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]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* [[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]]''

** ''[[Gunbuster]]'' was this to ''[[Aim for the Ace!]]'', ''[[Top Gun]]'' and ''[[Getter Robo]]''. Then ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' was this to GunBuster and ''[[Devilman]]''. Then ''[[FLCL]]'' was that to NGE. Then ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' was this to all of them before but especially ''[[Getter Robo]]''. Goes even farther with Gainax's own successor, Trigger and ''[[Kill la Kill]]'', ''[[Little Witch Academia]]'' and Darling In The Franxx.

 

== Comic Books ==

 

* 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]].

** 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]]''.

* ''[[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.

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

* ''[[Razing Storm]]'' is the spiritual sequel to ''Crisis Zone'', the [[Gaiden Game]] to ''[[Time Crisis]]''. Like ''Crisis Zone'', you use a machine gun instead of ''Time Crisis'''s handguns (though for bigger targets, you (automatically) switch to stronger weapons), and instead of hiding behind objects, you take cover behind a heavy-duty shield. ''Razing Storm'' has since been renamed ''Time Crisis: Razing Storm'' for its [[Play Station 3]] release.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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]]''.

* Eugen System's ''Wargame'' series is generally treated as this to its own RTS game ''R.U.S.E.'' albeit set during the [[Cold War]]. Its other RTS game ''[[Act of War]]'' and ''Act of Aggression'' are seen as this to the ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' franchise.

* ''[[Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes]]'' is a spiritual successor to ''[[Suikoden]]''.

 

== Webcomics ==

* 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]]''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Derivative Works]]

[[Category:Game Boy Advance]]

[[Category:Videogame Culture]]