You can tackle gyms in any order

Historically, mainline Pokémon games have been fairly linear. Even when they feature “open-world” segments, like Sword and Shield’s Wild Area, you still generally follow a hammered-out structure, battling your way in a predetermined order through eight Pokémon Gyms, which culminate in a fight against a gym leader—a tough Pokémon trainer. So, when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were first announced in February as true open-world games, the news made a bit of a splash.

Today, the Pokémon U.K. Twitter confirmed just how “open” Scarlet and Violet’s open-world it is: You can tackle gyms in any order you want. Of course, some previous games have allowed you to dabble with fighting members of the Elite Four—basically, the final four trainers of the game—in whatever order you please. And the so-called “island challenges” of Sun and Moon were certainly more free-form than Pokémon Gyms. In 2019, Sword and Shield versions introduced a Wild Area, a free-roam region where you could explore to find rare Pokémon. But all of those features are disparate elements of a true open-world game; Scarlet and Violet are leaning all-in.