Classic "Spiritual Sequels"....

[tubeway]

I've heard the term "spiritual sequel" used to describe a game that could be considered a sequel to a previous game because of its similarity of gameplay or themes. Usually it's by the same development team, but the storylines and characters of the two games might differ. An example is D, and the later title, Enemy Zero.

What "spiritual sequels" can you folks think of? Bonus points if they're both good games.

[Astrocade]

You can pretty much count Alien Vs. Predator on the SNES as the spiritual sequel to the Final Fight series.

Ikaruga is the spiritual sequel to Radiant Silvergun, which could be considered the spiritual successor to the Raiden series.

[Sinnbox]

Donkey Kong, and Mario!!

[Cobra Commander]

Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. Perhaps?

[Mobius]

I always think of Lords of Thunder as a spiritual sequel to Gate of Thunder and Herc's Adventures as a spiritual seqel to Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

[CosmicMonkey]

You can pretty much count Alien Vs. Predator on the SNES as the spiritual sequel to a big pile of steaming elephant poo.

Fixed.

CPS2 AvP is an absolutely amazing side scrolling beat 'em up. The SNES version is beyond crap.

[Daria]

Shadow Hearts and Koudelka

Alundra and LandStalker

Haunting Ground and Clock Tower

FEDA and Shining Force

[StakeRaiser]

Zanac and The Guardian Legend

Find the ending online of Zanac if you want spoilers

[PutUrQuarterUp]

Doom is the "spiritual sequel" to Wolfenstein 3D..

[Astrocade]

Fixed.

CPS2 AvP is an absolutely amazing side scrolling beat 'em up. The SNES version is beyond crap.

Yes, but how much different is AvP on the SNES compared to FF1 on the SNES? It's pretty much the same game, whether you like it or not.

[Xander]

Resident Evil is often described as the spiritual sequel of Sweet Home.

[k8track]

Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV.

[bangtango]

Legend of Kage and Demon Sword felt a lot alike.

Half the stuff I read that mentions Demon Sword claims it was a sequel to Kage, the other half claims it wasn't an actual sequel.

The whole Renegade, Double Dragon, River City Ransom & Combatribes bundle of games also felt like the same game over and over in most places.

[kedawa]

Osman/Canon Dancer is the spiritual sequel to Strider.
Carrier Airwing/U.S. Navy Pilots is the spiritual sequel to U.N. Squadron/Area 88
Mystic Defender may actually be a sequel to Spellcaster. I'm not really sure.
Dark Cloud is the spiritual sequel to Actraiser.
Mario Golf is just Hot Shots Golf with Mario characters.


Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. Perhaps?

Terranigma would be my pick for Soul Blazer's spiritual sequel.

[heybtbm]

Rebelstar: Tactical Command (GBA) is the spiritual successor to the X-COM series.

[sidnotcrazy]

Shadow Hearts and Koudelka

Alundra and LandStalker

Haunting Ground and Clock Tower

FEDA and Shining Force

Yep, I totally agree. Esp Haunting Ground.


Mario Gold is just Hot Shots Golf with Mario characters.


Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Mario Golf come out before Hot Shots Golf? That is what I always thought.

[Blitzwing256]

Osman/Canon Dancer is the spiritual sequel to Strider.
Carrier Airwing/U.S. Navy Pilots is the spiritual sequel to U.N. Squadron/Area 88
Mystic Defender may actually be a sequel to Spellcaster. I'm not really sure.
Dark Cloud is the spiritual sequel to Actraiser.
Mario Golf is just Hot Shots Golf with Mario characters.



Terranigma would be my pick for Soul Blazer's spiritual sequel.


mystic defender and spellcaster were both based off the same cartoon in japan. (both were localized a little differnt in the us)

[Tetsu]

Odin Sphere is the spiritual sequel to Princess Crown.

[eugenek]

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus

[Vlcice]

Terranigma would be my pick for Soul Blazer's spiritual sequel.

I think they're officially considered a trilogy even though the story connections are a bit loose. Terranigma refers to itself as "Illusion of Gaia 2" in an easter egg, and the beta title screen to Illusion of Gaia includes the "Soul Blazer" title.

[Lady Jaye]

Star Raiders and Solaris on the Atari.

