If the player is interested in exploring, they are going to do that and probably seek out other paths or fields to find the treasure chests & outside items.

Great example is Chapter 2: The common player may run through this level in a straight line, engaging in fights as they go. But the player who wishes to explore might do some backtracking, using the ice-ledges to reach a nice assortment of optional areas — most of which contain treasure spheres and battles.

Including the ice-cliffs area, the range of challenges in Chapter 2 for branching paths actually contains quite a number of choices. Only thing is if you do go backwards, just to travel to these areas, the fights you run into are punishing.

Also of interesting note: The player who seeks to explore more, will find that the items in these treasure spheres can immediately be used to upgrade their weapons or enhance their performance – even if they don’t do the job right then and there. When you later enter areas like Chapter 4, the non-linear / multi-linear aspect returns again. The weapon upgrades from these treasure spheres make the more punishing battles in that same area go a lot easier, usually by exploiting a weakness. Such as resist ice accessories, or a weapon that causes fire damage 30% on contact.

This to me proves that the game design is even non-linear in the pre-game phase of the first chapters, because it intentionally places branching paths in areas common players aren’t likely going to wish to backtrack. Each path for some reason, always leads to an item or set of items which make those random battles easier.

So if you were to truly explore Chapter 4, you could make the coming battles easier. But if you just run straight through, you could still do well, it will just be harder. Either way none of these rewards, except for maybe the Amulet, alter the game’s pace.

Once you get to Fifth Ark, I would say this place is the first truly non-linear map. Players seeking to reach the end in the fastest time will run straight through. But players who wish to explore, will probably get lost quite a bit in its corridors….and what I would often find, are treasure chests / optional fights in those corridors.

Again the items here would freely allow you to upgrade your weapon on the spot, and the upgrades performed would actually make the same area’s fights easier. I found that strange. Every single treasure sphere you had to work to locate, would give you upgrades that exploited the weaknesses of the enemies in that area.

Square’s message appears to be: Run straight through, you’ll get through the game faster. But explore the world carefully, and you might get through the game easier.

Many areas of the Fifth Ark exploit this religiously. You can backtrack to totally optional areas where tougher fights await. Choosing one path is not always ideal, choosing a different path allows you to perform a back attack on the enemy.

Again the whole overall design of Fifth Ark seems to be an open book while still moving towards one goal. FF10 was linear in the same way, you could backtrack and doing so yielded better rewards but it got increasingly tough to choose other paths as there would be tougher fights blocking it.

Arrival on Gran Pulse: This whole area is a massively non-linear world. You aren’t required to complete missions or unlock chocobos, yet you can.

It directs you to raise your level, but you can choose how to do that. Fighting behemoths or other enemies might be the way to progress, then go through mah’Habara caves.

Or another alternative way, might be to equip the Wind Charm which strangely eats all wind damage on a regular basis. This causes most of the wandering enemies near the cliff areas to be an easy fight, because the wind damage is absorbed by your armor. I also found it fascinating you can find the Wind Charm, being guarded by the wind elemental fiends in a huge circle. It’s as if Square said “The more you explore, the easier the game might be as you can exploit the enemy weaknesses.” but at the same time….they also said it’s all your choice. You don’t have to explore.

You can kill the same pack of wolves or something nearly the cave entrance, then once at the proper level proceed through mah’Habara. Finally at Taejin’s Tower you can take the only required ci’eth stone missions and race to the ending.

But, Square has also said that if you do explore….there might be better rewards that make things easier. Well they weren’t kidding, because if you kill a huge pack of those wolf beast type enemies you can obtain the Fire Charm. Again, this item absorbs fire damage by actually healing you!

And what is it guarded by? Behemoth Kings. If I choose to, I can therefore win the Fire Charm and fight a roaming pack of Behemoth Beasts that will heal my party each time it uses the Fire attack. I can then upgrade my Crystals, and easily pass through mah’Habara without anymore worry.

