XIII: The Flaw thread

[Cloudane]

Shin Gouken kind of hit on this though I disagree with what he said about VII (or the other games) not being linear. It certainly was linear, but the problem with XIII is that there is nothing to the game other than run, fight, run, fight.

This. Exactly this. Most games are linear to some degree as they have a beginning, middle and end. Even X-2, when you look behind all the optional missions and the possibility of a different (or extended) ending the core of it has a specific "linear" set of hotspot missions that you have to go through in order to progress through the game.

Of course, VII was far *less* linear as there were a lot of optional place and things to do. Take Nibelheim for instance, if you wanted to you could actually just walk straight through it IIRC. But most people decide to have a mooch around the mansion, and end up picking up optional character Vincent, check out Tifa's house and pick up her limit break etc. There's the whole optional Yuffie arc as well.

When people complain about linearity I think they mean the complete lack of ability to stroll even slightly off the path even if it's just to listen to NPCs talk a load of irrelevant nonsense. It adds to the feeling of immersion when you can do that, and it's lacking somewhat in XIII.

It's not missing completely - you can auto-talk the people as you're fighting along the path in Cocoon, you can have a good wander around in Nautilus and there's your time on Pulse. I wouldn't say there's enough of it though, and the lack of open towns that you can explore and chat to people and raid their houses for elixirs etc is probably the main key to it feeling "linear".

Nautilus actually gave me a lot of hope for this aspect in the game. You actually could have a good wander around and see what people had to say, pan your camera around and admire the pretties, go and 'talk' to chocobos etc. Unfortunately once you got past it, that was it again until Pulse.