It seems that a lot of people aren't open to something different. You know, towns are definitely awesome in SOME games, but they haven't exactly been something Square has excelled at in the past. I'm not even saying that XIII did this right, as I have not played it yet, but it seems like a silly reason to completely write it off.
There have been other RPGs that don't offer towns, of course. Something like Shin Megami Tensei III had virtually no safe zones in addition to random battles at all times and was extremely popular. Obviously XIII is rather different from THAT game, but I think it demonstrates that there is room for change in the traditional formula. Towns are not a must.
What does one do in most Final Fantasy towns anyways? You have a small collection of random streets along with a number of NPCs standing around, some shops to use, and a single point in which you can advance the story. If you're lucky, you might find some mini-games or side quests, though those are much less common. Really, though, the towns have never been expansive or immersive in any way (outside of a couple examples). Most NPCs have nothing of value to say and there is no exploration to be done (just a few obvious places you can go). When you're done futzing around you then find the trigger point which will continue the story. This type of progression dates back to the very first JRPGs and I feel like removing it in this game isn't necessarily going to be a game breaker.
That's not to say I wouldn't have preferred to see them take a new approach to towns. The old model of Final Fantasy towns is outdated and would not have worked well here. They either needed to evolve them or remove them. Clearly, due to developmental challenges and problems, they designed around them. What I feel they should have attempted is one or two MAJOR towns that offer significant exploration opportunities and sights to take in. Perhaps not as grand as Assassin's Creed II (that city required two years from a major team), but something along those lines on a smaller scale. I know people talk about Grand Pulse as a place where it opens up, but that's still just an open field. A large city later in the game would have worked really well, I think.
