FF31 it's that your other party member are controlled by the AI.

what job they operate or if or where you can go (it's the same as previous FF). you are not given full control until later.

I'm not sure that's true for the characters you mentioned. Their respective games sold many millions and I think that's why these characters are so remebered, loved and hated. There are plenty of characters in WRPGs that are memorable, in many ways more memorable than those in JRPGs. Although your main character is typically created by you, the characters around you are very important, and I find the input and influence you can have on them, especially in more recent games makes them more endearing. It just happens that WRPGs in the past weren't as popular as the top JRPGs (at least in the mainstream).

As WRPGs grow in popularity I fully expect characters from recent Bioware games to be remembered and loved in years to come. Characters like Morrigan and Zevran in Dragon Age, or Miranda, Jack or Mordin from Mass Effect 2. Hell, I went to a convention a few months ago and saw someone cosplaying as Darth Revan from KoToR among a typical JRPG crowd.