Quote Originally Posted by Elpizo View Post
But from a story point of view, having towns or NPCs to talk to would not make sense. (SPOILER)The world hates you. =/
That isn't the reason why there aren't NPC. The decision had nothing to do with the story. In the same way Avalanche members can talk to Shin-Ra soldiers and Shin-Ra's mayor, and even Palmer.

There are no NPC because the game designers chose not to have them, same way they chose not to have towns because "It was too hard to do in HD"

This whole "the story doesn't permit it" is largely a cop out to try and excuse what they did.