Spiritual Successor: Difference between revisions

The reasons for this are varied, but one common cause is when creative teams are unable to retain the rights to the original work, which would make a direct sequel impossible. Other times, designers don't feel like continuing the same story of the original work (and risking [[Sequelitis]]), but their distinctive style remains. Sometimes, a '''Spiritual Successor''' is the result of producers trying to adapt a different work following the model of a previous success of theirs while maintaining a prudent separation between the two [[Canon]]s. And then sometimes [[Fridge Brilliance|it occurs completely by accident]].

 

 

A spiritual successor may succumb to [[Better by a Different Name]].

Contrast [[They Copied It, So It Sucks]], [[Dolled-Up Installment]], [[In Name Only]], [[Dueling Shows]], and [[Thematic Series]]. See also [[Production Posse]].

 

 

* ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' is a Spiritual Successor to ''[[Dirty Pair]]'': both series revolve around a team of [[Lovely Angels|two young female]] operatives for a [[Heroes-R-Us|galaxy-wide troubleshooting organization]] that uses incredibly advanced Phlebotinum, [[Action Girl|brute force]], [[Hero Insurance|property damage]], and [[Spanner in the Works|good luck]] to right wrongs and triumph over evil.

* [[Keiko Takemiya]]'s ''[[Kaze to Ki no Uta]]'' is the spiritual successor to "The Door To Summer", a one-volume manga she wrote. They both contain similar story elements, as well as both being adapted into 60-minute [[OVA]]s.

* ''[[The Five Star Stories]]'' by Mamoru Nagano is a Spiritual Successor to ''[[Heavy Metal L-Gaim]]'', an anime series he worked on with [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]].

** There are hints in the manga that it is, in fact, in the exact same continuity - that it is a prequel of sorts, pre-dating L-Gaim by a good span of time.

* ''[[Xam'd: Lost Memories]]'' is an obvious Spiritual Successor to ''[[Eureka Seven]]''.

* Subverted to hell and back with ''[[Daitarn 3]]'', by [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]]. Similar name as the series that came before it, ''[[Zambot 3]]''? Check. Similar design for the robot? Check. Similar weapons like a "Sun Attack" which is almost identical to Zambot's "Moon Attack"? Check. Three main characters? Check. [[Kill'Em All]] ending? HELL NO! Although Zambot 3 was one of the first [[Deconstruction]]s of the [[Super Robot]] genre, Daitarn was a more humorous crossover with [[X Meets Y|James Bond in a Super Robot.]] Doesn't stop them from having team attacks in [[Super Robot Wars]], though.

* ''[[Darker than Black]]'' shares a lot of similarities with the Russian novel ''[[Strugatsky Brothers|Roadside Picnic]]'', but the scale and focus are different.

* ''[[Ninku]]'' shares many similarities with Naruto despite coming first. Examples like the fact that Fuusuke is a wind ninja who wears orange and uses the kuatsuken (resembling Rasengan).

* ''[[Durarara!!]]'' is this to ''[[Baccano!]]'', although the two are different in tone and setting, they share the same creator, the same "[[Loads and Loads of Characters]] with distinct plotlines on a collision course" writing style, and the same jazzy musical style.

** They also happen to share the universe, though taking place in different countries and decades apart, only two characters from the first make a brief cameo in the second.

* [[Fist of the North Star]] is this for ''[[Mad Max]]'', [[X Meets Y|but with]] [[Bruce Lee]].

* The ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' franchise as a whole is this to ''[[Sailor Moon]]''

 

== Comic Books ==

 

== Fan Works ==

** There's also ''Muffins'' and ''Dresses''.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Colombiana]]'' to ''[[Léon: The Professional]]''

* ''[[The Wonder Years]]'' is reasonably seen as a Spiritual Successor to the movie ''[[Stand by Me]]'', both coming-of-age tales about boys on the cusp of adolescence, with voice-overs by the adult versions of the protagonists.

** It's also seen as a successor to ''[[A Christmas Story]]''.

** And don't forgot ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' which stars Ben Savage, the younger brother of Fred Savage, who was the main character in ''The Wonder Years''.

* ''[[Dead Set]]'' can be seen as the spiritual [[Prequel]] to ''[[28 Days Later]]'', showing how the disease spread in its first few days, and how society fell to the point that we see it in ''28 Days Later''.

