>>33704579But they're not. Platinum improved upon Diamond and Pearl in numerous small ways in a way that built up. But Diamond and Pearl were really impressive compared to almost every initial pair of games. They had more post-game than perhaps every previous game minus Gen II and FRLG, but the former had a much smaller main game and the latter was probably equal in post-game to DP. The only Pokémon that Platinum added that DP didn't have were Tangela/Tangrowth, Articuno/Zapdos/Moltres, Tropius, and Regirock/Regice/Registeel, for a total of around 451/493, a far higher ratio than any Gen III, V, VI, or VII game, almost equalling Gen II's 233/251.
Of course there was room for improvement. Saving (especially after using a PC) was slow, battles were slow, surfing was slow (not that it was needed anywhere near to the same degree as Gen III), the frame rate was lower, and the overall game had a lax vibe of exploration (which I wouldn't call a flaw, I'm the kind of person who takes his time and explores). The Sinnoh Pokédex had only two Fire-type lines, which influenced main game Trainer teams (particularly Barry and Flint), but post-game made every other Fire-type line (minus previous Gen starters and legendaries) available.
There was all kinds of cool lore and side areas in Sinnoh, and the Battle Zone was a big new island with tons of National Pokédex Pokémon to find. Not only that, but dual slot mode, swarms, the Poké Radar, Backlot Mansion, new Underground treasures, the Super Rod, Vs. Seeker, etc. gave regular Sinnoh a massive amount of replayability. There was nothing like that in any previous game, and even later Gens (except maybe V) got nowhere near that amount of replayability.
