The early reviews are in for Final Fantasy XIII, and the reception of the import have been somewhat mixed; while the game's visuals are almost universally praised, some reviewers have called the gameplay vapid and story linear. For their part, the makers of Final Fantasy XIII are shrugging off these complaints.
"We try not to listen to the critics too much. Most of the criticisms have come because the first half of the game is very linear,” said Producer Yoshinori Kitase [thanks CVG]. "But we've got a story to tell, and it's important the player can engage with the characters and the world they inhabit before letting them loose..."
"We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a Western point of view,” said Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama. “When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... [It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom."
Unfortunately for Square Enix and other JRPG developers, people in North America and Europe aren't going to abandon their “Western point of view” for their sake. Action game developers in Japan have taken cues from Western games for Western audiences, and now might be a good time for JPRG developers to do the same.
3 Comments
February 17, 2010
Interesting article. I like how the developers are speaking their mind, it doesn't sound like PR talk. They have some good points. People love Final Fantasy for being Final Fantasy, and having the games guide you along with a linear narrative. As a matter of fact, I don't know when linear games became a bad thing. Some games are linear, some are more open, it depends on what type of game the developers are going for. That's what sets great games like Final Fantasy and Fallout apart.
February 17, 2010
Wow, this has never been a problem before: the whole first half of Final Fantasy VI, VII and IX helped keep the titles from becoming mindless fetch quests. Thank you Square, for thinking about the plots before the slots!
February 18, 2010
This whole linearity argument can get silly. If there is a damn good story I want to be lead on a leash so I get the full experience. I know where I can go and where I can't. Open world games are fine but some seem overwhelming (Oblivion) and tedious.
I must say though that while I didn't much care for Oblivion, Fallout 3 was an open world game done well in my opinion.