Spiritual successor

successor to a work which does not directly build upon a previous work

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. Spiritual successors still have the same elements, themes, and styles as the first.

Reasons for making a spiritual successor change

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 it 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. They have closed many studios while keeping their copyrights and trademarks, such as Bullfrog Productions, Origin Systems, and Westwood Studios.

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. For example, the video games TimeSplitters and, Perfect Dark are often thought to be the spiritual successors to the hit video game GoldenEye 007.[1][2][3]

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. An example of this would be BioShock, which has been named to by its makers as the spiritual successor to System Shock 2.[4] System Shock and System Shock 2 both got good reviews, but both failed to get the expected commercial success. Unlike BioShock, which was both a reviewer and commercial success.

Further examples of spiritual successors change

Games change

Movies change

References change

  1. "First Look: Perfect Dark". GamePro.
  2. Chi Kong Lui (2000-06-19). "Perfect Dark – Review". gamecricits.com. Archived from the original on 2009-11-24. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  3. Franklin Beans. "Achievement Highlights". Xbox.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  4. "BioShock Preview". GameSpy. 2006-05-10. Retrieved 2007-05-08.
  5. "Treasure Talks 360, Wii, and PS3". 1UP. 2007-01-04. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  6. "Supreme Commander Q&A - What Makes Supreme Commander Unique?". GameSpot. 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
  7. Jason Ocampo (2007-11-06). "Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  8. John 'Warrior' Keefer (2007-02-23). "Supreme Commander (PC) Review". GameSpy. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  9. GameSpot site staff, ed. (2005). "The Long-Awaited Spiritual Successor to ICO Arrives Mid-February in Europe". Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
  10. McNamara, Andy; Berghammer, Billy (2006). "Colossal Creation: The Kenji Kaido and Fumito Ueda Interview". Archived from the original on September 3, 2006. Retrieved July 9, 2006.
  11. "Hellgate is 'spiritual successor to Diablo II' - Roper". Eurogamer. 2007-09-01. Archived from the original on 2007-09-11. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
  12. "Independent Games Summit: Valve's Kim Swift - 'From Narbacular Drop To Portal'". Gamasutra staff.
  13. "Asked & Answered: Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer Posses, Episodes from Liberty City, and Much More". Rockstar Games.
  14. Am; Am, a Briney; geographer, a Briney is a professional; writer; Degrees, Scholar with Three University; GIS, an advanced certificate in. "The Geography of the World's Oceans". ThoughtCo.
  15. NEWS 1997_02_12 - Fierce Creatures - New Film Brings the Stars of 'A Fish Called Wanda' Together Archived 2010-09-26 at the Wayback Machine. Daily Llama