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Yeah, absolutely right. “X is like a new part of Y” must make sense for being a successor. Nobody will say “Last of Us is just like Uncharted IV”!

But you would not argue that F:NV is the spiritual “successor” to those movies just because they were referenced.

If I didn’t know about Hotline Miami and you told me about like: “It’s like somebody made a new Hitman game!” I would be completely lost playing the game. Whole different perspective, style, flow. IMO being a “successor” implies more than just similar elements or references.

That said, wtaching out for examples I do not find so many other, that I think are similiarly weak as the Hitman/Hotline one. So it may be the exception in the list.

The used definition is sometimes really broad here. I mean, ok, Dead Space to Callisto Protocol or Titan Quest to Grim Dawn is obvious but Hotline Miami is the Spiritual Successor to Hitman because… you are have to kill people and when you fail you go try again? Very weak. Just being influenced or having a vaguely similar theme shouldn’t make it a “successor”.

That’s because our all file systems are god’s trash can.

I played Monster Sanctuary for quite some time and found it quite charming. I don’t know how it compares to Casette Beasts though.