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Gen 4 is the most "by the numbers" generation of the lot. Kanto was obviously the first, Johto was a sort of expansion to the lore and tied the two regions together, Hoenn was more about focusing on the new Pokemon again and having the legendaries be part of the story in a big way, plus it benefitted from a big graphics jump. Hoenn also had a huge amount of variety in it's areas, but a weak endgame full of water. It's a meme, but yes, it's a problem.
But when you get to Sinnoh, it doesn't really change much, it's kind of a rehash of Hoenn's plot and does very generic things like having a Rock type gym first and infesting every cave with Zubat and Geodude. Sinnoh has some really cool areas like the top of Mt Coronet, or the icy areas, but a lot of the region is just pretty bland overall, and the fact that a lot of the new mons are ridiculous to ge (honey trees, marsh etc) makes it feel less memorable. It's also visually quite bland, and the whole "surf to Victory Road on an island where the league is above a big waterfall" is literally the same as in Hoenn, right down to the map location.
Platinum is still a really good game though, it was basically what DP should have been initially.
