4 hours in. Is the game linear?

[La Gourde de Gaara]

I'm starting to get a feel that it's extremely linear. Everything is as direct as it can be, there's no room to roam.

[Stoibs]

I kind of get the complaint though; so far every time I've been able to move around on the world map it has *literally* been a 1-path corridor, with maybe a fishing pond along the way.
At times it makes me wonder why it exists at all unless it does open up a little later on..?

(When entering the pirate town for the first time there was out of place sign postings and roadblocks all around the staircases blocking access and railroading me to the tavern also.. wtf I can't even explore this town before tripping this scripted event?)

I mean, even in Chrono Trigger the illusion of linearity was lessened a whole lot by being able to wander around most places on the starting continent, and when you hit the future era there's several biomes you can head off to if you want along with the whole sewer thing etc.

BoF3 is a nice comparison which comes to mind also. The narrative has the same level of linearity as these ones for the first entire half of the game, but the times when you are wandering the world map you don't feel constricted, and there's enough 360 movement to explore off the beaten path and find little secret areas/Masters or hidden fishing spots etc.

[This PC]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Relative unit:

You mean the game that gives you a space ship that allows time and overworld travel? Or that allows you to fight the final boss at like 4 or 5 different points of the game? I don't know why you people keep pretending that CT was linear.

I don't why you'd present CT as a non-linear game just because you can choose when to beat lavos, on a first playthrough, it's irrelevant, you'll get smashed in a majority of cases with no chances. "You have the choice to throw yourself off any bridge, though you die and the game ends if you do that, but hey, it's still choice!" is a really asinine argument to dunk on sos.

[This PC]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

snip

You should probably get to the point where the game actually opens up before speaking like you're an expert on the matter. Again, CT doesn't open up until much later in the game and you're forced to walk a very defined path until then.

[Stoibs]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von This PC:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

snip

You should probably get to the point where the game actually opens up before speaking like you're an expert on the matter. Again, CT doesn't open up until much later in the game and you're forced to walk a very defined path until then.

Calm down, I'm not claiming to be some grand expert. I'm comparing my experiences with these games at the same amount of playtime, and *so far* I can see where the Op is coming from.

If it opens up at some point then great.

[Weltall8000]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

I kind of get the complaint though; so far every time I've been able to move around on the world map it has *literally* been a 1-path corridor, with maybe a fishing pond along the way.
At times it makes me wonder why it exists at all unless it does open up a little later on..?

(When entering the pirate town for the first time there was out of place sign postings and roadblocks all around the staircases blocking access and railroading me to the tavern also.. wtf I can't even explore this town before tripping this scripted event?)

I mean, even in Chrono Trigger the illusion of linearity was lessened a whole lot by being able to wander around most places on the starting continent, and when you hit the future era there's several biomes you can head off to if you want along with the whole sewer thing etc.

BoF3 is a nice comparison which comes to mind also. The narrative has the same level of linearity as these ones for the first entire half of the game, but the times when you are wandering the world map you don't feel constricted, and there's enough 360 movement to explore off the beaten path and find little secret areas/Masters or hidden fishing spots etc.

If you're talking about Brisk, I walked around and climbed buildings gathering chests and found the secret store before ever going and talking to the pirates/going to the tavern.

Yeah...that illusion of non linearity was an illusion until late in the game.

[Stoibs]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Weltall8000:

If you're talking about Brisk, I walked around and climbed buildings gathering chests and found the secret store before ever going and talking to the pirates/going to the tavern.

Weird, I remember there being bizarre roadblocks everywhere for me.

[Xendhaius]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Weltall8000:

If you're talking about Brisk, I walked around and climbed buildings gathering chests and found the secret store before ever going and talking to the pirates/going to the tavern.

Weird, I remember there being bizarre roadblocks everywhere for me.

The signs gating off the areas from that immediate direction are indeed there. It's just that there's so many methods of traversing the town they are rendered functionally pointless beyond their contents telling you which direction the ship is.

