Via 1up.
 
Apparently the reason SE is reporting that FFXIII feels more linear and lacks town is due to technical reasons. At least that's the excuse they're throwing around. 
 
In an interview with Ultimania, Kitase and Toriyama claim that rendering towns in high definition is difficult.
 
I think this may also explain some other questionable factors in FFXIII, such as the choice to shift into a battle scene as opposed to fighting mobs in the open world ala FFXII. 
 
Personally, it sounds a bit like a cop-out to me. In my mind, I know they didn't want to take an extra year to get towns in the game and make everything look as good as it does now in FFXIII (keep in mind, this is arguably the best looking game to date), but I also feel like if they had taken an extra year, they could have gone that extra distance.  
 
I do think they underestimated how big of a part of the FF experience towns and exploration really is, though, and sacrificed it in order to get a product out faster. Which is not a good thing.

Via 1up.
 
Apparently the reason SE is reporting that FFXIII feels more linear and lacks town is due to technical reasons. At least that's the excuse they're throwing around. 
 
In an interview with Ultimania, Kitase and Toriyama claim that rendering towns in high definition is difficult.
 
I think this may also explain some other questionable factors in FFXIII, such as the choice to shift into a battle scene as opposed to fighting mobs in the open world ala FFXII. 
 
Personally, it sounds a bit like a cop-out to me. In my mind, I know they didn't want to take an extra year to get towns in the game and make everything look as good as it does now in FFXIII (keep in mind, this is arguably the best looking game to date), but I also feel like if they had taken an extra year, they could have gone that extra distance.  
 
I do think they underestimated how big of a part of the FF experience towns and exploration really is, though, and sacrificed it in order to get a product out faster. Which is not a good thing.

I don't mind not having towns. Honestly, I tend to spend the least amount of time in hub-worlds possible, for any game. KOTOR, any FF, ME2, Kingdom Hearts, etc. It's usually just full of people with nothing good to say, or I get lost, or it just takes too long to get around. They're not all bad, but I won't miss it in FF13.

I thought I saw this thread somewhere before....and yeah it's B.S.
I'll be a little bit more kinder than previous rants. Better yet, it's now being used as they're new excuse for not remaking FFVII. Everyone knows that remaking that game from a design standpoint, would be a chore due to fans and critics conflicting desires and expectations. But now they can throw blame at making games in "high definition", whatever the hell that means. 
Granted, it's a better excuse than: "We got like, scheduling conflicts bro!" 
 
Square on remaking FFVII, regarding NPC's ( Question was regarding God of War HD Release):

If it’s just a case of attaining high resolution graphics, only, then that wouldn’t be that difficult, but if we were to achieve the same graphical standard as in XIII with a PS1 title, then that would be a huge, huge task. Almost unrealistic. Even with a PS2 title it would be difficult. In the case of God of War, there weren’t really that many characters in the game — the main character and some monsters, maybe ten people or so. That would not be unachievable. As with Final Fantasy titles in the past, like on PS1, even just the main characters amount to around 10 people. Then you have all the NPCs, you’re probably looking at about 200 characters total. All with individual textures for the skin, plus costumes, facial features and everything. That would be a really tricky job. 

Is it really THAT hard to make a town? If it is, then I think they kind of backed themselves into a corner by adding so much detail to everything else  in the game. Especially the characters. Everybody is wearing tons of bracelets, jackets, gloves, necklaces, bows, beads, ropes, straps, buckles, dangling ribbons, baggy shirts, pieces of armor, the list goes on and on. It's like there was a sale at the mall where everything was free as long as you put it on and wore it out of the store.

I remember reading an article on this about a month ago.

I don't care if there's a story excuse or technical problems..  Discovering new towns, exploring them, talking to the new people and finding new items in the shops has always been my favourite part of RPG's.  I'm still considering buying the game, simply because it is a FF game, and I may enjoy it when I get into it.. but they're really making it a tough sell, especially coming off the back of ME2.

Personally I don't care. And them explaining themselves will only come across as excuses to people who are already ready to jump all over the game. Villages would be cool I guess but they are not the be all and end all. I am going to be happy to wait to get my hands on the game and just judge based on the merits of whats in there.

Yeah, there was apparently a forum post a little while back about the general issue of laziness on the part of developers.  (And yeah, I accidentally posted this as a forum post at first. Whoops!)
 
I disagree with that stance, though. I do not think it's laziness. I completely think it's driven by the purse. They extrapolate how long it would take them to put together a city and some towns based on the few town-like zones in FFXIII (there are a couple zones with a large number of NPCs that are about as close as the game gets to towns) and decide they would rather get the game out sooner rather than putting in towns.
 
Hand-in-hand with the lack of towns and cities is a lack of side-games of any sort, really. What side-games there are are honestly pretty pathetic compared to those in past FF games. And that does sadden me, because who doesn't remember some of the fun side-games in other FF games of the past? They had honestly become a staple in the series as well, but they're noticeably absent in this one.
 
As for the FFVII remake, I have trouble believing they won't remake it in the future. It's a huge pile of money just waiting to be made for them.

I think the truthful answer would have been that it would have cost more money than they were willing to spend, and it would have taken more time than they were willing to take. I don't think they were lazy, but I don't buy their excuse of it being too difficult tech-wise either.

Hmm, I cant think of a single town in a FF game that I enjoyed running around in (at best I kinda enjoyed the first town in FF7).  I usually disliked running around the towns with a complete lack of direction actually.  Yea, JRPG towns suck balls....Funky camera angles, too many load screens, etc...

I don't mind if FFXIII has towns or not. Though it does kinda suck that "It's too hard" was the reason they decided not to include towns.

Sounds like complete bullshit.