A lot of it boils down to presentation but despite being technically smaller in most regards 6 somehow still feels like it's bigger than most of the newer games. It wasn't that it was subtle by any means but a lot of it, especially in the world of ruin kind of gave the sense that it wanted you to find things for yourself and if you didn't than that's your loss. Newer games constantly go out of the way to explain and make sure you don't miss any detail that it just comes off as constantly noisy. 6 just had you drop into the new post apocalypse and said go. If this was a modern game it would be flooded with quest markers and journal entries. Old games just lead its world speak for itself. We mentioned it another thread the other day but when comparing 7 to it's remakes it's just so much added fanfare and spectacle.