** Actually, this can't be a case. Dead Set is about undead zombies, 28 Days Later is about rage-infected (but still living) victims who do not consume flesh.

** ''[[Big Fish]]'' is also kinda similar to ''[[Forrest Gump]]''

* The 2007 movie ''[[Knocked Up]]'' is considered by many to be a spiritual sequel to ''[[The 40-Year-Old Virgin]]''. It was originally intended to be a direct sequel.

* 1997's ''[[Fierce Creatures]]'' featured the same core cast and much of the same crew as 1988's ''[[A Fish Called Wanda]]'', and includes at least one explicit [[Shout-Out]] to the earlier film, although they are in no way connected to each other.

** The actors also play more-or-less similar characters, with Kevin Kline as a dimwitted egomaniac, Jamie Lee Curtis as seductive and manipulative, John Cleese as a stuffy square, and Michael Palin as a weird guy.

* ''[[Runaway Bride]]'' is the spiritual successor to ''[[Pretty Woman]]'' (shared lead couple).

* ''[[Foxy Brown]]'' was the successor to ''[[Coffy]]''. It was originally meant to be a sequel titled ''Burn, Coffy, Burn,'' but the [[Executive Meddling|producers changed it at the last minute.]]

* ''[[eXistenZ]]'' is essentially ''[[Videodrome]]'' for the new millennium.

* It could be said that ''[[2012]]'' is the Spiritual Successor to ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]''.

== Literature ==

* [[Dave Barry]]'s two novels ''[[Big Trouble]]'' and ''[[Tricky Business]]''.

* Joe Haldeman's ''[[Forever Peace]]'' is, as the name implies, a Spiritual Successor to ''[[The Forever War]]'' despite taking place in a very different setting and, indeed, having very different basic assumptions about the setting. It reads as a more "mature" attempt to understand war by probing questions about the inevitable results of technological advances in warfare in the future that ''[[The Forever War]]'' glossed over so that its sci-fi war could be a clearer parallel to Vietnam.

* [[Lewis Carroll]]'s epic nonsense poem ''The Hunting of the Snark'' is a Spiritual Successor to the ''Alice'' stories, and includes a number of references to "Jabberwocky."

** Not to mention numerous online ''MST3K''-inspired projects - most notably ''[[Unskippable]]''.

*** A significant portion of the [[Caustic Critic]] wave of recent years (including [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]] and [[The Nostalgia Critic]] among others) were directly inspired by ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', with the creators being huge fans; Doug Walker even won a contest to do a [[Riff Trax]] of ''[[The Lion King]]''.

** One of the live ''Bottom'' stage shows had them going back in time and reverting to their characters from ''The Young Ones''.

* [[Tokusatsu]] series ''[[Tomica Hero Rescue Force]]'' is the Spiritual Successor to ''[[Madan Senki Ryukendo]]'', made by the same people and sponsored by the same [[Merchandise-Driven|toy company]].

* ''[[Psychoville]]'', to ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]''.

* ''[[The West Wing]]'' was born of material and ideas left over from creator Aaron Sorkin's movie ''The American President.''

* ''[[All That]]'' was a spiritual successor to the early 90's Nick sketch show ''Roundhouse'', which was a spiritual successor to the immensely popular ''[[You Can't Do That on Television]]''.

** In a similar vein, ''[[Mad TV]]'' was a spiritual successor to ''In Living Color,'' being Fox's competitor to ''Saturday Night Live'' with there being only a year between the two. In Living Color is known for giving rise to the careers of [[Jim Carrey]], [[Jamie Foxx]], Jennifer Lopez, and Shawn and Marlon Wayans, while [[Mad TV]] arguably did the same for Orlando Jones, Phil Lamarr, Nicole Sullivan, Alex Borstein, Bobby Lee, and current SNL featured player Taran Killam.

* ''[[The Pacific]]'' to ''[[Band of Brothers]]''.

