@thatpinguino said:
@jesus_phish: @sinusoidal: I think JRPG developersforgot that one of their key elements was exploration in addition to story and combat. The more linear JRPGs just miss out on the sense of exploration and discovery that world maps provide in spades.
JRPGs don't really need a world map to be quality games, though. FFX and XIII didn't have them. Persona 3 and 4 don't really have world maps, either. They're just menu screens with map backgrounds. World maps are a great feature to have, but they aren't an obligatory element for making a quality game in the genre.
They don't absolutely have to it, true, but Overworlds did used to be a core part of what those experiences great. At least for me the Overworlds were a significant of my enjoyment of JRPGs. If you enjoyed exploration JRPGs were the best genre to get that experience for nealry a decade
When Overworlds started disappearing en masse in the PS2 era JRPGs and other genres started upping their game on the exploration side (notably EverQuest and other MMORPGs and the rise of Open World Games), I felt JPRGs started to lose a lot of cultural prominence. I think it definitely was a factor in the relative diminishment compared to other genres.
btw is it a World Map or Overworld? I Always thought it was an Overworld because it's playable (random ecnounters, treasures), where a world map is just a map you can view (darn it what happened to the old convention of world maps being mapped to the "seclect" button?)
@thatpinguino this Fat Chocobo quest is part of the padding I mentioned to you previously. Since FF IX has a point of no return if memory serves, it puts a lot of pressure on the player to finish this quest and Ozma etc before moving onto the end.
Of course you can just make a couple saves to go back to and move on, but for the compulsive completionist backloaded treasure hunts like this when massive like that one was (sans Guide) can get overwhelming. Not saying that's a entirely fair complaint, but I definitely think that's a real burnout issue for a lot of folks (myself included). One thing I like most modern Open World games is they usually let you do these things post game now if you so choose. Which removes the psychological barrier so to speak from the end boss run and makes it a more optional task to be completed at the player's whims instead of a job to complete by a perceived deadline.
It sounds totally dumb but it sure takes a lot of the stress out of the treasure hunt experience to let players have at it in post game.
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