I never played FFXI, but from what I gather Eorzea has a lot of similarities; most of the races are basically the same thing, for example.

I'd like that again. Completely throw out the lore, locations, a lot of the concepts, but take the best of the old and some of the key fixtures and bring them over. First and foremost it should be a Final Fantasy, which means a job system, chocobos (AHEM 1.0), magitek, the big summons, and all that. I think if you take some of what made XI and XIV successful and put them in a Final Fantasy game, I think you'll find a Not Eorzea but basically Eorzea with enough to have it feel both fresh and feel right at home just the same.