I mentioned this early, but the level design in something like FFXIII would be improved a lot if the locations made sense or had anything in them.
People compare FFXIII's linear level design to, say, Mass Effect 2's linear level design. On the surface, the comparison is apt - you do indeed follow guided courses and there is often little deviation.
But in Mass Effect 2, locations are littered with objects, flora and fauna, base camps with beakers, documents and rich history. In other words, there is a tangible sense of world building EVEN when you're on a linear course.
In FFXIII, to compare, shit makes no sense. You're always behind a glass, looking out. In Gapra Whitewood, you see all these really pretty crystalline trees, but outside of when you gotta jump off a path, you never interact with any of it. It's just little contained bins, peppered with monsters to slow you down so the game can add time.
Most of all the levels are like this! Even places like Nautilus and Palumpolum are illusions; you can look out at the sights but never, ever touch!
In the Arc level, you're literally going through cavernous empty room after cavernous empty room, with no indication why any race of retarded Gods would want to make such impractical locations which hold nothing. The rooms would make terrible storage facilities for armies the way they are designed!
There's rarely any boxes, no graffiti, no indication that any of this isn't just a really sad rollercoaster, a rubber cage for the jRPG deprived. No indication that any of these locations have ever been lived in. Or time-worn. It might as well just be a background skin. New to FFXV, import your own jpg backgrounds?