* ''[[Choujinki Metalder]]'' was produced by [[Toei]] to be an [[The Eighties|Eighties]]' version of ''[[Kikaider|Jinzou Ningen Kikaider]]''. Both involved robotic superheroes with a two-tone color scheme on their body (blue on the left side and red on the right), both end their names with "der" ("Kikaider" literally means "Machineder"), their human forms are modeled after the likeness of their creator's dead son (Jiro's likeness came from Taro's, while Ryusei Tsurugi's was from Tatsuo Koga), and they're both assisted by a rival cyborg in black who formerly worked for the enemy (Hakaider and Topgunder).

* ''[[Night Gallery]]'', a supernatural anthology narrated by [[Rod Serling]], can be considered one for ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''.

** Although considering that Serling didn't have script approval on ''[[Night Gallery]]'' it might be more of a dispirited sequel.

*** Several characters (portrayed by the same actor/actress) have appeared from one show to the other, completing the belief that all three shows exist in the same 'universe'.

*** Not exactly. The universes where clearly different, with Pushing Daisies being retro-cute, Dead Like Me being fairly normal (save the supernatural elements) and Wonderfalls somewhere in between. All of them do carry themes of fantasy, uniqueness, life and death, golden retrievers and touching people.

* Most of Jack Webb's later series (e.g., ''[[Adam-12]]'', ''[[Emergency]]'', ''[[Project UFO]]'') can be considered spiritual successors to his own ''[[Dragnet]]''. They all share a basic approach—following the professional lives of dedicated public servants, filmed in the style of a [[Police Procedural]].

* ''[[The Borgias]]'' to ''[[The Tudors]]''.

* The short-lived sitcom "Good News" is this to ''Amen'' as they were both created by the same people, took place in a church, shared the same sets, shared a Hettabrink sister (Amelia), and most of the plots involved an [[Amoral Attorney]] and the church's reverend. The only thing that's different on GN is that there's no Thelma or Rolly, and GN is set in inner-city [[Los Angeles]] while Amen is set in Philadelphia.

* The Lifetime mini series, ''Marry Me'' is a spiritual successor to ''Maneater''.

* ''My Summer With Des'' (one-off slice-of-life dramedy by Arthur Smith against the backdrop of Euro '96) is a spiritual successor to ''An Evening With Gary Lineker'' (one-off slice-of-life dramedy by Smith and Chris England against the backdrop of the 1990 World Cup).

* ''[[Jessie]]'' could be considered a successor to ''[[The Nanny]]'', since they are both about regular women being hired as nannies for wealthy families through pure happenstance.

 

* TNA currently is WCW had WCW not been bought out by [[Vince McMahon]].

** Interestingly, TNA usually refuses to acknowledge WWE by name (references are often highly elliptical) even though WWE took on all of WCW's canon as part of its own continuity when it incorporated it.

* In fact, [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|we have a similar trope that more specifically covers pro wrestling]].

* ECW was so great it needed two promotions to fill the void it left. [[Ring of Honor]] is the successor to the technical wrestling and [[Combat Zone Wrestling]] is the successor to hardcore wrestling. Both promotions run most of their shows in ECW's home venues such as The Arena in Philadelphia and The Manhattan Center in New York.

* The [[UFC]] is considered by most to be the successor to Pro Wrestling in general, since it follows the same exact model, although lately they have been trying to move away from that stucture.

* WWE's World Heavyweight Championship is this to the WCW's top title of a similar name and design, which was unified into the WWE Championship months after the "entertainment company"'s purchase of WCW.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

 

** The story: {{spoiler|The back-story reveals that Unova's two dragons, Reshiram and Zekrom (and probably Kyurem) were once one, and twin heroes formed Unova alongside it. However, one twin wanted things to remain natural and the other was in favor of urbanization. The dragon then split in two as a result, the older twin forming Reshiram and the younger twin forming Zekrom. N and Ghetsis are said to be the decendents of one of these twins.}}

** The Pokémon: Drilbur and its evolution, Excadrill, are reminiscent of the Mischievous Mole and Reconstructed Mole enemies respectively. Garbodor is similar to the Forlorn Junk Heap. Many others resemble enemies from the other Mother series games.

* Raw Thrills, the arcade game devhouse headed by [[Eugene Jarvis]], has three instances of this.

** ''Target: Terror'' is a Spiritual Successor to ''Area 51'' and ''Maximum Force'', down to the similar graphical style.

** The ''[[The Fast and the Furious|Fast and the Furious]]'' arcade driver series is the Spiritual Successor to Jarvis' ''Cruis'n'' series.

