alot of games usually take inspiration from other games. Some people say the latest tomb raider game is just an uncharted clone. I also hear cod alot. Just name any FPS and you'll have people say that it's just a re-skinned cod clone. You can also say any open world game is just a gta clone,etc,etc. I don't see this as a bad thing. A good game is game,regardless of what elements it borrows from other games. Has every type of game been done before? Name me a modern game that's %100 orginal gameplay wise and has never been done in the history of gaming. You can say the same thing about movies,music and other forms of entertainment. Everything is inspired/taken from something else. 

My dalla cheeseburger is 100% original. It's actually just a rocking chair. When it comes to games, nothing's 100% original but you can tell when something borrows heavily from something else and when it doesn't.

Flower, for example.

That's just because people are generally shit at comparisons because they only compare 1 or 2 features at most.
We should mention the things that are different and not the same.

Is Infamous a GTA clone because it is set in an open world city? No!
Is it an Assassin's Creed clone because you can climb the buildings? No!
Is it Champions Online because of Open World and Superheroes? No!

Now Prototype on the other hand....

Metroid Prime is a Call of Duty clone, even before Call of Duty came out?! I must know of this time travel.
The answer is no.

 I think Kirby's Epic Yarn  is  one of the most original games I have  played in quite a while.  The game  had a seamless ( no pun intended) level of creativity  throughout  the whole game.

100%? No, nothing.

"Some people say the latest tomb raider game is just an uncharted clone."

The problem people have with this is that they wanted a Tomb Raider game, not an Uncharted one. Effectively this new gameplay type killed any chance of future Tomb Raider-like games.

And then people who like the new direction then say 'get over it, games change"

That's to be expected. "New" in the early days of a medium is a hell of a lot easier than "new" after decades of content. There is only so much original design out there waiting to be discovered.

Besides, the refining and improving of content is every bit as important.

At this stage of video-game development, I think the way forward in terms of originality will be to take certain elements and add them to other elements in a way that has not been done before. Borderlands joining FPP to loot collecting, for example, or the unique feel Valkyria Chronicles brought to turn-based strategy.

Little Inferno is the only game in recent years that I can think of that's 100 percent original. Have you ever played a game where you just burn stuff?

No there isn't.