Oh I loved XIII. I was just pointing out most FF's aren't particularly... well, different, in how they handle random enemy battles. In fact XIII is one of the few FF's where I actually, for one, got to exploit the elemental weakness' and things of that nature, and actually had to use different abilities rather than just mash the attack command on even my mages until the enemy died. X did a good job of this as well though, got to give it credit (at least personally I do) for that.
Whichever works best for the game? A world map would have been pointless for Dirge, where the whole story takes place in just a few cities. X's world would probably look a lot worse from above, considering most if it is apparently empty space. On the other hand, I & VII were very heavily exploration-oriented, so they needed world maps. XII would have been marginally better with a world map, but it was trying to rip off--I mean, emulate--Tactics, so. VI could have probably gotten by without one for the entirety of the World of Balance, on the other hand.
Also, as someone said earlier, neither method really inhibits gameplay. Mose sidequests are contained in 1 or 2 areas, the rest of the world only coming into play to travel between these points of interest. And you're not using the world map once a battle starts. Actually, open field could be more useful for a battle, because it it's an action RPG, then you might be able to actually use the terrain advantageously. Key word: Might. The world map really isn't very active, especially if you're in an airship or on a Chocobo.
And then there's the complaint of linearality. Honestly, I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet. I also don't see why it's a bad thing. I gets criticized for giving poor directions & VII gets criticized for its Jigsaw Puzzle Plot. It's funny to me, because both books & videogames are story-telling mediums, but Choose Your Own Adventure books aren't hugely popular. So, for the story part of the game, I don't see why there's any huge need for exploration. But I also really liked VII's Jigsaw Puzzle Plot, so again, it comes down to what's best for the game. Or at least it should.
World map.
It's a little bit complicated and needs exploration, which I like! XD
Spoiler:
Honestly I've always preferred a World Map system, but the huge downside with it is that very few games I've played can make a world map that doesn't feel... empty. Like I get data space and certain areas not really having anything worth while, like VIII's Island Closest to Heaven/Hell, but on the other hand there are just some games where the world map barely has anything going on in it. Like the towns and story dungeons are the only places that have anything really happening.
But I also don't enjoy the linearity of most hallway-type games. Its the smaller portion of why I truly hate X. Now Linearity isn't bad, like Neo Bahamut stated, but the only one I've seen that has a decent level of exploration is FFXII. XIII and X don't really have anything going on (excluding Pulse, but even then...).
The world map is pretty much a different version of a beautiful hallways.
Oh yeah you can go on into the overworld map but you're pretty much going from point a to point b with very few side areas, the only time you are actually free is when you get a ship of some kind.
Oh, wow. Someone cast Life on this thread. Post away, I suppose, but this topic was mainly to prove a point of mine in another, older thread. <:3
Spoiler:
Well I was going to say world map, but then again my favourite games were (believe it or not) XIII and VII:crisis core. I guess a world map with no randoms would make it a lot more fun to explore though, or the "random" system of dragon quest.
Also in the original FF, I had absolutely no idea where to go 90% of the time. Oh so you are finished here? Go look around a random part of the map for a random town to talk to a random person, while of course having to hack through countless randoms... Yeah maybe hallways are better after all, they also are prettier since the world maps are just to big to get the same quality as hallways.
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Originally Posted by xffixbmlx
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