* Rareware's ''Goldeneye 007'' and ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' are likely the prime video game examples. Perfect Dark is built on Goldeneye's game engine, so it feels like a natural extension of the same game, despite [[James Bond|Bond]] being nowhere in sight. They even use [[Rare Guns]] and settings from Goldeneye with the names slightly changed. Goldeneye had another Spiritual Successor in the form of the ''[[Time Splitters]]'' games, done by the core team behind Goldeneye. [[Time Splitters]] 2 is extremely similar to Goldeneye and with the use of the Map Maker, one can get extremely close to it.

* Fumito Ueda's ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' was thought to be a Spiritual Successor to his previous game, ''[[Ico]]''. However, he revealed a direct connection between the two games in an interview several months after the game's release: {{spoiler|the protagonist of Shadow of the Colossus is actually a direct ancestor of the protagonist in Ico}}. However, the two play very differently and have no further storyline connections.

** Team Ico's upcoming game "[[The Last Guardian]]" appears very likely to be one to both Ico AND SOTC.

* Chris Taylor's ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' and ''[[Supreme Commander]]''.

* The ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' series was conceived and created in-house by Nintendo's Intelligent Systems after a direct sequel to ''[[Super Mario RPG]]: Legend of the Seven Stars'' became impossible due to Nintendo and Square's late-nineties falling-out.

* ''[[Ikaruga]]'' was a Spiritual Successor to the Saturn game ''[[Radiant Silvergun]]''; both are by Treasure, and ''Ikaruga'' was known in development as Project RS2.

** The octahedron-shaped object also makes an appearance in both games. The track that plays when you fight it is even called "The Stone-Like", which was its name in ''[[Radiant Silvergun]]''.

* ''[[Maximo]]'' was created as an heir to the ''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins|Ghouls 'n Ghosts]]'' series, to the point of borrowing the first-stage music of the latter.

** And the fact that the protagonist is stripped to his boxer shorts after taking enough damage.

** And history has now repeated itself: ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' is a spiritual successor to both ''[[Xenogears]]'' and ''[[Xenosaga]]'', once again caused by Namco retaining the ''saga'' franchise while Monolith, now owned by [[Nintendo]], wanted to make more ''Xeno'' games.

* The 2000 RPG ''[[Wizards And Warriors RPG|Wizards and Warriors]]'' by D. W. Bradley (not to be confused with the NES [[Wizards and Warriors]] game) is one for the ''[[Wizardry]]'' series. Bradley was also the creator of ''Wizardry'' games 5 through 7.

*** {{spoiler|It's actually Hitler}}.

* Chris Sawyer's ''[[Transport Tycoon]]'' and ''[[Locomotion]]''.

** [[Ultima VI]] received its own spiritual sequel in the form of ''[[Cythera]]'', which featured an improved resolution and expanded skills.

* ''[[Lego Indiana Jones]]'' to ''[[Lego Star Wars]]'', and ''Lego [[Batman]]'' to both of ''them'' - we tropers have even filed all three as [[Lego Adaptation Game|a single series]]. It helps that they ran out of [[Star Wars]] movies to adapt.

* ''[[Hotel Dusk: Room 215]]'' is considered to be the Spiritual Successor to ''[[Trace Memory]]'' (''Another Code'' outside the U.S.).

* ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' is a Spiritual Successor to the little-known and [[No Export for You|Japan-exclusive]] [[Sega Saturn]] title ''[[Princess Crown]]'', being created by the same director and company, and featuring several thematic similarities, including the 'little girl reading the game story in a book' narrative device.

** The ''[[Wii]]'' game [[Muramasa: The Demon Blade]] is a spiritual successor to both of them, and was in earlier stages referred to as ''Princess Crown 3'', in the same way ''Odin Sphere'' was named ''Princess Crown 2''.

* The ''[[Boktai]]'' series (including ''Lunar Knights'') can be considered a spiritual successor to ''[[Metal Gear|Metal Gear: Ghost Babel]]''. The game engine is very similar, and Ikuya Nakamura, the director of all the ''Boktai'' games, was also the character designer of ''Ghost Babel''.

