7 Spiritual Sequels that Embarrassed Big Publishers

When major game publishers let a beloved series wither on the vine, sometimes developers find their own way to make the game they want...
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[@aznagent]

Why do so many of these entries start with "bought by EA"

[@FFKonoko]

We all know why

[@jefferson7097]

This KZbin comment has been brought to you by EA *Comment crash* Would you like to buy the new micro transaction comment? It adds new features like symbols called letters that can be used to communicate thoughts to others.

[@lizardguyNA]

Because EA is the cancer of the gaming industry.

[@Rockalanche]

Well, wich company has loads of money and wastes the potential of every franchise they've come in contact with? That's right, it's EA.

[@Altoryu]

Because EA bought out a lot of these companies and either didn't do anything with them, turned them into microtransaction infested mobile/live service trash or just turned them into a shell of their former selves wether it be Bullfrog, Westwood Studios or Pandemic Studios or Maxis.

[@rfastravers8841]

SimCity -> Cities: Skylines Rollercoaster Tycoon -> Planet Coaster Two examples of spiritual successors who understood the fans.

[@probablynoctis7872]

Rollercoaster Tycoon had two spiritual successors that completely demolished what the company has done with the IP in modern times. Planet Coaster and Parkitect. Planet Coaster's kind of a spiritual successor to 3 (by the same devs, who actually got screwed by Atari), and Parkitect is more meant to imitate 1/2. And don't forget that OpenRCT2 is a fan project that has kept RCT2 alive till this day, far better than Atari has ever done.

[@the_emigrant]

With Simcity it's not so much that they refused to make a sequel but rather that they made one so awful that it was worst than doing nothing.

[@metleon]

@@the_emigrant Same thing happened with RCT. Everything after 3 is trash and barely functions at the best of times. The only exception is Classic, which is a port of 1 and 2 to mobile and then back to PC.

@@the_emigrant And the culprit is, once again, EA. They are truly the anti-Midas of companies: every IP they touch turns to shit.

[@Signedcentaur]

Include Planet Zoo for Zoo Tycoon and Prehistoric Kingdom for JP: OG (Even though JWE 1 and 2 exist)

[@uninvincibleete]

Castlevania is actually a brilliant title! "sylvania" means woods or forest land. You see it in place names like Pennsylvania (forest land owned by William Penn) and Translyvania (a place "on the other side of the woods"). So what do you call a game about a big spooky castle in the woods, especially if you want it to sound European-ish? Ca-sylvania. Castlevania. It's kind of genius, actually.

[@Vinemaple]

Upvote this instead of the other comment that gets this wrong! Also, Transylvania, the Hungarian-speaking central region of modern Romania, surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, is where Bram Stoker placed Dracula's castle, in the original novel. It's also the region that the historical Vlad Tepes's family came from.

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

@@VinemapleRoger that!

[@LickMyMusketBallsYankee]

You dork

[@LickMyMusketBallsYankee]

🤓

[@Hypersaiyanike]

So we've been playing "Castle in the Woods" for years?

[@kylespevak6781]

Company: There's no interest in this series Dev: *makes Kickstarter that gets millions over night* Company: 😮

[@martingriff101]

While I agree but just because it make millions does not mean it will be any good

[@vegterble]

@@martingriff101 it does mean there's interest though, which is what they said

[@martingriff101]

@vegterble true but can destroy a game

[@ferinzz]

Square : We sold 7Million copies and did not meet our sales expectations. We are instead selling these IPs to invest in crypto. Actually it's a lot of games companies doing that nowadays. If it doesn't sell 7M copies they don't make their money back ._. It's unsustainable.

[@Hellbane224]

@@ferinzz The best part about that is, if the suits and ties didn't each all take the gross national product of a small country as their "cut," there would be a LOT more money left for game development, and they wouldn't have to piss and moan that they "didn't make enough money."

[@intern_dana]

i love the visual image of miyamoto hearing about luke's wedding, taking the 13 hour flight, arriving to the reception, telling luke "you cannot defeat miyamoto", then immediately leaving

[@Brasc]

I imagine the scene as something like the "You are already dead' scene from Fist of the North Star. Miyamoto walks up the reception line, Luke is absolutely gobsmacked to see him at his wedding, then Miyamoto just says, "You cannot defeat Miyamoto," to Luke's befuddlement. Then, in lieu of Luke exploding, Miyamoto then abruptly either throws down a smoke bomb and vanishes from the ceremony, or activates his jet pack and disappears into the distance towards Heathrow.

[@kaldo8907]

@@BrascI love your take on it, but let's not forget that the phrase is also on Luke's gravestone!

[@Chris_Sizemore]

@@Brasc Luke waits nervous and expectant in front of the Pastor for his bride. Emerging from a side door Luke's bride in while is escorted into the room not by the Bride's father, but by Mr. Miyamoto in a tuxedo. The blushing bride can't take her eyes off of Mr. Miyamoto for even a second as they approach the altar. Mr. Miyamoto playfully caresses the bride's chin and turns to Luke saying "You can not defeat Miyamoto." All eyes are on Mr. Miyamoto's back as he gracefully strides out of the front door and steals the awaiting Limo that the groom and bride are suppose to use.

[@Khornecussion]

" I AM A JAPANESE-A MAN. " - Miyamoto

[@TheBlackSeraph]

I'm just imagining Miyamoto sneaking into a British cemetery to write in blood red letters "you cannot defeat Miyamoto so do not even try!" on Luke's tomb stone.

[@Christopher-md7tf]

Tbf, embarassing Konami is extremely easy nowadays given how low they keep setting the bar.

[@jefferson7097]

They are rereleasing Suikoden I and II because of Eiyuden Chronicles. The company is literally sitting on IPs and only remembers them if they can get a quick cash grab. They could literally just release compilations of their old games on each new system and have a constant stream of revenue....but they won't even do that.

[@jefi1298]

​​@@jefferson7097yeah because Konami is a gambling company first, everything else comes later, if ever.

[@LordKelvinX2086]

@@jefferson7097 Oh, they get money from their old games. By using them as CGI featurettes on their pachinko machines.

[@jefferson7097]

@@LordKelvinX2086 When gambling addiction isn't exploitable enough, we can always throw in some nostalgia to really hook them on that dopamine fix.

[@merepseu]

@@jefi1298 I choose to see it as Konami being upfront about being a gambling company first.

