I hate how Squeenix thinks they need to "westernize" their games. One of the most important things that made final fantasy so great was its blending of Japanese and Western sensibilities.
Plenty of badassery, great action, and a surprising amount of freedom and exploration, much like Western games
But also a lot of the same anime-inspired aesthetics and story
It basically meant that, if you were willing to play an RPG, it had something for everyone. Final Fantasy XIII kinda went in the opposite direction by giving us the worst parts of each style. All the bland, hyper-linearity of more hardcore JRPG's and the preference of Style over substance when it came to gameplay. Not to mention the characters lacked any depth and were basically cliche cardboard cutouts. "the stoic hardass" "The wannabe hero", "The whiny kid who has to grow up", "The sassy black dude", and the other two (Fang and Quirky spice actually had a bit of history, so they're not all bad)
Get what I'm getting at here? Open worlds, more control over the combat, sidequests, shops, so many things. Bring it back!
My Console Library:
PS5, Switch, XSX
PS4, PS3, PS2, PS1, WiiU, Wii, GCN, N64 SNES, XBO, 360
3DS, DS, GBA, Vita, PSP, Android