[Mobius]

Alundra and LandStalker


Dark Savior and LandStalker

[kupomogli]

Ikaruga is the spiritual sequel to Radiant Silvergun, which could be considered the spiritual successor to the Raiden series.

I think Raiden is more of a spiritual successor to the Toaplan games which Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun just don't follow as much. Just look at any Raiden game and the way power ups are gathered, most power ups, how bombs are used, etc. All modeled after what you will have seen on Toaplan games. How enemies react and how most are even destroyed follows mostly like a Toaplan game so if you didn't know they weren't then you'd think they were.

So. If you ask me. It's more like Tiger Heli, Grind Stormer, Twin Cobra, Fire Shark, etc, Raiden series.

Not much of a shoot em up fan, but glad that Bloodreign got me to start playing the Toaplan games. In my opinion they've done the best job out of any of them.

[Porksta]

Bioshock for System Shock.

[Cobra Commander]

I think they're officially considered a trilogy even though the story connections are a bit loose. Terranigma refers to itself as "Illusion of Gaia 2" in an easter egg, and the beta title screen to Illusion of Gaia includes the "Soul Blazer" title.
Unfortunately most of us poor souls in NTSC-land have never even played Terranigma.:(

[GM80]

How about 4 of 'em, all pretty good games? All share similar gameplay, the gameplay formula progresses through all four, and they're linked by a web of developers and/or publisher (namely Interplay and Delphine).

Out of This World (Developed by Delphine, published by Interplay)
Heart of the Alien (actual sequel to the above, developed by Interplay and Delphine)
Flashback: The Quest for Identity (Developed by Delphine)
Heart of Darkness (Published by Interplay)
Blackthorne (Published by Interplay)

[Gunface]

I'm liking this thread, it's giving me some good recommendations for games.

[tubeway]

I'm liking this thread, it's giving me some good recommendations for games.

Agreed. Thanks for the responses so far, guys. :)

[The 1 2 P]

I can't believe nobody had mentioned this yet:

Perfect Dark was the spiritual succesor to Goldeneye 64.

[FrakAttack]

Sigma Star Saga for GBA kinda reminds me of Guardian Legend, being an RPG/shmup.

[Aussie2B]

I think they're officially considered a trilogy even though the story connections are a bit loose. Terranigma refers to itself as "Illusion of Gaia 2" in an easter egg, and the beta title screen to Illusion of Gaia includes the "Soul Blazer" title.

The Granstream Saga on PlayStation is also a part of the series.

Isn't Koudelka officially a part of the Shadow Hearts series? And isn't Dark Savior Landstalker's sequel?

Hmmm, how about Shadow Tower? It's its own series, with a sequel on Japanese PS2, but many mistakenly believe it's a King's Field game. In fact, it's often assumed to be King's Field 3 because King's Field 4 came out on PS2, and US gamers only got two King's Field games on PS1. However, what they don't know is that they did play King's Field 3, which was King's Field 2 in the US (and the first US King's Field was the second in Japan as well).

[FrakAttack]

I can't believe nobody had mentioned this yet:

Perfect Dark was the spiritual succesor to Goldeneye 64.

So are the Timesplitters games. Too bad they didn't bother with smartening up the AI on those, or we'd probably still be seeing them.

[Vlcice]

The Granstream Saga on PlayStation is also a part of the series.

I never played anything of that except the demo. Is it following the same sort of themes as the SNES trilogy?


And isn't Dark Savior Landstalker's sequel?

There's LadyStalker for SNES too - I always thought that was a pretty sketchy title.

[Cobra Commander]

I never played anything of that except the demo. Is it following the same sort of themes as the SNES trilogy?

I hate to keep derailing the thread, but I loved that demo. It was one of the first demos I picked up with OPM. Now that I think about it, I'd really love to play that game.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, I think LadyStalker qualifies for this topic. I'm pretty sure it's not part of the series, but it's very much trying to be like LandStalker. I think it might of had some of the same developers. Probably a situation not unlike Shining Force and FEDA.

[theghostlyguitarplayer]

I'm kind of surprised that nobody has mentioned the Ghosts n' Goblins series connection to the Maximo games on the PS2. Similar settings, weapons, baddies, pushed into full 3-D.

-Adam-

[Daria]

Isn't Koudelka officially a part of the Shadow Hearts series? And isn't Dark Savior Landstalker's sequel?

