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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Final Fantasy XIII Linearity - Be reasonable people.

Final Fantasy XIII Linearity Problem - Be reasonable people

"I really didn`t feel like talking about this issue at first, because
frankly it seemed so stupid, but it`s gotten so out of hand that I
really felt like inserting a small voice of reason.

Final Fantasy XIII is being bashed left and right by gamers, because of one of its characteristics: linearity.

It's gotten so bad, that more than two-thirds of the comments on
Final Fantasy 13 articles I've seen are negative and saying that the
game will suck because of its linearity.

One of my friends came up to me and said, "Hey, so turns out FF13 is
going to be bad ". A bit surprized, I ask: "Have you played it?" He
replies to this: "Nah man, everyone says it is". Knowing what the
problem was, I ask: " And they haven't played it either, right?"

From what I`ve heard, the logic seems to be that since Open-ended
games like Fallout 3 are fun, as well as other good RPGs which are less
linear, then the game will suck. Do you see what is flawed about this
logic?

If you don't get it then let me point it out:
Just because a game has characteristics that are different in some
ways to games that are fun, does not mean the game will not be fun...
both types of games have the possibility of being fun.
Is this so hard to understand??

Anything can be fun if it's well done or integrated, and that
includes linearity. There are certain games that work perfectly well
with certain aspects that might not work in other types of games.

It's strange that this train of thought (that FF13 sucks) is even
circulating, as FF10, which was extremely liked, as well as many
awesome Strategy RPGs, are extremely linear.
The strangest thing of all though, is that the game isn't even
released in North America, and is being judged before having even been
played, by mostly North Americans and others who have not even played
the game yet.

I really would like gamers to be a bit more open-minded. I hope you
come to realize the flawed logic behind this logically flawed
judgementalism, as most of us wish to play it first and enjoy the game
if we can once it comes out, but the irrational progoganda floating
around the internet may affect our appreciation of a potential gem. At
least give it a chance; SE usually knows how to make a good game, so
why not give it a chance for what the game is instead of comparing it
to what it isn't?"

Source: http://n4g.com/up/115455/BlogPost-480425.aspx

Took this from a blog. This guy sums it up pretty well on how people are over reacting for no reason at all.



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100% agree, when did linearity become such a bad thing, at one point almost all games were linear



In my own personal opinion. I think linear games are better.



I disagree 100%, Final Fantasy is a big name, it should put forth more innovation not less.



Seraphic_Sixaxis said:
I disagree 100%, Final Fantasy is a big name, it should put forth more innovation not less.

Not suprising coming from you.



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it doesn't mean it will suck.. Just that it won't be an RPG.

 

and that's why people will say it will suck, because it isn't what they want.



And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this PS4... And this gaming PC. - The PS4 and the Gaming PC and that's all I need... And this Xbox 360. - The PS4, the Gaming PC, and the Xbox 360, and that's all I need... And these PS3's. - The PS4, and these PS3's, and the Gaming PC, and the Xbox 360... And this Nintendo DS. - The PS4, this Xbox 360, and the Gaming PC, and the PS3's, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The Gaming PC and PS4, and Xbox 360, and thePS3's . Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need.

Obligatory dick measuring Gaming Laptop Specs: Sager NP8270-GTX: 17.3" FULL HD (1920X1080) LED Matte LC, nVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3, 750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive

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.



Soriku said:
lol, how many times are we going to have this discussion.

As many times as it takes to get the message through some peoples thick as hell skulls.



Wagram said:
Seraphic_Sixaxis said:
I disagree 100%, Final Fantasy is a big name, it should put forth more innovation not less.

Not suprising coming from you.

Hmph... so its wrong to expect more from a well known franchise? S'cuse me for wanting a better game.



The problem entails that linearity in RPGs has been in story progression as someone mentioned before. However, past games in the series usually required you to finish a linear segment of the game at the beginning and then opened a huge world for you to explore. That's what opened the imagination of the players even if the story was always going to the same place everytime. Ever since FFX that has stopped. FFXII was the last game that gave you a certain amount of freedom.

In conclusion: Yes, I have the right to bitch and complain about something I haven't played because we have "experts" (read professional magazines) telling us this game is too linear.