What games most need a spiritual successor?

[Fabulously Olivier]

Do you have a game that is special to your heart? Is it from a dead franchise? Is the franchise still alive but has shifted into a drastically new direction? Are there any other similar experiences in the modern industry?

 

What game do you think truly needs a spiritual successor?

 

For me, that game has to be Guild Wars 1. Launched in 2005, this CRPG was truly something special. It used a fully instanced world to perfectly complement its deep buildcrafting system (which has never been matched by any other game before or since) by forcing the player and their team to prepare for every challenge they can expect to face in that instance. With horizontal progression, a max level cap of 20, and a massive amount of content with normal and hard mode settings, Guild Wars was able to provide challenges for every skill level and with all of its content based not on gear, but on knowledge and teamwork. It also had some of the best team PvP of its time with both a great variety of modes and a high quality of tournament play. Supplemented with other strengths like deep lore, a unique fantasy world, and top notch music, it still holds up today.

 

The Guild Wars franchise is still alive, with Guild Wars 2 being one of the top 5 western MMOs currently. However, Guild Wars 2 is little like its predecessor. In exchange for becoming a true MMO, it lost most of the depth, buildcrafting, challenge, and uniqueness of the first game. Guild Wars respected the intelligence of its players, while Guild Wars 2, like almost every other MMO, does not. Guild Wars itself is still alive, of course, but in maintenance mode.... and that barely counts as alive.

 

There currently isn't another game like the original Guild Wars. And that's a tragedy, because I think that, without exaggeration, it was the best game ever made.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Etheus

[Michelaar]

Zoo Tycoon, please. Zoo Tycoon 2 was my childhood game, and to see it on the XBOX in this completely different style that I don't like makes me sad. I want it to come back to the way it was.

[Stroud]

I think Breath of Fire is the game which comes to mind in an instant. The 6th game was not even something I could call Breath of Fire and the 5th yeah...
Breath of Fire 3 is still one of my favorite RPG,s. 

Goemon, I don't know what's wrong with Konami, but they buried it like some other franchises.

Well Spiritual successor may be difficult with those 2 games, but I could imagine one for Breath of Fire. Instead of a Dragon you could have another kind of shapeshifter. 

Some Games I wish this for almost get these somehow. Valkryrie Profile has Indivisible which comes out "soon". Its not from Square-Enix, but it looks promising and it has Hiroki Kikuta (Composer of Secret of Mana) as a composer which I am happy about.
And Castlevania gets Bloodstained which is even more of a spiritual successor because its from Igarashi. Who was not the creator, but imagined Castlevania new starting with Symphony of the Night.

[Fabulously Olivier]

Breath of Fire is indeed a good one.

 

Another one I'd add is Jade Cocoon. Take Pokemon, make it way better, add a fusion system, add a compelling (if somewhat underdeveloped) story, and give it a gorgeous Ghibli artstyle. But we don't talk about the sequel...

[Stroud]

4 minutes ago, Etheus said:

Another one I'd add is Jade Cocoon. Take Pokemon, make it way better, add a fusion system, add a compelling (if somewhat underdeveloped) story, and give it a gorgeous Ghibli artstyle. But we don't talk about the sequel...

Wow, always seeing new games. While I think I have seen most xD At least for classic consoles. Jade Cocoon really looks interesting. Makes me also think a bit about Legend of Dragoon which was also not bad, but could need some kind of a renewal which I would be happy about...The protagonist was even thought about to appear in Playstation Allstars...

So many goods games which are not well known...

I could think of a few games which I would be happy about with a spiritual successor or new game. Seiken Densetsu series (Secret of Mana for example) Would be another one. We have Forever Oasis now which is some kind of a successor, but only in looks. I would wish for a game a bit like Legend of Mana just with another setting not related to mana...

[Von Ithipathachai]

I found Lagrange Point for the NES to be pretty fun.  I'd love to play a remake or successor to it.

[Vince777]

I loved FF4 the After Years so much that it made me want something done in a similar way to FF6 and it's cast.

 

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

I’d appreciate one for any style of Metal Gear game, for hose fans at least.

Excpet for MGR, but only because that is a hack n’ slash with optional stealth elements. And Survive. Because that isn’t.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I'm also going to add Shining Force, back when it was an FE-esque SRPG. Compared to FE, its more eclectic character roster, Spd stat based turn order, and traditional JRPG open-level exploration segments really helped differentiate it. It wasn't better, but it was good and different in its own right.

