Bring back zones like:

[Doo]

And when I was doing that I wasn't exploring the zone, because I'd already done so, heck I probably knew where to look for the chests by the point I'd gotten that far.

Let's say first time you go to Castle Zvahl Bailey was to kill Shadow Lord. There are strong enemies that made you have to sneak/invis around so you couldn't just go anywhere you pleased like in FFXIV. Second time you might explore more of the area looking for coffer keys or hunting nms, quests, or whatever. The areas are big enough that you can still get lost after going to it often. Certain areas are higher level than others as well which feels like it opens up as you get stronger.

Now compared that to FFXIV where you explore Satasha. There was just more to FFXI areas like FF12 is to FF13.