History Main / SameStoryDifferentNames

* In every main-series ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game there's this {{kid|Hero}} who just got their first [[{{Mons}} Pokémon]]. They travel around the region on a circular route, fighting in friendly Pokémon competitions. The kid defeats eight Gym Leaders, then the Elite Four, then the Pokémon Champion, and then [[ToBeAMaster is proclaimed new Champion]]. The kid also gets into conflict with some sort of villainous group, unintentionally at first, but then rallying to the cause and foiling the evil plans (usually [[SaveTheWorldClimax saving the world]] by doing so.) The final battle against the villains occurs after the sixth or seventh Gym. The kid has a rival of roughly the same age, who's either a FriendlyRival or a stinker, or there are two rivals one in each archetype. The rival is fought at the very start of the game, right before the Elite Four, and 4-8 times in between. Finally, after the kid becomes Champion, they'll be able to track down and catch OlympusMons (though some may have shown up earlier).

* Most ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games follow the same basic plot: TheHero (who's almost always a Prince) watches his country get invaded and taken over by TheEmpire, and leads his RagtagBunchOfMisfits in many battles against them, eventually invading the enemy's capital and defeating their TinTyrant ruler, only to find out that there was a ManBehindTheMan manipulating things behind the scenes (who's almost always an EvilSorceror), out to summon a SealedEvilInACan. The Hero leads his army in several battles against the true BigBad's forces and eventually fights/defeats the sealed evil, often with the aid of a legendary weapon of some kind. What keeps the series interesting is that, while it has a mostly static set of character roles in its plots, the actual personalities of the characters who fill them are very different between games (For example, in one game the TinTyrant is a MisanthropeSupreme and a TragicVillain, while in another he's a BloodKnight and TheSocialDarwinist who wants to instill a new world order).

* Most ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games follow the same basic plot: TheHero (who's almost always a Prince) watches his country get invaded and taken over by TheEmpire, and leads his RagtagBunchOfMisfits in many battles against them, eventually invading the enemy's capital and defeating their TinTyrant ruler, only to find out that there was a ManBehindTheMan manipulating things behind the scenes (who's almost always an EvilSorceror), out to summon a SealedEvilInACan. The Hero leads his army in several battles against the true BigBad's forces and eventually fights/defeats the sealed evil, often with the aid of a legendary weapon of some kind. What keeps the series interesting is that, while it has a mostly static set of character roles in its plots, the actual personalities of the characters who fill them are very different between games. (For example, in one game the TinTyrant is a MisanthropeSupreme and a TragicVillain, while in another he's a BloodKnight SocialDarwinist who wants to instill a new world order)

* The ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' movies recycle the plot of whatever arc they are placed in the timeline and sometimes they don't even bother making the villains anything more than {{exp|y}}ies (Janemba to Buu etc). For example, ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBojackUnbound Bojack Unbound]]'' is just a recycled Cell Games with Gohan beating Bojack in the exact same way he defeated Cell (going [=SSJ2=] and receiving moral support from the afterlife by Goku), ''[[Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn Fusion Reborn]]'' is about the MadeOfEvil demon ''Janemba'' (instead of Majin Buu) being clobbered by the fusion ''Gogeta'' (instead of Vegetto). Even [[Anime/DragonBallZDeadZone Garlic Jr.]] is just King Piccolo + Raditz... This practice is lampshaded hard by [[WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged the abridged version of Lord Slug]], where Lord Slug's plan is compared to King Piccolo's and some of his own minions accidentally call him King Piccolo. Likewise, the abridged versions of Cooler's movies (especially [[Anime/DragonBallZTheReturnOfCooler the second one]]) make a lot of jokes about how he's a copy of Freeza. (As Freeza's ''older'' brother, Cooler doesn't appreciate this.)

* In the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series, ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', and (to a slightly lesser extent) ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'' have extremely, extremely similar plots, events and setpieces, with only the names/justification changed (although the similarity between ''[=MGS1=]'' and ''[=MGS2=]'' is lampshaded/deconstructed by the story). ''VideoGame/MetalGear1'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' have suspiciously similar plots to each other as well, although it's not as clear. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' had its own plot, and, coincidentally or otherwise, it's [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks more often than the others considered by fans to be incoherent and bad]]. On the other hand, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' had a mixture of plot points from all over the series wrapped in a revenge plot, and the story is considered by some fans to be lacking in narrative focus.

