Why does it seem like Portuguese uses definite articles more often than other languages like Spanish and English?

Because we do use more articles than other languages in general. In a lot of languages we don't use articles before proper names. In Portuguese we do. We also use the definite articles before Possessive adjectives. - (A) minha tia fala comigo. This one is not a rule, but we often use it before them. *** in some states in Brazil, people don't always use the articles before proper names.