that's the point; if its an effective illusion then it's not linear. If it doesn't feel linear then it's not linear: what is linearity beyond the appearance of linearity (or anything for that matter)? It's just feels too much like corridor action, unlike all previous iterations, where I had towns to explore, minigames to sidetrack myself, and a world map with hidden goodies if I took the time to explore (even FF 12 had "secret" areas, despite the lack of a world map). Yes there is a plot that acts as the driving force, but it's well hidden and paced wonderfully: ff 13 is just pushing me forward, constantly.
I know people often say that NPCs in towns say mundane things like "the weather is lovely" or that towns can be reduced to buying equipment, but that's not true. Towns flesh out the world: I can explore the houses and find hidden treasures, or stumble upon quirky NPCs. If the NPCs are boring in towns, it's nothing to do with the intrinsic value of towns, but poor writing. NPCs give the world a certain charm, and all the other FFs had this (except for 12, in terms of interesting NPCs). I feel like I'm in a vibrant high fantasy setting with all the other ffs, but in 13 it's just one long corridor.
Not only that, but most ffs ae plot and character heavy, while this one is character heavy, while the characters are not compelling. Sazh is pretty cool, but vanille (terrible), fang (dull), snow (kinda cool in a weird way but WAY too anime style), and hope (just not likable). Lightning is alright as well, but not enough to lift the rest of the cast. The game just leaves me feeling empty. I stopped at chapter 11 (gran pulse kinda sucks to me I'll be honest) and have no motivation to go back. I just want to play ff7 because it made me miss ff.