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Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama
Immersing myself in a world doesn't equate to having zero input on how anything plays out. And this is coming from somebody who tried every way possible to enjoy FFXIII and still came up short. There's sadly nothing in that game that isn't pre-scripted. The plot progression is layed out (and I know this is cliche by this point) in a linear fashion where the only way to move is forward on the map, but not only that, there's only one way to win each boss battle via paradigm shift so you're not exactly doing much other than doing what the game has prescribed for you. Having no chance to design any sort of strategy really puts a damper on what I've come to know of RPG's from Square Enix.
However the absolute kicker which totally caught me off guard when I found out about it and immediately had me going, "Oh boy this is the death sign", is that the Crystogen system, the system that the team behind FFXIII came up with to govern stat growth, is also pre-scripted. All my dreams of getting an updated Sphere Grid system were shattered when I realized that the Crystogen system is also laid out as a straight line and that your growth rates are capped by the chapter such that any replay you might do your growth rates are going to turn out exactly the same each and every time. There's no room for experimentation with it because it doesn't allow for it by it's very nature. This to me was unforgivable and what ultimately brought the game down for me. Honestly I'd never have believed Square Enix could come up with such a borked character growth system, but there it is and it's easily the worst character growth system I have ever seen in an RPG.
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You're remembering FFX with rose-colored glasses. The sphere grid was very linear in that you just kept moving forward and forward and forward until you got a zillion sphere grid level 1-4 unlocks and teleport spheres that allowed you to go nuts and do things like have Yuna doublecast ultima for 1 mana because of her celestial weapon.
Heck, before that, on the SNES, and even later in FFVII, it was "you leveled up, you got some stats, huzzah".
This whole idea of character building/customization/yadda yadda yadda is just something that never really caught on with me. I always saw an RPG as a story to play through, and whether or not you were able to customize your characters or they just progressed in a pre-scripted fashion didn't really matter to me so long as I could get through the game.
I mean if my party consists of some beefcake, his supermodel Ms. Fanservice girlfriend with a slight talent in magic, a bespectacled meganekko, some indigenous cute little fuzzy plucky relief character, and so on, I don't want to have to think whether I want to make my beefcake an elemental soldier or really strong big-sword swinging bruiser, to make his Ms. Fanservice girlfriend into a white, blue, black, red, green, or purple with orange polka dots mage (or to try to have her boobs of steel self become a fighter), for the meganekko to specialize in healing or assault tech, and for my plucky comic relief character to do one of a zillion different things.
Just advance the characters for me as to how the game should be progressing, and no need to get fancy to the point that "oh hey you should make character X into Y, character A into B, character K into L, etc..." guides. Because no matter how you customize your characters, the story doesn't change.