While V1 was trashed by many for using 'cut and paste' too much there were only three 'zones' basically, one per city-state, you could run from Gridania to Limsa Lominsa via Ul'dah and only see two 'zone load' screens for the open world and one for the real ferry zone.
Maybe V2's graphics are superior, though the horrible anti-aliasing which causes grass to 'flicker' says otherwise, but I've always missed V1's feeling of a big world.
