"Spiritual successor" is a term used to describe a game that's similar to a game that came out before it, but doesn't explicitly continue a previous game's lore, story, or worldbuilding, but does take after that previous game in some way. The new game might have been inspired by the old one or just includes similar themes/mechanics by happenstance.
Despite our best efforts, video game franchises are subject to the passage of time. It's the worst, we know. There are lots of reasons why a game might not have gotten a real successor, so a spiritual one is all we can ask for. Sometimes spiritual successors are made by the creators of the older game, while other times they're entirely separate teams. In some cases, you could consider one to be a spiritual successor to a game that got a real, genuine successor! Here, we've listed some of the best spiritual successors around, judging by how much better they did than their predecessors.
5 Shadow Of The Colossus vs Ico
Shadow of the Colossus came as the spiritual successor to Ico, which was well-reviewed but didn't sell well. Both games are 3D puzzle platformers that manage to immerse you into the story and world through beautiful music and visual design. The director and lead designer behind both games, Fumito Ueda, has said that the potential meanings behind the games' similar themes and mechanics should be up to player interpretation.
In total, Ico only sold around 700,000 copies at the time of this writing. By contrast, Shadow of the Colossus sold almost a million copies between the original release and its remake.
4 BioShock vs System Shock 2
System Shock 2 was a smash hit among critics and gamers alike, earning multiple awards and excellent review scores, ultimately influencing the entire genre going forward. However, its publisher EA blocked any hope of getting a System Shock 3. Instead, the team at Irrational Games developed BioShock, which is System Shock 2's spiritual successor in every way. They both make you want to turn on the lights and get your childhood teddy bear.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that everyone seemed to love it, System Shock 2 didn't perform well commercially, selling only about 60,000 copies. The first BioShock game sold around 4 million copies by 2010. The entire BioShock series has sold around 41 million copies at the time of this writing.
3 Stardew Valley vs Harvest Moon
If you grew up playing the Harvest Moon games (now known as the Story of Seasons games), this will probably come as no big surprise. Stardew Valley is definitely a spiritual successor to these cozy farming simulators. They both boast the primary farming mechanics, of course, in addition to the 2D graphics, a system to build relationships with the local NPCs, and hobbies like fishing to partake in.
Since Story of Seasons is a franchise whereas Stardew Valley is a standalone game, you could debate about how exactly to draw the numbers for this one. However, at the time of this writing, Stardew Valley has sold more than 20 million copies. The last game in the Story of Seasons franchise to release significantly before Stardew Valley sold about 256 thousand copies in Japan and around 150 thousand copies in North America.
2 Cities: Skylines vs SimCity
Cities: Skylines was the haven for fans that were fleeing from SimCity. SimCity was a popular franchise for years, but its 2013 installment left the masses wanting. Fans were unhappy with the multiplayer mechanics and network problems preventing them from saving or accessing their files. Several gaming outlets had to delay their reviews of the game because they simply couldn't log on. Cities: Skylines got a healthy boost of activity from players looking to get their city-management fix elsewhere.
Again, this is a game that's more challenging to compare to its predecessor, which was a franchise. However, the last SimCity game that wasn't a mobile game was SimCity 5 from 2013. That sold around 2 million copies by July 2013. By contrast, Cities: Skylines had sold 12 million copies as of June 2022.
1 Dark Souls vs Demon's Souls
It's hard to deny that Dark Souls has made an enormous impact on gaming culture today. Even those who haven't played this dark fantasy aRPG have heard of it, thanks to its notoriously difficult combat. It's a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, which was made by the same team (From Software), because it has incredibly similar combat and world design. Dark Souls went on to get two genuine successors and a remaster, ultimately creating its own genre: Soulslikes (and, for those made specifically by From Software, Soulsbornes).
The Dark Souls franchise has sold more than 41 million copies at the time of this writing. The first Dark Souls game sold more than 2 million, not including sales of the remaster. Demon's Souls couldn't compete to three entire games, but it did pretty well on its own, selling a little over one million copies worldwide as of 2011.