I really do like RPGs, but I'm a bit suspicious of sandbox RPGs.
FF12 was flirting with that, and the problem was it had to sacrifice a lot of story to do the sandbox thing. Unlike the other Final Fantasies, the stakes were pretty low, because nothing could change - if you change something, you restrict the absolute freedom of the player. Other Final Fantasies destroyed whole cities and wiped places off the map, but FF12 couldn't because it would restrict the player.
Once you go in for the non-linear storyline sandbox seems to need, you lose something of the storytelling. Those are just my personal tastes, though :)
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FF12 was flirting with that, and the problem was it had to sacrifice a lot of story to do the sandbox thing. Unlike the other Final Fantasies, the stakes were pretty low, because nothing could change - if you change something, you restrict the absolute freedom of the player. Other Final Fantasies destroyed whole cities and wiped places off the map, but FF12 couldn't because it would restrict the player.
Once you go in for the non-linear storyline sandbox seems to need, you lose something of the storytelling. Those are just my personal tastes, though :)