Final Fantasy XIII Director on Western Reviewers' Slant

This bit of news hit particularly close to home since I'm handling the FFXIII review for Gaming Age.  While Final Fantasy XIII is still receiving very good review scores across the globe, a CVG article points to this quote by director Motomu Toriyama:

 "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."

So, first let me say that I agree.  Perhaps I'm in the minority of westerners that like linearity in my RPGs, but I hate thinking that I may have missed something in an open world game.  Covering every square inch of the world to make sure that doesn't happen ins't exactly the best use of my time either.

What's more of an issue for me is the implication that the concern is that high for reviewers over how linear an RPG may be.  I think back to the press as a whole as they reviewed Mass Effect.  I remember multiple outlets making remarks along the lines of, "The story and atmosphere are amazing.  The combat...meh, but the atmosphere and writing!"  Sure enough after two attempts at playing through the game myself, I just can't get past the "first person shooter wrapped with a few RPG elements" type of gameplay.  Why wasn't that more important?

If anything, the combat in FFXIII sounds like a total step in the wrong direction, and I'd expect that's what the complaints would be about (they certainly were on NeoGAF).  We're playing games here, right?  We're not watching movies or reading books.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe there are a number of people that don't care that much about the combat system and character development systems in RPGs.  Reviews scores over the last few years would confirm that.