[@MrFierygrave]

The Thing with Bioshock isn't that no one wanted to make more of it, its the Ken Lavine decided he didn't want to make more of it so he fired 90% of his team and downsized the studio to start working on other things. Instead of doing what most people in that position do when they get to that position and leaving and starting a newer smaller studio. He just decided "Nah I am going to do the largest video game layoff to date" (this was in like 2014 or something before the more recent layoffs) 2K would have happily funded more bioshock games. I'll never forget that.

[@MrSnaztastic]

They are funding more BioShock games, 4 has been in the works for like a decade now and rebooted at least twice. Or at least I hope it's still going to see the light of day, BioShock 4 may actually be one of the titles that got cancelled when T2 itself laid off hundreds of people and scrapped multiple projects recently.

[@Hitperson]

Sorry Elen but "Insurance shock" already exists, every time i have to renew the car insurance...

[@Azaelris]

Lmfao

[@Kpimpmaster]

Let’s not forget In Bloodstained you can fight a Zombie Belmont (in game he’s called the Revenant) as one final F U to Konami

[@Ninjaananas]

Konami should just outsource Castlevania to Iga's studio.

[@metae.4256]

That would be admitting they fucked up when they gave Castlevania to Kojima to make Lords of Shadow. @@Ninjaananas

[@kendonl.taylor5111]

@Kpimpmaster TAKE THAT!!!

[@lizardguyNA]

Don't forget the boss that is Konami.... the evil Slot Machine monster with the bunny girl in its arena.

[@mariokarter13]

Fun Fact: Lords of Shadow was greenlit by the same VP that oversaw some of the worst fiscal years in the history of the company. His name was Hideo Kojima.

[@GhengisJohn]

It says alot about the current state of The Sims that Ellen totally knew that my reaction to The Sims: Dumpster Diver would be "Is that a real thing? " But I wondered not because it sounded silly but because I thought that was already part of an expansion pack... It was. It's called "Eco Lifestyle"... But if your Sim is feeling trashy they can even WooHoo in there. Which is a story they obviously lie to their kids about if that's where they came from.

[@saffral]

"My little trash bag of joy."

[@SimuLord]

"THOMAS NOOK JOHNSON, YOU GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!" "Oh no, you're really in trouble now, your mom used your middle name..."

[@toratio8547]

Holy hell I was convinced that wasn’t real

[@arielc8584]

The only thing that she missed was explaining at the end that it "only" costs $40(USD) to allow your sims to go dumpster diving.

[@SupersuMC]

@@arielc8584 Frick that.

[@hannahhannbella]

The sims 4 expansion pack you joked about is called eco living

[@Vinemaple]

Thank you for describing what happened to Hearthstone! My friend and I miss the days when we could hang out virtually by playing this "surprisingly accessible" game on a casual level, before it became "repeatedly blow real money on cards and spend days teaching yourself new strategies and mechanics, or lose every game." There were other reasons we moved on, but we miss the music and the relentless, but never quite forced, positivity.

[@zekenelsons2069]

I have a totally weird recommendation for you. You've probably gotten hella ads for it if you play literally any mobile game, but "Cards, the Universe, and Everything" aka CUE actually legitimately slaps. It's got amazing deck-building, with different sets of cards getting bonuses from different game boards, and every single card in the game teaches you something. Every card is either based on something from Arts & Culture, History, Life On Land, Oceans And Seas, Paleontology, Science, or Space. And the "back" of every card explains the concept on the "front" of the card, sometimes even including recipes! There are tons and tons of really fun combos- like "Darwin's Finches" + "Galapogos Tortoises" = "Beak Performance", or "Ursa Major" + "Ursa Minor" = "Bear Necessities". There's a unique animation for every combo, too! :D My favorite deck to play with is my Arthurian Knights deck, because I happened to get incredibly lucky during the introductory event and got the mythic of the set, the Holy Grail, which gets buffed by almost every single Knight card. It's absolutely not a guaranteed winner or anything, but it's really fun to play with all of the card interactions.

[@graywolf7132]

Surprised the most famous spiritual successor of all time wasn't mentioned. Fallout was the Spiritual successor to Wasteland. While Wasteland now has two sequels, it took them nearly thirty years to get to the first one.

[@greenhowie]

Could argue that Wasteland 2 and 3 are spiritual successors to isometric Fallouts as well. Cross cross.

[@CrazeeAdam]

Eh as far as well known and famous "spirutual successors" it probably is Bioshock or you know the game that everyone now says is like everything, Dark Souls

[@marcindzamroga8945]

Funny how the reason they had to make a spiritual successor was Electronic Arts again! It's almost like there's a pattern here...

[@zephodb]

Interplay made Wasteland... then they wanted to make a sequel, EA said 'no', so Interplay made Fallout... Then the Wasteland was inactive for so long that it got Kickstartered, so enjoy that. c.c

[@justinlast2lastharder749]

Its a Shitty game though...

[@mynar_lenahan]

Just the notion of Miyamoto tormenting Luke on the day of his wedding with "You cannot beat Miyamoto." is so damn funny. Top notch comedy writing...

[@dwarvengrudge667]

Unicorn Overlord just came out as a spiritual sequel to Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen and Ogre Battle 64 and Eiyuden Chronicles comes out next month as a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series. It's a great time to be a fan of awesome old series.

[@Valor6]

Unicorn Overlord is a LOT of fun. And I kickstarted Eiuden Chronicles. I currently have a 50/50 (I kickstarted Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Mighty Number 9. One a great game ,the other is.. uh... Anyway.) Here's hoping I come out of it with a winning record!

[@wasabiwarabi]

I've always loved the Ogre Battle series, but I don't have handhelds/consoles, so the exclusivity of Unicorn Overlord makes me very sad indeed. No real reason not to get a PC port.

[@Valor6]

@@wasabiwarabi I'm in complete agreement there. I feel like there will be one, it's kind of hard to imagine them NOT doing it. But it's Atlus, so that may not be for years going forward. Don't get me wrong, I love having it on the go with my Switch, but I'd love to have it on PC, too - especially if people figure out how to mod it. >_>

[@seanbryant8407]

thank you sir, i hadnt heard of this and i have been pining for another ogre battle or a successor for a very long time. thank you for bringing me this joy.

[@dwarvengrudge667]

@@seanbryant8407 You are most welcome. Enjoy!

