Quote Originally Posted by The Summoner of Leviathan View Post
Wait? People think that games with overworld maps were not linear? It was just a much larger corridor, but a corridor nonetheless. Often, in the older FF titles that had an overworld, you could not really go far without either meeting a guard blocking a key pass or the geography blocking your way. At least most of the them started rather linear until it opened up with a vehicle (be is ship or airship) though those were often unlocked only mid to end game.
All of the X-Wings and Tie Fighters in Star Wars were just little models moving around on a green screen. And there weren't even any real dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! It was all puppets and computer graphics! Don't even get me started on Independence Day; the real white house is still standing. What a rip-off.

My point being: Yes, it's an illusion, and technically it's a corridor. It still makes it feel much bigger to have it be in a real world. I never felt invested in FFXIII because there was never a bigger picture that came together; it was just a bunch of loosely-connected scenarios before you got whisked off to a newly themed area. I think a big part of the FF games is a feeling of connection to the characters and the world they're in, and that's something that I think has been lacking since FFX; even in that one, you can start to see it falling apart somewhat, but they tried to maintain that you were playing in some coherent world. XIII was just a bunch of whiz-bang stuff being thrown at you and loosely connected by a nonsensical plot and a bunch of combat in between.