Iniquity and Vindication

This is a pretty important question that I've been asked by several people: what's the relationship between Iniquity and Vindication and my older game Vindication? And unfortunately, I'm not sure there's not a clear answer.

I suppose the best analogy is the Zelda series - especially the early ones, before they retconned the series to supposedly have some vaguely defined continuity. The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Twilight Princess all follow extremely similar structures - they have the same main character, the same main villain, some of the same supporting cast, many of the same locations, many of the same themes, and a superficially similar basic plot and overall structure. They're set in very similar settings, but not the same setting - areas are rearranged or added or removed in each game, and the lore and mythos undergoes major changes in each game. There's no continuity (at least no meaningful continuity) from one game to the next. Returning characters are introduced as though they were new characters, which is good because sometimes they are quite different than they were before, though other times they're indistinguishable.

Iniquity and Vindication works in a similar way. The setting has a very different technology level and spans one nation rather than the whole world, but many of the locations have the same names and serve the same purpose. James and Dak are making the transition entirely intact, while Justin's name is being changed to Lord Justice but he's keeping the same personality, and Sedryna is going to get a real personality but keep the same name. The other four playable characters from Vindication are being replaced.

Most of the major plot points will play out the same but the minor plot points (i.e., the filler) are all being rewritten from scratch - instead of teaching a martial arts class as the game starts, James is blowing up a shark factory, but he still gets thrown in jail afterward. Later, instead of defeating some pirates who stole a town's ships, your party will have to sing and dance in a rhythm and blues contest to the death before they can charter a ride. But the rebellion, the demons, the war, most of that is still more or less going to happen, even if it doesn't happen precisely the same way.

So if you think Twilight Princess is a remake of A Link to the Past, then Iniquity and Vindication would be a remake of Vindication by the same definition. If you prefer to call that a sequel, then my game is a sequel to you. If you have some better terminology, let me know.