Then if I return to Gran Pulse, I can then assault all 60 of the optional missions….I can unlock Chocobos…..I can then obtain all the treasure spheres. Another interesting thing I found is the rewards from the side-quests: Getting a perfect score on Vile Peaks Pulse Armament game gives me a Spark Ring. This ring nearly halves/eliminates the lightning damage I’ll receive from the same boss and wandering enemy in this area.

It also cuts it down significantly, when fighting Odin or the soldiers. Most players won’t even obtain this, as you have to kill all the soldiers while Hope is in the mech. So Square again is saying to players, exploration leads to helpful bonuses for the game.

Another example from side-quests: Seizing the chocobo chick gives me feathers which when added to weapons/accessories boosts my speed & adds experience bonus. It makes things that cause you to go faster. It’s as if Square is saying, “run as fast as chocobos do and you might do better”

And yet another one: The sheep game which takes a while to find. Each time you get the wool and change the weather, fights seem to get tougher and the wool changes again. When you combine the wools together, it adds a huge experience multiplier + damage reduction. Up to 200% experience boost can be gained. Its like Square once again saying “Graze with the sheep and you may gain their wisdom, along with their thick sturdy hides.”

So I’m not sure anymore what Square was planning with this game. I think it is equally linear and non-linear, that’s about it though. Players who are after non-linear exploration seem to always be rewarded for doing it, with items that actually assist with the difficult battles. But at the same time, back-tracking in a dungeon when time is not on your side nets you fight after fight…..thus people who wish to get through fast are unlikely to have any desire to explore.

Meaning even the earliest levels are deliberately as linear as the player wants them to be, though they can also be non-linear…varying by whoever holds the controller.

Personally, after playing the first few hours of MGS4, I realized FFXIII’s linearity wasn’t bad at all. That game gave you no direction from the get go, and as a long time Metal Gear fan, I was lost right away.

The almost useless minimap in FFXIII was the only thing that hammered the linearity a bit too hard.

A lot of the criticism I see of the game comes from these weird interpretations of poorly translated articles about internal strife at Square Enix. This seems a bit counterintuitive to me. I don’t really read previews or interviews or even reviews before I play most games, because I hate having my perception of the play experience affected by an external opinion. It seems to me that the people who like this game came into it with little more than the knowledge that the thing had been trimmed down, that it represented a major change. The average opinion from most reviews, I think, comes down to this: reviewers got their hands on it, they figured that fans of the series would uncritically laud every aspect of it, so they wrote unjustified slam pieces in an attempt to make their reviews stand out. Then it turned out they all said the same thing and failed to appreciate anything about the game that’s good (except for the graphics), which is in fact their job—even though they don’t know it.

As you can tell, I don’t hold most game reviewers in high regard That said, I can appreciate that, from a consumer perspective, it’s good to warn people that this game might not be how they want to spend their monthly gaming fund. I just don’t write for consumers.

Like I’ve said in posts on other sites, exploring towns, playing mini-games and ransacking people’s houses under their noses in RPGs was never something I took for granted, and it’s not something I criticize this game for lacking. The developers took the traditional formula, trimmed away all the fat, and presented a streamlined and totally intentional piece of gaming. Nothing they did or that happens in this game is on accident, and I’m very glad that I found a “review” that not only shared my views (but I’m just not well-versed enough to put it as you have ) but solidified them. Linearity does not mean bad. It never has, because one thing that people fail to realize is that almost every FF game in the last 10 years or prior has been linear, they just did different things to shroud this fact. I am extremely glad that FFXIII did nothing to hide any of its purposes.

The developers have been quoted many times as presenting the game in two very different stages, and quite intentionally: Cocoon – extremely story driven and focused on pushing the player to a specific end while acclimating them to the game’s systems; Pulse – throwing out the previous formula and introducing freedom of choice in where to go, what enemies to battle, how and when to ultimately proceed. All in all, I’m very impressed with this piece and I hope that you push to publish it in many more mediums and sites, as I think it’s something that can easily open the eyes of people who’ve dismissed this great game for it’s qualities that have been mistaken for flaws. It’s purposeful and exacting in it’s nature, and I enjoyed it very much. Still am! (75 hours and counting, 5 hours post game)