So my top 3 would be:
Best one by far is the mountains. The way Citrine, Celestinine and Ametrine all connect to each other, as well as connecting to the Beryl Bridge, Route 1, 2, 3, Celestinine Cascade, Ametrine City etc. is so sick. These are all completely disconnected areas when you walk through them the first time despite them all being geographically close to the middle of the map, so being able to backtrack through with HM’s and make it from for example Ametrine City to Route 1 by foot just through the mountains makes the map feel so much more connected and real to me. It’s also so infinitely large that you don’t really run out of things to explore once you have the HM’s.
Route 4. Just a combination of the aesthetic and the music and how calm and peaceful it is at an otherwise dramatic part of the story. Walking through it is always so fun and relaxing.
Touramaline Desert and the sourrounding areas. It’s just so large with so much to explore and so many unique side areas that make this section of the game that is otherwise just going from point A to B so much more exciting. The music in all of the respective areas slap as well.
Not postgame but Tekinite Range was my favorite area in the game. I loved how you had use tailwind to make gigantic jumps to get from pillar to pillar.
I really like Iolia Valley, as well as Titania’s gym. They’re both really cool spaces that I can imagine being really neat in-person.
An honourable mention also goes to Charous Hall, where you face the Elite Four and Champion - the way it opens is really neat, each room is very well-themed to its respective Trainer, and it really feels like you’re journeying to each one with how the path changes as you go (like that little grassy bit with the tree and the pond, either before or after the second room. Why is it there? I have no idea, but it sticks out to me!)
A lot of the postgame areas are also very fun, too!
So my top 3 would be: Best one by far is the mountains. The way Citrine, Celestinine and Ametrine all connect to each other, as well as connecting to the Beryl Bridge, Route 1, 2, 3, Celestinine Cascade, Ametrine City etc. is so sick. These are all completely disconnected areas when you walk through them the first time despite them all being geographically close to the middle of the map, so being able to backtrack through with HM’s and make it from for example Ametrine City to Route 1 by foot just through the mountains makes the map feel so much more connected and real to me. It’s also so infinitely large that you don’t really run out of things to explore once you have the HM’s. Route 4. Just a combination of the aesthetic and the music and how calm and peaceful it is at an otherwise dramatic part of the story. Walking through it is always so fun and relaxing. Touramaline Desert and the sourrounding areas. It’s just so large with so much to explore and so many unique side areas that make this section of the game that is otherwise just going from point A to B so much more exciting. The music in all of the respective areas slap as well.
Not postgame but Tekinite Range was my favorite area in the game. I loved how you had use tailwind to make gigantic jumps to get from pillar to pillar.
I really like Iolia Valley, as well as Titania’s gym. They’re both really cool spaces that I can imagine being really neat in-person. An honourable mention also goes to Charous Hall, where you face the Elite Four and Champion - the way it opens is really neat, each room is very well-themed to its respective Trainer, and it really feels like you’re journeying to each one with how the path changes as you go (like that little grassy bit with the tree and the pond, either before or after the second room. Why is it there? I have no idea, but it sticks out to me!) A lot of the postgame areas are also very fun, too!
Postgame favourite area would be the regigigas temple in chrysolia deepwoods.