So, I'll be honest; I really don't like this installment in the series. I think my biggest problem is that it follows on the heels on XII, which was almost XIII's antithesis as far as style and gameplay go. From what I've read, Square received a lot of flak after releasing XII because it was "too open" (an impossibility as far as I'm concerned), and this was what prompted them to create the "variations on running down a hall and killing things in your path" mode of play for XIII.
Now, I know it's been said that isn't the first time this gameplay style was used in the series, and I completely agree. In X, you ran down glorified corridors and defeated random encounters on your way to the next destination. Same thing in VII. The difference was, it didn't feel like you were. Those games did a good job of disguising the game's actual lack of nonlinearity. And, maybe I'm being shallow, but I honestly liked that illusion. XII is the same way. It's definitely, IMO, the most open of any of the FF games (all the world areas interconnect, and you can run halfway across the world to the Bonus Dungeon inside the first five hours), but there's still little incentive to actually stray off the beaten path for any reason beyond curiosity. Ultimately, it's the seemingly simple fact that XIII is honest about the kind of game you're playing that turns me off.
Not what I was looking for.
So, I'll be honest; I really don't like this installment in the series. I think my biggest problem is that it follows on the heels on XII, which was almost XIII's antithesis as far as style and gameplay go. From what I've read, Square received a lot of flak after releasing XII because it was "too open" (an impossibility as far as I'm concerned), and this was what prompted them to create the "variations on running down a hall and killing things in your path" mode of play for XIII.
Now, I know it's been said that isn't the first time this gameplay style was used in the series, and I completely agree. In X, you ran down glorified corridors and defeated random encounters on your way to the next destination. Same thing in VII. The difference was, it didn't feel like you were. Those games did a good job of disguising the game's actual lack of nonlinearity. And, maybe I'm being shallow, but I honestly liked that illusion. XII is the same way. It's definitely, IMO, the most open of any of the FF games (all the world areas interconnect, and you can run halfway across the world to the Bonus Dungeon inside the first five hours), but there's still little incentive to actually stray off the beaten path for any reason beyond curiosity. Ultimately, it's the seemingly simple fact that XIII is honest about the kind of game you're playing that turns me off.