I am not really a jrpg fan anymore. Not since the psone.
FF X in my opinion was way too linear.
That was one of the things I liked about it. It was extremely story driven. There was a constant progression of the game until pretty close to the end when you could wander around if you wanted.
It always annoyed the crap out of me, getting lost trying to figure out where the next town is in 7-9, having the random encounters slowly whittling away at the health of my characters.
I know in FF8, the first time I played it, I wasn't paying close attention when you have to go to the Galbadia Garden the first time, so I missed the tiny little forested area right by the train tracks and ended up wandering all over the place, going back into that city you fight in for the SeeD test. Then later I got lost looking for the missile base and found out cars can run out of gas in that game. Then much later in the game when you have to find the white SeeD ship, and all your told is that they like certain mountain ranges...
I liked the story driven nature of X and even XIII, where there was a very specific reason why you went to this place. In both cases, the plot was driving where the characters went and why. Given the plot of FFX, it wouldn't have really made sense for them to just go wandering around aimlessly and exploring. Same with XIII, except for on Pulse, when they do let you go wandering around exploring.