TV Tropes' list of video game spiritual successors
TV Tropes' list of video game spiritual successors
Spiritual Successor in Video Games. The first Video Games (and arcade games in general) can be seen as a Spiritual Successor to various carnival games such as the claw game, shooting ranges and Pinball as you spend little money for one game that …
A Spiritual Successor is a type of sequel that is not part of the same world or story as its predecessor, but is nonetheless considered to be a successor because it shares common themes, styles, and elements. In other words, it’s a sequel "in spirit".
I was thinking about how Bioshock is considered a spiritual successor to System Shock 2, went down a rabbit hole, and came across this list.
You're viewing a single thread.
The used definition is sometimes really broad here. I mean, ok, Dead Space to Callisto Protocol or Titan Quest to Grim Dawn is obvious but Hotline Miami is the Spiritual Successor to Hitman because... you are have to kill people and when you fail you go try again? Very weak. Just being influenced or having a vaguely similar theme shouldn't make it a "successor".
Lol, the last of us as spiritual successor to uncharted. They have some similarities in control and game engine, but hugely different tone, themes and gameplay.
One a heartfelt zombie horror survival, the other a spiritual successor to tomb raider, itself a spiritual successor to Indiana Jones.
This list is not useful.
Yeah, absolutely right. "X is like a new part of Y" must make sense for being a successor. Nobody will say "Last of Us is just like Uncharted IV"!
There was also the second part of that
must learn the layout of the levels and the placement/patterns of the enemies in order to progress, and so on.
But yeah some are going to be more blatant than others.
When you look at what influenced a game's development more often than not there will be a long list. Look at Fallout New Vegas for example and how many movie references it has.
But you would not argue that F:NV is the spiritual "successor" to those movies just because they were referenced.
If I didn't know about Hotline Miami and you told me about like: "It's like somebody made a new Hitman game!" I would be completely lost playing the game. Whole different perspective, style, flow. IMO being a "successor" implies more than just similar elements or references.
That said, wtaching out for examples I do not find so many other, that I think are similiarly weak as the Hitman/Hotline one. So it may be the exception in the list.