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Something that's always impressed me is the fact that Hoenn has so much backtracking and yet it manages to never feel cumbersome because the world is simultaneously seamless AND fruitful to explore, even several times over.
Between the new berry system allowing you to grow your own berries in patches of soil scattered around the region, the repeatable content like the various contest halls or the game corner, and the trainer rematches that compliment this by spawning when you reenter an area, there's always SOMETHING to be doing as you're moving between areas.
I especially like how the region slowly opens up as you progress, making it easier to traverse in this fashion. When you start out, its a pretty long trek to get anywhere, but as you open up the various shortcuts and loops connecting the region's locations, and as you gain mobility through HMs, the region becomes easier and easier traverse. It's so interesting too because, similar to gen 1, you're able to explore essentially the whole region with only 5 badges, so the entire final chunk of the game, all you'll technically be doing is backtracking. Yet that doesn't feel annoying at all, if anything it feels great, like you've made the world your oyster. And it makes sense too because Hoenn, being a region filled with secrets and hidden areas, is something gamefreak is gonna want players to be running through several times over in order to find everything.
Hoenn really is just so great.
