A spiritual successor, sometimes called a spiritual sequel or a companion piece, is a sequel to a work of fiction which does not have the same storyline made in the first. In fiction, the term generally refers to a work by a creator that shares similarities to one of their earlier works, but is set in a different continuity, and features distinct characters and settings.
The term is also more broadly applied to video games developed by a different studio with no connection to the original, and simply inspired by the gameplay, aesthetics or other elements of the preceding work.
In films and television shows, spiritual successor often describes similar works by the same creator or starring the same cast.
Here's a deeper dive into the concept with examples across different media:
Examples in Literature
Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, published between 1887 and 1927, drew a large number of pastiches from other authors as early as the 1900s to capture the same mystery and spirit as Doyle's writings. Subsequently, Doyle and his publishers, and since then Doyle's estate, had aggressive enforced copyright on the Holmes character, often requiring authors that were publishing stories to change any use of Holmes' name to something else.
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The character Solar Pons, a pastiche of Holmes, appeared in several books not authorized by the estate of Conan Doyle beginning in 1945. These copyright issues have continued into contemporary times: in the case Klinger v. (2014), it was determined that the characters of Holmes and Watson were in the public domain.
Examples in Film and Television
The film 10 Cloverfield Lane was not originally scripted with any connection to Cloverfield. When the film was acquired by Bad Robot, producer J. J. Abrams saw thematic connections and rewrote parts of the script to make it a spiritual successor to the original Cloverfield film.
Parks and Recreation has been called a spiritual successor to The Office, sharing a similar mockumentary style but with a different tone and setting.
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Examples in Video Games
Several factors can lead to the creation of spiritual successors in the video game industry. The nature of the publisher/maker system are basic in almost all computer games, as well as the purchase and takeovers by many companies. These are reasons why creative teams often lose to keep the copyright and trademark rights of what they made. This often makes attempts to make sequels for a product not possible for many reasons. One of the reasons is the "core" of the studio being fired or taken over after finishing a project while the parent company keeps control of the copyrights and trademarks. A good example of this strategy is Electronic Arts.
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To get around this, creative teams will make a product that is kind of like the first game in some way, without copying the first directly. Other times, a spiritual successor is made when the first products were either poor commercial sellers and/or forgotten by the people that would purchase the product. By leaving the first product's name and maybe its baggage as a forgotten product, the spiritual sequel can be loved by fresh eyes.
The Dark Souls series by FromSoftware was inspired by the studio's earlier game, Demon's Souls, an exclusive title for the PlayStation 3. Irrational Games' BioShock is a spiritual successor to their earlier System Shock 2. While System Shock 2 was met with critical acclaim, it was considered a commercial failure, and publisher Electronic Arts would not allow a third title in the series. BioShock, has been named by its makers as the spiritual successor to System Shock 2. System Shock and System Shock 2 both got good reviews, but both failed to get the expected commercial success.
Shadow of the Colossus was considered a spiritual successor to Ico by Fumito Ueda, who directed both games as leader of Team Ico.
Created by Facepunch Studios, S&box (stylized as s&box) is an upcoming spiritual successor to Garry's Mod. Alternatively, a successor may be developed by some of the staff who worked on the preceding game, under a new studio name. Yooka-Laylee is a spiritual successor evoking the style and gameplay of Rare's Banjo-Kazooie. It was developed by Playtonic Games, which consisted of many former Rare staff members, including programmer Chris Sutherland and composer Grant Kirkhope.
Mighty No. 9 was created as a spiritual successor to Mega Man after Keiji Inafune left Capcom. Similarly, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night emerged as a spiritual successor to Castlevania after Koji Igarashi ("IGA") left Konami.
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A number of games from Bullfrog Productions have spawned spiritual successors in the years after the studio was closed by Electronic Arts in 2001, with these projects typically led by former staff from Bullfrog having found their own studios. Peter Molyneux's Godus is considered a spiritual successor to his earlier work, Populous. Satellite Reign is a spiritual successor to Syndicate Wars. Two Point Hospital is a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital.
The Mother series (known as EarthBound outside Japan) has directly inspired a number of pixel-art, role-playing indie games featuring children in playable character roles as spiritual successors to the series. War for the Overworld (succeeding Dungeon Keeper) crossed through several of these categories over the course of the development. Originating as a fan-made direct sequel to Dungeon Keeper 2, the game then became a spiritual successor with only thematic connection after moving away from the Dungeon Keeper IP.
Table: Examples of Spiritual Successors in Video Games
| Original Game | Spiritual Successor |
|---|---|
| Demon's Souls | Dark Souls series |
| System Shock 2 | BioShock |
| Ico | Shadow of the Colossus |
| Garry's Mod | S&box |
| Banjo-Kazooie | Yooka-Laylee |
| Mega Man | Mighty No. 9 |
| Castlevania | Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night |
| Populous | Godus |
| Syndicate Wars | Satellite Reign |
| Theme Hospital | Two Point Hospital |
| Dungeon Keeper | War for the Overworld |
Other Examples
The Honda CR-Z is regarded as the spiritual successor to the second generation Honda CR-X in both name and exterior design, despite a nearly two decade time difference in production. The Toyota Fortuner SUV is a spiritual successor to the Toyota 4Runner SUV mainly because they both share the same platform as the Hilux pickup truck.
In the realm of computing, the Amiga was seen as a spiritual heir to the Macintosh, offering similar graphical user interface capabilities.