[@zigazav1]

btw, Wargrove also lets you create your own made up scenarios, including cutscenes with provided resources. Also, Wargroove very likely takes place in the same universe as Chucklefish's other game, Starbound, as not only does the Floran race exists in both games, but a specific named unique Floran NPC (I forget her name) appears in both Starbound and Wargroove. She even breaks away from the broken English and breaks away desires of eating other races that Florans in Starbound are known to have, even the player race Floran follows. For those who don't know what Starbound is, think of it as like Terraria, but in space, and has multiple playable races available, with more you can add via mods. Not the basic customizable human you're forced to play as in Terraria

[@indi90air]

Ellen's composure immediately crumbling when she read "grease dance" during the kinect bit 🤣 Even she was caught off guard by how effectively Microsoft was going to prove her point

[@frodobaggins7710]

On the other hand, you have games like Mighty No. 9 and The Callisto Protocol, which are spiritual successors that ended up being overshadowed by the games they were trying to be successors for (Mega Man and Dead Space)

[@ArchieNox]

Probably because Callisto Protocol was shoddily made. Dodge left, dodge right, swing. Rinse, repeat, beat every fight.

[@jefferson7097]

There was a helluva lot of hype about Mighty No. 9, just failed to deliver well. The appetite for new Mega Man games was pretty clear.

[@toongrowner1]

@@ArchieNox my biggest problem was the story, like the main concept with the prison was good, but anything after, also how the game kinda lacked it's own identety, it looked too much like dead space.

[@toongrowner1]

@@jefferson7097 I have to admit, even with it's flaws, I do somehwat enjoy might no. 9 and occasionally replay, certainly like it more than megaman.... megaman x on the other hand is clearly supperior. Dash and wall jumps are just the right key for me :P

[@SimuLord]

Too bad Mighty No. 9 was a Colossal No. 2.

[@Yabuturtle]

A lot of times, fan made stuff ends up being better. Why? Because they are fans and fans don't want to see things suck, so naturally, they put more effort into it, whether it's mods, sequels, ect.

[@thecrispymaster]

Equally, a lot of the time fans trying to make things ends up terribly (see a lot of the dross that ends up on steam) because while fans think they know what they want, most don't have the ability to translate it into anything tangible. Examples like those in the video are the exceptions that prove the rule.

[@Fact-fiend_1000ASMR.]

Some of the best fanmade material is in the Command and Conquer franchise. To this day I consider the fan made levels post Kane's Wrath to be the canonical ending and not whatever EA produced.

[@mathinho1237]

Not a lot, quite rare to be real

[@Yabuturtle]

@@thecrispymaster Sometimes, but not as often as folks think. Many mods have put publishers to shame. Even when it comes to deepfake stuff, they can excel

[@Yabuturtle]

@@mathinho1237 Not really. I mean, there's some fan fiction out there that is kind of cringey, but some were better than official scripts and lots of mods and film edits fans too can be very impressive, even deep fake stuff.

[@FutureRetroRoots]

A recent spirutal successor to Jet Set Radio, Bombrush Cyberfunk. I really love this one and in some ways feels and plays even better than JSR. They even got Hideki Naganuma to compose a couple of new tracks that i like to keep listening to every now and then 😊☺️

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

I think that A Hat In Time counts. It serves as a spiritual successor to platformers like Mario and Banjo-Kazooie.When it was first announced, people were convinced it would be another failed Kickstarter game, but it was actually a massive success both critically and financially.

[@toongrowner1]

just wish the dlc's would have drop on consoles sooner. XD Well I guess it helped re-open the market for platformers on none-nintendo consoles. And yes, it's a very fun and adorable game.

[@philliprosewood7049]

I love a hat in time very underrated def one of my favs

[@RainMinded]

It’s uneven but that’s almost part of its charm. Love that game, they don’t make em like that anymore

[@xxrehabrejectxx]

But what is it a spiritual successor to?

[@connortheandroidsentbycybe7740]

And what, exactly, was it a spiritual successor too?

[@deathbykonami5487]

Should we tell Luke that there is a "Canonical Alucard" in Bloodstained Ritual of the Night? He's the Librarian who REALLY doesn't like it when you borrow his books for too long. Seriously, everything about Orlok Dracule, or O.D. to his friends, just screams Alucard, from his mannerisms, to his appearance, to the fact he's voiced by Robert Belgrade who originally voiced Alucard in the original Symphony of the Night before he got recast by Yuri "Dear God, He's Everywhere" Lowenthal.

[@greenhowie]

Also he's literally a canonical Vampire in Bloodstained lore. Kinda like Crilall in Lunacid, who is also an "Alucard-like" voiced by Robert Belgrade.

[@azuredragoon2054]

I managed to get him into the list of "7 Deadly Shopkeepers: Commenter's Edition". Because he will fight you as well. And he fights like Dio "Za Warudo" Brando.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Kind of funny. Orlok is the name of the vampire in the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu. Nosferatu is basically one of the earliest movie versions of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the producers of the movie didn't want to pay royalties to the estate of Bram Stoker, so they had to rename the vampire.

[@SimuLord]

"before he got recast by Yuri "Dear God, He's Everywhere" Lowenthal." Does this mean that Oliver Swanick from New Vegas is Canonical Alucard? YEEEEEEEAH! WHO WON THE LOTTERY? I DID!

[@kieranhair37]

I did not know that about the voice actor. It's crazy, I bought this game the first time I saw it in stores, and I had no idea about its backstory. I just hadn't played something that felt like Castlevania in a while and decided this looked like a fair bet. Plus the chick on the box was kinda hot. I didn't realize Castlevania was quite literally the vibe they were going for.

[@Noperare]

11:06 Ken Levine: what if I did Bioshock... IN SPACE! Nightdive studios: sorry, I did the Systemshock remake last year.

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

Remake not counting we gone full circle.

[@mikhailryzhov9419]

I was fully expecting him to make the next game about an underground communist city falling apart. Maybe not just underground, but fallen into Hell after some experiment went wrong. So Doom x BioShock.

[@lionocyborg6030]

Ken already did that himself though in 1999 with System Shock 2. The first system shock & its remake is more like Metroid as an FPS before Metroid Prime, the latter being the Zero Mission.

[@hathorliderc]

Wow, no Bomb Rush Cyberfunk? That would've been a great addition to the list

[@spyczech]

Had to make room for marvel snap for some reason lop

[@STS-qi1qy]

No one squanders good will and good games like Konami. It's like they take it as a point of pride.

[@juliagoodwin9510]

The phrase Fuckkonami exists for a _reason_ people...

[@greenhowie]

Buhh but Siwent Hiww Too Wemake! They WUV fans!!!!!

[@Gremlin23]

Laughs in EA and then closes the laughing studio.

[@ARUCARDFTEPES]

I guess that's why they've now taken to re-releasing the classics, with Kojima's name scrubbed off of course.

