It's only genius if they intended that effect from the start. But it's true, I hadn't really heard about Xenoblade at all before people got all angry at it. I'd heard about it but the fact that it had Xeno in its name meant that I pretty much instantly wrote it off as probably terrible, I had no idea it was so different in concept from Xenosaga.
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I haven't played The Wind Waker-LinkMarioSamus