FFXIII bosses: We don’t listen to critics too much

With Final Fantasy XIII‘s Western release less than a month away, early reviews for the game have already started to surface. Thing is, not everybody’s happy about the game. Square Enix, however, doesn’t care.

With Final Fantasy XIII‘s Western release less than a month away, early reviews for the game have already started to surface. Thing is, not everybody’s happy about the game. Square Enix, however, doesn’t care.

“We try not to listen to the critics too much. Most of the criticisms have come because the first half of the game is very linear,” producer Yoshinori Kitase recently told gaming mag Xbox World 360. “But we’ve got a story to tell, and it’s important the player can engage with the characters and the world they inhabit before letting them loose…”

Director Motomu Toriyama also chimed in, explaining away negative reactions as rooted in the west’s exposure to open-world RPGs.

“We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view. When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like… [It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you’re given that much freedom,” he explained.

Of the print reviews released so far, Game Informer’s 9.25 score is the highest, with PSM3 Magazine’s 70% score the lowest. Final Fantasy XIII comes out on March 9.

Via [CVG]