For once, I agree with part of the OP. Both games are way too linear. That being said, I prefer XIII to X.

While I dislike the linearity of both games, I feel the world of XIII is more compelling, and I found the characters more interesting. That's most likely due to personal preference than anything else. That being said, the only thing I enjoyed about X's story was Yuna's tragic relationship with Tidus, Tidus' relationship with Jecht, and the character Auron, who was cool throughout the story. The rest of the story, especially Seymour, felt like constant filler to me.

Sadly though, both games suffer from a lack of exploration, which I found very enjoyable in the prior games. The lack of an actual world map to explore, and airships to drive around was disappointing, to say the least. A lot of what made the charm of the series were left out of those two titles, and finally... I never liked Blitzball.

Anyway, the OP isn't targetting me, as I've never been a fan of X. And although I don't dislike XIII nearly as much as X, I was still left disappointed by it. EVen if I greatly enjoyed its battle system during the later fights in the game.

FFX's linearity was made up through its leveling system, and story, where as 13 had a garbage story, Garbage gameplay, and Garbage characters :P.

Even though I mostly disagree, I have to admit Blitzball was a pain... I don't think anyone really liked this side activity...

Many people seem to mention the Blitzball, but I honestly thought it was kinda boring!

In FFX you could turn around and run the other way for a lot of it if you wanted, you could stop and play 16 hours of constant Blitzball if you wanted. This doesn't means it's not linear and if I recall people complained about it being linear then, FFXIII on the other hand is worse.

I have said it for Years.

Final Fantasy X started everything that was wrong with XIII.

the OP nitpicked one problem out of MANY that Ff13 had. Nice try. linearity was just one issue. What about combat, characters, terrible story where you had to read essays fo text to understand what the hell was going on? IMHO the problem with 13 is it didnt do ANYTHING right.

So because Square threw away everything good in FF X (and hell, it has a lot of good stuff to keep) and only kept the linearity, FF X "started it" ?

Lol.

Most of you are bashig Tidus, but eventhough he's irritating at times, he's interesting. Why ? Because he evolves through the game. He's not the same guy at all when the game ends (and damn, what an ending).

Also, FF X has a great story, an astounding OST, great side characters (Lulu, Auron, Yuna, Seymour), amazing side quests (the Celestial Weapons, the Dark Aeons, Penance, the Monster Arena, etc...), you got to actually explore Spira, etc...

And I'm sorry, but FF XIII lacks these things, except for the story, which was alright I guess, but not exactly compelling.

The combat system in FFX is fantastic. It's strategic and fast-paced. One of the best in the series actually.

FFX was a lot better then FFXIII. Especially if you liked the little tidbits like Blitzball, and towns. I did a side game of just progressing blitzball once from an old save game.

If you really want FFX to be a one path linear game, then you can really want FFXII to be a one path linear game.