Spinoff games more popular than the main series

[Segata]

I got to thinking and realized there is a fair amount of game series where the spinoff became more popular than the main series it spun from. Do you have any examples? Now I am not talking spinoffs that are a different genre. So like Mario Kart would not count as a spinoff of Super Mario in this topic. Spinoff but the same genre. The sub-genre can change.




Off the top of my head.

Persona. Originally a spinoff of SMT series. It's grown to be its own thing and far more popular overall than SMT.

Nier. Drakengard has had a few games but they were very niche. Nier came out last gen and became a cult fan hit. Many who played it didn't even know it came from another series, me included. Nier Automata gets released this year and Square treated it well as a bigger RPG release. Plenty of hype. The game has now sold 2 million and counting.


Trails of/ legend of Heroes. Dragon Slayer series. This one killed its main series. Dragon Slayer went from open-world action RPG to the Trails games being a bit more linear turn based JRPG. This is another case where many people don't know it spun out of another series. It does fairly well in Japan and the west.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Puyo Puyo began as a Madō Monogatari spin-off. Now, Puyo Puyo isn't exactly huge, but no one outside of huge JRPG nerds knows what Madō Monogatari is.

Is it fair to say that Mario is more popular than Donkey Kong?

[Segata]

Again same genre. So Not sure Mario to Donkey Kong counts. Even if you mean the Arcade SMB.


I guess KOF after Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting.

[alienjesus]

Again same genre. So Not sure Mario to Donkey Kong counts. Even if you mean the Arcade SMB.


I guess KOF after Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting.

There are very few games where a spin-off is the same genre as the main series. It's probably why no-one replied in the first place. Crossovers are likely your best shot, but I dunno if it's really the same thing. There are even less where the same-genre spinoff is more popular than the original! I'm trying to think of some, but I'm coming up blank.

[pook99]

Mega Man X vs mega man, although it is close and largely personal opinion I would say a decent portion of the fan base prefers the x series to mega man, although I am not sure if some would consider x a sequel or a spinoff, I would argue a spin off since the numbered mega man games continued even after the x series debut.

[noiseredux]

Mega Man X vs mega man, although it is close and largely personal opinion I would say a decent portion of the fan base prefers the x series to mega man, although I am not sure if some would consider x a sequel or a spinoff, I would argue a spin off since the numbered mega man games continued even after the x series debut.

if that's the case then put me in the X camp.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Mega man legends > any other mega man!

[Tanooki]

Mega Man > Legends > X

I really dislike that setup of X more or less completely other than the original and that was pushing it. Poorly implemented re-running of stages to get items to go through others, starting out as a very horrible gimp wasn't my thing either, nor were the easy stages and annoying as hell bosses in comparison. X was ok but I had the other 2 on SNES and man I hated them, even their GBC spinoffs too. MEH. Mega Meh Eeech!

Legends was quite creative I liked the direction with that as it was fresh.

But on that I did bring up a spinoff -- the gameboy series. They did ape a mix of 2 NES games in one for most, but that last one MM5 was totally stand alone spinoff unique.

I'm sure some could expand this into maybe making a case for the Zero games being better on taste or even the Battle Network RPGs if you're more an RPG fan.

[Xeogred]

Time to go Commando on all four posts above this one.

[BogusMeatFactory]

But to the topic at hand, you can't even say that Megaman X is a spinoff of Megaman. At no point is Zero, X, or any Megaman X character featured in that series... except for what... Dr. Light in holograms? Does that even really count?

To not include games of other genres though is silly. Donkey Kong Country is more revered than Donkey Kong...oh wait, that can't be included because of the genre conversation.

Super Mario Bros. is more popular that Mario Bros. ....oh wait not the same genre.

Phantasy Star Online is better than Phantasy Star....but it isn't a spinoff.... also, not the same genre.

And on and on and on.