[@fist-of-doom487]

@@juliagoodwin9510 it’s barely a phrase and I dislike the person who started it, but it’s nontheless appropriate for Konami.

[@PsychoSavager289]

Two extra examples come to mind. Stardew Valley is so successful and influential, it's easy to forget it was an homage to Harvest Moon. And War for the Overworld was good enough to be the unofficial Dungeon Keeper 3 (they even got the original games' narrator back), unlike the pay-to-win mobile garbage EA were making with the DK license.

[@nobodylolz77]

Problem with the first idea is that there hasn't been a shortage of harvest moon games, just that for legal reasons are called story of seasons

[@davidmcgill1000]

@@nobodylolz77 The problem was that they were awful games. The developers refused to put any effort in the games, expecting to just ride the brand recognition. Stardew Valley was made with passion for the series and really tried to make the game enjoyable.

[@nobodylolz77]

@@davidmcgill1000 were they JUST another harvest moon? Yes, were they awful? Far from it. Sales and critic wise harvest moon is still going.

[@Bloodglas]

​@@davidmcgill1000 the people that kept the rights to the name Harvest Moon were doing that but the company that started the Harvest Moon series and changed the title to Story of Seasons definitely weren't. hard to ride brand recognition when people thought SoS was a different company trying to copy HM. there are still people that don't know modern HM games are the ones made by a different company, and that SoS is made by the company that made the original HM games.

[@imrpovking845]

Another one for Dungeon Keeper is the Dungeons series of games (at 3 and heard a 4th is coming.)

[@ChromosomeExcel]

wait a damn minute yooka-laylee failed! Even the creators said so. It was hated by fans and critics alike for the same reasons Banjo-Tooie was. They forgot what made the first game Banjo-Kazooie so loved and then Hat in Time came out with half the backing and was beloved by critics and gamers everywhere. That was a real spiritual sequel to Banjo Kazooie

[@Miraglyth]

I'm a little surprised the original Yooka-Laylee made the list, since a lot of reaction to it at the time was trying to relate it to the reaction of Mighty No. 9. Also A Hat in Time came out around that time, and while I personally prefer the former, the latter was treated as a crazy huge indie darling. I think at one point Playtonic said the commercial performance of Yooka-Laylee left them without the resources to develop a full-world 3D follow-up, resulting in The Impossible Lair which not only knocked it out of the park but is arguably itself better as a spiritual sequel (to DKC as mentioned).

[@foreignuser_]

Impossible Lair was fun but personally not great. I enjoyed the DKC games on SNES 10x more and I have played them recently.

[@kingtancred]

Frontier Studios knew that the children who grew up playing Zoo Tycoon would want to play Planet Zoo as adults, so they made Planet Zoo. That's what happens when you sleep on games with animals in them, MICROSOFT.

[@davidhalstead402]

I'm still waiting for dinosaurs before I buy...

[@irishww5110]

Zoo Tycoon still way better though

[@albertgore7435]

Rip Kinectimals

[@exilestudios9546]

​@@davidhalstead402they will not be adding dinosaurs but if dinosaurs in a zoo game that has basically all of the same mechanics as planet zoo then I highly recommend prehistoric kingdom!

[@theninjamaster67]

@@davidhalstead402 Just go play Jurassic World Evolution I've heard it's pretty good and it even got a sequel.

[@MunchKING]

I only know that Dumpster Diving is real because it was part of the Eco Pack.

[@shonea8819]

Thank you! I truly couldn't tell😅

[@SimuLord]

Thank you! I was trying to remember where it was from, because I know my sims have done their share of it!

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

I wasn't sure whether it was real or not because I got an advertisement for a new Sims add-on from the Epic app today.

[@toratio8547]

😮

[@sopcannon]

That was real? omfg

[@jk966]

I love the fact that we are getting a spiritual successor to the spiritual successor of system shock

[@redacted8983]

You mean return to System Shock... as a remake???

[@MageKing17]

We already had that; it was called Prey (2017).

[@daniellepullman4074]

​@@MageKing17Would have rathered they not ditched the sequel to the original Prey instead. The one you're talking about was just them ripping the name off of a beloved game and middle fingering the fan base.

[@MageKing17]

@@daniellepullman4074 ...Beloved? Prey (2006) was garbage; if anything, it was a problem in that everyone had to say "no, this Prey is actually good and has nothing to do with that" when recommending it.

[@ocanhaTheEditor]

Unfortunately there was no mention of Freedom Planet on this video, which is quite sad because while the game is basically a love-letter to 90s platformers in general, I still believe the game is amazing by itself

[@jackmcslay]

I don't think it really counts because It's based mainly on Sonic which was never put in limbo for long enough to be considered neglected.

[@asteriondeltoro124]

Fallout. Hard to remember these days, but the classic RPG series started off as a sequel to the 80's classic Wasteland. Because the team worked at Interplay and the rights to Wasteland were held by EA, the game became Fallout instead. It goes two ways: after Bethesda took over the Fallout franchise and changed it, the team behind the original Wasteland reclaimed the rights to their game and made an official sequel in the isometric vein of Fallout. Also, after the creator of Shenmue parted ways with Sega and took the rights with him, Sega decided to make their own version of Shenmue. The result was the Yakuza series, which has since far surpassed Shenmue's popularity even in its day. Oh, and how about Star Control 2? The first game was an action game, but the second was a re-invention of an obscure PC game series called Starflight. To make it even twistier, an acrimonious break between the developer and publisher has since resulted in two different successors to SC2: Star Control Origins and the upcoming Free Stars. Oh! And Stardew Valley grew out a Harvest Moon fan's frustration with the direction that series had taken. And there's the recently-announced Brighter Shores: A successor to Runescape from the original dev, due out later this year. Yeah, this happens a lot. :)

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Can even vouch that Star Control II is a spiritual predecessor that was as ambitious as Mass Effect 3, only more successfully.

[@asteriondeltoro124]

@@michaelandreipalon359 Come to think of it, Mass Effect is another one. It was supposed to be Knights of the Old Republic 3, but Lucasfilm wasn't on board, so Bioware made their own damn universe.

[@atoth62]

Paper Mario and Bug Fables. While its true, that there are still Paper Mario games still coming out, there hasn't been one with the original game mechanics of Paper Mario 1 and 2, at least until Bug Fables came out.

[@unkindestcut]

Came here to see if Wasteland/Fallout was mentioned.

