I was thinking to myself last night that it really could use a wide open map at some point, a la the Archelytte Steppe (or whatever it's called) on Gran Pulse in FFXIII. And then about ten minutes afterwards I got my wish. I'm happy now, I feel like the game has opened up a chunk... until now I've always looked at the option to fast travel back to areas I'd already been and just not been able to do it, but now I'm thinking I might go traveling for a while and see what I can find.