* The ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' series seems like a Spiritual Successor to ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'', where they took everything that set that game apart from the earlier Mario games and expanded on it, and the gameplay was even reminiscent of a Mario game. Keep in mind that ''[[Yoshi's Island]]'' only picked up its sequel status for American release.

* The Wii's menu system (including the default channels and at least part of ''[[Wii Sports]]'') is a Spiritual Successor to ''[[Mario Paint]]''. The music is too similar to be a coincidence, and the Wiimote works a lot like the old SNES Mouse did.

** The way you can customize the Wii menu through drag-and-drop is also very similar to the GBA Movie Player. Both the Wii and GBAMP also have 512MB of memory.

* Some people consider the ''[[Ryu ga Gotoku|Yakuza]]'' series as a Spiritual Successor to ''[[Shenmue]]'', due to a shared publisher (Sega), a similar emphasis on hand-to-hand combat and time-killing minigames, and an elaborate, intricately-told story.

* Despite being a [[Beat'Em Up|beat-'em-up]] instead of a competitive [[Fighting Game]], ''[[Final Fight]]'' is a spiritual successor to the original ''[[Street Fighter]]''. It was even marketed at trade shows under the [[Working Title]] ''Street Fighter '89''. Guy and Sodom would later show up as playable characters in the original ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]]'', followed by Rolento and Cody in the sequels.

* ''[[Guilty Gear]] 2: Overture'' is a spiritual successor to the ''[[Herzog Zwei|Herzog]]'' Real-Time-Strategy/Action hybrid games. Really.

* The Pandora is the spiritual successor to the GP2x which is the spiritual successor to the GP32. While all three handhelds differ in developers, companies, and even nationalities, the philosophy of being and open games device anyone can make games for has been present and strengthened throughout the series.

* ''[[Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island]]'' (aka ''Sonic 3D Blast'') is more of a spiritual successor to the early arcade game ''Flicky'', than a proper Sonic title.

* ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' plays more like ''Company of Heroes'' than ''Dawn of War 1''. It largely abandons base-building, which was a major part of Dawn of War 1.

** The [[Dynamic Difficulty]] system of these games is lifted from Zanac, of all things, only made completely and utterly inconvenient (notably, the removal of every rank reduction method except dying.)

** Ibara, sharing the same main designer also counts as a Spiritual Successor, if you can count a near-exact copy of the rank system of Garegga as one.

** According to [[Word of God]], the inspiration for ''Prototype'' came about due to Hulk's "weaponize" ability; that is, the ability to turn vehicles and such into [[Improvised Weapon|improvised weapons]], rather than limiting the player to "pick up and throw." Reportedly, during testing, somebody posed the question "[[What If]] you could weaponize the ''player?''"

* ''Demon Sword'': Spiritual successor to ''[[Legend of Kage]]''. Irem's ''Ninja Spirit'', although made by completely different developers, was also a spiritual successor (pardon the pun).

* ''Krazy Rain'' is a spiritual sequel to the massively-multipler online [[Rhythm Game]] ''O2Jam''.

* ''[[Ray Series|Raystorm]]'': spiritual successor to ''Rayforce''. ''Raycrisis'' is the official prequel to ''Rayforce''.

* ''[[Border Down]]'': Successor to ''[[Metal Black]]'', a [[Shoot'Em Up]] by Taito. Hiroyuki Maruyama, the president of G.rev, started the company and did subcontracting work for [[Treasure]] and Taito to generate revenue just to make this game. Why? He just really liked ''Metal Black''.

* ''[[Hellgate:London]]'' to ''[[Diablo]]''.

* ''[[Metal Slug]]'' is the spiritual successor to ''Gunforce 2'' and ''[[In the Hunt]]'', which were made by the same staff back when they were working for Irem.

** Bu the same developers, the golf game ''Neo Turf Masters'' is a spiritual sequel to the ''Major Title'' series.

* The Konami arcade game ''M.I.A.: Missing In Action'' is pretty much an unofficial official sequel to ''[[Rush N Attack]]'' (aka ''Green Beret''), using what is essentially a more advanced version of the same engine, but with a different setting (being set in Vietnam instead of Russia).

* ''Tear Ring Saga'', a Japanese-only strategy RPG for the [[PlayStation]] designed by ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' creator Shozo Kaga, is practically an unofficial ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' sequel, to the point that Nintendo sued Kaga's company, Tirnanog, for copyrights infringement (but lost the case).

