If a game does really well, it will likely get a sequel. Series like The Legend of Zelda, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and more, will always have a new game or a spinoff on the horizon, no matter how many years might be between game releases.
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It's usually pretty easy to know when a game is a sequel or spin-off of another game, it'll either have the name of the series in its title or when it's advertised one of its points of interest is that it's connected to another, well-known/well-loved series. But sometimes, it will surprise fans of one game to realize that the game they were playing is connected to another game or series. It's especially true for older games or games where the original wasn't as well received as its sequel or spinoff.
Shadow Hearts is a supernatural role-playing series for the PlayStation 2. The series' first game was released in 2001 in Japan and the United States. The first Shadow Hearts focuses on the main character Yuri Hyuga, a young man that can capture and transform into the monsters he captures. After saving an exorcist named Alice Elliot, Yuri and Alice find themselves caught up in the plans of an evil magician who wants to use Alice and her powers to summon a horrible Lovecraft-like monster.
What some fans of the series might not know is that Shadow Hearts is a sequel to Koudelka a game released for the PlayStation in 1999. Koudelka is an RPG that focuses on the titular character Koudelka Iasant, a Romani psychic as she and her companions try to solve the mystery of a haunted monastery. Characters from Koudelka return or are mentioned in Shadow Hearts and the other games in the series, with Koudelka herself having a major role in the first Shadow Hearts game.
Nier is the first game in the action RPG video game series. There are two versions of the game, Nier Replicant which features a younger protagonist and Neir Gestalt features an older one. In Gestalt the protagonist is the father of a sick girl named Yonah who tries to find a cure for her illness. During his journey, he teams up with a sentient book known as Grimoire Weiss, a blindfolded boy named Emil, and swordswoman named Kaine.
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Set in the aftermath of a ruined world the protagonist and his companions fight monsters which are called Shades. Some fans might not be aware, but Nier is a spinoff of the Drakengaurd series. Nier follows the timeline set in the fifth ending of the game, which caused Earth to be left in a state of decay.
Project: Snowblind is a first-person shooter that focuses on the main character Nathan Frost. After receiving devastating dire injuries on the battlefield, soldier Nathan Frost undergoes an experimental procedure that turns him into an augmented super-soldier. He's sent to Hong Kong to fight a secret war against a rogue militant regime that wants to destroy the world's technological hubs. There's both a single-player campaign and multiplayer. Some fans of the game might know this, but Project: Snowblind was originally conceptualized as a new game in the Deus Ex series.
Its working title was Deus Ex: Clan Wars, and it was going to be a spinoff game that focused more on action than the RPG elements like in other Deus Ex games. It was originally supposed to be set between Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War and the protagonist was originally named Dixon Denton, alluding to some kind of connection with the protagonist of the Deus Ex games JC Denton. It was eventually rebranded as Snowblind as the game evolved into something different from the Deus Ex franchise, though both share the concept of human nano augmentation.
Shadow of the Colossus is an action-adventure game where players have to battle against giant creatures. Players control the protagonist Wander, who ventures to the Shrine of Worship in the forbidden land to resurrect a girl named Mono. Seeking out the powers of a disembodied voice named Dormin, Wander is tasked with killing the colossi, the physical incarnations of 16 idols that have been placed in the temple.
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The game's art style, gameplay, and open world has many consider it to be one of the best video games of all time. Originally, Shadow of the Colossus was conceived as an online multiplayer game that would be called NICO. However, it was eventually made into a single-player, though it is still considered to be the spiritual successor of Ico.
Code Vein is an action RPG that's set in a dark post-apocalyptic dystopian world. In the game, the world has fallen to a calamity called the Great Collapse which caused dangerous and deadly monsters to suddenly emerge. To fight off these monsters, humanity created Revenants, human corpses that are resurrected into vampire fighters as they are infected with a parasite that is implanted into their hearts.
Players get to create their own character who becomes the protagonist of the game and fights off blood-starved Revenants called the Lost. Eventually in the game, it is revealed that the monsters that had emerged from the Great Collapse are the Aragami from the God Eater series and the monster that is seen is distinctively Dyaus Pita. It is revealed then that both Code Vein and God Eater exist in the same universe, making Code Vein a sort of spinoff of the other series.
Soulcalibur 6 is the latest game in the Soulcaliber series and takes place after Soulcaliber 5, but it is also a soft reboot of the series, as it retells the events of the first Soulcalibur game through the perspective of the demonic sword, Soul Edge. Several regulars of the series return like Ivy, Talim, and Sophitia. And Geralt from The Witcher series makes his appearance as a guest character.
Soulcalibur 6 also offers 2B from Nier: Automata as a DLC fighter, though she isn't a part of the main story. Soulcalibur 6 is a reboot of the series, but it also connects itself to the first Soulcalibur game as the center plot of the game's story is undoing the tragedies that happened in the first game, creating a divergent and new timeline.
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