@starlightcityentert YES!
That is precisely my problem with FF13. It feels like the entire game is just me being railroaded through an endless corridor, stopping for plot-sequences and bouts of fighting. It feels claustrophobic, almost. It's like the game is a tour guide, point out all these cool-looking places as we pass them by, but never allowing me to explore them.
... It doesn't help that the characters haven't exactly made much of an expression on me either. Lightning's design is cool, but her personality isn't my cup of tea, and the rest of the cast feels kind of vague. The only one who's won my sympathies so far is Sazh, who at least feels human - but that's not enough to keep me playing the game.
Honestly, I wish they'd just stop making Final Fantasies. There's so much that goes with the concept - so many trappings and tropes (gotta have chocobos or references to them, gotta have a Cid, got to have x, y, z and the other thing, etc., etc.) that I feel it's impossible for them to make an FF-game that is a.) faithful to the beloved concept, and b.) innovative in any real sense at the same time. You drop too many of the established series-mainstays, and the fans complain. You don't innovate, and you will stagnate.
They'd do better to just let the series die with some scraps of dignity, and start over with a clean slate.
/babble