Yeah I didn't mention LadyStalker or Dark Savior because being developed by Climax I see them as official sequels. Alundra was developed by Matrix Software, which was formed by former members of the climax team.

LandStalker could count as it was developed as a direct sequel to Shining Force under the title Shining Rouge and then became it's own thing when Climax and Camelot split from Sonic! Software Planning. But I don't think the games are similar enough.

Then you could even liken Golden Sun to Shining Force III, or even Beyond the Beyond. But I think that's more Camelot's style then anything deeper.

And I'm pretty sure Koudelka's not a Shadow Hearts game. Although I haven't play Shadow Hearts 3, I know 1 and 2 had a direct storyline connection at least. And of course there's the totally different battle system.

And I was under the impression that Maximo was a 3D remake of Ghost and Goblins.

[Daria]

Oh yeah! Star Ocean and Tales of Phantasia totally started out as spiritual sequels, before spawning dozens of true sequels each.

[kupomogli]

Actually, Shadow Hearts is more of a direct sequel to Koudelka than a spiritual sequal.

Koudelka is actually in Shadow Hearts near the end of the game. There's even an in game description guide once you meet her that makes reference to the original title.

More on Shadow Tower and King's Field. There's also Eternal Ring for the PS2. There's also this one PC game that I really loved playing, played similar to those titles where a darkness came and swallowed a kingdom, then a guy came back and his soul was transported down into the ruins of the castle. If anyone knows the name of this game tell me. You were able to inscribe runes into staffs and have specific amounts of charges, etc.

Here are a couple more.

Tobal and Ehrgeiz. Final Fantasy 2 and SaGa series. Advance Wars, Military Madness, and Field Commander. F Zero and Wipeout. Grand Theft Auto, Driver, True Crime, and one other(can't remember the name.) Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Carrier, and Siren. Zelda 2 and Rambo(NES) Ikari Warriors and Rambo(SMS.) Tactics Ogre and FFTactics(both Matsuno games though.)

[Swamperon]

Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal (DS) is a spiritual sequel to Azure Dreams (PSX). However it's vastly inferior and not worth buying unless you see it going cheap.

[The 1 2 P]

So are the Timesplitters games. Too bad they didn't bother with smartening up the AI on those, or we'd probably still be seeing them.

Well Perfect Dark got a real sequel eventually. But I agree that the Timesplitter games were spiritual successors to Perfect Dark as well.

[kupomogli]

Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal (DS) is a spiritual sequel to Azure Dreams (PSX). However it's vastly inferior and not worth buying unless you see it going cheap.

I totally forgot about that one. I loved Azure Dreams and went out and bought that game and think I sold it in less than a week. Not only was the gameplay itself terrible in comparison, Konami came up with the brilliant idea of forcing you to use nothing but the touch screen for any action you take aside from moving in different directions(this was the major downfall because the game would actually be slightly playable without that aspect involved.).

[Wraith Storm]

Decap Attack is the spiritual successor to Psyco Fox.

They share many elements such as throwing a head/creature to attack.
They have the maze-like bonus rounds.
Most of importantly both games have the poles that you can swing back and forth on.

[Bloodreign]

Vigilante could be considered a spiritual sequel to Kung Fu Master, they play very much alike.

[Flashback2012]

Rebelstar: Tactical Command (GBA) and Laser Squad Nemesis (PC) are the spiritual successors to the X-COM series.

Fixed that for you. :wink 2:

[mobiusclimber]

Arcana (SNES) is the spiritual sequel to Shining in the Darkness (Genesis).
Exile is a spiritual sequel to the original Prince of Persia, as is Tomb Raider.
Equinox is a spiritual sequel to Solstice (tho I'm sure they're made by the same company, they don't share storylines as far as I know).

[Julio III]

Project Gotham Racing was the sequal to Metropolis Street Racer. It then kept the PGR name for 4 installments.
Similar to how Soul Calibur has 4 sequals but it itself is a sequal to Soul Edge/Soul Blade.

Oh, and, um, how the Championship Manager series turned into the Football Manager series. The current Championship Manager series games are by a different team, with the original moving over to Football Manager.

[kupomogli]

Just happened to think of some other ones.

