It's funny because as soon as I brought up Bethesda, I immediately thought: "I'd rather walk around in Final Fantasy VII"

Though I don't hate Elder Scrolls or Fallout 3/NV, I do get wrapped up in wandring around doing random stuff in them. I just enjoyed the atmosphere of VI and VII more. The music, and the purpose seem more visceral

Sadly I had completely forgotten about Xenoblade. And Xillia wouldn't have even occurred to me, but that is a really good choice. It plays just like a generic JRPG overworld, but you're actually legitimately down in the world. Everything was scaled pretty well and weird and diverse and fun to explore. And Xenoblade was just gorgeous. And massive. And the draw distances were crazy