>>25090169What, you want me to list them all off for you? Why not just play the game yourself?
But one example is how when you reach Mauville, there's multiple things to do in four different directions. You can also choose to battle the trainers whenever you want, so you could arrive at Mauville and go straight to the gym; or you could go left and start breeding with the daycare and battle a bunch of trainers and eventually get to Verdanturf, at which point you can enter a cave that is connected to the first-gym town, and smash the boulders blocking the way now that you have Rock Smash, and then this guy gives you a reward and you can also use the cave as a shortcut between different sections of the game since you don't have fly yet. Also, there's a route outisde the cave from the middle of it that has a hidden item, so that's definitely an alternate route even if it's a very small one. And all of that is completely optional besides challenging the gym obviously
Or, you can go up and challenge this family of four that is later revealed to be Steven (the champion)'s family, which is a cool lore thing. Or you can go right and there are more trainers to battle, now later in the game you are forced to return right with surf but the fact that you have the option to go early is cool.
There are also several completely optional areas such as: the desert, the abandoned ship, the power plant (aka New Mauville), the cemetery, Shoal Cave, various underwater caves and routes, etc.
