It's a bit funny, because they said in the video that XC2 is their favourite game of the year. But... I can't remember if SMO was reviewed by Andre or Derrick. XC2 was reviewed by Derrick.

I just finished reading Destructoid's review. They had small nitpicks here and there about the progression system. I guess you have to be rich at certain points in the game to progress. Oh, and there was a complaint about how the game isn't 100% open world like BotW. It still got a solid 8/10 from them though, because Chris Carter is a great reviewer (he does 90% of their reviews).

Metro Game Central even managed to give it a 7/10, and they hate JRPGs with a passion over there.

Also, the game is sitting at 86 on Opencritic now.

Already in the title and OP.

How can you complain that it isn't as open as botw? I don't know what he is expecting from a story driven game.

Also, the Monolith said that it won't be as big and open like XCX.

I honestly think that if we start to compare open-world games with BOTW, open-world games will suffer a lot in their score XD.

I really don't know. I feel like a lot of reviewers fault JRPGs just for being JRPGs sometimes. Chris said it was a minor fault in the game though, so it's not as if it ruined his experience. XCX was big and open, but if you just wandered into the jungle or desert area without spending time in the first area you'd get crushed and die. So XCX wasn't really open in that sense. 

Seems like some of the technical hiccups that plagued X are returning. I'll take the game now, to be honest. Maybe they'll iron a few out with patches as they did with Breath of the Wild. Also seems like some of the "faults" are, indeed, just being a JRPG instead of a Westernized one.

It did bother me on "X" that if you accepted an Affinity Quest or Main Quest you couldn't opt to back out or continue elsewhere. I hope that's been fixed.

CongratsI Though I never questioned your score, just your reasonings, which as far as I can tell have nothing to do with the current score. I didn't think it would reach 90+ like the original, but still it's yet another well rated game for the big N this year!

Spoiler (nonstory) I guess, for one of the rare blades:

aEDIT: pparently i cant spoiler links, but KOS-MOS is a rare blade

that put a big smile on my face though, its been too long.

I think it really goes to show how badly the art style lends itself to the series. Great to see ...., but yeah.