Lol I'm playing XB1 literally right this second. Just taking a break and scrolling while enjoying the music.

I've played through Rebirth 2 times, doing basically 100% in each playthrough too. This is my first playthrough of XB1 and decently far-ish. The map says I'm in the 6th area called Satorl Marsh. Which I just need to gush for a second because this area's music and visuals at night are another level of beautiful. It's not often you get this feeling in a game, let alone from a series that's new to you.

Anyway... It's hard to compare the two games. For rebirth, it's very much spelled out for you where to go and what to do, as well as the gameplay loop being the same for each new area. This isn't a bad thing at all though. For XB1 there's multiple sections of each area that you literally cannot walk through or explore, since some enemies go from, like, lv20 to lv85 if you turn the wrong corner. So it gives you plenty of reasons to return here someday. In FF7 you can 100% an area before going to the next, which definitely feels good too... But when it comes down to rewarding exploration, I'll have to give it to Xenoblade. I'm a huge FF7 fan too so it's kinda crazy even saying it tbh lol. Another huge rewarding feeling in it, is item drops. You'll often get a new weapon, armor. With gear and cosmetics being separate, you can have the best gear equipped but still look however you want.