Also Jeff I've played FFX many times and I can't quite see how it's any less linear than 13.
Are you being serious here?
Every single location in FF13 until the very last part is a straight path with no diversions, and you can never return to previous areas.
That's completely incomparable to FF10, where you can turn around at any time and walk all the way back to Besaid, usually finding a ton of new sidequests and stuff along the way.