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You guys do realize that a ton of Japanese game series give their first games a lot of fanfare? It's not a Pokemon-exclusive concept.
The closest you'll ever get to straying from Gen I formula is RSE and BW, and even in BW's case some new monsters follow Gen I Pokemon cliches (not design-wise, but rather how they're placed and used in-game). Even Gen II and IV have close ties to Kanto, with the former having Kanto as postgame/the second half depending on who you ask and the latter tying many older Pokemon into families and having the birds roam around.
