It's not uncommon in this day and age for games to emulate and copy elements of highly successful games, but these days it really feels like they're making it a bit too obvious since the release of Nintendo's Zelda: BoTW.
From smaller games like Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles emulating almost it's entire world, and straight out copying other elements like the initial cave exit sequence and the voice in your head, to larger games like God of War emulating the chest system. I know it sounds like I'm crediting Zelda for creating chests, but the way that GoW implemented them (basically in outposts, behind minibosses, etc), there's no way you can say they didn't at least take inspiration from BoTW.
The real question, however, is whether this is a bad thing or not. BoTW took home multiple awards last year for innovation, gameplay, story, etc; is it that wrong to take inspiration from a game that did all these things well? Obviously not. But what's really worrying is that companies might stop innovating altogether, and stick to the tried and true methods. Only time can tell.
