So me and a friend are discussing the Pokemon games, and how much exploration there was after getting past certain points in each game, and which gyms and accomplishments we did out of order--because old Pokemon games allowed for that degree of freedom.
Man, Sun and Moon are just disasters. It's so terribly linear. Everyone's experience is the same, because the cast keep the player so tightly bound to their bullshit storyline.

What did you guys do out of order in the Pokemon games? In Hoenn, it was so easy to just skip the third gym leader and leave him for later. He only granted you the ability to use HM Flash, but you could get through the cave easily without it, and the gym wasn't required for story progress.
In Kanto, you could acquire Pokemon with certain HMs via trade, and in the case of... was it cut or surf? you would have the ability to use the HM before you actually acquire it. This would allow you to skip forward as well.
In Diamond and Pearl, I think the gyms were meant to be played out of order, and then the order was again changed for Platinum. Were you able to adjust the order yourself at all?