* ''[[Gunstar Heroes]]'' was considered a spiritual successor to ''[[Contra|Contra III: The Alien Wars]]'' due to the fact that two of its main programmers worked on both games. In fact, it was the closest thing to a ''Contra'' game for the [[Sega Genesis]] before Konami decided to release ''Contra: Hard Corps''.

* ''[[Tetris the Grand Master]]'' is the spiritual successor to Sega's ''Tetris'' games, and borrows many elements such as the piece colors, the bottom-biased rotation system, fast sideways movement and soft drop, and piece lock delay (a feature present in all of Sega's ''Tetris'' games but not in Nintendo's, at least for a while).

** But that hasn't stopped the fans from theorising that there is a connection between the series, especially around {{spoiler|Bernkastel and Rika since it is hinted that Bernkastel is the collection of memories that was used to revive Rika each time she died in Higurashi}} plus that Higurashi was labeled When They Cry 1 & 2 (Higurashi and Higurashi Kai) while Umineko is When They Cry 3 & 4 (Umineko and Umineko Chiru). This might indicate a closer connection between the series.

* The team that worked on ''Pro Wrestling'' for the NES later formed Human and developed the ''[[Fire Pro Wrestling]]'' series.

* [[Word of God]] says that ''[[Golden Sun]]'' is this to the ''[[Shining Force]]'' tactical RPG series, which makes sense considering Camelot was the ones who developed said series before they split with SEGA. In fact, the [[Executive Meddling|botched release]] of ''Shining Force III'' on the [[Sega Saturn|Saturn]] is the whole reason why they split and started ''[[Golden Sun]]''.

* According to Turn10, they consider ''[[Forza Motorsport]] 3'' to be the true spiritual successor to Polyphony Digital's ''[[Gran Turismo]]'' series. To paraphrase Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi, "No it bloody well isn't".

* While ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' is the official sequel to [[Red Dead Revolver]], ''Redemption'' has a lot more in common with the Activision-made ''Gun'' than it's true predecessor.

** Also, [[Red Dead Redemption]] is considered a Spiritual Successor to [[Grand Theft Auto]] (namely, Grand Theft Horse).

* ''Blur'' is this to the ''Project Gotham Racing'' series, which itself was a spiritual successor to the Dreamcast game ''Metropolis Street Racer''.

* ''[[Ikari Warriors]]'' is a spiritual successor to ''Front Line''. Both had a rotary aiming control.

* ''[[Bayonetta]]'' to ''[[Devil May Cry]]'', moreso the first DMC game, but the traits are shared with later DMC games. Both were created by Hideki Kamiya, both share over the top action, and both have [[Rule of Cool|styles of attacking]] where mixing it up grants a [[Rank Inflation|higher score]] at the end of each section/chapter.

* ''[[Bangai-O]]'' was originally supposed to be a remake of an old Japanese PC game called ''Hover Attack''.

* [[Treasure]]'s ''Bleach'' fighting games for the Nintendo DS are considered to be spiritual successors to ''Yu Yu Hakusho: Maky?t? Issen'' for the Japanese Mega Drive.

* ''[[One Piece]]: Gigant Battle'' for the DS was developed by Ganbarion, makers of ''Jump Super Stars'' and ''Jump Ultimate Stars'', and reuses many of the same assets.

* ''[[Forbidden Siren]]'' was made by former members of Team Silent, the original developers for the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series.

** As a twist, for the tenth anniversary of the original ''Operation Flashpoint'', the developers released a final patch (just over six years after the penultimate patch) that actually renamed the game to ''ARMA: Cold War Assault'', as well as removing a Codemaster-included campaign called "Red Hammer."

* ''[[E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy|EYE Divine Cybermancy]]'' has been called a successor to ''[[Deus Ex]]''.

* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' is considered to be a spiritual successor to ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' since both were developed by Sega's Overworks studios, and they're both turn-based roleplaying games. In fact, some fans consider Skies to be more a successor to Phantasy Star than [[Phantasy Star Online]].

* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' too is considered such to ''Skies of Arcadia''. While Valkyria is a strategy RPG instead of turn-based, it has some members of Sega's now extinct Overworks studios on its development, and even Skies protagonists Vyse and Aika [[Previous Player Character Cameo|make a cameo in it]].

