Final Fantasy Forum

That's weird, I've always used the 'choose your own adventure' analogy to describe WRPGs, whereas JRPGs are more of novels (pre-set story and narrative the the player just proceeds through).   
 
That said, I liked the streamlining XIII underwent, and really liked the setting, but as long as the narrative remains a focal point of the series, I'm not as concerned about the rest of the elements.

To say the next game will have these elements is very vague. Mostly because, I believe that XIII was getting the VII treatment with the multitude of spin-offs. Does he mean XV, or does he mean something like Versus? 
 
@Areu4real: I'm sure it is a good game, and based on the volume of reviews a high-profile game like this has, it has a very respectable 80 something on Metacritic. I think most of the smack talk is from posters in certain boards (starts with four and rimes with "pan") and other forms of public outcry, but not really article writers.  
 
I think that this is the year of streamlining for games. So many games are getting scaled back from the sandbox that GTA built. Mass Effect 2 shed so much of it's customization in lieu of simplicity and cinematic flare that it really isn't an RPG. I hear Bioshock now closes off a lot of places you've been instead of making you backtrack. Even S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has shed a lot of it's open world, if you happen to be familiar with this particular Russian piece of post-apocalyptia. None of these really make the games worse, most of the streamlining in games is done based on a design choice rather than just trying to put another passable game on the market. Though, I can think of two instances I wouldn't like this to happen: Fable III and Starcraft 2. Fable is about as streamlined and fleshed out as an RPG can really get before it's just a hack-n-slash. I imagine if they tried this (and I wouldn't put it past them) it would be something like Links Adventure's battle screen the whole time with more shiny bits. As for Starcraft 2...ha right, like that's coming out soon enough to be affected by this. I swear if it took on every fad that hit the market while it was "in development," you'd be unlocking zerglings by earning points in an online battle where you had to play a colorful plastic instrument with more consistency than the thirteen year old screaming profanity at you. Rant over.

I think the changes are a bit jarring at first. It seems a lot faster-paced than the older games do.  I'm only about 3 hours into the game, but I'm enjoying it so far.
 
In my opinion once you get used to it, it's probably going to be a bit refreshing to not have to spend 30 minutes figuring out where to go after taking a few days break from the game. Or having to talk to dozens of people scattered around various towns that you'll have to run across time and time again over the course of the game.

Hey, METAL GEAR isn't a RPG series and wasn't meant to have "choice". And just because the cutscenes are in different places doesn't mean the FF series doesn't have it's fair share of long cutscenes. Mentioning it in an article like this seems very out of place, and a stab in the wrong direction. 
 
Anyway, it sounds like the FF fans' complaints are well founded, and it's good to hear Sqaure Enix is aware.

Haven't minded the "rails" so far, but I will love getting back to some towns.

personally i think that the FF games are at their worse when they are open natured. i would rather have a well structure linear game than another XII.

 

I don't think he was so much saving face as reminding everyone that every Final Fantasy game is different. This is even further stressed by how there are 3 Final Fantasy teams at Square Enix (4 if you count the Crystal Chronicles team) and the team that did Final Fantasy XIII was the team on FFX and FFX-2, which is why those games have many similarities between them because that is the direction and style the team is going under the direction of Yoshinori Kitase, Motomu Toriyama and Toshiro Tsuchida. 
 
Now since the team on FFXIV is obviously going to be the team from FFXI and the team on Final Fantasy Versus FFXIII is from the same division as the one on XIII* than that means the team who did FFXII (and FF Tactics) is probably the ones who will be making Final Fantasy XV unless they are working on some other secret project.

 
Also as has been said before. Yo JRPGs be hella linear that is just the way the genre is from what I've heard and seen about FFXIII is they've just really streamlined it by instead of having you wander around a town, which probably only has the point of go talk to this guy or go to this location to trigger cutscene they've just turned it into you see the thing there ya go to it. Seeing as it's the same guys behind FFX and FFX-2 that seemed to be where they were going with it and like those two games it opens up some towards the end (although I hear it's somewhat later in FFXIII) where you can go and do a bunch of sidequests and such.

 
Anyway I'm sure Square Enix is taking the criticisms on how most of the game has been turned into a corridor shooter with more cutscenes and an RPG battle system into the future. Since as has been said before every Final Fantasy game is different and sometimes when you are experimenting like that you will get something that quite a few people will find irritating.  
  
*Although they are also the Kingdom Hearts team but under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura instead of the three men previously mentioned and it has been said that FF Versus XIII is going to feel like a dark Kingdom Hearts with some 3rd person shooting bits but set in a kind of futuristic Shinjuku. I think it's mainly because that is the largest team that they handle both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.    

@thwak:     

This is going to go over the heads of the people who had FFVII as their first Final Fantasy and think it is the greatest one of them all but I really miss when they had Yoshitaka Amano as the character designer, which was about the time Final Fantasy moved from fantasy mixed with a little steampunk to futuristic anime with magic. (well besides the Final Fantasy Tactics team I mentioned who has stuck with the more fantasy like Ivalice)
 

 

@Konanda:  
Very well written, and worth noting that every FF is different.  No matter how big a success FFXIII is, a future FF game is just not going to be the same. 
 
Look at FFVII, as huge a success it was, Square has not repeated the formula with another FF (Though they have some spinoffs).  I think it speaks quite highly of the company that they aren't willing to just milk a successful formula, and are instead willing to try something new with every iteration of the series. 
 
I miss Amano as well, though he still works on concept art.

 

I've been playing the FF series since the PSone days...and have tried all the FF games aside the MMORPGs(11 and soon to be 14) and from what I see FF13 isn't bad...sure it doesn't give you the open world experience you had with 7 8 9 and 12 but it also has its strong parts as well...its obvious that they've put more effort in the strategy part of the game since they've made the weapon, role, accesory, and paradigm combination very vast...not just the level 99 ownage that the previous games offered...the fact that SE offered a playthrough even after the story mode was different and refreshing as well...to be able to continue your play even if all is said is a good measure of your patience with the game as well, as any RPG fan should have since no person with an ounce of patience should play RPG games at all. The story being very linear is already old school since Zidane, Squall,Cloud, Vaan, Tidus, and Yuna weren't offered a path towards the enemy's side.  FF13 is a good game but you have to see it for yourself.