I think something to do with Bounty Hunting, like Cowboy Bebop. I'm playing FFXII and they have a sort of bounty system as side quests. I look at a bounty board, find who posted the bounty, pet more information and seek out the target, come back and get my reward to do it again. I love it! The issue is that's not the focus of the game, it still feels like a side quests. The game design doesn't start there, it's still fundamentally a jrpg.

I want to feel like I'm in Cowboy Bebop looking for a crazed drug dealer and it not just be an instant follow quest marker into shootout. I want to talk to locals, learn about the city and those inside it, world building around why a drug dealer would thrive here and how people are affected by the substance he deals. Eventually I find him, he has well defined character and the goal is to take him in alive with as little conflict as possible. There's game design that allows various strategic approaches I can take to that without it being one single answer. At least once a year I rewatch Cowboy Bebop and it's always alongside myself fantasising a quality game being made just like it.