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dystopia on 09 September 2012
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Runa216 said:
dystopia said:
7.5 out of 10
All in all it's probably near the bottom of the list in the FF Franchise due to it's extremely linear nature paired with the convoluted narrative. (Clearly I'm aware that most all the FF games are linear, but they don't feel this linear and having a plot where you don't need to read a bunch of articles from the menu to understand helps). However that being said it has it's moments, it's beautiful, and the combat system is really fun.

There's a difference between "linear" and "Strict adherence to linearity."  In Final Fantasy X, there was a pretty clear line where to go, not a lot of divergent paths, and no overworld map to explore, but you could still explore caves, go off the track to find hidden stuff, and scan the map for new locations.  It was linear, but it didn't hold you on rails.  Final Fantasy XIII was so linear you could hardly ever turn around and go back if you missed something.  It was "okay, here's this battle, now go down this corridor, cutscene, battle, battle, boss battle, cutscene", and there was no deviation from that.  

I don't have a problem with linearity, in fact I prefer it to open-ended narratives, but when you are basically on a track the entire game, that's a problem.  

I found FFX to feel a bit too linear as well. I'm not a huge fan of FFX and I think there are a lot of similarities between it and FFXIII. They both kinda open up from that linear path two thirds of the way through, FFX much moreso than FFXIII. In it's defense FFX was better paced, more well written (at least the overall flow of the story and events, I think the dialog is pretty awful.), and overall just a more enjoyable adventure. You're definetly right though that games can and should be linear, they just need to have the atmosphere that makes it feel otherwise. That comes from better writing, better dialog, and better gameplay.