17

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.

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee 10 points 7 months ago

This whole article should have been organized according to the older game. That way we could have looked up our favorite games and found out if it had a spiritual successor.

[-] shani66@ani.social 10 points 7 months ago

It's not an article, my guy. It is just a list people as stuff to

[-] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 6 points 7 months ago

You can always expand all the folders and Control + F to search the page for your favorite games

[-] Klear@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago

The correct way to read TVTropes is to just absorb the whole page beginning to end na matter if you know the games in question and open any familiar or interesting link on the background to read afterwards.

See you in a couole of years.

[-] Ophioparma@feddit.de 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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".

[-] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 4 points 7 months ago

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.

[-] Ophioparma@feddit.de 1 points 7 months ago

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"!

[-] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[-] Ophioparma@feddit.de 2 points 7 months ago

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.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 points 7 months ago

In how many of those spiritual successors is the computer a cheating bastard? 🤔

this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
17 points (100.0% liked)

Gaming

2492 readers
103 users here now

The Lemmy.zip Gaming Community

For news, discussions and memes!


Community Rules

This community follows the Lemmy.zip Instance rules, with the inclusion of the following rule:

You can see Lemmy.zip's rules by going to our Code of Conduct.

What to Expect in Our Code of Conduct:


If you enjoy reading legal stuff, you can check it all out at legal.lemmy.zip.


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS