See the thing is "purists" don't really even pay attention to other FF games when they make all of their nonsense comments. No one ever remembers the barrel do they? How about the bug? WHAT ABOUT THE CANOE!?
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I'm sorry but taking examples from any of Motomu Toriyama's recent games in order to give some FF cred to an argument is a non-starter for traditionalists.
Bring up FF in any discussion forum on the internets and you'll quickly get bombarded with people complaining about how SE doesn't make good games anymore.
Press further and their complaints are nearly all the same. Namely: that the goofy j-pop characters, cheesy dialogue, overly sci-fi worlds, CS heavy, and increasingly linear gameplay of FFVIII, FFX, and FFXIII have derailed the series.
On the barrel (submarine) and Canoe.. Yeah, I think those would be fine in FFXIV. In fact, the designs for the entrance to the Ixali base in the concept art have nifty balloon gondola lifts for carrying players through the mountains. There is also a train system planned. I find nothing wrong with either of these as they are integrated to the overall game design.
I confess that I'd even be a fan of the Goobbue mounts if they were restricted to a specific area and given a real purpose. (ie. if they were neccessary for passing a swamp that chocobos couldn't travel). But rather than being integrated into the game, they appear to be an gimmicky trinket that will undoubtedly be exploited by our population of in-game attention-whores.
I hope I'm wrong about that.
FF8 was as linear as it gets and with it's silly levelling system it was actually worth it to NOT experience any extra content.
And saying 8 is one of the best yet is absolute bonkers. IMO it's absolutely one of the worst in the series by a long shot.
While not as linear as X or XIII, it was the beginning of the trend.
It also proves that people don't realize how linear FFs have been even prior to X. You may get to do other stuff at some point but for the most part it's as linear as it can get, 8 in particular.
Also while 7 was very convoluted, 8 was even more so -- I get the whole "GF messing with memory" thing but it's a very large stretch of the imagination that prior to us controlling the characters they'd have no memory of each other let alone of growing up -- It does make for an interesting plot point...but really, Auron's story was a lot more coherent.
You know if they told you where to go in FF1 it'd prolly be just as linear.
Wait I mean I like the idea of a goobue.
I liked 9.
Good balance of direction and openness. Really though, comparing the art direction of X (or any other of Toriyama's games) to XIV is kinda off. They're a world of difference as style goes.