 

Now that the series is just a worse version of Tales (already an increasingly mundane/inconsistent JRPG series) it just isn't very good anymore.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Etheus

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I'm a dork for Legend of Dragoon. The time Sony tried to make their own Final Fantasy in-house. The game's got Super Mario RPG/Paper Mario style action commands, and when performed perfectly, the character SHOUTS the name of their combo. It's so adrenaline inducing for a turn based RPG that I can't play the game sitting down as I shout with them. Double Slash,  Flurry of Styx, Hard Blade!

Unfortunately the game is difficult to come back to. Load times make random battles very slow affairs, though you are warned when they're coming with an indicator which is freakin' revolutionary. Modern LCD displays make the combos harder to perform as you condition yourself to press the button before the game tells you. The battle system is also too simple to its detriment. In order to use your magic, you must transform into dragoon form. But in doing so you give up the ability to use items and cannot revert early unless the battle ends. Plus you want to stay in normal form so you can progress with your attack combos and increase your dragoon form's properties. There's just never a reason to morph until a boss fight comes up and you can honestly beat the game without ever morphing which is a bummer.

So in my spiritual sequel, the dragoon system needs an overhaul. I want free shifting to that form, with only a slight penalty to your guage for deciding to unshift early. Also the way you increase your maximum gauge and dragoon stats should be tied to that form, encouraging players to use it rather than save it exclusively for boss fights. Also please don't have the main character un-removable from the active party. Let us make whatever party we want, Nobody wanted Cloud in the party 24/7.

[Stroud]

36 minutes ago, Etheus said:

I'm also going to add Shining Force, back when it was an FE-esque SRPG. Compared to FE, its more eclectic character roster, Spd stat based turn order, and traditional JRPG open-level exploration segments really helped differentiate it. It wasn't better, but it was good and different in its own right.

 

Now that the series is just a worse version of Tales (already an increasingly mundane/inconsistent JRPG series) it just isn't very good anymore.

Oh yeah that would be nice, I mean Camelot could do a Turn Based RPG in the world Golden sun plays which is a bit like the old Shining Force games. Since Camelot or better said the Takahashi Twins left Sega Shining turned slowly into a generic RPG...

Meanwhile golden sun could also take a little reboot. 

Edited March 22, 2019 by Stroud

[Ycine]

God Hand or MadWorld. I liked those, they were silly but hella' fun. 

I wish they get a remake at the very least.

[vanguard333]

Megaman Battle Network. I wouldn't want them to continue the series since 6 did a good job wrapping up the series, but I would like to see a new game with the gameplay of Battle Network; namely the 6 X 3 grid and the battlechips.

Plus, one thing I loved about those games in retrospect was that they had a deep progression and customization system without a level-up mechanic. Level-up mechanics are tacked on to Action RPGs way too often days, so I think a spiritual successor to Battle Network would be refreshing in that regard. 

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

3 hours ago, Etheus said:

What game do you think truly needs a spiritual successor?

in terms of gameplay mechanics and story, there's many for me that still need either a sequel, or a new title being related to the original in some way. those are:

- The Legend of Dragoon;

- The Bouncer;

- Final Fantasy Tactics.

that's all for console games, i guess.

 

i would also say Lineage 2 for pc, but only for nostalgia. nowdays most mmorpgs have become a joke, just a hollow shadow of what the genre was in origin.

[smgrinus]

I really wish Square would revive Vagrant Story. 

[Stroud]

49 minutes ago, Fenreir said:

- Final Fantasy Tactics.

Signed, interesting that Final Fantasy Tactics is already a spiritual successor of Tactics Ogre, just with Final Fantasy skin. Even made with some developers from Quest who joined Squaresoft at those times for FFT. 

[Punished Dayni]

1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

Also please don't have the main character un-removable from the active party. Let us make whatever party we want, Nobody wanted Cloud in the party 24/7.

I know I'm pretty on board with something that improves upon Legend of Dragoon, but I just wanted to point to this because I WANT THIS TO BE THE FUCKING STANDARD.

I'd just like for that character to not be hideously overlevelled for fucking once. Where do I beam this message?

The Sims might honestly need one, certainly to have a game that doesn't feel like the DLC costs such a massive amount over the base game (I say that while the first Sims had a large amount of expansions, I know. But it's gotten worse!).

