I'm not sure if it can. Going back to basics would be nice though. If the next major Final Fantasy is something along the lines of Final Fantasy 9, that would probably help. It would also help if the combat had more feeling of Agency. After playing Final Fantasy 13 for a hundred hours, even though I *knew* I was better at the game - There is a learning curve despite what people say and proper inputs are important - the game doesn't FEEL like it has agency. Only controlling a single character and even then inputting commands largely in the form of auto-battle really lowered the bar in terms of Combat Agency.
But thematically, and even in terms of game design, FF13, largely considered a major hiccup in the Final Fantasy series, is almost spot on with FF6, FF7, FF8, all the "greats". It's narrative is delivered a little hamfistedly, and it does lead you by the nose a little bit, and those games, particularly 7 and 8, had a LOT more to do in them.. but Thematically, they're basically the same. I re-discovered Final Fantasy 6 while playing Final Fantasy 13, and my initial thought was "Wow, they could basically turn FF6 into FF13 and it wouldn't necessarily look any different" and that thought lead to "holy shit, these are basically the same games."
The problem is, Square has focused more and more on "realistic" representations of characters, in a genre of games that is absolutely the least "realistic" in terms of... everything. Final Fantasy "cities" are tiny little hubs with scant few buildings with a couple of people wandering around. The sense of scale was corrected in FF12, and in FF13 it was largely impossible to get a sense of scale initially as its setting was described in such an assinine manner, but really Final Fantasy doesn't exist in anything resembling the real world.
And the closer Square gets to actualized realism, the further the logical leap our brain is forced to perform when trying to hold the contrary ideas of Realistic Characters in Wildly Cartoonishly Unrealistic setting in our head at the same time.
And can I just say right here, while we're on the subject of "good" final fantasy games.. Final Fantasy 6 had absolutely the worst, most attrocious, let down of an ending ever. If you count Mass Effect 3 as a single game and judge its ending based on the game itself and not as the culmination of a trilogy, Final Fantasy 6 absolutely blows it out of the water in terms of horrendousness. Final Fantasy 6 has a really dark setting. The World of Ruin is a depressing, depressing place, barely held in check by a crazy megalomaniac with unlimited power who wipes cities off the map on a whim.
And then after killing said megalomaniac and destroying the source of all of the heroes powers, leaving them stranded at the top of a treacherous perilous tower with no magic left.. None of their power left... they have a HILARIOUS little jaunt down the side of the tower getting into all sorts of wacky hijinx and misadventures. Honestly, when I played the game as a kid, I didn't see the ending often enough to realize how utterly bad it was, but this time, playing through it now, I was VERY engrossed in the game. I was grokking Final Fantasy 6 on a level that I never even pondered existence of..... and the ending was a slap in the face... an insult 15 years in the making. But maybe I'm being Melodramatic.. but if you could be there, when I finally beat it again after all these years... the disappointment was palpable.