Outside of an area that requires an item you will not obtain until much later in the game and a location in the city that doesn't even exist yet Brisk can be explored in it's near entirety upon your first visit before even entering the tavern.

[This PC]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

Calm down, I'm not claiming to be some grand expert. I'm comparing my experiences with these games at the same amount of playtime, and *so far* I can see where the Op is coming from.

If it opens up at some point then great.

You've played 7 hours, the game hasn't opened up on CT either after 7 hours.
Also please don't assume am not calm ? I'm not sure why you're seeing tone behind text where there's none.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

Weird, I remember there being bizarre roadblocks everywhere for me.

They're only there until you've talked to the pirates.

[Stoibs]

Ah ok. In hindsight I guess it's a meta joke to coincide with that 4th wall breaking crew member spouting the JRPG tropes that went over my head at the time?

[Stoibs]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von This PC:

You've played 7 hours, the game hasn't opened up on CT either after 7 hours.

Both the things I brought up in CT and BoF3 have within that timeframe, unless you're spending hours grinding.

Like I said it's an early observation, that by the sounds of you guys insisting otherwise hopefully goes away soon in time.

[Melodia]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Army of Optimists:

The only mainstream and truly nonlinear RPG from the SNES era is FF6. The World of Ruin is very open once you get the Falcon.

Which, plotwise, is right before the final dungeon.

FFVI does have a bit more freedom in various ways than most JRPGs of the time but even that is still mostly on rails.

Again, not only does Sea of Stars open up to exploration maybe halfway through (a pretty typical spot I would say) it even SPECIFICALLY tells you that you can ignore the spot the plot wants you to go and check somewhere else first.

[rockingandrollinghaj]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Relative unit:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von NewMoonShadow:

Have you ever played the old 16-Bit RPG's that inspired it?

You mean the game that gives you a space ship that allows time and overworld travel? Or that allows you to fight the final boss at like 4 or 5 different points of the game? I don't know why you people keep pretending that CT was linear.

because these are kids that watched CT played on YouTube. They didn't actually play the game

[This PC]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stoibs:

Both the things I brought up in CT and BoF3 have within that timeframe, unless you're spending hours grinding. :csd2sick:

Like I said it's an early observation, that by the sounds of you guys insisting otherwise hopefully goes away soon in time.

How does CT open up more and when ?

[This PC]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von rockingandrollinghaj:

because these are kids that watched CT played on YouTube. They didn't actually play the game

Well no one here actually played this game enough to talk about it in depth either. I played a hellofalot of CT and well, besides one side dungeon you can do on your first trek to the future, I find it hard to understand how you can branch until way later in the game. ;p

Am at 30 hours at this point in the game and a majority of these hours have been spent with the means to go about wherever I want in the world, and I been collecting secrets for the past 5 hours. ;p

[Stoibs]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von This PC:

How does CT open up more and when ?

We were just talking about illusion of non linearity and openness in general/worldmap exploration at that point in the conversation.

As soon as you leave Crono's house you can wander about the starting continents and even grind in the forest with your toy sword if you really want. So far the world map I've seen in SoS has been narrow corridors from point A to B that don't even need to exist. (And 2300AD within 7.5hrs isn't crazy, though admittedly on replays these days I do spend a bit of time in the carnival and grinding in general :P)

Ursprünglich geschrieben von This PC:

Well no one here actually played this game enough to talk about it in depth either.

Unfortunate release schedule
Sandwiched between all these major releases and other RPG's. Still trying to crawl through JA3 and BG3, let alone Starfield tomorrow.
The things I'm reading here about it apparently opening up much more sounds good though.

Honestly I'm not even that concerned about the linearity really, I think it's just this slow start (The entire flashback prologue.. ugh) and somewhat uninteresting narrative/writing in general so far up to where I am now that is bothering me more than anything.
The story just hasn't gripped me as much as say Chrono/FF6 at this many hrs in, which is concerning (Even something like Terranigma has a notoriously awful gameplay loop for hours; but the concept of the "world" and who I am and what I'm doing in that beginning was enough to draw me in and remain interested to see it pay off)