spiritual successors Explained

[Dohc-WP]

A Spiritual Successor is when a developer or development team creates a game that could be perceived as a new installment in an existing franchise that they've worked on before, but doesn't share the same name due to licensing issues or other reasons, it's more commonly referred to as a Spiritual Successor.

Keep in mind that this does not include games that are simply similiar to other games (ripoffs or clones). A spiritual successor is usually from the same developer or development team as the original game and usually (although not always) has to do with a licensing issue.

spiritual successors should also not be confused with sequels that have different names, such an example would be Riven which is a direct sequel to Myst.

wikipedia's definition goes like this

A spiritual successor, sometimes called a spiritual sequel or a companion piece, is a successor to a work of fiction which does not directly build upon the storyline established by a previous work as do most traditional prequels or sequels, but nevertheless features many of the same elements, themes, and styles as its source material.

an example of a spiritual successor is Bioshock developed by irrational games which is the spiritual successor to System shock 2 which irrational games also made, the reason why they could not make a system shock 3 was because EA owned the rights to system shock (even though they developed it) so they created and released Bioshock which is similiar in nature to system shock but it does not breach any copyright laws with the original system shock IP that EA owns.

Bioshock I am your Father​

common spiritual successors (original on the right and successor on the left)

All-Pro Football 2K8 <<< ESPN NFL 2K5
Ancients of Ooga <<< Cloning Clyde
Arcania: A Gothic Tale <<< Gothic 3
Armed & Dangerous <<< Giants: Citizen Kabuto
ArmA <<< Operation Flashpoint
Arx Fatalis <<< Ultima Underworld II
BioShock <<< System Shock 2
Blades of Time <<< X-Blades
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger <<< Guilty Gear XX
Bodycount <<< Black
Child of Eden <<< Rez
Crysis <<< Far Cry
Dark Souls <<< Demon's Souls
Demon's Souls <<< King's Field
Dragon Age: Origins <<< Barldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Dreamkiller <<< Painkiller
Equinox <<< Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos
Fallout <<< Wasteland
Flashback <<< Another World
Galleon <<< Tomb Raider
Hard 'n Heavy <<< The Great Giana Sisters
Haunting Ground <<< Clock Tower 3
Heavenly Guardian<<< KiKi KaiKai (Pocky & Rocky)
Hellgate: London <<< Diablo
Heretic <<< Hexen
Heroes of Might & Magic <<< King's Bounty
Ikaruga <<< Radiant Silvergun
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men <<< Freedom Fighters
Kengo <<< Bushido Blade
Mob Rule <<< Constructor
Lords of Thunder <<< Gate of Thunder
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga <<< Super Mario RPG
Mario vs. Donkey Kong <<< Donkey Kong
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory <<< Ghosts 'n Goblins
Mystic Ark <<< The 7th Saga
NBA Hangtime <<< NBA Jam
NecroVisioN <<< Painkiller
No More Heroes <<< Killer7
Paper Mario <<< Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Perfect Dark <<< Goldeneye 007
Portal <<< Narbacular Drop
Project Gotham Racing <<< Metropolis Street Racer
Prototype <<< The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Shadow of the Colossus <<< Ico
Shinobido <<< Tenchu
Risen <<< Gothic 3
Rock Band <<< Guitar Hero
Rock Band Unplugged <<< Amplitude
Rogue Galaxy <<< Dark Cloud 2
Space Giraffe <<< Tempest 2000
Supreme Commander <<< Total Annihilation
Takt of Magic <<< Lost Magic
The Adventures of Lomax <<< The Misadventures of Flink
The Fall: Last Days of Gaia <<< Soldiers of Anarchy
The Last Blade <<< Samurai Shodown
TimeSplitters <<< Goldeneye 007
Torchlight <<< Diablo
Vanquish <<< P.N.03
Vinyl Goddess from Mars <<< Jill of the Jungle
Xenosaga: Episode I - Der Wille zur Macht <<< Xenogears


Sources : Google, Common Knowledge, Dohc's Brain,Wikipedia, Giantbomb

 

[MetalSoup]

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men <<< Freedom Fighters

I definitely don't agree that this is a spiritual successor, the games have absolutely nothing in common.

From Freedom Fighters' wikipedia page:

On April 6, 2004 Eidos UK revealed plans for the sequel.[5] Eidos announced it would distribute the sequel in the first half of its financial year 2006, which would mean the latter part of 2005. However IO Interactive announced development of a new intellectual property, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, casting the future of a Freedom Fighters sequel in doubt.[6] In late 2007 a representative of IO said in an interview about the upcoming Kane & Lynch: Dead Men that a sequel for Freedom Fighters was still on the company's 'to-do' list.

 

[Uberutang]

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