I prefer smaller, but with lot of vertical landscape design...like Gothic.
Though, they are not as small as they first appear, they have a lot of underground stuff and tricky vertical geography you need to learn to navigate (and they do not hold your hand at all)....this is something I appreciate a lot, especially when combined with unique settlements (like PB games tend to have).
This is sort of vibe I got from the footage of Zelda U so far...hope I'm not wrong.