>>30159381No they werent. You could do gyms out of order in Johto, Kanto and Sinnoh.
And the amount of new areas that open up is small compared to other games. Like, I go to Heahea City and only half of it is made avaliable to explore, despite it already not being very large.
The story stops are a lot closer together in this game, and the smaller region doesnt help
I liked the games, but it is much more railroaded than the rest.