* ''Pochi & Nyaa'', apparently the last game [[Compile]] released before bankruptcy, was an obvious attempt to recapture some of the gameplay and aesthetics of the ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'' [[Cash Cow Franchise]] which they no longer owned.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' can be seen as ''[[Live a Live]]'s'' Spiritual Successor due to the similarities of both games.

** The sequel, ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', got its own Spiritual Successor in the ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'' duology for the Gamecube: both games share several staff members, have the same art style (hand-painted backgrounds with 3d sprites), and have similar battle systems.

* ''Obliterator'', a [[Platform Game]] by [[Psygnosis]], features a slightly more refined form of the mouse-based control system and gameplay of their earlier game ''Barbarian'' (not to be confused with ''Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior''), but takes place in a science fiction setting instead.

* Doublesix's ''All Zombies Must Die'' is a spiritual successor to their earlier zombie-slaying game, ''Burn Zombie Burn''.

* ''[[Fire Pro Wrestling]]'' is this to Nintendo's classic ''Pro Wrestling'' game, following the same style of gameplay mechanics as well as the use of [[Captain Ersatz]] versions of existing wrestlers.

* The ''[[X Universe]]'' series is widely considered a Spiritual Successor to ''[[Elite]]'' and ''[[Video Game/Privateer|Privateer]]''.

* ''[[Skullgirls]]'' is being considered a spiritual successor to ''[[Arcana Heart]]'', according to people in the fighting game community who attend [[Tournament Play|professional tournaments]] and have played both of them.

* The [[Those Two Guys|Two Guys]] [[Author Avatar|from Andromeda]], the guys behind the [[Space Quest]] games, have just recently come back together to try and create a "[http://tgakick.com SpaceVenture]" that looks every inch like it'll be a successor to their previous series. They've even gotten Gary Owens back to narrate again!

* The original ''[[Resident Evil (video game)|Resident Evil]]'' was conceived when Capcom wanted an updated version of their Famicom horror RPG ''[[Sweet Home]]''. An [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15_EyEajMg early teaser] for ''Biohazard'' even used an arrangement of the ''Sweet Home'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsUdzKuXMFg battle theme] and it is believed that the international title of ''Resident Evil'' came from a line in ''Sweet Home'' which describes the mansion where the game is set "a place of residing evil."

* ''Project P-100'', an upcoming Wii-U project by [[Platinum Games]], seems to be based somewhat on ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]''.

* The Sega arcade game ''[[Congo Bongo]]'' may had seemed like a blatant ''[[Donkey Kong]]''-ripoff, but in reality the game's developer, Ikegami Tsushinki, was the same company Nintendo contracted to handle the programming for ''Donkey Kong''.

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[The Jetsons]]'' to ''[[The Flintstones]]''. There's also the much more obscure series ''The Roman Holidays''.

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' to ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''

* It might be a stretch, since one is animated and the other wasn't, but ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' often feels like the Spiritual Successor to the '60s ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]''.

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' (and to a lesser extent ''[[Regular Show]]'') to ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]''.

* ''[[Loonatics Unleashed]]'' to [[Road Rovers]] . Both are action cartoons with some comedy elements based on futuristic anthropomorphic superheroes, and are both made by Warner Bros. [[Expy|Also, there's a number of character similarities.]]

* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' is sometimes said to be this to ''[[Coonskin]]''.

* ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' to ''[[Chowder]]''.

* ''[[Moral Orel]]'' is an ironic- and ''very'' [[Black Comedy|dark]]- successor to ''[[Davey and Goliath]]''.

* ''[[Lloyd in Space]]'' and the 2010 reboot of ''[[Pound Puppies]]'' to ''[[Recess]]''

* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' and ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' to ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''

* ''[[The Flintstones]]'' to ''[[The Honeymooners]]'' deliberately.

* ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' to ''[[Get Smart]]''.

* ''[[Exo Squad]]'' to ''[[Robotech]]''. The viewers weren't the only ones to notice. Matchbox toys released a short lived toyline which blended the two.

 

== Other ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Derivative Works]]

[[Category:Game Boy Advance]]

[[Category:Videogame Culture]]