[@wintersong2266]

​​​@@atoth62 Well there is South Park The Stick of Truth. I think the combat might be a bit more closely inspired from Super Mario RPG but the first two Paper Mario were spiritual successor to Mario RPG anyway.

[@DaveTheScwede]

Credit to Bomb Rush Cyberfunk for being an incredibly Jet Set Radio-like, and proved to Sega there are HUGE legs on that genre. They suddenly announced a new JSR soon after BRC released to fantastic reception.

[@tremassicotte3172]

That game isn't the reason Jet Set Radio is coming back.

[@DaveTheScwede]

@@tremassicotte3172 the very public years of development of a clear JSR spiritual successor that garnered a lot of attention, even getting contributions and lots of public chatter from the JSR composer. Good to know an insider like yourself is privy to this having no influence on Sega, having done nothing with the IP for a decade prior... thank you Mr.Sega.

[@comettamer]

Timesplitters, a spiritual successor to GoldenEye that was built by most of the team that had worked on GoldenEye, who left Rare after finishing that game and Perfect Dark, then formed Free Radical Entertainment.

[@bruhtholemew]

All I remember about Yooka Laylee is people saying it was a poor attempt at grasping onto nostalgia and then praising A Hat in Time.

[@darthstatic]

I'm surprised Rollercoaster Tycoon isn't on this list. It spawned not one, but two amazing spiritual successors: Planet Coaster is pretty much RCT3 (and an upgrade in every way from RCT World), and Parkitect is literally just an upgrade from RCT1 and 2 (despite the fact those two games are still going strong thanks to OpenRCT2).

[@SupersuMC]

Don't forget RCT Classic, the only good RCT game Atari has made.

[@jonahfalcon1970]

On the other hand, you have Mighty No. 9, so it doesn't always work.

[@Ramsey276one]

Not the only one judging by the comments...

[@maligulant4396]

as the one single mighty no 9 fan out here. yeah spiritual successors are very risky

[@Ramsey276one]

@@maligulant4396 I enjoyed their appearance in Mighty Gunvolt games!

[@jonahfalcon1970]

@@maligulant4396 Mighty No 9 wasn't bad, just rushed.

[@maligulant4396]

@@jonahfalcon1970 its bad *because* its rushed. i do feel bad, because there was certainly potential, but it just...fell short.

[@oddishsmile7368]

Surprised Frontier's Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo didn't make an appearance. The RCT3 devs knocked it out of the park with the sequel we never got, and it was surprising in a wonderful way to see them tackle Zoo Tycoon too. The grin that crept onto my face as I recognized mechanics shared by the two games while playing the tutorials was lovely.

[@goldkobold6496]

Really surprised bug fables wasn’t brought up at any point for how it showed how much people miss the combat system of the first 2 paper Mario’s

[@claratalbot7613]

Fun fact: Th code 451 doesn't just come from system shock but also the book fahrenheit 451

[@victoralexandervinkenes9193]

The temperature it takes for a 📖 to 🔥

[@futurehistoryarchaeologist4480]

I think there's a bit of a subtle difference between it being from fahrenheit 451 and being a reference to fahrenheit 451. The only significance the number has within the game is as a passcode. The only connecting thread is "this game is a dystopian sci-fi story, so here's a very subtle tribute to one of the most influential dystopian sci-fi stories ever written". I think I also heard it was the actual passcode to the studio's building.

[@iamsad4228]

It was actually just the code to get in the office

[@victoralexandervinkenes9193]

@@futurehistoryarchaeologist4480 ok

[@king_clueless]

That's what I heard / read previous too​@@iamsad4228👍

[@lawrencechesneau]

I drive past Bullfrog's old building every day on my way into work. Sigh..those were the days. 😢

[@SupersuMC]

How's the building doing? Genuinely curious.

[@lawrencechesneau]

@@SupersuMC Oh, it's doing fine. It's part of a business park so, although it changes occupants from time to time, it just keeps on going. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not, to be honest.

[@alexjoke9141]

Wreckfest is another good example. When the rights to the flatout series was sold to another publisher, they fired the original dev team and proceeded to release the worst rated game on steam. The og devs then released a tech demo "next car game" which was later developed into Wreckfest

[@thornofsociety6857]

"Here is Marvel Snap on literally everyone's smartphone" Not everyone, I hadn't even heard of it.

[@WDSimp]

I adore spiritual successors and want to see more of them. Because publishers routinely underestimate the demand for that game you liked but with modern comfort features.

[@wulvve]

I did NOT need to be called out for finding zergs cute, ok? (In OG Starcraft the little potato feet of the zerglings just schmoovin... they were just little guys on a mission)

[@LamanKnight]

Yes, those little leapfrogging guys were cute when they ran around. I won't be concerned until you find that special Ultralisk unit, Torrasque, to be cute.

[@burrito4332]

​@@LamanKnight this is a deep cut lol. I still remember how I panicked when I first saw Torrasque.

[@DanStaal]

Just reference Carbot, and everyone will agree with you.

[@Jack_Rakan]

@@burrito4332 I remember trying Starcraft for the first time on my cousin's PC when I was 7. Started with the Protoss campaign because I thought they looked cool. The zerg ambushing me multiple times in the first few minutes of the mission scared the life out of me to the point that I had nightmares for three days in a row about them. And gave me an anti-zerg bias that will last forever.

[@Ramsey276one]

RIP Drone-tan

[@GameAW1]

Long-time Wario Land player here, Only 4 and later Shake It/The Shake Dimension (for European players) were all about momentum and speed. Wario Lands 1-3 including the Virtual Boy one were more puzzle platformers in which you were to get through the stage, collecting as much money as possible and figure out where and how to find various secrets. You more often than not had to take your time, not simply zoom through like you could in 4. Pizza Tower is akin to Wario Land 4 specifically, not Wario Land as a whole.

[@Mixa_Lv]

Wargroove didn't outdo Advance Wars, the multiplayer is practically dead at this point while Advance Wars by Web is still going strong.

[@vicentetemes5793]

Bloodstained is so funny to me because statistically it is somewhat likely you first heard about it from the actual worst part of Blasphemous, and then you look it up and see a Japanese guy languishing around on a castle talking about how they called him crazy.

[@doctorstrangepants6706]

"Transylvania" means "on the other side of the woods", with "vania" meaning "woods". This means that "Castlevania" simply means "Woods Castle".

[@henrikleppa7632]

Close, "sylvania" (from Latin "sylva") means "woods". I guess the two "s"es just merge, because they're next to each other. Transylvania used to also be called "Ultrasylvania". There are other "on the other side of the" places, like Transnistria ("across Dniester"), and Jordan (country) used to be called Trans-Jordan ("across Jordan (river)").

