@Alex @ryo @TerminalAutism The only game I know of that Nintendo sued for being too similar was The Great Giana Sisters which was a Super Mario Bros clone for home computers and that one Fire Emblem clone for the PS1 after the original creator left Intelligent Systems. AFAIK, you can't copyright or patent a game's design. So, you can have 100% identical gameplay as long as you have a different characters, setting, story, etc which the vast majority of spiritual successors do.