Video games are frequently inspired by other works of art, whether it be movies, books, comics, or other video games. However, some video games take it one step further to be spiritual successors to other games. These games embody the structure, themes, and spirit of the games that they follow in the footsteps of.
Many times these games are made by some or all of the developers that worked on the original. Sometimes they are done because the creators want to make a similar game without having the two be canonically linked. Other times, the developers make spiritual successors because they no longer have access to the rights of the original game for some reason. Still, other times spiritual successors are the product of devoted fans that love an older title and want to create something like it themselves. There have been numerous successful spiritual successors in recent years, which has led to many fans hoping for successors for games like Jak and Daxter. However, there are some spiritual successors that stand out above the rest.
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Many players likely know this already, but Dark Souls was a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls despite both being developed by From Software. When Demon's Souls was released, it was exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and quickly became infamous for its punishing difficulty, open game design, and gorgeous visuals. The game was critically beloved but failed to find more than a cult following amongst players. Of course, the game did eventually go on to breed the very popular Soulsborne genre of games, including the PlayStation 5 remaster of Demon's Souls.
The popularity largely stemmed from the game's follow-up Dark Souls. Dark Souls is very much Demon's Souls' spiritual successor and features very similar combat, world design, and thematic elements of loneliness and desolation. However, the game was kept separate from Demon's Souls and is set in an entirely new world. This also allowed the game to be released on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3, which helped the game find a bigger audience and become the recognized classic that it is today. Dark Souls then kickstarted the Soulslike genre, inspiring many spiritual successors of its own. From Software has also made a series of titles within the genre, including the highly anticipated Elden Ring.
A spiritual successor that is likely less known than Dark Souls is BioShock. BioShock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, which were both developed by Irrational Games. System Shock 2 was a critical success but was considered a commercial failure by its publisher EA, which refused to allow a third game to be developed in the series. Years later, this lead to the team at Irrational Games releasing BioShock, an FPS game that features a similar open narrative structure, horror elements, and mystical powers that fans had come to love in System Shock 2. Of course, BioShock found success and is widely considered one of the best video game trilogies of all time.
SimCity is widely synonymous with the city builder genre. However, its most recent release in 2013 left many fans frustrated due to its required online connectivity and simplification of its core systems. This led to the game's community welcoming the game's spiritual successor Cities: Skylines with open arms. Cities: Skylines advertised itself as a modern return to what made fans fall in love with the original SimCity titles. It included more customizable systems, deeper mechanics, and gorgeous graphics. In the six years since, the game has received multiple expansions and boasts some impressively high statistics from Cities: Skylines players.
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Stardew Valley was only developed by a single indie developer, ConcernedApe. However, the game has remained incredibly popular even five years after its release, and Stardew Valley has become a blueprint for indie games. However, the game was largely inspired by the original Harvest Moon games and started as a clear spiritual successor of the series. It includes similar farming mechanics, a 2D perspective, building relationships with villagers, and even mining and fishing.
However, Stardew Valley has grown over the years to very much become its own thing. The game has received extensive updates that have added a number of entirely new features like enchantments, multiplayer, new activities, and even an entire tropical island for players to visit and upgrade. The updates have led to Stardew Valley building a name for itself, and possibly even eclipsing Harvest Moon as the de facto farming simulator for many fans of the genre. Of course, there are still some farming activities fans hope to see in Stardew Valley, so hopefully, there are more updates still to come.
Undertale is another indie title that took the industry by storm when it was released. Players quickly fell in love with the game's writing, peaceful encounter options, and its charming retro aesthetic. However, the game was a spiritual successor to the cult-classic Nintendo RPG Earthbound. Both games feature a strange world living right under our noses that a child has to venture into to save people. Both games also feature unique turn-based combat systems and engaging stories. Hopefully, fans do not have much longer to wait for Undertale's long-in-development sequel Deltarune.
It has been numerous years since fans of the Castlevania series got a new entry. This led former Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi to crowdsource and develop Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The game attempted to maintain as much of what players loved about Castlevania as possible, with the game being the same in every way except for the name. It featured a similar gothic aesthetic, horrifying monsters, 2D metroidvania gameplay, plenty of gadgets, and was extremely difficult. There was even a secret retro difficulty mode included in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for purists who wanted to tackle all of the challenges the game could offer. Thankfully, a sequel has been confirmed to be in development, so metroidvania fans have another title to look forward to sometime in the future.
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