Did anyone beside me play
The Last Story?
It was a Wii game and came in tandem with Xenoblade Chronicles to the West. Xenoblade Chronicles definitely was the greater success (and the better game) but The Last Story was a special JRPG too. It was made by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and the OST came from Final Fantasy legend Nobuo Uematsu.
Many called The Last Story the true Final Fantasy XIII when that game turned out to be such a great disappointement to many.
Here's a trailer of the game:
The game was actually fairly linear...but it had a for that time very big and busy hub town, Lazulis, which you could explore and which connected to the many dungeons:
The main story was pretty good and captivating, not as convoluted as usual with JRPGs and shorter than most JRPGs. There were lots of side quests though and some were actually pretty cool and lengthy. Like investigating a haunted mansion or explore an enchanted island.
The battle system was something special. It was real time action combat mixed with strategy elements. It was a bit tricky and it took some time to learn it but it was super addicting once you got the hang of it. Graphics and music were also great. Especially the art design was amazing... I even bought the Limited Edition back then with a mini artbook: