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 ==

** 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]]