History Main / SamePlotSequel

You've just encountered the Same Plot Sequel. It may feel like a traditional {{Remake}}, except it's still in the same canon as the original work, and [[SerialNumbersFiledOff has only a few minor details tweaked]]. Oftentimes this is done because [[PanderingToTheBase studios wish to appeal]] [[NostalgiaFilter to nostalgic fans]], or because [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt they're too afraid to actually hit the reboot button]], or that [[PopCulturalOsmosis the original is so iconic or omnipresent]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks that a remake would hurt the franchise as a whole]], or just because [[MoneyDearBoy they want to make a quick buck]]. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Note that this is not exclusively good or bad.]] VideoGames in particular can get away with variations on the same basic plot due to focusing on game-play. It can also be used to recontextualise the original plot, such as with [[RecycledInSpace a change in setting]] or [[EmotionalTorque a switch from a dramatic tone to a parody]].

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIReturnToTheSea'', Ariel's daughter Melody goes through pretty much the same plot as her mother in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', only with the land and the sea inverted this time: teenage girl wants to live in the other element, overprotective parent stops her from doing so, she rebels and makes a deal with a power-hungry sea witch.

** ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTrampIIScampsAdventure'' has a street smart dog showing a house pet how to be a wild dog and falling in love over a plate of spaghetti, and running afoul of a dogcatcher only to realize they belong indoors with their family. The difference is this time the male (Scamp) is the house pet and the girl (Angel) is wild. Angel also has more desire to be domesticated than Tramp initially did in the first story, and she chews Scamp out for throwing away what he had, whereas Lady scolded Tramp in the first movie for getting her in trouble and taken to the pound.
** ''WesternAnimation/ReturnToNeverLand'' is a sequel to ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', and uses many of the same plot elements: a child (this time only one, Wendy's daughter, instead of three) ends up in Never Land (instead of willingly leaving the house like before, Captain Hook kidnaps her and takes her there), teams up with Peter Pan and gets pursued by Hook. Hook is still pursued by a hungry beast this time, except for some reason it's an octopus rather than a crocodile.

* ''Film/TheThing2011'' is officially a prequel to ''Film/TheThing1982'', but recycles its whole plot, beat-for-beat, to the point that many reviews refer to it as a remake.

* ''Literature/ThreeHundredSixtyFiveDays'': Laura is unhappy in her current relationship and feels her significant other doesn't meet her needs. She's kidnapped by a member of organized crime, whom she finds attractive and swiftly develops feelings for. Now, are we talking about the plot of the first novel, or the second one?

* In an ingenious twist, Creator/DavidEddings made this a ''plot point'' of ''The Malloreon'', the sequel to his first fantasy series ''Literature/TheBelgariad''. He even has the characters lampshading it! Both series are in the form of a travelogue: Garion and company visit every land on the map as they follow the villain and a MacGuffin to a final confrontation at a prearranged place, with their quest guided by prophecy and marked at intervals by encounters with very specific types of people. Belgarath speculates and Cyradis eventually confirms that this isn't just their imagination: when the EVENT that split the Universe and created the Light and Dark Prophecies occurred, it put the future "on hold" in a mystical sort of way. Until the conflict between the Spirit of Light and the Spirit of Dark is resolved, they'll just keep going round the same (or a similar) sequence of events over and over again.

Creator/{{Nintendo}} loves to do this with a lot of its core franchises, from those with long scripts and deep narratives, to those with an ExcusePlot and the ones in-between.

* ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'' despite having a different initial premise than [[VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} its predecessor]] (in the first game, Bayonetta investigates her past while in the second she tries to find a way to rescue her friend Jeanne from Hell) ends up rehashing several plot points and scenes. In both game, Bayonetta wanders in an old city with ties with the supernatural (Noatun and Vigrid), stumbles upon a mysterious child who's being targeted by the ennemies (Cereza and Loki) and regularly fights with a EvilCounterpart (Jeanne and the Masked Lumen) who turns to be a pawn of the OmnicidalManiac BigBad ([[spoiler:Father Balder and Loptr]]). At the end of both games, [[spoiler:the BigBad uses the Eyes of the World to summon a gigantic mass destroying deity (Jubileus and Aesir). Bayonetta and her redeemed rival defeat it by [[SummonBiggerFish summoning an even bigger one]] (Queen Of Sheba and Omne).]]

** ''Ocarina of Time'' later had its own Same Plot Sequel, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', which was a deliberate return to form after the initially-divisive reception of the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask more experimental]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker previous games]]. Link is raised in the forest of southern Hyrule, where he is friends mainly with children. After meeting an ExpositionFairy, he embarks on his journey and obtains three {{Plot Coupon}}s from dungeons: one in the forest (and the dungeon housing it is located inside a large tree), one in Death Mountain (passing through Kakariko Village and befriending the Goron chief along the way), and one in Zora's Domain (helping the Zora royalty along the way). He also has to navigate the Skull Kid-populated Lost Woods by following the sound of Saria's Song in order to find the Sacred Grove. After Princess Zelda disappears due to the BigBad's actions, Link acquires the Master Sword from a temple and now has to acquire more Plot Coupons from even more dungeons, including one in Gerudo Desert. Finally, he goes to Hyrule Castle and ascends the tower to face Ganondorf, who assumes the demon Beast Ganon form during one phase of the battle. The Exposition Fairy leaves, Zelda and Link say goodbye, and Link returns to his old life (before soon embarking on a new journey).

