That’s fair. I would take a minor issue with your framing (someone who didn’t play BotW wouldn’t find the map a cop out and I’m glad they put the effort in for

That’s fair. I would take a minor issue with your framing (someone who didn’t play BotW wouldn’t find the map a cop out and I’m glad they put the effort in for the 2 other layers of the map) but you could make those same arguments against COD or Destiny. I do think it’s worth noting how many of the ideas from BotW have been copied in the past 6 years in other games. I guess my point is, I can understand the 10/10s but I also find it entirely reasonable to view it closer to a 7 or 8. We’re also not thinking about things in a vacuum in this discussion. Is the Xbox game released as if BotW never happened? Nintendo certainly uses its brand to buy marketing influence but importantly, I don’t think the company is pissed when games fail. Skyward Sword was a good example of that actually. It’s failure literally led to BotW. Nintendo got off their laurels and reinvented their “tried and true” formula and now it’s paying off. I am closer your position for games like 2D Mario. Zero innovation and I’ll be eagerly watching the reviews for the new game later this year.