hummersoppa

Yes, older jRPGs might have been linear to an extent, but at least they had the illusion of being very open and large. The overworld map gave a the player a feeling of how the setting/the world that the adventure took part in looked. Even if there was an objective, say in town A - the player had the ability to explore the world before going there and so on. If you take FF13 for example, there is not even an ilussion of an open world since it's just a corridor. And yes - it opens up a bit in the end but it's still just pretty linear.

The newer RPGs also tend to be a little more "gritty" looking and less green and beautiful. Compare Final Fantasy 13 / Lost Odyseey etc with a game like Tales of Vesperia and No ni kuni and you understand what I mean. Games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Lufia 2 etc they all had some darker elements but newer games seem to be based upon cold, barren, molten, destroyed areas. Not many green, lush towns or warm environments anymore.

I just wish that story and setting was always prioritized over graphics and video sequences.

I don't know what I will accomplish by writing this but there seems to be a worrying trend when it comes to new jRPGs when compared to tradition.

• More linearity.
• More focus on graphics than actual character indepth.
• No overworld maps to travel.

Why do you think the direction for new jRPGs are moving towards these points, Final Fantasy being the biggest example. And also, what modern current era games are more true to the traditional formula? The only jRPG I can think of for the 360 that holds true to the old formula, has a world map etc is Tales of Vesperia.