They have to vary the gameplay and let you do things other than fighting and talking, VII worked hard to break down the walls between cutscene and gameplay but Square has somehow built them back up again.

I'm not too worried about characters or writing because every game has its haters on that front.

I wish they would just be making more original games. It would be ok for them to make a mediocre FF every once in a while if there was a new RPG IP later that year or a new FF by the other dev team the year after that. Instead we just have a new FF every 5 years and countless spin offs and remakes in between time. That's not a healthy environment for their fans, although some of those remakes and spin offs have been incredible.