XIV really does feel smaller to me. To compare the two, Vana'diel felt like things happened to be in the areas the world had- whereas Eorzea feels like its areas were built in mind with what was in them. That is to say, areas in Eorzea feel like they're just large enough to hold what quests and lore says should be there, and there's not much to explore outside of that.

That's not to say that there aren't areas outside that limitation though, they're just very far and few between. For example, The Burning Wall is one of my favorite areas so far, just because of its unique look and the fact that aside from a few quests there's nothing really important there (aside from that entrance to what's probably content that hasn't been added yet.), so it just felt like a cool place you could find and explore when you hit level 40.

(cont.)