Anyways, someone earlier asked me if I was going to pick up Ys 1 and 2 for the DS, which I am, though if they didn't ask that I never would have thought of this. Remember the earlier Ys games? You walked into the enemies to damage them. How about Hydlide? So yeah. The Ys series are spiritual sequels to Hydlide.

Another is Dick Tracy for the Genesis. Never played it but watched a review on ScrewAttack after recently watching the latest AVGN review. As soon as I watched it, you know what I thought of? The NES Golgo 13 games.

[Aussie2B]

Equinox is a spiritual sequel to Solstice (tho I'm sure they're made by the same company, they don't share storylines as far as I know).

That's the real sequel, actually. Equinox is called Solstice II in Japan.

[Cobra Commander]

What about Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario? At least some basic elements are there.

[Kid Fenris]

So. If you ask me. It's more like Tiger Heli, Grind Stormer, Twin Cobra, Fire Shark, etc, Raiden series.

Not much of a shoot em up fan, but glad that Bloodreign got me to start playing the Toaplan games. In my opinion they've done the best job out of any of them.

Cave's shooters are really the closest spiritual sequels to Toaplan's games, since a bunch of former Toaplan staffers founded Cave. A few ex-Toaplan people also started a game studio called Gazelle, but they only made one shooter, Air Gallet, and a Sailor Moon game before shutting down.

For a good example of the Cave-Toaplan connection, compare Batsugun, Toaplan's last shooter, to Cave's Donpachi or ESPrade. The Donpachi games even have the same weapon-firing method as Grind Stormer. Of course, Donpachi is a Raiden successor in many ways.

You can also link some Eighting/Raizing shooters to Compile's games, as there's a similar overlap in staff members. Dimahoo feels a lot like an Aleste title, for instance.


The Granstream Saga on PlayStation is also a part of the series.

Eh, kinda yes, kinda no. You could argue that it's a spiritual sequel, but Quintet's involvement with Granstream didn't go beyond Tomoyoshi Miyazaki (a co-founder of Quintet and a driving force behind most of their games) co-writing Granstream's script and a bunch of Quintet composers providing music for the game.

Quintet's connection to Granstream is often overblown because the game was primarily made by Shade, which was founded by a Quintet visual designer named Koji Yokota. So some people assume that Shade is the same as Quintet. However, only one other Quintet staffer actually joined Yokota; most of Shade's members were former internal Sony programmers. Granstream has some traces of the Illusion/Soul/Terranigma trilogy, but it's not directly part of it.

Also, Quintet's Solo Crisis is a sorta-sequel to Actraiser, as they share the same themes and the goal of raising a race of people. Solo's gameplay is much different, though.

[Sabz5150]

Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space and Space Shuttle Project.

[bangtango]

Another is Dick Tracy for the Genesis. Never played it but watched a review on ScrewAttack after recently watching the latest AVGN review. As soon as I watched it, you know what I thought of? The NES Golgo 13 games.

Purely unintentional but NES Dick Tracy and NES Robocop both had very similar gameplay when punching enemies or shooting at them.

[SegaAges]

This is one that I was told about on these boards actually:
Trick'N Snowboard for ps1 as a spiritual successor to Steep Slope Sliders on Saturn.

Yeah.

They were actually both made by Cave.

I put it in because it really is the sequel, but since it came out through Capcom under a different name, it becomes a Spiritual Successor.

Lucky for me, sealed copies go for dirt cheap on "the bay"

[Kid Fenris]

Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth takes a lot from the first Golgo 13 NES game, as they were both directed by Shouichi Yoshikawa (http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:Shouichi_Yoshikawa). There's a similar mix of different genres, and the main characters in each game have the same sort of rough-edged sprite. Plus Wurm has a robot named G-13.

[Nico87]

Xenosagas-series are spiritual sequels to Xenogears. Bioshock is the spiritual sequel to System Shock 2.

[chrisbid]

gradius is the spiritual successor to scramble

in gradius galaxies on the GBA, scramble was even introduced in the intro next to the rest of the gradius games

[FrakAttack]

Fallout 1 & 2 remind me of the console Shadowrun games, with the look and feel of SNES Shadowrun, and the depth of the Genesis version. Spent a lot of years wishing for sequels to both of those gems, then we get an RPG-less, multiplayer only FPS. http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m112/FrakAttack/smileys/smileybitter.gif