A Spiritual Successor is a type of sequel that is not part of the same world or story as its predecessor, but is nonetheless considered to be a successor because it shares common themes, styles, and elements. In other words, it’s a sequel “in spirit”.
I was thinking about how Bioshock is considered a spiritual successor to System Shock 2, went down a rabbit hole, and came across this list.
Lol, the last of us as spiritual successor to uncharted. They have some similarities in control and game engine, but hugely different tone, themes and gameplay.
One a heartfelt zombie horror survival, the other a spiritual successor to tomb raider, itself a spiritual successor to Indiana Jones.
This list is not useful.