What do people mean by "the game opens up once you get to chapter 11?"

[Digital Phoenix]

Because it honestly only does for a short while. You aren't in anything even close to Gran Pulse after chapter 11. And during chapter 11, you quickly begin to venture in linear corridors again. Gran Pulse, in itself, is pretty open, but once you get back on track with the story, it is just as linear. And chapters 12 and 13 don't even come close to being "open."

I think saying the game becomes more "open" is a massive overstatement because you'll still be running down really cramped areas from start to finish, aside from the one instance when the game "opens up." It's like running down the same path over and over again, but with a different backdrop.

I'm just wondering if anyone else found these claims to be a bit misleading.

[VeloZer0]

Seeing as I don't like mark hunts Ch11 was no different from any of the other chapters to me. I suppose it is one of those if you are starving anything tastes good type of deals.

If you enjoyed the mark hunts, then I can see how one would describe it as such.

[seiferalmasy2]

It was deliberately mentioned by people and magazines who wanted to protect the game, and hoodwink people into believing there was a sudden change. It worked for some because I started hearing "well, half the game is linear but I can live with that if the end is opened up, that's no different to most FF games"

Which of course, is nonsense. Gran Pulse was also called "Like the calm lands of X" when it is nowhere near. There were more things to do and find in X, not just a token choco game and 100 more battles for the sake of it.

And as you said, after that you are back to linear again.

[Del Murder]

It opens up in the sense that you are allowed to partake in side quests, something you couldn't do in the 10 previous chapters. But as others have said, the options are still very limited when compared to previous FF games.

[Future Esthar]

Gran Pulse is not like FFXII.
On FFXII there could have been two or more ways to get to the same place and you could run in circles.
On FFXIII you have a central place which gives you access to a number of dead ends.

[Shin Gouken]

Which of course, is nonsense. Gran Pulse was also called "Like the calm lands of X" when it is nowhere near. There were more things to do and find in X, not just a token choco game and 100 more battles for the sake of it.

I don't need to explain to you that i dislike FFXIII, probabley not much far off how much you dislike it. But i'm still going to have to disagree with that statement.

What was so special about the calm lands? As far as i can remember, it's more or less the same as the archylte steppe. They both have a chocobo mini-game, a few treasures to be found, and the monster arena is just a series of battles like mark hunting. Making the two basically the same thing. The Archylte steppe however at least was more interesting to navigate with enemies being visable, it's got to be 5-6 times the size of the calm lands and there are that few more secret areas to find.

Am i right in saying you havn't played the game? I think you're confusing gran pulse with the archylte steppe. The Archylte steppe is the place on gran pulse which resembles the calm lands.

EDIT: Just a quick personal note. The Archylte steppe didn't remind me of the calm lands at all. I actually felt reminded of the Cerobi steppe from XII

[Future Esthar]

Really,the Calm Lands?
The Steppe is more like places on FFXII.

The Calm Lands were big but not as big.

[Lamia]

I just got to the Fal'cie butthead. Basically, I just finished the Palamecia airship and I thought it was comparatively "open".... wide spaces, different directions to go into to get optional chests...

[Loony BoB]

Green plains and hills. Wide open space for the first time in a long period of the game. Monsters in it. Chocobos. The comparisons were inevitable.

[Future Esthar]

The Steppe is the only open space on the entire game anyaway(the massif area is a bifurcation and I wouldn´t count it as open).

[Rocket Edge]

^ This is a major part of what makes FFXIII so terrible.

[DarkOrigins]

It was deliberately mentioned by people and magazines who wanted to protect the game, and hoodwink people into believing there was a sudden change. It worked for some because I started hearing "well, half the game is linear but I can live with that if the end is opened up, that's no different to most FF games"

Which of course, is nonsense. Gran Pulse was also called "Like the calm lands of X" when it is nowhere near. There were more things to do and find in X, not just a token choco game and 100 more battles for the sake of it.

And as you said, after that you are back to linear again.

I just wanted to say, what Toriyama says in your signature seifer is absolute bullfaeces. FFXI manages to have interactive towns in HD, as well as XIV is rumored to have them.

Squenix really has just followed the sound of money to the giant pen marked MMORPG haven't they? This makes me sad.

[Lexy]

This was the biggest slap in the face for me. I kept playing even though I hated every minute of it, hoping it was going to start not sucking once I got to the much touted chapter 11. What a joke! I couldn't believe how short it was. I thought Pulse would at least take up a good 1/4 of the game; I had no idea the game only had 13 darn 'chapters'.
Of course technically the game does "open up" at this point, but not nearly to the degree that I expected based on what so many people had written and even what my own friends had told me (they'll never be trusted again).

[Suikojowy]

Yeah I kinda laugh when people say it gets good after 30 or so hours because as ridiculous a statement as it is anyway, to me it just didn't. Everything else was pretty much the same, the storyline didn't get any better, the characters didn't get any more likable and all I really got was a giant field to do a few hunts before being back on the narrow path

I don't want to take away anything from people who actually like this game but half of the time it seems to me people are just reaching and making excuses when they say this.