Fair enough, but it's not exactly in question that Final Fantasy is absurdly popular and everyone knows exactly what it is. Blaming wRPGs for the disappointing reviews of Final Fantasy is like saying Halo 3: ODST is underperforming because of Saint's Row 2.

In the US, Final Fantasy started the jRPG. Dragon Quest has always played such a sad and lonely second fiddle.

FFX-2: Crap
Revenant Wings: Crapper.
Blood of Bahamut: Hasn't come out here but from what I've heard ended up being shit!

And from what I've heard he was responsible for the laughing scene in FFX.

Ultima created JRPGs.

Accusing Final Fantasy of being linear is like accusing the sky of being blue.

I think there might have been a few conflicts of priority given towns and stuff, but then I also think they might be being a bit too anal about the detail they want to put in the buildings, just looking in from the outside. On the other hand, I'd rather sacrifice towns than a decent plot.

Man, this is the "FFVII remake can't be done because it'd be too much for HD graphics ohshitdon'tlookatFFXIV" bullshit all over again.

I mean, yeah, Square, but it'd be nice if they didn't do this in every other interview.

It's less "Why is this linear" for me and more "Why the hell are they saying this isn't doable when they have evidence saying otherwise?"

It's the Kitase/Toriyama/Wada trio of idiocy.

Nomura is alright, to be honest. He can still fuck things up sometimes but at least he knows when to shut up.

So you want them to open up several areas (Bioware says 4) after the intro, require you to complete the Main Missions there, after which the endgame is (usually immediately) opened?

I don't know, I like the gradual "unlocking" of the world, which at some point rewards you with an airship type transport method (teleports at major save points work well too).

I can understand doing it for story, but we are all forgetting one major part of RPGs and that is Role Playing. Extreme linearity turns it into basically a visual novel(not that visual novels aren't good, I love Fate/Stay Night).

While yes, you can still play a role in an extremely linear game, you won't be that immersed, since it will be extremely obvious you have no choice in how the character is played. Sure, every FF has been this way, but they have masked it by giving you a modicum of choices. Most FFs dont fully open up till you get the airship, but until then they either give you a world map to explore(albeit limited), towns to explore, or heck the ability to backtrack a bit. Add in sidequests and you are good.

Linearity is for action games and books, RPGs need a bit more open endedness or you wont really feel like you have any control over the role. Im not asking for a sandbox, just a bit more than follow the path.

edit:
Not exactly, but bringing you to a fork in the story where you can go three places of the same importance and cant continue the story until you have done so wouldnt be too bad. ME2 is a different type of story telling, as it's more about the trip building your team than the actual mission.

FFX-2 had excellent gameplay. Get over it.

Also, I think people miss the whole point of the laughing scene, which is highlighting they're in a shit world and need to put on a happy face, so they're forcing it as badly as possible until they actually have to laugh at themselves, and even then, everyone thinks they've lost their marbles. It's a well-executed scene.

Well, they never said it was impossible, just prohibitive to their standards.

FFX-2's rest of the package soured me on the one good thing it had.