So my other thread broke something so lets try again!

[source Kotaku]

Spoilers: What Do These Final Fantasy XIII Dungeons Have In Common

Yes, yes, what do they have in common? Click on straight though — possible spoilers ahoy.

FFXIII dungeon maps have been popping up online. And the ones that have been have something in common. Can you figure it out?

(The could be what Famitsu was referring to when it said the story was linear.)

Final Fantasy XIII is a long, long game, and there are bound to be many different types of dungeons. Hopefully they're not all on a straight line. Curves, please, curves!

Otherwise the game's walk through will look like this:

1). Enter dungeon.
2). Walk straight.

Reminds me of FFX. I don't really mind too much since I prefer to spend my time watching the story and messing around in towns.

I hope they're all not like this. Would be quite depressing.

Also, I hope these dungeons are dynamic and change as you complete puzzles and such.

Maybe those are just the initial puzzles. The thing with FFX is that it was way too linear duo the lack of world map, FFXII tried to correct it(and did) with a MMO like field, since FFXIII is using the same system of MMO like fields the game maybe won't be so linear.

thats probably just the cocoon area, thats how the demo is like.
i really don't mind

FF games always keep the player on a narrow road, 13 just got rid of the illusion of freedom.

As long as they look beautiful...

Although if they're too straight, it kind of means there might not be any 'second paths' which lead to treasures and whatnot?

I'm more concerned about how the battles are going to hold up throughout the dungeons. One of the biggest weaknesses of the jrpg genre overall (doesn't apply to all of them) is that non-boss battles tend to be very boring and seem very repetitive and bland. It's not a problem with turn-based systems (Eternal Sonata has rhythm button pressing and button mashing elements and the combat was very boring to me. Tales of Vesperia's combat, which is more action-oriented, bored me. Tales would be so much better if there was no transition from the dungeon to the battle screen. It would breathe life into the combat if you fought enemies right in the environment you are exploring in. I preferred the turn-based jrpgs on the 360 to those games). Those are really fun for boss battles. It's how you utilize the turn-based combat in your game scenario to keep combat fresh throughout the game. Dungeon design is definitely important but the most important thing for jrpg developers to do is take a step back and think to themselves, "is going through this dungeon fighting monsters fun?" Because let's face it, combat is what you are going to be doing throughout the majority of these games and if that is boring for the most part, that is unacceptable.

WOW, that's ridiculous, hopefully not all of them are like this. Also, it seems that dungeons are short, that also blows.

FFXIII is disappointing confirmed!
Oh well, plenty more games coming out in the same time period.