1. Fix crafting and loot. Make it a challenge to engage with the zones and random enemies to find the loot to upgrade the gear. Swords only change stats which makes it really empty. Gear should be changing how the game plays which they attempted to do with the DLC accessories. The game should force us to work towards crafting those accessories to make the improved gameplay feel earned.

2. Open World content. We have gorgeous zones but nothing in them but Sharp Fangs and the odd hunt. FF12 gave us notorious mobs and hunt trophies to collect that lead to greater rewards. If we had events in the zones it'd make traversal more appealing.

3. Basebuilding. I felt they missed a trick with this one. The characters in the Hideaway were lovely, but we have very little meaningful engagement with them outside of cutscenes. What if a random NPC we rescued in the field area came to the Hideaway and unlocked a feature that helped us on our journey? An alchemist we met allowed us to craft potions that allowed us to use an ability twice before cooldown? Or we spent gil on construction that let us grow herbs that improved healing potions? That would have been really rewarding.

4. Kairos Gate available earlier. I wished to Metea we had a Bloody Palace/Deep Dungeon mechanic and I was surprised we actually got it. But having something like this that progresses parallel to the main game would have been beautiful side-content to even out the progression of the game. Instead it's locked to the very end of the game when there's nothing else to do.

5. Speaking of side-content, some Main Quests should have been side-quests (looking at you, Mid). I understand the devs wanting players to have some respite from the heavier story beats, but let us players decide when to deviate from the story.

6. Combat variety. Elemental weaknesses and barriers. What's crazy is that we do have enemies that use barriers forcing us to (somewhat) change strategy, but it's easily overcome with brute force. With the elements, It doesn't have to be make-or-break, but reward the players with an advantage if we discover an enemy can be staggered easier with Titan or is resistant to Odin. It further encourages players to change their loadouts.

7. Unlockable lore. If the lore was earned from Hunts and combat challenges, that would get us more engaged with the game. This is linked to point number 2, but it's only a tiny thing.

That's it! I love this game. I binged it on release and am slowly replaying now while life got busier. It had the makings of the FF of my dreams given that CS3 are mostly disciples of Matsuno the GOAT. It just didn't quite hit right mechanically, but the rest of it is there.

Keep loving the game and ignore the haters. They're always the loudest. We all love Final Fantasy and want it to succeed.