[@SupersuMC]

@@henrikleppa7632 And transform could be argued to mean "across form(s)."

[@Ramsey276one]

Oh WOW

[@syafiqjabar]

Makes sense. Dracula's castle often appear in the woods.

[@jsgoyburu]

nobody died at stonewall

[@Khod_Khasunii]

when i saw wargroove at first i was like "wait... that the floran?! and that literally Nuru from starbound!" so i was confused, then i heard chucklefish and that said everything xD.

[@eddthehead123]

It is great to see that 11 years later, the team is still as close as ever.

[@princesspixel3151]

Two things I really liked about Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus: 1) Aardman-like style (That probably explains the hilarious sense of humor) 2) Their Twitter account annoying SEGA’s Twitter account with bad puns (or at least that’s what I saw before ditching Twitter/X a while back)

[@AloisAgos]

Don't forget Bug Fables which brought the OG Paper Mario back to the modern era but with cute insects.

[@Altoryu]

Yeah after Miyamoto decided that two Mario RPG series was too much and ultra casualised it into whatever Sticker Star and beyond was. The irony that the dev of the rpg series they kept ended up going bankrupt, I'd like to consider that some karma imo.

[@jsmith3946]

@@Altoryu uh no they didn't Intelligent system is still around in fact they made the thousand year door remake which is coming out soon was you to lazy to look up who made sticker star

[@neoman4426]

​@@jsmith3946The dev of the RPG they kept, Alphadream of the Mario & Luigi series shut down, not the dev of whatever Paper Mario became that wasn't very RPG

[@VaellinTheBard]

Came here for this game specifically

[@Seikyuu]

South Park:Stick of Truth did it first.

[@snowgrave2475]

Surprised bug fables isn't on here, since until just this year, Nintendo had abandoned the old paper mario games

[@raygatana1886]

I can't believe they didn't include undertale. Toby fox has done nothing to hide his love for the Earthbound games and how they were his biggest inspiration in game development early in his career

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

The gameplay is very different, liking one game wouldn't mean you would necessarily like the other.

[@mammothplant]

Undertale was inspired by EB just like it was inspired by Cave Story, Yume Nikki, and Touhou. That doesn't mean it was a "spiritual sequel" to any of them, though.

[@TailsClock]

You've never played Earthbound have you?

[@FrostyFoxDrake]

@@mammothplantdon’t forget OFF

[@laurenhorn7240]

What about Bomb Rush Cyberfunk the spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio/Future? They even got the great Hideki Naganuma to compose music for the game like he did in JSR and JSRF.

[@bobrong9645]

That's even led (or at least I like to think it has) to SEGA finally realise they own the franchise and announce a sequel.

[@weneedaladder8384]

​@@bobrong9645 I love the idea of Sega looking at BRCF and going "wait, I think I've seen this before..."

[@Windsofambience]

bombrush not being on here is a travesty fr, that game was absolutely top tier....smdh....

[@Densoro]

fr, I was shocked not to see it here! And the mod support is allowing people to relive _Sonic '06 levels_ with a better control scheme.

[@luketfer]

@@weneedaladder8384 It does honestly feel like that, the new Jet Set Radio didn't get announced until BRCF was nearly out IIRC. So someone at Sega went "oh shit, yeah, we own the original version of that!" Saying that Sega have been on a kick of updating and releasing new games in their long dormant franchise to at least decent success. Streets of Rage 4 was successful enough that it actually seems to have kickstarted the franchise back into life after Sega forgetting they even owned the franchise for, what, 20 odd years with the only blip on that was senting the Streets of Rage: Remake team a Cease and Desist letter...

[@rayvenshade1823]

If you ever make a sequel to this video you absolutely need to include Bug Fables. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't on this one.

[@Hisha1303]

I'm so glad I've seen more than one person mention BF in the comments! ^^

[@hamstrman]

Oh hell yeah! That game did everything right.

[@samuelc6246]

If they don't, we'll have to make a spiritual successor ourselves.

[@emred4653]

chemistry and vibe of these hosts are great. Makes the video more than a simple top 7 video

[@parmesanzero7678]

Using comic sans in this context is one of the acceptable uses of comic sans. Great video. I love the genuine joy and banter at the end.

[@cyrilthefish]

I was thinking Stardew valley. Loved the Harvest Moon titles growing up, but Stardew Valley popped up out of nowhere and utterly slayed the entire genre, being better in nearly every way...

[@greenhowie]

Yeah the creator of Stardew Valley has a good story of meeting the Harvest Moon creator and being really embarrassed that his game outsold every single Harvest Moon title.

[@jsmith3946]

@@greenhowie ya but they where still making games of those series and it's not like they where dead

[@Flaris]

Makes sense to exclude it. Harvest Moon is anything but a dead series. Admittedly I don’t know when they’ll ever do “spiritual successors for series that are still very active.”

[@ShadowOfCicero]

Original creators are no longer on Harvest Moon. They created Story of Seasons as the actual spiritual successor. But since Stardew apparently outshines that too, dadgum. (Never played any of them, but between a PS3 bought used and a roommate's Switch, I have options.

[@Bloodglas]

​@@ShadowOfCicero I don't think that counts for this. the studio wasn't shut down or bought out and prevented from making more HM games, and devs didn't leave the company to go make their own. they just stopped licensing the series to a separate company for distribution, but that company owned and kept the rights to the name Harvest Moon. the Japanese games are still called Bokujo Monogatari, it's just the English title that changed.

[@Santisima_Trinidad]

"Rue" as in "Rue the day you crossed the great and mighty fluffy bunny" is just regret. But, like, regret felt at the end of a sword where you think "wow i really shouldn't have crossed the mighty fluffy bunny". Roux, a different word, is a type of sauce.

[@rossjones1530]

I have often rued attempting to make a roux…

[@SymbioteMullet]

I am known to ruefully be rude about my ruined roux

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

When the roux is too spicy you rue the roux (especially on the next day).

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Thought we were talking about a Princess Tutu character and a Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ character respectively.

[@TheJillers]

Roux isn't the sauce, it's the flour and fat that works to thicken the sauce, it is the base for many sauces, but it is not the sauce itself

[@seraphinajackson1307]

There was also Hospital Tycoon in the early 2000’s. There was ALSO a University/School Tycoon that came out around the same time. I don’t remember the publishers or the dev teams, but they were the early ones that popped up before 2008 if I’m not incorrect. There is also The Movies game that people are developing spiritual successors to now. One game that SHOULD make a come back is the Black and White series, where you were a disembodied God who had a giant pet that would either kill and eat your humans or be nice and heal them type deal.

