That’s what this game is quite guilty of.

Too bad there’s already a game called Mother, because it also would have been fitting for Final Fantasy XIII! It holds your hand, like a little child whose eyes are blinded by the bright lights of the shiny new world.

Import hype for this game dictated preemptive poor impressions for this title. It was called “hallway simulator” and “too linear” by many netizens. Many of these qualms were crushed under its domestic release here in the states. Whereupon playing the game in English, many understood why it was so linear for a good chunk of the game.

Without spoiling it, let’s just say that the party is “on the run” from an enemy. To me, it made sense to have a very narrow scope of travel between destinations. There are exceptions for older games in which a party is on the run only for a brief while, where you get to ride in airships etc.

Oddly enough, its linearity wasn’t what bugged me about Final Fantasy XIII, it was the fact it held your hand like an all-knowing matriarch trying to convince you that it’s for your own good. Why does this bug me so much, though? Why can’t I just shut up and act like the good fanboy that I am (truly)?

Because this game takes its audience for granted, and that is a bit upsetting coming from this particular series. Remember in that one book where the guy says, “Stay gold, ponyboy. Stay gold?” I don’t mind change, there are some ridiculous changes in series that I actually appreciate.

This game didn’t stay gold. When Final Fantasy X got rid of the world map, that took me a while to get used to; however, it was still gold. The player can’t level up, change party positions, can’t upgrade, and is severly limited on a few other fronts for a majority of the game.

Many games these days are guilty of this sort of behavior. They are programmed to hold our hand, I feel, because of the mainstream acceptance of gaming. Making an awesome game like Ys where it just drops you on a world map and says “Go!” just wouldn’t fly in this modern era.

This is an age where JRPGs are being accused of being stagnant and not changing up the formula enough. FF13 changed up the formula, and is nowhere near stagnant. But at what cost?

The game doesn’t give you certain features until it “logically” makes sense in the game. After playing through most of it, it makes sense to leave some things until later. For some stuff though, it’s MUCH later.

I rather enjoyed my play time with Final Fantasy XIII, but it’s guilty of holding my hand just like many other AAA games are guilty of. Some do it via QTEs or cutscenes instead of letting you fight (RE5, MGS4, UC2). FF13 does it by simply not introducing certain game elements until much later, and it’s somewhat insulting.

I suppose they have realized that their audience has changed, and that’s OK too. This sort of thing is a staple of modern gaming. I just hope that the series at least makes attempts of sticking to its roots. Do something to remind me that it’s a Final Fantasy game, and not just some random Square-Enix quota-meeter.

The game is still pretty fun, once you can get over the fact that it’s so drastically different. Once you realize that it’s just adapted for what the series has truly become, I think you can start to enjoy it. It’s not exactly a shining star at first, but then it really grows on you.