In an interview with Ultimania Magazine, Final Fantasy XIII producer Motomu Toriyama explains the lesser amount of towns in Final Fantasy XIII.
“We made the map and battles function as part of the story,” Toriyama said, “so that players get the same feeling as the characters. To achieve this, we wanted the story to progress non-stop [in a linear fashion], until [a certain chapter].”
Toriyama goes on to blame high-definition visuals as the biggest problem.
“Yes, [a ‘non-stop’ story] is one of the reasons [for the game's linearity] ,but more importantly, it is a result of considering high-definition graphics will be the mainstream. Considering the amount of work to make graphics that deserve high-definition, it is hard to make towns in the conventional style.”
Thanks, The Lost Gamer.
Even if Final Fantasy XIII lacks in towns, I think it will still have that FF feeling to it.
It’s one of those things I am hesitant to comment on until I have played the game. I will say though that as long as the game is compelling, great story and has the FF feel, I don’t really mind about Linearity or anything like that.
One thing I don’t like to think is that the cuts were made simply because of the DVD media; even though that is what many people are saying.