Quote Originally Posted by Lexy View Post
I'm so sick of hearing the argument that all the other FF's gave the player the "illusion" of choice, therefore FFXIII isn't any more (or significantly more) linear than the other FF's. Are people who claim this even being for real?
Play Elder Scrolls. Play Fallout. Those games have true choice. I haven't played any Fallout, but I have played Elder Scrolls (and will soon play Fallout) and know that you don't have to follow the main quest if you don't want to. And you can join certain guilds. You can end quests in certain ways. Apparently Fallout is even more so (which I hope to start playing soon).

Same with Heavy Rain. Every single choice you make in the game influences events later on. That is why you have different endings. That is choice.

Illusion of choice is by making the world slightly bigger and letting you have side-quests etc. XIII had very little illusion. But no modern Final Fantasy (and apart from VI, I can't think of any FF) that has given you much in the way of any real choice in what you did.

And I'm not disagreeing that XIII is linear. I'm just illustrating that structurally every FF is linear with a greater illusion of choice. Whether this is now a flaw or a decision made by the designers to emphasise the story is where the debate should actually be headed (as this is a flaw thread).