I feel like spiritual successors are lessening the identity of those games.
Not really and not necessarily. This forum focuses more on the positive aspects. Not to say bad ones don't exist, but the great ones are not lessening the identity. Especially when they are doing well or having more than one theme or gameplay to set themselves apart.
The
TakeOver, Fight n' Rage, and
Final Vendetta are spiritual successors to
Streets of Rage 3 specifically, but none of them play like each other at all. Especially The
TakeOver. TTO has a punch and kick button, a different juggle system, and allows you to use guns.
FV's juggle system is a bit more grounded, but you can still juggle enemies in the air.
FV is more like a cross between
SOR3, Violent Storm, and a Neo Geo game. There is even an AES version in development. All three have completely different graphics and art styles. The only thing in common
FnR and
FV have in common are using pixels, but FV has way bigger sprites and completely different animations.
Dead Space and
Bioshock are successors to
System Shock 2, but either play completely differently from each other and its predecessor, or are going different kinds of horror. More so Dead Space. Dead Space is ots 3rd person and has the strategic dismemberment.
Bioshock is an FPS that is technically closer on a gameplay front, but even easier than
DS or
SS.
Dead Space Remake is even more like SS2, because you can actually fully explore the Ishamura now, and sections are no longer gated off into areas you can't backtrack towards.
You have your bad or underwhelming types like
Callisto Protocol or
Evil Within 1 (which is a fine game, but was copying
RE4 wholesale. I still like it more than OG
RE4 though), but there are more great ones out there like
Cronos: The New Dawn and
Evil Within 2.
Cronos is inspired by
Dead Space like
CP, but has much better combat, no focus on melee (it always be a last resort), and monsters merge with each other or corpses, making them bigger threats. It's either shoot them before they merge, or burn the corpses during the process. Though some corpses are "sleeping or playing dead". Adds to the strategy and ammo conservation.
EW2 plays more of its own thing, while taking what worked in the first game, refined it, but added much more optional exploration and a semi-open world with side quest that actually reward the player with items, lore building, and character arcs/development. Making it much less of an
RE4 clone, and a much proper successor to
Resident Evil's 1-4 and a dash of
Silent Hill. Don't even get me started on great indie games either doing genre throwbacks or spiritual successors to their favorites genres.
I can go on all day. Point being, I heavily disagree. You can talk about or discuss certain that didn't work (for you) or are genuinely bad, but there are much more distinct positives and good out there than you think.
