I actually thought Gran Pulse is what derailed FFXIII. Up until that point you were almost always using different party combinations of 2-3 characters, which forced you to adjust the strategies available to you. It also had a ton more character development and interaction. It was almost as if once each character got over their past, there was no need to have a presence in the storyline anymore, you could just have Barthendalus guide them to the end.

I understand it's only the illusion of nonlinearity that's gone but I think it's an important illusion nonetheless. I didn't realize how linear FFX was until I played FFXIII, and to me, that's the mark of a great game, considering FFX's field screen design is almost identical to FFXIII. I can't really tell what it was that disguised it in FFX, was it the pacing, the presence of towns, or even ATB Random Encounters???

I'm not really sure.