Do you think that Hyrule Warriors could have gotten different review scores if it was not Zelda? Obviously the Zelda branding has effected the sales, big time. But if the game was the exactly the same, just no Zelda characters, areas, or music, would people score it differently?

I think it would actually have lower scores if it was just a Warriors game

Yes, stablished brands help like that, even something like Super Mario Galaxy wouldn't ve gotten the same scores had it been made by some random company and wihout anything Mario related.

Not to mention, take out Zelda and you loose all the cool fanservice.

Yes and No. Yes cause Hyrule Warriors put a fresh new spin on the Warriors franchise by being Zelda themed but no cause it did add new modes that were never present in a Warriors game before which made the game feel fresh so maybe

Lol, of course. If this was a new IP without Characters we know and love it would've been quite stupid and repetitive.

Yes. On top of it being a more established franchise, there seems to be a positive reviewer bias towards Zelda.

It would had scored lower and rightly so. Hyrule warriors is a good game for zelda fans which is how it was reviewed.

Absolutely. No question

Yeah if it weren't for the Zelda coat of paint, the game would've received lower scores.

Funny question. If it didn't have the same setting/areas or music it would be a completely different game.

Although, if all of it were the same just shells, it would rate the same, it just likely would have been much overlooked. 

Not all the warriors games are equal, this just happens to be one of the best ones. 

I wonder how the ratio of people that think it wouldn't be as good to the number of people that have or haven't played it, and I mean PLAYED it, not just an in store demo, I mean put in at least an hour or more.
This game managed to mix both zelda and warriors, it took what is great from both and combined them.