Wait, people are complaining about the lack of mini-games now? This is a bad thing? My favorite part of FF XII was the fact that they ditched all the insipid mini-games in favor of side quests that actually add to the world. Are we really complaining that were cant breed birds, play cards, snowboard, play Underwater Rugby or engage in the Math Olympics? Really?

Now, FF XII went a bit to far with its mark hunts (there were way too many of them and most were busy work) so all XIII has to do is trim the fat a bit and it'll be perfect.

More and more RPG's are taking the AI party system that DQIV pioneered over 15 years ago and applying it, and not just JRPG's. The last JRPG I truly enjoyed, Persona 3 FES, was all AI controlled and as linear as hell, and you know what? Best 152 hours I ever spent with a game. Then again, P3 made up for it with a metric ton of NPC's and made interacting with them absolutely crucial to your ability to battle effectively, so may that's not a very good example. Still, it stands as Exhibit A that Linear Does Not Equal Bad.