[@wedgemccloud]

Octopath Traveler. A spiritual successor so strong, it lifted its inspiration to the pedestal it deserved.

[@wilsonicsnet]

Ellen's full-hearted laugh always makes me laugh uncontrollably. She's such a gem.

[@Galvamel]

My Pitch for Insurance Shock: You are an insurance auditor and it's your job to inspect iconic levels and bases from video games and make sure they are up to code before you can allow the villain to continue with their evil plan. It could be like Viscera Cleanup Detail but with WAY more Easter eggs. In the end of each level/mission/inspection if you miss too many violations or cut corners you would get a cut scene of something bad happening, like a ramp collapsing and crushing Sonic, or Mario falling into a septic tank instead of warping, or Master Chief's Warthog losing all its wheels and exploding.

[@madalice5134]

I would play that. The thought I had was a Papers Please style narrative game with interesting ethical dilemmas and scathing indictments on predatory insurance industry practices.

[@gdclemo]

"Return of the Obra Dinn" is basically Insurance Shock (post-event forensic investigator style)

[@SupersuMC]

Shut up and take my money. We all want to be OSHA inspectors for famous video games.

[@pokepress]

Reminds me of an old Onion article where video game characters protested their unsafe working conditions.

[@Vinemaple]

For some reason, this made me think of mystery author Lawrence Sanders, and how he could make an insurance auditor into a badass and utterly lovable sleuth for a single novel, then throw the character away and do something similar with a jewelry appraiser.

[@qwinlyn]

15:53 so, this kinda exists. Dumpster diving is a part of Eco Lifestyle and that’s what the copy sounds like it’s from. Also, there’s hope to see The Sims on this list soon with all the new competitors popping up.

[@snoodge-cv7fj]

Wild how when developers break off from companies that aren’t utilizing them well and build games everyone has been saying they want with care and love they make great games everyone loves.

[@saschaberger3212]

Bloodstained is such a gem. Once I heard the voice of David Hayter I knew it's going to be a masterpiece.

[@FCGroningen1987]

I'm blaming EA For killing off quite a few franchises. Evil Genius was fun and War for the Overworld a brave attempt, but I'd still want a good Dungeon Keeper sequel. To be fair regarding Nintendo on Advance Wars; They released a "remaster" for Advance Wars 1 & 2 for Switch recently. Gives me some hope they'll eventually work on a new title in the series. Same story for Golden Sun .

[@SuperPaperPokemon]

Maybe we'll get a Golden Sun spiritual sucessor someday.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

@@SuperPaperPokemon and maybe Mother 3 might get localised :)

[@theblobconsumes4859]

We got a new Evil Genius. Just wasn't good. Also, the Advance Wars remaster wasn't the best in many ways.

[@ericb3157]

i found a game called "Dungeons 3" that's almost a Dungeon Keeper sequel. the narrator even makes several references to it!

[@yondie491]

Dungeons 3 is the Dungeon Keeper game we all deserve.

[@ZenteLucifer]

15:40 That pack isn't new, it was released a few years ago. It's called Eco Lifestyle.

[@paulb5571]

A bit late to add to this one, but Mechwarrior: Living Legends. Starting around the same time as Mechwarrior Online was released, it is a fan made Mechwarrior Game. It was made and provided for free under a Non-Commercial License, and had a trade off between MWO. Unlike MWO it has pilotable Powerarmor, tanks, aircraft, and hovercraft. It doesn't quite have the graphics of MWO but is still a very solid game. When you consider what they accomplished despite the non-commercial license meaning they couldn't make people pay for the game and a limited team, it is quite remarkable. There is also a. . .unconfirmed story regarding the MWO developers using underhanded methods to sabotage the project, because their legal actions were limited due to the non-commercial license. It is definitely a game and story worth looking into.

[@BriBookworm]

canonical Alucard should be a new t-shirt 😂

[@MikesPortugal-zm4oy]

I didn't get why this was so funny until the outro, epic Ellenigans, I want to see the bloopers that led to this🤣🤣🤣

[@Ramsey276one]

Orlok Drakule *Return books ON TIME*

[@dnakatomiuk]

How EA destroyed so many studios and IPs Bullfrog - Theme Park/Hospital Westwood Studios - Command and conquer Maxis - Sims (yes its so split up in DLCs they milk it) Pandemic - Mercenaries 1 (won't mention 2) And many more

[@armelior4610]

At least we're gonna get new entries for this list as a not-Sims and a not-C&C are soon to be released. Also City skylines is not-Sim city

[@sindrisuncatcher653]

EA's entire business model is absorbing small studios with dedicated fans, forcing them to make progressively worse products until fan loyalty is no longer enough to keep selling crappy games, and then firing everybody involved. Bioware is the most famous example, but the pattern has held across what, 37 repetitions now?

[@michaelandreipalon359]

At least Theme Hospital and C&C are miraculously going strong... still waiting for a Mercenaries 1 polished PC port rerelease though.

[@CharlieFoxtrot]

Don't forget the Burnout series, even though they've been with EA since Burnout 3. They'd rather release a dozen different Need For Speed subtitles around the same time than make another good racing game that isn't open world and has good functioning minigames based around wrecks. I guess I can at least say Burnout stopped on a good note, Burnout Paradise isn't my favorite but it's definitely far from bad

[@me0262]

Oh no you didn't! (Mercenaries 2) Maxis had ALL the Sim games.

[@deathseekr1537]

The closest thing we have to a new Castlevania is the Castlevania dlc for Dead Cells

[@LonesomeDevil]

Funny enough, I got an ad for Unicorn Overlord at the end of the video. Seems like Atlus really wanted to be featured in there.

[@O-M-0]

I fully expected this to just be a video about Lies of P being the Bloodborne 2 that we deserve but dont have.

[@Comet8489]

You two seem so much happier this year, I guess that's in part the new structure of the channel, well done to you and the team.

[@ChibiKami]

the real issue with the idea of a dumpster diving expansion pack for The Sims 4 isn't whether or not it's real, it's that it's one more thing that was in Sims 3 at launch that Sims 4 still hasn't implemented nearly a decade later

[@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human]

Rouxing is when you're sauteing veg to soften it in the pan, then you add some butter and flour. You then have a vegetable roux to use as a basis for stews, casseroles, pies and the like.

