Like anything, people want a mixture of familiarity and novelty more often than not and you can create the novelty in a number of ways.
Being too safe can also carry risk if you don't have some differentiation point there. People also have certain expectations of gameplay in certain genres.
"Lastly, the game doesn’t deviate from the standard Metroidvania formula and uses well-known mechanics/tropes "
So the trick is to not be innovative? That's the saddest thing I heard.
Though we definitely tried to be different with Batbarian and got critics complaining that puzzles couldn't be Metroidvanias so I get the point. :l
Like anything, people want a mixture of familiarity and novelty more often than not and you can create the novelty in a number of ways.
Being too safe can also carry risk if you don't have some differentiation point there. People also have certain expectations of gameplay in certain genres.