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' is a WholePlotReference to ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'', except with shinier new tech (both in-universe and [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames console-wise]]) and taking place on a different continent of [[ConstructedWorld Strangereal]] about 11 years down the timeline.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} by ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''. While the premise is essentially an inversion of ''VideoGame/KidIcarus''[[note]]in the original, Pit escapes the Underworld and ascends to Skyworld to defeat Medusa after she's already won; in ''Uprising'', Pit descends into the Underworld to stop Medusa before she can win again[[/note]], it follows several very familiar story beats, such as Pit fighting Twinbellows, Hewdraw, Pandora, and T(h)anatos; collecting the Three Sacred Treasures in order to defeat Medusa; and then celebrating his victory with Palutena as the 8-bit credits roll. And then [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle Hades tears through the credits]] and reveals that the game isn't even halfway over yet! After that point, ''Uprising'' features a completely new story that no longer relies on repeating the original game's beats.

** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', the seventh installment in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' film series, has a similar plot to the original trilogy, particularly ''Film/ANewHope'', to the point that ''The Force Awakens'' comes off as a soft remake. An evil [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-esque]] army, commanded by (though not lead by) a sinister figure in black, constructs a space weapon that can destroy planets (and unlike the Death Star in the original, this one can destroy multiple planets in the same solar system together). A resistance member hides some information the villains also want in the memory of an astromech droid, who gets stranded along with a second character (a protocol droid in the original, a reformed stormtrooper in the later film) on a desert planet and found by an orphan with affinity to the Force. They escape the villains and encounter an old mentor figure who fought in the previous war [[spoiler:and has a connection with the main villain]]. They go to the villains' base, [[spoiler:the mentor confronts the villain and gets killed by him. Then an AcePilot of the resistance group destroys the base]]. A lot of the same things also happen in the same order and around the same time as in ''A New Hope''.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Every main series game prior to ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' starts with a rookie trainer in a small town who gets a starter and a Pokédex courtesy of the local professor, goes on a quest to catch em all and become Champion by gaining eight Gym Badges and challenging a local Pokémon League, and along the way takes down a crime syndicate that wants to exploit (legendary) Pokémon for their own personal gain. The crime syndicate plot also usually peaks between Gyms 7 and 8. The closest things to exceptions are ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', where the crime syndicate is the FinalBoss instead of the Elite Four and Champion, and ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', where the main antagonist is instead a Pokémon itself.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Every main series game prior to ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' starts with a rookie trainer in a small town who gets a starter and a Pokedex courtesy of the local professor, goes on a quest to catch em all and become champion by gaining eight gym badges and challenging a local Pokémon League, and along the way takes down a crime syndicate that wants to exploit (legendary) Pokémon for their own personal gain. The crime syndicate plot also usually peaks between gyms 7 and 8. The closest things to exceptions are ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', where the crime syndicate is the FinalBoss instead of the Elite Four and Champion, and ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', where the main antagonist is instead a Pokémon itself.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Every main series game starts with a rookie trainer in a small town who gets a starter and a Pokedex courtesy of the local professor, goes on a quest to catch em all and become champion, and along the way takes down a crime syndicate that wants to exploit (legendary) Pokémon for their own personal gain. The closest things to exceptions are ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', where the crime syndicate is the FinalBoss instead of the Elite Four and Champion, and ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', where the main antagonist is instead a Pokémon itself.

* ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2'' also has many of the same story beats as the original ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1''. One of the Parr parents is given the opportunity to relive their glory days as a superhero while the other parent stays at home raising the kids. [[spoiler:The benefactor, or in this case, his sister, turns out to be evil and the whole thing is a scheme to discredit superheroes]].

** ''Film/JurassicWorld'', taking place two decades after the original ''Film/JurassicPark'', borrows many elements from it. Two children visit a park of genetically engineered dinosaurs run by a relative of theirs (in the case of ''Jurassic World'', said relative was the second-in-command of the actual owner) so that they can be away from their soon-to-be divorced parents. Due to an error in the security system, usually caused by a secretly evil person, dangerous dinosaurs escape and attack people, and the children get lost. [[spoiler:The main antagonistic dinosaurs get defeated by the very same ''Tyrannosaurus'' in both movies.]] Also, the general theme of human greed and interfering with nature is the same.

!!Examples

* ''Franchise/StarWars''

* Happened deliberately in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': [[spoiler:the BigBad planned their viral infection of the Neo World Program around the fact that the survivors or [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc the first killing game]] were watching the carnage unfold and knew they would (like heroes) jump inside the program to at the first opportunity if they saw students dying in droves in nearly the same manner they almost did. This both gave them an opening to escape into the real world along with a chance at revenge on the three survivors that did arrive in the final class trial]].

** ''Ocarina of Time'' later had its own Same Plot Sequel, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', which was a deliberate return to form after the initially-divisive reception of the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask more experimental]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker previous games]]. Link is raised in the forest of southern Hyrule, where he is friends mainly with children. After meeting an ExpositionFairy, he embarks on his journey and obtains three {{Plot Coupon}}s from dungeons: one in the forest, one in Death Mountain (passing through Kakariko Village and befriending the Goron chief along the way), and one in Zora's Domain (helping the Zora royalty along the way). He also has to navigate the Skull Kid-populated Lost Woods by following the sound of Saria's Song in order to find the Sacred Grove. After Princess Zelda disappears due to the BigBad's actions, Link acquires the Master Sword from a temple and now has to acquire more Plot Coupons from even more dungeons, including one in Gerudo Desert. Finally, he goes to Hyrule Castle and ascends the tower to face Ganondorf, who assumes the demon Beast Ganon form during one phase of the battle. The Exposition Fairy leaves, Zelda and Link say goodbye, and Link returns to his old life (before soon embarking on a new journey).