[@tambaloneusderpaloneus6626]

Sometimes I wonder if these are really the lesson companies never seem to learn about supporting devs properly & not letting key talent walk out your door.

[@dahn57]

"Let's all laugh at an industry, that never learns anything, tee hee hee" 😉

[@Degonyte]

Another one that comes to mind is Ion Fury as the spiritual successor to Duke Nukem 3D. Ion Fury itself is a prequel to Bombshell, which was originally meant as a new Duke Nukem game. Ion Fury's protagonist, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison first appeared in a fanfic written by a 3D Realms employee and was set to be a support character in Duke Nukem Forever. Ion Fury was also made on a source port of the Build engine, which the old Duke 3D ran on, so it has a lot of the same core gameplay features, albeit modernized. The game's antagonist is also voiced by Jon St. John (Duke Nukem's vc). To no one's shock, it's a much better successor to Duke 3D than was Duke Nukem Forever.

[@sumaameri]

im excited for eiyuden chronicles that's coming out in a few short weeks :3 which is a spirit successor to the suikoden series, which is one of my ultimate fave jrpgs sadly i dont think it would have any follow-ups if it succeeds since the director/writer had passed away

[@christopherg2347]

15:38 I mean Dumpster Diving *WAS* a interaction in Sims 3. So the only question is: Did they remove it from the base game, to sell it as DLC?

[@sambridgett]

Ellen corpsing when reading that list of Kinect games tickled me. 😁 Also, I an weirdly proud of the fact that Two Point Studios' office is a ten-minute walk from my house. They currently have a bunch of Two Point Campus standees in their windows.

[@SupersuMC]

Do you ever think about working for them? Or just visiting and hanging out?

[@sambridgett]

@@SupersuMC oh, frequently! The vacancies that occasionally pop up are never anything I have the skills for though.

[@garinarayne5810]

It's not out til next month, but the kickstarter for the spiritual successor to the Suikoden jrpg series, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes was so successful that a)they raised enough to make and release an arpg prequel (which is fantastic) and b)Konami announced a remaster of the first two Suikoden games

[@duogemstone]

Thank you for this, i hadnt heard about it and looked up the trailer and i am hyped. A new suikoden isnt something i thought id ever see even a unofficial one

[@TyrantWesker]

@@duogemstoneSadly, the creator passed away recently, so he won't be able to see the game's launch. Also calls into question if a sequel will ever happen if it IS a success.

[@Kaitou1412Fangirl]

It's not out yet, but many of the developers for the cult-classic gothic horror RPG Shadow Hearts are making a spiritual successor called Penny Blood. Steampunk wild-west-inspired RPG Wild Arms is also getting one, called Armed Fantasia.

[@JunkyardBashSteve]

I had heard many times that Bioshock was the "spiritual successor" to System Shock but I wasn't sure what that really meant. When I played SS2 last year though within an hour I was repeating "this is just Bioshock... this is just Bioshock in space"

[@Quasar_Hero]

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is a fantastic spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, and other tactical RPGs of the PS1 era.

[@nightsong81]

Great game. Doesn't get near the recognition it deserves.

[@inertjohnjunk]

I hear Unicorn Overlord is very similar too, though I won't speak up about that as I didn't play any of those games. Unicorn Overlord is excellent though, I've definitely spent over 100 hours on it already, and it hasn't been out for that long.

[@Levyathyn]

I really need to play it. I was obsessed with Tactics throughout my childhood, and grew up really regretting that it didn't get true sequels--although the Advance games were pretty good. I dare ask, how is the strategy and character building? Are there as much class choices as FFT, or at least class is not locked away behind species?

[@xShadowbane451]

​@@inertjohnjunkI love Unicorn Overlord! But it's actually not really all that like FFT or Fell Seal. The movement in the FFT like games are more like grid style like Fire Emblem. Also, the classes are not just "upgrades to the unit" like in UO as you can usually change any unit to any class and it's advanced forms. You would also need to have either certain level/rank in base classes to unlock the advanced ones. The FFT advanced games for GBA and DS respectively are very good, if a bit corny, a lot of fun to be had there.

[@CinderFallenAngel]

I remember how tough Theme Hospital was, as a kid. I do need to play Two Point Hospital at some point .

[@SupersuMC]

I don't know if I've purchased it yet, but it's at least on my wishlist.

[@darthcravus]

Eiyuden Chronicle is the spiritual successor of the suikoden but I hear the remaster of the first two games will be out this month and I am so excited to share them with my children because those games are my favorite ones at least my heart

[@jennynoelle6782]

Rollercoaster Tycoon/Zoo Tycoon and Planet Coaster/Planet Zoo. Both were massively popular in the 90s and 2000s, both were then mishandled by their publishers or shelved by them, and both then got made into massively popular spiritual sequel games by Frontier.

[@Fr33dan]

When mentioning good recent Metroidvania's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown should be brought up. It really went under the radar and is superb. I feel like if Metroid: Dread gets a mention, POP:TLC should as well.

[@daynechart]

With Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes around the corner, it will show Konami's ability to give the players what they want with another Suikoden game. Only been 18 years since the last release🙃Also the Suikoden 1 & 2 Re-master has been quiet for ages, likely to conveniently be released when Eiyuden Chronicles is out

[@elhazthorn918]

Yeah, I've been thinking they timed it to release near Eiyuden out of spite.

[@arabidmeerkat247]

If you make another video about spiritual successors, would Wreckfest be a good shout when compared to FlatOut and Demolition Derby?

[@zekenelsons2069]

Suikoden -> Eiyuden Chronicle is gonna be on one of these lists eventually, right?

[@Formoka]

“Guess he couldn’t stay away for long.” Yes, but did we want him to? The Judas trailer already has me drooling. So much color and fun art and the gameplay definitely looks familiar 😉. I’m excited.

[@SirFlopsy]

Bug Fables as a successor to the thousand year door

[@Blas4ublasphemy]

Monkey Ball to Marble Madness?

[@TheGamermage]

That gremlin laugh at the end though. subbed.

[@jrm78]

The Advance Wars games draw heavily from Nectaris (aka Military Madness) which was released on the PC-Engine/TG-16 back in the late '80s. One title that you left out probably due to its obscurity among the younger generation of gamers, is Star Control: Origins. It's a spiritual successor to the original Star Control franchise of PC games in the early '90s, but unfortunately did not receive the blessing of the original creators of the game, Paul Reiche and Fred Ford of Toys for Bob. That had the unfortunate effect of the new creators not being able to use any references to the various Alien races and their deep lore within the game itself even though the name is directly lifted from the source IP.