* In the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series, ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', and (to a slightly lesser extent) ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'' have extremely, extremely similar plots, events and setpieces, with only the names/justification changed (although the similarity between ''[=MGS1=]'' and ''[=MGS2=]'' is lampshaded/deconstructed by the story). ''VideoGame/MetalGear1'', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' have suspiciously similar plots to each other as well, although it's not as clear. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' had its own plot, and, coincidentally or otherwise, it's [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks more often than the others considered by fans to be really incoherent and bad]]; On the other hand, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' had a mixture of plot points from all over the series wrapped in a revenge plot, and the story is considered by some fans to be lacking in narrative focus.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearAcid'' and its sequel have very similar stories, events and setpieces to each other, too. (Snake infiltrates a laboratory performing experiments on children due to the urging of a general keeping information from him, gets a blond female MsFanservice assistant, develops a rivalry with an enemy [[TheBrute Brute]] who is [[WorthyOpponent actually a pretty]] [[PunchclockVillain nice guy]], is [[StalkerWithACrush stalked somewhat homoerotically]] by the lead scientist in the base, is constantly plagued by the suspicion that his memories may be lies and he may just be the TomatoInTheMirror, and ends up in the thrall of the manipulations of an extremely powerful little girl with the spirit of a dead person living on inside them.) The similarity between them is lampshaded in the story with a couple of obvious {{Nostalgia Level}}s, but not justified at all. They also both do callbacks to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' with levels where you have to go out of your way to get sniper rifles.
* In every main-series ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game there's this {{kid|Hero}} who just got their first Pokémon. They travel around the region on a circular route, fighting in friendly Pokémon competitions. Major opponents are fought in the following order: eight Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Pokémon Champion, and then [[ToBeAMaster the kid is proclaimed new Champion]]. The kid gets into conflict with some sort of villainous group, unintentionally at first, but eventually rallying to the cause and foiling the evil plans in a SaveTheWorldClimax. The final battle against the villains occurs after the sixth or seventh Gym. The kid also has a rival of roughly the same age, who's either a FriendlyRival or a stinker, or there are two rivals one in each archetype. The rival is fought at the very start of the game, right before the Elite Four, and 4-8 times in between. Finally, after the kid becomes Champion, they'll be able to track down and catch various GodMons (though some may have shown up earlier).

* Creator/GordonKorman made his name with ''This Can't Be Happening at Literature/MacdonaldHall!'' featuring the zany yet skillful Bruno and his OnlySaneMan friend Boots as they mess around in a BoardingSchool. In addition to writing some direct sequels, he also made several other "Crazy Awesome Guy and his straight-man best friend get up to CrazyEnoughToWork schemes" books before eventually branching out. Such as:

* Julian F. Thompson's big hit was ''The Grounding of Group Six,'' about five teenagers whose RichBitch parents paid a school to have them killed off. The guy hired to do the killing does a HeelFaceTurn when he realizes that the kids aren't the monsters he was told they were. Then they all run off and hide in the woods, form TrueCompanions, and PairTheSpares. He also wrote several other books on the "five or six kids get dumped by parents, run off together to the woods, form True Companions and Pair the Spares" theme, such as:

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}''. It's a given that the main character will be 12 years old, that they will be unpopular, and that they are doing at least one of the following things: moving to a new house, going to camp, visiting relatives, or working on a school project. They will encounter strange and spooky things but will make it out fine, until the last second where the surprise TwistEnding kicks in and they [[http://www.bloggerbeware.com/ turn out to be dogs or something]].

* In every main series ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game there's this {{kid|Hero}} who just got their first Pokémon. They go traveling around the world and [[ToBeAMaster eventually becomes Pokémon Champion]]. They somehow manage to get in issues with Team Rocket/Team Magma/Team Aqua/Team Galactic/Team Plasma/Team Flare/[[spoiler:the Aether Foundation]]/[[spoiler:Macro Cosmos]]/whatever and foil Giovanni/Archer/Maxie/Archie/[[spoiler:Cyrus]]/[[spoiler:N]]/[[spoiler:Ghetsis]]/Lysandre/[[spoiler:Lusamine]]/[[spoiler:Rose]]/whoever's evil plans.
* Most ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games follow the same basic plot: TheHero (who's almost always a Prince) watches his country get invaded and taken over by TheEmpire, and leads his RagtagBunchOfMisfits in many battles against them, eventually invading the enemy's capital and defeating their TinTyrant ruler, only to find out that there was a ManBehindTheMan manipulating things behind the scenes (who's almost always an EvilSorceror) who's out to summon a SealedEvilInACan. TheHero leads his army in several battles against the true BigBad's forces and eventually fights/defeats the sealed evil, often with the aid of a legendary weapon of some kind. What keeps the series interesting is that, while it has a mostly static set of character roles in its plots, the actual personalities of the characters who fill them are very different between games. (for example, in one game the TinTyrant is a MisanthropeSupreme and a TragicVillain, while in another he's a BloodKnight SocialDarwinist who wants to instill a new world order)

* The ''Anime/SaintSeiya'' tends to recycle its own stories with the same formulas over and over again, specially in the mangas written by its original author, Masami Kurumada. He also tends to respeat over and over a similar formula in his other mangas. His formulatic and fast paced pattern became well known in Shonen Jump publication as the ''Kurumada style'' and it's considered a classic in old-school manga.