I really like the Suikoden world maps, they always feel expansive and interesting.

FFX is something of a sui generis, given that the exploration of the map is pretty much the game itself, up until you hit endgame at least. I absolutely LOVE X so it's hardly a surprise that I rate this highly! It's always a strong point in FFs though, and even the games I don't personally like that much (IX and XII) have smurfing amazing world maps and everything. I kind of like VIII the most of all though, just because of all the vehicles and stuff, which I find oddly enjoyable.

There are definitely some games I want to play purely because of how the world map looks. Back in the day, I saw a magazine advert for Tales of Destiny and the world map was one of the shots. It looked cool as smurf and I always wanted to play it, but there was never a UK release. It's on the emulation list though! Also some of the things in this thread have amazing looking world maps, I definitely need to play Xenoblade now.