Copy cat games that you assumed were part of an established series.

[Emperor Megas]

Have you ever played a game that was so much like another game that you just took for granted that it was part of a series only to realize later that is isn't?

I figure this happens for a few reasons. It could just be people ripping an established formula off, or it could be teams or individual programmers who were involved with the previous titles and just work for another company now.

This topic was inspired by the recent topic asking about compilations that you would like that were never made. I was thinking about the Rolling Thunder games. There's Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder II and there was a game I remember playing back in the back a few times called Rough Ranger that I assumed was a part of the series because it's so much like the original Rolling Thunder. Well, I haven't seen the game in over 20 years so I looked it up and it seems it was released by a different company and seems to have nothing to do with the series, besides ripping and palette swapping sprites, animations and play mechanics.

[Tanooki]

Not quite the same but fair even if made by the same company -- Life Force/Salamander -- it's NOT Gradius/Nemesis, but other than the vertical stages it might as well be.

[The Adventurer]

Isn't Capcom's Code Name Viper another Rolling Thunder clone?

[Edmond Dantes]

Actually Life Force/Salamander ARE pretty much officially considered part of the Gradius series, and this was true even way back in the 80s--just look at the Salamander anime, where episode 1 is based on Salamander but episodes 2 and 3 are based on the first two Gradius games.

For some reason, as a kid I thought Xenogears was a sequel to Chrono Trigger. I'm not sure what gave me that idea as they're almost nothing alike.

[celerystalker]

Not quite the same but fair even if made by the same company -- Life Force/Salamander -- it's NOT Gradius/Nemesis, but other than the vertical stages it might as well be.

That one is still ambiguous to me. When you watch the opening on the PC Engine version of Gradius II, it includes Salamander as part of the Gradius franchise, and as Edmond mentioned, the anime.

I didn't necessarily think Xenogears was a sequel, but it did have a similar feel toward the beginning, and didn't Lucca appear in it?

[SparTonberry]

Not quite the same but fair even if made by the same company -- Life Force/Salamander -- it's NOT Gradius/Nemesis, but other than the vertical stages it might as well be.

Later Gradius games (I think even starting with the arcade version of Gradius III?) run a slideshow of cover art from previous games in the demo loop, and that includes Salamander. And Parodius included happy-faced parodies of the Gradius art in its attract mode.
Also, after Salamander was released in Japanese arcades, it was re-released there as Life Force with the original power-up system (more like a typical shmup) replaced with the Gradius system.

[Tanooki]

I know all that, but at the time it wasn't and I had assumed it was back in the 80s when originally it wasn't. I know it's in the credits rolls of later games that flash a history like Parodius.

There's some interesting detail here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gradius/gradius5.htm

Life force came to japan too, later, they liked the idea the US office had in making a new game out of Salamander in the US as Life Force so it's all fouled up. It's almost like Gradius inherited Salamander/Life Force due to the obvious similarities and both the American tinkering for our market.

[kupomogli]

I don't think they're part of the same series, but Brigandine is so similar to Dark Wizard in almost every way that I look at it as a spiritual successor and wouldn't be surprised if many in the development team overlap even if not the same developer. In each game you start by picking one of several rulers, you summon monsters with mana, hex based combat, permadeath, class upgrades, take over the world gameplay. Brigandine feels like a more refined version of what Dark Wizard was initially. As a TRPG, Brigandine is extremely well balanced, more balanced even than strategy games without RPG elements.

On Dark Wizard you didn't have limitations when going to the next battle, you could bring your most powerful humans and monsters to each battle. You didn't have limitations on how many powerful monsters you could bring either, setting an army of monsters have all reached the final class. Brigandine set a limitation of three knights per battle and each knight had a certain amount of rune power, allowing them to bring up to six monsters each as long as the monsters didn't exceed that specific knight's rune power. Monsters of different power had different amounts of rune power though. A knight with 200 rune power would be able to bring six lizard men(180,) or a salamander and a dragon(190.) Levels in Dark Wizard like many other RPGs, make such a difference that you'll have a few high level monsters that the enemy stands no chance at the end of the game. Levels in Brigandine also make a difference, but not the kind of difference you'd expect if you think a level 30 monster would be able to just walk through six level one versions of that same monster. In a six versus one battle, unless it's a level 30 vampire lord(third class) versus six level one zombies, the level 30 would lose with the smallest possibility of even a single level one dying(in a human versus human match on Grand Edition.) Also you have your knights bordering your country. You leave that border undefended at all and it's taken over. When attacking you might have your best group over here and another group that's more or less that barely comes out the victor in comparison. It's not like Dark Wizard where your best group is in every battle and you set up random scrubs to succeed in defending locations you've already taken over.

It's like the developers took Dark Wizard, created a different world, edited how some of the gameplay components worked, balanced a lot of the issues the game had, and that's how Brigandine came to be. If not created by people in the same team, then there's the possibility that the team at Hearty Robin loved Dark Wizard and based the entire concept of Brigandine on it? There's even the possibility that nothing came from Dark Wizard and that no one from the team even knew about Dark Wizard or its gameplay, but for how much it does similar, I'm assuming it's atleast inspired by Dark Wizard if not created by people from the same team.

[Emperor Megas]

Isn't Capcom's Code Name Viper another Rolling Thunder clone?

Jesus. I've seen this game before, but it's almost as bad a rip off as Rough Ranger. I mean, just...wow. I would have totally assumed that it was part of the Rolling Thunder series if I didn't see that it was from CAPCOM.

[BlastProcessing402]

I didn't necessarily think Xenogears was a sequel, but it did have a similar feel toward the beginning, and didn't Lucca appear in it?

Yes, there is a Lucca cameo early in the game.