4 and 3, are also coming to these platforms as well. It’s a big deal for fans of JRPGs, as one of the premiere series is finally accessible everywhere.
Persona wasn’t always the juggernaut it is today, though. In fact, it began as a mere spinoff of another series and soon leaped past it in popularity. This happens a lot more than people would think, especially when it comes to series released worldwide. These video game series, for whatever reason, have become more recognizable than their predecessors.
Persona
Spin-Off From Shin Megami Tensei Which Comes From Megami Tensei
As previously mentioned, Persona (which has many spin-offs) is actually a spin-off in itself. It comes from the Shin Megami Tensei series, which has roots going back to the early 90s. This series of monster-collecting games arguably started the trend that later Mon RPGs would follow, and it chiefly centers around the core theme of being able to summon demons to fight.
This concept doesn’t have roots in SMT, though, but rather in its original series. This series, simply titled Megami Tensei, began as books and Atlus created video game adaptations that quickly took on their own mythology, which necessitated the spin-off be created. It’s incredible that this relative niche series, after going through many transformations, is still seeing successful releases in some form.
Dwarf Fortress
Spin-Off From Slaves To Armok: Gods of Blood
Dwarf Fortress was released in 2002 and has quietly become one of the Minecraft.
Its predecessor, Slaves To Armok, was actually much more ambitious, as it featured 3D graphics and more exploration and adventure elements. Dwarf Fortress was originally meant to be a sequel, but as the building mechanics became more prominent it became a spin-off. After nearly two decades of updates, the two games have little in common and Dwarf has completely overshadowed Armok.
King of Fighters
Spin-Off From Fatal Fury
King of Fighters doesn’t just come from Fatal Fury, but also Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors, and Psycho Soldier. It’s arguable that fellow SNK series Samurai Shodown, Metal Slug, and more are also inspirations. This is because King of Fighters is actually a crossover franchise where characters from all these games can be found.
Fatal Fury has the best argument for being the “original” franchise, though. The series title comes from a tournament featured in the Fatal Fury series. Of course, King of Fighters has sured most of these games in popularity and is the only place most of these characters can be found these days. In extreme cases, some characters have arcs fulfilled in KOF instead of their own games.
Bloons Tower Defense
Spin-Off From Bloons
Tower Defense was an extremely popular genre in the late 00s and early 10s. It was easy for first-time developers to create, which caused the rise of plenty of Flash-based versions, and of these early Flash tower defense games, Bloons has remained popular. The latest entry, Bloons TD 6, is even available on Steam.
That makes it shocking to that it didn't start as a tower defense game. The first Bloons game was actually a match-color puzzle game similar to Bejeweled. However, this format has basically been abandoned by the series, which now sticks to the tower defense formula.
Puyo Puyo
Spin-Off From Madou Monogatari
In a first-person dungeon-crawler RPGs.
The Puyo series mostly has a cute art style with wacky adventures these days, but the story began as something much darker. The original Madou Monogatari saw the titular heroine accosted by Satan himself. What's more, she often had brutal magical battles and one character was even gruesome decapitated. It was a far cry from the series' current form as Puyo Puyo.
Apex Legends
Spin-Off From Titanfall
Despite a massive marketing push, the Apex Legends.
Apex Legends does feature elements and characters from Titanfall, but they're mostly in the background. It entirely ditches the mecha-based gameplay of its predecessor in favor of being more like a hero shooter game, and its story elements also focus more on humor than the bleak sci-fi of the original games. Still, Apex is a great game that absolutely eclipsed the player base of its predecessors.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Spin-Off From FS1 Flight Simulator
Most early computer games were merely simulators, and flight simulators were the most popular among them. While primitive these days, they offered a unique experience to both pilots and general audiences alike. The FS1 series of simulators on Apple II and Commodore computers were especially popular.
Microsoft wanted a flight simulator of its own and reached out to the developer. The original FS1 series could not be ported to Windows computers at the time, so the developers instead created the Microsoft line as a spin-off. They went back to make a few entries in the FS1 series before Microsoft approached them with a buyout offer. The Microsoft Flight Simulator was such a success that it became the main project for the developers from that moment forward.
Yoshi’s Island
Spin-Off From Super Marios Bros Which Comes From Donkey Kong
The first-ever game to feature Mario was aSuper Mario Bros is a spin-off of Donkey Kong. By the transitive property, every Mario spinoff is also a DK one as well.
While everything from Mario Kart to WarioWare could be considered DK-inspired, the to the Donkey Kong Country games. It starred Mario's newest animal co-star instead of his oldest and uses a painterly art style instead of 3D renders. It serves as a contrast whole still being descended from the original arcade adventure.
Rabbids
Spin-Off From Rayman
In the late 90s, Rayman was the breakout hit of developer Ubisoft. This multi-platform platformer had hits in both the 2D and 3D platformer genres. In the 2000s, though, Ubisoft had bigger hits in other genres like Assassin's Creed, so in order to diversify, the decision was made for Rayman's Wii adventure to be a mini-game collection featuring quirky new antagonists.
Flash forward to the modern day, and those new antagonists have completely overshadowed the hero. The manic energy of the Rabbids has earned them many games and even multiple a cameo in said crossover's DLC.
NieR
Spin-Off From Drakengard
The world of NieR is very interesting, being a post-apocalyptic Earth after a massive catastrophe, setting the stage for a lot of interesting philosophical questions about a post-humanity world. The science-fiction is strong, even in the more fantasy-inspired first game, which makes the nature of the calamity and its source all the more surprising.
The post-apocalyptic future is actually the result of a bad ending from the fantasy game series Drakengard. In that ending, the main enemy gets transported to a realistic Earth and explodes, thus triggering the apocalypse. This is not really stated in either NieR game, which made fans putting the two together a shocking reveal. It only adds to NieR's odd charm, though, as it simply makes the world even more unconventional as it comes from a bad ending.