Game Design: Openness and Player Choice

[Koh]

Oh, I was speaking in general. The game can use the enemies to hint at a direction the player should travel in, but not require them to do so. So first time players follow a certain path of progression, while experienced players know how to get the best of sequence breaking.

This can be obnoxious when done wrong, like Final Fantasy 2. Firion and gang, if you have them cross the bridge just west of the starting town, which any reasonable person might do when looking around, they'll encounter monsters that are so much outrageously stronger than they are, that it's instantly a game over. This is really only a problem in turn-based RPGs like that, since in those cases, the monsters will always go first, and your party will eat the dirt in a matter of seconds. In realtime games, however, there's a bit more leniency.