For me with the fields/dungeons, I thought the art in a number of them was pretty good. Or at least, I saw what they were going for and it felt like an earnest attempt at making places that vary in structure and elevation and catch your eye compared to Xillia and Zestiria.
I think it's the technical side that drags it down the most, where the textures, draw distance, and density of objects on the field could all stand to be improved or increased and would have given the environments a lot more "life".
From a content perspective, eh I don't know what they should do. It's not an open world game but they're not made with the expectation of you running to your next destination in a minute either. They added some treasures, hunts, and little points of interest that the party talks about, but they would probably have benefited from adding a decent quest here and there.
Does this game also have the rampant copy paste towns that Xillia suffered from?
No. The game has about
towns, unique from each other.
They're handled like towns in most Tales games, an interior here or there but a lot of your activities happen in the exterior environment.