Meh, that annoyed me in X too though. I loved having a world map and being able to explore and go off to little pointless side towns and dungeons if I want. Being stuck on a straight path was bad in X, but it made up for it with a decent story and some fun characters. XIII though, you end up hating at least 90% of the characters, and I personally didn't enjoy the story at all. The sequels were more fun imo, but still lacking.
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