[Fabulously Olivier]

Okay. Here's a weird answer, but I really loved the Rampage games as a kid.

 

I think that simple concept of giant monsters wrecking cities could be a fun budget indie title.

[Cure Naga]

I would like a spiritual successor to Spectrobes. This will probably never happen though since the makers of the series where Disney interactive which made Disney Infinity which was closed down a couple of years ago now. Plus the series was a Pokemon clone so that might be a detriment to the series as a whole. The game should make use of the mechanics of the second game where you could play as both Rallen (the main character) and the Spectrobes which are the pokemon look-alikes. You should also have a new leader of the crawl since the last one died in the third game of the series. 

 

[Flere210]

Most of my picks would be super obscure games, but i'd go with Arcanun. The announcement of VTM bloodline 2 make me hopefull that eventually we are going to get it.

[Anacybele]

8 hours ago, Michelaar said:

Zoo Tycoon, please. Zoo Tycoon 2 was my childhood game, and to see it on the XBOX in this completely different style that I don't like makes me sad. I want it to come back to the way it was.

OMG I'm not the only one here that played and loved these! I mainly played Zoo Tycoon 2 out of the two, but yeah. Sadly, we're probably never going to see it again in the form it was, as the company that made them, Blue Fang Games, shut down when their contract with Microsoft ended.

I think we need spiritual successors to Mario Paint and Pokemon Snap, if they don't get real ones. And no, Mario Maker doesn't count, it only has Mario Paint references. It isn't an art game. Art Academy doesn't either, as it lacks the Mario theme. I want a true Mario art game again with some of Mario Paint's features. Maybe Mario Art Academy ought to be made soon since we got Pokemon and Disney Art Academy games.

The closest things we've gotten to Pokemon Snap though, are GO's new Snapshot feature and the Rotom Dex's camera feature. The latter is underwhelming and the former is nice, but it's still not like Snap. I want to go on quests to take pictures of Pokemon again! And this time every Pokemon ought to be included. The original game only had a portion of them.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Anacybele

[TheGoodHoms]

I like to see Capcom make a new beat'em'up game, not just ports of the old ones. Streets of Rage 4 is coming soon so why not a Final Fight 4? Or bring back a lesser known game like Captain Commando or Battle Circuit?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

37 minutes ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I like to see Capcom make a new beat'em'up game, not just ports of the old ones. Streets of Rage 4 is coming soon so why not a Final Fight 4? Or bring back a lesser known game like Captain Commando or Battle Circuit?

With that sweet artwork of all the characters in the beat em up arcade collection on switch, I would love to see a crossover game between any and all of 'em in one massive beat em up game. And don't forget Magic Sword this time.

[AnonymousSpeed]

5 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Megaman Battle Network. I wouldn't want them to continue the series since 6 did a good job wrapping up the series, but I would like to see a new game with the gameplay of Battle Network; namely the 6 X 3 grid and the battlechips.

Plus, one thing I loved about those games in retrospect was that they had a deep progression and customization system without a level-up mechanic. Level-up mechanics are tacked on to Action RPGs way too often days, so I think a spiritual successor to Battle Network would be refreshing in that regard. 

I second this.

8 hours ago, Stroud said:

And Castlevania gets Bloodstained which is even more of a spiritual successor because its from Igarashi. Who was not the creator, but imagined Castlevania new starting with Symphony of the Night.

Is there a spiritual successor to the Castlevania games from before the Metroidvania formula was adopted?

[Tolvir]

Brigandine. Its kind of a mix between Langrisser and Fire Emblem, with an emphasis on turn based combat, and commanders with several monsters under their command. There was a lot of variety in the monsters, and they could all "promote" into other monsters, and there was a lot of flexibility with the commanders as well and what classes they could go into, promote to, etc.

The story wasnt anything special but wasnt bad either. The best part about it was that you could play any of the main kingdoms, each being their own route with their own characters. There were even cheats to play the evil kingdom if I recall.

The game was fun but unfortunately its one of those games that just released at a bad time and disappeared.

Xcom UFO Defense. It got revived with the new Xcom games, but the actual gameplay between the two is so different they might as well not even be the same game. The original Xcom had you commanding a team of upwards of 20 soldiers if I recall, might have been 18. Either way it was a much larger team. It was turn based, obviously, and in general was just a really fun game. I still go back and play it regularly. I would love to see a spiritual successor to it.