Playing as the bad guy would be interesting yes but might not be for everyone. Maybe make that optional. What I would love to see is:

Old characters returning. Maybe this could be done by suggesting that the other FF games were different time lines of one world. There could be like some small amount of time travel or maybe even some kind of magic causes the old characters to end up in the time that the new game takes place in.

Optional moral stance. I would love to see the hero get to pick what kind of hero they are. Are they the goodie hero who wants to save everyone and make everyone happy? Or are they the dark hero who wants everything to go his way?

Live trigger moments playing a bigger part. The moments in FF 13 2 where I got to pick what Sarah/Noel would say were nice but I felt more could've been done with it. plus that there wasn't enough of them. This could play a part in my above suggestion of moral stance.

Optional hero. Every FF game played always has you playing with one character as the focus of this. How bout some other choices? At the beginning give us two or more to pick from with their own story line that might meet up with the other choices later on in the game.

New game+. I don't know about everyone else but I would love to see the return of new game+. How many times have you been faced with a side boss that you couldn't beat because of low levels and it would take far too long trying to level up more with the low level monsters in the area? And once you were at the right level to fight the side boss you could no longer reach him due to the area he's in being blocked? New game+ could open more possiblities that the plays didn't get first time around.

And the final thing I suggest for any future FF games is that their armor and accessories affect the way they look. I want to see just what some of this armors and accessories look like on the characters.

Another two things I would like to see is:

Maybe there could be a house the player could get early in the game where Team members not with the player could stay in. This could lead to teammates having their own side quests that earn the player items that are uniqe to that character. Also the look and things in the house could reflect the player's choices in the game. If they are a good hero the house could be a warm friendly place for hanging out. If evil like the house could appear to be falling apart in some places, with a torture chamber as the living room complete with blood stained floors. The house could also how mini games for the player to enjoy at any time.

I think the player should be able to craft potion. Have be set up so that the player can making things like potions, X potions, Ethers, etc. by gathering the needed reagents and bringing them back to the player's house, or to some shop that may or may not charge a small fee for the use of their lab. This could lead to some funny moments in which the player (not being at the right level or just a case of bad luck) has a moment when the thing they are trying to make blows up on them cause some kind of side effect that the player must wait till it wears off or craft a counter potion to rid them of it.

In regards to the whole playing a the bad guy bit mentioned early perhaps that could take place at the beginning of the game. Like the player is made to thing that they are the main character before finding out that this is really the person we have to defeat. Also maybe there could be a moment in the game like in Chrono Cross were the main character switches bodies with the bad guy. Only this time the main character has to make use of everything the bad guy had (i.g their army, tech, magic, etc) in order to capture them and get their body back.

[QUOTE="ktrain2430"]Trigger system for battles, kind of like Legend of Dragoon. Makes gameplay engaging the entire time.. [/QUOTE]

I agree with this. Having to push buttons while doing attacks make it more challenging for the player as well as more interesting. Or maybe a White Knight thing where you can combind different moves to make combos.

[QUOTE="banora_white"]

-The option to play multiple characters (for longer periods of time than Seifer or Sephiroth) would be excellent, so long as it could work with the story. However, I think characters from the other games should stay in their worlds. One of the beauties of FF is being able to play any one (from the main numbered titles) without having to play any other to understand the story. I have no problem with games such as Dissidia, but inserting pre-existing characters into future numbered titles would mess up the flow of the series.

[/QUOTE]

Alright you have a point there. Maybe in that case the story could break off to some kind of flash back like moment where the actions of one of the MCs from a FF before had some kind of impact on the present. Like say some time after FF7 Cloud and his team hide the huge materia in a cave before sealing in and then many years late the new MC needs to hunt it down to power some machine or magic? If it is done right then new players could do these moments with out needing to know about past events and still get some enjoyment out of them. Maybe even encourage them to try the older games.