I'm interested in FF 16 but it isn't a system seller for me which my teenage self would never believe if I told him. I bought FF 13 day one. 15 in the first week. FF7 Remake I got day one. But none of those ever captured the feeling I got playing Final Fantasy games as a kid. There was a period where the Final Fantasy games were basically my entire gaming life from playing I, II, IV, V, and VI on the Playstation anthologies to VII to IX to X and XII. I found the Final Fantasy games in the past 10 years to be good but they just weren't the same. I think XIII-2 may be my favorite of the relatively games just because how insane the plot gets. The recent FF games feel small to me. I didn't get the sense of a wider world to explore or a deeper mystery to untangle.
I think the reason why I like the Xenoblade games so much is because they do give me the feelings I had playing classic Final Fantasy games. They are grand adventures. You start out in small village and by the end, you're fighting deities in space. You visit vast, exotic lands. Meet a wide range of characters and races. People often find the plots in Japanese RPGs to be completely insane but that's why I like them. It's only in videogames where you can explore and participate in the stories of these type of worlds. Stuff like this would be too expensive and too difficult to do well in movies or TV. I am not as into the stories of games like Uncharted or The Last of Us because I feel like they are just attempting to copy stories in mediums that do it a lot better. I can get my fill of Indian Jones or Walking Dead from TV and film. Give me the insane shit that can only be done in games (and maybe comics).