People who refuse to beat video games on their own

There's an option for that, but you'd still have to call plays. (Tecmo Bowl did it first, though.)

Uhh, FFXIII is just about as linear as a game gets. 90% of it is just you running in a straight line through tunnel-shaped areas.

Sorry, never played that one myself. Odd though, given how a lot of the Final Fantasy games tend to let you do some exploring of the areas you travel.

FFXIII is the exception to that rule. There's no real towns. Long story short, there's little exploration in the game.

When I can come up with some fairly linear rpg's that are more exploration-heavy(but not as popular), there's a problem here.

I don't think linearity is a problem in and of itself, but FFXIII is unarguably extremely linear.

Agreed. I've taken dumps that are less linear than FFXIII.

Quit bragging...my dumps have multiple branches, twists, morality systems, anvilicious moments, and flashbacks.

edited 8th Aug '11 7:36:09 PM by Signed

Linearity is only a problem when it becomes an extreme. Something like Max Payne 2, where the linearity keeps it tightly scripted and the story moving, are a-okay. Really, the story can be linear, it's the gameplay that shouldn't be. Yakuza or Shenmue are the perfect examples of this. The story itself only unfolds one way, but there's a ton of stuff to do outside of it. Don't feel like accomplishing more of the story right now? Go play baseball, beat up some thugs, play some arcade games, do sidequests, etc. An extreme like FFXIII, where the story is the only thing to do, just isn't a fun game.

edited 8th Aug '11 7:40:16 PM by TravisBickle

Vagrant Story also has no towns, but it still has some exploration and non-linearity.

edited 8th Aug '11 7:38:27 PM by RiosRider

XIII's story is full of anvils.

edited 8th Aug '11 7:42:09 PM by JotunofBoredom

...and Block Puzzles. Don't forget the block puzzles.

/beat VS twice; would have done it three times if not for me losing access to my PS 1 in my junior and senior years of college.

...but they're such pretty anvils!

edited 8th Aug '11 7:43:30 PM by WillyFourEyes

If I remember correctly, VS doesn't have that many block puzzles, and I believe solving the game mechanics to survive and deal damage to enemies should be considered a puzzle as well, but that's cheating. There's also some pure platforming at the final dungeon, and the Snowfly Forest is also considered a puzzle if you find out the trick to go straight to the bosses rather than making a map for the place like I did.

But back on topic, there are people who aren't able to hit even one enemy in Super R Type, for Christ's sake. I dunno what the name of the video that showed such failure, though.

edited 8th Aug '11 8:02:21 PM by RiosRider

I may have done this with Chrono Trigger. My mom started the game, got stuck somewhere... I can't recall, before the Wham Episode and/or 10,000 BC for sure. I took over the game and got past the part that she was stuck on. From there, it was up to me to save all of time from Lavos.

It seems to me that the linearity of FFXIII is generally very overstated. Or better said, that the "non-linearity" of earlier FFs is understated. They are linear as hell too. As are JRPGs in general (and, to a lesser extent, most western RPGs too).

The only real difference is that the XIII doesn't give you the illusion of any form of non-linearity, different than most other FFs, which isn't actually a bad thing.

edited 8th Aug '11 11:43:17 PM by Nyarly

Final Fantasy I was linear? It was extremely exploration heavy. So was Final Fantasy VIII as is. They may have had railroaded parts, but neither were linear. And those are just the two I played.

And I will admit, I have very few games I haven't beaten, mostly because I've failed, though.(Sonic 2006, for example)

Yeah. "Exploration" or in other words, the illusion of some resemblance of non-linearity. But it still is little more than wandering from point A to point B.

Which makes the second half of FFVI rather jarring.

edited 9th Aug '11 1:24:36 AM by Nyarly

Final Fantasies were never huge on the sandbox thing, true, but they had some open-endedness. You could go back to old towns, for instance, and usually an area somewhere with some sweet loot.

XIII, on the other hand, is a tube. A tube that you can't even go back very far in.

It's a series of tubes.

The Tube-a-tron 5000!