Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are doing away with auto-initiated trainer battles, which means you won't need to sneak around those you don't feel like fighting.
Previews of the upcoming Pokemon games are doing the rounds ahead of their November launch, with our own Sam Loveridge feeling torn on whether there's enough new stuff to make an impact. However, one departure we note in our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet gameplay preview is that trainers no longer have sight lines that auto-initiate battles, meaning you can just walk right past any trainer battle you can't be bothered with. In Loveridge's eyes, that's a welcome change.
"It makes exploring Paldea a lot more streamlined, because if you just want to get from A to B, you can do that without every random person you meet wanting to immediately fight you," Loveridge writes.
Probably the biggest departure from the series' past is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's fully open world and far less linear design. It's an evolution we've been able to experience in the making over the years, with Sword and Shield's Wild Area hinting at the series' open world future and then this year's Pokemon Legends Arceus bridging the gap between linear and open world. Still, our preview notes that Scarlet and Violet's sandbox isn't entirely seamless, as some towns will interrupt your game with loading screens.
While it sounds like trainer battles are mostly optional, you'll still have to face off against all of the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet gym leaders if you want to earn your Champion rank.
An AI's mission to 'teach' itself Pokemon Red is going as well as you think - after escaping Cerulean City after tens of hours, it went right on back
Pokemon Legends Z-A's visuals aren't "great" say former Nintendo marketing leads, but hope Switch 2 could allow Game Freak to "go back to the drawing board" and add more detail to future RPGs
