Kitase explains the real reason for FFXIII corridor levels

[recursivelyenumerable]

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201202/06009506.html

this is mostly about FFXIII-2, but in passing he talks about regrets from the previous game ...

Basically he says that originally the FFXIII levels were much bigger and more complex,  but when they eventually got to the point when the levels were actually playable, people kept getting lost. If they'd had more time for polish they would have tried to solve the problem via lighting adjustments and other less ham-handed methods, but unfortunately the problem was discovered so late in development that they ended up resorting to just yanking out most of the branches and side paths.

[Himu]

Omg

[maxy]

wut?

[recursivelyenumerable]

I am stretching the truth and trolling a bit here, as someone who actually understands the Japanese will no doubt shortly inform you 

However, he does say the maps were originally more complex and they removed a lot of branches and side paths due to people getting lost and them not having enough time to come up with a better solution than removing branches and side paths. He's talking specifically about the Gapra Whitewood area, but I bet it applies to other maps too.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

It is painfully obvious FFXIII was a game where people dicked around on it for four years and then slapped a game together for the fifth year.

Nobody's buying this excuse, kind of like how the original statement was that the characters are on the run and the game is trying to convey that feeling.

[Bebpo]

"when we told the world it was 80% complete - we had one character running around on a blue background. We were told to get the fucking game out and to stop pissing about. The game was clearly never playtested by a single person. I'm a lying fuck. So sorry"

Yeah, Kitase is probably the least truthful person in all of SE.  Would not trust anything he says.  He just makes up excuses on the fly.

[Sho Nuff]

"THIS IS TOO CONFUSING, THROW OUT ALL THE WORK"

[recursivelyenumerable]

Nobody's buying this excuse, kind of like how the original statement was that the characters are on the run and the game is trying to convey that feeling.

No it's still because they're on the run and it's trying to convey that feeling, that's the reason they put such a high value on avoiding people getting lost. It was actually mentioned in interviews around the time of the game's release that they cut out a lot of content from the maps because people were getting lost, the new thing in this interview is that he admitted that if they'd had more time they probably could've come up with a better way to avoid people getting lost (and convey the feeling of being on the run etc etc), other than cutting most of the branches.

[Mr. Gundam]

PEOPLE ARE DUMB AND GET LOST EASILY