- Get rid of the turn-based combat and replace it with something real-time, or maybe something like Kingdom Hearts. I know it requires more strategy than Darksiders or Crash Bandicoot, but the fact remains that turn-based combat isn't as engaging. How about doing something like Shadow of the Colossus?
- Get rid of the randomised dungeons. No matter how hard you guys try to justify them, they will never fully make sense with their given context. Also, make the dungeon halls bigger (like in Thief) and genuinely reward diligent exploration.
- Please stop making the girls beat up the guys and/or screw them over. This was hardly funny the first time, but when you repeat the same joke time and time again, it begins to lose its charm. It's not even that funny to be honest, especially when mainstream anime has been marching in line behind Final Fantasy VII for a good 13 years now and the joke's falling apart. Which reminds me:
- Put in different character archetypes. We see the same thing over and over again: mute protagonist, tomboyish girl that beats up comic relief idiot #1, elegant girl, tough guy, comic relief idiot #2 (or: mysterious entity that is somehow connected to the overarching plot that is also played as comic relief). These are all roads well-travelled. Well-travelled to the point that if I see a comically stupid adult (Ikutsuki and Adachi), I know they're the villain. How about a genuine mute or maybe a passive-aggressive otaku?
- Make the dialogue choices the player makes have significantly more impact on the story than bugger all. I liked in Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call where you have access to six different endings to suit your tastes and give your own sense of absolution. Nowadays, the absolution is always given to us in its entirety and destroys the role-playing aspect.
On a side note, could you guys over at Atlus explain to me why the children bother to go into the dungeons themselves when they have Personae at their side?